章 32: Good Person
I looked over at the boy. He was short with dirty black hair. Although his expression didn't show that he was particularly hungry, his body was definitely somewhat malnourished. It made me wonder about the state of food in the slums.
Just from the words 'slums', it sounds pretty bad, but I just wondered to what extent it really was.
The boy pulled out a chair next to me and got up on it with a bit of difficulty. He stood on top of the chair itself to match my height. Both hands were on his hips and he had a confident smile on his face. It almost looked like the pose a kid would make when pretending to be a superhero.
"A lot of people told me that I should stay away from you!"
After proudly declaring that, I let out a laugh.
"So why did you end up approaching me?"
I noticed that Arianne was leaning over curiously, watching him as well. As for the boy he thought to himself for a moment, blowing up his cheeks like a pufferfish while thinking. Then, he raised a finger in the air like he was feeling for the wind.
"Because I feel like you are a good guy!"
I blinked a few times, looking at him for a good few seconds. If anything, I imagined his response might be related to seeing Arianne and thus trusting me by proxy. I couldn't help but laugh.
"I'm not sure it's good to judge based on just that."
The boy shrugged his shoulders.
"A lot of people told me that too! I guess maybe I was wrong, but it really didn't feel like it."
He scratched the side of his head, with a somewhat uncertain expression. It looked like he was recalling something unpleasant.
"I promised not to get too close, but then I had to!"
I raised an eyebrow.
"Why so?"
The boy proceeded to point toward Arianne curiously.
"You are too close to her! She could be dangerous!"
Arianne flinched. It seemed she needed a few seconds just to process the words that had come out of the boy's mouth.
"E-Eh?"
I couldn't help but laugh once more. From there, I held my chin with my hand before nodding a few times.
"You know what? I think you're right, she definitely doesn't look trustworthy."
Arianne panicked even more, blushing fairly hard.
"Eh! W-What!"
The boy nodded several times in a row.
"Yes! Very untrustworthy!"
I saw in the corner of my eye that Arianne seemed to be gradually breaking down, so I waved my hand.
"Haha, I'm just joking. She's one of my classmates, so she's no stranger."
Arianne seemed to calm down somewhat. The boy frowned and put both hands on his hips. He seemed strangely serious for a kid.
"That makes it worse!"
Arianne gasped in surprise.
"W-Wa-Wa-What? Am I really that unfitting?"
I tilted my head to the side slightly as I looked at the kid.
"Hm? Why would that make it worse?"
The kid narrowed his eyes slightly and began to whisper like he only wanted me to hear, but Arianne was still well within earshot.
"She would let you die if you were in danger."
At first, I was rather dismissive about this kid and was about to tell him off. Yet, as the smile formed on my face, and as my hand was about to raise, I suddenly stopped.
In the shitty dating game, there were actually several scenes where the protagonist would die if you ended up relying on Arianne. It wasn't as though she purposely betrayed him, but rather her hesitance that made it so she didn't make it in time, leading to an untimely demise, which sometimes included her too.
Even as she became more confident in the story, this trace of hesitancy actually caused several problems for herself and those around her. None of them were too huge of a deal, that is, if you don't consider the dying part.
Though the kid could've just been spewing random nonsense, it seemed that the kid had somehow recognized Arianne's character just from looking at her for a little bit.
I rubbed my chin in interest as I spoke to the kid.
"Don't worry, I won't trust her, alright?"
The kid nodded enthusiastically.
"Good!"
From there, I leaned back in my chair and waved over to the chefs preparing some food.
"Would you like a serving of pottage? You don't have to take it if you don't want to."
The kid looked over and gave a nod.
"Oh! That stuff sounds pretty nice, I remember trying it a few times. One big bowl please!"
I didn't need to say anything, as a chef was already bringing one over shortly after he had said that. He sat down in the chair happily, ignoring the dirt he had tracked onto the seat by standing on it. From there, he began eating, though he wasn't particularly rushing despite his thin frame.
I noticed that Arianne looked concerned, probably thinking of self-doubts, but I wanted to talk to the boy first. With an off-hand tone, I asked my question.
"So why did you think I was a trustworthy person?"
The boy smacked his lips before giving me a rather strange answer.
"You look at people like they are really people."
It almost made me feel like I was told that I knew that the floor was made out of the floor. However, I did somewhat get the sentiment of what he was saying. But all things considered, it could still be interpreted in a variety of ways.
Glossing over his answer, I asked another question.
"Then why do you think Arianne is a bad person?"
The boy lowered the spoon that was about to stuff his face and let out a hum in thought. After a few moments, he shook his head.
"If you mean that girl, I don't think she's a bad person. But you can't trust her. She looks like the people that just watch."
