Chapter 189: Chapter 190: Child Who Loses Little by Little (2)

Hina spoke in a small voice.“I want to dine and dash,” she said.What did she mean by that?It was a strange request, but I wanted to let Hina do as she pleased for the next two days, so I had no choice but to nod.

“Alright.”

However, Salome looked at her daughter Hina with an expression of incomprehension. They finally had time to spend together as a family, yet she simply wanted to dine and dash in the city.She was having a hard time understanding what Hina was thinking.Anyway.We headed into Freesia still a bit confused.As soon as they entered the city, Hina and Horohoro ran off somewhere as if they had been waiting to do so.

Maybe they wanted to go to a toy store?I heard they started selling magic wands that were very trendy among girls these days.However, Hina and Horohoro stopped in a back alley located in a remote part of the city. The road paving was damaged and there was a lot of trash lying around, as if the civil servants’ hands hadn’t reached here.

“It’s the same as before…!”

Hina raised both her hands in excitement.Horohoro then added, “It’s a backward place like before…!” and rejoiced.

I wonder why these children came here?

Squeak—!Then a sharp cry was heard.When I turned my head, Salome was stepping on the tail of a mouse crawling on the ground with her pointed shoe.

“A back alley where mice come out. Hina, is it really okay to come to a place like this when we finally have time together? If you walk around here, your new clothes will get dirty.”“Clothes….”

Hina looked down at her clothes.The pink robe she had bought recently was stylish enough to suit an outing.However, Hina frowned as if she didn’t like it.

“I remember…. Clothes…!”

Hina looked around and found a store.It resembled a general store, but tucked away in this back alley, it had a distinctly shady vibe. I’d seen my fair share of shops, and this one definitely fell on the shadier side.Then again, that’s par for the course in these rundown, out-of-the-way alleys far from the main streets.

“Welcome.”

As we entered the store, a middle-aged man with a bald head greeted us casually without taking his eyes off the newspaper.Inside the store, various old-looking secondhand items were on display, and at a glance it was a place that could be called a general store or miscellaneous goods store.

No, to be more precise, this is the kind of store that buys and sells ‘stolen goods’. It must be related to the underground thieves’ guild.

“What a shabby store. It smells musty too. Places that pile up unsold medicinal ingredients for a long time usually smell like this.”

Salome clicked her tongue.Although she said that, Salome’s eyes were shining like an antique hunter rubbing her palms in anticipation of finding valuable items after acquiring an old warehouse.

Rustle— Rustle—Then Hina took off the pink robe she was wearing.And she stood on her tiptoes and pushed the robe in front of the counter where the store owner was sitting.

Rustle—

“…I want to sell this.”“…Hmm? This looks like a new item? The outer layer is woven with Kabsir thread and the inner layer is lined with marten fur. It’s a good item, but…”

The store owner finally looked at Hina’s face. And he took a breath as if slightly surprised.Soon he opened his narrow eyes, opened a drawer to take out a pair of glasses, and looked at Hina more closely.

5 seconds, 10 seconds.Some more time passed in this strange silence─.

“…Pink hair. That’s unusual in Freesia. You’re a child I can’t forget. You came like this to sell a robe a few months ago in winter too, right? That robe was even better.”“Ung, ung…for 50,000 rene….”

To sell something even better than the robe Hina is wearing now for just 50,000 rene. It must have cost over a million when purchased.The bald fence soon looked at me and Salome standing behind Hina.As someone living in the world of back alleys, he recognized us and frowned, perhaps not slow on the news.

“You’re Judas, and this lady must be Queen Salome. What do you want? Do you want revenge for buying clothes cheaply from this child?”

What do we want?I don’t know either.I wanted to ask Hina too.But Hina’s will was firm.

“40,000 rene!”

Hina seemed to want to sell the pink clothes she was wearing for 40,000 rene. Of course, Salome was dumbfounded by this fact.

“Hey! That’s a luxury item we bought for 2 million rene yesterday when we went to the luxury district on 3rd Street together! How can you sell it for just 40,000 rene?! Even as a used item, you could get 1.5 million for something worn for just one day! If we go to a slightly shadier place, we could even get over 2 million…”

Salome, who was about to add something else, closed her mouth.Salome probably knew places where a coat worn by a cute child-like Hina could be sold for even more than the original price of 2 million rene.

