漫画大王

Chapter 20

“Oh, don’t give any tasks to this kid,” Loyar replied, shaking her head. “He’s going to the Temple.”

Upon hearing this, the expressions of the beggars grew extremely bewildered.

“Boss, have you lost your mind or something?”

“What?”

Loyar’s expression turned intimidating. It seemed she was irritated, which in turn prompted the beggar to cower in fear.

“I mean... Didn’t you say that young bloods were too young to understand anything and that they were just stubborn? Why are you suddenly taking in a kid like him? And not only that, but you want to take him to the Temple too?”

It was true that I didn’t see anyone my age among Loyar’s group, as managing a delinquent teenager would’ve been a real hassle in these circumstances. The group’s confusion made perfect sense.

Loyar shook her head.

“This kid is our future.”

It felt a bit odd that I had suddenly become the future of a group of beggars, yet, in a way, it really felt like I was indeed their future.

As I glanced around, I noticed the beggars’ expressions becoming increasingly uncertain. Loyar, who was also looking at the puzzled beggars, placed her hands on her hips.

The beggar king, their leader, began her impassioned speech.

“As you all know, we’re a bunch of folks with no skills and no education, right? Sure, we used to be the talk of the town back in the day, but now we’re living in the gutter, aren’t we? Sure, we said we’d try to survive as a group of people who have nothing but ourselves.

“But how long are we going to live like this? I’m fine with living like this, but most of you guys are living here against your will. I’m sure you’re all burning with the desire to get out of this place.

“But it’s too late for us to acquire something groundbreaking or learn anything new now. That’s why we will invest everything we have, our... money, yeah, our capital. We’re going to pour it all into this kid and nurture a talent that will be the future of our club.”

It seemed as if Loyar herself thought her words sounded quite convincing, and she seemed pleased with herself. She seemed to possess a type of charisma I had never seen before.

I told Loyar beforehand to tell the group that the ultimate goal was to focus on investing in a single youngster and nurture him and his talents for the future of the group, and to tell them that the end result of doing so would be that all the beggars in the gang could be transformed into productive members of society.

One of the beggars raised a skeptical eyebrow in response to Loyar’s confident speech.

“Boss, are you saying that just by sending that kid to the Temple, we’re going to live the high life in the future, instead of just being beggars?”

It was a valid question, and Eleris and I had prepared excuses for this as well.

But Loyar was agitated by the fact that a member had questioned her and immediately retorted, “I said what I said! I don’t want to hear any more words from you guys!”

“Alright boss, you’re right.”

“That’s right. Whatever you say, boss.”

Loyar’s single statement was more convincing than any other excuse out there.

If the boss wants it, the boss wants it. No questions asked.

But which was more tragic? To be caught as a demon, or as a successor raised within a beggar organization?

Gosh, both seemed equally shitty.

***

Strictly speaking, Loyar’s words made sense. Everyone seemed comfortable accepting her opinion just because it had come from her. It felt like it wasn’t the first time Loyar had done similar things to the gang.

This time, Loyar took me to a fairly large dwelling made out of cardboard, and then she brought someone else in.

A tall man, the same second-in-command guy from before. Loyar introduced me to him.

We agreed beforehand that since Loyar would be the boss in this place, she could treat me like any other group member.

“Dybun, say hi to Reinhart, He’s the future of our club. Reinhart, this is my most trusted younger brother, so you can trust him too. His name is Dybun.”

“A pleasure to meet you, Reinhart. I’m Dybun.”

He was a younger brother who had received the lycanthrope’s favor.

Was this a friendship that transcended races? This was a rare friendship, probably rarer than 1% of the friendships around the whole world.

“Hi, I’m Reinhart.”

I shook his hand, which was as big as a cooking pot.

He looked more like a retired soldier than a beggar, and was dressed slightly shabbily. He appeared rough around the edges rather than bad-tempered.

Maybe it was because he trusted Loyar, but he didn’t question a single thing about me, a stranger who had suddenly appeared and was being sent to the Temple.

“Dybun, take him to make an ID tomorrow. If you have time, go to the Temple with him as well.”

“Yes, boss.”

The three of us sat down.

It was a bit messy, but considering the corridors full of corpses back at the Demon King’s castle, this seemed like paradise to me.

Resorting to thinking about a past negative experience to make the present circumstances seem better was something I really disliked doing, but here I was doing that exact thing.

Dybun hesitated, then looked at Loyar.

“Boss, what are you going to do about the tuition fees?” he asked. “I’m not entirely sure about this, but isn’t the Temple a place that noble children attend? I heard that the tuition fees are incredibly high.”

That was a problem we were all aware of.

We had made the decision to enroll, but none of us had a straightforward solution to the most important issue. Not the issue about being exposed or anything like that; the problem was money.

Because of this, Loyar also had doubts about whether or not she could continue to cover the tuition fees for the Temple.

The Gradias Temple was the most famous educational institution on the entire continent. Not only were people from the empire educated there, nobles from all across the continent often came to study as well.

As a result, the tuition fees were exorbitantly expensive. The Temple was not only an educational institution, but also a place that generated immense wealth for the empire. Just receiving an education at the Temple alone could provide families with significant connections later on, and thus, these well-off individuals didn’t hesitate to send their children to the Temple.

