Chapter 61

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"Those buildings are connected."

Following the thread, the three brothers found themselves in an area lined with dilapidated, poorly maintained buildings that seemed likely to collapse at any moment.

"Please be safe, Monster Karuta..."

Georg looked at the building with a prayerful heart. It was a common brick structure in this country, with wooden doors and windows that had rotted away, leaving gaping holes. Even the roof had collapsed in places.

There's no need to knock... Emma thought casually, but the boy suddenly burst out, seemingly unaware of the invisible thread, and shouted angrily.

"Why isn't it a wallet?!"

The boy slammed what he was holding to the ground.

"What am I supposed to do now! If this continues, this continues..."

Seemingly unaware of the three brothers' presence, he crouched down and started crying. Georg, for his part, would have preferred if the boy had stolen a wallet, but the boy seemed to be in the middle of something and the atmosphere wasn't right to bring it up. William was also stunned by the sudden outburst.

Before long, the boy started hitting his head, muttering, "I'm such an idiot, such an idiot, such an idiot," as if holding a grand self-reflection session. Emma, with light steps, squatted in front of the boy, peered at his tear-streaked face, and spoke softly.

"Hey, can I have that Monster Karuta back?"

Completely oblivious to the atmosphere, that's Emma for you.

The object the boy had slammed to the ground was, without a doubt, the important Monster Karuta. It was fortunate it wasn't raining.

Startled by Emma's sudden appearance, the boy stepped back, trying to run away but was blocked by Georg and William.

"How did you know where to find me?!"

The boy hastily wiped away his tears.

"Bad deeds always get found out."

Georg carefully picked up the scattered Monster Karuta from the ground, counting them and sighing in relief.

"Good, they're all here."

He looked at the boy, genuinely relieved. This was the first time, including his past life, that he had been pickpocketed, and he hadn't even noticed until Emma mentioned it. If there was such a thing as skill in pickpocketing, this boy was definitely in the former category.

"What the hell! Who are you guys? Which slum are you from? Coming all the way here is a territory invasion!"

For a moment, the three brothers looked puzzled, not understanding what the boy meant.

"Even walking through the commoners' district, I can tell! No one around here wears such patched-up clothes. Only slum dwellers wear that kind of stuff."

The boy stood up forcefully, as if to say, "How about that? Surprised, huh?" The clothes the three brothers usually wore at home were apparently even more ragged than the commoners'.

Indeed, playing with cats often led to their claws catching and tearing clothes. The cats, being so large, made it both fun and destructive to play with four of them. In exchange for the fluffiness, their clothes often got damaged. Especially in the past six months, they had been practicing riding the cats, and there were days when they were thrown off dramatically.

Torn clothes were a waste, right?

They were only seen by the family and servants inside the mansion, right?

The Stewart family, long suffering from frugality, never thought of getting new clothes. They used leftover fabric from when Lady Rose's dresses were made, without matching patterns or colors, to patch their clothes.

The base fabric was made of Emma silk, so it was not cheap but of the highest quality.

"No, we're not from the slums..."

Thinking that the people around them might have mistaken the three brothers for slum children when they were saying something like, "This place is calming," made them feel uncomfortable. And this was the slum district...

"Alright, I won't ask any more... I'm sorry, I'll give it back, so please let me off."

The boy gave them a lukewarm smile, making them feel conflicted.

"Why were you crying?"

Emma, once again, asked a question that came to her mind without considering the atmosphere or context.

"I wasn't crying... but, now that I look closely, you have some bad scars? Did a noble do this to you? Does it hurt?"

The boy noticed Emma's scars and looked at her with concern. Even with a hat on, the scars were noticeable, though a bit faded, cruelly etched on her otherwise cute face. Perhaps her cuteness had worked against her. There were people who did terrible things, regardless of gender. The boy seemed older but still looked like a child. It was amazing he had survived with such injuries.

"Be careful on food distribution days. There are kind people, but there are also those who do terrible things. Especially someone like you, who looks weak and skinny, is an easy target."

The boy, having made a mistaken assumption, even gave them a warning.

Do nobles do terrible things to people in the slums? The three brothers, who were not well-versed in the capital's affairs, tilted their heads in confusion. They thought food distribution was a volunteer activity. Was it not? The first thing that came to mind was that nobles were suspected of such things.

"Yesterday's food distribution... it was the worst week for the nobles. They tried to leave before everyone got their food! My older brother begged them, offering his prized treasure to feed everyone..."

Despite saying he wasn't crying earlier, the boy's eyes started to tear up. The three brothers were not familiar with the food distribution system, which was a duty for high-ranking nobles in the capital. Wasn't it supposed to feed everyone who gathered?

"Treasure?"

Emma reacted quickly to the word "treasure," her eyes gleaming. What kind of treasure could there be in the slums? If it was money, they would use it themselves, and if it was food, they wouldn't need to wait in line for food distribution.

"They took the treasure and left!"

The boy clenched his teeth and was trembling with anger.

"Isn't that... theft?"

Not just as a noble, but as a human being, this was a serious issue. And what kind of treasure could the nobles take?

"Worse than theft, when my brother tried to stop the fleeing carriage... he was... run over by the carriage..."

Finally, the boy started sobbing. Do nobles get away with such things?

The three brothers, who only knew a Japan without a class system and a borderland where people had to cooperate to survive, were shocked.

"What about your brother?"

Emma's question made the boy's crying louder. Gently patting his back until he calmed down, he continued, hesitantly.

"He's been... unconscious. Limp, and the blood wouldn't stop... So, I was trying to buy medicine..."

He had resorted to pickpocketing.

The boy had his own desperate reasons.

"I stopped by a pharmacy on the way... but I realized I didn't have any money..."

The three brothers felt a bit sorry for him. They looked at each other and nodded in unison.

"We don't have much, but we have some money. Let's go to the pharmacy now."

Georg, deciding to let the pickpocketing incident slide, told the boy that they would help him. They couldn't just leave him like this.

The sun was setting, and it was getting to the time when their parents would start worrying, but since they were in their forties and thirties, they might be more understanding.

"Is that okay?"

The boy looked at them as if they were saviors. To think that these people, with more patched-up clothes than his own, would use their last bit of money to buy medicine for his brother... especially the girl with the scars on her face, who had patted his shoulder to calm him down, seemed like an angel.

"Um... let's go see your brother's injuries first? We need to prioritize what we need to buy."

The angel's smile made the boy's heart skip a beat, as if struck by Cupid's arrow.