บท 73: Slum Angel

Right after they left, Beta also moved out to start with his own task. He positioned himself in the middle of the street and listened to the alleys around him. He then simply followed the sounds of laughter, letting his feet move towards it. Soon, he arrived near a group that stood above a badly beaten old man.

"Hey, you old geezer! Don't you know that you need to pay if you want to walk on this street?", a fat man in his forties said, laughingly.

"Damn, hooligans! You should respect your elders! The Slum Angel will get you if you continue like this! Stop as long as you still can! You should know very well that evildoers will disappear!", the old man said weakly, but was still stubbornly reprimanding them.

"Hahaha! Yeah, right! The Slum Angel has been absent for quite a while. Who knows if he already went to another city Plus, do you really think he will save you? Look, old man. We're not bad people. Just give us five coppers and you will be able to walk on this street. It's quite fair isn't it?", a skinny tall man with a big mole on his upper lip casually remarked while showing a wretched smile on his face.

Five coppers may not sound like much, but to people in the slums, this was several days' worth of survival money. Beta knew this, of course. He used to live with barely any money before he got into the city after all. But then he recalled what the old man said which startled him.

"Slum Angel? Been absent for a while? Evildoers disappear? Are they actually talking about me kidnapping the scums? Eh… Couldn't they have at least chosen a name that sounds a bit cooler than just 'Slum Angel'?", Beta thought with an awkward expression. Then he thought back to his experiments and compared it to the term 'Angel'. "Heh… they know nothing at all…", mumbled Beta while showing an evil grin.

"The Slum Angel will definitely appear! As long as I believe in it, it will happen!", the old man said as loudly as he could. It was as if he was a believer of a cult.

"Geh! I guess it's no use... This old man is crazy. Let's just get rid of him. You really wasted our time, old man! Let us teach you a valuable lesson. There's no such thing as angels!", the fat man said and at the same time raised his fist, signifying that he was done playing around.

Suddenly, they heard a crisp noise to their side which alerted them all. Even though they put up a brave front, acting not scared about what the old man said, in fact, they were terrified of such possibility. Trying their best not to run away, they turned around to see what it was, completely guarded. Beta had thrown a stone to catch their attention and the moment they looked into his direction Beta's pupils twisted in a weird way.

"Eh? What are you doing here, little girl? This is not the right place for you to be. Where are your parents?", the fat man asked curiously while looking every corner for any hidden enemies.

He and his men also quickly blocked the sight to the old man, as if they were used to such cases where some passerby came along. Noticing that there weren't any hidden adults together with her, they looked at the girl with greater interest. They could tell that she wasn't any simple girl. Out of all the little girls they've seen, whether from a noble family or from the slums, she was the most beautiful girl they had ever seen.

"I think angels exist after all...", the fat man said, hungrily staring at the girl up and down.

She had a well-rounded face with a beautiful smile that couldn't be described with anything but angelic. Seemingly golden, slightly curled hair drooped down from her head as if it was a frame specially designed for her face. What made it even more perfect, was the simple white dress she's wearing that made her look like not even the dirty slums could stain her.

"Hello! Can you please stop bullying that poor man?", said the little girl towards them.

Her voice had a soft ring to it and captivated everyone on sight. It made them all feel like they could listen to her voice for eternity without a care in the world. Not only her face that's perfect, even her voice was to die for.

"U-Um, Little Miss, I'm truly sorry, but this old man here owes us some money and we desperately need it in order to feed our children!", the fat man stammered, lying through his teeth to appeal in front of the angel.

"Oh... I didn't know about these circumstances... I should be the one to apologize! I will pay for that man's debt. So, why don't you come and grab a bite with me instead? I'm sure we can talk about it nicely!", said the girl hurriedly, looking flustered with a slight blush on her face.

"O-Of course! Hahaha! That's great! We'll follow you immediately! You're lucky, old man. It looks like an angel saved you after all!", the fat man said laughing, as if he didn't realize what he just said.

As they all left the scene, the old man tried to shout as loud as he could. Praying that his warning reached the girl so that she could escape from those perverted pigs.

"Don't go with them! They will only do atrocious things to you! Little girl, run away!", the old man squeezed all his strength just so he could scream louder than usual.

Just before he passed out, he could see her turn around with a finger on top of her lips while winking at him in a meaningful way. Once he saw that sign, a realization suddenly hit him.

"It was a good decision to believe.", whispered a soft voice as if they came from right next to him.

"Ah... The Slum Angel really came...", the old man said with tears rolling down his face.