Suddenly, a man's voice came from a house nearby! These soldiers, who were inspecting a cart full of hay, stopped and looked toward the man after hearing his voice.
The little beggar also turned his head and saw that the man in a cloak who had been sitting inside the house since just now and witnessed all his actions was slowly walking towards him.
"Hmm, quite clever, aren't you?"
The person in the cloak pulled back the hood, revealing a sly, cunning face. He stared at the little beggar, his gaze moving slowly from the beggar's face down to the handbag in his hand.
"People call you a fool, but in my eyes, you're actually a genius! Boy, what exactly is in that torn bag of yours?!"
The little beggar looked at the handbag, bowed his head, and whispered.
"Sir, it's just macaroni."
"macaroni?"
The man in the cloak laughed quietly and waved his hand. The soldiers quickly moved to circle the little beggar.
"The more you want to hide something, the more you have to avoid making people suspicious of the place where it is hidden. You want to use people's inertial thinking to avoid being checked for what you are hiding, don't you, kid? Without careful thought, who would guess a torn bag showing a box of pasta at the bottom may hide other things? And you deliberately acted like an idiot just to make people relax their vigilance against you and for not being inspected carefully, right?"
"I say, why didn't you guys inspect this torn bag? Is it because the small hole at the bottom corner shows a box of macaroni, so you think nothing else is inside? What if there's a baby, maybe its feet in the bottom left corner? This bag looks big enough for a baby!"
With the cloakman's hint, the soldiers realized something! Their look at the little beggar changed from looking down to being alert. One soldier reached out.
"Give me the bag."
"Huh? But… you must pay…"
The little beggar held the handbag tightly.
The soldier snatched the bag and began to inspect it. And the little beggar's eyes began to become panicked. The little beggar's eyes filled with fear. The cloakman was more sure he was right.
But all he found were macaroni box, macaroni box, macaroni box, and… boxes.
Nine boxes were pulled from the handbag. The soldier felt more inside. He found only bits of cloth stuffed to the top.
"No baby, Sir."
"What?!"
The little beggar was holding the macaroni that had been taken out and seemed to be about to cry.
"Is he really an idiot? Carrying all these cold macaroni boxes, just doing stupid business here?"
The cloaked man was considering, feeling that he was really embarrassed and humiliated.
"What do these rags mean?" asked the cloaked man.
"It's... ugh... to keep warm..." the little beggar sobbed.
"Ugh, damn."
The cloaked man threw the rags into his handbag and walked back to the shed. He was angry because his error in judgment made him embarrassed in front of his subordinates.
But the little beggar had to put away the rags and macaroni boxes that had been turned over by himself. Of course, this was not something that could be done soon, so the soldiers ignored him and continued to inspect the hay wagon.
After spending some time, the little beggar put the macaroni boxes into the common bag again. After taking a look at the soldiers, he immediately turned around, walked out of the city, and left finally.
...
"Hahaha, this is so amazing, so wonderful! Boy, that guy is right, you are a definite idiot!"
Behind a bush, the little beggar threw down the torn bag and began to carefully open the large tote bag. He placed the pasta boxes on the first four layers on the ground and gently opened the boxes on the fifth layer.
The little baby girl's head was exposed from inside. The little baby girl inside was stuffed with lots of cotton, so it shouldn't be too cold. She opened her eyes, and when she saw the little beggar again, she cried out happily twice.
After tearing open the lunch boxes, the little beggar quickly took out pieces of cloth from the handbag and wrapped the little baby girl's body tightly. The little baby girl seemed a little cold, and her little body was trembling. But the little beggar was fast enough and wrapped her up before her face turned pale, bringing her warmth again.
The bottoms of boxes of the fifth layer were torn off in the bag, but if people looked at these boxes from their top, there was no abnormality because of the complete covers and the baby girl's body was placed in these partially torn boxes under the fourth layer filled with warm cotton.
"Amazing! What an intelligent idea to use the gap in information and people's usual way of thinking. The man in the cloak, obviously from the Key organization, just saw from a far distance that the soldiers checked the large tote bag and thought the soldier had completely inspected it. But he didn't know that the soldier hadn't carefully checked the boxes behind the third layer for the far distance. And how could that soldier dare to tell his boss he didn't inspect it carefully and thoroughly? Nobody wants to be hit or scolded by leaders."
The sword continued its praise.
"But if someone was just a bit smarter, like the man from the Key organization who checked your torn bag, they would think you were purposely showing what was in the torn bag to avoid a detailed inspection. And when he found out there was nothing but pasta boxes inside, his anger and embarrassment beat his mind. He couldn't think cautiously and comprehensively anymore, and he blamed his wrong judgment on meeting a foolish beggar. After that, he didn't want anything to do with you. He just wanted you to leave quickly, to avoid making more wrong guesses and losing respect in front of his subordinates."
The devil's blood pupil flashed excitedly and continuously.
"You once again let me see the shameful looks of other people's misjudgments. It's wonderful, it made me feel so good! Hahahaha! "
The little beggar silently picked up the baby girl, put the pasta back into the tote bag, and started walking away from the shrubs. The snow on the road was deep and turned into hard ice by the passing carriages. The little beggar moved cautiously, his small frame hardly noticeable among the other pedestrians and carriages around him.
Where was he headed after leaving Senag?
"The Saint Grace Royal Academy in the Elk Empire… which way to go?"
Walking down the street for a while, the little beggar stopped in front of a cart driver who was leading a hay-filled wagon.