KB1 - Chapter I – The beggar children

Chapter I: The beggar children – Book 1: Heir of the Kingdom


“Therefore, Baudrillard believes that both "products" and "demands" are false symbols. When he criticizes Marx's use of value, he thinks that the latter falls into the trap of capitalism's political economy and proposes his own symbolic political economy."

Wu Renren finished his report, clicked on the last slide, nodded in gratitude to the teacher and a dozen of his classmates, then left the podium under the teacher's instructions to wait for the next classmate's report.

"THALES!"

Next moment, the former post-graduate student Wu Renren woke up from his dream.

He curled up and lied face down in an abandoned wall hole, only to feel the ice-cold wind blowing from all directions through the gaps of the wall.

Wu Renren sighed, it had already been five long years since his transmigration, yet, he still dreamed of his previous life. Although obviously one could say he had a boring life back then, but at least those days were way better than his current miserable situation.

"Thales, THALES!" A big hand stretched out from the wall, grabbed Wu Renren's ear and rudely dragged him out of his small and dirty nest.

This was such a shabby house, through the half collapsed roof you could see many bright stars in the sky, it’s just that the arrangement and the shape of the Milky Way were indeed very strange to Wu Renren.

There was no way for Wu Renren to put up any resistance against the brutal hand – what can a child of seven years old do? He was dragged on a rough brick floor while rubbing his knees sore, but he still did not say a word through his biting teeth, because the brutal Clyde was especially impatient with children's cries and was said to have beaten a six-year-old girl, who dared to use her tears to beg him for food, until he paralyzed her legs.

"I already asked Rick, your “payment” from this week was five coins less than last week! Did you HIDE any?" The angry Clyde was like a lion with a red mane, and his protruding nose made him even more vicious.

Wu Renren was tossed onto the ground. In his gray-color eyes, he saw within the wall holes around him the five beggars who lived with him in this house, ranging from the age of four to ten, all in the midst of shivering because of Clyde’s roar.

Among them, in the innermost hole, the youngest girl with short hair was biting her left hand, her face slowly turned red while she fearfully looked at the ground where Wu Renren lied. In the hole next to her, the six-years-old boy Ned was scared to cry out.

It was Carina, who Wu Renren knew what she was afraid of.

In fact, Wu Renren's luck this week wasn’t that bad. The beggar Thales, his current name, made a total of 37 pieces of copper coins, 18 more than last week.

But he only handed over fourteen coins to Clyde - the gangster boss who “manage” the beggars in the Brotherhood of Black Street – then brought the rest of the coins together with the hard-earned money he had saved over the past two years to Grove pharmacy. And finally thanks to Yennefer’s goodwill (an employee there) he could afford to "buy" an anityphoid medicine with a reasonable price.

Thales fed it to the sickly four-years-old Carina - if she has typhoid fever at her age without any medicines, what only awaits her is a certain death.

Over the five years that had passed since his transmigration, Thales once again experienced the memory forming period of a two years old to a seven years old child. From an ignorance kid, he gradually recovered memories of past live bit by bit, in which before, these memories appeared in scattered fragments due to the growing progress of a young child. Even so, in these two years of ignorance and naivety, Thales’s new memory was engraved each time he witnessed the others’ death by his own eyes.

From being sick, falling to death, drowning, being hanged, to being beaten alive (and even once, Thales saw a crying out loud beggar being suffocated by a mystic power user from ten meters away) Specialized in human trafficking, the Brotherhood of Black Street has never had any bottom line or moral principles – normally with any criminal gangs, they still need time to precipitate some form of rules and orders, but for the Brotherhood, only ten years has passed from the moment of its birth to its rise and growth in strength.

What's more is that even the Brotherhood's arch enemy, the 90 years old Blood Bottle Gang who was known as “the Aristocrats of the Underworld", never had any shortage of blood debts on their hands.

Most of the time Thales was powerless while witnessing these deaths. Even he himself, only through the wisdom and maturity of an adult, could avoid not only just one but several murder attempts.

