Chapter 428 - 307: Script [Human-Dragon Calamity: Five Spirits Chronicles], A World Heading Toward Returning to the Void_3

[Older brother lost his job and could only beg on the street, but our strength was too weak. Moreover, older brother had two burdens, and we were just idly consuming, resulting in us becoming rats living off garbage.]

[Three months later, when my brother and I went out to pick up garbage, by the time we returned, our home had been ransacked.]

[I rushed into the room and stepped on broken shards of pottery. On the empty grass mat lay only my sister’s little hat, stained with unfamiliar muddy footprints. My brother frantically searched every corner, even digging into the mouse holes.]

[I don’t know if my sister was sold off or dead... I could only pray in my heart that she could survive, because with us, she, as an infant, wouldn’t survive, she would have died sooner or later.]

[I didn’t see her corpse, so I firmly believed she was still alive somewhere.]

[Even if the possibility was just a sliver.]

[——After that, another group of garbage scavengers joined the Viper Gang, they wouldn’t allow anyone to snatch garbage from them.]

[My brother wouldn’t comply. Seeing the iron weapons in the Viper Gang’s hands, he realized that steel was the right to survive. My brother and I could only barely make a living by stealing, and of course, getting caught meant a severe beating.]

[I remember.]

[My brother stuffed the stolen raw potato into my mouth, I swallowed desperately, my throat scraped painfully, and then we curled up like shrimps immediately.]

[Amidst the dull thud of boot hitting rib, I bit hard on my collar, tasting the metallic rust flavor—not sure if it was the soil on the potato or the blood in my mouth.]

[For the sake of our parents, when they got tired of beating, they would stop.]

[Such days continued for an unknown length...]

[We couldn’t survive this winter.]

[I huddled by a pile of garbage emitting a rotten stench, watching my brother with trembling fingers open moldy can lids. His nail crevices embedded with black mud, and the chilblains on his knuckles cracked and oozed blood.]

[Every time we waited for the mice to leave, we would sneakily turn it over, but there was no leftover food long ago.]

[The next day, older brother fell ill, I leaned against the corner of the alley wall, already on the verge of death.]

[Three days of hunger blurred my vision, even breathing became a luxury. The distant crisp sound of hooves hitting the stone paved road echoed, in my ears it sounded like the footsteps of Death.]

[Suddenly, the sound stopped.]

[A pair of shiny leather boots appeared in my blurry vision, the toe covered with fresh mud spots.]

[I struggled to look up, seeing a luxury carriage stop in front of me, a hand in a lace glove gently lifted the silk curtain on the window.]

[A rosy apple was handed out from the carriage window, gleaming enticingly in the sunlight.]

[I was stunned for a moment, my fingers trembling uncontrollably, grabbed it, nails sinking into the fruit, juice flowing down through the finger gaps.]

[I didn’t care about my image, gnawing frantically, the sweet juice mixed with tears slipping into my throat.]

[On the third bite, the Adam’s apple suddenly choked—a faint groan from my brother came from deep in the alley. I looked down at the remaining more than half of the apple, with my blood still stuck on the flesh.]

["Brother! Food!"]

[I crawled over with weak knees, prying open my brother’s peeling lips. As the apple got close to his teeth, he unconsciously began to swallow, the Adam’s apple twitching like a dying fish.]

[I broke into a smile.]

[As long as you can eat, you can live!]

[In the distance, the carriage wheels made a creaking turning sound, I looked back just in time to see the lady’s lace glove gently lowering the curtain again.]

[I then noticed the emblem on the carriage door—a silver eagle with wings spread, entwined with thorns and roses below.]

[——Viscount Wilson!]

[I saw hope for survival.]

["Please... wait!"]

[A hoarse shout tore my throat, bleeding. I stumbled towards the carriage, receiving a whip on the shoulder from the coachman, the burning pain reviving my numb limbs. I clutched the shaft tightly, scratching five white lines on the paint with my nails.]

[A noble girl of about ten years old looked out.]

["You’re... quite sturdy."]

[She suddenly raised my chin with a fan, pressing against the Adam’s apple. I had to look up, seeing her face yet to lose baby fat, blue eyes accurately measuring my bones—like a butcher weighing a lamb about to be slaughtered.]

["Grandfather said..." She nodded in satisfaction, retracting the fan, "A wolf growing from the thorns bites the fiercest."]

[In the distance came the sound of my brother coughing.]

[The noble girl suddenly smiled, her young face displaying a calculation unfitting for her age. She snapped her fingers, a silver coin tracing a cold arc in the air, "This is for your brother’s treatment."]

[I instinctively reached out, the silver coin carried a biting coldness as it landed in my palm. The coachman roughly picked up my unconscious brother.]

[This noble lady was named Delilah, very young, just ten years old but she, as a noble, already understood the source of everything she had.]

[As the thirteenth child of the Viscount, she knew better than anyone, her dowry might not even match that of a merchant’s daughter, and after her father’s death, what awaited her wasn’t gilded invitations, but moldy bread from the slums.]

[Either marry well or become a pauper struggling to make a living, she had witnessed too much of such cruel reality, fearful in her heart, she certainly did not want to live such a life.]

[Thus... she needed her own "blade" to protect her possessions.]

[At that time, I didn’t know that was called—a Death Warrior.]

[Not everyone can become a Death Warrior, aside from tenacious will and life force, the most important trait is—loyalty.]

[This quality was becoming rare, Delilah clearly knew that aside from her milk-like white skin, she didn’t have much pocket money to buy people, but the thing called "value" doesn’t actually cost much.]

[The key lies in timing.]

[Even if she gave herself to a knight, it wouldn’t bring absolute loyalty. One gold coin could buy ten strong slaves, but couldn’t buy a servant willing to take a blade for her.]

[She knew that in this world where the weak are meat and the strong eat, her only reliance was those more desperate than herself. One apple for a life, a more than worthwhile deal.]

[We were lucky, the emotional bond between my brother and me, being valued by this noble lady.]