Raising the Princess to Overcome Death-Chapter 20: The Beggar Siblings - Interview

Raising the Princess to Overcome Death-Chapter 20: The Beggar Siblings - Interview

20. The Beggar Siblings - Interview
Evening twilight settled over the city.
Leo wandered through the alleys, fidgeting with a silver coin as if he were playing with it.
'Gotcha.'
Those who coveted the silver coin held by a scrawny beggar, the idle ruffians, followed him.
Thanks to the {Rules of the Backstreets}, he knew a bit about the world of the back alleys.
Gangsters weren’t interested in such trivial matters and worked for the 'family.'
The families, who ruled the underworld, took charge of illegal businesses, mostly paying tribute to nobles and borrowing their names.
Families adhered to their own strict rules, so they rarely harmed ordinary people.
Of course, kidnapped slaves were an exception. They weren't ordinary people; they were goods.
On the other hand, ruffians were the slackers who couldn't get into the family.
They were troublemakers who threatened ordinary people for money and were destined to get beaten by the city's guards.
Leo, pretending to be clueless, found a dead-end alley. As he turned back, feigning to be lost, three ruffians blocked his way, grinning slyly.
"Just go in. Be nice and quiet."
"The beggar boy looks quite decent, huh? Must be getting a lot of alms."
He went all the way to the end of the dead end without resisting.
He had no weapons.
But Leo had trained to death in the engagement scenario and had rolled through a few months of brutal battlefields. Three ruffians didn’t even require {Swordsmanship}.
"You look like you have some money... Ack!"
He elbowed the armpit next to the nipple of the guy who approached carelessly, exposing his vital points.
Leo's body was so frail that his wrist might break if he punched. He had to be careful.
"What the... Bleh!"
He kicked the face of the guy behind, who hadn't grasped the situation, then ran and blocked the entrance of the alley to prevent escape.
"You damn beggar!"
The last one hastily drew a small dagger and thrust it.
He didn’t know how to use a dagger.
A dagger wasn’t meant for stabbing in a confrontation.
With a reach shorter than a span, it was foolish to use it for stabbing.
A dagger was a weapon that shone when used to slash an opponent’s arm in a confrontation or to hack at each other when close.
But this guy was obsessed with stabbing.
Leo pushed away the thrusting arm with his forearm, dug into his chest, and smacked the guy’s chin with his palm.
While his head was reeling, Leo grabbed the hand holding the dagger and struck down hard on the wrist with a knife-hand ─ clang, the dagger fell.
"Thanks. I needed a weapon."
When Leo shoved the guy who lost the dagger hard, he crashed into the one still staggering from being hit in the vital point, and they fell over with a thud.
Leo picked up the dagger.
The guy who got kicked stood up, on guard, but they were as good as dead now.
[ Achievement: Cleaning the Back Alleys - Stronger in Dark Alleys. ]
Leo leisurely walked out of the alley.
He earned two daggers and about a dozen silver coins, a tidy profit for a bit of work.
He headed towards the market.
He didn’t plan to keep earning money by beating up ruffians. It would get old soon.
To survive in the world of back alleys, he had to join a family.
The only skill he could use right now was {Swordsmanship}. He couldn’t leave the city because of Lena, so the only job that involved using a sword and made money was being a gangster.
He had considered joining Orville's city guard, but they were soldiers who could be dispatched anywhere, and it didn’t pay well.
Leo found a carriage rental shop. It was a place where you could rent a two-seater carriage in the city.
As it was almost closing time, a young man who was tidying up the rental shop window waved his hand dismissively when he saw a beggar approaching.
"This isn’t a place for beggars. Go away."
But the beggar suddenly drew a dagger and pointed it at him.
"W-what are you doing? Who sent you?"
He asked in panic, but the beggar didn't put the dagger away. The young man looked back and forth between the extended dagger and the beggar before stepping on a cord under his chair.
When Lena was kidnapped in the past childhood friend scenario, it wasn’t by chance that Leo was dragged to the stables.