For example, this moment.

Rubbing his hands in excitement, Clyde was showing a sadistic gangster’s unique cruelty and viciousness.

"I didn’t hide anything! This week is the beginning of winter, there were a lot less people passing by the three Undercity districts.” Thales stood up from the ground, brainstormed swiftly so he can spit out some excuses.

"Snapped!"

Meeting him was a merciless slap in the face, Thales fell to the ground again.

“Either you hand over the hidden money now so I could give you a good beating! Or I beat you first so you could hand over the money later! Choose for yourself!"

Obviously, Clyde didn’t want to hear his explanation, maybe this Brotherhood boss just wanted to search for some drinking money; or maybe he simply wanted to find someone to beat.

"But you can also be a stubbornly loudmouthed kid - I like those the most." Clyde smiled and moved his fist.

Watching the fist as big as a sandbag in front of him, Thales knew that even if he did not say anything, Clyde wouldn’t let him go.

Just last month, a beggar from the fifth house has been abused and killed by Clyde.

Knowing that, Thales clutched his swollen cheeks, quickly thinking.

In fact Clyde does not care about daily accounting. When the night comes he goes right away to the Sunset bar on the Underground Street to hang out or to cling on another bottle of wine. It's hard for an idle man like him to tell how much a Meredith silver coin could be exchanged for Midir copper coins, not to mention even knowing the exact amount of “payments” his underling beggars give him - all of this is the job of his deputy, Rick, who seems to be a steadfast and responsible fellow. And even the clever Rick knows that it’s the norm for a beggar's “payment” to be around seven to eight copper coins each week.

There must be a snitch.

This is the only conclusion.

Thales gazed around the group of beggars. He himself, who successfully solicited some money from a noblewoman, traveled back to The Ruin right away. So it had to be the children in this house who saw it, and in such a harsh environment like this, the children's hearts may become even more terrifying than what adults could have imagined.

Clyde came again with a kick. Thales secretly held his elbows against his abdomen to protect it, slightly uncoiled the force, and made a painful looking face like that kick gave him the most terrible ached he had ever felt. He must not make a sound, Clyde's most favorite part was the screams of kids.

"I will say!" Thales's face had a deeply scared expression. "Please, just don’t hit me!"

"Well that would depend on my mood!" Clyde looked around and saw that the other five beggars were shrinking in fear, which made him very satisfied with his authority being respected.

"I met a noblewoman on Wednesday morning, she gave me ten copper coins!" Thales hid in the corner and shuddered.

"I knew it! Begging? Nah, it must be stealing right? Nobody can hide anything from me, especially a petty thief like you!" Clyde viciously rubbed the palm of his hands to prepare for the next round of beating: "Hand over the money!"

Thales did not wait for Clyde to frown, he added: "But that was when I went to Red Lane Street!"

"Red Lane Street?" Clyde put down his raised hand a little, "You went to Blood Bottle’s territory?"

"Yes, there is really no more money for us to squeeze out in our location." Who else, except for the Brotherhood’s members, highly skilled rangers, and a few people with very particular purposes would dare to glance at these three shitty districts in Black Street’s neighbor? Even the city guards who are armed with swords and shields are reluctant to get near this sinful and gloomy place.

"It’s the first time I got so much money, and there was no member of Blood Bottle, then I thought there might be a chance the next day."

"Dumbass!" Clyde fiercely kicked Thales while the latter vaguely saw Carina shivering in the distance, only to see Clyde angrily shouted, "How could you not think of it? Blood Bottle’s territories would be that easy to exploit?”

Thales's body shrank a bit, he said in shiver: "Yes, the next afternoon Blood Bottle members already captured me, and then they hanged me upside down. I said I was lost, they did not believe me. I handed over all the money but they still didn’t let me go. "

"Fucking useless waste! How did you escape?" Clyde spitted.

"Then I said, I am one of boss Clyde’s men. But they… they laughed."

"What?" Clyde clenched his fist as he seized Thales's tattered burlap collar and lifted him up along the corner. "What were they laughing at?"

