Side Story 1: Little Brother

"Have you heard about the new knight?"

"Of course! You're talking about Knight Jasper of the third brigade right? He's so charming~"

"Right? Right? Those eyes just make me melt. Ahhh~"

A little boy quietly snickers to himself as he walked behind the two gossiping ladies up in front.

[As expected of Jas. Nobody can avert his charms. He's just so amazing!]

This little boy was the younger brother of the future Sword Saint, someone who would become revered throughout the lands of Trinix.

However, at this point in time, Jasper had merely just joined the knight brigade, yet already making quite a name for himself amongst the populace.

It mostly had to do with his looks.

Every day at this time, the young boy would head to the marketplace with their old maid, finding good deals to prepare for dinner.

They had been separated not long ago due to the great crowd today.

He was able to find his own way home, and the maid wouldn't worry too much, but taking the chance of finally being alone, he couldn't help but want to play around a bit more.

A month ago, the King had posted a notice throughout the kingdom to recruit new knights, causing many youths around Orz to hurry along to the capital hoping for a chance at being accepted.

Jasper, himself, passed the recruitment exam with flying colors just a few days ago.

They were finally going to celebrate that night.

The little boy looked up, spotting a familiar figure in the middle of the crowd up ahead.

The figure was dressed in the blue knight's outfit for new recruits, a hand resting upon the embellished silver sword strapped to his waist.

The boy's eyes opened brightly, gleaming excitedly at the figure, before waving both of his hands in the air energetically.

"Jas! Jas!"

The figure did not hear him, and had already disappeared into the crowd.

His head dropped slightly, sighing with disappointment.

"Oh wells. I'll see him later tonight."

His mood quickly lifted, as he turned around towards a stall selling aromatic meat skewers.

He did not know what kind of meat it was, but just the scent caused a bit of drool to leak from the corner of his lips.

Running up to the stall, just as he was about to ask the old uncle for a stick, he saw a little girl dressed in dirty rags standing at the entrance of the alley, looking at him with her dirty thumb in her mouth.

No, to be exact, the girl was looking at the delicious meat skewers.

He looked at the girl, then back at the skewers, and back at the girl again.

Making up his mind, he turned back once again to the stall owner.

"Uncle, can I please have 10 meat skewers?"

"10?! Can you finish all that little boy?"

He gave the uncle a sheepish grin.

"Hehe, don't worry uncle! I'm a big eater!"

"Alright then, 10 skewers coming right up! It'll be 10 coppers altogether."

It would cost him all of his allowance for the week.

It didn't take long to finish grilling all of the meat skewers.

The stall owner placed them into a paper bag, handing it over to the little boy as he took a silver coin from him.

The currency of Orz was the same as the rest of the world.

10 copper coins could be exchanged for a silver coin, while 10 silver coins could be exchanged for a gold coin.

There were higher valued coins above gold, but it was only used by the powerful and wealthy, with most commoners not having seen them their whole lives.

Taking the brown paper bag of steaming hot skewer sticks, he ran up to the raggedy girl with his tiny legs.

"Do you want some?"

He grinned brightly at her, seeming not at all repulsed by her condition.

The girl took her eyes away from the stall, landing them onto the neatly dressed boy in front of her.

She stared at him blankly, not fully understanding what he meant.

She looked around her.

Nobody

Slowly, she lifted her other hand, and hesitantly pointed at her nose.

"Me?"

"Aren't you the only one here? If not you, then who else?"

"C-Can I really have one?"

"No"

She felt played. As expected, everyone looked down on those of the slums.

The King at this point in time did not have as much reverence and authority over his people than he would later acquire.

Despite his great sympathy towards those of the slums, he could not just remove that place, as he did not have the means to move its people to better homes.

The little boy giggled inside at the girl's downcast face.

"No, you can't just have 1. Let's share all of these together!"

Her face brightened, big dewy eyes widely staring back at him.

His eyes blinked in surprise, heart slightly jolted, as a faint blush crept up his face.

*Ba-boom ba-boom*

"L-Let's go"

He hurriedly grabbed her hand, pulling her briskly to the steps of a closed down shop.

The girl clumsily got pulled along, almost tripping a few times.