Chapter 20

 

At Loyar’s announcement, a sloppy but strong looking guy, who probably was the second-in-command here, chimed in.

“Big sis, where should we put ‘im?”

“Oh, don’t make him do anything.”

Loyar shook her head.

“I’m gonna sent him to Temple.”

At those words, the beggars made rather strange expressions.

“Did ya eat something wrong?”

“Huh?”

One of the beggars who said something along those lines slightly shrank back, when Loyar raised one of her eyebrows as if they were talking bullshit.

“No, why didja suddenly accept dis kid when you stubbornly refused to let any in before, cause they dun even know anythin? And Temple?”

There certainly weren’t any children my age in Loyar’s beggar group. Teenagers who derailed and ran away from home definitely were as hard to control as rabid dogs. So, it was quite natural that they asked something like that. Loyar shook her head.

“This guy’s our future.”

It felt weird suddenly becoming a bunch of beggars’ future.

Maybe I’ve actually become the future of these guys to a certain extent.

Everyone’s expressions showed more and more confusion. Loyar looked at the beggars, who were thoroughly dumbfounded and placed her hands on her hips.

The King of Beggars began her speech.

“As y’all know, we have nothing and we don’t know anything. Ain’t that right? Some of ya keep talking about the good old times where y’all were great, but look at ya now? Left to rot in some gutter. That’s why we got together like this. So that the ones who don’t exist can also live their lives.”

“But how long d’ya plan to live like that? I don’t care if it just were me, but you guys don’t want to live like this, right? Ya want to get out of this life, right?”

“But, it’s too late for us to learn anything new. So through our power…. Our, money. Yes, using our capital, we will nurture talented people who’d be responsible for this gang’s future.”

Thinking what she said was quite plausible, Loyar seemed content. Somehow, this is the first time I’ve witnessed such charisma in any of my lives.

I instructed Loyar to briefly explain this as a strategy to nurture talent for the future of the gang and to first heavily focus their capital into one talent with the goal of optimizing the situation of all the beggars here.

One of the beggars titlted their head at Loyar’s proud declaration.

“Big sis, I dun think sending some guys to Temple would suddenly make us sleep on feather cushions, though?”

A valid concern.

Of course, Eleris and I came up with a lot of excuses to deal with this situation.

“If I say it’s like that, then it is like that. You bastards!”

However, Loyar just shouted at them, not tolerating any protests.

“If that’s what the boss said.”

“I guess you’re right.”

And everyone accepted that one sentence rather than millions of excuses.

That was a boss for you.

However, would it be worse to be found out to be a demon or the heir of a beggar organization?

Aren’t they both pretty dog-like existences?

*             *             *

Strictly speaking, Loyar’s words weren’t just cheap excuses. Everyone was just convinced by the feeling that whatever Loyar told them, they had to do. It was that kind of attitude. Perhaps, this wasn’t the first time that Loyar made them do something absurd.

Loyar took me to a rather big shack, and brought someone else with her.

A man of strong stature. He was the one who looked like the second-in-command from earlier. Loyar introduced me to this man.

Since Loyar was the boss around here, he promised me to treat me comfortably.

“Say hi to each other. This is our gang’s future. Reinhardt. Reinhardt, this is my most trusted younger brother, so you can trust him, too. His name is Daibun.”

“Nice to meet you, Reinhardt, I’m Daibun.”

He was the younger brother favored by a Lycanthrope.

Was this a friendship that transcended race? It wasn’t even 1%, it was friendship with a few decimal places between them. (T/N: as in their positions)

“I’m Reinhardt.”

I shook hands with him. His hand was as large as a pot lid. Rather than a beggar, he looked more like a retired soldier in a slightly shabby outfit. He gave of a rugged impression.

Perhaps because he trusted Loyar just that much, but he didn’t question or ask anything about this stranger that appeared out of nowhere she suddenly offered to send to Temple.

“Take ‘im to get an ID tomorrow. If you got time, swing by Temple.”

“Yes, big sis.”

The three of us just sat around for now. It was messy, but it was worlds apart from that hallway inside the Demon King’s Castle littered with corpses. This place was only dirty, so this was a literal heaven compared to that.

I thought about the worst case scenario and affirmed my present situation. Although it was a bit uncomfortable, it could be worse. Then Daibun spoke up hesitantly as he looked at Loyar.

“Big sis, what are you gonna do about the tuition? I’m not really sure, but ain’t Temple for noble children? I heard it costs a lot of money.”

It was a problem we were already aware of. We made the decision I’d go, but didn’t even have a way to solve the most important problem. It wasn’t about getting detected, but getting enough money.

For that reason, there were doubts whether it would be possible for Loyar to continue paying tuition for Temple.

