After that, the air between them stayed awkward.
Kanata had picked up three thousand. Thirty hours of service fees, plus half of today’s ten-hour wage. 5x10x100x0.5 = 2500. She’d already made fifty-five hundred.
In every sense of the word, she’d made a killing.
And yet, she didn’t feel good about it at all. That three thousand felt like money earned in some shameful way. She kept wavering between returning it and keeping it to buy Nozomi some new clothes.
Alessia moved from shop to shop. Everything she bought, she tossed to Kanata without a word, then headed for the next store.
Every now and then, she’d throw out a mocking remark.
“If I can afford it, I could probably make you walk down the street in some slutty swimsuit too. Your dignity clearly isn’t worth much anyway.”
Those words hurt. Kanata could only smile and let them slide. Their relationship was exactly that—one willing to hit, one willing to take it.
“As you wish. You can insult me however you like, do whatever you want to me. As long as our deal stands and my little sister gets to live better, I don’t care what happens to me.”
She answered with a bitter smile. Carrying those heavy bags, she let the handles dig red marks into her hands.
Maybe their shopping spree had drawn too much attention. Halfway through, a little beggar snatched the wallet from Alessia’s hand.
She looked rich at a glance. The beggar clearly didn’t think she could snatch those luxury goods from Kanata, so the only target was the thing being held in hand.
There was a lot of cash in that wallet, along with some documents. It definitely wasn’t something they could ignore.
Kanata reflexively shoved everything she was carrying into Alessia’s arms and went after the beggar herself. Maybe she just wanted to do something with the money she’d taken, to ease that awful feeling of living off someone else for free.
Doing something for that damned woman would, at least, make her feel a little better.
The beggar took off at full speed. Most people would have had a hard time catching up. But Kanata, who’d been bullied so often, had unknowingly trained herself into having lightning-fast legs. She couldn’t fight, but when it came to running, no one could beat her.
“Robbing someone in broad daylight... you’ve got a death wish.”
If that little beggar knew she’d stolen the Sovereign’s wallet, then—well, the look on her face would’ve turned ugly, and her ending would’ve been miserable.
After all, that person was Alexia Fujiwara, someone who couldn’t tolerate the slightest offense. Thieves who had stolen from the Fujiwara Clan before had been beaten to death by the household servants and dumped in the street. In short, it was too horrible to look at.
If Kanata caught her first, she could still let her go with a warning not to do it again. Otherwise, sooner or later, she’d get herself killed. But if the Fujiwara Clan’s private guards were mobilized, then she’d really be done for.
They wouldn’t let off anyone who caused trouble.
The beggar gradually slowed down, like she was running out of strength, then finally turned into an alley.
It was a dead end.
She must’ve thought she’d shaken off the victim and won big. Feeling safe, she turned around—only to find Kanata had already caught up.
Emmm... she really had the heart to steal money, but not the strength to turn things around.
Only then did Kanata manage to see clearly. The beggar was a girl about her age, filthy from head to toe. Behind her stood a little girl, maybe around 120 centimeters tall, just as dirty, staring at Kanata in terror.
“Don’t come any closer... I-I’ll fight you to the death...”
The beggar girl shielded the stolen wallet. A small knife suddenly appeared in her hand.
“You rich people... you’re all shameless, despicable scum... you all deserve to die...”
Her hatred for the rich ran deep. From the look of it, she’d keep doing this too.
“I’m a soldier of the Imperial Guard. Put down your weapon and hand over what you stole. I’ll let you go. The owner of that wallet is someone you can’t afford to provoke.”
Kanata thought her words sounded very official. At the very least, she felt she was a little easier to talk to than the other Imperial Guard soldiers.
Anyone else would probably have opened fire by now.
“I’ll say it again. I’m not going to do anything to you, on one condition—give me back the wallet.”
“You Imperial Guard people... you always beat up beggars who beg in the city whenever you feel like it... I don’t trust you.”
The beggar girl refused to cooperate.
The Imperial Guard had authority. Ordinary people held them in high regard. But there were still plenty of rotten scum among them who bullied others. The girl had happened to run into exactly those kinds of people, so she’d condemned the whole bunch together.
Kanata felt wronged. She’d never bullied anyone in her life. She was always the one getting bullied.
“Throw the wallet over. I’ll take it and leave immediately. This is the last chance I’m giving you.”
She forced down her anger, but irritation was already showing on her face. The little girl behind the beggar made it hard for her to lash out.
They both had little sisters. It wasn’t hard to understand each other.
The little beggar had stolen money to make her sister’s life a little better.
At their core, the two of them were the same.
“Fine...”
The beggar girl chose to give in and threw something over.
But the thing that traced an arc through the air and landed in Kanata’s hand wasn’t Alessia’s wallet.
It was a filthy, tattered cloth shoe.
“Damn it, you actually tricked m—”
The word was still stuck in her throat when the knife in the beggar’s hand plunged into Kanata’s lower abdomen.
“Die, you rich people’s lapdog!”
The beggar girl’s expression was cold and terrifying.