But she probably didn’t want to sell her daughter’s clothes to such suspicious people.There was no need to worry about that in the first place anyway.

“40,000 rene!”

Hina’s determination to sell the clothes for 40,000 rene was intense.Hina was generally a quiet and passive child, but once she decided on something, she had a stubbornness that would never back down.In the end, the store owner accepted Hina’s pink robe and handed her a coin purse containing 30,000 rene.Frown.Hina asked with a frown.

“…40,000 rene!”“Yes, 40,000 rene. But this coin purse costs 10,000 rene. Wouldn’t it be difficult to carry around 40,000 rene in coins without a purse?”

The owner asked gruffly.It sounded very reasonable, but it was completely overpriced.The owner added.

“This isn’t just an ordinary coin purse. It’s made of desert bull leather, so it’s tough and knives don’t cut it easily. You don’t have to worry about pickpockets tearing it and it’s also quite large.”“Hmm….”“You also can’t see well from the outside what’s inside and it’s also good for wearing on your head when it snows or rains. How about it? Isn’t it worth 10,000 rene?”“Hey, uncle! There’s no need to give such an expensive purse in the first place, just a decent 500 rene bag would─”

Salome, who couldn’t stand listening anymore, frowned and took a step forward, but I grabbed Salome’s shoulder to stop her.

“Salome, wait a moment.”“Why? Hina is being robbed right in front of us!”

As a parent, of course you should protest in this situation. But what if Salome and I were here as ordinary thieves?We definitely wouldn’t have said a word.In the world of thieves, the basic rule was that ‘the one who gets fooled is at fault’.

There are some things you only learn by experiencing them firsthand.That’s how I learned from my thieving mentor.And my thieving mentor was Salome.

“Hina has now stepped into the cruel and vile back alleys. It seems like she wants to do something, so let’s just watch.”“……”

Salome looked confused, but ultimately sighed in resignation. After all, parents rarely win against their children’s determination.

# # #

We now just watched to see what Hina was really trying to do.Hina started slowly counting the coins in the purse one by one, but she frowned as if there was a problem.

“…28,000 rene!”

That’s right.The amount of coins in the purse was 28,000 rene, not 30,000 rene.At Hina’s exclamation, the store owner wiped the sweat flowing on his forehead with a handkerchief and put the missing 2,000 rene coins in Hina’s hand.

“I seem to have made a mistake in calculation. I’ve never been to school, so I’m not familiar with arithmetic. It wasn’t on purpose.”“Hmph!”

Only then did Hina snort disapprovingly, seemingly satisfied.Indeed, if she had stayed still, Hina would have lost 2,000 rene. When dealing with these back alley merchants, you always had to check if they gave you the correct change.

How do I know that?I wish I didn’t.It’s a world where you get hit on the back of the head and get your nose cut if you just sit still.

Anyway.Hina successfully acquired 30,000 rene.Just as she was about to leave the store, the owner said:

“Little miss, even though it’s summer, the nights in Freesia are cold. If you walk around like that, you’re likely to catch a cold. There are some cheap outer garments over there, why don’t you buy one?”

To say the summer nights are cold.It was nonsense.But…, when Hina first visited this store, it must have been the end of winter when spring was still hiding its face.

Indeed, it must have been cold then.Hina stopped her steps as she was about to leave the store and slowly looked around this old fence’s shop.And she looked at where old and dirty robes were hanging.None of the items had price tags on them.

“This one!”“That’s 500,000 rene.”“This…?”“That’s 330,000 rene.”

All the prices were expensive.It would be far from enough to buy with the 30,000 rene Hina had.

Swish—Finally, Hina picked up a tattered piece of cloth that looked like a rag. It was a children’s robe that looked like it would tear if the wind blew on it.

“That’s 20,000 rene.”

A rag-like piece that looked so feeble that you wouldn’t use it even if it was given for free was 20,000 rene.I thought it was expensive, but Hina put it on as if she liked it.

Now the rich daughter who came for a walk with her mom and dad was gone, and only a scruffy child who could appear in the London slums of Oliver Twist remained.

