Beggar Siblings - Quest
Irene and Leo were locked in a strange race, their distance ebbing and flowing.
Clang!
Enraged by Leo’s rat-like ability to evade her, Irene threw her sword.
He twisted his body out of the way. While she retrieved her weapon, he widened the distance between them once more.
Leo was only able to dodge her attacks and disappear down alleyways thanks to the power of his achievements.
[Achievement: One Knight - You become stronger when fighting knights.]
[Achievement: Back Alley Cleaning - You are stronger in the dark alleys.]
Achievements and scenario rewards were truly amazing. They were neither magic, yet they guaranteed absolute and certain effects.
The reward “Become stronger—” included not only an increase in strength against the target, but also improvements in agility and speed.
That’s why Leo could run faster whenever Irene got close, only to be caught up to when she fell back.
“Huff… huff…”
Of course, this chase was pushing Leo to his limits. If he were caught by that crazy bitch, there would be no room for conversation, only a swift death.
‘If only I had a sword!’
Leo regretted not bringing a weapon, but in truth, even with a sword, he would still have to run. Irene was as strong a knight as Katrina.
Taking advantage of the distance created when Irene threw her sword, Leo spotted a flower shop at the entrance to the marketplace and his eyes lit up.
Clatter!
He threw open the door to the flower shop. Soyi, who was watering her plants, jumped in surprise.
“Leo? What’s wrong? What happened?”
“Shhh! Be quiet. Stay quiet.”
Leo had thought to hide in the flower shop and let Irene run past. It was a foolish hope. While it was true that she’d lost sight of him for a moment, everyone near the entrance of the marketplace was now staring at the flower shop.
Following their gaze, she stormed into the shop.
“Damn it!” Leo cursed and fled through the back door.
“Eek!”
Soyi, terrified by the sudden appearance of the knight, screamed and crouched down, covering her head with her arms.
“You little bastard!” Irene shouted, smashing aside the inconveniently placed flowerpots as she pursued Leo.
‘A sword! I need a sword!’
Leo ran towards the Family mansion.
He needed a weapon, and he needed to gather the gangsters to stop that crazy knight.
But even that wouldn’t be the end of his troubles. Now that his identity as a prince had been revealed… who knows what would happen. He had to do something.
The necklace around Leo’s neck had finally brought disaster upon them. He thought he would be safe in another kingdom, but that was a fatal miscalculation.
To think there would be someone who could recognize them at a glance…
Moreover, Baron Gustav Peter had clearly said “our” Conrad Kingdom.
Was he some kind of spy?
But that seemed too large-scale for a mere spy. He was well-positioned between the Swordmaster faction and the Royal faction, and he was a close friend of the marquis. Who knew what other connections he might have?
This meant that it would be very difficult to make his sister, Lena, a princess in the Bellita Kingdom.
To make her a princess, she would have to set foot in aristocratic society, and then she would surely be caught in Peter’s sight.
And even if he did spot them, they needed someone to protect them if Lena was to become a princess safely.
‘But the marquis didn't protect us…’
Why? When Leo had spoken to the marquis and they had agreed that the siblings would become his adopted children, the atmosphere had not been bad.
The marquis needed a new son, after all.
However, as time passed, Marquis Benard Tatian concluded that Leo was not fit to be his heir.
At first, he was impressed by his strange aura and the boldness with which he negotiated, even in front of him. But as his adopted son, Leo had shown himself to be inadequate.
The life of a nobleman was not simply about lying comfortably on a pile of wealth. At least, that’s what the marquis believed.
Perhaps if Leo had continued to show good qualities, Marquis Tatian might not have turned them away, even if he had known they were the runaway prince and princess.
The House of Yeriel was no match for him.
Unaware of all this, Leo cursed his decision to go to the marquis, cursed Minseo’s spirit, and ran to the Leather District.
Arriving at the district, he took out his whistle and blew.
This was the territory of the Rauno Family, and gangsters were stationed everywhere.
Leo planned to join forces with them to defeat that ‘crazy bitch’ and then figure out his next move.
But even though he blew the whistle with all his might— *peep! peep!*—no one came.
‘What’s going on?’
