The entire market was bustling with people.
Rows and rows of stalls lined the neatly paved road, displaying their products on both the left and right sides of the open street. They were mostly fruits and vegetables, with some meat and fish, dairy, cooked food, and small trinkets that children were drawn to.
Ruth looked at the toys and picked up a ballerina who was constantly dancing atop a music box that played music. It wasn't the usual rigid machine that spun the ballerina figurine around in her previous life, but an actual lifelike porcelain ballerina dancing on top of the music box, powered by a magical stone.
Aldus smiled as he looked at the toy and the young miss' face. 'After all, she was still a child,' Aldus thought in his heart.
Upon seeing a customer, the shop keeper also smiled, "You've made the right choice, little missy. This was the work of a wandering wizard apprentice, and this little thing was powered entirely by magic stones. Don't think it's expensive, but not only does it have defensive properties, but it can also act as a small storage device--which can put little pastries and candies inside without the problem of them melting or going bad." The last sentence was spoken to Aldus, the adult around the child present, trying to convince this obviously wealthy man to buy it for the child.
Aldus was moved a little.
Although the young miss disdained to be called a child, seeing as the young miss seemed to like it--
"Aldus, let's buy it." Aldus' opened mouth closed, and it immediately bloomed into a smile. Sure enough, the young miss also likes it. With this thought in his heart, he readily paid for the toy, and they continued to stroll through the marketplace.
Aldus held the toy and with a smile, asked his young miss, "Where do we need to put it, Miss Ruth? Should we place it later on the bedside table?"
It was Ruth's turn to be confused, "Why do I need to place it on my bedside table? Put it inside one of our baggage."
Aldus' was a little befuddled.
"Then, young miss, may I ask what you plan to do with this toy?" Finally, he could only ask the young miss himself.
"Take it apart, of course." Aldus' smile faded. 'This answer was really--' Aldus could only be speechless.
Ignoring the sense of bewilderment, they continued to stroll the marketplace.
Passing by the common market were the rows of buildings stood. Carriages are frequently seen stopping by one of the shops, and people of various statuses come and go. Ruth peered through the glass windows of shops that displayed beautiful dresses, books, pastries, and flowers--many of which made her nostalgic.
In the apocalypse, dresses can only be worn by those who were not afraid of death or those who wanted to find a powerful person to cling to. Because when running for your life, wearing a dress only becomes a drag. Nobody would be so foolish as to put their lives in danger for it.
The value of a book, on the other hand, can only be summarized in a single word: firewood. No one had time to read; their thoughts were all focused on their protesting stomachs, parched lips, and the possibility of dying at any time where their bodies would only become one of those stinking corpses were haphazardly scattered everywhere. The threat of a declining human population at the time made knowledge preservation a ridiculous dream. In the end, if there were no humans left, what use was knowledge anyway?
Pastries, too, only exists in the words of adults who have lived before the apocalypse. Those who were born in the apocalypse can only know that it was a sweet desert without even knowing what 'sweet' tasted like before they were swallowed up by the virus.
Ruth thought she had become numb, but looking at this prosperous world once again reminded her of a world that's akin to an unending abyss. The contrast between this seemingly sparkling city and the ruins, which had turned dark brown from the coagulated blood of the deceased.
She forcibly shook away her thoughts and continued to walk. Suddenly, she heard a shout from nearby. She subconsciously shifted her body to the side, and a gust of wind blew from where she stood. Aldus immediately guarded the young miss with his body, but the running figure was not aimed at them at all. He ran past them, holding what appeared to be a big piece of bread.
"Thief! There's a thief! Catch him!"
The crowd was initially uninterested in what was going on, but when they learned that there was a thief, the kind-hearted people who had previously avoided the commotion rushed to capture the running figure. In the end, a burly man with a scar on his face grabbed the child by lifting the collar of his clothes. The child who was focused on running felt as if he seemed slowly levitating off the ground.
The onlookers looked at the thief and gasped--because the caught 'thief' was actually a child.
Slums remained common despite the strict laws established by the Great Dragon Knight when he founded the Kingdom. It wasn't unusual to see a child steal--the only difference was that in the Alister Duchy, this phenomenon was already reduced because children under the legal age were given odd jobs to support themselves until they could find a formal job. With a full stomach and warm shelter, these children wouldn't be stupid enough to resort to stealing.
That was why, generally, children stealing were considered rare in the Alister Duchy.
The little boy was small and looked malnourished, wearing rags, had soot on his face and had disheveled hair. He had on a ferocious face, looking at everyone and hugging the bread in his hands like protecting a treasure.
The one who caught him was an honest man with broad shoulders and was very tall, looking more like a bear than a human. He had a scar on his face and looked quite intimidating. When he frowned, it was enough to make children cry. He had great strength, but the child's struggles still made him frown. "Stop moving! You're just going to hurt yourself!"
