Chapter 62

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"Watch your step."

Entering the dimly lit building, the boy led the way to his brother.

Climbing the stairs, they carefully avoided the creaking floorboards as they made their way to the upper floors.

"If he's injured, he could have stayed on the first floor."

Georg muttered in confusion.

"On the first floor, it gets too dark at night. The top floor has a partially collapsed roof, so it's a bit brighter."

While thinking about the situation, the three brothers followed the boy.

The stairs were made of the same bricks as the walls, but the wooden floors on each level were rotten in places and had holes. They carefully followed the boy's footsteps.

"Big brother, we're coming in."

At the entrance of the room on the second floor, just before the top floor, the boy called out.

"……………"

There was no response, but the boy entered the room without hesitation, and the others followed. Inside, it was slightly brighter than the lower floors. A hole in the middle of the roof revealed the twilight sky.

A man lay motionless, seemingly asleep.

Emma ran to the man and began checking his injuries.

"Hey, be careful! If you move too much, you might fall through the floor!"

While warning Emma, the boy and Georg, and William approached.

The man remained still, even as Emma touched him.

"Until yesterday, he was talking fine and could walk here on his own..."

The boy had wrapped the man's leg with a dirty cloth to stop the bleeding, but it wasn't working well, and the cloth was starting to turn red.

Emma carefully removed the cloth to examine the wound.

"……"

"…………"

"…………"

The three brothers exchanged glances. This was...

"What the hell is going on! Is he okay!?"

Reaching out to the man's leg, Emma checked further and reported to the boy.

"It's not that bad. No bones are broken."

There was bleeding, but if the wound was cleaned properly and didn't get infected, it should heal quickly. It wasn't a serious injury that would make the boy cry.

"But why is big brother like this..."

The confused boy looked at the motionless man and sought an answer from Emma. The four of them surrounded the man, but he didn't move even as his injuries were being checked.

Emma, not being an expert, hesitated before speaking.

"Probably... he's hungry?"

The man's legs were thin, and his skin was dry, clearly showing signs of malnutrition.

When you're hungry, you lose strength. Emma knew this.

The bleeding and possible dehydration from this state could be contributing factors.

"When was the last time this man ate?"

William asked, and the boy thought for a moment.

"Um... the last food distribution was yesterday at noon, but big brother always eats last. Since there wasn't enough for everyone yesterday, he didn't eat. The previous distribution was a week ago, and there were no extra biscuits or anything..."

Worst case, he might not have eaten anything for a week.

"The lack of food is a bigger problem than the injury!"

William shouted in frustration.

"Also, big brother often gives away any nuts he finds to other kids and doesn't eat his full share of the food distribution."

For a grown man, that wasn't nearly enough. It was surprising he had survived this long.

The slums were supposed to be more brutal, but to find such a caring man was unexpected.

"Anyway, what we need now..."

They discussed while checking the contents of their wallets.

First, they were worried about dehydration...

"Water... salt... and sugar?"

"Salt and sugar are expensive!"

The boy lamented.

"Don't worry, we don't need much... probably? We can buy a small amount of each for a copper coin and use the rest to buy some easy-to-digest food... something like porridge... or oatmeal? It should soften when cooked in milk, right?"

They didn't know the prices in the capital, but in the palace, salt was about one copper coin for 100g, and sugar was one copper coin for 50g.

"I'll go get them!" Georg took the wallets from the boy and William and ran off to buy the supplies.

Left behind, Emma and William began a discussion, drawing on their past memories.

"William, what's the salt concentration in Pocari Sweat...?"

"Eh? I don't know?"

"I remember seeing it somewhere, but what was it? It was sweet, so I also asked for sugar... do you remember?"

"Eh? I don't know? Try to remember!"

"Pai-tai is useless..."

"No, no, no! How can I remember that suddenly!"

"Probably thinner than seawater... I think it was less than a teaspoon... but I can't remember at all!"

"All I remember is that the skin is slightly acidic..."

"Bi○le, right!"

They continued their unproductive conversation until Georg returned with several bottles of water, salt, and sugar. He had run with the boy on his back and returned with the supplies surprisingly quickly.

"I brought the water for dehydration first. I bought the other things too, but I gave them to the boy to carry, so he should be here soon."

Saying this, he quickly opened a bottle and added salt and sugar.

"Ah!!"

Georg's movements stopped as Emma and William shouted.

"What? Did I do something wrong?"

"Brother... what about the salt concentration?"

William asked hesitantly. They hadn't come to a conclusion, but they were surprised by how casually Georg had added the salt and sugar.

"For 1L of water, 2-3g of salt and 20-40g of sugar. I remember this from when a worker fainted from heatstroke at a construction site. I looked it up then. Is that wrong?"

"Brother... you're the best..."

They were impressed by their former site supervisor brother, who seemed to have such knowledge.

Georg, reminiscing about the day there was no vending machine at the site, didn't notice the admiring looks from his sister and brother.

While William slowly fed the man small spoonfuls of the makeshift oral rehydration solution, Georg and Emma carefully cleaned the wound.

"Before the boy comes... Violet, please!"

Removing her large hat, Emma gently placed the spider on the floor. Even in the dim room, the spider's eight round, sparkling eyes glowed beautifully, a lovely purple.

As she had done for Emma before, the spider directed its purple threads toward the man's wound.

"Thank you, Violet."

When Emma thanked her, Violet moved its legs, signaling that it would help again anytime. What a brave spider, even though it's female.

Violet then climbed up Emma's arm and into her hat just as the boy returned.

"How's big brother?"

Behind the boy, a group of even smaller children appeared.

"These are the kids from around the slums... they followed me..."

The children ran worriedly to the man lying on the floor, making the others nervous about the floor's stability.

"He's okay. We've treated the wound, and he's drinking water. We'll make some food when he wakes up."

Emma reassured the boy while taking the oatmeal and milk from him.

She asked if they had a pot, and the boy brought a large pot and a ladle from the back room.

"There was one left over from a food distribution. I kept it, but I never used it because I didn't have anything to put in it."

"Hmm? So, you can't cook here?"

While oatmeal could be eaten with milk, it would be better warm.

"Sister, what about that?"

William pointed to a fireplace.

It seemed safe to use fire there, and they could use the fallen bricks to create a place to put the pot.

"Then, we need some wood... we can use the floorboards. It's about time the lights come on in the commoners' district, so I'll go get some fire."

Georg cheerfully left the room and descended the stairs.

In the capital, torches were lit on major roads at night for people returning from work. Commoners would take fire from these torches for cooking, as Georg had learned from the shopkeeper.

"Brother's survival skills... are amazing."

Having been taken hunting in the palace, Georg's ability to secure fire and water for camping was perfect.

"If he studied a bit more..."

The Tanaka family was always a bit disappointing.

There was no way the three brothers could leave the dark room, the unconscious injured man, and the small children.

Though their bodies were those of children, their minds were in their forties and thirties, and they couldn't just leave them.