Pek, pek, pek.

“I didn’t cook for a filthy beggar like you!”

Every time the restaurant owner shouted, a club flew toward the crumpled little girl curled up on the ground.

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Even as he struck down on the small girl, who barely reached his chest, there was no hesitation in his beatings.

“Stop loitering around like a filthy beggar! You’re the reason no customers are coming to my store!”

He knew the girl was an orphan.

Even if he beat her up like this, there would be no repercussions, and she was too small and weak to seek revenge.

Because of that, the restaurant owner unleashed his violence on her as much as he wanted.

He blamed the girl for the restaurant’s poor business, as if to vent the stress he had accumulated because of it.

If the girl had been able to talk back, she could have retorted that the reason for the restaurant’s failure was that the food was tasteless in the first place.

The girl, who didn’t understand any of the words, could only endure the man’s wrath that fell upon her without knowing why.

She simply thought that today was just an unlucky day.

“…Huff, huff. Hey, beggar. I’ll let you off easy this time because I don’t want to be caught disposing of a corpse in front of my store… If I catch you again, be ready for real trouble. Damn, what bad luck.”

The violence that had continued for a while finally stopped when the owner ran out of stamina.

Spitting at the girl who lay battered on the ground, the restaurant owner threw her blood-stained club down violently and slammed the back door of the shop shut.

A moment later, the girl, who had been lying dead in front of the trash can, struggled to get up.

She tried to stand, but with a thud, she fell back to the ground.

One of her legs wouldn’t move properly—perhaps it had been broken during the beating.

Lying on the ground, the girl let out a small whimper, then grasped the wooden club that had just punished her, using it to barely lift herself up.

It was a ridiculous predicament.

The very club that had caused her such suffering was the only thing keeping her upright.

In that way, the girl struggled to stand, turned around, and gazed at the sight before her with a look of despair.

A bundle containing food lay torn and scattered in the muddy ground.

More than getting beaten up, what saddened the girl more was that her daily sustenance had ended up in such a state.

It was raining, and given her condition, she wouldn’t be able to find anything else to eat today.

With a gloomy expression, the girl squatted in front of the tattered bundle and gathered whatever food looked barely edible with her hands.

The amount she salvaged managed to barely fill her small hands.

But having even that much was crucial to alleviate the terrible hunger she felt.

Holding tightly onto the little food she managed to salvage with one hand and propping the club under her arm like a crutch, she slowly moved toward her hiding place.

Although her stomach growled with hunger, she didn’t want to eat in the rain, so even as she stumbled awkwardly with the unfamiliar crutch, her mind was solely occupied with the desire to return to her shelter quickly.

“Ugh… Guh. Oh? Who’s that? It’s a beggar.”

At that moment, the girl’s ears caught the sound of someone’s slurred voice, heavily intoxicated.

It was that dangerous drunkard, just her luck.

The approaching drunkard blocked her path, forcing the girl to halt her steps.

Moreover, from the girl’s perspective, it was all the more unfortunate that he seemed particularly unpleasant today, cutting through the rain to approach her.

As the girl stopped, the drunkard with glistening eyes began to speak to her.

“Hey, hey. Beggar. Listen to me… I lost a lot while gambling today… But you know what? It’s strange. How much I’ve gambled up to now… Even so, how could I lose so much? That means those bastards must have been up to something against me. I can’t just let those punks who dared to look down on me get away with it… So, I’m on my way to settle the score with those scamming gamblers.”

The drunkard recounts his tale, sounding annoyed yet exhilarated.

Of course, it didn’t get through to the girl at all.

Her mind was solely filled with the thought of wanting to get back quickly, and her physical state warranted that.

However, the drunkard didn’t seem to care, chuckling as if mocking her condition.

“By the way, looking at you now, you’re in quite a state. Looks like you got beat up somewhere, huh? Heh heh, I guess those bastards made you look like this… Heh, they won’t be able to walk around like you do after I smash their heads in.”

