Chapter 14: Make the Slums Great Again! (Patreon)

A week of the world's time slipped by in the blink of an eye.

In the past, the thousand-odd people of the slums had only ever felt each day crawl by, hunger gnawing at empty stomachs as they endured hour after miserable hour, waiting for all twenty-four to add up into a single day that made them want to die.

But this one week, for the first time, they realized that time could actually move fast.

Not just Old Man Rom and Felt — under Subaru Natsuki's direction, every single one of the thousand people in the slums gritted their teeth and handed over every last coin they'd ever hoarded, pooling it all for common use.

Once it was all gathered together, everyone was amazed to discover just how much could actually be accomplished when that many people's secret savings were combined.

First came clothing. There was no way to afford anything fine, but at least everyone could be given a set of the cheapest new clothes — nothing filthy or torn, no patched seats with a missing sleeve, and shoes that weren't falling apart anymore.

Then there was food money. Having apples and eggs at every single meal for a whole week was, of course, an impossible dream, but buying cheap staple food to fill everyone's stomach — letting every person feel, every single day, what it was like to actually be full — that much they could manage.

At first glance, it might have seemed like life in the slums had actually gotten rather nice.

But that wasn't the whole truth. Those hoarded savings represented, for every single person there, a decade or several decades of begging, thieving, and scraping together coin by coin — money meant to last them the rest of their lives.

Now it was being spent like water, and in a mere seven days, nearly all of it was gone. Which just went to show how little there had really been to begin with — money meant to last decades until death, burned through in a single week.

If there was no new income coming in after this, then within a few more days everyone would be forced to choose: starve to death, or abandon whatever scraps of morality they had left, turn to outright robbery, and get caught by the Knights — shot down or thrown out of the royal capital.

They'd gone all in, gambled everything, simply because they'd sworn to hold to their choice without wavering.

Once they'd decided on loyalty and trust, there was nothing left to do but follow it through to the end. Whatever amount Subaru Natsuki said to spend, they spent it if they could scrape it together. However he said to spend it, that was exactly how they spent it.

In the span of one week, the slums were transformed.

They hadn't been especially filthy or chaotic to begin with, but there had never been any comparing their sanitation to that of the commoner district or the noble district. Now, though, if someone who had once visited the slums came back and took another look, they'd surely rub their eyes, stunned into a blank stare, wondering if they'd wandered into the wrong place entirely.

Fresh. Tidy. Clean. Bright.

The streets and alleys were the same, and so were the tents and shacks — and so, for that matter, were all thousand people of the slums, every one of them scrubbed pale and soft, spotless and neat, hair combed and set in place.

"Is it time?"

"It's time."

...

Though it was only Felt who'd asked the question, she spoke for what everyone was feeling. A week of effort was about to be put to the test, today.

Subaru Natsuki stood on the raised platform, taking one last look at the map he'd drawn up himself after walking every inch of the slums and planning it all out. Facing the crowd, this time, he had no grand speech to give, no rousing words to stir their hearts.

His eyes alone burned bright, full of confidence and drive, and he simply said, quietly: "Let's begin."

Everyone nodded back, solemn and resolute.

The people of the slums, who had once each moved alone, scattered and disconnected, now gathered into the groups they'd trained in advance, each person assigned their own set of tools.

Some of these tools had come from Old Man Rom's own hands; others had been bought over the course of the week by Subaru Natsuki and Felt together, out on their own errands.

Now, it was time to see what a thousand hearts beating as one could actually accomplish!

……

……

Out in the ordinary commoner district, a dragon carriage had been hired, and crate after crate of apples were being loaded into the cargo bed dragged behind it. Kadomon Risch, the well-known apple-stall owner in this part of town, a husband and father with a blade of straw clenched between his teeth, hustled busily back and forth.

"Hey, boss, not setting up your stall today?" A regular customer, planning to visit someone's home tomorrow and wanting apples as a gift, had come early to buy some — and froze at the sight.

It was strange. This apple-stall owner was famous for his diligence, rain or shine, three hundred sixty-five days a year without missing a single one. So what was going on today?

The apple-stall owner waved his hands quickly. "No, no, someone's bought up my entire stock for today and asked me to deliver it. Heh, they're paying generously, all right — it's just the request is a bit strange..."

"Strange how?" The regular's curiosity was piqued. "How strange are we talking?"

"It's the slums."

The apple-stall owner pursed his lips. "Someone wants me to haul all these apples over to the slums and set up shop there for the whole day. Whether I sell out or not, they've promised to pay double the price for every single apple."

"The slums?!"

The regular's eyes went wide, jaw dropping, staring at the apple-stall owner like he'd seen a ghost. "Are you serious? Aren't you scared they'll strip you down to your underwear the second you set foot there? Your wife would have to come ransom you back."

"Now you're just exaggerating. It's not nearly that dangerous over there anymore."

The apple-stall owner shook his head. "You know that Lucky Star who's been marching those three thugs around town making them pay back and apologize to everyone? He's the one who placed this order. He already came by once before and spent big with me. I'm willing to trust him one more time."

"You're really not scared?" The regular frowned, hesitating before he spoke again — he meant it out of concern, unwilling to just watch the man walk to his own doom.

"If it were just me alone, sure, I'd be scared too. But take a look..."

The apple-stall owner gestured, and the regular followed his gaze — only to notice that today, the street was lined with dragon carriages, one after another, all heading the same direction, down the same road.

The regular recognized the people riding in those carriages. Plenty of them were stall owners from all over the capital — candy sellers, fruit sellers, toy sellers, even a street portrait painter.

"You mean..."

The regular stood there dumbfounded, looking at the apple-stall owner, already guessing the answer but finding it hard to believe. The other man grinned, flashing a wide, white-toothed smile. "That's right. They're all doing the same thing I am today — heading to the slums to set up shop."

If anyone in the slums dared to lay a hand on this many vendors at once, the Knights wouldn't go easy on them — which meant this whole venture was safe. They could go.

"What in the world is..."

The regular customer had completely lost track of what was going on, unable to understand why the slums would suddenly pull off something on this scale. But before he could work it out, the next moment, from somewhere off in the distance where the slums lay, the sound of music suddenly rose up into the sky!