Hakuro The Cursed Chapter 3: New Encounters

The technology of this world is way behind that of earth's, basically there exist no electronic device, well at least I didn't see any yet. Not only that. people have yet to replace the horse as the main mean of transportation.

Therefore most people in this world would only go long distances in horse driven carriage which are even slower than a bike.

Due to that travel time takes around a day to move from one region to another.

The previous day the headmistress took the carriage and went somewhere out of this region and from the gossip I heard from the nuns I knew that she wouldn't return this week.

So I decided it was time I went through with my plans.

Previously I had arranged a plan to steal the headmistress money and get away from this orphanage. I had already prepared an outfit accompanied by a pair of gloves and a helmet to hide my figure as my pure black hair and eyes accompanied by my super pale skin are a unique set in this world for one who is fated for great misfortune.

So the last thing I needed was money so I had prepared routes both to get to the room of the headmistress and to get the h.e.l.l out of here.

This world's technology is lacking. To the point that they still use the candle for illumination, so just like people from medieval times they go to sleep early just after dusk and wake up at sunrise.

So i waited at night till midnight (and almost fell asleep) then went out of my room and sneaked to the headmistress living quarters. It wasn't easy as it was literally pitch black at the time but I still managed to get there by memorizing the path.

So when I reached her room I found out to my dismay that her room is locked. There was no way I could get the key to the lock as the headmistress had taken it with her. So I could only try forcefully open the door.

Fortunately due to my irregular strength it was quite easy as I kept pushing the door till the lock bended and I could enter.

Afterwards I searched the room throughly till I found a chest beside her bed.

The fact that it was locked meant that it was what I was looking for. So I broke this lock just like before by deforming it through cheer muscle power .

Opening the chest I found lots of books, sorted out clothes of sort, some other unimportant stuff and a small box that I was looking for.

A nice sound rang as I emptied the content of the small box into a small bag I prepared beforehand then tied it to my belt (there is no such thing as pockets here) then went back to my room.

I wasn't planning to go out at the middle of the night as I don't want to be mistaken by the patrols as a thief or anything of the sort (hehe) .

So I waited leisurely back in my room for sunrise. During that time I had tidied up the bag that I had stuffed with my wares and shoved the money bag inside.

I wore the helmet I prepared before hand together with a long scarf. It was cold outside you know.

After leaving the first thing I wanted to do is to get a weapon. a sword.

See in this world slavery still exist. And I'm pretty sure that if any kid my age was to try what I'm doing he would end up as a slave(or dead) .

See slaves don't grow on trees they are taken from among the poor trained then sold to the rich. And slave traders would have to pay to get poor people enslaved.

But say if such a person who trades human lives were to spot a defenseless child roaming about all alone who look like a poor b.a.s.t.a.r.d.

He would almost absolutely attempt to kidnap the kid and then sell him in another region.

You might be wondering, can't his family go save him? Or where are the police?

Well his family can go save him... If they find him that is..

Police? Sorry, this ain't earth. Here we have patrol men and guards.

And in this world where social hierarchy is absolute, almost no one would care about doing something so troublesome as looking for a kidnapped child without knowing that he would get an appropriate reward,

and what does a poor farmer who gives almost all of his crops income to his lord as tax have to prepare to make a bounty or a request?

As a matter of fact there were times were poor farmers took a loan to make a request to rescue a kidnapped child.

The funny thing was that the poor family had to sell their child into slavery to pay that loan.

Moral of the story is if you are a child from a poor environment you will most likely end up sold out or kidnapped. Maybe that's why farmer have many children...

Anyway back to our story. I need a sword. Why? Because a child with a sword would most likely be the child of some n.o.bles or some great personage.

And if someone tries to kidnap me I can use the sword to defend myself.

However more importantly there is a job I could take even at my age (no I'm not working in a restaurant) and this job might requires a sword.

This job is called an adventurer.

See. this world is not earth and this fact keeps being proven to me more and more each day.

In this world there are no wild animals like a zebras and elephants.

There are only monsterous wild beasts such as a giant, man eating abyssal horse or a b.l.o.o.d.y behemoth and many other races that snacks on human beings.

These beast hold great power and cannot be beaten by simple swords or arrow.

However this world isn't that unfair.

each and every human or any member of an intellectual and sociable race are given a blessing from a certain G.o.d(I consider them as higher beings, compared to humans, far from reaching G.o.dhod), a sort of power that allows the weak intellectual beings to contend and beat the monsters that roam this world.

However not everyone can get that strong.

The adventurer guild is place where the strong help the weak.

That can be by clearing the area around villages from monsters. Defending villages or merchants caravans from monster raids . Or gathering materials from certain beast or from dangerous areas where certain minerals or plants can be found.

These are the most commun jobs of an adventurer.

But before becoming an advanturer I'd rather get my blade first.