To smuggle illegal goods in and out of the castle, the families owned carriage rental shops.
It could be said that almost every carriage rental shop in the city was run by the families.
Soon, a burly man burst through the rental shop door.
"What’s with this beggar?"
"I don’t know. He just came and pointed a weapon at me out of the blue."
"Is this some new begging tactic? If you don’t put that knife away, it’s going to hurt."
The gangster glared threateningly, but the beggar, or rather, Leo, drew another dagger and held it up along with his blood-stained clothes.
"I caught three ruffians in an alley near the west of the market. This should be enough as an initiation, right?"
"…What nonsense are you spouting? Get lost with your gibberish."
"I’ll come back tomorrow. Check it out then."
There were various ways for the families to recruit people.
They would hire someone introduced after quitting mercenary work, pick out a useful ruffian, or lure a reliable and somewhat strong ordinary person.
Leo’s method was the most extreme and unusual.
Proving his strength and bloody hands. It was the quickest way to get into a family.
Of course, there was a downside.
Since he wasn’t directly brought in by the family, it would take quite a while to earn trust and he would be treated as an outsider.
Leo had no other choice.
Short and frail, he had to take the initiative to get noticed by the family.
Leo turned away, leaving the young man and the gangster behind.
‘I was planning to buy some clothes... I guess they’re all closed now.’
Darkness had already fallen. It took too long to bait the ruffians and find the carriage rental shop.
He had no choice but to return to the shoe store.
Cassia wasn’t there.
Perhaps because he had shown a lot of money when they first met, or maybe it was her unique personality, Cassia had left the money box on the table and disappeared.
Leo took off his shirt before Lena saw him.
He had dusted himself off and shook it a few times before coming, but there might still be bloodstains that she could notice.
“Lena, are you inside?”
“Brother! Why are you so late!”
His sister threw open the door and welcomed him.
“It took some time to find a job.”
“But why are you undressing?”
“I got hot from walking.”
“That must have been tough...”
“No, not at all. It wasn’t tough at all.”
The two sat down and chatted.
In this scenario, Lena was rather quiet.
When Leo spoke, Lena would just listen quietly. Occasionally, she would agree with a nod, but she rarely talked about herself. Even when persistently asked what she did today, she would simply say,
"I just stayed in the room."
Maybe she really didn’t do anything. Tomorrow, I must buy her some clothes and something to play with. I need to find a teacher too...
The siblings fell asleep side by side on the narrow bed.
For Lena, it was a warm bed she had longed for in a long time.
---
Leo woke up abruptly to a noise outside.
It was dawn.
"Good morning."
"Good morning."
Cassia had bought a new water container and was placing it inside. The water cart outside creaked as it disappeared from view.
"You're up early."
Though morning was slowly breaking, it was still quite dim outside.
"Sorry, but I'm going to wash up now. You can watch if you want, but could you step outside?"
"Sure."
From outside, the sound of Cassia washing could be heard.
She seemed to like cleanliness, taking a long time to wash.
Lena was still in dreamland.
Feeling guilty about waking his soundly sleeping sister, Leo gently patted her head and stepped outside.
"I’m going out now."
"Okay."
"If Lena wakes up, can you tell her I went out to work?"
"Sure."
"...Thank you."
Leo set out to find a teacher first. In Orville, there were many teachers because of the large population, most of whom ran private academies and accepted students.
Since there was no free public education here, you had to pay tuition if you wanted to study.
However, the teachers inside the castle taught the children of nobles or wealthy families, so the tuition fees were not cheap.
‘I guess a teacher outside the castle would be less expensive?’
Before heading out of the castle, Leo first went to the market. He brought the dagger with him because he couldn’t leave it in Lena's room. To pass through the castle gate, he had to hide it somewhere.
Not knowing where to put it, he went to the sibling's house near the market. Upon arrival, he saw some people demolishing the house.
‘A place to stay for just one day, huh.’
