༺ Don’t Do This At Home Kids (1) ༻
I had no idea what we should do.
My mind was completely empty.
Nevertheless, Naru and I went out to the city of Freesia.
And I still didn’t have a single clue on what to do.
Maybe Naru had some idea?
“Butterflies!”
“……”
Naru’s mind seemed to be empty too.
“There’s soooo many butterflies! It’s like a butterfly field! Wooow, a tiger butterfly. Ahhh look! A white butterfly!”
Naru seemed to be content in simply watching the butterflies fluttering in the air.
“Oooh really? And who taught you that?”
“Dad did! He said it’s the greatest thing in the world!”
“……”
Well, it was certainly a beautiful spring day.
The flowers on the sidewalk, well-maintained roads, and butterflies fluttering about all created a perfect scene.
Compared with the streets of Ordor, which were filled with mud and muck, this place was a paradise.
The people walking about were all at ease, and even their clothes were clean.
Yeah, I can see why this place is always boasting about being 200 years ahead of every other nation.
However.
Even in 21st-century Korea, a first-world country, all kinds of problems and incidents still occur.
Even in this peaceful and beautiful city, if you looked closely, you could find something wrong.
In fact, I could already see some troublesome things.
Especially that suspicious boy around the corner.
That’s when Naru tugged on my clothes.
“Dad, what’s wrong? Who is that?”
“……Wh-What!?”
Did she see through my Barbaroi skill1Kind of a random note, but the Korean word used here, is the same as the one we used for ‘Style’ in the previous chapter. We just decided that using ‘Style’ when it’s spoken and ‘skill’ when described sounded better. The reason why that is will be revealed soon. – ‘Sneak Peek’?
By the way, Sneak Peek was a C-Rank skill.
It was very troublesome to get it, but it’s very useful. It allowed me to focus my gaze in a way I could observe someone or something without being noticed.
For example.
If you stared at a rugged fellow or a criminal for too long.
They would probably say something similar to – ‘Hey dickhead! Watcha lookin’ at?!’
This world is full of uncultured people, after all.
But with my Sneak Peek skill, I could look at anything I wanted, without worrying about where my eyes were focused.
For example, if I took a peek at a woman’s breasts……
Or catching that blessed flash of her underskirt.
Anyway.
I’ve been in this world for 2 years now.
And since acquiring this skill, no one had been able to notice my gaze……
Until Naru showed up.
This kid has sharp senses.
Then, I told her.
“Look at that boy over there. What do you think he’s up to? Ahh but don’t stare at him too much. If you do, he will want to fight with you.”
“Ngh, like this……?”
Naru’s eyes bounced around.
I wonder if she’s trying to copy my Sneak Peek skill.
“Ahh that……!”
No way, she’s really using my skill!?
Even for a C-Rank skill, you would still have to train hard for a month to use it.
Naru spoke again.
“He has a bag with bread! His age……I don’t know! Oh, but he’s wearing a school uniform! Ahh, he’s leaving the bakery……! B-bread……Must be good……Naru……Naru is hungry!”
She kept babbling a bunch of disjointed information.
But Naru was able to make some good observations.
As Naru said, the dude was holding a bag of bread.
It must have been full of bread.
It would be delicious if the bread was still warm.
But even when the bread was getting cold, he didn’t seem to have any intention of going back home. Instead, he was looking around suspiciously.
He was up to no good!
Swoosh—
“Ooh! He moved!”
Naru yelled as the dude disappeared into an alley.
Patting Naru’s back, I said.
“Alright, let’s follow him.”
Even the tiniest clues could be useful.
Sometimes, even small things like this can help you get the feel of a city.
Well, that’s at least what I think.
Shove—
So, we pushed through the crowd and headed towards the alley.
It was a rather rundown back alley, but I could see the guy we had spotted earlier.
Close to the wall, a group of students gathered, sharing the bread. They looked so pitiful.
“Bread….For the first time in a week.”
“Delicious……!”
“Since there’s not much, we have to share it smartly.”
They seemed to be poor students.
Their sight made Naru upset.
“They’re poor……? There are four people sharing one loaf of bread!”
Naru seemed more sensitive than I thought.
But I had a different view on this.
“That’s not all there is to it, Naru. Look carefully, if you’re really my daughter, then you should be able to notice something suspicious there.”
“S-Something suspicious? Hmmnnn………”
Naru squinted at the people eating bread on the corner as if trying to tear a hole in them.
“Naru’s dad’s daughter, so she will notice something suspicious……!”
She was trying very hard to prove that she was my daughter.
After a couple of seconds.
“Naru’s got it!”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes! Naru’s got that she doesn’t get it!”
