The Formerly Poor Aristocrat and the Slums [Part 2]
“It’s okay. I won’t question you any further… Sorry, I will return that to you, so please forgive me.”
The boy made a lukewarm smile, which gave them complicated feelings.
“Why were you crying?”
Without reading the mood nor the flow of the conversation again, Emma voiced out the question on her mind.
“I-I’m not crying… huh, you, now that I look closely, you have a terrible scar, huh? Did the nobles do it to you? Does it hurt?”
The boy noticed Emma’s scar and looked worriedly at her. Her scar stood out even when she’s wearing a hat. The boy could see a scar being ruthlessly engraved on her cute, though a little vacant, face.
‘Maybe his* cute face brought out other’s resentment. There are people who do terrible stuff regardless of whether he is a boy or not, after all. He looks older than me but is still a kid.
With that kind of scar on his face, he has done a good job hanging on.’
(*T/N: The boy thought of Emma as a boy.)
“You need to watch out during the food distribution day, okay? Cause while there are kind people, there are also those who are fine with doing cruel things, you see?”
‘Especially a thin and weak looking person like you is easy to target,’ the boy misunderstood all by himself and gave Emma his advice.
Do people of the slums often get terribly treated by the nobles? The three siblings, who are not clear about the situation in the royal capital, tilted their heads in wonder. Isn’t it weird for them to be most wary of nobles instead of the disputes within the slums themselves?
“Yesterday’s food distribution… It’s the week with the worst noble, you see, he went back before he finished giving everyone food! My big brother, you see, gave him his most valued treasure and asked him to give everyone food, but…”
Unlike the boy’s previous words, tears started to well up in his eyes.
The three siblings are not familiar with the food distribution system obliged to high-ranking nobles in the royal capital. They thought that providing food for everyone who has gathered is an obvious thing to do.
The angle of their tilted neck got deeper and deeper. They put it in one corner of their mind to ask their mother about it when they get home.
“Treasure?”
Emma reacted quickly at the mention of a treasure. Her eyes were somewhat shining.
I wonder what the treasure in the slums is. If it’s money, they will definitely use it on their own. If it’s food, they won’t be lining up for the food distribution, right.
“Those guys, they only took the treasure and went back!”
The boy clenched his teeth and was trembling in anger.
“Isn’t that… robbery?”
Not to mention as a noble, that’s something questionable to do as a person.
And, what is the treasure that even a noble would take?
“Not just a robbery, Big Brother who ran to stop the carriage… was… ran over by it…”
The boy finally burst into tears and choked on his words.
Can nobles be excused even if they do such a thing?
The siblings, who’ve only lived in Japan where no class system exists and the borderland Palace where the people can’t survive unless they work hand in hand with each other, were very shocked.
“How’s your older brother?”
The boy’s cry got louder at Emma’s question. Emma gently patted his back until he calmed down. Although stammering, the boy continued talking.
“He’s been… sleeping all this time. His body is limp, a-and the bleeding won’t stop… That’s why I wanted to buy medicine…”
…with the money from pickpocketing.
The boy is just a boy, and he seemed to be in a dire situation.
“I stopped by the drugstore on my way back… Then I realized it’s not money…”
They started to pity the boy.
The siblings looked at each other’s faces and nodded at the same time.
“Although not much, we have some money, so let’s go to the drugstore now.”
George decided to forget about the pickpocket accident and told the boy that they had agreed to help him. They couldn’t just leave him be and go home like this.
The sun started to set, and it’s about time for their parents to start worrying, but the siblings are around 40 and around 30 on the inside anyway, so maybe they would let it pass.
“Is it alright?”
The boy looked up at the siblings like they’re his savior.
For these people, who wear more tattered clothes than I do, to give their tiny amount of money for Big Brother’s medicine… Especially the boy with a scar on his face who patted my shoulder to calm me, I can only see him as an angel.
“Hmm… First off, shall we go see your brother’s wound condition? We have to prioritize buying what is needed, after all.”
The smiling face of the angel unknowingly made the boy’s heart jump. It’s as if he was hit by an angel’s arrow.
