Chapter-6
970 Words
After finishing my shift and pocketing a genuinely satisfying stash of gold tips, I decided I couldn't spend my entire day cooped up inside the Velvet Moon. The sun was bright, my hair was shining, and I looked far too polished to waste sitting in some dim, liquor-soaked VIP room.
It was time to explore the capital. But more importantly, it was time for a critical reconnaissance mission: hunting for handsome men!
I strutted down the wide main street, letting the hem of my silk dress flutter as I strolled along slowly. The cobblestone streets of the upscale district were lined with marble fountains, luxury shops, and wealthy nobles riding by on pedigreed horses.
I kept my eyes locked on every carriage and every rider that passed, scanning them with the precision of a hawk stalking its prey.
"Alright, capital,"
I muttered, narrowing my eyes at a young nobleman with a nice nose but terrible posture.
"Show me what you've got! I did not get robbed by bandits and sleep on horse hay just to settle for an average jawline!"
I passed by a flower shop, mercilessly judging every man who wandered into my line of sight.
Man number one: nice hair, but shoulders hunched like an old man's. Eliminated.
Man number two: clearly wealthy, but his face looked like he'd burst into tears if he stubbed his toe on a table. Eliminated.
Man number three: wearing way too much cologne—I could smell him from three streets away. Disgusting.
I leaned against a stone pillar near the central fountain, sipping the sweet fruit juice I'd just bought, and let out a dramatic sigh.
"Where are all the dangerously handsome heroes, the ones who look like they belong on a book cover?"
I whispered, staring up at the sky.
"If I'm destined to be dragged into some dark, toxic romance plot, the least this universe could do is give me some eye candy while I wait!"
I took what I thought was a shortcut through a narrow stone archway, expecting the street to spit me back out into the clean, sunlit squares of the upscale district.
Instead, the entire world changed in just three steps.
The smooth, clean cobblestones vanished from beneath my feet, replaced by dark, sticky mud that reeked of something foul. Golden sunlight couldn't even penetrate this place; tall, decrepit wooden buildings leaned sharply into one another as if strangling the sky and choking off the air. The smell grew thick, damp, saturated with sewage, rusted iron, and stagnant water.
Before I could even process where I was, I turned a corner past a pile of rotting wooden crates and froze in place, stunned.
Right in my line of sight, tucked into a dark, damp corner against a moss-covered stone wall, a man and a woman were having s*x without a shred of shame or modesty. They didn't even bother hiding! Their clothes were filthy, their hair matted, and neither of them so much as glanced at me as I walked past.
A sharp wave of nausea hit my stomach. I clapped a hand over my mouth immediately, while using my other hand to lift the hem of my red silk dress away from the disgusting, sticky ground.
"Ugh, absolutely revolting,"
I whispered through gritted teeth, a shiver running down my skin as I quickened my pace away from them.
"Right, of course... this is poverty at its most raw and ugly. When you're broke, starving, and this hopeless, s*x becomes the only free entertainment available."
I turned toward another corner, hoping to find a way out, but the alley widened into a chaotic, wretched courtyard.
The courtyard was swarming with children... dozens of them! Small barefoot kids with mud smeared across their pale cheeks, older children in torn shirts clearly several sizes too big, as if handed down through five generations, and infants crying inside baskets of filthy straw. A small child with a runny nose nearly collided with me, but I turned and stepped out of the way.
"Oh my god, why are there this terrifying number of children?!"
I muttered, backing away toward a dry patch of wall, taking in the chaotic scene around me.
I tilted my head back, rubbing my forehead, while my modern, analytical mind connected the biological and practical dots behind this medieval nightmare.
"Ah, right!"
I whispered to myself, letting out a breath dripping with bitterness and sarcasm.
"Birth control and condoms... probably don't even exist here, or they're so absurdly expensive they're only sold for gold pieces only lecherous nobles can afford! No protection, no education, and zero entertainment options... the natural result is a million starving kids running around in rags."
"Honestly? The village I came from was a million times more merciful than this s**t!"
I muttered, shaking my head in shock.
"At least it smelled better than this dump!"
Okay, I'd seen more than enough of this misery! Every second I wasted here just meant a higher chance of running into something dangerous.
I spun around immediately, lifting the hem of my dress with both hands to keep it from touching the mud, and took off running back through the same alley I'd come from.
"Left at the trash pile... then right at the broken wall..."
I muttered to myself, dodging stray dogs and hanging laundry as I went.
"Take me back to the marble and the nobles and the rich people! Aristocratic hypocrisy is a million times more merciful than open sewage!"
And then, suddenly, as I tried to bolt out of the alley as fast as I could... I slammed into someone incredibly solid, like running straight into a wall of iron
A shiver ran through my body, and I had no idea what was about to happen now....
To be continued...
- Writer
