Chapter 4
She got off at Alethu Street using a regular carriage.
Alethu Street was not the pristine shopping district used by nobles but a street further away, frequented by commoners.
Though it was dark midnight, there were people moving about to work late into the night, so it didn’t seem too dangerous.
But that was just talk; venturing too deep into the alleys would likely lead to encountering robbers.
‘To observe the commoners, I need to come to the area where they live, don’t I?’
She briefly imagined the Crown Prince’s face. His face was so noble that she had never even seen a common portrait of him.
Even the imperial newspaper had never featured his portrait.
She roughly knew what he looked like from reading books, but she wasn’t sure if she’d recognize him in person.
‘Still, he’s the male lead, so he must stand out somehow.’
She walked slowly down the street.
She hadn’t come out aimlessly; she had a destination.
Having lived as a commoner for some time, she wasn’t entirely unconnected to Alethu Street.
She entered a shallow alley a bit away from the plaza and sat on a stack of wooden crates.
“Whistle-”
As she softly whistled, glinting eyes began to emerge one by one from the darkness.
They stared greedily at the basket she was holding, their eyes dripping with desire.
“Come here.”
When she spoke gently, the figures crouching in the darkness rushed to her feet in an instant.
“Iris!”
“Iris! What did you bring today?”
“Iris, it’s been too long, hasn’t it?”
“Didn’t you miss us?”
Hiding in the corner and watching her were street children. Orphans who roamed the streets without parents.
She let out a soft laugh and opened the basket.
Inside were warm bread, meat, fruit juice, and the like, packed to the brim.
“Here, there’s plenty, so don’t fight and share it.”
“Okay!”
“If you fight like last time, I’ll take it all away.”
“Okay…”
As she watched the children skillfully divide the food among themselves, she suddenly felt something odd and began counting the number of children.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven…
Huh, where did one of them go? Iris asked.
“Where’s Zik?”
“Zik?”
A girl with a mouthful of bread asked back.
When Iris nodded, the girl chewed and swallowed the bread eagerly before answering.
“He said some strangers came into the alley over there. He said they looked wealthy, so he went to pickpocket them.”
“Strangers?”
“Yeah. You know, sometimes those immature noble boys come sneaking in because they’re curious about commoners.”
“Aha.”
Iris smiled faintly.
“So, where did he say they were?”
* * *
The place the children told her about was deeper inside than the shallow alley where she was settled.
Turn left once, go one more block, and turn left again.
Even though she was walking with an old robe pulled tightly over her, it felt like sticky gazes were clinging to her.
‘This isn’t a place for a woman to wander alone for long.’
She pulled the robe closer and quickly headed toward the alley the girl, Anne, had mentioned.
But as she approached, she sensed a strange commotion.
“Let go of me!”
“You little pickpocket!”
It was the voice of a boy and an unfamiliar man.
The boy’s voice was unmistakably Zik’s.
She gripped her basket tightly and hurried into the alley. And there, she faced the scene she had expected.
“Zik!”
“Oh, Iris!”
Zik was dangling in the air, his wrist caught by a man whose size was so large he seemed almost as big as Jack.
“Are you this kid’s guardian?”
“W-Well, for now, yes. What did the child do wrong?”
Iris spoke in a delicate voice, cautiously approaching them.
They, too, were dressed suspiciously, with robes pulled low over their faces, just like her.
She paused for a moment to think. Let’s see, how do I figure out if these are just thugs or the Crown Prince out on a night escapade?
As she slowly approached them, a *caw* sounded from somewhere—a crow’s cry.
It was Crow.
‘My clever Crow.’
It was surely following the person she was supposed to find, on Jack’s orders. She exhaled and walked straight toward them.
“Let the child go.”
“This kid tried to steal our money.”
“…I’ll scold him sternly for that.”
There were two men in total.
The one holding Zik snorted, while the one standing back quietly observed the situation.
“If that kind of thing made pickpockets disappear, there wouldn’t be a single thief left on the empire’s streets.”
“He’s still a child, so he can change.”
The man glanced over her robed figure and then fixed his gaze on the expensive wooden basket she was holding.
“I don’t know which noble house you’re from, but it’s too dangerous to wander around without an escort knight, you naive flowerbed lady.”
At his words, a smile curved on her pale lips, slightly visible beneath the robe.
She reached out and pulled Zik’s wrist free from the man’s tight grip.
Thud.
Finally touching the ground, Zik scurried behind her skirt in an instant. Stroking the panting child’s head, Iris spoke.
“I was sharing food with the street children who have no parents.”
“People like you are why kids don’t work and turn to easy crimes like pickpocketing.”
“Are you saying that knowing these street children, who can’t even read, are exploited and paid less than a quarter of what adults earn?”
“…”
Naturally, there was no such thing as child protection laws in this world, and children could certainly work.
But being children, they were paid far less than adults, often a fraction of a fraction.
“My small act of kindness gives these children a warm meal, but what do people like you do for them?”
“What do I have to do with those filthy beggars?”
“Well, you seem like some noble young master…”
She took a soft piece of bread from the basket and placed it in Zik’s hand, saying,
“It’s improper to claim the rights of nobility without knowing their duties, flowerbed young master.”
Smiling faintly, she threw his words back at him, and he opened his mouth only to clamp it shut. Aha, she let out a small laugh on purpose.
“Then what should nobles do?”
At that moment, the man standing quietly behind the larger one suddenly spoke up.
He was as tall as the big man but had a leaner silhouette.
“They should devise measures to keep street children from falling into a life of crime.”
“For example?”
At his question, she smiled brightly, lifting Zik, who was biting into the bread, into her arms.
“I’m just a flowerbed noble lady, so I can’t think of anything. For that kind of thing…”
She pointed a finger at the sky.
“Why not ask the esteemed imperial family? They’re not flowerbed types like me, are they?”
She stepped forward and placed a piece of white bread from the basket into the lean man’s hand.
“Eat that if you’re hungry. Most restaurants are closed at this hour. Oh, and don’t give it to him—eat it yourself.”
With that, she turned and disappeared.
Now, only the two men were left in the alley. As she vanished, the lean one burst out laughing.
“So, Iris, huh?”
He asked, and the larger man cautiously replied,
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“The famous divorced Iris?”
“Yes.”
“…I didn’t know she was that kind of woman.”
He removed his robe, revealing shimmering golden hair in the moonlight.
His eyes were red like rubies, and his refined features looked as if they were carved from an angel’s face.
“Interesting.”
☆▪︎▪︎▪︎☆▪︎▪︎▪︎☆▪︎▪︎▪︎☆
By Anna 💓
