The two men chimed in with each other, speaking in a way that suggested they wanted money.
Buying a person with money was something beyond my range of understanding.
However, I knew that this was a world where slave markets existed.
That is why they were uttering
words about buying and selling people for money so without hesitation.
“Then I will buy him.”
“You are buying this kid?”
I nodded instead of answering.
At the mention of me buying the child, the faces of the two men brightened instantly.
Then, they went into a corner and whispered among themselves about how much they should get for the value of this child, and soon
returned to stand before me.
“Ahem. We will take 20 gold coins.”
“20 gold coins?”
“Yes. Ahem, this child was a boy with a very promising future, so we are taking a loss by selling him. Therefore, we cannot go any lower than that.”
Promising, my foot…
Even though he had clearly seen the boy unable to even walk the rope properly earlier, the man was lying shamelessly.
However, I took 20 gold coins out of my pouch and handed them to the man.
I do not know exactly what the value
of 20 gold coins is here.
Even when I looked around the streets earlier, I didn’t buy anything special, so I couldn’t tell.
However, not only did I have several times the amount of 20 gold coins in my pouch, but above all, I did not want to show a scene of haggling over his life in front of the child.
So I readily just gave them the gold coins.
I felt their eyes fixed on my money pouch.
I quickly tightened the pouch and tucked it inside my clothes.
“Then the payment is all finished, right?”
“Yes, yes. Is there any doubt? Hey! Get up! This is your new master. Greet her.”
The massive man tried to pull the child up while treating him roughly.
“Stop.”
“Pardon?”
“This child belongs to me now. So do not lay a finger on even a single hair of his.”
“Pardon? Ah, yes…”
At my words, the men hurriedly backed away.
I approached the child carefully.
“Do you want to try getting up
carefully?”
Unlike the blunt and cold attitude I had toward the men, a tender voice came out when I faced the child.
As I reached out my hand to the child, he stared intently at my hand.
“Come with me.”
“….”
However, the child still offered no answer or movement.
“You little brat! Get u—”
I glared coldly at the short man who was hurling insults despite being warned not to touch the child, and the man immediately shut his mouth.
“Let’s go.”
I gave a slight smile to break down
the child’s wariness.
And perhaps because that worked, the child finally reached out a small, delicate hand and took mine.
“Thank you.”
Expressing my gratitude to the child for taking my hand, I applied strength to help him stand up.
Seen up close, the child looked to be about twelve years old.
I led the child slightly and turned around, but the two men had not left yet and were still watching us.
“Aren’t you leaving?”
“Pardon? Ah, yes. We are going!”
The men quickly left the spot.
Once they were increasingly distant from my sight and could no longer be seen, only then did I examine the child as a whole again.
Perhaps he was washed often, as there was no smell from his body, but the clothes he was wearing were old and worn out.
And the signs of him rolling on the ground from being kicked by the men earlier were evident.
Come to think of it, I had never heard the child’s voice once.
‘Could it be that he cannot speak?’
Since that was a possibility, I met the child’s eyes and opened my mouth, moving my lips clearly.
“Are you hungry?”
I asked the child, even mimicking eating food with my hands.
“….”
But as expected, the child did not answer.
“By any chance… can you not speak?”
I asked in a cautious voice and expression.
“…No.”
Then, finally, a voice came out of the child’s mouth.
It was the voice of a boy who had not yet reached puberty.
“Your voice is pretty, so why weren’t you answering?”
“….”
The child tightly shut his mouth again.
‘Wow, this is tough.’
I felt like I knew why the child was behaving this way, so I made up my mind to treat him with more patience and gently pulled the child’s hand.
Then I walked ahead, taking the lead.
Fortunately, the child followed me without saying a word.
I turned back from the path to the inn and headed once again toward the street where the festival was in full swing.
It seemed necessary to buy the child some clothes to wear and food to fill his stomach.
As we walked slowly like that, I suddenly felt a tug on my hand.
Looking back, the child had stopped in his tracks and was standing right there.
“What is it?”
“Where… are we going?”
He must have finally become curious about that.
However, the child’s expression as he asked was heavily clouded with darkness.
“It’s a festival right now. Let’s go fill our stomachs with delicious food and buy some new clothes to wear.”
“….”
He was a remarkably taciturn child, not at all like a typical young boy.
Of course, not every child is talkative.
Even so, perhaps he had grown somewhat comfortable with me, as he began to open up bit by bit.
“Do you not really want to go?”
“Why…”
“Hmm?”
“Why… did you buy me?”
“That is…”
In truth, if asked why, I didn’t have a specific answer to give.
Since it had been a very impulsive choice on my part, I couldn’t produce a logical reason.
“Because you sent me a signal to save you.”
So, I just answered while half-insisting on it.
“…Pardon?”
“Wasn’t it? It was, though. You definitely told me with your eyes to save you.”
I saw the child’s expression instantly become colored with bewilderment and confusion.
The child looked at me with a face that said he couldn’t understand, but I just gave a bright smile and brushed it off vaguely.
“What is your name?”
And I immediately changed the subject to ask the child’s name.
“…I don’t have a name.”
However, the words that came out of the child’s mouth were quite shocking.
No name—could a person actually not have a name?
I tilted my head inwardly and asked again.
“You don’t have a name?”
“Yes… I don’t have a name, but I have a number.”
“A number?”
“Yes, in the circus, we are called by numbers. I was… Number 5.”
“Number 5… I see. And your age? How old are you?”
“I’m not really sure…”
It was strange that he didn’t know the answer to anything I asked.
“Since when were you with the circus?”
The atmosphere had somehow turned into an interrogation, but I needed a certain amount of information to hand the child over to an orphanage.
Therefore, I threw out questions while doing my best to respect a line that wouldn’t make the child uncomfortable.
“About a month… I think it’s been about that long.”
“A month?”
Does that mean they made a child who had only been there for a month walk a tightrope?
What a truly malicious place.
“Then where were you before that? An orphanage? How did you end up joining the circus?”
“…Actually, I don’t remember very well.”
“You don’t remember very well?”
“Yes, ever since I’ve had memories, I’ve been with the circus. I have no memories before that…”
Judging by the child’s words, it seemed he had been caught by the circus while wandering around with his memory lost.
“I see. You’re hungry, right? Let’s eat first. Is there anything you like?”
“I’m not really sure…”
“Well then, do you like skewers? Do you want to eat some skewers?”
At his remark about not knowing, I suddenly thought of the sausage I ate earlier.
It wasn’t because it was free, but because it was truly delicious, so I wanted the child to taste it too.
When the child gave a slight nod, we headed together toward the skewer shop with the large pot.
“Welcome. Oh? You’ve come again?”
The pleasant-looking owner
remembered my face.
An enormous number of people must have passed through here, yet he was truly a man with a good memory.
“We meet again. The sausage I had earlier was so delicious that I wanted this child to eat some too.”
“The sausages at our shop are indeed incredibly tasty. Now, let’s see.”
The owner looked around the large brazier and picked up two sausages identical to the one I had earlier, holding them out to us.
“Here they are. Here you go.”
However, there weren’t one, but two sausages; he gave one to the child and held the other out to me.
“I’m fine. I had one earlier, so I’ve had enough.”
I flatly declined.