“……”
“Naru’s sorry……”
Naru seemed quite down.
I noticed this odd way she speaks when she is nervous or flustered.
Gently stroking her head, I said.
“It’s okay. Just tell me if you manage to see something wrong with them.”
“Mnnnnn……! Something wrong……! Something suspicious……!”
Naru seemed to get spirited again.
It didn’t take long for her to shout.
“Naru’s got it! There are only boys there……! Even though they are grown up, none have girlfriends……! That’s suspicious……! There must be something wrong with them!”
“……”
Yeah.
That’s not the kind of answer I was expecting.
For some reason, I felt a stab in my frail heart.
Coughing loudly, I tried to downplay the blow I had just received.
“Yeah, cough, hm, that’s one thing too. But if you look closely, you can see that their hunger is weird……look at them.”
Hunger.
It’s something more terrible than one imagines.
In the first month since I arrived in this world, the thing that made me suffer the most was not loneliness or anything else. It was hunger.
I can safely say I’m an expert in being hungry.
And to an expert like me, those guys seemed a bit contradictory.
“Mnnnnn……”
Naru seemed to be carefully observing the group, using the Barbaroi skill ‘Sneak Peek’. Then she spoke as if she realized something.
“They are pretending to eat the bread, but are not really eating it……?”
“Exactly. You noticed it too.”
I proudly patted her head.
As Naru said, these guys were just pretending to share the bread.
Maybe their hunger was just an act.
Their cover.
An Illusion.
“Ahh, I’m full.”
“Let’s meet here again next time.”
“Goodbye.”
Shuffle—
Soon the group that gathered in the wall went their separate ways.
“Huh?”
Naru seemed clueless about what had just happened.
But I could tell something had been exchanged and scattered by these guys.
Now, the only one remaining was the guy who got the bread.
He seemed to be around seventeen or eighteen years old.
So, I walked up to him and asked.
“Are you done with your stuff?”
Gasp—!
The student was startled.
He then looked at me and spoke.
“W-who are you?”
“Don’t look like you’re just caught doing something bad. It’s not like it’s a big deal to share some hidden information while pretending to eat bread.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
Thwack— Thwack—.
This guy took a dagger from somewhere.
A slender gleaming blade.
Overall, it was a very impressive dagger.
It was also the perfect size to conceal in your sleeve or pocket.
“I’m Elyasel, the son of the Viscount Balduhmor of Freesia, a 14th-year student at the Graham Academy, and a Bronze-tier fighter!”
Bronze-tier.
His words reminded me of the system used in this world to evaluate people’s combat abilities.
It was something like levels or tiers.
The levels from one to ten are the Iron-tier.
Bronze-tier spanned from level 10 to 20.
Silver-tier from level 20 to 30.
And Gold-tier from level 30 to 40.
Platinum-tier from level 40-49, and if you could surpass that and transcend human limits then you achieved the God-Tier at level 50.
For reference, one’s level could be determined by extracting a drop of blood to check the person’s inherent karma in guilds or public institutions.
Depending on the level and rank, you could wear an identification that looked like a military dog tag.
The Bronze-Tier had a tag made of bronze.
If you were a Silver-tier, then you would get a tag made of silver……
Anyway, if you’re a Bronze-Tier.
Then your level should be about 10 to 20.
Considering that many adventures remained at Bronze-Tier for their entire lives before dying, this little shit had quite a high level for his age.
He would be considered a veteran adventurer if he managed to get to the Silver-Tier.
I don’t think he has even graduated yet, and he’s a Bronze-Tier already.
An Elite indeed.
Soon, Naru who hid behind me, tugged on my clothes.
“Dad, what’s a Bronze-Tier? Is he great?”
“Well, it’s not that much compared to me.”
The Bronze-Tier was awesome and all, but it was only the standard for normal people.
But to me, Bronze-Tier was nothing special.
Hearing this, the little shit threw a fit.
“Y-You dare to look down on a Bronze-Tier!? Instead, the one who isn’t much is you, you damn barbarian!”
“Hey, even though I don’t look like much, I’m actually a Platinum-Tier. Didn’t you ever heard of Judas the Rogue?”
“You’re surely having a laugh! Do you think I’ll believe in your lies? There are barely ten people in the world with the Platinum-Tier! And if you really are ‘Judas the Rougue’ then I’m a God!”
“Really?”
Stomp–.
Stomping on the ground.
The world accelerated.
In an instant, I closed the distance between me and this little shit.
Before he could even react, my hand moved.
“Grasp Heart.”
I aimed the skill on the Bronze-Tier badge in his chest.
The secret Barbaroi skill ‘Grasp Heart’ was a B-ranked skill that allowed me to steal the opponent’s heart.
