Chapter 279
Chapter 279
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 279
Chapter Title: You're From Flower, Aren't You? (4)
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Sun of the Slums.
8 years ago.
No matter how much time passes, I can never forget that one moment I've lived through for so long.
Nitrogen and phosphorus. Potassium hydroxide. The musty, pungent smell of wood ash and rice straw, mixed with the acrid chemical scent unique to the lab.
Behind the desperate death cries of people echoing pitifully, old folks who had fallen behind in the rigid caste society gathered in a secluded building, devoting themselves solely to research.
And every day, venturing out to sell my body, scraping together money and food for just a single drop of semen—those wretched days.
Even at a young age, it was a world where survival meant scheming every single second just to earn one more bowl of porridge.
That was the place where Sun had lived.
I still remember it.
The damned knots on those old, beggar-stinking trees!
"No, fuck, why the hell do I have to sleep with those crazy bitches?"
"Then pick one. From these."
Sun had survived by disguising himself as a beggar to steal, or selling his body in various ways through labor.
Even when he was sold to the lab as a criminal slave, the work he had to do wasn't much different from before.
The lab director, the oldest-looking bastard there, who insisted on being called "father."
He showed photos one by one, grinning in a way that made Sun's skin crawl just looking at it.
"How about a guy then? You said no to girls? They said you'd do well since your face looks pretty like a girl."
"Fuuuuck. Father, my ass. Father! You think it's okay for a father to make his son do this shit?"
"Hey, I'm not asking for anything else. Just have one meal with me, and I'll give you pocket money and let you eat restaurant food you can't normally afford."
"That's exactly why I'm saying no, you crazy old fart!"
-Bang!
The fights between his fake father and Sun always ended with Sun running away.
A half-day escape was the most he could manage as a protest.
-Gurgle.
But what place did a penniless, status-less kid have to go?
Clutching his starving belly and fuming, he always ended up in one place.
The only spot in the slums overflowing with money and food.
Dream Restaurant.
The place that took in kids with absolutely nothing, not even a single coin.
To put it simply... it was the free cafeteria run by Flower.
All you could taste there was watery oat porridge and garbage scraps with no flavor, but even that was a feast to Sun.
-Creak!
He flung the door open with a bang, and a few familiar faces from the slums were there.
"Oppa?"
"It's oppa!"
Shitdog. Dusty. And so on—kids he called by makeshift names since they had none.
They used to starve and steal apples together in the slums, but now they'd entered Flower at a young age and become staff.
A world apart from Sun's fate as a slave.
"Here for food?"
"Yeah. Stopped by before work."
"Hehe. Wait a sec? I'll bring it right out."
Girls without the stench of sewage or grime on their faces.
They'd lucked out with a good boss, always bathing, working, and getting paid.
Unlike Sun, who was subjected to drug experiments, their situations were completely different—but he didn't feel any particular jealousy.
These kids he'd once been close with had found a comfortable home; feeling petty jealousy about that just wasn't cool.
Sun had always pursued style since he was little.
"Here!"
Shitdog. Now probably called Aerial.
Sun grinned like a child at the hearty bowl of oat porridge. His stomach was already rumbling in excitement.
First bite. No, three bites.
Aerial smiled warmly at Sun wolfing it down.
After filling his belly just right, a sudden curiosity about this place bubbled up.
"So, what exactly is Flower that they're giving out food like this?"
"Dunno?"
Even Aerial just shrugged blankly.
Sun pondered a bit more, tilting his head and shrugging.
Whatever.
This building was practically a beacon of hope in the slums.
How many kids it had saved, how many beggars it had helped reclaim normal lives.
Hell, there were hundreds, thousands of slum dwellers who'd gladly give their lives for this place.
"Well, um, uh... I don't really know! The people from Flower just said the kids are innocent. Eat as much as you want."
To kids with no money or skills, it gave experience and shelter.
To those who'd fallen once, it offered a chance to rise again.
If you picked up even a little skill here, you could make a living.
Aerial, who once couldn't tell salt from sugar, was now a proper cook and young head of household, wasn't she?
"If you do well, you can become Flower staff! You get status. Status! Kyaa~ So cool."
Aerial giggled brightly.
"Then with my mom and little sibling..."
"Yeah, yeah. Live happily together? Then work even harder."
"Yeah."
Whatever.
He himself was just an experiment subject and a stud.
But in front of friends, a guy had to sincerely bless them, right?
He remembered his mother, who starved to death, saying that.
A man has to laugh heartily even if he falls backward and breaks his nose.
Sun clapped his hands and glanced around.
-Thud.
Over there, a woman calmly moving boxes of hardtack.
Seemed about his age.
Her snow-white skin suggested she wasn't from the slums, and the black suit marked her as someone from Flower.
Her calm, expressionless face was distinctive.
Eyes that felt utterly emotionless. If you asked what she was thinking, she'd probably just say, "What?"
A straw doll without feelings.
That was Sun's first impression of her.
'Wait a sec...'
That person's from Flower?
If he put on a good pitiful act, maybe he could become staff here too.
His young, scheming pea brain started spinning at full speed.
'Jackpot, fuck yeah!'
This was life-changing.
"O-oppa? Where you going?"
"Wait a sec."
