Chapter 15: The Candy That Rolled Out of the Bushes

Chapter 15: The Candy That Rolled Out of the Bushes The Candy That Rolled Out of the Bushes

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Showing off his strength to his two underlings had worked out.

However, Megzam thought, he wanted to push it a bit further.

He had given them the whip. Now it was time for the candy.

The sweet, sweet reward that those brutish no-goods would crave...

That is to say, violence.

He must give his underlings the opportunity to exercise violence themselves.

By giving them the whip, the underlings would follow him. By giving them candy, the underlings would stick with him.

Megzam had always thought this way, based on his own preferences and tastes. Up until now, and at least within this band of thieves, this approach had not been wrong.

Megzam, Ander, and Tappa.

All were equally dominated by violence.

Before such a Megzam, the candy that fortunately rolled out of the bushes was a filthy-looking vagrant child. ...Though it was a vagrant child, questions like why such a small child was in the forest, or why they had captured so many Myogomyogoshugos, did cross one’s mind later as somewhat puzzling encounters.

But such questions did not even occur to Megzam at the time, nor did they matter to him.

This is a piece of candy.

A reward to give to his underlings. A scapegoat for their violence.

Ew, gross. I do acknowledge that I am a beautiful girl, but I’m only 5 years old. Is any girl fine for them? Perverts.

These guys are trash. From now on, I’ll call them Trash A and Trash B.

Trash A and Trash B slowly moved closer to me.

“Hey, hey... don’t just space out. Cry or scream a bit. You’re boring.”

“Really, such an expressionless kid. Scared stiff, huh? Went nuts from the fear, hehe.”

They snickered and laughed. The trash leader... Trash Head, stood with his arms crossed, watching calmly.

...This was, I realized, the first time I was faced with such clear intent to kill from a sentient being.

In my previous life, I had been through quite a lot, but that was a society governed by reason. Even if someone disliked me, there were none who would actually think to kill me and act on it.

Exposed to such murderous intent, I was stunned, my body shaking unconsciously.

...But that wasn’t the case.

Me, Emi the 5-year-old vagrant, wasn’t living such a sheltered life that I’d be frightened by something like this. Living means dealing with life and death every day, to kill to live, and to die if you’re careless. That’s the life I’ve been leading.

...These trash were being careless.

Let me show them. Their arrogance.

Let me demonstrate. My will to live!

You aim to take my life, then... be prepared!!