The whole process takes less than 0.1 seconds.
In thievery, speed and accuracy were fundamental after all.
But of course, the skill also had its weaknesses.
It truly was an amazing skill, but it didn’t work if the target didn’t have a heart.
Hence the B-rank on the skill.
For the record, B-rank skills were high-level skills that could take a lifetime to master.
Of course, that was according to my status.
But.
I realized something.
Naru was watching me.
So I thought ‘Isn’t this a bit too much?’
Perhaps this is not something children should see.
Things were going to get bloody after all.
“Tsk.”
I guess that’s that.
* * * * * * * * * *
“Hi-eeeeeeeek! Uuuuughh!”
That Bronze-Tier little shit was sprawled on the ground shaking as if he had had a seizure.
Soak—
The sight of his pants getting wet was a bit disgusting.
“Ugh, Dad! That boy is leaking! Even Naru doesn’t pee in her panties anymore……”
Naru looked at the boy with a little pity in her eyes.
And, of course, this guy continued to cry while grabbing his chest.
“Ahhhhh, my heart, my heart is goooooneee………Give it backkk….wahhhhhh!”
Have you ever seen a high school boy crying while soiling his pants?
It’s a pretty gross sight, let me tell you.
So I kicked him and said.
“Stop being so dramatic.”
“Ahhhhh, huh? My heart……Oh! Instead, my wallet that I had in my inner pocket is gone!”
Well, at least he was quick to grasp the situation.
So I played with his thick wallet and asked him.
“You see, I was planning on simply asking you some stuff. But since you pulled a dagger on me……Well, normally I would have paid you back with your death. But since your wallet seems quite thick, I’ll let it slide this time. But in return, you will tell me something.”
“W-what you want to know?”
He calmed down a little.
He must have realized the difference between us.
And since I didn’t want to be in this stinking place any longer I asked him.
“I want to know about some bad rumors circulating in the city. You, whatever you are, you seem like a bad guy. So, a bad guy like you should know something about this don’t you?”
People who do illegal stuff are always sharp about what’s going on.
After all, you need to know what the police are doing.
Who the politicians are.
Otherwise, you won’t be able to adapt to the situation and will get busted.
In this sense, I’m sure this fellow has at least some piece of information that’s worth keeping him alive.
Soon, he said.
“You want to know some bad rumors? As far as I know, there’s nothing like this in Freesia, here it’s almost like a paradise on earth.”
“A paradise on earth? No way this is real. So, stop saying nonsense and tell me what I want to know.”
“Well you see, there’s Elle Cladeco, the Graham Academy headmaster, since she’s a genius……she’s got quite the security……”
Elle Cladeco.
That name.
I think I had heard it before.
Who was it again?
Anyway, I should also ask him about this.
Shhh.
I pulled a piece of paper from his wallet.
It looked like a normal folded note, but there was some powder inside.
A white powder.
“This is a drug, isn’t it? And here you were saying that this place was a paradise……You’re just spouting bullshit, aren’t you?”
“W-well, that’s……”
Little Bronzie was at a loss for words.
And then, Naru shouted.
“White powder! It’s like that magic thingy we saw in the bucket!”
Was it like that?
Well, I’m no good with magic stuff, so I’m not sure.
Either way, this thing is something you could find in the back alleys of that Ordor Kingdom, that place is a shithole.
And to think something like this exists in Freesia.
Just goes to show that bad stuff can pop out anywhere in the world.
Could this powder be related to Brigitte’s problem?
Just as I was thinking about this, Bronzie said.
“Um, excuse me, but are you really Mr. Judas? No, I can tell without even asking! That wallet-stealing skill is undoubtedly of the Platinum-Tier…! And here I thought you were an impostor.”
“Well… I have plenty of impersonators.”
A black-haired Barbaroi once pretended to be ‘Judas the Rougue’.
So, while this is a common name, it still tends to scare people.
And who would believe in something like this?
Well, a surprising amount of people did.
To be fair, they probably thought that every dark-haired Barbaroi looked the same.
Since then, I have often been accused of stuff I didn’t even do.
Even when I told people I was really Judas, I still got that ‘You’re lying, aren’t you?’ reaction.
Bronzie’s eyes sparkled, completely unaware of my thoughts.
“The Rougue of the Demon King subjugation party! The Lord of the Back Alleys, Judas! You’re the Idol of all criminals! It’s such an honor meeting you in this putrid place!”
Clutch—!
This kid clung to my leg.
You fucking bastard! Just where do you think you are sticking to with your piss-filled body?!
“I’ll tell you everything I know!”
Note from Painter:
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