Thales shook his head in doubt: "I don’t understand much of - what they said."

Clyde looked at him fiercely: "Say it fast!"

Thales put on a terrified look, he shuddered and trembled: "There's a bald head among them, he said that since I am a child of Clyde they should spare me for once, because Clyde was indeed badly in needed of children - "

Thales had not finished when he was already severely thrown to the wall by Clyde!

He tried his best to protect his head, chest, and abdomen while he used his back to receive the impact of the wall. He then immediately turned his back to Clyde to withstand the heavy blows under the fury of this man. At the same time, he felt the force behind these blows to quickly change the angle of his back, trying his best to neutralize the intensity of each blow.

"You son – you son of a whore - you fucking - baldy - Sebas – how could you know – fucking kill you - kill you – useless waste – dumbass -"

Clyde shouted furiously, dealing one kick after another toward Thales, while his mouth could only shrieked out a few barely understandable and scattered swords.

Inside the holes of the wall, the children were horrified to see Thales being beaten, but they all tightly clutched their mouths and dare not to say anything.

Thales had to suffer Clyde’s endless kicks and madness, but he was relieved.

At least for now Clyde will not ask where the extra money went, and although how terribly horrifying this seemed, an outraged Clyde is far safer than a Clyde who happily torments his children.

His words were only half-true. Thales did go to the Red Lane Street, but he hid in the corners of an alleyway, carefully watching his surroundings. He did encounter a noblewoman in luxury goose feathers clothes, but she was followed by twenty Termination Swordsmen, which is why when he came out from the alley to beg Blood Bottle members did not interrupt him. In that goose feather noblewoman's hands, Thales did find a dozen of copper coins (of course he wasn’t stupid enough to steal in front of twenty Termination Swordsmen) but he didn’t wait for this noblemen group to go far to rapidly disappear into the crowd and eventually went home without turning back.

As for baldhead Sebas, Thales had never seen him, only knew that he was a Blood Bottle’s boss and leader of the thugs who collect “black account”. Clyde also used to be a boss of the thugs who collect this kind of loan sharks in Black Street – until he touched the wrong person and got his “lower part” broken. This information was supposed to be quite a mystery. But while he was lying under the corners of Black Street’s wall, Thales heard inside a room where the assassin Lucas and the she-devil Veronica, who were in the middle of their private “fairies fighting”, ridiculed Clyde long enough for him to become aware of that mystery.

Clyde finally vent out of his anger. While he was cursing the baldy Sebas from Blood Bottle, he pulled out a wine bottle. At the moment when Clyde left the scene, still vaguely cursing, the back of Thales's clothing had been torn into pieces. His back had blue and purple bruises, some places could also scratch out blood because Thales deliberately turned away his side for the sake of avoiding the frontal blows. Waves and waves of pain hit him repeatedly.

Blood dripped onto the ground. Thales could feel a really hot ache hitting him, probably because he had not been beaten for too long. His muscles felt like they were burning.

Since he transmigrated into this world, being beaten, hunger, sickness and cold have become like daily meals. But after gradually reclaiming the memories belonged to the pre-graduate student Wu Renren, by those experiences and his carefulness, Thales had not been viciously beaten to such extend for a quite long time.

After Clyde's voice slowly faded away in distance, the other five children in the house climbed out of their own holes and skillfully brought the immobilized Thales to a small yard. The ten-year-old "big guy" Clint grabbed a broken bowl’s fragment to scoop some water in the tank. Ryan “the cripple” and Kelly “the black face” - both are eight years old, struggled to collect some dry branches, weeds and tried to make a fire with flintstones. The six-year-old yellow-hair Ned and the youngest Carina took off a few oddly-shaped wild leaves, chewed them inside their mouths, and gently rubbed them on Thales’s full of wounds and bruises back.

Thales, trying to withstand the pain and looking for some distraction, turned to the soon-to-cry Carina, then the desperate yellow-hair Ned, as he did his best to calm his tone while he spoke.