The drunkard chuckled as he mumbled to himself while staring at the girl.

“Well, anyway, since those guys ruined my mood, I can’t just not drink. But I went to their place and brought out a few bottles of alcohol, only to forget to grab some snacks.”

He gestured towards the food the girl was tightly gripping in her hands.

“So hand over what you’re holding. It’ll probably taste as crappy as the begging you’re doing, but I’ll need something to chew on while I drink.”

Once his words hit the air, there was a moment of silence.

The girl didn’t understand the drunkard’s words, but she grasped what he wanted.

He was asking her to hand over the food she had been holding, just like usual.

There was no way to avoid the situation.

Before something worse could happen, it would be wise to comply with his request.

Yet,

“What’s with that expression? You’re not saying you can’t give it to me, are you?”

The girl couldn’t bring herself to hand over the food in her hand.

The drunkard’s voice was threatening, but the effects of the violence she had endured and her intense hunger clouded her mind with memories of her struggles to find food.

…Is he telling me to give him this?

The food she had fought hard to acquire.

After all that suffering, how could she give it up?

If she lost even that, she would have to go the whole day without eating.

Suffering from hunger with nothing to show for it…

…That was absolutely unacceptable.

Because of that, in the end, the girl couldn’t make the right decision.

Despite the drunkard’s threats, she shook her head defiantly, hugging the food tightly to her chest.

As if declaring that she couldn’t give this up, as if she would never let it go.

“Ha, haha… This is absurd… Has it come to this, even a beggar like you ignoring me?”

The drunkard’s eyes glowed red with rage at the girl’s actions.

“Damn it!”

Immediately after, a curse followed by a thud echoed, and the girl’s body, which had been leaning on the club, crashed to the ground.

The drunkard seized the club the girl had used for support, and his fury rained down upon her.

“Know your place, you worthless scum…! When I speak, you better obey, or dare to rebel! Even if I’m stuck in this shitty place, you’re not someone who can disregard me!”

The drunkard’s beatings were far more savage than those of the restaurant owner, and the girl couldn’t help but let out cries that resembled whimpers.

As she received the blows, she curled up like a pill bug.

Not to defend herself, but to protect the food tucked inside her.

This, just this, I must protect.

Whispering to herself like that, the girl endured the continuous violence.

Finally, after what felt like an eternal storm of beatings, the drunkard’s attack ceased.

“Ha… This is what happens when you don’t know your place… When you scummy creatures disregard me, this is how it ends…”

The drunkard broke the club he had been holding in half, then laughed derisively at the sight of the girl, now a mess and lying in the mud like a corpse.

“Cough, you look splendid. Scummy creatures like you deserve to live like the bugs you are.”

With squelching footsteps, the sound of his laughter faded away.

In the dark alley, only the ragged girl remained.

For a time, the girl lay crumpled on the ground without moving.

Then, gradually, she began to stir.

Despite the brutal violence, the girl miraculously stayed alive, slowly straightening her body that had curled up like a pill bug.

Relaxing her body now lying in the muddy ground soaked by rain, the girl let out pained yet muffled sounds.

To anyone listening, it sounded like either crying or laughter.

If it were laughter, what would it be in response to?

Perhaps joy at having somehow managed to salvage her food despite the beatings?

Or perhaps self-pity for surviving yet another day of miserable existence?

At least, she couldn’t tell if it was crying or laughing.

Her face was so encrusted with rain and muddy water that even if tears fell, they wouldn’t be recognizable.

In any case, the girl had survived, somehow managing to cling to life once more.

She felt hunger more intensely than ever before.

She wanted to return quickly to dampen this hunger, even a little.

Hungry, hungry.

Muttering the only word she knew repeatedly, the girl searched for the club before discovering the one that had broken in half, letting out another pained sound.

Her legs wouldn’t move well, and there was no way to support herself.

With no other choice, the girl crawled through the muddy ground.

Just as the drunkard had said, like a bug.

The sound of a bug crawling through the mud resembled laughter.