Chapter 75: Wait, This Looks Familiar

Chapter 75: Wait, This Looks Familiar

After a few moments, I realized it was some woman that had grabbed onto my shoulder. While she had a cloak on, I could still tell she seemed a bit confused. n(/0vεlb1n

"You bought a mask too? Ah, whatever. Just follow me right now, we're going to be left behind."

There was definitely a misunderstanding happening here, but I decided to go along with it for now. If things really did get dicey, I could just teleport right out so long as I touched my mask. But first, I would see if I could get away with just using my sword.

"Sorry, I just got caught up in the flashy stuff."

The woman in the cloak let out a sigh before turning around.

"Just hurry up."

She began hurriedly walking away. It appeared there wasn't too much of a rush since she wasn't running. While following behind her, I began wondering what this could be exactly, but honestly I wasn't too concerned.

From what I knew, this was relatively close to the slums, and the most shady organizations had bases closer to the capital. Although security was more strict there, they had their ways around it being more prestigious than others.

On the other hand, the only notable one I could remember near the slums was a group called the, "Survivors". They mostly stole from commoners, but would kill if there was too much resistance. In essence, they were just a violent gang.

They were apparently able to gain a substantial amount of funds that way, and were able to do quite a few things with that money. However, there were no spellcasters. If there were any, then they were probably better off using a weapon, since all of them would use various weapons.

Weapons weren't particularly expensive, but they were still not something a commoner could casually buy. This was what made them stand out more.

Most gangs here just had improvised weapons like sharpened wooden stakes. As such, I wasn't too worried. A sword was more than enough of an advantage. I also had magic as well.

While I was thinking, the woman led me to a rather large crowd of people all in cloaks. I could see why she misunderstood that I was part of this because we all basically looked the same.

From what I could tell, there were roughly fifty or so people here. They were all moving along toward the slums. The sounds of footfalls blended in with each other as how the drops of rain would, but were just louder.

Although it was hardly mentioned in the game other than a short passing moment in the prologue, there were apparently five main regions within the kingdom. At the center, was the Capital, which was where my house was located. Then, there was the Noble District, which contained most of the nobles, and where the Golden Gold School resided.

Even further, was the Trade District. Here was where most of the actual businesses resided and where merchants would come to as well. There were places to live here, but it was mostly just traveling merchants temporarily settling there or fairly rich commoners that weren't wealthy enough to be on par with nobles.

Afterwards, was the Common District, where I was right now. It took roughly four hours for me to speedily walk over here from the Capital, if you were wondering. Anyways, this district was mostly farmland. The people here tended to have very large farms to themselves. It was also much larger compared to the other places. If you combined the other three districts, they would only be a little bit bigger than this one.

Finally, there were the Slums. You could probably tell what it was like here from its name. People had a hard time getting by, and those that had farms did not have very large ones. Nathan's house was technically here, but it was very close to the Common District they were part of that place instead. In terms of size, it was similar to the size of the Common District in terms of landmass.

Hm.

Now that I think about it, the protagonist has to run a long damn way just to get to the school each time. Apparently, that was supposed to be his setting, while the other commoner students would just hop on a carriage that was more like a bus because they were normal.

I wonder if Nathan stuck to that setting or not.

My thoughts continued to wander about rather useless things, though I didn't forget to meditate along the way. Because of that, I eventually bumped into the person in front of me unintentionally, causing the guy to grumble with annoyance.

I was going to apologize, but a voice that was nearly as loud as a scream rang out.

"We, the common people, have had enough of you! As a representative, the Survivors will deal with you!"

It made me flinch and also cringe as it sounded like the person was ripping apart their own vocal cords. From the sounds of things, they weren't very happy for whatever reason.

Also, did she say Survivors? This... may get out of hand. Well, I could always teleport away.

At this point, I began to realize that the surroundings felt a bit familiar. Specifically, I noticed that the houses around me had distinct traits I remembered, such as a piece of rotting wood, or a brick slightly out of place.

The fifty or so people with cloaks on gradually began spreading out. I decided to follow suit, and in doing so, was able to get a better view of what was up ahead.

Hm.

There was a table and some chairs. At the table was a girl that looked an awful lot like my sister. Not to mention, there were chefs and butlers that looked a lot like the ones I had.

Ah, wait.

This is where I set up that relief thing. Those were actually my butlers, and that was also my actual sister. Kinda strange how I ended up on this side in this situation.

The person that had shouted out earlier drew out a shortsword. From the voice, it sounded like a relatively old woman.

"You nobles have trespassed onto our territory for far too long! Now, you'll have to face the consequences."

The encirclement that had formed around them all made it so that I just so happened to be facing opposite to them. That allowed me to look at her for the idiot she was. If this really was her territory, then why didn't she at least like, try to communicate that?

Was there no way to respectfully do it?

It more just sounds like a stupid excuse to launch an attack on some random people.

While thinking that, I saw the kid, Gray, stand up on the middle of the table. With an indignant expression, he pointed toward the woman.

"Get away, Mom! This table has no space for bad people like you!"

My eyelid twitched when I heard that. So this was the kid's mom?

