Grape Hairpin

"It's him again." Akai immediately became alert. Ordinarily, these beggar children each had their own territory.

"Hey." Mel Carlo rose to his feet, his gaze fixed firmly on Chubby.

They were both weak, yet he liked bullying those even weaker than himself. Mel Carlo could not stand people like that. Whether in his previous life or this one, a person's nature did not change much.

Feeling Mel Carlo's gaze, Chubby shrank his neck, but the drool at the corner of his mouth would not stop. His eyes were even more pleading.

He did not say a word, yet it seemed he had said everything. They were not mortal enemies with Chubby either. Everyone was simply trying to survive.

"Akai, do you want to take the bread back? Could that cause trouble?" Mel Carlo raised the question first. Gangsters were not good people. If they took the bread back, it would probably end up being fed to dogs.

Akai quickly realized the problem as well. They had already eaten their fill, and they could not bring the bread back. At most, they could find somewhere to hide it, but even that was not safe. If someone saw it, someone would covet it.

"Why don't we give him some? He looks really hungry too." Lily was simply too kind.

"Then there's no need to take it back. Chubby, listen carefully. Go call everyone who's been hungry for a long time. We can't just let them starve to death." Mel Carlo grabbed a loaf and tossed it to Chubby.

They could neither hide it nor finish eating it all, so they might as well let the bread serve some purpose. It might even prove useful somehow.

Chubby began wolfing it down. He quickly finished the loaf, then without any delay, ran off to call the others who had been hungry for a long time.

Some of them had not merely missed dinner the day before. They might not have eaten the day before that either, and they were already swaying as they walked.

"Akai, is it okay if we give them the bread?" Mel Carlo looked at Akai. After all, Akai had obtained all this bread, so Akai naturally had the final say in how it was handled.

"Mel, that's fine. We've already eaten our fill anyway." Akai readily agreed.

"Chubby, help Lily hand out the bread. Make sure everyone gets some."

Seven or eight people shared most of a bag of bread. They might not get completely full, but at least everyone had something to eat and would not go hungry.

The children's throats bobbed as a group of ragged, barefoot children stared eagerly at the bread.

Of course, they had heard Mel Carlo clearly, so no one fought over it.

Chubby seemed not to be full yet. He stuffed another loaf into his mouth before starting to hand out the remaining pastries and bread.

"Thank you..."

"Thank you..."

One by one, the remaining children accepted the bread and began devouring it. Mel Carlo was worried they might choke to death on the spot, but he said nothing. Perhaps choking to death was happier than enduring such a cruel reality.

Many of the children cried as they ate. No one ever felt sorry for orphans like them.

"You've got food, don't you? What are you crying for?" Mel Carlo looked at the children. When he had food as a child, he had never cried.

"No... no, it's just so delicious. I've never eaten anything this good before." One of the children even had a bubble of snot coming out of his nose.

They were not crying because they were sad. They had simply never eaten anything so good before. Even dry, hard black bread was not something they could eat every day.

After finishing, the children still stood where they were, seemingly waiting for Mel Carlo's orders. Whoever gave them food was the boss.

"What are you still standing around for? Have you found your money for today? Or are you planning to go back and get beaten? Get lost." Mel Carlo was not softhearted enough to hand out all the money. What he needed most now was to build up some funds, which would create an opportunity to escape.

After everyone dispersed, the sun had already begun to set. If they did not get any money soon, it would become very difficult to find another chance.

Mel Carlo had already tried opening the wallet in the System space through the system menu. The coins inside had been emptied out: two gold coins and ten silver coins, totaling 3,000 Oren.

Gold and silver coins were not easy to spend, though. He could exchange the silver coins for copper coins first, then use those to pay his tribute.

They could not possibly steal money every day, nor could they beg for more than twenty Oren every day, so they did not need to offer tribute to the gang every day.

Mel Carlo did not even need to ask to be certain of that.

"What do we do, Akai? We haven't begged for any money. We'll get beaten when we go back."

"It's okay. I'll protect you." The blond boy patted Lily on the shoulder.

"Don't worry. I got some money, but we need to exchange it for copper coins first."

Mel Carlo took a silver coin from the system. It was worth one hundred Oren, so of course he could not hand it over directly.

He looked toward a jewelry shop not far down the street.

With the sun beginning to set, most of the shops had already started packing up.

They needed to hurry. Ignoring the puzzled looks in the other two's eyes, Mel Carlo led them toward the jewelry shop.

"How much is this Grape Hairpin?" Mel Carlo stopped the merchant who was packing up.

Seeing the three of them dressed in rags, the merchant raised his brows, but ultimately answered, "If you want it, five Oren will do."

"Fine, we'll take it. Give us the remaining copper coins."

Mel Carlo pinched the silver coin between his fingers but did not hand it directly to the merchant. Instead, he waited for the exchange. One could never be too careful, especially when they were little kids like this.

If the merchant decided to bully them, it would be difficult for them to resist.

The merchant quickly counted out ninety-five copper coins and handed the hairpin directly to Mel Carlo. They soon exchanged the silver coin and copper coins.

There was no need to count the small bag of copper coins. Mel Carlo stuffed it into his clothes, though he had actually placed it directly into the System space. The storage slot could show the exact number at a glance, and it was safer than carrying them on his body.

"Lily, this hairpin is for you." Mel Carlo gave the hairpin to Lily.

Of the three of them, she was the only girl, and he had no use for the hairpin.

"Thank you." Lily happily accepted it.

"But you'd better not wear it, at least not right now. Otherwise, it'll be easy to draw the gang's attention. Those malicious people love trampling on things others treasure." Mel Carlo gave her a reminder. They were orphans and beggars now, so they naturally could not do things beyond their station.

Then he gave each of them twenty copper coins. With that, they could avoid a beating. Just hearing the sound of that whip made their scalps tingle.

The three returned to the gang's territory and entered the courtyard. It was somewhat different from yesterday. The leader who should have been sitting in the middle, intimidating them, was sprawled crookedly across the stairs as though drunk.

Seeing that everyone else looked normal, he probably was drunk. Mel Carlo hoped the man was dead. He was trash anyway.