That bard is such a charmer!

Chapter 20: Repaying Kindness Before Taking Revenge

"Go Elsa, go for it..."

"Don't cry for too long, Mommy's still hungry..."

After giving herself a half-minute pep talk, Aisha stopped crying.

Knowing she couldn't continue selling flowers today, she rummaged through her pockets and found she had earned 13 copper coins. She then decided to buy bread and take it home first.

After deducting the cost and the 9 copper coins to be saved for buying herbs, the remaining 4 copper coins could be exchanged for two small pieces of black bread. The amount wasn't much, but it was enough for her and her mother to fill their stomachs before going to sleep that night.

Elsa clutched the copper coin tightly and ran into the Phoenix South District, a neighborhood filled with low, dilapidated houses and perpetually permeated with the fishy smell—the slum in the eyes of the citizens.

Then she turned two corners and arrived at the door of the bakery "Golden Wheat".

This store is known for its low prices, and as a result, their bread contains an unusually high amount of bran, husks, and even sawdust, making it taste terrible.

But Elsa had no choice.

She went into the shop and reluctantly handed over four copper coins.

However, just a few minutes later, she came out again with a big smile on her face.

The boss was in a good mood today and thought the little girl was cute, so he gave her half of an unsold black breadstick for free.

In this way, their family will have breakfast tomorrow!

Elsa packed the bread and carefully held it in her arms, feeling that the accident she had been hit not long ago was not so bad anymore.

The world is still a beautiful place~

Thinking this, she couldn't help but skip and hop as she walked.

"Hey, what good stuff have you hidden? You seem so happy!"

But just before she was about to get home, two young men, one tall and one fat, blocked her way.

These two were local thugs.

They looked at the package that Elsa was holding protectively in her arms, and grinned with great interest, revealing their yellow teeth:

"Listen to me, take the thing out and let us see it."

Aisha's Adam's apple bobbed slightly as she hugged the bread tighter, explaining, "It's nothing, just black bread."

The thugs said disdainfully:

"Who are you kidding? Why are you guarding black bread so closely?"

"Yes, it must be something valuable! Let us see it!"

Elsa tried to explain, but the thugs immediately grabbed at her. After a struggle, the young girl was no match for them. The package in her arms was torn open, and the black bread rolled to the ground, just like the flower petals from not long ago.

The thugs took a closer look, then lost interest.

"What the hell? It really is black bread. How boring."

Panel... my bread...

Elsa lay on the ground, tears streaming uncontrollably from the corners of her eyes.

At the same time, she vaguely felt something hot forming in her chest, which then continued to flow into her bloodstream with each heartbeat, stimulating all parts of her body...

Are you alright?

Suddenly, a gentle male voice rang in her ears, pulling Aisha out of her turbulent emotions.

She looked up and saw another man and a woman approaching.

The handsome man squatted down, reached out to help her up, and then helped her pick up the scattered black bread.

Then, the man said to the two thugs, "Gentlemen, wasting food is not a good habit."

The thugs stopped in their tracks, glanced at the man's thin frame, and glared at him, saying, "What, you pretty boy, trying to meddle in other people's business?"

The man shrugged:

"Mind your own business? I don't have time for that. I just wanted to clean up the trash. Oh, don't get me wrong, the trash I'm talking about is you two. You're stinky and disgusting. Your only use is to be chopped up and fed to the dogs, because only they don't mind eating shit."

"?"

Upon hearing this, the two thugs immediately wanted to teach the man a lesson with their fists, which were as big as sandbags.

But as soon as I raised my hand, I felt tightness in my chest and shortness of breath, and for a moment I couldn't even stand up straight.

After a while, the red-haired woman next to the man stepped forward and precisely grabbed both of their wrists, one in each hand.

"You, you let go of me!"

"Damn! This woman is incredibly strong!"

They struggled desperately, but to no avail. In the end, the woman dragged them into the alley next door with a smile, as if she were catching chicks.

"Aaaaaaah (Talking Tom's meowing sound)!"

Soon, less-than-elegant sounds came from the alley.

"Don't let children listen to this."

The man smiled and reached out to pat Aisha's head.

What warm hands...

Is all of this really not a dream?

After a few seconds of stunned silence, Aisha blushed slightly and said to the man:

"Thank you, sir! Thank you!"

The man replied, "You're welcome. Also, I have a question for you."

"Please speak!"

"Do you know where Ms. Mary Cinderella lives? A passerby I met told me she lives around here."

