Chapter 20
The Missing Child
Not only did I have to order the kindergarten uniform, but I also had to buy a bag and stationery, so I stopped by the general store Marien had introduced me to.
I was on my way out after buying the necessary items.
Lucia felt like she was being watched by a number of people.
Was it just her imagination?
Even though she was wearing plain clothes, not a conspicuous uniform, she still felt the gaze.
'Am I being targeted?'
Lucia checked on Nia, who was holding her hand.
Thankfully, the child was still following her closely, her eyes fixed on Lucia.
If it was the pickpocket gang she suspected, her movements would be restricted in such a crowded place, making it difficult to subdue them.
She turned towards a less crowded area.
A crossroads alley with few people in sight.
As she expected, a number of figures flickered in the dark alley.
"Come out."
Lucia was a little concerned about being with Nia, but since they had been targeted, she decided to deal with them all at once.
She sensed about ten pairs of eyes.
One of the dark figures stepped into the sunlight, revealing himself and shouting.
"Leave everything behind! Including those fancy leather shoes!"
They seemed to have put forward the child who looked like the oldest among them, but it was a boy whose voice hadn't even broken yet.
'Is this the gang that's been using slum children, which has been frequently appearing in the capital lately?'
Even though she was on leave, Lucia, as the commander, remembered the information she had received.
The fact that these young children were earning money through pickpocketing meant that the empire's situation had worsened.
According to the code of conduct, she had to hand them all over, but Lucia didn't want to go that far with children who were still so young.
"I'll give you 5 gold."
This was a considerable amount of money, enough to cover a normal family's food expenses for a month.
Lucia expected that would be enough to make them back off.
"Did you hear that? She's giving us 5 gold! What should we do?"
The boy turned to the darkest corner, shouting happily.
A long-haired, auburn-haired girl wearing a worn-out hood had a glint in her eyes.
She seemed to hesitate for a moment, then shook her head.
"Tch. See? She said no."
The boy gestured into the darkness, and children of similar age, even younger than him, randomly came out and rushed towards Lucia's bag.
Perhaps because it was just a woman and a child, they seemed to think they could rob her without fear.
Lucia hid the startled Nia behind her and summoned her sword towards the children.
"Ugh, eek! What is this! She's not an ordinary woman!"
"She's a mage! A mage!"
"This is bad! Run away!"
When the Aura Blade generated in her hand shone brightly, the children, who had rushed in so bravely, began to flee in a hurry.
It seemed that her action to simply scare them had worked perfectly.
The sight of the children, exposed to the sunlight, hastily disappearing into the darkness was truly bleak.
They were skinny, looking like they didn't even have the strength to run.
They were exposing their bare skin because they didn't have enough cloth, and their cloaks were tattered with loose threads.
She knew that even if they tried to work diligently instead of stealing, it would be difficult to live a normal life due to the expensive prices caused by the pollution of the empire's land, so she could only watch with a bitter heart.
After staring at them intently, Lucia turned around, intending to go home.
But behind her.
The child who should have been looking at her was gone without a trace.
Only the sound of indistinguishable footsteps echoed far away at the end of the dark alley, beyond the countless crossroads.
*
"S-Sister!"
Nia gasped for breath, calling out to the girl running ahead.
"Mia, Sister...!"
The long-haired, auburn-haired girl ran so fast that her large clothes were about to fall off. She stopped when she heard her name being called.
"What? That little kid, wasn't she with that mage earlier?"
The children running near Mia seemed to have heard Nia's voice as well, and slowly approached.
Nia was frightened by the way they looked at her clothes with greedy eyes, and she cowered.
"Don't touch her."
"You know her? You? With her?"
They looked incredulous that a child wearing a luxurious dress and Mia could be friends.
"Shut up and get lost, can't you?"
The children, who had been smirking at Mia's harsh command, retreated one by one with awkward expressions.
The girl's role in this organization seemed to be quite important.
"Tch. What a temper. Anyway, your plan didn't work, so be prepared when the boss comes."
The retreating boy spat on the ground with a dissatisfied expression and walked towards a hidden small clearing where his companions were.
The clearing was a secret place connected by small, maze-like alleys.
"...Annie. I can't believe you're that rich kid. Why did you follow me? Do you know how scary this place is?"
"Mia Sister said she'd come get me..."
"...!"
...That's right.
Seeing Nia's still foolishly innocent appearance, Mia seemed to remember their old promise, and her expression became complicated.
"...Who was that woman earlier?"
"She's my mom..."
She wasn't used to saying it out loud in front of others yet, but Nia wanted to let Mia, whom she had reunited with, know.
But upon hearing those words, Mia sneered with a venomous look.
"What? You're really crazy. Mom? A person called Mom came all the way to this dirty marketplace holding your hand? Well, she's a great mage, so what's there to be afraid of. But what a pity. Thanks to you, she lost her child?"
It was an alley she had brought her to in order to get away from the pickpocket gang, but it certainly wasn't a place to bring a child.
But Mia was far too agitated for that to be the only reason.
"Listen. I guarantee it. Even if it's not now, she'll bully you soon. Look at me. I ended up on the streets too, didn't I? Of course, it's not great here either, but it's much better than that hellish place."
Nia didn't remember Mia looking like this.
She had said that she was going to a good place. That she would succeed more than anyone else and come to pick her up.
The smart Mia Sister, who everyone at the orphanage envied, wearing a beautiful dress and waving a handkerchief from a fancy carriage.
Now, on the contrary, she had sunken eyes, hollow cheeks, and even a fierce expression.
Nia could only watch Mia's unfamiliar appearance silently, looking around.
