The man shouting and bellowing was the manager of the beggars. With his eyes wide open, the man monitored the children intermittently to prevent them from running away and exercised violence. Because of this, the moment he appeared, fear settled on the children’s faces.
I was equally terrified. It was far too easy to crumble under violence. I rationalized that collapsing like this was befitting for an extra.
“I-I’m sorry.”
“Instead of having time to be sorry, work harder!”
The man kicked my body several times. I curled up and waited for the violence to pass. Though it was unfair and frightening, if I thought of it as a natural disaster, it wasn’t unbearable.
“If you guys don’t want to end up like this, do well on your own!”
The manager left irritably. I was sprawled out like garbage in a dark alley where not a single ray of light entered.
Damn it, if you beat me like this, I can’t beg or do anything. Stupid bastard. Does he think scaring me is everything?
But this pathetic state made it easy to buy others’ sympathy. Clink, clink—a few coins fell into the can in front of me. This money would all go into the manager’s pocket.
Damn it. I curled my body tighter from the throbbing pain. Just breathing was agonizing.
As I stared blankly ahead, I saw myself reflected in a puddle before my eyes. My appearance reflected in the puddle reeking of the alley’s rotting smell was truly pitiful.
A gaunt body that still didn’t feel like mine. Skin with a yellowish tint like apricots. Freckles covering not just my face but my entire body. Neither sharp nor drooping, ordinary-shaped eyes. A nose bridge of moderate height. Though I had ordinary features, my entire body was covered in dark bruises and red marks from harsh beatings.
I don’t really remember what my original face looked like, but seeing how unfamiliar this appearance is, it probably wasn’t this kind of appearance.
For a moment, I felt somehow detached. Was it because I was lying in a cold alley in a novel whose identity I didn’t know? Even the pain felt lighter. It was strange.
“Hey, are you dead?”
Just then, black leather shoes stopped before my eyes. The shiny toe was the same kind of shoe I’d seen several times in this alley. Well-maintained shoes of people with means. Unlike me, who didn’t even have shoes and walked around with injured bare feet.
I didn’t have the strength to move my body, so I just rolled my eyes upward to look.
A woman with reddish-brown curly hair reaching her shoulders was giving me a sharp, charismatic look. She was someone who definitely seemed like she’d be above others, but somehow her swagger made her seem insincere.
“…I’m not dead.”
A raspy voice barely flowed from my throat. It was a voice that wouldn’t be strange to say was dying.
“Hmm…”
The woman squatted down in front of me as if finding it interesting. Her curious gaze touched every corner of my body. I felt like a beast in a zoo. No, come to think of it, the animals in zoos are expensive animals with definite bloodlines. Since I’m a mongrel of unknown identity, the zoo analogy didn’t fit.
“Hey. What’s your name?”
“…Jack?”
“Why is it a question?”
Now the woman began poking my body. She deliberately poked the parts that were becoming bruises, and my body automatically flinched. It must have been a pathetic sight, like a bug.
“Do you like being like this?”
The woman’s eyes quickly became emotionless. A bored gaze without curiosity or joy. She must have looked because it was interesting, but eventually realized I was nothing special. She didn’t even seem interested in me, so why was she doing this?
“…How does it look?”
My face reflected in the puddle was a strange face that was neither smiling nor crying. How many days had it been since I was possessed? I was being crushed as lightly as a bug by the irrational reality of this world.
Actually, during those few days, I hadn’t just obediently begged without thinking. Why else would the manager have singled me out and kicked me? There were many other kids besides me who couldn’t earn a single penny. At first, I couldn’t accept my situation and tried to resist, and tried to escape several times.
What he did was suppress my spirit and trample me so I could never stand up again. I pretended to be fine, but it was miserable.
The woman looked down at me for a long time, then grabbed my collar with one hand and lifted me up.
“Wow, is this a person or a kitten? Why are you so light? You need to eat some food.”
Isn’t it that your strength is strong…? Even though I’m skinny and small, I’m still a person. No matter what, it doesn’t seem right to be able to lift me with one hand…
“Hey you! What’s this!”
Seeing the woman touching me, the manager came running like a shot. He seemed to have left, but he must have been watching from nearby.
