Desolate World

In Ace's eyes, the house was pretty interesting. It was a wooden house like other houses around it. It had four bedrooms, a kitchen that was combined with the living room, a bathroom, and a backyard. In front of it was a terrace with two wooden chairs and a wooden table. A kind of fruit tree was left without being cut down in front of the house, making the house look more charming.

Yes, it was the Nightglow house. Sofia named it with the name of their family name. It was given by Adrian and Phil this afternoon, just right after Ace and the refugees came. It was a gift from the villagers for Ace and his family. It made Sofia and Cloud become sentimental. 

Ace was the same. Although he had wholeheartedly acknowledged the importance of the people in this world, he never imagined they would give such a beautiful present to him and his family. For him, it was more precious than the quest rewards that he had just received from Aria.

After parting ways with Phil and the others this morning, he was thanked by Aria for bringing the human refugees and the goblins to the village. Ace got an acre of land inside the village, 15,000 experience that made Ace leveled up to level 26 directly, and the future 1,000 reputations that he would get once the village was completed. They were the rewards that he got for finding her 100 humans. Ace got this quest when he had just met Mars, Aria, and the others, after they defeated a gigantic crayfish in the lake.

Now, they only had to wait for the arrival of the floating Island that brought the five other races and seek one another race to complete the requirement of building her special settlement.

Ace then saw his wife and his mother-in-law came with a few earthen plates and a pot of soup. 

"Let me help you!" Ace stood up from his chair and wanted to help his wife get the pot.

"No! You could take the jug and the cup," Sofia said.

"Uh… Okay," He then went to take an earthen jug and five cups.

From the jug, Ace could smell the sweet aroma of ginger. Sampson found some of them when logging the trees in the North. 

Aria had decided that they had enough open space in the South, for the time being. So she asked the villagers to clear the area on top of the hill in the North. There, Sampson and some villagers found some spices including ginger. He then decided to bring some of them back. 

***

There was a funny moment that Sampson experienced. After coming back from the hill, like usual, he went directly to the longhouse he used to live in. As he stepped in, he saw there were many women inside. A few of them even didn't dress appropriately after washing their dirty clothes. Of course, the women screamed.

The screams alarmed the villagers around there. When they arrived outside of the longhouse, they saw Sampson escaped the longhouse with many things flying behind him.

Several male refugees that saw Sampson come out from the longhouse became angry. They then took out their weapons from their inventory.

Sampson, who wanted to explain that there was a misunderstanding, couldn't get a chance to explain it, as many angry men wanted to attack him. 

Knowing that he shouldn't fight with the refugees, he chose to escape from the place. After running for about 100 meters, he saw some villagers. He then ran towards them.

After getting the help of the villagers, he finally could explain the misunderstanding. The villagers also confirmed that it was true that some men had lived in the longhouse before the refugees came. And one of them was Sampson.

Sampson also apologized to them for intruding into the longhouse without asking for permission. After talking for some time, they finally let him go.

Sampson then was confused, where he would live after that. Then he smacked his head. He just realized that Ace should already have come back to the village with the refugees and the goblins.

He then called Ace via the party channel and knew he got a house from the villagers. He then blamed Ace for not telling him, so he experienced such misfortune. Only to be laughed at not only by Ace, but also by Sofia, Cloud, and even Geo. 

***

"You are really horrible, to laugh at your brother's misfortune," He said after coming out from the bathroom.

The bathroom in their house used a well as the water source. The well —where the water should be taken— was in the small garden behind their house. So, it was not as convenient as in the modern era.

"No, brother. I just thought it was ridiculous for you to not think about it before entering the longhouse. You should have heard that more than 1,000 refugees came to the village. And in the first place, the longhouses are used as temporary dwellings for the refugees. So, you should have thought that the longhouse that you were residing in would be used to accommodate them.

Even the villagers understood the simple logic. How could you, the elite soldier of the Human Union couldn't think about it?" Ace reprimanded Sampson.

Being reprimanded by his brother made Sampson look ashamed. 

"Uh… I was wrong, okay. It's not like you never made mistakes. Like when you're in tenth grade…," Sampson said.

"Stop! Okay, I understand. Sometimes we make mistakes. No one is perfect," Ace cut Sampson's saying directly. He cursed Sampson in his heart. To use past events to argue was too dirty. 

"What was happening when you were in tenth grade?" Sofia asked in detective mode.

"Uh… Nothing! Let's finish dinner. I want to tell you all something after this," Ace said while dipping a piece of bread into the soup. 

Actually, they still possessed plentiful slices of bread. However, they were tired of them after consuming them for a long time. Only on occasion, they would eat them with different food, like this time. Ace loved to dip bread into his soup.

"Dad seems to be hiding something," Ace heard Geo whisper to Sofia.

"Yeah, it is too suspicious," Sofia answered him with a soft voice.

'I can hear you,' Ace complained in his heart. He then glared at his brother. 

Sampson then looked at him with a smirk.

'Fu** you!' Ace cursed in his heart. If he could, he wanted to throw his wooden spoon at his hateful brother.

***