"It’s nothing, Ned, I do not blame you."

Ned snapped, he lifted his head with a face full of panic and terrified expression. The other four children immediately turned their gazes to him.

"How did you know?" The six-year-olds could not help but felt guilty and horrified. All were written on his face.

Just when Thales was beaten by Clyde, the slightly older three children, though scared, were intensely staring at the scene; with only Carina and Ned left, one hid her face in her hands and unable to look up, the latter turned back his head to look at the inner wall and randomly glanced over in fear.

Carina's antityphoid medicines were the final destination of those copper coins, certainly she wouldn’t be the snitch. But Thales wasn’t so sure if it was Ned, but now, he had no doubt.

He tried to squeeze out a smile. "It's all right, Clyde will not interfere again."

"I, I," Ned's blush was outrageous. He looked at Thales's back with tears dripping down. "I did not have the money to give them this week nor the guts to steal." he sobbed, "Rick didn’t say anything, but Clyde was unhappy. He said if this keeps happen again, he will sell me to the Great Desert to be eaten by Desert Bones barbarians. I was terrified and told him that Thales, oh Thales, he brought back a lot of copper coins someday back then ... I thought they would not sell me ... Clyde told me to go back and said he would come at night ..."

Carina's face turned red again, the hand that were wiping herbs suddenly shivered, making a few drops of blood drip down to the floor from Thales's back again. Thales moaned in silence, the burning sensation of pain which diminished a bit just now was stimulated by Carina’s actions again.

Ryan stared angrily at Ned, making the latter lowered his head. Kelly looked at Ned with astonishment then looked at Thales. Only Clint was silent and kept bringing water to them.

"I said it’s nothing, Ned, Carina," Thales felt that the injury on his back seemed to be somewhat better, he gently held Ned's hand, "Next time, if any of you cannot obtain enough money, tell me, I will find a solution."

Ned cried even harder, he vaguely said with a sobbing voice: "Th-Thales, yes - yes - sorry -"

"It's all right for now, Ned, do not be scared. I always find a way in the end." Thales chuckled and took a sip from the piece of broken bowl in Clint's hands.

He turned his head and lightly breathed in some fresh air, his luck was undoubtedly much worse than other countless fellow transmigrating predecessors who crossed countless worlds.

But even so.

He looked at the five children around him, especially the one that just escaped the Typhoid fever Carina, her glittery crystal eyes were still frightened.

Tomorrow we will need to find some other ways to beg for more money, he thought.

------------------

It was at the end of the praying time at sunset in Eternal Star’s Sunset Divine Temple, while cleaning the ritual altar, an assistant priestess stopped her hands and was surprised to discover the sacrificial lamp filled with the Eternal oil under the stone altar.

That lamp, since she was given the duty to take care of the ancient altar, was never lit, never used, never mentioned by anyone up until that day, suddenly lit a bright yellow flame.

The flame then absurdly turned red, a bright red, just like the color of blood, becoming more and more exuberant.

An elderly priestess noticed the disrespectful action of the assistant, she shouted resentfully as the assistant shifted her attention back to the altar. But until she also saw the unusual sacrificial lamp, the elder cannot help but to exclaim.

"Nina, fast, inform lady High Priestess!"

The elderly priestess cannot hide the surprise look on her face. She fluttered before the sacrificial lamb, lifted her right hand, turned her left hand up, and prepared to pray.

What's going on here? The assistant Nina saw for the first time her elderly priestess would possibly lose her usual respectful composure that it also affected her altogether.

Did I make a mistake? Alas, I’m sure that I didn’t touch the lamp.

"But, what should I tell lady High Priestess? That someone secretly lit up … lit up the lamp by the altar?" Asked the flustered Nina.

“No.”

The elderly priestess stared at the sacrificial lamp, her hands kept changing the praying gestures.

"This lamp, through the two continents, through the countless islands in the whole world of Elor, there’s only one person who can light it up."

"And that person, will the one to determine the future of this kingdom."

End of chapter I – Next chapter: Nervous Rick