Chapter. 10 Lead and Silver Coins (2)
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[Hey, that’s not an ordinary bitch!]
‘Hey. Anyway, what’s a bitch to a kid? A bitch.’
[what. At 10 years old, she is 10 times older than me.]
When you say that, I have nothing to say.
Cynthia Barbatos. Daughter of Ruwil Barbatos, a colleague from the 14th Special Operations Forces. Unlike her father, who looked like a Macanese conman, her skin was white and her facial features were so detailed that she looked like she would make many men cry when she grew up.
A special feature is kleptomania. Check out the habit of hiding everything from food to small bolts under the bed, regardless of the type or price. I said that Vex would definitely take action on this while I was gone…
“Hehehe. Thank you, Uncle Geonyeong!”
“Oh, thank you! Thanks to you taking care of us here last time, our family lives comfortably! So, don’t feel burdened, my lady, and feel free to ask for anything at any time, okay?”
“yes! “Please say hello to my wife!”
“okay! Promises must be kept! Asking a professor to name your child!”
“I don’t have to say anything else if it gets weird later!”
‘What on earth did you do, Vex?’
In about a month, a cute fox-like girl appeared with one or two more tails.
You can still see it now. I’ve already met about 20 people in this area alone, and they’re all pouring small handfuls or at most armfuls of scraps from their bags or pockets into the cart, but there’s a sturdy-looking guy pushing the cart without putting in any effort on his part.
At first, I thought it was a business. Although fried radioactive scorpion skin is a delicacy, it is not particularly high in calories and there is no oil to fry it, but the skin itself is something that can be obtained with a little effort. I thought that the reason why each person paid a different price might be because Cynthia was still young and did not know the concept of transaction well.
But as I followed along and watched, it seemed a little different from that.
“Oh my lady. Please take care of me. Here is this week’s portion.”
“Cynthia, I’m sorry, but farming was so bad yesterday, so this is all I have…”
“So, I told you to settle down in an area that is a bit unorganized. “It may be inconvenient to live, but there is still a lot left to eat.”
“After wandering around without a home with my mother for several years, I wanted to settle down properly and take care of her in peace…” “
Phew. all right. “First of all, I won’t be accepting it today, so please come out and lend a hand sometime when you have work to do in town.”
“Hi! This! Of course I will! “Please speak kindly to the professor!”
People handing over scraps even though all the fried skins are gone.
Cynthia acts as if she knows everyone around the shelter.
All the stupid survivors have long since died, and all the greedy survivors have been stabbed to death in the back.
Since people in the wasteland would never hand over items worth money for nothing, the scraps piled up in that cart mean that they are a ‘price’ for something.
Based on Cynthia’s behavior of walking around the outskirts of the ‘undeveloped area’ around our shelter as if on patrol and asking about people’s well-being, this is…
[Lord?]
‘It’s a similar feeling. Protection tax tribute. ‘Is this what happened when I told them not to pile it up in front of the house?’
I feel sorry for Vex, but she has not received proper education since she was young and has no knowledge needed to carry out this type of work. That’s not what the Vex taught.
There’s no way Ian, who was away at the dome, could have told me that there was a big deal from the day I entered the connector, so this is something Cynthia came up with on her own.
Still, I thought it was cute that he wanted to do something on his own, so I was planning to end it by scolding him with a moderate spanking, but I felt like I should have slapped him in the face instead of giving him a spanking.
****
Drurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
“Um… can you push it alone? If Professor Park gives you permission, I can drag you to the front of the shelter-” “
Oh no! My dad is a bit sensitive! “He doesn’t like having outsiders near his house!”
“I see. And yet, you only accept people within such a narrow range. Because he is such a great person. “Then take care and see you tomorrow!”
“see you tomorrow!”
Cynthia pulled a bulky cart around the shelter. The guy waved his hand with a bright expression until the man who pushed the cart this far was no longer visible, but as soon as the man disappeared from sight, his expression completely changed and he put on his goggles.
Cynthia, who seemed familiar, took a few wooden boards from the corner of the building, laid them down on the uneven alley where the building fragments had fallen, and began to push the cart over them.
