I Explore Urban Legends - Chapter 110: Free Employees (Patreon)

Hearing Charlotte’s warning, the tension in Liam’s expression immediately eased.

“You’re right. Maybe to his own kind, Vlad is someone capable of leading them into the future, but in the end, he and I aren’t even the same species.”

That led Liam to another thought.

If Vlad represented the reformers within his faction, did that mean there were even more factions among the Vampires?

Then there was Nikita, the Eastern European Vampire. He was clearly not on the same side as Vlad’s group.

Maybe Liam could talk to him when he had the chance. Right now, he simply didn’t have enough information to make a sound judgment.

His eyes then shifted to Brown, still hanging from the rearview mirror.

No matter what, he couldn’t keep her around.

There was a good chance she could expose his location, and if he left her somewhere, she might eventually break free.

Besides, Liam didn’t understand Vampires well enough to know all their abilities. Interrogating her without knowing what she was capable of might only get him false information.

There was no point wasting any more effort on her.

He conjured his lightsaber and stabbed Brown.

“Zzzzt!”

There was no struggle.

No final scream or curse.

Brown simply crumbled into ash and died on the spot.

“You did the right thing. Evil like that must be dealt with decisively.”

Charlotte fully approved of Liam’s decision.

After spending the past two days talking with her, Liam was increasingly glad he had found such a dependable companion.

Not only did Charlotte share many of his interests, her abilities were extremely useful as well.

If her true form could recover more of its strength, she might prove tremendously useful in the real world.

With that thought, Liam made a suggestion.

“I run a TV station. You could host a show there. Maybe you’d gain some faith from the audience and recover more of your strength.”

Charlotte was clearly tempted, though she still had some doubts.

“But I’m a spider. Can a spider really host a TV show?”

That was a fair question.

Charlotte might be a little bigger than an ordinary spider, but she was still tiny, which would make filming her difficult.

If she appeared beside Liam on camera, kids with poor eyesight might not even be able to see her.

Then all they would do was complain.

“So Mister Liam has started imagining animal friends that don’t exist.”

With that in mind, Liam decided Charlotte needed a show of her own, with every prop scaled to match her size.

He still had no idea what the show itself should be about, though.

He decided to leave that problem to Charlotte.

The rest of the journey passed without incident, and they reached Boston safely.

Liam didn’t return to the TV station. First, he needed to find somewhere for all the children in the truck to stay.

In this era, a large group of homeless children would attract far too much unwanted attention.

He decided to keep them in the forest.

As for who could look after them, Liam already had the perfect candidates in mind.

Maria and her twin sons, Bob and Bobby.

He had previously promised Maria that he would try to find work for her sons. There simply hadn’t been any major filming projects lately.

Now he could hire all three of them at once.

Maria had managed to raise the twins by herself. She clearly knew how to take care of children.

Liam drove to the RV campground where Maria’s family was staying.

When he arrived, they were busy with chores.

Bob and Bobby were chopping firewood in the yard while Maria gathered and stacked it.

The brothers were absurdly strong. Even thick logs split apart with a single swing of their axes.

They were working so quickly that Maria could barely keep up.

Just then, she wiped the sweat from her forehead and noticed a vehicle approaching.

She quickly called for the brothers to stop.

“Bob, Bobby, take a look. Isn’t that Liam’s truck? Go meet him.”

“Okay, Mom.”

Maria took the opportunity to straighten up and catch her breath.

But before she could fully relax, Bob came running back.

“Mom, Liam brought a whole bunch of kids. He wants us to make them something good to eat.”

Maria’s eyes widened.

She immediately started counting on her fingers, trying to figure out how much food she would need to make dinner for that many children.

She had never been particularly good with numbers, and her mind quickly went blank.

Wait.

Where had all these children come from?

The moment Liam approached, she hurried over to ask.

“Mr. Liam, what’s going on with all these kids? Did you raid a kindergarten?”

“Do I really look like that kind of person?”

Liam helplessly explained what had happened in the town.

“I found them. Something terrible happened in a nearby town. Most of the people there died, and these children are the survivors.”

Maria immediately covered her mouth.

She hadn’t expected the children’s circumstances to be so tragic, and sympathy instantly overcame her.

“Mr. Liam, do you want me to look after them? But I already have Bob and Bobby to take care of. I’m afraid...”

Liam understood her concerns.

He wasn’t going to make life harder for a struggling single mother.

“I want to hire your entire family. I’ll pay you four thousand dollars a month, and I’ll reimburse all your expenses for food, clothing, housing, and transportation.”

That salary was roughly in line with the local average, and Liam trusted this family’s character.

They weren’t the kind of people who would falsify expenses to take advantage of him.

Even after hearing the offer, Maria still looked worried.

“If something that terrible happened, why not send the children to an orphanage?”

“That tragedy is exactly why they can’t go to an orphanage. Do you really think the government would let something like this become public?”

Having been born and raised in this country, Maria immediately understood what he meant.

If the government wanted to hide something this ugly, it would erase every trace it could.

And these children were the biggest traces of all.

If they were lucky, they might be quietly scattered among different orphanages.

If they weren’t, there might not even be any official record that they had ever existed.

Liam saw from Maria’s expression that she understood how serious the situation was.

He reassured her.

“But you don’t have to worry about them staying here. As long as I’m looking out for them, no one is going to cause trouble.”

Only then did Maria relax.

She normally took whatever odd jobs she could find to help support the household, but none of them compared to steady work like this.

Liam added,

“You don’t have enough room for everyone right now, so I’ll have someone put together a simple house in the next couple of days. Until then, the kids will have to squeeze in with you.”

Maria immediately nodded.

As long as Liam was willing to hire them, a little crowding was nothing.

She would have been willing to sleep outside herself if necessary.

She turned to the children with a warm smile.

“You kids must be hungry. Miss Maria will make you something tasty.”

The children stood awkwardly in the unfamiliar surroundings, unsure how to respond.

Wilbur, the oldest among them, stepped forward.

“Thank you, Miss Maria.”

Once he set the example, the other children followed and thanked her as well.

Watching them gradually relax around Maria, Liam nodded in satisfaction.

He hadn’t taken these children in on a whim.

He planned to produce plenty of large-scale shows in the future.

They would certainly be safe, but considering the kind of programs Liam liked to make, very few parents would willingly volunteer their children as guests.

Now, however, he had an entire group of free employees.

With that settled, Liam headed back to the TV station to see how the hippies were doing with their preparations.