I looked at the woman and noticed that she had fallen silent. I could only see her mouth, but that was enough to see her bitter expression. She was hesitating for a little while before speaking out.

"Mom? I am not your mother, just some unrelated organization leader! Now get away from here child, we will be tackling the real criminals here!"

Gray frowned and maintained a resolute expression.

"Why are you lying, Mom? If you want to lie, then go somewhere else to do it!"

He made a shooing gesture, like that would somehow blow them away. The cloaked figures looked at each other as though wondering what they were supposed to do in this situation. In the end, all of their gazes ended up falling on their leader.

After a moment of silence, the entire act she put up was stripped off.

"Gray! Why are you coming to this rotten place? I have already prepared expensive food for you every day, yet you won't eat a single bite. But instead, you come here, to some random noble? I've already gotten someone to check and the standards are far lower! The food back at home is better!"

Wait.

Several dots began connecting to each other within my mind. The reason why this whole attack was happening in the first place...

...was because the gang leader was petty about her son having his dinner here instead of at home?

I...

How shallow was that? Is that a real person? I can't physically accept this person as a human being out of my respect for the human race.

From how Gray carried himself, he seemed to have a similar opinion. While I was only staring at his back right now, he still gave off a solemn air. He spoke flatly.

"I don't want the food you get from stealing and killing other kids."

...What?

A heavy silence fell for quite a while. From how the hooded figures remained silent, it seemed like they couldn't truly deny it. The looks that Jess and the others gave this group changed as well.

Before, they felt like they were in the wrong, but that quickly changed.

This change was not lost on the leader. She pointed towards Jess in hysteria.

"Stealing? It's the nobles that are truly stealing! Can't you see? They are living their lives in pure luxury bathing in pure money! They are the reason why we are living like this. If it wasn't for them, then would we have to do this? All they have to do is hand over some of their money, but they are all greedy bastards!"

Her breathing became heavy.

"I just did what I needed to. So that we could survive."

In response to that anger, Gray spoke softly.

"Mom. You did that a long time ago. After getting money to eat food, you had to get more. It didn't matter how much you got. You... kept stealing. If they gave us money, bad people like you would take it all. I like what he is doing now. Now people can eat, but won't get greedy."

It seemed his mother was unable to refute a single thing she had said. In the end, she gave up on convincing him.

"Gray, get away from here right now."

Gray crossed his arms like a problem child.

"No! Only when you get away first!"

From there, the leader began screaming at her child, while the child himself resisted stubbornly. It almost seemed like Gray was actually in the toy store, insistent on getting the toy he wanted.

Seeing this was giving me an aneurysm, as it would to most people. With that in mind, I began walking forth, attracting quite a few gazes in the process. The guards pointed their swords at me threateningly, but they were still quite a ways away. The leader in particular looked at me with indignance and directed her anger towards me.

"You! I haven't ordered you to move yet! This is a direct violation of my orders, don't you understand what that means? Go back now, and I will overlook it."

I let out a chuckle.

"Well, there's a small problem with that, as I don't understand. After all, I was never part of your group in the first place."

Gray turned around and the moment we made eye contact, he smiled brightly.

"Good person!"

A chill went down my spine as I realized he had somehow immediately recognized who I was. Though, I decided to play it off as though expecting it. Jess had also turned around. When her eyes landed on me, they widened, but she didn't say anything.

She must've recognized the mask.

On the other hand, Gray was much more expressive, running towards me without hesitation. This made his mother panic.

"Gray! Don't get close to that man, get over here right now!"

That was quite the reasonable response for when your child runs towards a masked man in a cloak with a sword by his waist. Unfortunately, all of that was lost on Gray, who moved past the guards and got up in front of me. He raised both of his hands high up in the air like he was celebrating.

"I thought you weren't going to come, good person!"

His tone shifted to become incredibly casual like there weren't fifty or so armed hostile people surrounding us right now. I couldn't help but laugh.

"To be honest, I wasn't planning to, but I was wondering what all these guys were doing. It just so happened to lead me here. May I know what this little gathering you have here is called?"

The leader seemed displeased with my attitude but still responded with pride in her voice.

"We are the Survivors. Remember that."

...Huh.

This was honestly unexpected. In the game, they were only supposed to start going haywire at around the third month, attacking people far more aggressively than usual. But now, it had hardly even been two weeks and they were doing just that.

My guess was that it had something to do with her kid. This was something that was bound to happen, but because of my presence, it happened quicker. There would be some people that would blame him in this case, but it really isn't his fault.

I looked down at him and saw his bright smiling face. Out of what felt like obligation, I patted him on the head. This greatly infuriated his mother though, making her flare up.

"Get your filthy hands off of him! Stop acting like you're his parent!"

I turned to look at her. The reason why I came up in the first place was to attempt to stifle this conflict. Yet, when I heard those words, I ended up responding without really thinking.

"Your child runs off to some stranger rather than you to feel safe. How much of a failure do you have to be to screw up parenting that bad?"

Hm...

I probably shouldn't have said that.

"KILL HIM! KILL HIM NOW. THIS IS AN ORDER."

She seemed a little angry.