Rattling rattling! Druk Druk!
“Whoa. you can do it. You can….profit! there is!”
Our shelter was located slightly higher than the surrounding area, making it easy to observe mutants or people approaching from the surrounding area. Cynthia pushed the cart a little bit, and when she lost strength, she put a stone under the wheel, took a break, and then pushed the cart up toward the shelter.
[Should I go out and help? That kid is going to get sick like that.]
‘Stay there. Let’s see what happens until the end.’
Grumble-
“Haaaaah! They’re all here. “It’s all here!”
Cynthia eventually succeeded in pulling the cart to the shelter on her own. However, the last time he dragged the cart full of scrap was not to the newly built shelter that was being used as a warehouse, but to the warehouse of my old shelter where the four of us live.
‘I knew I would be like that.’
A warehouse full of miscellaneous things I have collected over the past seven years. In fact, most of the valuable things were sold or exchanged, and all that was left was ‘miscellaneous’ that was difficult to use and had literally no commercial value. Anyway, I’ve made enough money now that I don’t have to worry about scraps like this, and we live together, but Bex doesn’t clean up what’s in here because he says it’s his stuff, so all kinds of trash is in disarray.
clattering!
Cynthia threw all the ‘taxes’ she had collected today in the middle of all the miscellaneous junk, took off her goggles, and began to diligently sort them with her small hands.
[Why are we doing it here? They say the entire newly built shelter will be used as a warehouse. Since we haven’t properly operated the caravan yet, there must be some space left, right?]
‘They’re organizing the Vex and Corduroy there, too. This place is kind of… a hideout? ‘It’s a place where I don’t even look at corduroy because I organize it myself.’
[Avoiding other people’s eyes? Then, is it really that?]
‘Yes. That’s all – it’s his. ‘I came here to hide it.’
really. What should I say about this? What he does is extremely clever, but at times like this, he is extremely sloppy, like a 10-year-old. When I play hide and seek with my kids, I always hide behind the curtain and say, ‘You can’t see me!’ I asked, and it felt exactly like that. I can’t believe I’m thinking about not getting caught while opening the front door and going out and coming in at a shelter managed by Housing AI Corduro.
[Let’s see. Then he was selling our names to collect protection money from nearby survivors and use it to fill his own back pocket… It was a pretty bad crime, wasn’t it? I don’t think this is something that can be overlooked even if it’s a friend’s daughter. What do you plan to do?]
‘What do you plan to do?’
The professor rose from the shadows of the clutter and silently walked up behind Cynthia.
‘You have to shake it off until it makes a very loud sound.’
The shadow of a huge left arm was cast over the girl’s head.
****
‘The screw is metal, so it’s on the left. As for the half plastic plate… should I leave it to melt first?’
The outdoor activity clothes Uncle Bex gave me were sturdy and dust-resistant, but they were not breathable, so my whole body was covered in sweat even if I only wore them for a little bit.
“Whew. finished!”
Cynthia wiped the sweat from her forehead and looked at the small pile of scrap and at the clock with a proud expression. 5:48 am. It’s a close call, but if I go up and take a shower now, I’ll be able to go to bed before Uncle Bex comes back. Have a rewarding morning today
too!
“If you put metal in there because it’s humid, it will rust quickly.”
“Aaaah! “Who who-!”
The moment she felt her legs floating in the air along with strong pressure on her collar, Cynthia took out a small dagger from her bosom, as she had learned, and stabbed the hand holding her back with all her might.
Kagagak!
‘Kagak? ‘Isn’t it a person?’
I swung the knife so hard that my hand went numb, and I heard the sound of hitting metal. Her mind flashed back to all the terrifying monsters in the wasteland that Vex had been talking about. The moment she was scared and struggling to escape somehow,
she screamed,
“It’s me, you brat. “When did you learn something like that again?”
“Park…Professor?”
“Last time, you often called me dad?”
“I told you not to call me that!”
“Wow, you did well. You’re a very obedient and good boy, aren’t you? “Then, my good daughter, can you explain to me what this is all about?”
