"Curiosity, I suppose," he said with a shrug.
"I don't believe that's the main reason," the older man said with a shake of his head.
Who's this man? How was he able to get so close to me before I could sense him? While he looks harmless, there is no mistaking that this man is no ordinary old man.
It was weird. Julius was usually pretty good at sensing what tier someone was at. His instincts allowed him to be a pretty good judge of how strong someone was or what kind of threat they were.
Even with Dante and Alice, he had been able to guess that they were very strong people, regardless of their aura suppression.
This man he got nothing from. If he hadn't just been proven otherwise, he would have thought this old man was a weak old man.
"Who are you?" Julius finally asked.
"Oh, I am just a regular old man who happens to be the caretaker of this orphanage. The same orphanage that you seem to be stalking about like a thief of the night."
Julius frowned at the old man. "I'm not a thief," he stated defensively.
"Well, you are certainly hiding in the shadows and sneaking about like a thief," the old man stated simply.
Point taken.
"Well, I promise you I am not a thief."
"Oh, you promise don't ya? If you say that, then that must be true, huh?"
Julius's shoulders dropped at the man's sarcastic remarks. He decided to just come out with the truth.
"I just wanted to see if the people here treated the children well. I was thinking of giving some money I came across to the orphanage, but I wanted to make sure that it was going to the right people."
"Oh, is that what you were doing? Well, what did you decide, huh?"
"I thought I made up my mind, but I might be reconsidering it," Julius said with a meaningful stare.
"Why's that?"
Julius looked off into the distant setting sun. "There's this old man that I don't really trust. He appears to be harmless but he's clearly hiding his strength. I can't help but wonder why he would be a caretaker of a random orphanage."
"Some people just want to help children, is that so hard for you to imagine?" The old man chuckled in a raspy laugh.
"No, of course not. You can call me a cynic if you want, but I just have doubts about people who do things for inexplicable reasons."
"Is doing something because it's the right thing to do an inexplicable reason?"
Julius gave a noncommittal shrug. "Perhaps."
A long pause stretched between them.
The old man finally broke that silence. "Well, you better come inside. Dinner is almost ready and you look hungry."
Julius gave him a blank stare. "I just ate." He really just did too, he wasn't lying.
"Nonsense, you are a growing boy. Come, I can introduce you to the children."
"I don't want to," he once again declined the offer.
"Come on, I won't take no for an answer. Also, if you don't come in for food I won't accept that money you stole from those guards," the old man calmly told him, turning around as he said so.
The moment he mentioned that Julius did a double take, turned back around, and gave the old man a look of disbelief. He took a few moments to process what he had just heard. Eventually, he couldn't come up with a suitable explanation or alternative.
Thus, he just took a deep breath and followed the old man who was already walking back toward the orphanage, completely confident that Julius would be right behind him.
What's up with me and coming across mysterious and powerful people?