The real question was whether the group of beggars could really get me enrolled, and continue to support and pay off the substantial tuition fees.

However, I had already prepared a contingency plan for that.

The tuition that each student had to pay at the Temple varied depending on the grade and major, but for regular students, it cost 50 gold per semester. That’s about 50 million won, which is equivalent to 100 million won per year. On top of that, tuition fluctuated depending on the major.

“You guys just need to be able to cover the tuition for a short period.”

“Are you confident that you can receive a scholarship, Your Highness?”

Of course, I was probably smarter than the average student, but to be honest, there had to be plenty of students who were even more intelligent than me at the Temple.

However, that wasn’t what was important.

“What the empire wants is a second or third Artorius. So if they see a student with the talent but not the money to afford education at the Temple, they’ll definitely exempt them from the tuition fees.”

I’d phrased it as though it was conjecture, but it was the truth.

The Temple authorities did not bother about the financial backgrounds of students with exceptional talents, and these students weren’t burdened with exorbitant tuition fees.

I was an Archdemon. There had to be some outstanding talent in me, there was no doubt about it.

“First, let’s get me enrolled. Once I’m there and start receiving some education, I should be able to discover at least one talent, right?”

If that were so, then I would be exempted from having to pay tuition. Finding and developing that special talent could be achieved using the achievement points, so it wasn’t just an empty promise.

It might have seemed impossible right then, but once I started to wander around the main storyline, there would be plenty of ways to earn achievement points.

They had all nodded as if they’d found this plan reasonable.

I would’ve been content without knowing or having to think about all of this stuff if my enrollment in the Temple had not been necessary. But if I had no choice but to go to the Temple, I was not going to take it lightly. I was determined to become stronger, whether I liked it or not.

So, what mattered the most now was having enough money to study at the Temple for one semester. I’d use that as an opportunity to immerse myself into the main storyline, gather achievement points, and develop my talents.

That was my current goal.

“Can’t we make it work with what we have now?”

“I’m not entirely sure, but... It probably won’t be enough, I assume.”

Loyar didn’t have a brilliant solution either.

“Um... Boss... What if you reduced the amount you take from the club’s finances? It might be possible then...” Dybun replied hesitantly.

The money that went into funding Sarkegar’s noble lifestyle was the only thing that seemed to be known. Loyar probably hadn’t specified how she used the portion that she took for herself. Dybun was suggesting they do something with the money she was taking in order to sustain my life at the Temple.

However, Loyar shook her head firmly.

“I told you, if we did that, then we’d have to quit all these shenanigans as well.”

“Yes... You did mention that.”

The funds Dybun mentioned seemed to be going into bribing the guards so that the members of the gang didn’t get arrested for begging in this area. It wasn’t exactly clear whether or not that was what they were using it for, but it sure sounded like it.

Sarkegar was a noble, and it seemed like he was doing all he could in his position to ensure that Loyar and I weren’t going to be obstructed by the people in the empire. So whatever the case was, Loyar and I could not sacrifice the funds that were being used to support Sarkegar’s activity.

“Our income has been decreasing lately, boss. People aren’t coming near the Bronze Gate Bridge as much as they used to,” Dybun said with a sigh.

Word had spread that there were beggars that were prowling around near the Bronze Gate Bridge, so the citizens had been intentionally avoiding this area for a while now. This meant that the income of the group was bound to steadily decrease as time passed.

“This is a serious problem...”

It seemed that Loyar had finally realized that things weren’t going to go the way she wanted them to. She glanced at me, almost as if expecting me to come up with a brilliant solution.

I was waiting for the ball to fall into my court.

“Hmm... What if we change our approach a bit?” I suggested.

“Huh? Change our approach?”

Dybun furrowed his brow at me as if wondering if I had any clever ideas.

They were not thinking outside the box. The answer was simple and right under their noses all along!

“If our customers are avoiding us, why not go and find the customers ourselves?”

It was common sense. If there are no customers, you have to go find them yourself.

Surprisingly, these guys didn’t have that much of a hustling mindset. It was obvious that their strategy was not going to work, as all they were doing was trying to sell candy to people who passed by the area.

If one path gets blocked, you have to look for a different path. It wasn’t like someone was going to come and help them all of a sudden if all they did was just grow bitter about their situation and do nothing about it.

“Go out and find customers? Are you suggesting we expand our operations to different areas as well?”

“That’s right.”

“Do you have a place in mind?”

“If we go too far away, the members of the gang will get tired quickly.”

It seemed like Dybun thought that expanding the group’s activity range would be difficult because it would require a lot of traveling on foot.

“No. In fact, it might actually be easier.”

“Easier...?”

“Yes, because we would just need to stay in one place, and there would be no need to move around. It’s a place where many people come and go, a place with a high transient population. Doesn’t that ring a bell?”

Loyar and Dybun looked at me skeptically, as if they thought that I was talking about some non-existent location that was perfectly suited for beggars.

“The magical trains.”

The place with the highest transient population within the city, where the beggars will become subway peddlers.

Loyar and Dybun looked astonished. They seemed to think it was a revolutionary idea.

‘Now this is what I’m talking about. This is what an isekai story should be like!’