"Annie, if you get pocket money, make sure to save it. You have to get as much as you can while you can. Okay?"
Mia looked Nia up and down with the same eyes as the others earlier, but the only expensive things she could see were the white silk dress and leather shoes the child was wearing.
"What. No accessories. She's a mage, but she doesn't seem very rich?"
"I don't know... Lucia Mom is with me... Ah?"
Only then did Nia realize Lucia's absence, who should have been next to her, and she hurriedly looked around.
Seeing the child's appearance, Mia snorted as if she found it amusing.
"That's what you get for following me. It's okay. I'll take you back."
Nia nodded at the girl's words, but tears welled up in her golden eyes as she still looked around anxiously.
Seeing that, Mia felt inexplicably frustrated.
"Annie! When we were carrying poop in that awful village, who protected you from the village children who were bullying you?"
"...Mia, Sister."
"So believe what I say. Don't trust anyone else but me! Don't expect anything from them! You trust people too easily. Got it?"
"... "
Nia was only rolling her eyes, looking for her mom, despite Mia's harsh persuasion.
Mia frowned deeply, not liking that appearance.
It was then.
The sound of a large, middle-aged man's irregular footsteps, as if he were drunk, began to echo from the end of the alley.
Instantly, Mia was startled and took off her worn-out cloak, wrapping it around Nia.
Then, she pushed Nia beyond the corner of the narrowest of the connected narrow alleys.
"Mia, Sister? I have to go to Mom...!"
"Shh. Annie...! If you want to live, you must never come out. Got it?"
Nia, who was resisting because she didn't know what was going on, nodded silently at the girl's serious voice.
Mia quickly composed herself and sat down in a remote place, a little away from her companions, as usual.
The large man staggered, breathing heavily, half drunk.
But the children swallowed nervously, tense in his violent atmosphere, as if he could explode at any moment.
"Ugh... My head. Huh? What's this?"
As always, he shook the bucket in the middle of the children violently, spilling the contents.
Then a few coins and cheap accessories scattered on the floor.
"Is this all?"
"T-There weren't any people on the streets!"
"It was all just coins."
"We didn't hide anything. Really!"
"Yeah, everyone's broke. Yeah, but..."
He grabbed the nearest boy by the collar and lifted him up.
The boy's slender physique was easily lifted, creating an overwhelming atmosphere as if he were about to be eaten by a dangerous Monster.
Then he shook him like an animal and threw him down.
"Ugh...!!"
The boy covered his mouth, which was about to scream, as he hit the floor.
It was because he knew that if he made a sound, he would hit him even more.
"You should have worked harder!! Who do you think is feeding and housing you! You damn bastards!"
Now the children were just overwhelmed by the man, hoping that time would pass quickly.
"Mia! Where are you! Mia!"
"...Here."
"You better keep the kids in line with that smart head of yours. If there's no harvest like today, I might sell you off before that. Got it? You should be grateful that you're a girl and I'm just letting it slide! Heh heh..."
He was drooling at the thought of selling Mia, who would be an adult in a few years, and Mia lowered her eyes as if she had given up on everything at the abusive language.
Mia was smart but also a young girl, so she didn't seem to think she could escape him.
He looked at Mia like that and smiled with satisfaction before turning around.
However, Mia was shocked at the direction he was walking in.
It was the alley where she had just hidden Nia.
"What's this? Looks like there's a scared little rat?"
The man noticed Mia's familiar cloak trembling a lot and roughly pulled it open.
Then Nia, who had been hidden by the cloak, was startled and froze, panting like a newly caught rabbit.
Mia ran and grabbed his arm.
"Just let her go! She has parents!"
"Grab her!"
He pushed Mia away and ordered the children.
And the children who immediately ran over pressed down on Mia with all their might.
"Oh, so you know each other. If she was adopted by good parents from the orphanage, that's even better. I have to hurry up and get her ransom before she gets abandoned like you! Hahaha!"
"Please! Please stop!"
Mia cried desperately, but the man didn't even flinch and just grabbed Nia's neatly braided hair.
"I'll buy you a lot of food if the deal goes through. How about it!"
The children had only been eating watery porridge for days, so they salivated and cheered at his lie.
Nia, who had been watching the situation in terror, eventually slumped.
She seemed to have fainted from the shock.
"Why is she so weak? That's why I don't like little kids. Tch. Mia. I know who her parents are..."
-Bang!
The man and the children looked around at the sudden sound of a cannon.
Red smoke was rising like threads in the sky, and someone began to walk out one by one from the narrow alley.
"What! Who are you guys? Ack!"
As soon as the man dropped the fainted Nia from his hand with a fierce momentum, a sharp sword flew and instantly cut off his breath.
-Thud.
As the large figure fell to the ground without making a sound,
"I'm the uncle!"
"I'm the aunt!"
"I'm..."
Each of the blue-haired and red-haired women struck a pose and answered, but the white-haired boy was hesitating, perhaps due to an internal conflict.
"Ah, Heath. You're ruining the mood. We bet that if we found her safely within 5 minutes, we'd make you the older brother. He's already dead."
"Hey! You flew too fast! I was going to kill him! And Heath, you should just accept our family's position!"
They were arguing, but they lifted the fallen Nia and glared at Heath together.
Due to the nature of their profession, they had rescued many people, so they seemed to have experienced this situation a lot.
But it was the first time Heath had been forced to do such a slogan, and he felt humiliated for the first time in his life.
"...I can't accept it!"
The boy seemed to accept being a mama's boy, but he still couldn't accept being a younger sibling.