So I made my way to a blacksmith shop that I saw a couple of times before (during the times I sneaked away from the orphanage).

When I entered I was welcomed by the hot air that is coming from the smith's oven.

Seeing me coming in a heavily bearded man seating at the counter came and talked in a heavy voice

"well well, you look even younger than my son. How can I help you kiddo. "

"although I don't who your son is but I'm sure I'm younger" I joked "anyways, due to my old man I had to come all the way down here to get a sword, mind if I check your wares"

You might think I'm lying since I haven't even talked to my father but actually what I said was the truth. I hate lying after all.

I truly had to come here due to my father. I mean if he didn't abounded me to the orphanage, I might have never came here and try to get a sword.

"I see... You can go ahead." the man after wondering for a while answered.

Without even looking at the men I went to a barrel where many swords were gathered and then I extended my hand.

However to my dismay my height was barely equal to that of the barrel..

So I pulled out a sword at random.

It looked like a fine made sword with some ornaments put on the handle however after holding it...

How should I put it.

"light"

Yes. It was very light. It didn't give me the feeling I antic.i.p.ated from holding a sword

It felt more like I was holding a pen or a ruler.

I tried to pull other swords but they all felt the same.

I would rather get myself a better and heavier sword but there was this saying 'beggers can't be choosers'.

See the money I got from the headmistress are 70 copper coin and 20 silver coins.(100 copper coins=1 silver coin)

Appearantly renting a room in an inn would cost at least 10 copper coin a day while daily food would cost at least 5 copper coins.

So if I were to only spend my money on food and rent it would only last me for a 150 days the equivalent of 5 months.

You might think that that's quite a bit but then again after 5 months if I don't get a job I would become a poor begger or die out of hunger.

Buying the sword was necessary. But getting a job with it isn't actually guaranteed.

So I picked up a sword randomly then went to the shopkeeper

"I want this one" I said while showing him the sword

"that would be 5 silver coins"

"here you go" I said as I pulled out 5 silver coins from my bag.

Apparently as I pulled money out of its bag the shop keeper saw that I had more money and started getting greedy.

"no actually that sword cost was 6- no 7 silver coins, I mistakenly said 5 silver coins earlier" explained the shopkeeper as he so blatantly wanted to scam me.

"now now! Are you trying to scam me? The guards might appear one day and throw you to prison if you do s.h.i.t like this. Do you even know who my father is?" I was p.i.s.sed off by his weak and pathetic act so I had to teach him a lesson on how to properly do it

" no no sir you are mistaken the sword truly do cost 7 silver "the man said as though he was wronged but I could see him sweating and he even flinched when I mentioned the guards.

" listen if you don't want to spend the rest of your miserable life eating s.h.i.t behind the cold barrels than you better stop doing this comical act. It isn't even funny " I said in a cold threatening tone while only placing 4 silver coins on the table"as remuneration for wasting my precious time I would deduct a silver from your pay." I said as I left with the sword. However before I left I made sure that a single silver fell from my pocket in front of the shopkeeper and acted as if I didn't notice it.

I wanted to see, would he take it as it is his or Would he return as an act of sucking up to a person in power. However what happened was none of the above.

"hold it right there"i was stopped by some girl, probably 9 years of age, She had green silverish curly hair that reached up to her shoulders. From her attire I could guess that she was an actual n.o.bility but the thing that cough my attention most was her making a pose as she was pointing her finger at me

" such a corrupt person! You bring shame to n.o.bility by your actions. You would go so low as to use your rank to threaten and steal from a poor worker! "

"hoh!" I exclaimed. Normally n.o.bles wouldn't give a fart if some thing happened to someone that isn't a n.o.ble. I am truly intrigued. Why is she doing this?

"I stole from him? I used my rank to threaten him? By what proof did you come to such conclusion ?" I asked and excitedly waited to see how this play would go.

"I heard how you threatened that you would send him to prison if he didn't sell you the sword for less than its price" she replied with that oh so judging face.

"I threatened him? Oh never." I answered in full denial.

"I see. so you think you can mock me and do as you like in our domain? " she said as she pulled out a stone sword out of nowhere.

"hey now are you trying to threaten me now or something?if you want I can give you a lesson on how to properly threaten people. " I joked

"threaten? No. This is JUSTICE!" she cried as she dashed in my direction

Fast! She was too fast that she reached me in the blink of an eye. Now that she reached me she sw.a.n.ged her sword towards my head.

I barely dodged by jumping backwards, I got cold sweats hearing the sound her sword made as she cut the air.

The girl froze a bit seeing how I dodged her attack but not for long. She soon dashed towards me once again however this time I was prepared and instead of running away like last time I blocked her attack with my newly earned sword.

Which was a decision I immediately regretted when I saw the blade of my sword crack then break into two.