Chapter 60
The children were surprised by what Erika said and asked:
“‘Tough,’ you say?”
“Where did you learn a word like that?”
“Princess, you shouldn’t say that.”
As the children each spoke up, Erika said gloomily:
“Where did I learn it? I was stuck in Edelheim, that’s where. The people there come from all sorts of backgrounds. There were a lot of commoners. Some even came from the slums.”
“Ugh, slums?”
Santuck frowned.
“Running off to play with commoners secretly since you were little, and now you act like that?”
Ever since the day they first snuck out in commoner clothes to visit the market, the children would occasionally go down to the Brown District or the villages in the territory to play. Of course, once their faces became known to the local villagers, they went less often.
There were several times when the villagers were startled to see the lord’s children playing with their kids, and the children had to awkwardly return to the mansion.
After experiencing that a few times, they restrained themselves from wandering in commoner clothes. Yet whenever they met in the capital, they would all dress in casual clothes and go to the Brown District to play with the commoner children.
Everyone remembered Santuck, who had initially been the most resistant to wearing commoner clothes but ended up having the most fun playing with the commoners.
“Well, they were commoners, not slum kids,” Santuck protested quietly, perhaps feeling a little guilty.
“That’s the thing—you never know. We weren’t spending money with them; we were just playing on the dirt floor. How could we tell whether they came from ordinary families or poor ones? Honestly, back then, to us, all their outfits looked…”
Erika trailed off, trying to find a gentler way to put it.
“All shabby,” Serel finished her sentence.
“Yeah, all of them looked shabby. You can tell now, but when we were kids, they all looked the same… The one who looked decent was actually rich among the commoners, right?”
“Oh, the one we met when we went to Spencer territory?” Ellen asked, recalling.
“Yeah, from a family connected to the Lianne merchant guild. Anyway…”
Not remembering clearly, Erika returned to her original point:
“There’s really no special difference between slum kids and other commoners. That’s what I meant to say.”
But Santuck still seemed to think differently:
“Have you ever been to a slum? I have. Once, I snuck out, evaded the knights, and wandered down alleys, eventually reaching the slum.”
The children, hearing this for the first time, focused on Santuck. None of them had been to a slum before.
“That day, I thought they’d strip me of my clothes, shoes, even my teeth. The people there… they’re half insane. Not right in the head.”
Recalling that memory, goosebumps ran up Santuck’s arm.
“Teeth and hair?”
Ellen asked in disbelief.
“They seemed to be valuable. At the time, my hair was growing out a bit. They liked that even more. Skinny people were sprawled in the alley, and when they saw me, they shone their eyes and slowly approached like zombies… I’m usually fearless, but there I thought if I got caught, I might really die.”
The children exchanged shocked glances at the thought of someone taking hair and teeth rather than jewel buttons on clothes.
Erika also imagined a trainee from the slums trying to grab someone’s hair and teeth, but she shook her head—it was impossible to picture.
“No, they wouldn’t. Even in Edelheim, they’re famous for being clean and sensible,” Erika said firmly.
Santuck, seeming to want to argue, instead let out a small sigh and replied:
“Yeah, if you say so, I guess. That’s how they are.”
Still, he wasn’t fully convinced.
“So how did you get away?” Adrian asked.
“I backed up until I was cornered in a dead-end alley… thinking I’d lose even my teeth…”
Serel absentmindedly touched her mouth, feeling uneasy even though Santuck hadn’t reached the part where he was attacked.
“The knights found me. I stumbled trying to dodge the man reaching for me in front. I almost hit my head on the wall, but someone caught me—it was one of the knights who had come out of the house with me.”
Santuck didn’t need to mention that blood sprayed in front of him or that the slum kid’s arm that tried to grab him had been cut off.
“That was close,” Ellen said, relieved.
She wondered if there were slums in Quinter territory. Probably?
Ellen recalled the documents she had seen—but none mentioned slums.
‘Do they not have any, or do they just ignore them?’
Serel asked:
“By the way, Spencer territory has no slums, right?”
“What? Really? Is that possible? How?”
Erika reacted in surprise. Adrian hesitated and quietly explained:
“It’s good. My father wiped them all out. They needed space for warehouses, so they cleared the slums and built large warehouses instead.”
“And the people living there?”
“When I asked my brother, he said half became wandering gypsies, and he didn’t know what happened to the rest.”
“Shouldn’t they manage the registry of residents? The central government would scold them if many suddenly disappeared,” Erika said, holding Sylph after playing outside.
“What do I care? It’s just territory stuff. I’m the second son anyway,” Adrian said, reclining with crossed legs, clearly dissatisfied.
“I heard the frontlines have gotten worse?”
Adrian changed the subject.
“Yeah. From what I heard, you have to take a much longer route to cross the border. The frontlines expanded, and the Normans pushed further down, so another route is better.”
Ellen nodded.
“True. It’s basically a repeated push and retreat near the border. But I didn’t expect this much trouble. The Normans weren’t even considered a war target for a long time. Even with Carzel and Quinter allied, it’s still like this.”
“Not that it matters now, but the Normans have been acting weird for a while. Checking shipments from foreign merchants, everything seemed normal at first, but sometimes I’d go ‘Hmm…?’ I never thought it was preparation for war,” Adrian scratched his cheek.
“Why are you telling me this now?” Ellen slumped her shoulders.
“Are you okay being here? Aren’t you busy?”
“Yes. Mom sent me to relax for a day. I have to use the teleport magic circle again tonight.”
“You work hard,” Serel said, patting Ellen’s shoulder. Santuck nudged his untouched Mont Blanc toward her. While Adrian poured tea into a cup, Erika had Sylph sprinkle light dust over Ellen.
“This dust gives me energy? Healing magic is supposed to be water-elemental, right?”
Ellen smiled gratefully at her friends’ care.
“Sylph’s light dust has minor healing power. That’s why I sprinkle so much.”
“That’s nice. Sylph does all that for you. Looks like your mana has increased; there’s definitely more dust than before.”
“My mana was really low at first, so the difference feels bigger. Usually, it wouldn’t increase this much in a few months,” Ellen explained.
Santuck, listening, chimed in:
“Ellen, you can talk to spirits. Why don’t you ask Sylph to do something?”
“I can’t talk to Sylph like that,” Ellen said.
Erika’s eyes widened.
“Why? Can’t see them? Or not hear? Want me to attach Sylph again?”
“No, it’s not that. Just… once I start talking, it gets noisy for days…”
Just thinking about it made Ellen look tired, and the others quietly laughed.
“Even after months, it seems amazing to non-spirit users. Whenever I talk to them, all the local spirits swarm, so I just pretend I don’t see them. Then they play among themselves. Sometimes they bother me, though.”
“Still the same? No wandering around the empty room?” Adrian asked with a smile.
“Yeah. I shoot well now. Whenever there’s a spirit on the target, Mom has me shoot to get used to it. Now I can shoot even if a spirit stands there without dodging.”
Ellen replied nonchalantly. She was now used to the spirits’ tricks.
“And when you ask a spirit… they only help three out of ten times?”
Ellen pouted.
“Four out of ten if you’re lucky? And even then, they mess it up. Ask them to make a breeze, and suddenly a strong wind destroys everything on the table. Ask for water in the bathtub, and the room floods. And two or three times, they just ignore you or tease you.”
The children awkwardly smiled at Ellen’s frustration.
“So now I hardly ask them. I used to want to feel mana desperately, but now I just let it go. It’s kind of useless, a half-baked ability, maybe.”
“Spirits are playful, after all,” Erika nodded.
“I used to envy you seeing spirits, Ellen, but not anymore,” Serel said, shaking her head.
