Where Did You Sell Your Conscience?
Taxes… Just where the hell did this lady sell her conscience?
I fanned away the thick cigarette smoke and looked the woman in front of me up and down. I’ll admit the deep cleavage visible between her plunging neckline and those full, swaying hips were impressive. She was a glamorous beauty with every curve in exactly the right place—flashy, stacked, and built to kill. Her seductive figure didn’t belong in this filthy slum at all.
But no matter how thick the makeup or how expensive the clothes, you can’t hide the passage of time. No matter what anyone says, an auntie is still an auntie.
If she had even the slightest shred of conscience as an adult, she would never have had the audacity to call herself “big sis” in front of a kid like me.
“To me? Why? Auntie, do you know me?”
“……A-auntie?”
“Vi-Vita!!”
“What? I called you auntie because you’re an auntie. Did I say something wrong?”
“A-auntie? Little miss, just who do you think you’re speaking to?”
“Huh? Inside this room, who else is there besides you, auntie?”
I tilted my head with an expression of pure, innocent confusion, staring straight up at the woman. At my seemingly harmless (yeah, right) pure and guileless act, the madam’s brows crumpled viciously.
“Ha, hahaha… Vita, was it? That’s your name? My, what a… truly bold child you are. Heh, hehehe… hahahahaha…! It’s so memorable, I doubt I’ll ever forget it for the rest of my life.”
“Vi-Vita…! Please shut your mouth!! M-Madam! I’m truly sorry! Vita is still a child who doesn’t understand how the world works, so… she doesn’t know how to tell the polite lies that other people do! Please forgive—ah, no, wait a moment!”
“Oh ho, Prin. So what you’re saying is… that everything our Vita just spouted was the absolute, unvarnished truth without a single lie mixed in? Isn’t that right?”
“No!! No, that’s absolutely not it!! It’s a misunderstanding, Madam!!”
Tsk tsk.
A quick side glance showed Prin’s face had gone past pale and straight into deathly white—like he was ready to bite his tongue and end it all right there.
“Ah, so you don’t like being called auntie? Understood. Then I’ll specially compromise and call you ‘auntie-in-law.’ Is that better?”
I shrugged and shook my head, the very picture of a generous elder reluctantly indulging a childish tantrum.
“…Auntie-in-law? Hehe. Yes, that’s a very cute thing to say.”
The woman’s narrowed eyes glittered dangerously. Her boiling rage hadn’t completely cooled, but the murderous aura from earlier had eased a notch. It seemed “auntie-in-law” offered her pride at least some small comfort compared to plain “auntie.”
From Prin’s perspective—where he looked like he might pass out from holding his breath any second—he probably thought I had completely lost my mind.
No matter how fearless a child might be, he had to be wondering why I was provoking a woman who clearly stood at the top of the underworld like this.
The reason was simple. I instinctively found her disgusting.
That big thug I’d run into in the hallway earlier. The way his creepy, sticky gaze had licked over us—over me—still felt like filth clinging to my skin.
The glamorous woman leisurely blowing smoke in front of me was ultimately no different: just another powerhouse of the back alleys who commanded those thugs and sucked the life out of the weak.
If I awkwardly bowed my head and groveled in front of people like this who showed no mercy to the vulnerable, showing even the slightest gap? It was obvious they’d seize on any weakness or see me as easy prey and devour me whole.
That’s why I drew a clear line from the very beginning.
I’m not some naïve little kid you can sweet-talk, toy with, and manipulate as you please.
Hold on. At this point one question does arise.
If I hate getting entangled with them so much, why the hell did I walk in here on my own two feet?
The reason was simple.
I already had a pretty good idea what this so-called madam found interesting about me.
Obviously, the fact that a worthless brat like me could use real magic—not some cheap trick—would look like a rare, mouth-watering talent and a juicy money-maker to these people.
But this baby was different.
In their minds, the child was nothing but a worthless, useless thing. The streets were overflowing with orphans who’d lost their parents; there was zero reason to take any special interest in this one.
But the baby was just a baby.
It wouldn’t hold much value to them, and if we paid a fair price in the transaction, that should be enough.
“Prin. To think you were inwardly calling me auntie this whole time—how truly insolent. We’ll have to have a long, serious talk later about this impudent little miss’s manners… including your own.”
