🔊 TTS Settings
chapter 06
Before this journey, the Duke had provided me with a carriage, accompanying maids, bodyguard knights, a mage from the Duke’s household, and food preserved with magic.
It had taken three days and nights to travel by carriage from the capital to this southern slum. Perhaps that’s why my whole body ached with fatigue even before the real work began.
If the mage from the Duke’s household had been more skilled, we could have teleported here instantly.
But, unfortunately, reality wasn’t so convenient.
In the Empire, only very high-ranking royal mages could perform teleportation-level magic.
I had expected the “darkness” of this place to be gloomy and dreary, but surprisingly, the southern slum was bright.
Actually, “bright” wasn’t quite right—it was hot. The blazing sun had cracked the earth.
People here were more likely to die from the heat than from starvation.
As expected, the few pedestrians I could see were draped in rags, moving weakly. Most were lying helplessly under fragile rooftops or tents.
There should be a guide for the game here somewhere…
Of all the slums near the Empire’s border, this one had the highest population.
So it was also the most likely place to find a guide.
Although I had come here under the Emperor’s orders, ensuring the Empire’s stability through food supply was far less important to me than completing my sub-mission.
Well, I didn’t intend to die quickly by attracting a tyrant’s attention, so I planned to carry out my mission diligently.
Could there really be a guide for the game—a “light”—among these shabby, stinking people? I couldn’t spot anyone noteworthy.
I had come this far… and still got no clue from any of them.
I didn’t even know how I was supposed to recognize the game’s guide in the first place.
Feeling frustrated, I instructed my servants to set up a makeshift tent and a food distribution table, and gathered the people.
“Everyone, I’ve brought fresh bread and milk. There’s also some fruit. Please line up over here and take one portion each.”
The food was enchanted not only with preservation magic but also with volume-compression magic, so a large quantity could be transported in a small space.
It was easily enough to feed over 300 people.
This would provide at least one meal for the slum residents, with plenty left over.
Upon hearing “food,” the people mustered whatever strength they had and shuffled forward to line up at the distribution table.
I, along with my servants, began handing out bread, soup, and fruit in order when suddenly I heard murmuring from somewhere.
“Miss, you should go over there. It seems a fight has broken out.”
One of the maids shouted urgently.
‘Do these people still have the energy to fight?’
I looked at the maid. For a moment, her eyes shimmered with deep blue light before returning to their normal brown.
I blinked in disbelief. Perhaps the heat was playing tricks on my eyes.
I took a deep breath and, with one of the knights, went to check the commotion.
At the scene, a group of children caught my eye amid the indifference of the surrounding adults.
Four children, around eight years old, were bullying a younger-looking girl.
“Hey, who do you think you are? Don’t line up if you’re that shady. If everyone running this food service runs away because of you, what will happen? Go away.”
“Yeah, you go away.”
“I’m hungry too… just once…”
While the adults were near death, the children were still energetic enough to fight amongst themselves.
