Obviously, the first ones to notice that something was amiss were the members of the scout squad Lucas had sent to keep watch over the orphanage.

After they arrived and observed Sasha and Victoria leaving, the Raging River Legion scouts basically saw nothing out of the ordinary happen.

The children came back from wherever they were during the day, chores were finished, food was cooked, then the lights went out.

Everything seemed perfectly normal to Squad Captain Lane and his subordinates, until an hour or two after the sun had finished setting when a raging fire suddenly burst forth from the building they were watching.

Immediately upon seeing this, Captain Lane chose to abandon the surveillance mission and breach the structure directly.

On their Captain’s signal, the soldiers from the Raging River Legion left their hiding spots and swarmed into the building, only to be engulfed in a cloud of smoke and flame.

Braving the fires, these 10 soldiers somehow managed to find and reach the rooms of the children, smashing them open and rescuing those they found.

It was chaos, with many of them choking on smoke, but none of them retreated.

"Get out! Get out now!"

"This way! Down the hall!"

"Out the windows! Climb out the windows!"

"Not that way! It’s blocked! Over here!"

Many of the nearby residents of the slums also came to help, but most were too weak or too frightened to enter the burning building. Even so, they were still useful in this frantic evacuation.

The orphanage was two stories high, with many of the children sleeping on the second floor. When the stairs leading up caught on fire, the soldiers from the scout squad who were up there used their weapons to knock open one of the wooden walls and actually began tossing the kids down to the crowd below, clearing out as many of the rooms as they could before also jumping down themselves.

Roughly 10 minutes after the blaze first broke out, Commander Percy arrived on the scene in a gust of wind and dove straight into the fire, using his Spirit Qi to protect himself while sweeping the building with his powerful Soul Sense, looking for survivors.

The veteran Mid-Rank Spirit Initiate managed to pluck a few more children out of the rooms which had been inaccessible to the weaker soldiers, but despite cutting through back-alleys and running across rooftops to get here even a second faster, he was still too late to make much difference.

More help poured in a few minutes later in the form of a dozen Sea Establishment and Core Formation Realm soldiers while other slum dwellers from nearby blocks also came to assist.

Some of these local residents had come simply because it was the right thing to do, but most were here for a much more practical reason.

So far, the fire was contained to the large orphanage building, but given all the embers flying about, it wasn’t likely to stay that way for long

Most of the buildings in the slums of Crystal Lake were crammed together and built from cheap wood. On top of that, the last time it rained was over 10 days ago, making the entire district a tinderbox just waiting to ignite.

If they weren’t able to contain the fire quickly and it began spreading out of control, the entire slum could go up in flames, burning down all of their homes along with the precious few belongings they had.

All the residents of the slums knew this, so they didn’t hesitate to rush over at the first signs of trouble.

Confirming that every living child had been pulled from the orphanage, Commander Percy switched his focus to fighting the fire; the problem was, he wasn’t exactly an expert at this.

His specialty was more killing enemies on the battlefield rather than managing urban disasters.

Still, that didn’t mean Commander Percy was lacking common sense, and it also seemed this was not the first time a fire had appeared in these slums, so the locals already knew what to do.

Forming long lines from the nearby wells, the slum residents passed filled buckets between them in an effort to get as much water onto the fire as possible.

Seeing this, Commander Percy ordered the strongest amongst his subordinates to man the wells, using their strength to draw up water faster than any of the weak locals could.

For a moment, things were starting to look up, until the wind started blowing, sending the embers from the fire further afield.

25 minutes after the fire began, Lucas arrived together with the rest of the Battalion from the Raging River Legion, each of the soldiers carrying a tall shield with them.

Additionally, these soldiers had axes, hammers, shovels, and other tools useful for breaking down structures and digging trenches.

Over a dozen buildings were now on fire, and panic was beginning to set in amongst the locals.

With no time to waste, Lucas didn’t hesitate to release his Soul Sense and scan the disaster zone, updating the plan he had made on the way over from the docks.

Taking charge of the scene, Lucas shouted, "Squads 1 through 5, head down the north and east roads! Sweep any large debris you find away from the fire, then set up a shield wall to prevent the spread of embers!"

"All Sea Establishment Realm soldiers, grab the biggest buckets of water you can carry and spread out evenly along the same roads! Keep your eyes peeled and your senses sharp! Douse any sign of fire you detect outside the perimeter!"

"Commander Percy! There’s a narrow alley just west of the main fire! Take Squads 6 though 8 and demolish the four buildings there! Knock them away from the blaze!"

"Squads 9 and 10, unpack the pumps and get them installed in the north, east, and south wells!"

"Everyone else, grab a bucket or a shovel and circle around! Focus your attention on the outer fires! Us dirt or water to smother the flames as you move inwards towards the central blaze! Cover everything even if its not on fire!"

The local slum residents were naturally dumbstruck to see such a young child suddenly giving out orders, but watching all the soldiers obey without question, including the mighty Spirit Initiate, they decided to not ask any questions for now.

The fact that the orders Lucas was giving out were precise, logical, and seemingly effective, also helped.

Just as the 4 hand pump prototypes Lucas had built back in Iron Rock were finished being installed into the wells, and water was beginning the flow out of them into waiting buckets, Allina, Sasha, Christina, and Victoria arrived on horseback, together with a dozen other riders from the Lord’s Manor.

Hopping down from her mount, Allina strode over to Lucas and asked succinctly, "Where do you need me?"

"We’ve set up a firebreak to the west, and Commander Percy is monitoring the situation on that side, but the winds are still blowing to the north-east," Lucas explained briefly, "We need to keep the blaze contained to this block."

"Got it, I’ll head over and monitor the situation there," Allina nodded, kicking off the ground and racing up the northern road.

"And what about us?" Sasha followed up.

Knitting his brow, Lucas let out a small sigh before shaking his head, "Grab a bucket or join one of the lines."

Pursing her lips, Sasha lowered her voice and asked, "You don’t have any... special ideas that might be of use here?"

Shaking his head, Lucas grumbled in frustration, "We don’t have the necessary equipment."

Pressurized hoses, chemical fire-retardants, aerial water drones, high-flow pumps, none of these things existed in the Rockwell Kingdom, so there was very little inspiration Lucas could draw from his inherited memories. Even now, he wasn’t really trying to put out the main fire, he was simply trying to contain it and then wait for it to burn itself out.

Time passed, and more and more people showed up, from ordinary citizens, to soldiers from the city garrison, and even something resembling a team of fire-fighters with a customized wagon carrying several giant barrels of water.

Still, Lucas’ initial instincts had been right. There was little anyone could do other than snuff out new fires in the surrounding while the orphanage and its neighbouring buildings burned down.

It wasn’t until dawn the next day that the situation finally calmed, the sources of fuel to keep the fire going having been exhausted at last.

Standing amidst the smouldering ashes of the disaster, many of the locals were actually cheering and thanking the soldiers, all while shouting praises for the young hero who had saved their homes and livelihoods.

Given the size and intensity of the blaze, many thought that half the slums were going to be destroyed last night, so having just 31 buildings reduced to smoking ruins was actually a great victory in their opinions.

Lucas, however, wasn’t in much of a mood to celebrate, especially when he learned that of the original 126 children the orphanage had housed, only 74 had made it out alive.