A sarcastic, mocking voice.
The hanging body rotated, and the person who lifted her came into view.
Professor Park. The owner of this shelter where she is currently staying and the leader of BDSM. Savior of the Dom. The de facto ruler of her ‘outskirts of District 47’.
And he is a man who recently became a father for the fifth time after being adopted and fostered three times since his mother passed away.
As her startled heart calmed down, Cynthia realized that this was a very dangerous situation.
A very dangerous situation where ‘what is mine’ could be taken away.
That sense of crisis revitalized her body, which had become stiff from embarrassment.
“Let go of this! “Put it down!”
“Just stay still. Ugh, something like this… Why was glass classified together with plastic? What is this again? barley? article?”
“Don’t throw it away! “I said that it was a precious seed and that Uncle Milton had a hard time getting it!”
“What kind of seed is white rice that has been polished? There are only four or five pieces of grain. You were right in the eye. you idiot.”
“Iik! “Anyway, it’s mine so don’t touch it!”
I struggled wildly and struck down the fingers that were holding her back, but only her grip hurt, as if I had hit a rock.
When Cynthia, exhausted from the effort, let out a sigh, the professor put her down on the floor.
“Let me see… is this yours?”
“is it so! “It’s my rightful possession that I earned through my hard work!”
Her huge, monster-like hand quickly found all the treasures she had hidden away and swept them all into a small bag. The scraps in the sack were swaying gently just beyond her height.
“Kid. Shouldn’t this be said to have been robbed or received for free rather than earned? All you did was approach the people gathered around here and threaten them into paying protection money if they wanted to live here. “Do you not know the meaning of the word ‘legitimate’?”
“It’s not free! “I bought it to give them ‘peace of mind’!”
Cynthia cried out desperately as she saw the professor look like he was going to leave with the bag at any moment.
“The professor doesn’t need it anyway! Even when people gather, don’t just come around my house. Even when people bring things to say hello, don’t do that. Do you know how anxious people were because they just kept their distance and didn’t say anything? Those people! “Professor Park, I came all the way here after crossing the outside world, infested with murderers and monsters, just by looking at the three letters of your name!”
It was a day soon after I started training with Uncle Bex. While her uncle went to get water, she was drenched in sweat, so she climbed the wall and sat on it, whimpering, wondering if there would be some wind at the top of the wall.
There was someone at the door. Perhaps because he was short or because his back was bent, the person standing in front of the door holding a cane was pacing around with a feeling of restlessness.
“What are you doing there?”
The stranger, who was just peeking his eyes out over the wall, was so startled by her voice that he spilled the basket he was carrying.
“Hohoho, are you by any chance a person involved in BDSM?”
An old woman’s voice. As Cynthia glanced at her without saying a word, the old woman took off the rags covering her body and revealed her face.
“As you can see, I am not armed. Just this. “I wanted to pass on this to you…”
“Dad told me not to do that. They said they wouldn’t accept it. “I told you not to bring it at all because it would be a hassle to clean it up if you left it there.”
When Cynthia relayed exactly what she had heard from the professor, the old woman looked like she was about to cry.
“Oh, I know. To Professor Park, these miscellaneous items are worthless. Still… can you still accept it? “Now, our mother and son really have no place to go but here, so if you don’t do something for us… I’ll bring something more valuable next time…”
Cynthia, who was mindlessly repeating what the professor said, looked at the old woman’s wrinkled face. When I saw this, I was so surprised that I climbed over the fence.
“I’ll get a bar! All you have to do is receive it!”
“Yes. “You can throw it away, so if you just accept it, I think this old man will feel at ease…”
The old woman placed an armful of the miscellaneous items she had brought into Cynthia’s arms, then bowed her head several times towards Cynthia, who was looking at her blankly. disappeared down.
Grumbling.
Cynthia picked up a small glass bead in the basket held out by the old woman, thought deeply about something, and put it deep in her pocket.
.
.
.
.
“so. From then on, you deliberately went to collect money every week to relieve people of their troubles so they wouldn’t have to worry?”
