These men were a group of jacks-of-all-trades here in the slums. They had a large circle of influence and earned their money working as outlaws-for-hire and by taking requests for all kinds of evil activities. Human trafficking, illegal trading, robbery, swindling, extortion, transportation and disposal of stolen goods... even hit jobs. The list of crimes they were willing to get their hands dirty for was endless.

To these men, an orphan in the slums was like a convenient, disposable pawn. Easy to obtain, use, and throw away — which they often did. Rio was one such pawn that these men had picked up. He lived in this small shack with them and lived in fear of being subjected to their abuse. Sometimes they would hit him for stress relief, sometimes they would force him to assist with their crimes, using him as a scapegoat or bait while they escaped.

In a word, Rio was their slave.

But in this cruel world, his survival depended on them. In fact, he had survived until today by desperately obeying them.

“Hey, it’s cold in here. Let’s get to celebrating and warm ourselves up!” said the other underling.

He walked to the shabby wooden table in the middle of the room and placed some food and alcohol down with a thud.

“Good idea. Hey — leave that in the corner. S’been drugged to sleep, so don’t go wakin’ it up,” ordered the leader of the group of men.

One underling moved to place a sack with their spoils on the floor. Then, in high spirits, the men had the sole woman in the group pour their drinks, and they began to eat.

“But ten gold coins sure was a great haul... right, boss?”

One of the underlings cackled.

“Hmph. It’s ten gold for cargo transport. Can’t be anything decent... I doubt it’s just a slave inside. Probably some noble’s kid or something.”

“Wait, what? You lot better not be doing anything dangerous again,” the woman pouring the drinks said with a disapproving expression.

“Well... yeah.”

The giant leader yanked the woman closer to him and snorted with a smug smirk on his face.

“But ten gold coins fer a side-job like that? It’s freakin’ amazing.”

“Yeah.”

The leader took a large gulp of his alcohol and took a ferocious bite of his hunk of meat. Rio watched on from the side, swallowing his saliva hungrily. The topic of their conversation was ominous, but Rio was far more interested in the food in their hands. While it was evident they weren’t doing any decent work... if Rio had helped even a little, he would have been given something to eat. But this time around, Rio had been sleeping off his sickness, so the chance of them feeding him was extremely low. It wouldn’t happen unless they were in a really good mood...

The relationship between Rio and these men was simple: the strong and the weak, the exploiters and the exploited.

They’d shelter him as long as they could exploit him, then mercilessly throw him out once he was done. Rio had seen them do that to many other children already. While he didn’t intend on continuing their relationship forever, he was just a seven-year-old child. Only the fittest could survive on the streets of the slums, and he doubted he could live for very long out there without them. But at that very moment, the smell of the food was unbearable on his empty stomach.

I’m hungry...

It was all he could think about. He was too fatigued for anything else. Rio let the men’s conversation wash over him, only half-listening as he sat slumped in the corner of the shack, resting his body, when suddenly—

“Heeey Rio. Rio!” one of the underlings called out to Rio.

“Yes?”

“Your fever sweat stinks like crap. Go wash yourself — you’re ruining the food and drink.”

“...Okay.”

He’d hoped that they would give him food, but that was just his wishful thinking. The underling pinched his nose and made a shooing gesture with his hand. Apparently, the sweat made Rio’s body odor a lot stronger than he realized.

“I’m sorry.”

Rio bowed his head once and staggered to his feet. Although Amakawa Haruto didn’t know the man at all, Rio knew the underling very well. It was a mysterious feeling. Stumbling over his feet, Rio hobbled towards the door of the shack.

“Rio! If yer still not better, we’ll sell ya off as a slave. The only thing y’got goin’ fer ya is yer devil’s luck and pretty face, after all,” the leader said gleefully, already well on his way to being drunk. The underlings roared with laughter, as if he had said something hilarious.

“Oh, stop picking on children!”

The woman pouring the drinks chided them exasperatedly, but Rio continued walking out the door without looking back. He closed the door behind him.

“Rio.”

Rio turned back at the sound of his name being called. The door reopened immediately, and the woman who was pouring drinks stepped outside.

“Go get yourself some breakfast with this. It should be enough for some stale bread and plain broth,” the woman said, placing three small copper coins in Rio’s hand.

This woman was the prostitute the leader favored the most. She was also on amicable terms with Rio, often looking out for him like this.

“...Thank you very much, Gigi. Are you sure?”

Gigi responded with a kind smile when Rio thanked her. “Just make sure you come play with me when you’re a little older.”

“Haha...” Rio laughed awkwardly.

“I’m just kidding. I’ve told you before how I have a niece your age, right? You remind me of her, that’s all. I’m going to quit this job soon anyway,” Gigi explained with a shrug.

“I’m opening a shop with Angela, my little sister. Come visit us someday,” she said with a soft smile.

Rio had heard about that from Gigi before. Gigi and her sister, Angela, were working as prostitutes while saving to open their store. Rio intended on paying her back some day, but just as he opened his mouth to tell her so—

“You seem different today... did something happen to you?” Gigi asked with wide eyes.

“Huh? Umm... I’m not sure what you mean,” Rio answered uncertainly and tilted his head. He was startled.

“So you can make that kind of face, too. Your pretty face looks much better when it isn’t sulking,” Gigi said cheerfully.

“Er... sure,” Rio hesitantly agreed. “I’ll keep that in mind, I guess.”

“Alright. Off you go, now. They’ll get mad at me if I chat with you for too long.”

“Right. Thank you. For everything.”

Rio bowed his head deeply, then left.