I dangled from the woman’s hand and quietly observed the situation. However it turned out, my will was unnecessary in this situation. Right now, I was in a state where my right to assert my freedom had been stripped away. Ha, I miss democracy…
At the same time, I secretly wanted to see the woman snap at the manager.
“I like this one. How much?”
“Huh? What?”
Without waiting for the man’s answer, the woman took out a pouch from her bosom and threw it. Clink. From the pouch that hit the manager’s body and fell, the sound of coins clinking could be heard. It seemed to be a money pouch.
I opened my eyes wide in surprise at the sight.
“Is this enough?”
“…”
The manager checked the money in the pouch and his eyes changed. At that moment, I could tell what would become of my situation. I had been sold to that woman.
A person selling a person. That’s not a normal thing. People are independent beings and have the right to be guaranteed freedom. But I’m living in a novel right now. And it’s not so strange for slaves to appear in novels.
However, the reason my heart was pounding hard wasn’t simply because of the shock of being sold for money. Nor was it because I witnessed an absurd scene.
“…Interesting.”
“What?”
Right. It was interesting. That a person was being sold to another person. That my worth was only enough to be traded for the money in that leather pouch. That I might not just be flowing along as an extra, but might be recorded in an incident that appears in the novel.
I felt my lips, unable to contain themselves, smiling rapturously. The giggling laughter wouldn’t stop, as if wind had entered my lungs. Ah, as expected, being in a novel is fun.
“What did you say your name was?”
“Jack.”
“Surname?”
“I don’t know.”
The woman looked me over this way and that, as if evaluating purchased goods, as I giggled. In those eyes dwelled an inexplicable expectation.
“My name is Rose Mitori. I’m the owner of the place you’ll be going to.”
“…Where is the place I’ll be going?”
Rose tucked me under her arm like carrying luggage and strode forward. The entrance of the alley leading to the main street was so bright with sunlight that it was dazzling. As I frowned from the stinging light, Rose answered nonchalantly.
“The information guild Arbor.”
* * *
Carried by Rose’s hand to Arbor, I was able to enjoy a life on a completely different level from my beggar days.
I learned after arriving at the guild that Rose periodically picked up and cared for children with nowhere to go. She didn’t adopt them. She seemed to protect them as a concept like a patron. She was like Daddy Long Legs.
Then would my name now become Jack Abbott? Well, I didn’t properly remember my name anyway, and I wasn’t being adopted by Rose, so my name was just Jack, that was all. Though there weren’t many people without surnames in this world, it wasn’t strange either, so it was fine.
‘I’m raising people in advance. How do I know if there’ll be a jackpot among them?’
When I asked Rose why she picked up children, she answered plainly. It was a practical reason.
Would an ordinary child have been disappointed by that answer? Since I wasn’t an ordinary child, I didn’t think much of it. Rather, I didn’t really understand why ordinary me caught Rose’s eye.
I was probably just lucky. This is a world where you can buy people with money in the first place. I can’t impose modern society’s morals.
After joining the guild, after receiving basic education and being able to function properly as a person, I was deployed on missions as a guild member and started working. If I wanted, I could receive more education, but sadly, I wasn’t the type who liked studying that much.
Since I wanted to earn money quickly, I entered at the bottom level. Since most other children also wanted to earn money, it was common, and I was quickly deployed too. The children given to Rose were generally driven by reality and wanted to become independent as quickly as possible.
My inner thought was what work could a small child do, but that was a stupid thought. The age at which labor began in this world was very young, and at the same time, a young age could be a sufficient weapon. I don’t know about other places, but the work of the information guild was to gather information.
People usually let their guard down around young children. Because they’re weaker beings than themselves, there’s no need to be on guard. Naturally their mouths become loose and they easily leak secrets they’ve been hiding without realizing it. Add alcohol to that and it’s icing on the cake.
That’s why the guild operated several taverns. Among them were places that could be called decadent establishments. At first I was worried about what if I had to work in such a place, but fortunately Rose didn’t deploy kids to those places.
The tavern where I worked was attached to an inn and was a fairly wholesome place that operated from lunch. In fact, during the day it was closer to a restaurant than a tavern.
I usually worked from lunch until afternoon. A few times a month I’d work from night until dawn, but that was rare. And the information during those time periods was quite amazing.