Arianne was intently paying attention to our conversation and seemed to calm down, but she was rather unsettled by his last comment.
I leaned over the table, using my hand to hold up my head as I looked at him.
"So what do bad people look like?"
The boy opened his mouth, but seemed to be rather stumped by this question. After maybe ten seconds of thought, he began stirring the pottage lightly with his spoon before responding sheepishly.
"They look like Mama. Mama is not a good person, do not let her trick you."
Arianne looked over with concern.
"Mama? What is she doing to you?"
The boy blinked a few times.
"She doesn't do anything to me. But I remember how Mama looks. She will try to trick you. I always pretend I don't know in front of Mama."
That sounded rather ominous. Once again, I got horror game vibes, but I knew that this game wasn't tagged as horror, so I shook it off. It appeared as though he couldn't explain it himself, but was able to determine quite a bit about a person's character just from their actions.
This suddenly reminded me of a random lesson I learned in some psychology class.
For normal adults or even teens, if they were shown pictures of monkeys, wouldn't be able to remember their faces or differentiate them if they looked too similar. In fact, many would doubt that there was even a realistic way to find a difference in the first place.
However, if you showed a young kid two photos of monkeys, then they would be able to recognize each one in another different photo.
Apparently, it was because their ability to recognize faces was still deeply malleable. But over time, when they see mostly human faces, their brains begin specializing in it, leading them to lose the ability to differentiate monkeys.
That's why it was pretty reasonable for some people to have difficulty differentiating between certain backgrounds, such as Chinese or Korean. Yet, some people were easily able to differentiate between the two.
Generally speaking, the people in question weren't even able to give a specific explanation of why a certain person was this background and not the other.
It was almost like instinct.
From what I could tell, there seemed to be something similar going on with the boy. Perhaps he just so happened to connect the dots about a person once, and it just got easier and easier for him.
But his overreliance on it was probably dangerous.
I let out a casual laugh.
"If you can tell who is bad and good, then you must've avoided a lot of bad people, right?"
The kid confidently scoffed.
"Of course! As long as I avoid the bad people, I will be safe!"
I then let out a soft sigh.
"But how sure are you of that?"
It was the kid's turn to look at me strangely.
"Hm? What do you mean?"
I raised a finger up in the air.
"You can trust good people, but what if a good person was tricked?"
The boy puffed up his cheeks and shook his head vehemently.
"Good people won't be tricked!"
I shook my head.
"Anybody can be tricked. I can tell you right now, that I have been as well. Sometimes bad people make a good person do something bad. That means if you trust the good person, you may end up dead."
The boy froze on the spot, thinking about it for a while. It seemed as though that wasn't something he really wanted to believe from how he was humming, like a kid that didn't get the toy he wanted.
"I don't think that's true... but if a good person like you says it..."
He then looked towards me with a resolute expression, almost like he had become a disciplined soldier.
"Ok! I will be careful and not always trust good people!"
I gave a small nod before laughing.
"Very well."
He puffed up his cheeks right after in displeasure though.
"Does that mean I can't trust you?"
I simply shook my head.
"No, you can't."
The boy let out another displeased hum.
"It feels weird when you say I can't trust you. Usually, it's the other way around!"
I shrugged my shoulders.
"Just because you can't trust someone, doesn't mean you can't give them a chance."
The boy remained there for a while, thinking to himself as he looked off into the distance.
"I see!"
He looked over at Arianne with his arms crossed.
"I don't trust you! But I'm willing to give you a chance because it looks like the good person is giving you one!"
Arianne was rather baffled, stuttering several times before a full sentence came out.
"Um, t-thank you."
From there, we just began to eat. After finishing, the boy got up from his seat and waved at me while running away.
"See you later, good person!"
I waved back as a wry smile formed on my face.
"See you later, kid."
Hm. We still hadn't exchanged names with each other. That was rather awkward. Well, all things considered, it seemed he would probably come back later, so there was no need to worry about that.
Arianne looked over at me pitifully after he had left.
"W-Why am I untrustworthy?"
I scratched the side of my head. How do I put it into terms that don't make me look like a huge jerk? I can't exactly say that she would let her friends die in front of her, even if it was true...
Hm. Well, I thought of something.
"If someone asked you to cut off their arm, would you be able to do it?"
Arianne flinched.
"I-I don't think so..."
I pointed at her casually.
"That's what makes you untrustworthy."
Arianne looked confused, as she should be. After all, my explanation wasn't exactly the clearest. But she pondered over it, seemingly understanding some things.
Before I could think about it any longer though, a familiar voice called out.
"Hey! You still got some pottage available?"
クリエイターの想い 
Disgrace
Disgrace So uh, my internet cut out again. Still wrote the chapters though.
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