"It happened a year before we got married," Farion explained. "I…"
He heaved a sigh.
The air grew heavy as Alice walked over putting a hand on his shoulder.
"I had gotten addicted Noremin," Farion admitted. Rui's eyes widened, stunned. He recognized that name. That was the name of one of the three narcotic plants that the Great Forest of Hypnonarak had in large quantities. The drug was said to put the user in a dreamlike bliss, making them lose sight of reality.
"The situation had gotten bad…" He heaved a deep sigh. "I had almost reached the point of no return. I would not have gotten back if not for Alice, that's for sure."
He gazed deeply at her with an expression of affection and love. "But also, it would not have gone well without the Beggar's Sect."
Rui skimmed through his memories as he recalled the whole reason that the Beggar's Sect wanted him to cripple the Carnil Mafia's drug trafficking operations. Their operations were to use the time that Rui suppressed the Carnil Mafia's drug operations to detox and rehabilitate drug addicts. It appeared that Farion had benefited from their goals to prevent the lower-class folks of a region from being completely destroyed by the drug. "They told me that they could help me and that I could join them to ensure something like this never happens again," Farion explained. "I'd need to undergo nine months of training in covert information transmission and their protocols, and I would be remunerated. I could help ensure that such a thing never happens to the people of this region or the orphanage. I…accepted, along with Alice."
Rui was starting to understand why the two of them joined the sect.
"And…it paid off," Farion smiled at Rui uncharacteristically. "Four months ago, you destroyed their operation permanently. Since then, the drug supply has ceased entirely. I observe the state of folks of the lower class document my observations and send them to the sect, and I have observed that things have shifted for the better thanks to you. The Beggar's Sect kept its promise, and as far as I'm concerned, they have earned my trust. That is why both of us continue to work for them. They were even considerate enough to not require the two of us to spy on our loved ones, otherwise, we wouldn't have joined. Our jobs are limited to the outer districts of the Town of Hajin and its outskirts."
There was silence. Rui didn't even know how to react to this information. However, the tale wasn't nearly as dark as he had been expecting. It appeared that the Beggar's Sect was not all talk. They truly were for, of, and by the common man and woman.
"I see…" Rui managed to finally remark. "So that's why…"
"I hope you don't feel…betrayed," Alice remarked. "We're still your family. And we would never ever do anything that would harm or hurt you in any way. The Beggar's Sect cuts a clear line between our duties and personal lives to ensure that we never have to choose between them."
"How difficult is the job?" Rui asked carefully. "The training was extremely difficult. I have never been pushed to my absolute limits to that degree in my entire life. It was extremely difficult, learning how to observe, how to distill my observations to the barest essence of important and meaningful information, and how to memorize that distilled information quickly. I was also trained on how to efficiently and effectively organize information. Information this. Information that. It was truly difficult," The two of them went pale at the memory of their training. "But thanks to that, we can conduct intelligence surveys without doing anything outwardly suspicious or eye-drawing, while going about the same tasks that I did before. Their methods and training were truly effective."
"I see…" Rui noted. "And how much are you paid?" "Twenty-eight coppers a week," Alice remarked. Rui narrowed his eyes. That was such a low amount that he would never ever notice it if such an amount disappeared from his account every day. "I know what you're thinking," Farion understood his concerns. "You think we are being underpaid. You're wrong. Like I said. I don't actually do any extra physical manual labor. I still drive rickshaws around the outer districts of the Town of Hajin throughout the day like I did before. I've just gathered a lot of information simultaneously with no extra physical effort. The report part is also easy. It's just the training that was maniacally hard."
"I see…" Rui softly replied as he considered their words.
He was pretty sure that the Beggar's Sect remunerated its members based on the value of the information they brought in. Someone like Maiun, the senior partner he had met earlier, was part of the upper echelons at a large and powerful law guild and was naturally going to be remunerated more handsomely.
Although Farion and Alice were each being paid twenty-eight coppers a week, the total expenses of the Beggar's Sect were probably enormous considering that they probably had more than a billion members like them so much so that even the enormous funds that they received from selling information will be largely siphoned into remunerating its payrolls.
Besides, considering the low cost of living that the two of them had, twenty-eight coppers a week was enough to make their living more comfortable.
"There are also additional benefits like forewarnings of dangers," Farion remarked. "Especially the larger kinds that affect a general region or town. With that, we can live feeling a little more safe."
Rui understood that sentiment. He knew from his interactions with the Beggar's Sect that they definitely cared for their agents. This was extremely unusual for an organization as powerful as the Beggar's Sect. Whoever ran this sect was not an ordinary power-hungry individual, that was for sure.
"As long as I am there. There aren't too things that can harm you. Rest assured that even if a tornado came our way, I will still be able to protect all of you," Rui reassured them.
