"Why??? Tell me. What made you give up the easiest path, thinking and hiding in such a place again?"
The little beggar held the baby girl in his arms. After smacking her mouth twice, the baby girl fell asleep again tiredly.
"...The number of soldiers."
"Oh? What do you mean? Isn't it normal that many soldiers are guarding the entrance and exit to the city? " The sword seemed to be interested.
The little beggar raised his head and said without any expression: "Generally, that's normal but not at this point."
Hearing this, The blood pupil suddenly shone excitedly. Its laughter echoed in the beggar's mind, and the voice said: "Interesting. Boy, Very good! Then please tell me the reason."
After the little beggar was silent for a moment, he slowly said: "Last night, the woman said that she would leave today."
"Oh, you mean the little princess who wants to cut you to pieces immediately and was almost sold by you for gold coins?"
"...You've already known everything, why are you talking nonsense."
The blood pupil flashed with a devil's voice into the little beggar's mind: "Haha, please just pretend that I know nothing at this moment, I am just an idiot dagger that can speak a few words and is ignorant about anything else. Please tell me and inspire my wisdom~! My dear owner."
The demon's tone suddenly became humble, but there was no trace of respect in its tone.
After staying three days with it, the little beggar knew that this sword was definitely not a good guy. But after thinking about it carefully, he decided to follow its wishes and tell the answer.
"She said she would leave. If I am responsible for the departure of this vicious woman, who is good at manipulating people and has climbed into the top classes, to her home, I will definitely use many soldiers in the city to escort..."
"Slow down, wait a moment." For some reason, the sword was confused and suddenly interrupted him.
"Before you go on, I want to make sure something first. Do you... know the meaning of the title 'Princess'?"
"Yes, of course"
"Oh? Please explain it to me." The sword still seemed a little uneasy.
"My late father told me that a princess was a term used to describe a spoiled woman who was beautiful and kept by wealthy top-class men. A princess often employed various manipulative tactics and deceitful schemes to wrap rich men around their fingers, making them willingly squander fortunes on them while seeking her favor. Furthermore, she could throw a tantrum at the slightest inconvenience."
"... "
Now, it was the sword's rare turn to remain silent.
The little beggar's knowledge was not wrong. In a materialistic poor city like Senag, the so-called princess was just a nicer title for whores and bitches. Although he was indeed a little surprised that a girl who was just over ten years old could become a "princess".
But this point further illustrated the girl's sophistication, cunning, ability to take advantage of men's weaknesses, and smooth-talking nature, which made the little beggar more convinced that she was an extremely dangerous and excellent "princess", and the powerful men behind her were not simple.
"...Okay, I have to admit that it is inevitable that you can only hear this kind of "princess" in such a living condition." The sword sighed, closed its blood pupil, and said.
"Go on explaining your judgment."
Although the beggar said that, the sword did not explain the true meaning of the title "princess" to the little beggar.
On one hand, offending the mistress of a big shot was also a very troublesome matter, and it was not much different from offending a real princess. On the other hand, it was its interest. Regarding interesting things, the sword was happy to keep silent and looked forward to the following development.
The little beggar kept silent for a moment, then he said.
"If people were escorting my mistress (The sword then couldn't help but giggle twice because the little beggar's face was so serious and it's really funny for him to say these with such a face), I would ensure the paths out of the city are open and unobstructed. I would never deploy so many soldiers to block the city gates to check on my secret lover. Instead, I must send a large number of the city's soldiers to escort her safely on her way home. That way, there wouldn't be such a heavy military presence at the gates."
The sword laughed and asked.
"That makes sense. That's all?"
"Also...last night, a killer organization was wiped out." The beggar replied.
"Haha, boy, I see, that's what you think. The killer organization has been wiped out, and the mayor doesn't care about anything but just wants to use someone to blame for all kidnapping babies for the announcement of solving the case."
"...Dead people can't argue." The little beggar said calmly and coldly.
"If the case has really been solved, then there shouldn't have been so many soldiers guarding the entrance and exit and searching in the city. So, they probably didn't find the most important thing. That's..."
The sword continued the unfinished answer.
"That's the missing babies, right? The powerful 'mistress' ordered the mayor to find these babies as soon as possible before she left, so the truth is that the mayor was still investigating clues related to the missing babies with the mistress of a certain big shot, preventing any suspicious persons carrying babies from leaving Senag."
"...But, that's not all my worries"
Silence temporarily replaced words. The little beggar lowered his eyes and silently stared at the baby girl in his arms. The silence lasted longer this time. Standing in the snow, he seemed to willing to stay in this moment until the end of time...
"...The key."
"oh?" The blood pupil flashed.
"The Key Organization. The organization that once...hunted down this baby's parents."
"Oh, is this the organization that killed the family of people who always spoke of benevolence, justice, and morality? Speaking of which, I have to thank them. Well done!"
There was no expression change on the little beggar's face. He just used the simplest words to express his meaning.
"They are looking for her. I saw people wearing their iconic cloaks searching around."
The sword understood that since the key organization could kill all of the baby girl's family members, it would also kill the little beggar who found the baby girl. And what will happen if the baby girl falls into their hands?
Finally, the conversation has finished. The sword slowly opened his blood pupil. After thinking for a moment, he raised his blood pupil and stared at the expressionless face of the little beggar, staring...
"Haha...hehehe...hahahaha! Interesting! Boy, you are really interesting! Is this bullshit reasoning true? The reason why you don't want to send this dead girl away is because of a terrorist organization that killed the baby's family, or because of that you simply don't want to separate from this girl so early? Haha...that's it."
"Heh… fine. At this point, I'll just assume that the reason is the organization. But, you've created an insurmountable gap in front of you. How will you manage to leave this city safely with that damn baby without their noticing? Human boy, show me!"
The little beggar looked directly at the blood-colored pupil indifferently. After a moment, he began to raise his head and look around, thinking of any possible solution.
It was almost noon now, and the snow on the ground melted slightly under the sunlight, but immediately froze and looked very slippery. This is the entrance and exit of the city, and of course, it is also where shops gather.
"Gu..."
The little beggar's stomach made a growl. He looked down at his belly and then at the little baby girl in his arms. Then, he glanced at the shops, and easily saw many shops selling food.
The little beggar touched his money bag, and the next moment, his eyes were filled with frost. Taking steps forward, the little beggar began to walk slowly toward the shops selling food.
"Hey, do you want to fill your stomach first?"
The little beggar didn't respond to the question. After wandering in front of various food stores for a while, he went straight into a macaroni store.
…
Today, the macaroni owner welcomed the strangest customer. It was a child who looked like a beggar, holding a baby in his arms. But this was nothing important. As long as the one had money, he would still give food to that one even if it was a dog.
But the odd thing was, this little beggar ordered over a dozen macaroni in different flavors and asked for them to be packed up. The other customers in the shop watched the little beggar and the bag he took out, which had a few gold and silver coins in it. They wondered why he had bought so much macaroni.
However, it soon became clear to the onlookers and the shopkeeper. After receiving the packed square plastic containers, the little beggar took them out of the plastic bags one by one and opened them. He filled his stomach and paid no mind to the remaining macaroni, leaving it out to dry. Then, he asked for some hot water, mixed it with the macaroni sauce, and fed it to the baby girl.
Afterward, he filled his hot water bottle and sat there in a daze.