---

21. Beggar Siblings – Family

As the two pointed their weapons at each other, silence engulfed the stable.

Leo carefully assessed his opponent. There was a significant weight class difference, and his opponent had a shield while he had no armor at all.

The two-handed sword could deal strong blows but was disadvantageous for defense. Leo had learned a bit of swordsmanship and had seen battle, but in the blink of an eye, one could end up being struck down by a two-handed sword.

So, Leo decided to make the first move.

He feigned an attack on the shield while drawing his opponent’s sword and quickly pivoted to slash at his thigh.

However, it was blocked by the shield.

Leo turned toward the shield, stepping away from his opponent’s sword.

If it were someone skilled, they’d push their shield forward, trapping Leo’s movement, but that Daol guy decided to swing down at the distant sword instead.

Leo rapidly changed direction and dodged the strike.

Then he extended his sword.

“…I yield.”

The tip of Leo’s sword touched Daol’s neck.

In a one-on-one scenario, the person skilled in weaponry held overwhelming superiority.

Leo’s body was too weak; if four or five people with shields rushed him, he wouldn’t be able to budge and would lose. But with only one opponent, if they showed a gap while trying to attack, there was plenty of opportunity for {swordsmanship} to shine.

The thugs watching in disbelief at such a swift conclusion were left speechless.

Quiet applause erupted from behind them.

“Wow. That was completely one-sided, wasn’t it? Daol, you did well. Come over here.”

The so-called leader dispersed the thugs and took Leo back to his room.

It was only then that he introduced himself and offered a handshake. Uniquely, a tattoo depicting a dog being hanged was inked on his palm.

He asked a few questions about Leo’s background, but Leo answered vaguely and concealed all information related to Lena.

“You’ll be working outside the castle for a while. There isn’t much for good sword users inside the castle.”

That was a lie. The inside of the castle was precisely where a select few skilled people were favored; they merely didn’t trust Leo and were sending him outside.

But Leo didn’t mind and followed the thug he had assigned to him. This thug acted chummy, as if they were already pals from watching the fight.

“Welcome. Our Korolla Family is the best. You can buy drugs cheap, and if things go well, you might even get to toy with some slaves.”

Leo attentively listened to the thug’s words. It seemed the Korolla Family had made drug trafficking and slavery their primary venture.

The thug led Leo to a small lodging outside the castle.

At the entrance of the lodging, a sign inscribed with a request for people to sell hung prominently.

The innkeeper at the counter read a letter handed to him by the thug, grinned, and said,

“New family member, huh? Nice to meet you.”

He tore up the letter and then reached out for a handshake. His palm also bore the same tattoo as the guy Leo had met earlier.

The tattoo on his palm had faded over the years.

So, this tattoo was merely a mark that indicated he was currently active in the Korolla Family; the real tattoo must be somewhere else. Or maybe it was a temporary mark given to someone of a leader rank.

Leo grasped that grotesque hand.

*

Lena woke up early.

Staying in her room all day had become dull, so it became a habit to sleep early and wake up early.

It wasn’t that stressful.

She naturally enjoyed languid activities, especially sleeping, and wouldn’t mind spending half a day asleep.

“Yawn~”

Stretching, she felt much healthier. She had been eating well and even gained a little weight.

Waiting for the sound of water outside to cease, Lena stepped outside.

Sister Kasia always bathed early in the morning. Lena had decided to wake up early for this very reason.

“Hello there.”

“Hey, I’m done; you can take it.”

Lena took the water jug and moved it to her room, closed the door as her brother had instructed, and washed herself.

She hadn’t seen her brother lately. He found work outside the castle, but it was far enough that he had to stay overnight.

When she asked what he was doing, he hesitated for a long time before saying he was keeping watch over the inn.

This town had guests arriving at night, so they had to accept nighttime visitors.

She knew it was all a lie.

On the first day she lived with Sister Kasia, her brother returned soaked in blood. He had dirt smeared all over his shirt, trying to hide it, but blood was visible on his body as well.

Lena was frightened and checked if he was wounded while he slept, discovering he was hiding two swords.

The next day, her brother said he had found a job and left – with swords in hand.

Lena asked Sister Kasia about it.

“What do you think it is? Thug work, probably.”

“What’s that?”

“Guys who fight with swords to take more than what they have. It doesn’t seem too dangerous, though, from what I know…”

“Is it hard?”

“Is there any job that isn’t hard?”

She asked her teacher about thugs.

“They are people who do very bad things. So bad that I don’t want to tell you about it. They break the laws of the land to fill their bellies.”

“Are all thugs bad people?”

“Well… almost all of them are bad. They do bad things, after all. But it’s not good to judge people superficially; they probably have their own personal circumstances that led them there.”

“……”

Lena’s heart ached at the thought of her brother doing such work to earn money.

It must be dangerous work if he needs weapons.

‘I want to help too…’

She was studying diligently. That was the only thing she could do.

Yet, thinking that her brother was working so hard to educate her made her feel sad.

‘Why was I born like this… What’s so wrong with how I look that makes my brother and teacher say I need to be careful? Why do they want to take me away?’

With a troubled heart, Lena quietly read in her room. The sound of Kasia snoring softly drifted in from outside.

*

Leo was assigned a room in the thug’s lodging. They said that in case of emergencies, it was better to stay in one place.

Working hours were also set: from 5 PM to 5 AM, by modern time standards.

Other than that, he was free to spend his time, so he would rise early during lunch and make regular visits to the shoe shop to see Lena.

