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 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 seed 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 ti 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 beca a victim of cri. If I unluckily encountered a troubleso 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, rchant guild, sorcerer guild, or alchemist guild, even free folk that didn’t have any freedom would be able to at least obtain a treatnt 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 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 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 thod 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 seed that it was the slum quarters at the other side. I confird that there wasn’t any sign of people around and got out of the hole. I returned the plank to its forr 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-inco earner that was near the slum quarters. After I confird 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 seed that this area was an old residential district. When I tried peeking inside a building through rotten and crumbling door or window, I slled a sour scent like when so 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 elent 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 elent and dark elent and non-elental were occupying the majority of the area here. It wasn’t just the elent, 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 ntally 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 ntally 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 as I did that.
「Oi, you, who permitted you to use the well huh-!」
That voice ca 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 sa age as 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 of the older orphan who took away my food and pushed his work on , 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 soone 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 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 .
*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 . I imdiately 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 .
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 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 mont──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 scread 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 . I hoped those siblings used this ti to run away, but right now I was the one who was in far greater danger. The man seed to be very angry. He persistently chased after . 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 mont 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 ter 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 imdiately 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 troubleso 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 ca to check the situation with a pale face. It seed 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 tis 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 sa.
That was why in order to “survive”, no matter who my opponent was, I had no intention to be rciful 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 imdiately left that place and walked toward the direction where the shop that I was told about was located.
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