After treating some of the people,
Aililan finally found a chance to slip away.
Back at the familiar wooden cabin,
Aililan sat with her legs crossed, sipping Honey Water. A few meters away at the dining table, Theresa was carefully packing a few pieces of small Black Bread into a Flower Basket, then covering them gently with a white cloth.
Aililan muttered while drinking her Honey Water, “I say, you’re a blind girl who can hardly take care of yourself, so why are you always meddling in others’ business, making Black Bread to give away?”
Theresa smiled gently and replied, “The other day, I took two Silver Coins from you for a bottle of Honey Water. I don’t have any use for that much money alone for now. Besides, aren’t you also meddling, treating patients?”
Aililan said, “How is that the same?”
Theresa replied, “It’s just different paths to the same goal.”
The blind girl Theresa took her Flower Basket and left the house.
Aililan, helpless, could only follow her. After all, she didn’t think there was anything in that rundown shack worth staying for.
The two chatted casually as they walked. Aililan asked Theresa, since she was blind, why did her movements seem almost no different from a normal person?
Theresa told Aililan that she was just skilled at using her own ability—‘Heart’s Scales’. Before taking each step, she would first use her scales to weigh the probabilities.
Aililan couldn’t help but click her tongue in surprise.
Just how strong must your mental math be?
Suddenly, Aililan asked, “So, Theresa, when will you stop smearing ash on your face?”
“Maybe.” Theresa smiled lightly and whispered, “When the Slums finally improve! Then I won’t have to worry about trouble and won’t need to smear ash on my face anymore.”
Waiting for the Slums to get better?
That’s about as likely as a dog licking up all the flour, or a chicken eating all the… pfft, under the leadership of the great Saintess Aililan, lifting the Slums out of poverty is only a matter of time.
The two of them came to a drafty tent. Inside, the sound of a woman’s violent coughing was followed by anguished groans.
The woman’s child had just gone out, perhaps to look for food, maybe to beg, maybe to plead with a doctor, or even to commit a crime?
In a place like the Slums, no one ever knows what desperate choice someone might make next.
Theresa put down a piece of Black Bread.
She sighed quietly and slipped away unnoticed.
She would leave a piece of Black Bread in passing, right when a hungry beggar wasn’t looking.
She let a few orphans, who had lost their parents, luckily find a small bag of bread.
Aililan watched silently.
She suddenly started to understand.
Why, in the game, the two of them would become so close.
Because both were pure-hearted girls—one a chaste Saintess, the other equally kind.
When the bread in the Flower Basket was all given out, Aililan said in a faint tone, “Those people don’t even know it’s you giving them bread, won’t know your name, won’t remember your face. No one chants your name, so! What are you doing it for?”
Theresa tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear and said with a gentle smile, “Just doing what I can within my means.”
“But you’re just a blind girl.”
“Exactly because I’m blind, I only do what I’m able to.”
“At least let them know your name! Kind people shouldn’t fade into obscurity and be buried in the dust.”
Theresa quickly shook her head, with a gentle and elegant air, covering her mouth as she laughed softly, “Miss Aililan, you seem to have forgotten, this is the Slums! If they knew my name or remembered my face, I’d never have a moment’s peace again.”
“At that point, countless people would come begging for charity, until the very last Copper Coin, the last piece of bread, the last bottle of flower honey in my hands was given away before they’d stop.”
“We should have kind hearts, but we shouldn’t be foolishly kind.”
Aililan opened her mouth.
She realized she had underestimated the blind girl before her. Her eyes might be blind, but her heart was not; she knew what she should and shouldn’t do.
Aililan grumbled again, “Miss Theresa, you’re right, it’s always better to be cautious in times like these. After all, you can never be too careful with people!”
Theresa turned towards Aililan’s direction. Though all she saw was a void, she still subconsciously reached out, then perhaps feeling that was inappropriate, quickly drew her hand back and smiled faintly, “Miss Aililan, you’re quite an interesting person! You’re the first to talk with me like this, without dragging in human nature or harping on the supposed depravity of the poor.”
Aililan sneered, “What depravity? It’s just because they aren’t the ones who are sick, or starving, or forced to kneel and beg. The ones I can’t stand are those idiots who can’t stop going on about human nature and depravity.”
For the first time, there seemed to be some color in the blankness of Theresa’s eyes as she said with delight, “How coincidental! I also can’t stand those people who never shut up about human nature and depravity. Every time I want to refute them, I just feel powerless.”
Aililan snorted and gave her answer, “Arguing with such idiots? Miss Theresa, don’t you think that’s just a waste of time and life?”
The two kept talking.
And the more they talked, the more they hit it off.
How to put it? It was as if their frequencies matched.
Unknowingly,
Evening had come.
The Twelve Knights brought word: the gangs in the Slums had all been taken care of. So Aililan stood up and said her goodbyes to Theresa, “I have something else to do, so I’ll go first.”
Theresa walked out of the cabin with her, seeing her off a short way, then said, “Take care on your way back.”
Aililan said, “Thanks, see you tomorrow.”
Theresa: ……
See you tomorrow, again?
Theresa used to think she was reclusive and not fond of conversation because she was blind. After all, she rarely exchanged more than a few words with anyone—if that’s not reclusive, what is?
But today, when she was with Aililan, she wasn’t like that at all.
She even felt a bit like a chatterbox. Turns out, she wasn’t reclusive by nature—she just hadn’t met anyone who could get her talking.
On her way back, passing an alley entrance, Theresa heard many of the poor folk whispering: [The gang that swept through all the forces in the Slums has said they’re thinking of waiving the Protection Fee for the Slums.]
Theresa murmured thoughtfully, “That gang that wiped out all the factions in the Slums must be the one Miss Aililan set up, right?”
If the Slums’ Protection Fee was truly abolished, then compared to handing out a few pieces of Black Bread, what Miss Aililan had done was the true act of kindness!
For the first time, Theresa felt like an old gossip, actually enjoying hearing such rumors.
Especially if they were about Aililan.
If you want to talk,
Just talk a little more.