The child did not stop struggling and even glared at the man viciously. However, his figure and malnourished physique didn't allow him to struggle further. The strange thing, however, was even if the child was clearly exhausted, instead of breathing from his nose, slits that looked like fish gills opened and closed rapidly. Seeing this, the onlookers started to whisper among themselves.
"Oh, they must be..."
"How pitiful..."
Ruth looked up, and Aldus, feeling the young miss' gaze, immediately understood and explained, "A small kingdom near the coast called Merival was attacked by the beast tide. Just as they were beginning to recover, the prince suddenly plotted an uprising that resulted in civil war. This resulted in many civilians fleeing to neighboring kingdoms."
"That child was most likely a Merival citizen, as their people were known for having gills on their necks."
Merival was a kingdom near the ocean. They were said to be descendants of the deep-sea mermaids. Although they are unable to turn their legs into fishtails like mermaids, they can still breathe freely in water and have greater strength than the average human. The people of Merival were known to be xenophobic, so one can only imagine their desperation when they were forced to flee to other kingdoms to survive.
Aside from the mermaid clan that stays in the deep sea that's impossible to appear on land unless they needed to, only a citizen from Merival had gills.
Ruth retracted her gaze and focused on the running figure holding a rolling pin and wearing a baker's hat then arrived at the scene. When he saw the child looking at him with resentment, he immediately became angry, "You dirty little rat! Bring the bread you stole back to me!"
The child didn't speak and just stared at everyone with gloomy eyes. Some crowd felt a little chill coming from those ferocious eyes--like they would be bitten in the neck the next second. The burly man holding the child also felt uncomfortable, "Give that to him, that's not yours! Don't be stubborn!"
"It's mine." The child firmly said.
"Ha--you still won't give it back. Kid, don't wait for me to break your arms, I'm not a good-tempered person!" The baker threatened.
"But I paid for it! How can it be called stealing?!" The child angrily defended himself.
"What payment are you talking about! Look at yourself! You're just a beggar! Can a poor person like you even afford my bread?!" The baker's words were a little unpleasant, but no one stood up to speak up for the child--because they also thought so in their hearts.
Ruth stood at the side, watching all this happen. She quietly looked at the child's face that wouldn't back down and felt a little interested.
"You lied! I obviously paid for it, but after taking my payment you insisted that I stole your bread! What's wrong in taking what I paid for?! That's not stealing!"
He indeed took this child's necklace. The baker's heart jumped, but he pretended to laugh in disdain, "Ha--! This kid--"
At this time, Ruth's voice interrupted, "What is it that you gave?"
"Who are you?" The baker looked unhappily at the person who interrupted him. The crowd gave way and what they saw was someone who looked like a child. If the child was alone, he would have angrily nagged the child who dared to interrupt him but looking at the man in green long hair behind the kid, noticing their noble demeanor, and their obviously expensive garments--their status may not be ordinary.
The baker refrained from speaking rashly, but still couldn't help but speak unhappily to the child covered with a cloak, "This is none of your business, kid."
Ruth didn't pay attention to the baker at all and just looked at the eyes of that child that was held by the tall man. The child stared at her eyes, and seemed to have been given courage, "I gave mermaid's tears as compensation! That was the only relic my mother left me." Thinking of her mother who died in the civil war, the child--Astrot-- felt a little sad.
"Do you have proof that he indeed took your item?" The child was a bit stunned. He didn't know how someone could have a proof of this kind of thing.
He was just very hungry. He didn't think too much at that time. When he found out that he couldn't buy the bread with coins, he was originally going to find ways to earn money to buy food--but the baker said that it was not impossible to buy, as long as he gave him the pendant of the necklace on his neck.
Who knew that after giving it, Astrot was suddenly kicked out of the store. He was incredulous, only then did he realize that he had been deceived. In his anger, he stole the bread from the baker.
So--he didn't have a proof at all.
Looking at the child's face filled with lost, the baker's originally nervous heart immediately felt relieved.
"Of course, that little bastard doesn't have any proof--because there were no mermaid's tears at all! Not only was he a thief, but also a liar! Tsk, I couldn't believe that a child could actually do such vile things." The baker's tone was filled with righteous indignation, quickly occupying the moral high ground, emphasizing the word 'vile'.
The child, upon hearing it couldn't help but have tears accumulate on his ocean-blue eyes. He was clearly not lying, but he simply couldn't find anything that could prove it!
The child clenched his teeth hard, fighting the tears about to fall from his eyes. He kept his ferocious look, looking at the baker as if he was about to skin him alive. The man that looked like a bear was a little uncomfortable looking at the child who was obviously sad. It was not impossible to just pay for the bread, he could still afford it with his salary.
When he was about to speak up, the sound of the child wearing a cloak sounded again,
"Well, although he didn't have proof--I seem to have one, would you like to see it?"