“No one lost anything! Anyway, the professor doesn’t care about the people gathered here! People are restless with the professor’s reaction! These are the people you abandoned! I will pick it up and take care of it so it doesn’t get thrown away! Yesterday, we even reconciled people who were fighting over seats! A few days ago, we all worked together to clear the road that we had to cross every day due to debris at the crossroads over there!”
no wonder. I heard that although some people gathered, the road became cleaner with no money-making items.
“People get anxious when they get together! I wonder if the person next to me will hit me! Maybe they will take my things! So I just helped! Even a fierce man or an evil woman can become kind just by saying, ‘The professor is my dad!’ The professor won’t use that name anyway! So I wrote it! If you’re going to throw it away, give it to me! “I can write much better than a rich person like you!”
Grinning, wheezing!
The professor looked at Cynthia, who was crying but glaring at him with her eyes focused.
[Hey, this….]
‘Shh. ‘Let me think about it.’
I thought it was just a child’s prank, but I guess I was too indifferent.
‘It’s mine…’
If you think about it, the things that came out from under Cynthia’s bed were all trivial items. The half wooden combs that were eating up dust in the broken watch warehouse were melted down and colorful pieces of glass that were difficult to use… things so trivial that you wouldn’t even know they were gone. Cynthia found those abandoned items like a ghost, nailed them down as hers, and treasured them like treasures.
Perhaps, after losing both parents, he was adopted by upper-class Dom parents because he was a cute child, and then abandoned due to his bad personality and bad manners, which led him to think of himself as an object. In the process, perhaps a slightly twisted sense of possessiveness took root.
That’s what I thought when I saw Cynthia who was so obsessed with something that was ‘mine’.
Sigh!
Yikes!
Cynthia desperately reached for the sack I was holding and clung to it desperately. The old sack was torn, and miscellaneous items filled with dust and iron powder poured out. Although her butt hurt from falling on the concrete floor, Cynthia hugged the miscellaneous items in the acrid dust and cried out.
“It’s mine, huff!” It’s mine… so don’t throw it away. huh? I won’t do that in the future. That won’t happen, so sigh! Please don’t throw it away… I’ll use it well…”
Cynthia, whose dust-covered face was streaked with tears and snot, covered the pile of trash with her body, holding the trash with one hand and the other. He pulled my pant leg.
[Let’s just move on. I know what that feels like, but I don’t think there was any malicious intent. Just like you said, it’s a kid. Huh?]
‘Haaa. I understand the situation, but it’s a bit hard to just ignore it. Anyway, I took money from people. shit. I also don’t know how to teach children. ‘It’s my first time raising a child.’
[It hurts me when you say things like that, Dad.]
‘Fuck you, Hyde.’
“Don’t take it Professor. I’m sorry. I was wrong. But don’t take it…”
I understand the situation, but I can’t leave it like this.
The professor removed Cynthia’s hand that was holding onto his pants, pushed her struggling aside to avoid having her items taken from him, and raked up the junk with his left hand.
“ruler. Cynthia?”
“Sigh! Ugh….”
“Stop it!” Don’t take it. I’m not taking it away, so don’t be so fidgety and come and take a closer look. Do you see here the bag of ‘seeds’ you received and the screws you received as ‘security fees’ according to your opinion?”
….nod.
I picked out a few items that caught my eye and showed them to Cynthia, who nodded with tears in her eyes, as if she had calmed down a bit after hearing that I wouldn’t take them.
“I don’t know who gave it to you, but what he gave you was a seed, a very precious thing. It was just grain scraps that were no longer able to sprout, not even a bite away. “These bolts and nuts are worth much less than regular bolts because the threads are all worn away.”
“I don’t know things like amounts. As long as people give me something and make me feel safe…”
“Okay, okay. You probably do. But this item shows that there are people who are not like that.”
“Hiccup hiccup?”
“You lied and said it was an expensive item for you. Isn’t that because you feel like you should give something of value in exchange for this ‘security fee’, but you don’t want to give it away? “You may never have said that you asked for a lot of money, but as you started collecting the ‘security fee’ on a regular basis, the notion that you cannot be protected unless you pay the ‘security fee’ has developed among people.”