Elsa was stunned again.

Then she pursed her lips and asked cautiously, "Excuse me, do you know her?"

The man shook his head: "I don't know her, but we're friends with her husband..."

Upon hearing this, Elsa couldn't help but blurt out, "Dad, Dad?"

The man raised an eyebrow: "Why are you suddenly calling me 'Dad'? I don't remember... Wait, little girl, could you be Elsa Cinderella?"

Ah this...

What a coincidence!

It was obvious that the man and woman were Richard and Grace.

After officially becoming companions, they left the underground city and headed towards Phoenix City. After several days, they finally arrived at this port city with a population of 500,000, known as the Pearl of the Bay.

To avoid accidentally running into his former teammates and alerting them, Richard had Grace cast a disguise spell on him, slightly altering his appearance, before officially entering the city.

Once inside, Richard realized that saving lives was more important than killing, and decided to repay his debt of gratitude first. Following the guidance of the gloves, he made his way to the South District.

I thought I'd be wandering around for ages before finding my destination, but I ended up running right into it!

Very good, that saved me a lot of trouble~

present.

Thanks to the poet's charm, Richard gained Elsa's trust with just a few words of explanation, and the little girl led him and Grace home.

Elsa's house is a two-story building that looks rather dilapidated. The ground floor seems to have been a shop before, but the signboard is covered in dust and the windows are boarded up, indicating that it has not been open for a long time.

Richard frowned at these details.

He had a vague feeling that Aisha's family situation was much more difficult than the gloves had described.

This is probably not something that can be solved by simply giving some money...

Elsa led Richard and Grace upstairs to the second floor, and pushed open the bedroom door with a creak. There lay a woman on the bed who, despite being only in her early thirties, looked as old as she was in her forties or fifties.

That is, Elsa's mother, Mary Cinderella.

Mary was still awake. Upon seeing the newcomers, she asked in confusion, "Who are you...?"

Elsa explained, "Mommy, they're Daddy's friends, and they just helped me chase away the bad guys!"

Richard followed up, saying, "Hello, Ms. Cinderella, we were your husband's teammates back then. My name is David, David Day, and her name is Grace Wolling..."

Because of the information provided by the gloves, Richard easily fabricated a plausible false identity.

After hearing this, Mary, like Elsa, believed Richard and gave a weak smile: "Thank you for helping my daughter, and welcome to my home. I'm sorry, I can't personally entertain you right now..."

Richard quickly replied, "No need for that, Ms. Cinderella. It's clearly us who have been rather presumptuous and have disturbed you..."

With Richard's deliberate guidance, the group quickly started chatting.

He also learned from Mary about the experiences of the mother and daughter in recent years.

In the year her husband went missing, their lives did indeed take a sharp turn for the worse, but Mary was a strong mother who managed to get through the most difficult time by working three odd jobs and with the help of her neighbors.

Later, she even saved up some money and used the house left by her family to open a general store.

At this point, everything can be described as stable and improving.

But last year, Phoenix’s window display tax, market tax, and crafts tax suddenly jumped by nearly 50%.

At the same time, Mary also contracted a disease called wilt disease, which required her to rest in bed frequently and made it difficult for her to work.

Caught between two crises, the mother and daughter went bankrupt. The grocery store was forced to close, and young Elsa had to go out and sell flowers, working tirelessly all day just to barely make ends meet with one meal a day...

In the bedroom, Mary choked up a little as she recounted this story. Seeing this, Elsa, who was by the bedside, immediately took her mother's hand and flashed a bright, childlike smile, saying, "It's okay, Mom! I... I'm very capable! I don't feel tired at all!"

Richard, however, fell into deep thought.

In short, is it that lack of money exacerbates the illness?

The former is relatively easy to resolve, but the latter is somewhat troublesome.

Richard had heard of wilt disease.

According to legend, it is one of the many diseases created by the Plague Cult—the Plague Cult being a group of fanatical believers who are obsessed with pleasing their god by spreading diseases and are a notorious evil organization in Terella.

However, compared to the other infamous works of this cult, wilt disease is not highly contagious and is generally not fatal. It is just very easy to relapse, which will make people weaker and weaker until they can no longer stand up, like a withered seedling.

To cure it completely, it often requires a mid-level priest to use Holy Light for several months, which consumes not only money, but also, to some extent, connections...

Just as Richard was troubled, Grace, who had been listening in from the back, suddenly interjected:

"As for wilt disease, I do have a way to cure it."