Chapter 23

Ha~….ha~…..ha~…..

'Are they following me?' Scar asked in 'his' mind. He was breathing heavily. His body severely lacks nutrition and that is why he is frail. 

Scar, not seeing anybody following him, let out a sigh of relief.

He cautiously into one of the back alleys of the lane. The place was incredibly dark. But living here for so long, he grew accustomed to the dark alleys. He can easily walk through the back alleys of the slums.

While walking a bit, he cautiously slid one of the boards covering a door inside the alley.

Scar, hurriedly walked into the 'room'. He left the door open. The room was dark too. Though calling it a 'room' would be too much, it didn't look anything like a room where people would like to live. Instead, it looked like some sort of shed, meant for animals. 

He walked to a bump covered in ragged clothes, lying on a bed made of hay.

He kneeled and placed the bag that he just stole outside near his legs.

"Hey, Grace? Can you hear me?" He asked tenderly. His voice was too high-pitched for a man.

After he called out, there was a movement within the bump. A second later, the rags were removed to show a little face. The face was that of a young girl. By looking at her drowsy eyes and sunken cheeks, one could deduce that she was sick and malnourished.

"U-uh…" the little girl made some low noise.

Seeing the condition of the girl lying down, Scar's heart ached. His little sister was extremely sick and as the older sibling, he is unable to do anything to cure her.

"Grace? Are you alright right now? The fever didn't rise when I was out right?"

After hearing Scar's question, Grace slowly shook her head. Her eyes were still drowsy, indicating her weak composition.

Scar sighed again, "Fuuuhh~" "That's good. Oh! I have brought some bread with me today. If you eat them, you will gain some strength." 

Saying that Scar picked up the bag from the ground.

He hurriedly opened the bag with expectations, only for his expression to darken when he saw the content inside the bag.

The bag didn't contain bread as expected. Instead, there were rugs shoved inside.

"W-what!? H-how can this be!? I clearly saw that person eating bread!!" His voice trembled. He couldn't make out a sense of what is going on right now. Tears were threatening to fall from his eyes.

Just when he was busy trying to understand what happened to the bread, a voice was heard near the door.

"Yes. That bag didn't have any bread in it."

Scar hurriedly looked behind in shock to see three persons standing there.

The person in the middle gave out a smile and said, "You took the wrong bag with you." saying that he showed the bag in his hand to scar and added. "I have the bread in here. Do you need some?"

*MC POV*

We stood in front of the door of the thief who stole our bag back in the lane. The shocked expression right now on his face was really something to see.

"H-how!? How did you get here!!?" the thief blurred out, expressing his shock.

I kept my smile and said. "Well, there is no shortage of people who can disclose the location of a thief for some money. I gave a man some money to show me where you leave."

Honestly, it was no big thing to find this place. This entire area was filled with poor people. Many people have seen him running off here. It just took some pennies for finding his location.

Hearing my answer a shocking realization dawned upon him. Looks like he realised that he completely forgot to cover his tracks while running off in a hurry.

Honestly, I am glad his brain didn't comprehend this situation. Or else it would be much harder to find him out.

While he was shocked to say anything, I walked inside the room. Cloud and the guard captain followed me.

Seeing us enter the room, the thief became flustered and began to back down.

"W-why are you entering my room!!? Get out!!"

"Oh! Did you ask us when you stole our thing? Then why should I ask your permission?" I rebuked him with a straight face.

Unable to say anything he picked up the bag of rugs that he stole and threw it toward me. 

I splendidly dodged it and looked at him, narrowing my eyes. 

"Now you are resorting to violence huh?" saying so I neared him. He stumbled back a bit causing him to fall on his butt.

Upon nearing the bed I saw the small girl lying there inside some ragged sheets.

"So this is his sister." I recognized her. "She is still alive, but looks like she is extremely sick."

I lowered my hand to touch the forehead of the girl, she was breathing heavily.

"Oh! She is burning." I exclaimed in my mind.

On the other hand, the thief, seeing me touch his sister's forehead, shouted out.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!? DON'T TOUCH HER!!" saying so he tried to push me. But before he could, Cloud expertly grabbed him and bend his hands to pin him down on the ground.

"Uggh.." He let out a pained groan.

Being short in stature and extremely skinny, he had no chance in front of Cloud who was a trained guard.

I kneeled on one knee to make eye contact with him. 

"Looks like the fever of the young girl is very bad. Do you need my help?"

"W-what!?" He was shocked by my statement.

It is understandable. He just stole from us. And we entered his house without asking. He would surely be surprised and suspicious as to why I am proposing this to him.

I paid no heed to his surprise I continued' "Think carefully, we can just hand you over to the authorities and charge you for stealing. But it looks like the little girl seriously needs some help. I am being generous. It would be wise for you to do what I say right now."

Hearing what I said, his pupils started shaking extensively. I know he is thinking of all of the prospects of my offer right now. So I didn't interrupt him.

After thinking for some time, he gave up his resistance and dropped his head.

Taking that as a sign of agreeing I nodded.

I turned to the guard captain who was standing beside me, watching this entire thing unfold, and said, "Captain, please carry the little girl on your back. We are getting out of here"