Even Ober wasn’t around. He should have been here at this hour…
With no time to ponder, Leo spat out the whistle and ran. Irene was closing in on him again.
The achievements could only take him so far. Leo’s physical abilities were no match for Irene’s.
Indeed, Irene, though sweating, was breathing steadily, while Leo was gasping for air, practically swallowing the dust on the ground.
With a terrifyingly contorted face, Irene closed the distance between them step by step.
Just then, someone intervened in their race.
* * *
Cassia, pushed away by Leo and left to face the night’s snow, was bedridden for weeks.
Lying in her shoe shop, the cold refusing to leave, she drifted between tears and sleep, Leo’s face imprinted on her mind.
‘Why did he push me away?’
Leo seemed like a devoted and warm-hearted person to his sister. But he had rejected her.
Not that they had spoken much. He had only spent one night at her shop before leaving for the Rauno Family.
Yet, he had shoved her away as if she were something unclean. Without a moment’s hesitation.
‘It must be because I’m a prostitute…’
As she lay ill, Cassia’s resentment towards Leo gradually morphed into self-loathing. Love for a woman who sells her body? She scoffed, mocking and berating herself.
And when she finally rose, she was a different person. She went straight to the brothel.
“...You’re quitting?”
“My contract ended. A long time ago.”
The brothel manager, Bretin Sauer, raised his steel-grey eyes to study Cassia carefully.
After weeks of unexplained absence, she returned with a newfound clarity in her eyes. And these were the first words out of her mouth.
Out of habit, he spoke the words meant to hold onto a departing woman.
“Cassia, did something happen?”
“Don’t! Don’t! Don’t you dare call me ‘Cassia’!”
Cassia’s anger erupted like a seizure.
Bretin, unfazed by her sharp cry, tapped his cheekbone thoughtfully.
‘She’s changed.’
Him calling her “Cassia” and her demanding he doesn’t, had been their little routine for years.
All this time, despite her protests, she had accepted the reality of her situation. Her words were merely complaints.
A small act of defiance, acknowledging her current life but never finding contentment in it.
But now, Cassia was vehemently rejecting the life she had lived.
Bretin recalled her past, how she had trembled when she first entered this place, begging for work.
Or was it me who had seduced her, a desperate woman who only wanted to save her sick father?
He couldn’t quite remember. Whatever it was, she had come here of her own volition.
Back then, Cassia was just another prostitute under his care. But after a particular incident, he felt a sliver of pity for her.
+ + +
Only a few months into the job, with nowhere else to turn, she had run to him, barefoot, pleading with him to bring down her father who had hung himself.
Curiosity piqued, Bretin Sauer followed her to her shoe shop, a gangster in tow.
A large man blocked their path on the way through the Leather District, but upon hearing Cassia’s plea, he joined them.
Following her into the small shop, they found a cramped room in the back, where an emaciated man hung from the low ceiling.
They could just cut him down. The ceiling was low anyway.
This girl probably thought her father would be hurt if they simply cut the rope.
Did she think a standing prick equated to being alive?
Thinking these thoughts, Bretin didn’t laugh at her.
While the gangster and the large man, Ober, took down the hanging corpse, Bretin held her close.
Poor thing.
Not that there was a shortage of tragic stories among the women working at the brothel…
At that moment, Bretin Sauer felt Cassia’s name being etched onto his icy heart.
+ + +
Looking at Cassia, huffing and puffing as she tried to calm her anger, Bretin realized the day to part with her had finally come.
“I’m sorry. From now on, no… Right. Alright.”
“You still owe me for the last time I worked. That’s what I’m here for, so hurry up and pay me.”
Cassia bluntly demanded her due.
Bretin Sauer picked up a few silver coins from his desk… then let them fall and picked up a gold coin instead, offering it to her.
“Here, take it.”
“What’s this? Just give me what I earned.”
“Severance pay. Take it.”
At his firm words, Cassia hesitated, fiddling with the gold coin for a moment before snorting. “Hmph!” She stood up abruptly.
“Fine. Goodbye.”
“......”
Bretin didn’t offer her the usual courtesy of pulling back her chair, nor did he open the door for her.
