I finally arrived in the neighboring town late at night.
The gate of the town, covered by a stone wall as high as a two-story building, was already closed.
But even if the gate were open, it would be difficult for a filthy ‘Street Urchin’ like me, dirtied from exploring the forest and special training, to enter.
In the countries of this continent, people are roughly divided into four categories.
First, there are the ‘Nobles,’ the ruling class. They can travel anywhere within the country, and even go to other countries if they have a reason.
Next are the ‘Commoners.’ These are the people who pay taxes as citizens or residents of a territory. They can go anywhere within the registered noble’s territory—in this case, the Barony—but to go to another noble’s territory, they have to pay a toll of one Silver Coin. To go abroad, they need a special pass.
Below them are the people called ‘Free Citizens,’ which basically means people without a home. They don’t pay taxes, but they are restricted in where they can go. To enter a large town or city, they have to pay a toll of one Silver Coin each time.
At the bottom are the ‘Slaves.’ These are people who have sold themselves, and are generally known as serfs. They cultivate the fields under their master and receive wages according to the harvest. They can have families within that scope, but they are not free to quit their jobs.
As the old woman at the Orphanage sold orphans, nobles and wealthy people sometimes illegally keep slaves as lovers, but this is not common.
My current position is that of a ‘Free Citizen,’ and it costs one Silver Coin to enter the town.
Moreover, Free Citizens without a family register or residency are in danger of the guards not acting even if they are victims of crime, and if they encounter a troublesome gatekeeper, they may have their money stolen and be enslaved for being a Street Urchin.
The reason I want to risk such danger and enter the town is not only to replenish my food supplies, but also because I want weapons and a certain “something.”
In any case, even Free Citizens without freedom can receive treatment close to that of ‘Commoners’ depending on their rank if they belong to one of the four: the Adventurer’s Guild, the Commercial Guild, the Magician’s Guild, or the Alchemy Guild. However, even registering with the Adventurer’s Guild requires a combat Skill at Level 1, so I won’t aim too high since it’s impossible for me now.
Getting back to the point, unlike the rural town with only wooden fences where I used to live, it is difficult to enter this large town where the Baron, the lord, resides from the front.
But that woman’s “knowledge” taught me a trick to enter the town.
I took a nap in a tree in the surrounding Forest late at night, and when I explored the outside of the wall near dawn, I finally found what I was looking for as it got brighter.
Two Shadows walking in the Forest near the outer wall… Children? They gather wild plants in the Forest, skillfully catch a snake, and then return to the wall.
The children look around cautiously and enter the bushes near the wall, disappearing inside.
I also approached there while suppressing my presence, and when I examined the bushes, I found a hole under the wall, covered with a board and hidden, just big enough for a child to pass through.
…As I thought. That woman knew that in large cities with Slums, there are means for the residents to go outside.
To hide the luster of my conspicuous pink blonde hair, I sprinkled the ashes I had saved on my head, and then wrapped a cloth around my neck to hide half of my face. Then, holding my breath, I quietly infiltrated the town.
“…………”
After passing through a hole small enough for a child to squat and pass through, I quietly lifted the exit board and peeked outside. As expected, it seemed to be a Slum District. After confirming that there were no signs of people around, I came out of the hole and put the board back in place.
Now… Where is a store where even a Street Urchin can shop?
Not on the main street, but in the Slum District or near the low-income area close to the Slums. After confirming that the luster of my hair had turned gray and disappeared, I began exploring the surrounding area while matching my presence to the surrounding Mana Particles.
This area seems to be an old residential district. When I peeked inside the buildings through the decayed and broken doors and windows, I smelled a sour odor like rotten food.
There are hardly any signs of people, but there are traces of people living there. I don’t feel any signs of people now. I don’t know if they only come back at night, but more than that, there are fewer elemental Mana Particles inside the town than in the Forest, so I had a hard time erasing my presence.
It’s not that there aren’t any at all, but if I had to say, Light, Darkness, and Non-attribute Mana Particles seem to make up the majority.
I need different training than in the Forest… I felt a little tired and looked around, and found a well, so I thought I would get some water.
I didn’t want to use Magic when I was tired. The well wasn’t dry and had water, but it seemed a little cloudy, so I just wet a cloth and wiped off my sweat.
“Hey, you! Who gave you permission to use the well!”
That voice I heard from a little distance away… A child? When I slowly turned around, there was a boy of about 10 years old wearing a dirty poncho, and a girl about the same age as me.
…Ah, the children I saw outside the wall. Siblings?
The boy’s voice was as threatening as he could make it, and I couldn’t help but glare at the boy, remembering the older orphans who had taken my food and forced work on me. The boy and girl looked a little frightened.
