“I can help you. Like how I prevented the meeting between the Count of Nettleton and Miss Elizabeth!”

“That request last time was my recklessness. Forget it.”

“I can deliver letters, and I can arrange a place for you two alone. And…”

“Didn’t I say it’s fine?”

He unknowingly raised his voice.

Franz froze.

“You said you trusted me, didn’t you?”

“It’s not your business.”

“You said I’m the only one you can trust. Was that an empty word?”

What should he say in this situation?

Observing Franz?

Thinking from Franz’s perspective?

Although Elizabeth’s advice came to mind, Nikolai’s lips were tightly sealed.

He felt ashamed of being unable to control his emotions and revealing his worries about his young halfbrother.

Franz seemed to take the silence as a strong refusal.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interfere, I just wanted to help you.”

After bowing in apology, Franz turned and ran away.

He failed to stop the departing child.

Nikolai newly realized that he was an awkward person who was only accustomed to the duties of an emperor and didn’t know how to form basic relationships.

‘I don’t have the right to like someone. I don’t even have the skill. I have to live in solitude as I do now. With the wolves.’

He was about to turn away, but then he noticed a drawing on the dirt floor.

The hastily drawn picture was good enough to catch his eyes.

Suddenly, he remembered the stick Franz had been tossing around.

The end of the stick was stained with wet dirt.

‘Pinch drew this?’

He looked at the drawing on the dirt floor once again.

A kind couple and a small boy in between them.

It was a picture of a harmonious family, as if from a scene in a fairy tale.

Holding a paper with the address of a herb shop, I looked around.

‘Susan had a reason to worry. It’s the first time I’ve seen such a sight since coming to this world.’

I hurried my steps towards the dilapidated shanty and garbage dump.

Sewage not properly treated mixed with animal excrement, emitting a foul odor.

Begging children. Men lying around drunk.

Women staring into the void with wornout expressions.

It was a typical face of the slums.

‘Why am I surprised? I used to roam places like this when I was young.’

I had already become accustomed to the luxurious lives of the wealthy and nobles.
Ordinarily, the nobles dared not cross the Emperor, and treated the Crown Prince as a child of the neighborhood.

One might think they were living dreadful days, tormented by nightmares, but they weren’t.

The slums were disorganized, dirty, and rampant with fear and despair.

The poverty one had briefly forgotten was more real and direct than the gallows.

“Hey, red head! Where did such a pretty lady pop up from?”

A throaty voice rang out, accompanied by the sound of a whistle.

Several men in the alley were sizing me up.

“Do you work in a pricey place? You’re absolutely gorgeous.”

“Come over here. We’ll be nice to you!”

I ignored them, but to no avail.

The rowdy men began to trail behind me.

“Hey, pretty. Quit playing hard to get.”

“You came here at this time, you must be interested too.”

Why didn’t they understand that a woman wandering alone in the slums was dangerous?

Moreover, I was extraordinarily beautiful.

Even draped in rags, I couldn’t hide my vibrant red hair, which stood out like a blooming rose, and my long, slender limbs.

It was not surprising that these uncouth men were salivating over me.

‘Boritsu is a character that doesn’t move during the day. It was dusk when he encountered Claudia.’

There was a bit of risk until I found Boritsu.

I wasn’t going to tolerate it, even if it meant dealing with these flies.

“Look at this hair. I bet you could get a pretty penny for it at a wig shop.”

One of the flies grabbed my hair.

It was disgusting, like a thousand maggots crawling on my bare skin.

“Who do you think you are, touching me?”

I glared coldly at the mischievous fly.

The flies laughed heartily, finding something amusing.

“This one, she’s crawling up because we’re being nice?”

“Haughty chicks need to be put in their place!”

Such clichés.

‘Is there a school that teaches only foul words? Do they go hand in hand and learn? Getting a group discount?’

If I were Claudia, a female knight, I would have drawn my sword without hesitation.

I would have shown them the heat, making them wet their pants.

Regrettably, all I had was money and charm.

I didn’t want to seduce just anyone because I was in a hurry.

Of course, the situation wasn’t that urgent.

“Stop talking nonsense and get lost. If you want to go home alive.”

“What’s this red chick babbling about?”

“Got earplugs in? I. Said. Get. Lost.”

I emphasized each word.

The flies gawked at me, spitting their filthy saliva.

“This girl, running her mouth off?”

“Do you know what happens to girls like you who show off here?”

If this were a typical romance novel, a handsome man passing by would have rescued me.

After defeating the men with an emotionless face, he would have said to me.

‘A woman walking alone, are you insane or do you have a death wish?’

But this world was a hardboiled survival adventure from beginning to end.

The hole to survive had to be dug by oneself.

Snap, I flicked my fingers.

At the signal, armed men sprang out.

Private security guards hired for a hefty sum.

They were outstanding in concealment and ambush, worth their high cost.

“What, what are these guys?”

“Damn it! She had companions?!”

The flies, realizing things had gone wrong, trembled like rats fallen into a sewage drain.

They were all talk when things were going their way.

“Should’ve left when I asked nicely.”

“W, we’re sorry! Please forgive us!”

The flies begged, their hands and feet flailing.

It was far from satisfying; it left a bad taste in my mouth.

Indeed, money was nice.

If I didn’t have the means to hire security guards, it would have been me begging out of fear now.

The captain of the security guards asked in a monotonous voice.
“Miss, what should we do?”

“Let him lose. Just spare his life.”

“A difficult task.”

“You can take it easy. Even if he survives, he’ll only cause harm to others.”

“I’ll try my best to spare him.”

The slum skies were filled with screams that one might hear in a slaughterhouse.

I was trying to feel the satisfaction of money spent when a dark shadow rose in the alley.

That shadow was approaching me staggeringly, aimed directly at me.