“……Yes. I’ll keep it in mind.”
“So. What business brings your precious self all the way here to see this big sis—no, auntie? You don’t look like you’ve come to incur a debt.”
With the question, the madam’s gaze slid to France, who was trembling beside me, then precisely to the baby cradled in her arms.
“Could it be… you’ve come for nursing again? Because of the baby you’re holding?”
“Yes, that’s correct, Madam. We’ve taken in an orphan, but given our circumstances we don’t have any breast milk to feed it right away. Just like when my little sister France was a newborn and we received help… I came hoping we might ask for assistance one more time. Of course, I’m not here to beg blindly. I’ve brought bread to pay as a fair price.”
“Hehe… Coming with an orphan in your arms to ask for nursing. This really brings back memories from ten years ago.”
This time the madam’s gaze turned to me.
“Well, fine. Go ahead. There are plenty of women in this building willing to nurse if you give them a fair price. But before that—our bold little Vita? You stay here and chat with auntie for a bit.”
Ugh. She’s really being a pain in the ass.
“Vi-Vita… Are you really okay by yourself?”
His trembling pupils held equal parts worry for me and terror that the two of us alone would trigger the madam’s wrath again and send us all straight to the afterlife.
“It’s fine, so go feed the kid first.”
“It’s fine, so go ahead first.”
At my answer, Prin still fidgeted anxiously but eventually wrapped an arm around France’s shoulders—baby and all—and carefully stepped out through the door.
Creak. Thud.
With the sound of the door closing, only the madam and I remained in the smoke-filled room.
“From what I hear, you can use quite plausible magic. Could you show that interesting magic to this auntie as well?”
“You seem very interested in magic. Instead of a kid like me, don’t you already employ one or two real wizards in the back?”
“Hehe, sharp-tongued. It’s not common to find a child as young as you using proper magic. By any chance, do you have a separate teacher who taught you?”
……Teacher.
The moment I heard that word, the face of that damn psychopath wizard flashed unpleasantly across my mind.
God, this is driving me insane. Why do I have to deal with this dilemma again?
On the outside I simply blinked innocently, but inside my mind began spinning at full speed.
What answer would let me keep my neck intact?
If I said I had no teacher and learned everything through self-study?
This woman would inflate my potential value to the sky, treat me like a rare genius mutant, and then do everything in her power to collar me so she could use me as an expensive money-maker or useful tool. The worst possible move that would attract unnecessarily massive attention.
But if I lied and said I’d learned from an incredible master?
There was no way she’d back down with an “Oh my, the backing is too scary so I can’t touch you~.”
Instead, she might shake me down and do all sorts of terrible things trying to uncover the identity of this fictional teacher who didn’t even exist.
“Magic… I learned a little by watching over my late teacher’s shoulder.”
I slightly lowered my gaze and spoke the lie in a voice carefully laced with plausible sorrow.
Yes. The person who taught me magic didn’t need to be alive. Even if this woman went snooping around investigating my fake teacher’s whereabouts, the dead don’t talk. She would clearly waste precious time chasing after a ghost’s traces.
And if I could buy that much time, it would be enough. By the time this woman realized my lie, I would have perfectly mastered magic and long since left this wretched slum far behind.
“Hmm… Already dead? What a shame. So, what was your teacher’s name?”
“Ro-Rosa.”
“Rosa… I see. Ah, now that you’re here today, there’s something I must tell you. We’ve never collected protection taxes from orphans like you before. Squeezing poor orphans who have nothing but dust to give has never made financial sense. You must have noticed how generously we’ve been treating you all this time—if you have any sense at all.”
……Protection tax?
“But little miss. Lately it seems you’ve been raking in quite a lot of money on the streets with that puppet show or whatever—excessively so for a child. If you’re generating that much massive profit in our district, you ought to pay the appropriate fair tax, don’t you think? So starting today, you’re a special case. From now on, we will take a certain portion of your income under the name of protection tax.”
“……Pardon?”
“Don’t feel too wronged. It simply means your ability has caught the special interest of the one who rules this district and entered my ledger. What better benefit could there be than receiving our protection in such a rough neighborhood? You may rejoice.”