“T-This is our territory! If you want to use the well, pay us!”
“…………”
The town’s well isn’t private property, is it? I don’t have to deal with such Street Urchin logic, but I reconsidered that there are minimum rules everywhere, flicked a Copper Coin with my finger, rolled it to the boy’s feet, and tried to leave. Then the boy raised his voice again.
“Y-You! If you have money, give us more!”
“B-Brother!”
The boy’s greed must have won out because I gave him money so easily. His younger sister was pulling on his sleeve to stop him, but he shook her off and came towards me.
Bash!
“Uwah!?”
Without waiting for that, I flowed Mana through my whole body, pushed him over as if colliding with his legs, straddled the flustered boy, looked down coldly, drew my Knife, and raised it.
“N-Nooo!”
The girl jumped in as if colliding with me, so I immediately rolled away to avoid her, took a defensive stance, and held my Knife.
But the girl was just clinging to her brother and crying, and didn’t show any intention of attacking me.
The boy had already lost his will to fight, and his face was pale and he was trembling, having been nearly killed by me pointing a Blade at him.
When I approached with my Knife still raised, the boy trembled with a frightened face, but hugged his sister who was still clinging to him.
“…Where is a store that sells things to Street Urchins?”
“…T-That way… Two blocks ahead…”
“Is that so? Thanks.”
This is difficult… For now, I know what I wanted to know, and I have no intention of killing or getting involved with them since they have lost their will to fight. When I tried to leave, I heard an adult voice from behind.
“Hey, you brats! What are you doing in a place like this! I told you to pay if you want to use this well!”
I was a little curious and turned around to see a red-faced, filthy man raising a sake bottle as if threatening the collapsed siblings.
Ah, I see. This man was using the well to extort money from Street Urchins.
“W-We didn’t use it!”
“Shut up, who cares! Pay me money for anything!”
“Yaaah!”
The man pulled the younger sister away and took the coin the boy was holding.
“Tch, a Copper Coin. That’s stingy.”
“S-Stop it, mister! That’s for Shuri’s bread…”
“Then do some stealing or something and earn it!”
The man raised his sake bottle. Even something like that can easily kill a child if it hits the wrong spot.
At that moment, the face of that old woman, who was raising a rolling pin and laughing as she hit the orphans, flashed in my mind.
“Gyah!?”
A stone grazed his head, and the drunken man screamed and held his head.
The boy and girl had surprised faces. But the most surprised was myself, who had decided not to get involved, but had instinctively thrown a stone with a slingshot.
“…Y-You, this kid!!”
The man noticed me and became enraged in an instant.
Crash!
The man smashed the empty ceramic bottle against the well, turning it into a vicious weapon. But even if the opponent is a drunk, a child who has only trained for two or three days cannot challenge an adult head-on and win.
“W-Wait!”
So I immediately ran away.
I run and the drunk chases me. I thought it would be good if those siblings escaped in that gap, but now I am in a much more critical situation.
Perhaps he is very angry, the man is chasing me persistently. I take out “something” from my belt while turning around the corner of the building and waiting.
I wonder if I was in the wrong here… But I can’t just quietly let myself be killed. The moment the drunk who had been chasing me peeked his head in, I swung it down with all my might.
Thwack!
“………gh…”
The drunken man took a blow to the head, staggering before falling face down.
The weapon I used was a makeshift one: a roughly one-meter-long cord made by twisting my hair together, with a weight wrapped in cloth at the end.
Inside the weight, instead of a stone, I had placed about ten Copper Coins. Proper copper is heavier than iron. Moreover, coins have sharp edges, and the impact, enhanced by centrifugal force and Mana, would explode not as a “surface” but as a sharp “point.”
I immediately drew my Knife and stabbed the man deeply in the medulla oblongata to finish him off.
Keeping him alive would only cause trouble. Gathering the fabric around his collar to prevent blood from spurting out, I pulled out the Knife and rummaged through the man’s belongings to make it look like a robbery.
There were three small Silver Coins and five Copper Coins in his dirty wallet. After confirming that, I threw the man’s wallet, filled with coins, to the boy who had come to see what was happening and was now trembling with a pale face.
“Dispose of the body with that. You’re a resident of the Slums, so you know what to do, right?”
“…………”
When I said that, the boy who received the wallet nodded repeatedly without a word.
The lives of Slum residents are cheap. Even more so if they don’t belong to the mafia. That goes for these Street Urchin siblings… and for “me” too.
That’s why, in order for me to “live,” no matter who the opponent is, if they are an “enemy,” I have no intention of showing mercy.
I turned my back on the trembling siblings, who couldn’t say anything, and immediately left the scene, heading towards the store I had heard about.
Next time: My First Purchase.