Chapter 506 Orphanage

As he walked into the door, Luga saw several children running out, laughing and playing. They were lively and agile, chasing each other and bumping into Luga.

Luga was an adult, and he was wearing heavy scale armor. For a weak child without any protection, bumping into him was like bumping into a hard rock.

"Kutong!"

There was no way this kid could be a match for Luca. He lost his balance after the collision and fell to the ground.

The laughter stopped abruptly, not only the child who was knocked down, but also the other children, who were so frightened when they saw Luga, a tall and strong "monster" covered in iron, that they stood there at a loss as to what to do.

Perhaps frightened by this sudden obstacle, he looked up at Luga with confusion in his eyes.

"Woooooa ...

Finally, I came to my senses and saw the child opened his mouth and started crying loudly. The sound even frightened Luca.

"Oh, my God!" Luga scratched his head and quickly bent down to try to coax the crying child, but the boy didn't buy it. Instead, the more Luga coaxed him, the harder he cried.

Luga was completely out of ideas. He held the child in his arms, and the child opened his mouth wide and cried loudly at Luga, which not only hurt Luga's ears, but also splashed his face with saliva.

"Oh my God, oh my God!" Luca turned around while holding the child and looked at Aresio and others for help.

But they all shook their heads at the same time, and it seemed that they were also helpless in coaxing children. This was not surprising, who could see a man taking care of children in such a so-called "civilized" country? "Oh, my God, Gat, are you bullying me again?" At this time, a woman was heard complaining loudly in the room. This voice was very familiar to Luca - Ana.

Anai ran out of the house in a hurry, and the first thing he saw was Luga holding the struggling child.

The whole scene was very awkward. Luka was stunned when he saw Anai for the first time. This woman was wearing green coarse linen clothes, a dark apron, and a headscarf that was shiny after being washed for a long time. Her face began to look yellow, and the years carved a few wrinkles at the corners of her eyes. Even if she was next to a village girl, she would not be able to tell the difference. She had become ugly.

When their eyes met, both of them were stunned. "Is that Ana?" Luka asked himself.

In Ana's eyes, the general who was clumsily holding the crying child was indeed a little strange. Only his armor became more gorgeous, and his skin became darker due to the days of running around. The most obvious sign of his vicissitudes was his beard. I'm afraid Luka didn't expect it to grow so fast.

"Hi! Anai, uh... uh... long time no see!" Luga was the first to come to his senses. He hurriedly put the crying child down, and watched him run behind Anai as if seeking shelter, pulling Anai's skirt and couldn't help crying.

Anais finally came to her senses at this time. She lowered her head, picked up the child and ran into the house without saying anything.

"What's going on?" Lu Jia was stunned. He didn't expect that after such a long time, she would choose to avoid him when they met. "It seems that Anai doesn't want me to see her like this."

Luca thought about it, sighed, turned around and said to Alessio and the others behind him: "Go away, each of you should be busy with your own things, and let me sit by the door alone."

"That's right. After all, women don't want to be seen like this by the person they like." At this time, Aresio finally looked reasonable. As he spoke, he did not forget to tidy up his hair. Such delicate techniques are not something that ordinary men can do. With such slender fingers and handsome face, he always dresses himself very charmingly, just like a real woman.

Luca was really shocked by this action. He quickly turned around and pretended to ignore it, waiting for Aresio to leave.

After a long time, the door of the orphanage was finally opened, and Anai dressed herself up again. She no longer wore the messy green long dress, but a blue dress that was washed cleanly.

She also took off her hat, combed her hair carefully, and tied it behind her back. She looked neat and tidy, like a lotus that has emerged from the mud without getting stained. At least when facing Lu Jia, she was no longer the disheveled and messy look she had just shown. Looking at her, Lu Jia felt that the old Anai was back. This was the original her, the familiar her, and she hadn't changed at all.

The only flaw was that she didn't have any decent jewelry. When she got close to Luka, Luka reached out and touched the earrings on her ears. The color and texture...

"Why is it copper?" Luka couldn't help but frowned and asked, "I remember giving you a lot of nice jewelry. Could it be that after so much time, you are so stingy that you don't want to bring them out for me to see?"

"No, that's not the case!" Anai shook her head quickly. Even though she made a mistake, she didn't admit it at all. On the contrary, she proudly puffed out her chest and pointed at the orphanage behind her and said to Luca proudly, "This is it! This is the orphanage you got in exchange for your jewelry. There are more than a dozen of my children here!"

