Vagrants

"Fine, 20,000, but it's only because my subordinate convinced me." The fat man said with a tsk, clearly not satisfied despite the deal.

"I'll be sure to thank her personally." Minos said with a smile, following the manager into his office before quickly signing the ownership forms and making the payment.

After a final stamp with his thumbprint, Minos took his personal copy, reaching out for a shake with the manager which was promptly ignored.

Not minding his bad behavior, Minos just said goodbye before leaving the room, the young lady waiting for him outside.

"Good job, this is for you." Minos said, handing her a small spatial bag filled with a thousand Nux Stones.

"Thank you sir!" The young lady said joyously.

"You deserve it." Minos smiled, saying goodbye to her before leaving the agency and heading off towards his newly bought warehouse.

…

The Abandoned District was very far away from the core of the city, and given how vast Aleph City was, this meant a very long and tedious walk.

Fortunately, at Minos's cultivation level, such a distance was no problem, so at a fast pace, he quickly made his way towards his destination.

As he was getting closer, he couldn't help but notice that the streets were getting emptier and emptier, yet the noise was increasing.

As if crossing some sort of invisible line, Minos finally arrived in a completely destitute area, the buildings all crumbling, covered with the wild growth of all sorts of foliage.

However rather than the streets being empty like one may expect, they were actually densely populated, though the people here looked less than friendly.

Some men patrolled the streets with long swords strapped to their waists, whereas other less fortunate one's were nodding in and out of consciousness on the street corners.

A few scantily dressed women stood on the sidewalks, sending out winks and seductive words to the men walking past.

The occasionally pitter-patter of children's feet could be heard, and soon enough a familiar feeling crept up on his back pocket.

His hand shooting out like a viper, he quickly snatched the little boy's thieving hand, gripping onto it firmly, yet not so firm so as to hurt him.

"Let go of me!" The boy immediately screamed, realizing he had messed with the wrong person.

His loud shouts immediately caught the eyes of a few people in the area, but seeing that it was just another thief, they ignored him, going on about their day.

What kind of place was this? Even good people would be ignored, much less trouble makers like the boy in question.

Realizing that the crowd wouldn't help him here, the boy couldn't help but start getting nervous, taking a deep gulp before trying to explain himself.

"S-Sir, please let me go, I'm just a little orphan boy, I have no choice but to steal." The boy said, hoping that a little pity from Minos's heart would save his life.

One had to remember that this was the Abandoned District, death here was commonplace, so if Minos was really heartless, the boy would be out of luck.

Fortunately for him, Minos wasn't, so after thinking for a moment, Minos turned around, his massive-stature looking down at the boy.

"I can let you go, but I'm new to this place, so I need someone to tell me everything I'll need to know."

Though he could just use his Omniscient Eyes to read someone's brain, since he already had someone here to tell him what he needed to know, why waste his energy.

Hearing Minos's words, the boy's rapidly beating heart suddenly calmed down, happy to have gotten out of this alive.

"No problem sir, when it comes to this place, I dare say no one knows it better!" The boy bragged, clearly confident in himself.

"Is that so? Then let's start off with those half-conscious men on the corners. What are they all about?"

"Them, they're probably drug addicts, you know, Flight, Underground, Timewalker, the usual."

"Flight, Underground, Timewalker? What are those?" Minos asked curiously.

"That's just slang for the most popular drugs here. They have real-names, but they're way too long and complicated for me to remember."

"Drugs, huh? Are they a big problem here?"

"Problem? You really are new here. Drugs aren't only the problem of this place, they're the solution, they're the sidewalks, the roads, the buildings, they're everything!"

"That serious?" Minos asked, a little surprised at the extent things have reached.

"Well things didn't become this way for no reason. Before my dad vanished, he told me this place used to be nice, but then the drugs came and everything went downhill."

"I used to ask him why the Aleph Royal Family didn't save us, considering how strong they were, but he'd just laugh and ask me 'who do you think made things this way?'" The boy sighed.

Minos had already known the Aleph Royal Family definitely had something to do with this area, after all, with their strength they could easily solve the problem, but to hear it so directly was still unexpected.

It looked like no one here was stupid, and they had long since realized that they were all just pawns in a bigger game.

It seemed this area was more troublesome then he first expected, after all, whenever money was involved, things were destined to get big.

And for the money to be big enough to involve the Aleph Royal Family, it went without saying the problems that could arise.

But Minos's instinct told him that this was about more than just money, and remembering what Lilia had told him in the past about the kind of Lukalu tech the Aleph Royal Family had, he couldn't help but feel a darktide rising.

'Trouble…' Minos thought, before clearing his mind and focusing back on the boy.

"Tell me, where is 204 Narrowbend Road?"

"Narrowbend? Follow me." The boy said, before quickly running off.

Following behind him, Minos rapidly scanned the surroundings, the viper-like eyes of the 'guards' who patrolled this area glued onto him tightly.

It seemed they realized he was a new face, but given Minos's imposing stature, they decided not to risk their own lives messing with him.

After determining that no one had the courage to come after him, Minos focused back on the boy, the two soon arriving at what seemed to be the Business District.

Large warehouse-like buildings filled the area, but rather than workers coming to and fro, there were just more homeless people and drug addicts wandering about.

"Watch out, these people have nothing to lose, so they tend to be quite aggressive if confronted." The boy whispered while he continued to guide Minos.

Nodding, Minos kept looking around, the thin sickly bodies of drug addicts covered with scrapes of random fabric sewn together haphazardly to create some warmth filling his heart with a strange feeling.

He pitied these people who were unfortunate enough to find themselves in such a rough area, but he didn't yet have the strength to go against the system that created this place, so he could only sigh while trying to ignore the sight.

Others may believe that anyone in this kind of situation deserved it, or at the very least shouldn't be pitied because they should know better, but Minos knew life wasn't that simple.

People liked to imagine that they were stronger than others, more courageous, harder working, etc, and that any problem someone else faced, they could easily solve if they were in their position, but Minos would just call them naive.

Man was only as good as the world around him, and if one was born in a broken environment, it would truly be a miracle to escape it.

As rough as Minos's childhood was, at least he was raised on the right values, which forever embedded him with a sense of self-confidence and strength.

But these people? Most of them were abandoned, told they were nothing more than failures and losers, constantly reminded that they were hopeless, and any aspirations they had were hopeless.

Once someone has internalized that, they've become trapped in a prison of their own making, and such a prison, ironically enough, tends to be the hardest to escape.

Others may deride these people and look down on them, but without being raised in this world, how dare they judge someone who was born in it?

"Here we are sir." The boy said, pulling Minos out from his thoughts.

Looking up, he saw a large gate which was tightly sealed with thick iron chains, but the small opening in the corner was enough proof that this gate was just for appearances.

Pulling the key from his pocket, Minos unlocked the padlock before unlatching it from the chains, slowly opening the heavy metallic fence-like gates.

After stepping inside, Minos took in a deep breath, the thick stench of all sorts of human expulsions filling his nose.

Looking around, Minos immediately noticed a brown pile, knowing full well that it wasn't an animal that left that there.

Interested in this place, the boy couldn't help but follow behind Minos, the two soon stepping into the dark building.

Activating a Shining Talisman, Minos looked around, finding more excrement and urine, along with a few people sleeping in the dark corners.