I sat on the stone pavement of the alleyway, not knowing what to do next.
How does something like this even happen?
Why did something like this happen?
Just because I filled out a strange CYOA sheet?
What did I do to suffer all of this?
I felt tears flow down my face. My emotional control shot to hell thanks to my young body combined with the emotional turmoil born from my displacement, or rather, dimensional kidnapping.
Suddenly, I heard the clicking of coins bouncing off the floor in front of me, making me look up to see that someone had mistaken me for a beggar and thrown some coins my way from the main street.
...Actually, is there even a difference between my current state and that of a literal beggar's?
I have nothing to my name. A false name that has now completely replaced my real name, even in my memories, somehow.
I have no tools, no place to stay, no money. Nothing but the clothes on my body.
It could have been different if I had chosen to follow that man who saved me, knowing that he was up to no good. I might have managed to find a foothold in this world by now.
But there is no way I will do that.
There are many things a man can sacrifice for survival, but their moral bottom line is the one thing they should never abandon. That is what Diana taught Alex and I back in the day.
Besides, this is not the first time I am left completely penniless and orphaned in the streets of a major city, so my experience should allow me to find a way to live again.
After all, if Alex and I could climb up all the way from being homeless orphans to being successful people with considerable assets to our name in a dangerous city like New York, I should be able to do the same in this place as well.
It is just a shame that I have so little information about this world, leaving me at a complete disadvantage, given that I only ever saw one volume of the series back home.
With a decision made, I got up from the floor and picked up the money, heading deeper into the alley.
First things first, information.
I need to find out more about this world and find a way to create a sustainable method of survival for myself.
—————————————————————————————-
I walked silently through the streets of Mistral, the very capital of the kingdom that goes by the same name. A tradition repeated in the other three kingdoms as well, from what I've learned.
The three million Lien I got from selling the Mechashift Core in the Underworld's auction house sitting comfortably in several of my dummy bank accounts from which the funds will slowly trickle back into my legal account, avoiding any suspicions and problems that would come from such a large deposit.
It is much lower than the amount I could have gained if I directly sold it to one of the many crime families in the capital. Hell, I could have probably made more than fifty million lien if I sold it directly to the Spiders. But I knew better than to let the short-term gains put me in danger in the long term.
That is why I sold it anonymously to the auction house, letting them take the heat from the crime families and walking away with a decent amount.
As for the jewelry and other trinkets, they were not all that hard to sell off.
Soon, walking through the familiar alleyways that most 'civilized' people in the city don't dare tread even in broad daylight, I arrived at a rather large section of the city that had been converted into slums a long time ago.
A result of the various refugees from frontier settlements fleeing back here after their villages and towns either fell to the Grimm or bandits out in the wild, along with the various unfortunate and unsavory individuals from Mistral itself.
While not as bad as Kuchinashi, it is still a place where anything can happen, and nobody can be held accountable for anything.
That is why most people who are not huntsmen don't dare venture into this part of the city.
Walking through the familiar streets, I arrived at a dilapidated shack that looked like it would topple over if a strong gust arrived and pushed open the door that had no locks on it.
Inside, there were two children. One, a 16-year-old boy, and the other, a 6-year-old girl.
The moment I pushed open the door, the boy tensed, ready for a fight, which is a daily occurrence in this place, given how scarce food is for most people who call this place home.
However, the moment he saw me, he relaxed slightly, while the scared little girl who had hidden behind him the moment the door opened slowly came out, knowing that I was not here to attack them.
Without a word, I dropped the pouch containing nearly ten thousand lien into the boy's hand.
"Ten percent of the total sales from the jewelry, as promised."
The boy's eyes lit up at the money, knowing that with this amount, he could finally take his sister away from this wretched place and maybe even eke out a living in the inner districts of the city where he might be able to give her a proper life later on.
Then, he hesitated before speaking.
"The heirloom?"
I took out an ornate box, the same one I found in that metal box in Oniyuri, and gave it to him.
The box must have meant a lot to him and his sister, given how his eyes misted over while tears started to slide down the girl's face.
Frantically, but gently, the teenager opened the box, revealing a rather plain-looking pearl necklace with a gold locket. Its carvings too intricate, and the gold far too real for it to be a fake, as the boy feared it to be.
Without hesitation, he bowed to me and spoke with his emotions barely contained in his voice.
"Thank you. Truly."
"You hired me for a job. There is no need to thank me for merely doing what the client asks of me."
I did not wait for his reply and left the place, heading back out.
With the most important things taken care of, it is time to relax for a bit.
Then, it's on to the next job.
I am only fifty thousand or so Lien away from gaining enough money for building a custom weapon of my own.
Then, I can finally apply for an apprentice Huntsman licence and gain the right to buy Aura Steel and other restricted resources openly for my weapon.
After that, I can finally stop surviving and finally start living.
It would not do for me to prove my beloved niece wrong by being a coward who lurks in the shadows like this.
The least I can do is honor her, Alex, and Diana's memory and try to be the man that they always believed me to be.