The Gardias Temple was the most famous educational institution on the continent. Not only members of the Empire but also members of leading families from all over the continent often came to study abroad there.

Because of that the tuition was extremely high. The Temple itself was an educational institute, but it was also the place that gave the Empire the most revenue. Just by getting admitted to Temple one would be able to build connections with a lot of influential people. Nobles didn’t hesitate to pay a lot of money just to send their children to Temple.

However, it was doubtful that this beggars’ organization could admit me to Temple and continue to support me by paying that sinfully high tuition fee. I already had a contingency plan though.

Temple’s tuition fee varied depending on the grade and major, however, ordinary students required to pay 50 gold per semester. About 50 million won. That was equivalent to 100 million a year. In addition, tuition wildly varied depending on the major.

‘First of all, you only have to provide the tuition fee for a certain period of time.’

‘Are you thinking of going for a scholarship?’

Of course, I probably was smarter than the average kid, but honestly, there were definitely plenty of kids smarter than me in that place.

However, that wasn’t what was important.

‘The Empire wants a second and third Artorius. So what if one definitely had the talent, but didn’t have the money to get an education at Temple? In that case, the tuition will be waived!’

It sounded like I was guessing, but that’s what would happen. Students with outstanding talents, but with limited financial power, were specially managed within Temple. Of course, they wouldn’t make you pay the huge amount of tuition fees.

I was an Arcdemon. There should be something I could do.

‘Once I enter the school and get some education, I should be able to find something I’m talented in.’

After that tuition would be waived. This isn’t just nonsense as well, because I could make a talent bloom with my achievement points. It might not be possible at the moment, but there were plenty of ways to get achievement points if I started sticking close to the main story.

Everyone nodded to this as if it was quite plausible.

Before I was forced to go to Temple, I did say that I wanted to live a comfortable life, but if I had to go anyway, any thoughts about that went right out of the window. I had to become stronger, whether I liked it or not.

So, it was important to gather enough money to attend the first semester. From that point on, I’d get woven inside the main story, collect achievement points and develop my talents.

That was my goal now.

“Can we even do that with our earnings?”

“I don’t really know, but…… probably not.”

Loyar wasn’t particularly sharp.

Daibun hesitated before he opened his mouth.

“Well, how ‘bout if we cut down on what big sis is taking from the gang’s finances……?”

The money Sarkegaar spend on his aristocratic life. Perhaps Loyar didn’t disclose what she used the money she was taking away for. If we do as Daibun said we’d be able to save up enough money for me to go to Temple.

However, Loyar firmly shook her head.

“Didn’t I say I had to use it to prevent crap from happening?”

“Yes…. You did.”

Loyar seemed to have told them that she uses the money to bribe the guards, explaining why her gang wasn’t cracked down on even though they were the way they were. Of course, I didn’t know if she really did that or not.

Well, Sarkegaar was a noble after all. He probably used his power to prevent this side from getting affected by anything. Either way, neither Loyar nor I could give up the support given to Sarkegaar.

Daibun sighed.

“These days our revenue is decreasing. Big sis, no one is getting close to Bronzegate Bridge anymore.”

There were rumors spreading that this place housed solicitors. For a long time now, people in the know didn’t come close to this place. As such, the revenue was gradually decreasing. That was only natural.

“This is a serious problem….”

It seemed like Loyar only realized at that moment that things weren’t going as planned. Then she glanced at me, as if telling me to do something.

Yes, I was waiting for my turn to speak.

“Uhm…. How about we think about this a bit differently?”

“Huh? Differently?”

Daibun furrowed his brows as if what I said was strange.

No, these people just didn’t have enough sense to improve themselves. The answer was actually quite simple.

“If the customers are avoiding us, we just have find them ourselves.”

That was only natural. If one didn’t have customers, one had to find some. I got quite restless seeing that they didn’t even try to leave this place. It seemed like they were running around this area trying to sell their candy to people passing by. If one market was blocked, one should just open a new one.

Who’d help you if you just stayed on the ground saying you’re screwed?

“Find them? Do you mean to expand our power to other regions?”

“That’s right.”

“Do you have something in mind?”

“If you’ll sent them too far away, the kids might get exhausted too quickly.”

Daibun seemed to think it would be difficult to realize because they had to walk long distances to expand our power.

“No, this’ll make things more comfortable.”

“Comfortable…?”

“Yes, they’d just have to go to one place. It’s a place with a lot of people coming and going with a huge flow of people, you know?”

As if wondering where such a dream-like place was located, Loyar and Daibun looked at me with dumbfounded expressions on their faces.

“The Mana Train.”

That place had the largest flow of people in the whole capital.

They’d evolve from simple solicitors to subway vendors.

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Both Daibun and Loyar were astonished by my idea that could be called revolutionary.

That was it.

That was how things should be done.