Ten terot could buy one piece of black bread for a child to eat alone. Ten thousand terot was the money a steam carriage coachman could earn working a full month without rest. Fifty thousand terot was the price of one dress made by a skilled tailor.
It couldn't be converted to real-world prices, but it could be calculated based on in-game payment amounts. Converting 50,000 terot to cash that could be purchased with in-game currency meant 500 cash. 500 cash was about 5 million won. During events, if you bought it with coupons, it could be resolved for around 3 million won. If you divided it into 1,000 won coupons and bought it most economically, it might drop to around 2.5 million won.
Esperanza had never made such a large payment, and terot could also be obtained within the game. But comparing it to real-world prices, it was absolutely not a small amount of money. Moreover, she would have to pay the same amount as the remaining balance.
However, hardcore players had a lot of money. Esperanza showed no change in expression even while pouring out large bills.
"Wow......"
Jack drooled. But that kid wouldn't be able to touch this money. Even if he succeeded in stealing it, having thousand terot bills instead of hundred terot ones would be fortunate if they were just peacefully taken away.
They came out without incident. All that had changed was a lighter pouch and a strange device in her hand. The thing that looked like a glossy die had no particular features except for a round groove carved on top.
Esperanza threw it into her inventory.
[Item: Information Broker's Receiver]
—Description: A receiver given by an information broker. Somehow suspicious.
That was the end with no explanation. Not helpful.
"Can, can I go back now......"
"I'd like you to take me out to the outside."
"I have a starving younger sibling at home! If I don't go......"
"Jack, don't lie."
The boy swallowed dry saliva. The woman looking down at him had a face like the dolls that followed behind ladies and gentlemen. Even with powder on them, they looked so grotesquely ugly that he thought he'd never understand the hearts of rich people who called them pretty and carried them around. The woman had an expressionless face just like those things.
"Take me out."
"......Yes."
Even more quietly than when going to the information broker, they came out of the Alter District following the largest and safest roads. Esperanza looked at Jack intently. The boy's face clearly showed his dismay at today's failure, yet he couldn't dare reveal it in front of the frightening Esperanza. But he also couldn't completely hide his youthful spirit. She clicked her tongue lightly.
"Follow me."
Esperanza entered a nearby bakery. The bakery owner glared when grimy Jack entered, then shut his mouth tight and pretended not to see when Esperanza in her black hood gestured.
"Choose everything you want to eat."
"Huh, what?"
"You can eat and then go in, right? Even if they steal money, they won't steal bread you've already eaten."
That was exactly what kind of place it was, but Jack didn't say so. As she said, he could just eat it all up.
Since it was a bakery near the Alter District, it didn't sell amazing bread. Still, compared to the black bread or watery oatmeal that the pickpocket boy used for daily meals, it was a heavenly feast. Esperanza sighed while watching the kid frantically choosing greasy bread.
Compared to 'newspaper boy Jack,' he wasn't smart and was quite cowardly. Though he lived under the protection of thugs, being good at pleasing them, that wouldn't last more than a few years either. The child would drift between day jobs or crawl into criminals' dens. Because that's what he'd need to do to survive.
Everyone living in Nine Holder who was less unfortunate than Jack shared responsibility for his misfortune. From the Queen through Cider Claiborne down to this bakery owner. Even Esperanza, who was most free from that responsibility as someone not of this world.
One child's poverty was the responsibility of all society.
"What should I do with you......."
Jack, who had been stuffing soft fruit bread and sandwiches with ground meat into his mouth following Esperanza's orders, opened his eyes wide. Just from being given food, the child's fortress-like wariness had half-crumbled.
"Where are you usually during the day?"
"Just wandering around. With the older guys who live in the Alter District. Sometimes we come out a bit more and wander around the shopping district."
Meaning he served thugs or pickpocketed.
"Let's make a promise. If I leave money here, I'll make it so you can eat one bread every evening. Just one, and you have to eat it here before leaving."
She could see the bakery owner's eyes widen. Of course, since he'd never agreed to this with her. She intended to compensate him separately for that.
"In exchange, if I leave something at this bakery...... can you read?"
"I can read."
The child answered sullenly. He could probably read but not write. Esperanza glanced at the bakery owner.
No, not trustworthy.
"Then let's set a time and date to meet. I'll set a time and notify this bakery, so you come here at that time."
Esperanza repeated the same words to the bakery owner.
"I'll give you 10,000 terot first for a month's worth. If you do well, I might entrust you with more in the future. Every evening, one bread. No more, no less—whatever the child chooses, give him one and let him eat it inside the store."