He simply remained seated, watching her.
Cassia, taken aback by his change in demeanor, thought, ‘Well, alright then,’ turned around, and made to leave.
Just then,
“Cassia.”
Bretin called out to her.
Cassia turned back, an irritated look on her face, “What now?”
He hesitated for a moment before continuing.
“...Don’t forget to take all your belongings from the waiting room.”
“I already packed them. I’m not a child.”
With that, she left.
‘How clumsy of me…’
Bretin regretted not wishing her well and turned back to his work.
Cassia, having received her ‘severance pay’ from the brothel, went straight to the marketplace and bought some leather and fabric.
Apart from ‘that job,’ she didn’t know how to do anything else. But she would never do ‘that’ again, so she had to figure out how to make a living.
Fortunately, she had watched her father make shoes since she was a child, so she knew the process.
Making shoes started with drawing a pattern on leather or fabric.
The pattern varied depending on the size, length, and style of the toe of the shoe. Once the pattern was drawn and cut out, the fabric or leather became the ‘upper,’ the outer part of the shoe.
The next step was to carve a wooden mold called a ‘last.’ This wooden piece, shaped like a shoe, was used to shape the upper, and it had to be carved with great care, considering many factors.
Cassia had a particularly hard time making these ‘lasts,’ but that was later. In the beginning, she used the ones her father had made long ago.
Once the upper was cut according to the pattern, it was placed on the last.
Stretching the upper to fit the shape of the wooden mold was quite a task.
It wasn’t simply a matter of placing the upper on the last, but rather a process of hammering in thin nails while pulling the upper taut with all her might.
Sweating profusely, Cassia finally covered the last completely with the upper. She then removed the upper from the last and stitched it together, stitch by stitch.
“Father did all this by himself…” she thought, gradually forgiving the man who had abandoned her in death.
After trimming the excess upper and attaching the sole, she finally had something that could be called a shoe.
Feeling a strange sense of accomplishment, Cassia brushed off the small scraps attached to the shoe and polished it with a series of rough and soft cloths.
It’s done.
But the first shoe she made was far from sellable. Perhaps due to improper stitching, it was twisted and wrinkled, and even Cassia herself took them off with dissatisfaction after trying them on.
She spent several nights observing the shoes her father had made.
Thus, Cassia spent her days productively, forgiving her father bit by bit.
On her way back from buying materials in the Leather District, she saw Leo.
He was running desperately in the distance, and he passed by without recognizing her.
[Achievement: Charmed Cassia - Gained minor Favorability with Cassia.]
The man who had pushed her away was still alive and well, and the thought shook her to her core.
That bad man.
Even if he rejected her, how could he push her away like that? He was a bad man. And a handsome one, who cared for his sister. No, that wasn’t it. He was a bad man.
She tried to shake off her lingering feelings, but it was like a thorn stuck in her heart.
Then, she saw a female knight, her face a mask of fury, chasing after that bad man with a drawn sword.
Just as I thought. Bad guys always get chased.
Thinking this, Cassia still found herself throwing herself at the knight. Why am I doing this?
“What the—? Let go, you crazy bitch!”
Irene, startled, tried to shake off the woman who had suddenly wrapped her arms around her neck from behind.
But the woman clung on like a demon, and Irene, enraged, was about to warn her to let go or die, but decided to just stab her instead.
Even as the sword pierced her abdomen, Cassia held on tight. Her eyes were fixed on Leo’s retreating figure.
“You little—!”
Seething, Irene came to a halt and adjusted her stance.
With a powerful stomp, she pivoted, slicing through Cassia’s neck.
A fountain of blood erupted, shimmering purple in the sunlight. The fabric and pieces of wood Cassia had been carrying fell to the ground along with her head.
Even in death, her gaze remained fixed on Leo.
[Achievement: The Man Cassia Protected with Her Life - Gained significant favorability with Cassia.]
[Quest: Cassia’s Life - Free Cassia from her misery.]
At that moment, a message popped up before Leo’s eyes as he ran.
This was the first quest he ever received.
glad cassia is getting a redemption arc
ReplyDeleteLeo's been playing the game wrong all this time.
ReplyDelete