GalaxyTL
* * *
Showing off his strength to his two underlings had worked out.
However, Megzam thought, he wanted to push it a bit further.
He had given them the whip. Now it was time for the candy.
The sweet, sweet reward that those brutish no-goods would crave…
That is to say, violence.
He must give his underlings the opportunity to exercise violence themselves.
By giving them the whip, the underlings would follow him. By giving them candy, the underlings would stick with him.
Megzam had always thought this way, based on his own preferences and tastes. Up until now, and at least within this band of thieves, this approach had not been wrong.
Megzam, Ander, and Tappa.
All were equally dominated by violence.
Before such a Megzam, the candy that fortunately rolled out of the bushes was a filthy-looking vagrant child. …Though it was a vagrant child, questions like why such a small child was in the forest, or why they had captured so many Myogomyogoshugos, did cross one’s mind later as somewhat puzzling encounters.
But such questions did not even occur to Megzam at the time, nor did they matter to him.
This is a piece of candy.
A reward to give to his underlings. A scapegoat for their violence.
Such a conveniently placed existence had rolled out of the bushes at just the right moment. It almost made him want to offer a prayer of thanks to the thief god Yabo. Grinning, Megzam gave the candy to his two underlings.
That is to say, he issued the following instruction.
“Kill her as you please” …and.
* * *
“Kill her as you please,” said the stinky, bearded man.
“Huh?”
“Is, is that really okay!?”
The square-faced man and the long-faced man, both reeking like trash, asked with barely concealed joy despite their confusion.
“Hey, have I ever lied to you guys?”
“No! Never!!”
They conversed happily. Happy about being told they could kill? Normal people wouldn’t be. Ah, maybe that’s why they’re thieves, because they’re not normal.
“So, that’s the deal. Keep it down… Don’t make this harder than it has to be, kid.”
The square-faced man approached with a smirk.
“…Huh!? Hey, Tappa! Is this kid actually a girl!?”
The long-faced man finally noticed my gender and exclaimed with joy.
Ew, gross. I do acknowledge that I am a beautiful girl, but I’m only 5 years old. Is any girl fine for them? Perverts.
These guys are trash. From now on, I’ll call them Trash A and Trash B.
Trash A and Trash B slowly moved closer to me.
“Hey, hey… don’t just space out. Cry or scream a bit. You’re boring.”
“Really, such an expressionless kid. Scared stiff, huh? Went nuts from the fear, hehe.”
They snickered and laughed. The trash leader… Trash Head, stood with his arms crossed, watching calmly.
…This was, I realized, the first time I was faced with such clear intent to kill from a sentient being.
In my previous life, I had been through quite a lot, but that was a society governed by reason. Even if someone disliked me, there were none who would actually think to kill me and act on it.
Exposed to such murderous intent, I was stunned, my body shaking unconsciously.
…But that wasn’t the case.
Me, Emi the 5-year-old vagrant, wasn’t living such a sheltered life that I’d be frightened by something like this. Living means dealing with life and death every day, to kill to live, and to die if you’re careless. That’s the life I’ve been leading.
…These trash were being careless.
Let me show them. Their arrogance.
Let me demonstrate. My will to live!
You aim to take my life, then… be prepared!!