Slum Quarters
I finally arrived at the neighboring town when it was late at night. That town was covered by a stone wall with height that reached the roof of a two storied building. The gate of that town was already closed. But even if the gate was opened, a “street urchin” who was slightly dirty all over from exploring and training in the forest like me wouldn’t be able to enter easily. Why was it difficult for a street urchin to enter a town? That was because the action of people in this country was limited based on their social status.
According to my “knowledge”, the countries of this continent seemed to classify people into four social statuses broadly speaking.
First, the ruling class, the 『nobles』. They could travel anywhere if it was within the country. They could also go to other country if they had compelling reason for it.
Next was 『commoner』. They were people who paid tax as citizen. They could travel anywhere within the territory of the noble where they were registered……in the case of this area, it was the territory of a baron. But to go to the territory of another noble, they would be charged with a toll of one silver coin as tax.
The people without any house who were called as 『free folk』 had social status below them. They didn’t pay tax, but in exchange they were levied with limitation anywhere they went. They had to pay one silver coin as toll every time they entered a city.
The lowest social status was 『slave』. In other words they were people who sold themselves. It might be easier to understand if I said that they were commonly known as serf. They tilted the field under their master and received pay depending on the amount of harvest. They could also have family within limit, but they had no freedom to stop doing their work. Just like how that orphanage’s old hag sold orphans, there were also nobles and wealthy people who kept illegal slave as lover, but that wasn’t a common thing so they were the exception.
My current status was a 『free folk』. I would be levied with a toll of one silver coin to enter the town. Furthermore free folk who wasn’t registered and wasn’t even a citizen was in a risk of not receiving help from the guard even when they became a victim of crime. If I unluckily encountered a troublesome guard, it was even possible that I would be robbed from all of my money and sold as slave just by claiming I was just a street urchin.
I wanted to enter the town even if I had to brave such danger wasn’t only for food resupply, but because I wanted a weapon that even I could use and a “certain thing”.
By joining one of the four guilds of adventurer guild, merchant guild, sorcerer guild, or alchemist guild, even free folk that didn’t have any freedom would be able to at least obtain a treatment almost like 『commoner』 depending on their rank. But even to join the adventurer guild where registering was relatively easy, you needed to have combat skill level 1, so it was impossible no matter what for me right now.
Returning back to the topic, unlike the rural town where I was living at before this, entering this large town where its feudal lord a baron was living in right from the front gate was difficult. But, that woman’s “knowledge” taught me a trick to enter the town.
.
I took a nap on a tree at a nearby forest. Then I investigated the outer side of the wall when the dawn was nearing. I finally discovered my objective when it was getting brighter.
There were two silhouettes walking at the forest near the outer wall. ……Were they children? They were picking wild grasses inside the forest, caught a snake skillfully, then they returned toward the wall again. Those children observed their surrounding first before entering a bush near the wall. Then they vanished.
I also erased my presence while heading there. When I tried checking inside the bush, I discovered a hole with a size that a child could pass through. The hole was hidden by covering it with a plank. ……As I thought. That woman knew that in a large town that had slum quarters, the residents there would have a method in order to leave the city.
I covered my head with the ash that brought to erase the glossiness of my conspicuous pink blond hair. After that I wrapped a cloth around my neck to hide half of my face. I slowed my breathing and quietly infiltrated into the town.
「…………」
After I passed the hole that a small child could pass through by crouching, I quietly lifted up the plank at the entrance and peeked outside. Sure enough, it seemed that it was the slum quarters at the other side. I confirmed that there wasn’t any sign of people around and got out of the hole. I returned the plank to its former position and erased my tracks.
Now then……I wonder where I could find a shop that would buy even from a street urchin. I guess that kind of shop wouldn’t be located at the main street, but inside the slum quarters or the area for low-income earner that was near the slum quarters. After I confirmed that the glossiness of my hair had been properly covered, I matched my presence with the surrounding magic particles while starting to explore the surrounding.
It seemed that this area was an old residential district. When I tried peeking inside a building through rotten and crumbling door or window, I smelled a sour scent like when some food went rotten. There was almost no human presence inside, but there were signs of people living there. Right now there didn’t seem to be anyone here. I didn’t know whether it was because they only returned here at night, but more importantly inside the city magic particles with element were less compared to inside the forest. It was a pain to erase my presence here.
There were a lot of inorganic substances here and few nature. It wasn’t like nature was completely nonexistent, but it felt like light element and dark element and non-elemental were occupying the majority of the area here. It wasn’t just the element, I had to match myself with the magic particles’ size if I wanted to erase my presence well.
I would need a different kind of training than in the forest for this……. I got slightly fatigued mentally as I looked around, then I found a well so I thought to take a bit of water from there. I didn’t want to use magic when I was mentally fatigued. That well wasn’t dry and it had proper water in it, but it looked slightly murky so I only used it to wet a cloth to wipe my sweat. Then I felt a faint presence approaching me as I did that.
「Oi, you, who permitted you to use the well huh-!」
That voice came from a slight distance away……a child? I slowly turned around. Over there I found a boy around ten years old and a girl around the same age as me wearing slightly dirty plain clothes.