Cynthia, who was trying to figure out what I meant, seemed to understand what I meant, and her face became even more frightened than before and began to cry.
“I didn’t mean to do that! If only people could live together happily without feeling anxious….”
“If the world had worked the way people think, Ruwil would still have been your father and I could have appeared to you as just a mischievous uncle. “The world is much more complicated than you think.”
“Hi! Hehe! Ugh, eup!”
‘Uh… I was just trying to lighten the mood.’
[This is a good thing. Talk about your dead father in front of your child. Are you an idiot?]
‘No, it’s something more than that… The kid is scared?’
[hint. When I went to visit old man Woojin. Do you remember?]
‘Ah.’
Cynthia’s face becomes increasingly pale and she is forced to hold back her tears.
Only then did I know what this guy was worried about.
I tried to hug him, but he wouldn’t let go of my left hand, which was full of junk, so I had no choice but to cover him with my left hand and pull him into my arms.
“are you okay.”
“Knock it off?”
“A 10-year-old can make mistakes now, right? “You can keep living here, and it doesn’t matter whether you call me dad, uncle, or professor.”
“Aren’t you going to throw me away?”
“okay.”
“I can’t be as cute and clingy as other kids?”
“don’t do it. “It’s disgusting when someone who doesn’t like it is forced to do it.”
“Because he grew up without his parents, he has bad habits and does a lot of bad things?”
“How many times have your parents said something like that? Just say it. “I’m going to go to the dome this time and beat up that group of bastards.”
Cynthia’s face turned pale when she first saw me. It wasn’t just because I was caught doing something I was secretly doing, it was because I was afraid of getting caught and being thrown out again. It also says not to throw away the desperate excuses that followed.
[I guess that means I liked this house that much.]
‘Oh. When you look at it that way, it feels pretty good, doesn’t it?’
[Now, I have to do my best to comfort him until the end! hurry! You know what your child wants to hear! Things like ‘I love you~’ or ‘We’ll be together forever~’]
‘Ugh, that’s a bit much.’
The atmosphere suddenly became awkward and I was wondering what to do when I saw Cynthia covering her mouth with both hands and whimpering. Come to think of it, it’s not easy for a 10-year-old to do this.
“… How many times have I told you not to cry?”
“…Hyung! My second father… He said he would throw me away if I cried because I was noisy….”
“True. There are a lot of fucking people in the world. “You made a 10-year-old not even know how to cry properly.”
I don’t really know what it feels like to not receive love from my parents. Because I have received so much and I have lived with it until now.
But at least I know that an ordinary child shouldn’t hold back crying like this without being able to breathe.
While holding Cynthia close, I patted her back with my right hand.
“Now, follow me. Aaaah~”
“Huh?”
“hurry. I told you to follow me. Aaaah~ If I don’t, I’ll throw away all of this?”
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.”
“okay. “It’s okay to cry in our house, so cry and let it out as much as you want.”
“Ahhhh…”
“That’s right. Once more.”
Wow.
Cynthia’s hand holding the collar gained strength and said,
“Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!”
“Wow, I feel refreshed inside. “I thought I was going to die of frustration.”
Loud wailing began to pour out as if a dam had burst.
“Aaaah! “Hehe, I won’t do that again!”
“okay. All you have to do is not repeat the same mistake.”
“Huh, I’m so big.”
Cynthia pours out tears for a while.
“We’re in big trouble. “They say Santa doesn’t give presents to crying children.”
“Ugh, the gift is mine. I’m not crying anymore… Ugh! “The professor said he looked at me once. He looked at me and gave me a gift… Ugh!”
“Okay, so you should stop crying and go eat now, right?”
“Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.”
Despite all these hard efforts, Cynthia’s tears did not seem to stop, and the professor had to pick up all kinds of absurd jokes to soothe Cynthia, who was crying in his arms, until Bex, who came back from outside, came running with a ghost-like face at the sound of Cynthia crying.
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