"It seems that you really raise them as your own children." Every word of Anai touched Luga deeply. Luga understood that this was because of her physical defect that made it difficult for her to place her love, so she simply raised these children so that at least they could grow up.

"Can I know how they became orphans?" Luca asked.

Hearing this, Ana looked up and smiled at Luga, her smile seemed meaningful. She then said to Luga: "It's because of you, Soldier Captain."

"Me?" Luka pointed at himself and stared at Anai with wide eyes. Anai still smiled faintly, as if questioning Anai: Are you telling the truth? "Yes, Luka." Anai said, shifting his gaze to look into the distance, as if looking for something.

"Hey, look!" Anai pulled Luca and pointed to a small stream in the distance where there was an open space.

Then Anai said to Luga: "Let's race over here, but..." Anai looked up and down at the armor on Luga's body. It was a complete set of gear, but its heavy weight could be seen from the collision of the iron pieces when walking.

"If one of us is left behind, we'll be the puppy!" Ana said to Luca with a smile. She was as lively and agile as a little girl who had just reached adulthood. She was full of energy and ready to run!

"Okay!" Luka smiled disdainfully, and then said: "Don't look at me wearing heavy armor now, but I run as fast as a rabbit!"

"Oh?" From Ana's tone, one could tell she didn't believe it at all. "Then let's give it a try, Soldier Captain!"

Before Luga was ready, Ana was like an arrow shot from a bow, and ran far away in a flash.

"Okay, you're cheating!" Luga protested loudly from behind, not caring about the heaviness of his armor, and quickly caught up with him in two steps.

The two of them ran along the path, laughing all the way, until they reached the river. Anai could no longer run, so she had to stop and walk, but Luka never overtook her from beginning to end. He couldn't bear to overtake this somewhat weak woman.

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"Ha, ha, I, I said, you, you are a puppy!" Ana pointed at Lujia and laughed. Lujia just followed her and smiled without saying anything. In the end, the two of them came to the river and sat down one after the other.

I didn't expect Anai to be so weak. Just a distance of more than 300 meters made her gasp for breath, and her face turned pale.

Luga wanted to offer to help her, but she refused. Fortunately, after a short break, she finally felt much better.

"Although I cannot teach the nobles the knowledge they need to become scribes with ease and status, I can teach them how to work, how to weave cloth and have their own skills, so that they can make a living after leaving me and not die in disregard like they do now." As soon as they sat down, Anais started talking about the children. She was like a real mother.

"It's so quiet here, I just want to talk to you, Luga." Ana looked up at Luga with tears in her eyes. She wanted to say something but stopped herself.

"What are you thinking about?" Luca asked curiously.

"No, nothing, I just want to ask you a favor." Anais sobbed and said, "Can you please not start a war?"

"What are you talking about?" Luca's tone was somewhat reproachful. One has to know that war is not something that can be dealt with casually and one-sidedly. Of course, how could a woman be able to look at the current situation in an open-minded way?

Luka didn't know how to explain it, so he could only answer Anais: "You don't understand!"

"Yes, I don't understand, but these children, their fathers are all descendants of soldiers who followed you in the wars. With the start of the war, there are more and more such children. Many of them will become beggars or die of hunger and cold without anyone to care for them."

Anais' words left Luca with no room for rebuttal. It was true that this was a turbulent time and if they wanted to maintain the stability of the country, they had to go through war, but war meant death.

The soldier died, but his children and wife were left alone. War meant that more and more young and strong men went to the battlefield, but it also meant that the power of the country gradually weakened and eventually disappeared due to the lack of manpower in the long-term war.

Now the Western Roman Empire is slowly turning into a huge orphanage due to years of war.

"Rome needs its future, which means these children." Luca murmured, but there was nothing he could do. As a sergeant and a soldier, he understood very well that the number of Roman soldiers was getting smaller and smaller. Sometimes it was not that they were unwilling to join the army, but that the number of people who could join the army was decreasing day by day.

"To recover Rome's land, the people who remain on the land must provide food, weapons and soldiers. However, war not only brings about the destruction of families and the loss of lives, but also the barrenness of land and the reduction of taxes." Luca began to feel scared as he thought about it. He began to understand why no matter what Aetius did, the field legion only maintained a strength of 20,000 people to fight everywhere.

There was indeed no one left, and he was more like a vampire, squeezing the last of Rome's blood to maintain the land and glory that he should have.

"Anai!" Luga held Anai's hand and said to her helplessly: "Right now, except for war, there is nothing else that can protect the land under our feet!"

(End of this chapter)