Judging it an opportunity he couldn't miss, Sun left his now-empty oat porridge bowl and slyly approached the woman.
"Hey~"
"...?"
"Are you from Flower by any chance?"
Why is this filthy brat talking to me?
That was the look on the woman's face as she stared at him.
"What's your name?"
"Bead."
She answered dryly, like she had no guard up and was just responding because asked.
Sun exaggerated an "Ah~" and smiled.
"Do you know why this building was built?"
"Here?"
Her youthful face. She touched her lower lip with a finger, tilting her head slightly.
Cuter than she looked.
Sun waited patiently for her answer, and soon Bead replied.
"To shelter innocent people... something like a sanctuary, I think."
"A sanctuary... Why would you guys do that?"
"Dunno about that. But saving people isn't bad, right?"
If she said so... then probably.
In this brutal back-alley world where selfless acts never happened.
Sun couldn't understand their thinking, but good was good, so no issue.
"Because it's the right thing."
"...Still, there must be some reason."
Bead nodded toward Aerial working away, gesturing with her chin. Sweating but smiling brightly as she filled the kids' hungry bellies.
Deeper in, there were people caring for injured or sick kids.
All of them had once been part of this sewer.
"Dunno. I've been doing it since I was born, without reason. So... I don't know what the bosses are thinking."
"Bosses? Sounds like you're in the same boat as me. How old are you?"
"Twelve."
"Ooh~ I'm twelve and a slave too. Small world. Wanna share a drink of water and catch up?"
"...What?"
She tilted her head, not understanding. Sun's face stiffened.
'Weird. Adults always talked like this at work places.'
Maybe old guys just had no sense in picking lines.
He gave up on wordplay immediately.
If he played it right, he could work here as a slave—no biggie sucking up.
That was Sun's specialty.
"Still, good work you're doing."
"... ."
Bead nodded in agreement.
It was good work.
No idea what Flower was about, but better to entrust yourself here than anywhere else.
Sun was confident he'd roll over like a dog if Flower called him right now.
"Long ago, this was called a criminal village or whatever bad names... but now those criminals are all dead. They bred without thinking, so only innocent kids left."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. Helping them is honestly... grateful. Our Aerial even tried to kill me once over a single apple. Look at her now. Smiling so nicely."
Byproducts of war.
That was Sun, and the orphans here.
Anyone who betrayed the World Tree even once, showed any friendliness to the Wood Spirit King, or opposed the World Tree in any way—they were all abandoned here.
Such slums existed in four figures across the world.
"Not sure if it's pure goodwill, but it's good. Anyway."
Sun smiled watching Aerial work hard.
Now ten years old. She'd eaten rats, got sick, suffered days of agony—but now her complexion was so healthy.
"...Nice."
Bead looked at Aerial and faintly smiled too.
Sun got excited at the human side peeking through her mechanical expression and kept talking.
"So, could you save me too?"
"What?"
"I mean, today that 'father' guy told me to sell myself to a man. So annoying. Right?"
Bead's eyes widened at Sun's sudden rush, asking back.
Of course, his scheming wouldn't work.
"I can't do anything."
"...Haa."
He thought being staff meant power.
Can't even put in a word?
Imagining being dragged back tonight, wrapped in that old tree's roots, his strength drained away.
'Dogshit life.'
But what could he do? Had to live.
If the experiments went well, freedom—or better—awaited, his fake father boasted.
Sun just waited for that day.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "That day was the first time that girl and I met. The Aerial she mentioned back then was such a cute kid, but she ended up dying... The one who sang she wanted to marry me."
Too much talker.
"Ah, Aori's someone I met after that. Got a few stories from when I first met her too. You can't listen without tears. For real. It's in Slum Sun chapter 7. So Aori..."
Sun was lost in the past, eyes misty, spilling stories nonstop.
I got it—pitiful life, slum survivor.
Bead sat dazed in her chair, listening to Sun's long tale.
Somehow it started, and his slum diary kept tailing off, preventing me and Bead from getting to the main point.
"True story?"
"Yeah. Whatever."
Bead answered.
Young Bead working at the shelter and Sun.
Got it.
I looked back at Sun.
"But you two knew each other that long, how come you never mentioned her to me?"
"...You never asked."
"You know how much I hate Flower?"
"Yeah."
"Then why not tell me there's a Flower girl at El Academy."
Sun went silent, then punched his own head.
"Huh?"
Trying to play it off as a joke again.
I ordered the maid Aori standing beside me.
"Aori."
"Yes, my king."
"Step on him."
He'd opened the floodgates during an important talk.
But now I knew how these two met and lived.
Flower's relief efforts were worth noting too.
But that's that, and this is this.
Aori gleefully dragged Sun off the sofa and stomped away.
Like a dancer. Twisting while kicking head, gut, vitals.
As if today was her last. Even watching made me cringe.
"Urk! Ack! Ugh, ack! Bro, fuck, bones! Bones hit, you crazy bitch! Ack!"
-Clink, roll.
A button bounced off his clothes, pathetically rolling on the floor.
Ignoring Sun's pitiful cries, I looked ahead again.
The tea long cold. I sighed and asked her.
Where were we?
"We haven't even started."
Bead shrugged bitterly.