In a small bakery like this, 10,000 terot was money equivalent to a month's sales. For one bread a day, at most 30 breads' worth, it was more than enough.
"I trust you'll do well. As I said, keep in mind that I can come check anytime."
"What are you saying, miss? Don't worry. I'll make sure to feed that little rascal well."
"Never let him take bread out. Don't give him money either. Just one bread. ......You can hire him and pay him from your own money as you please."
The bakery owner understood. He was being told to employ the child and deduct some amount from the money just given. Just a very little. How well he did this would determine whether such fortune would fall again next time.
The shabby boy looked up at Esperanza while sucking his fingers covered in bread crumbs. Esperanza sighed. There were countless children like this in Nine Holder. Only one child, who happened to be named 'Jack' and caught her eye, was saved from going hungry.
Esperanza had neither the ability nor the will to rescue Nine Holder's poverty.
Esperanza, who had squeezed her eyes shut and opened them, led Jack out of the bakery. Then she questioned the point she'd been suspicious of.
"You got money from that information broker, didn't you?"
Jack, who had been about to leave with a grinning greeting, turned around creakily.
"You took money from there and brought me, right?"
"That, that is, well. That person is still the kindest among information brokers."
Oh my. He brought her to the most dangerous person and speaks well of it.
'He's someone who wouldn't worry about customers, so why did he go as far as paying this kid to lure me in?'
Esperanza hadn't sought him out. He had called Esperanza. Knowing that Esperanza had met Jack, he had lured her in by paying this child. Everything about that man felt dangerous.
"......Could you not tell the older guys?"
The information broker and thugs must not get along well. It seemed so. 'Teacher' was truly a polite and neat young man, except for his dangerous atmosphere and suspicious behavior. The kind that thugs who worshiped visible strength would hate.
"If you keep my secret too."
"Secret, what secret?"
"You saw what I requested, right? Promise you won't tell anyone. Then I'll promise too."
"I promise!"
The boy had no choice. Having heard the answer, Esperanza pulled her riding hood down deep. The woman who mixed into the crowd disappeared from sight in an instant.
"She's not really a ghost, is she......."
It felt like being bewitched. Jack slipped into the bakery to ask the owner if he remembered that person, and was told not to talk nonsense and to get lost by tomorrow.
"By tomorrow. He said by tomorrow!"
The boy danced excitedly as he crawled into his shabby slum dwelling. Tomorrow he too would have bread to eat. Very soft bread at that. Bread with fruit or meat inside.
❀⋆｡°✿☆❀✿°｡⋆❀
In the brightly lit study, Cider Claiborne was tapping blueprints with the tip of his pen. As if unable to concentrate well, he touched his brightly shining golden hair with his fingertips and fell into thought. He repeated burying his body in the chair, tilting his head back, and picking up the pen again several times.
It was a particularly unproductive day.
From the day Esperanza had barged into his house, there had been more than one or two things stirring up his mind. It wasn't Esperanza's fault, but it was also true that they were generally worries Esperanza had brought.
But today, that culprit had actually headed to the slums. To the Alter District, full of dirty, dangerous, and untrustworthy people. So whether it was blueprints or anything else spread out, there was no way he could concentrate.
It wasn't that he was worried about Esperanza's safety. Considering her combat power that could casually shoulder a huge rifle and shoot without even looking to pierce the exact center of all targets, considering that small body containing enough magical power for all of Nine Holder to use for a day, unless an army came from somewhere, there was no way she could be harmed.
They were just back-alley thugs after all. With their pathetic blades or gunpowder weapons, they couldn't hurt Esperanza. As for magical weapons, she had better ones herself.......
Having thought that far, Cider grimaced. Right, Esperanza's firearm was quite excellent. But honestly, thinking of it as technology from 13 years in the future, there were many disappointing aspects. Just that? Shouldn't someone who shot that well have more excellent weapons?
For example, firearms directly crafted by Cider Claiborne, the 'genius magical engineer of the century.'
"I've never made guns though."
Still, I'd make them better. Cider thought lightly and stood up. His head was much clearer than before. Since he was doomed to not do other work today anyway, he should lightly sketch out some designs. Using this as an excuse, if he cajoled well, he might be able to get more blood from Esperanza. Then he'd use half for making the gun and keep half for research.
Just as his sculpted, streamlined back was about to disappear inside the research lab door, there was a thud from the study terrace. Like the sound something makes when falling.