His little sister had learned to read after just a few weeks and had been receiving endless praise from her teacher, and she had grown significantly healthier.

Her once gaunt cheeks had filled out a bit, and he couldn’t help but pinch them now and then.

Leo was satisfied with his current situation.

Despite having to work 12 hours daily, he felt grateful just to see his little sister growing up well.

Fortunately, the work was boring but not arduous.

Leo’s job involved patrolling several warehouses located on the outskirts of Oberg to keep an eye on them.

He wasn’t officially informed about what he was guarding, but through casual conversations with other thugs, he quickly learned that some places contained imprisoned slaves while others stored drugs.

There hadn’t been any major fights. There had been a few tense encounters with the Berza Family, who weren’t on good terms with them, mostly just showing off their weapons while getting into arguments.

The Berza Family primarily dealt in illegal arms.

But they had also extended their hands into the slavery business, causing friction with their Korolla Family.

Naturally, the Korolla Family bared their teeth while the Berza Family pretended to back off, yet they continued to supply slaves secretly.

The lack of clear evidence due to cleverly manipulated circumstances kept a major fight from breaking out, but the relationship between the two families was deteriorating rapidly.

Regardless, without any sense of belonging, Leo grew friendly with other thugs, gathering information along the way.

Thanks to this, he learned about a family called Rauno, which controlled the market in Oberg and collected protection fees.

Outside of that, most conversations revolved around the thugs’ lowbrow jokes, grumbling, boasting, and unsubstantiated rumors.

One day, while he was becoming chummy with the thugs, Leo came across some eye-opening information.

“The Prince of Austin Kingdom is coming?”

“Yeah, that’s what I heard. From a friend who’s a courier to the north.”

A thug he had gotten quite friendly with said while gulping his drink.

“No wonder the guards have been fixing up the north gate every day… It’s a big fuss. They’ve increased the number of patrolmen at the north gate so much that some workshops have fallen behind. Those friends are going to be quite busy. Hahaha.”

Anolf de Klaus was the prince he had met at the end of the previous scenario, through whom he had gained a bit of goodwill due to his achievements.

‘With abilities like {swordsmanship} as an ending reward and [achievements] continuously linking, would I be able to have a conversation if I meet Prince Anolf now?’

This was a big {event}.

It was an exceedingly rare occurrence for a royal heir from one kingdom to visit another.

He pondered if there was a way to leverage this opportunity, but for now, he had no idea how things would unfold.

“But why is he visiting?”

“I’m not sure. There are rumors he’s going to marry our princess… Damn, those royals sure have it good. I’ve heard Princess Chloe is unbelievably beautiful. Man, I’d love to marry a girl like that. If I were to marry a princess…”

The thug slowly began to spout vulgarities.

Tying her up, hitting her, groping her breast, and then with his own flaccid member… blah, blah, blah. They had no shame in talking about their kingdom’s princess.

Leo only chimed in absentmindedly while turning the gears in his mind.

‘Come to think of it, does the war event only occur in the engagement scenario? The engagement scenario begins in winter while other scenarios start in summer… Do they all start at different times?’

Questions endlessly popped up.

Perhaps this Beggar Siblings scenario was several years before the war broke out. Or the war might have already ended.

He knew the timeline of the Austin Kingdom in relation to the right, Belita, but each kingdom used its unique timeline, like “Caroman de Tatalia Year 16,” so he had no idea how they related to one another.

Fortunately, Leo had asked Lena’s teacher and quickly found out.

‘All scenarios start in the same year, but the Childhood Friend and Beggar Siblings scenarios are summer, while only the engagement scenario starts in winter.’

That would mean if a war breaks out, it would be in the spring of next year, and right now, summer was almost coming to an end.

‘I wonder if a war will actually break out?’

In the engagement scenario, war had sparked twice at the same time, but whether it would ignite in the Beggar Siblings scenario remained uncertain.

‘And are the scenarios truly independent?’

The questions kept leading into more questions.

It was a given, considering it was the same game called [Raising Lena], but the settings and timelines of each scenario seemed to coincide.

‘If right now in Abrival Castle, Lena and Leo are there, and in Demoss village, Lena and Leo are there too?’

He had never considered that the scenarios would be interconnected. Each scenario had such different environments and distances that he had believed they were completely separate stories.

It was like in Princess Maker, where after seeing one ending, starting a new game wouldn’t relate to the previous one…

However, seeing the character Anolf de Klaus appearing in another scenario changed his perspective slightly.

Maybe all the scenarios were happening simultaneously.

‘Is the Leo in Demoss village living with the pure consciousness of Leo, and the Leo Dexter in Abrival Castle likewise? And I am mixed with Minseo?’

Leo shook his complicated head to clear it.

It was still something he couldn’t figure out. It was hard to verify if Lena and Leo also existed in that distant Demoss village and Abrival Castle.

The communication capabilities of this world aren’t exactly stellar.

Priests communicated using consecrated items, so there were churches in both Demoss village and Abrival Castle, meaning that could be a means to find out immediately.

However, that was a church function only the nobles could afford, and since each scenario was distant and everyone was too busy living their own lives, there was no real need to find out.

At the moment, Leo was already overwhelmed just raising one little sister.

‘For now, let’s see if a war breaks out in the spring of next year. If it doesn’t, then the scenarios are definitely separate…’

Leo pushed aside the rising questions. Meanwhile, the Prince of Austin Kingdom arrived in Oberg.