My job list is full of alien girls.

Chapter 30 Where Did Dad Go?

"I'm so sorry, ma'am, your husband..."

Father Galen did not finish his sentence, but the woman already understood what he meant.

"Ah, ah... I see, I understand."

She opened her mouth as if to say something, her already frail body drooping like a stalk of wheat blown down by the wind.

She slumped into the chair, the unfinished clothes in her hands falling to the ground along with the wicker basket, completely drained of strength.

"Actually... I already guessed it," the woman said, her tone a mix of sorrow and numbness. "Even if he had been drinking, he wouldn't have stayed away from home for so long."

She looked at Father Galen, whose expression was full of compassion, but when her gaze fell on the boy beside him, she couldn't help but show a look of fear.

She had seen this body collector before, seen him take the bodies of acquaintances from his neighbors' houses and drag them to the cemetery for burial, and seen him like a harbinger of death, bringing news of the deaths of his relatives to his friends.

Unexpectedly, he still came to him and knocked on his door.

The woman had long anticipated that her husband would one day die in the forest, after all, that was the final destination for most adventurers.

She just didn't expect that this day would come so soon, and that she wouldn't even be able to see him one last time.

"Mommy, what's wrong?" The young girl wiped her dirty hands, picked up the clothes from the ground, and put them in the wicker basket. "Do they know Daddy? Where is Daddy?"

"It's nothing..." The woman touched her innocent, childlike face and forced a smile. "It's just that we'll never see Daddy again."

Upon hearing this, the girl's expression changed from blank to pleading:

"But Mom, I'm hungry..."

For a child of this age, she cannot understand death, but she vividly remembers the feeling of hunger and the feeling of her father bringing food to fill her stomach every time he came home.

If her father doesn't come home, she'll probably go hungry forever.

The feeling of not having enough to eat is unbearable, even more so than the pain of being beaten or doing manual labor.

Such a conversation made Garen feel suffocated and angry, but when he thought about the scene before him that was all over this area, in the city he depended on for survival, those emotions turned into helplessness and pain.

But at least he can alleviate the hunger of the child in front of him.

"I brought you some food," Garen said in a hoarse voice as he crouched down and looked at the little girl. "Child, you won't go hungry anymore."

He took out some of the food he had brought and placed it on the old wooden table in the room:

They were three long, hard loaves of black bread, as hard as bricks, with a crust as rough as tree bark, and the bran, sand, and sawdust inside were clearly visible on the cut surface.

Such coarse food is still too rough and difficult for children who are not yet fully developed to swallow.

Only with such cheap food could Garen use his limited salary to help more broken families like this.

The tithes of the Vatican and donations from believers are usually used only for church repairs, supporting clergy, and holding sacraments. Relief is only provided when there are natural disasters or man-made calamities that require spreading the faith and winning people's hearts.

Not to mention that given the economic situation of the Misty City Church, it is difficult enough to provide daily relief to those poor believers. As for these adventurers who do not even have time to attend worship and whose faith is not firm, they are even less likely to appear on the Church's relief list.

The woman looked at the food on the table, her lips trembling for a long time, her wrinkled face unable to shed tears: "Thank you, Father... thank you so much..."

The girl's eyes lit up when she heard that the food belonged to her.

She tiptoed to the edge of the table, reached out her dirty hands, grabbed the largest piece of black bread, and eagerly took a bite. The rough bread scraped her cheeks until they turned red, but she didn't care and chewed vigorously.

"Chew, chew—" The girl's cheeks puffed out roundly, like a hamster stealing food, until the saliva she secreted was enough to soften the bread and she swallowed it, revealing a joyful smile.

How blissful it feels to have your body filled with food.

Even though her delicate stomach couldn't digest the coarse fiber and her belly started to swell and ache, she was still immersed in the joy of eating and didn't realize it.

Perhaps it was the subsiding of her hunger that made her regain a maturity beyond her years. She suddenly put down the black bread, which still had drool and teeth marks on it, and tiptoed to put it back on the table.

"Aren't you going to eat?" Rod asked, looking at her with a puzzled expression, staring at the piece of black bread that hadn't disappeared much.

"You can eat more, it's okay, I have more here..." Garen said.

"I want to leave it for Dad," the girl said, tilting her head back and licking the bread crumbs off her fingers. "He's not home yet."

But then she remembered her mother saying, "I'll never see Dad again," and nervously twisted the hem of her clothes in her little hands, asking the adult beside her:

"Is it because Dad thinks I eat too much bread that he doesn't want me and Mom anymore?"

"If I eat less bread, will Daddy come back?"

"..."

Garen couldn't answer her naive yet cruel question; no one could provide the answer.

In the end, he couldn't change anything.

Whether in the past or present, no matter how many times Garen sincerely prayed for this, all he ever got was the tragic cycle of endings.

How many more times must he witness such scenes before he sees the end of happiness for all living beings?

Was his wish so unrealistic that even the gods could not respond?

If this suffering is a test of the Holy Light, then such a test is far too cruel.

Is it only when he gains power that he can overturn this painful and hopeless reality?

"..."

Rod didn't know how he got out of that woman's house.

The woman didn't seem sad; she didn't show the usual tearful or angry outbursts from family members in front of her.

Even after losing her husband, even after seeing his bloodstained adventurer's pass and learning of his death,

The woman simply kept thanking and apologizing to him and Garen, expressing her gratitude for their help.

He also apologized for not being able to pay them, for not having money to donate to the church, for not being a qualified believer, for not being able to receive God's protection, and for deserving to be punished by God and lose his dearest loved ones.

Compared to everyone else Rod had met, this mother and daughter were fortunate.

With the help of kind people like Father Galen, she wasn't a burden on her sick patients, nor did she have many children to raise, allowing her to remarry early and find a new husband to live with...

But Rod still couldn't see their future clearly.

Even though he secretly hid a silver coin under the bread, it was to no avail.

"..."

Rod lowered his head, looking somewhat blankly at the rough road surface.

Even though he was an orphan, he never lacked food or education in his original world.

The world he had lived in had given him a lot of knowledge, but he didn't know how to deal with the situation in front of him.

"Rhodes, do you know?" Garen, walking ahead, broke the silence first.

"Hmm?" Rod looked up at him.