Rustle—The store owner then opened his newspaper as if he had lost interest in Hina.While he was reading the newspaper with a solemn face, Hina seemed to be looking around and headed to the food corner where dried jerky was hanging.Hina looked at the store owner again.The store owner was still reading the newspaper, as if he had lost interest in Hina.

Hina didn’t miss the chance and quickly put the displayed jerky into the purse she had bought for 10,000 rene.Her skills were quite good.

Rustle—When she heard the sound of the newspaper being turned again, Hina flinched slightly as if surprised and moved her steps.As if nothing had happened.

Then, Hina looked at the ‘tool’ display full of lockpicks and small daggers.Again, Hina glanced at the store owner before snatching a child-sized multi-purpose knife and slipping it into her coin purse.The coin purse was large and sturdy, so you couldn’t tell what was inside from the outside, so it looked fine even though she had put the pocket knife in.

Hina now moved even further and looked at something intently.It was a black cloth flag hanging on the wall of the store, indicating that this place was a member of the underground ‘Shadow Council’.

Crash—Soon Hina deliberately kicked over a nearby counter.The store owner, who was reading the newspaper, frowned and cursed “Damn brat!” before starting to pick up the fallen items.

Hina quickly put the black cloth into her purse while he was cleaning up the floor.This whole process was quite skillful and quick.As if repeating something she had done before.

“…Robe price!”

Soon Hina took out 20,000 rene coins from her purse.And she handed them to the store owner and quickly left the store.

“……”

Salome, who had been slightly irritated earlier, watched this process silently. The store owner, now finished tidying up the store, sat at the counter and slowly counted the coins he received from Hina.

“19,000 rene. It’s 1,000 rene short.”

The store owner clicked his tongue.I put my hand in my pocket and took out the gold coins I could grab.And I put them on the counter.

“I haven’t counted, but it should be about 10 million. This should be enough for the items and the flag the child just stole, right? Did you pretend not to notice even though you knew?”

The flag Hina stole was an expensive item.It was akin to a membership card for the ‘Shadow Council’.

Having that flag allows you to do various things and gives you various rights.Since it’s a black flag, the price would be about 10 million rene. Of course, it’s not something anyone can buy even if they have the money.The bald owner clicked his tongue.

“If it’s compensation, forget it. In the world of back alleys, the one who gets fooled is at fault. I was just fooled by the child’s cute appearance. That’s all.”

As he said that, the owner’s eyes were looking at a photo album on the counter.In the photo album, a faded picture could be seen of a young man who seemed to have had abundant hair and a girl being held by him were smiling.The man looked at the photo album with longing eyes and said.

“It’s enough just to confirm that the child didn’t collapse in the cold winter. When you see a child dying, it’s… unlucky… Don’t spread rumors anywhere. I hate kids.”

Well, if it becomes known that he’s generous to children, it would be difficult to do business with children flocking from everywhere.Of course, I was a person who liked to see others go wrong.I’m a villain who likes to see crying faces more than smiling faces.

“You say you hate children so there’s a suitable retribution for someone like you. The punishment of having to take care of a child for life would be good. Black Jack, I sentence you, who dared to deceive my daughter, to the punishment of being a ‘father’.”“What are you talking about? What punishment? How did you know my name?”

Thud—Instead of answering, I lightly tapped my foot.Then, a small shadow separated from my shadow and stood up.The shadow was about the size of Hina.The owner frowned as if he felt unpleasant because a shadow with its hair tied in two braids and a fluttering skirt started running around the store.

“What are you doing now….”

He soon closed his mouth.It was because the shadow manipulated a secret device by rummaging through the shelves.

Click— Creak—Inside the drawer that opened with an old sound were things that looked like a young girl’s belongings, such as dolls and letters.

“That secret shelf… only I and Peach knew about it… could you be…”

The man slowly got up from his seat.

“Could you be… you… could it be… Peach…?”

The man stretched out his calloused hand and slowly embraced the shadow.

Rustle— Rustle—Then, as if paint was peeling off, black things flew away from the black shadow and it started to take on human flesh color.The girl opened her mouth.

“Dad… Peach got lost… came home late… sorry…”“Peach…! H-How is this possible…?”

The bald shop owner started crying profusely.A grown man was crying like a child with snot running down his face, to the point that his hair fell out.

“I can’t stand to watch this.”

Because it was such an unsightly scene, Salome and I had no choice but to leave the store.

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