……Aa, they were the children who I caught sight of outside the wall. They had similar hair and eye color so they were most likely siblings. The voice of that boy that was filled with a threatening tone reminded me of the older orphan who took away my food and pushed his work on me, so I reflexively glared back. The boy and girl slightly flinched from that.
「T-this place is our turf! You have to pay for using the well-!」
「…………」
A town’s well shouldn’t be a personal property of someone though? I had no reason to go along with that kind of street urchin logic, but I rethought it that the minimum rule always existed anywhere. I flicked a bronze coin to the ground near the boy’s foot before turning around to leave, but then the boy raised his voice again.
「You-! If you got money then hand over more-!」
「N-Nii-chan-」
The boy’s greed must have won over seeing me giving out money so easily. The little sister beside him tried to stop him by pulling the boy’s sleeve, but he shook her off and headed toward me.
*Bash-!*
「Uwah!?」
I didn’t wait for him and circulated magic power to my whole body while striking his leg to push him down. I straddled the fallen boy and looked down coldly on him while taking out my knife and brandished it up.
「S-stoppp!」
Seeing the knife, the girl jumped to collide on me. I immediately rolled to avoid her and got back on my feet while taking a stance with my knife. But the girl only clung on her brother and cried. I couldn’t feel any intent to attack from her. The boy too had already lost his fighting spirit. He was staying flat on the ground with pale face and shaking body from getting almost killed by me.
When I approached with the knife still held in a stance, the boy twitched with a fearful expression. Even then he hugged his sister who was clinging on him to protect her.
「……Where is a shop that will buy even from street urchin?」
「……T-there……two blocks ahead……」
「Is that so? Thanks.」
This was tough……. Anyway I learned what I wanted to know, and I had no plan to kill or get involved with them now that they had lost their will to fight, so I walked away. It was then, I heard an adult’s voice from behind.
「Oi you brats! What the hell are ya doing there! I told you to pay money if you want to use this well-!」
I got a bit curious and looked back. There a slightly dirty man with red face was swinging up a wine bottle to threaten the siblings on the ground. Aa, I see. This man was wangling money from street urchins who were using the well.
「W-we weren’t using it-!」
「Shaddup, who care-! I don’t give a damn, just pay the money!」
「Nooooo!」
The man tore away the little sister from the boy and snatched the bronze coin in his grasp.
「Tsk, just bronze coin. You’re damn broke huh.」
「D-don’t take that old man-! I’m going to use that to buy bread for Shuri──」
「Then go steal or whatever, get me the damn money!」
The man swung down the bottle on the children. Even that kind of thing could easily kill if it hit a child in a bad place.
「…………」
In that moment──the face of that old hag lifting up a rod to beat up the orphans flashed in my mind.
*Hyun-!*
「Gyah!?」
A rock grazed the head of the drunkard. The man screamed and held his head.
The shocked faces of the boy and girl entered my eyes. But the one who was the most surprised here was myself who instantly threw a rock from my slingshot even though I should have decided to not get involved.
「……Yo-, y-y-you damn brat-!!」
The man was instantly infuriated when he realized I was the one who threw the rock.
*Crunch-!*
The man smashed the empty bottle on the well and changed it into a wicked weapon. The man was drunk. But even though he was drunk, there was no way a child who had only trained for several days could win against an adult head on.
「Ah, wait-!」
That was why I quickly turned my back and ran away.
The drunkard chased after the feeling me. I hoped those siblings used this time to run away, but right now I was the one who was in far greater danger. The man seemed to be very angry. He persistently chased after me. I took out a certain thing from my waist band before turning on the corner of a building and laid in wait.
Was I the one in the wrong here for being the one attacking first? But I would never quietly wait to get killed. The moment the pursuing drunkard showed up from the corner, I swung it down with all my strength.
*Gan-!*
「………a……」
The drunkard was struck on the top of his head. He staggered before falling face down.
It went well……. What I used was my new weapon, a cord with length around one meter that I created from intertwining my hair together and a cloth filled with weight attached at its end. The weight I used wasn’t a rock but around ten bronze coins. Proper bronze was heavier than even iron. Furthermore coin was acutely angled in part. The impact that was strengthened with centrifugal force and magic power exploded not from “flat surface” but sharp “point”.
I immediately unsheathed my knife and got on top of the man. I dealt the finishing blow by stabbing deep into the fallen man’s brain. I would only leave behind a troublesome seed of trouble for the future if I left him alive. I pulled the fabric of his collar and pulled out the knife while wiping it with the cloth so that blood wouldn’t spurt out. Then I scavenged the man’s belonging to make it looked like a robbery.
There were three small silver coins and five bronze coins inside his dirty wallet. While I was counting, the boy came to check the situation with a pale face. It seemed he didn’t run away. I threw the wallet filled with the man’s coins to him.
「Deal with the corpse using that. You know how if you are a slum’s resident right?」
「…………」
After I said that, the boy took the wallet and nodded many times wordlessly.
The life of slum residents was cheap. That was even truer if you didn’t belong to the mafia. Even these street urchin siblings……and even “I” were the same.
That was why in order to “survive”, no matter who my opponent was, I had no intention to be merciful to them if they were my “enemy”.
I didn’t say anything more and sent a cold gaze to the fearful siblings before turning my back on them. I immediately left that place and walked toward the direction where the shop that I was told about was located.
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