Darkness was the companion of the old man’s later years.
Bali Saihe had grown accustomed to it. Even when awake, he didn’t have to look at the ugly world. Betrayer’s informants, cruel punishments.
He groped around, his hands each grabbing his most precious possessions: a long staff for begging and driving away dogs, and a battered helmet.
“Asuna! My child…”
Even though he had lost his eyes, Bali Saihe could still feel the only love he had in the world. His daughter’s daughter, the last relative closely tied to him in the world.
“Grandpa, I’m here.”
The girl’s timid voice sounded.
“May the goddess bless you.”
He caressed the child’s face, smooth as silk, along with the gilded long hair in his memory. But an ascetic monk seen as a beggar by others shouldn’t have a pretty girl by his side. So his touch wasn’t entirely affectionate—it was to smear dust on the girl’s face, hiding her beauty.
Here was Grinno City, the city with the worst public safety in the Kingdom of Norsenia. Even ordinary beggars dared not beg here. But Bali Saihe dared to do so. He indeed had to beg with his poor granddaughter, but deep down he refused to admit he was a beggar. He was still a disciple of Helong, the Sun God, an ascetic monk spreading the teachings.
What begging? That’s called alms-collecting cultivation. We monks don’t lie, understand?
But Asuna… The old man knew that sometimes he shouldn’t deceive himself. If it weren’t for… he wouldn’t take the risk of bringing Asuna to such a place to beg.
The begging work was simple enough: an old man and a little girl dressed in tattered clothes, hiding in the shadows of the street, reaching out to passersby. Bali Saihe had no bowl, but he had a helmet left from his heroic battles back then. He didn’t have eyes to read expressions, but he had his loving little granddaughter, Asuna.
“Please have mercy…”
The girl’s voice came, along with a pair of trembling little hands holding out the empty, rusted helmet.
“Get lost!”
People on Lower Grino Street rarely had kindness. They just quickened their steps, muttering “Bad luck.”
“Grandpa…”
Asuna was dejected.
The old man just pulled her into his arms and said, “You’ve worked very hard, child.”
“But—it’s not enough.”
“You need to feel carefully, use your eyes to see,” the old man said. “The pedestrians on the street are in a hurry; naturally they’re displeased when we interrupt them, and it’s normal for them not to open their wallets.”
“So…”
Bali Saihe stood up.
“We should change places.”
“How do you know they’re in a hurry? You can’t even see!”
“I can hear their footsteps.”
Bali Saihe put on a dusty cloak, the most suitable outfit in this city, shielding himself and his little granddaughter Asuna. The grandparents and grandchild helped each other, slowly moving from the ruins at the edge of the city to the Lower Grino District. The streets here were even worse, but with care, one could always find opportunities.
Bali Saihe straightened up, just like during his decades of military service. He held his long staff and carried the empty helmet, walking toward a shop. The smell in the shop was disgusting, giving off a strange soup pot odor, both sour and pungent.
Bali Saihe knew it was an illegal alchemist’s shop. People like that didn’t need to shut the door on a beggar. Since it was illegal business, the thing they hated most was being pestered.
“May the gods bless you!”
Bali Saihe traced a complex divine sign on his chest, representing a wandering monk’s blessing to the world. Strictly speaking, this wasn’t begging; it was conducting a ritual. For the gods’ sake, give a little, right?
The God of Stars, Yisita’er, would protect miracles and good luck! He was the patron deity of alchemists and spellcasters…
Boom
The alchemist opened the door, sized up Bali Saihe. Then closed it. As long as you ignore the beggar, it doesn’t count as being pestered, right?
“Pfft!”
Asuna, hiding in the distance, couldn’t help but laugh. Was her grandfather really a skilled beggar? And those heroic deeds he bragged about without any basis?
In Asuna’s memory, there were only two layers. One was happiness and beauty, about her parents, living in harmony and comfort. But the next layer was shattering. Asuna’s mother had died, and her father… she didn’t know where he went.
She had been driven out of that home, which was like heaven in her memory, and was now with her grandfather, whom she only saw once every few years. Outside, begging, being a beggar.
Asuna didn’t know what war her grandpa talked about. She only knew that her life was far less happy than before. But she didn’t plan to leave. As for her father… even if her grandpa didn’t say it, she knew.
Bali Saihe’s ears caught something else besides the girl’s laughter. The sound of coins rolling on the ground. Right, that alchemist was shy—how could that be called not giving money? Right when he closed the door, didn’t he still throw out one or two coins? The old man crouched down, carefully picked them up, and called Asuna to see what the coins were. A fallen general might be able to distinguish people, but not coins.
“Two copper coins.”
Asuna stuck out her tongue.
“They’re a bit dark. Can we trade them for food at the bakery? What if they don’t accept…”
“They will, they will. We’ve got our lunch sorted,” Bali Saihe said.
Not being greedy—that was the greatest virtue of this grandparent-grandchild pair.
***
Luo Yi was thoroughly embarrassed. He simply couldn’t believe that the great General Bali Saihe had ended up as a beggar, living in such a dirty, poorly-policed place.
“It’s already good enough,” Du Wa Er Fu said. “That man already told us that Bali Saihe wanders around collecting alms to live, and Grinno City is his current stop—who knows if he might vanish into thin air later!”
“I…”
Luo Yi was furious.
“I simply don’t believe it!”
He had always thought that Old General Bali Saihe, though defeated, was still honorable—even if he lost a war, the Kingdom of Norsenia wouldn’t be so cruel. Strip him of all his property and status, and even gouge out his eyes, reducing him to a beggar? Luo Yi didn’t believe it.
Du Wa Er Fu spread his hands.
“I know you don’t believe it—but okay, I said I’d take you to Bali Saihe, and you backed out halfway. So now go back with me, back to the Adventurer’s Guild to work. With your merit of killing a Manticore as a young hero…”
“No way!”
Luo Yi turned away, said angrily.
“Say what you will. Me and my little black pig, Pi Gu Si, will follow you—take your time, think slowly, no rush,” Du Wa Er Fu said calmly.
But this Dwarf adventurer soon panicked.
“Where’s my pig?”
He held an empty rope in his hand, at a loss. Is the public security here really that bad? How could someone steal a pig! The Dwarf quickly started using his own special dialect, unleashing a rapid-fire stream of curses. Pi Gu Si was the uncle Dwarf’s personally raised pet pig! How could it be so easily stolen by a blind jerk?!
“We have to go after it,” Luo Yi said. “In this hellish place, there are plenty of thieves.”