If he hadn’t left early in the morning in the last scenario, he would have been beaten by the landlord.
The thought of ending up beaten to death by the landlord gave him chills. Staying with Cassia was indeed a good choice.
Leo hid the dagger behind a trash bin and bought a set of clothes from a shop near the southern gate.
He doubted a beggar could freely pass through the castle gate, and he couldn't go looking for a teacher dressed as a beggar.
Eventually, Leo came out to the market near the southern gate and started asking around.
"Excuse me. Do you know any teachers around here?"
"A teacher? Not sure, I don't have kids, so I wouldn't know."
"If you go over there..."
He met several teachers, but most he dismissed at a glance.
‘That person is too young.’
All the teachers were men. Leo was looking for an elderly teacher with good character who wouldn’t take advantage of Lena’s looks. Their teaching skills only needed to be decent.
He finally found a teacher who seemed to be in his sixties.
He barely managed to persuade the old man, who was reluctant to travel far for private lessons. Bringing a few books, the teacher arrived at the shoe shop and nodded in understanding.
"The young lady is indeed very beautiful. I understand why you insisted on bringing an old man like me."
He also eased Leo’s concerns.
"You don’t have to worry; I won’t speak about this young lady anywhere. I’ll come twice a week for lessons."
Leo gladly paid for the books and the tuition fee.
Most of his {Initial Funds} went to the books, but he wouldn’t have to worry about Lena for a while.
Cassia, who seemed uninterested in everything, also found the teacher intriguing and stayed nearby.
"You're a good brother."
She seemed quite impressed that he brought a teacher.
"I'm going out again."
"Did you find a job?"
"Probably."
Leaving the fascinated Lena behind, Leo went out again.
It was time to get the family's response.
---
"Wait a moment."
When Leo arrived at the carriage rental shop with his dagger, the young man from before quickly went inside and brought out a gangster.
"What the heck? I expected someone impressive, but you’re just a stick?"
It wasn’t the gangster from yesterday.
"Come inside."
The gangster led Leo past rows of carriages to a small building.
Inside, it was neatly organized but barren of any notable furniture, and the smell of manure lingered.
"Boss, I brought the guy from yesterday."
"Come in."
Inside the room, the boss was sitting at a desk.
His bald head looked like bulging muscles, and despite his appearance, he seemed to have some brains, as the desk was piled with documents.
He twitched his face as he looked at Leo.
"I heard about you, but you really are small."
"......"
"Well, nice to meet you. If you killed three ruffians with that body, you must be pretty skilled."
"It's a modest skill."
"We’ll see about that."
He grinned, showing his teeth. The scar on his twitching chin was intimidating.
"Is the dagger your main weapon?"
"I’m better with a two-handed sword."
"Oh my. Were you a noble's child?"
"......"
"Follow me. We need to test your skills first."
He grabbed a lantern and led Leo to the stable. As the lantern's light passed, the horses snorted and turned their heads, and the loafing gangsters on the straw mats sprang up.
"I knew you’d be here."
"Sorry!"
The gangsters bowed their heads at a ninety-degree angle.
"Enough. I’m not here to scold you. A new recruit is here. Let’s see... Daol, you spar with him. Someone bring two wooden swords. One should be a two-hander."
"Yes!"
Soon, Leo was holding a two-handed wooden sword.
The gangster named Daol grabbed a one-handed sword and his own shield.
The surroundings were quite bright with lanterns hanging from pillars, and the ground was slightly damp, making the straw underfoot soggy.
"Go hard. Start."
The boss sat on a straw bale. Some gangsters, hearing about the spar, gathered and blocked the way.
If Leo lost, he wouldn’t leave unscathed.
The burly gangster, Daol, looked down at Leo menacingly.
The difference in height was two heads, and in weight, Daol seemed nearly three times heavier. It was a fight someone might call a match between David and Goliath.
And they would agree.
Because David always wins.

Chapter 20: The Beggar Siblings - Interview