60 — Siblings And Colds (1)

“Brother, do we really have to do this?”

“Then what, do you want to starve to death on the streets?”

“That may be true, but I really don’t like this. Robbing an empty house…”

“We have no choice. If you hadn’t confronted the inspector who wanted to reduce taxes with some tricks, we wouldn’t be in this situation!”

“That… I had no choice. That guy has many other problems. He’s even messing with the wives of the construction workers… He’s an evil man.”

“Thanks to you, now we’re the bad guys, idiot.”

“But didn’t you also confront him, brother!”

“Yes, that guy was a bad man. He was! And you did well! So do you regret it?”

“No…”

“Then let’s hurry up and get inside.”

The brothers who lost their parents early on and lived tenaciously.

Linte and Mate were now facing the worst crisis.

The construction inspector had the authority to hire workers and manage all construction permits, reporting directly to the Lord’s castle.

His name was Latanda. A name the brothers could never forget even in death.

Especially since the nobles backed by Count Dedran’s family in Greek City supported him, his arrogance only grew.

Linte and Mate confronted Latanda, who used his power to commit all sorts of misdeeds, and were expelled for it.

Especially when Latanda called out the wife of a worker and harassed her, Mate intervened, making things worse.

Linte and Mate didn’t even receive their wages during that time.

Early winter.

As the weather grew colder, the brothers, who were out of money, faced only the prospect of freezing to death.

They tried to find other jobs, but Latanda always interfered. They were in a hopeless situation.

“Isn’t this Latanda’s house? That bastard! He needs to suffer too. And we need to survive the winter.”

“That’s true, but…”

Determined to get something in place of their unpaid wages, the brothers waited for Latanda’s house to be vacant and then broke in.

The brothers, who had learned that Latanda had a habit of leaving a second-floor window open, climbed the empty building.

Mate barely got inside the house, ran to the first floor, opened the door for his brother, and both moved silently on tiptoe to the living room.

“What, what’s this.”

And the scene that unfolded before their eyes.

The brothers kept mouthing ‘What’ to each other because the house was not empty.

On the luxurious living room sofa lay an old woman with grey hair.

“Bro, let’s get out! This is bad.”

“Y-yes, let’s.”

If they were discovered, it would be over. So the brothers quickly whispered and moved swiftly toward the entrance.

“Uh, uh…”

But soon the brothers stopped simultaneously. The old woman’s groans sounded serious.

“Brother, she doesn’t look well. Isn’t this an emergency?”

“Really? Then what should we do?”

“What do you mean what should we do? We need to help. She looks really serious.”

Mate approached the old woman with a worried expression. She was clutching her stomach and groaning. She looked very unwell.

Without hesitation, Mate carried the old woman on his back, knowing full well that this would expose their break-in.

She seemed to be choking on something, struggling to breathe. The feeling that she would die if left alone was too strong.

“There’s a clinic up ahead. Let’s go there, brother!”

“Y-yes, she can’t die….”

The brothers hurried to the nearby clinic and luckily saved the old woman. But then disaster struck Linte and Mate.

Latanda, who came running to find his mother, immediately shouted at the brothers. His face was twisted with anger, and he showed no gratitude for saving his mother in the emergency.

“You bastards! I kicked you out for your mistakes, and you dare try to harm my mother!”

“That’s not true!”

“Then what is it? You tried to harm her but got scared and brought her to the clinic. You bastards, I can’t let this go!”

“That’s not it! You bastard! You didn’t pay us and kicked us out, so we tried to rob an empty house….”

“Brother!”

Linte shouted in anger and then quickly covered his mouth in shock, but it was too late. Mate shook his head at his brother.

“Ah, so that’s it. You admitted it yourself. Everyone, these bastards came to rob an empty house! These miserable criminals!”

Thud!

Latanda punched Linte. Linte couldn’t even fight back and rolled onto the floor, and Mate ran to his fallen brother.

The security team called by Latanda soon arrived, and the brothers were immediately sentenced to prison.

The two spent a full two years in prison before returning to the world. As soon as Linte was released, he looked up at the sky and spoke to his brother.

“We were caught before winter, and now it’s winter again.”

“Yes, brother… It will be hard to sleep outside when it gets cold… Maybe staying in prison was better.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. After all the torment in prison, do you want to go back to that hellhole?”

“That’s not it… but at least we could survive….”

The two brothers dropped their shoulders and started walking.

“I have no intention of hiring a thief.”

“Get lost! You’ll ruin the store’s reputation, tsk tsk!”

“Sorry. We’re not hiring at the moment.”

Latanda, who confirmed the brothers’ release from prison, still harbored a grudge and spread unnecessary rumors.

As a result, they were rejected everywhere they went, despite signs saying they were hiring. Eventually, they could do nothing but curl up in the northern slum and look at the sky.

“This won’t do!”

“Brother?”

“I’ll steal! It’s better than starving to death like this!”

“But brother!”

After declaring loudly to Mate, who kept starving, Linte ran to the commercial district. He looked around the restaurant area and shouted to his brother again.

“At this point, we have no choice but to become great villains!”

“What do you mean, brother?”

Linte entered the restaurant alley. Then he looked around and picked up a large container.

“Hahaha. Look, Mate, there are leftovers from the restaurant. Stealing this is the true act of a villain!”

“Brother… but isn’t this just thrown-away food?”

“No, these leftovers are meant for those Merun scoundrels! I’m a great villain!”

Merun means cat. In this case, they were referring to stealing food meant for stray cats. So Linte laughed triumphantly and began eating the leftovers.

“In that case, I won’t lose, brother.”

“What?”

“Actually, I did something amazing in the square.”

“What, you punk? In the square?”

Linte slapped Mate. The restaurant alley where no one could see and the open square. Comparing the severity of misdeeds, he thought the square couldn’t compare. Thinking his brother was crazy for doing something amazing there, Linte stuttered.

“S-so, what did you steal?”

“I didn’t steal anything. You know the big notice board in the square? I took down all the papers on it and then put them back up. It’s a major crime! I was so nervous that someone would say something!”

“You punk? You did something worse than me?”

Linte, with food in his mouth, shrugged in defeat.

“Eat this, Merurun. Merurun! Cry, Merururun!”

Mate laughed boldly, feeding the food he was eating to the stray cat, then taking a bite himself. He felt sorry for completely taking the stray cat’s food.

Mate, who looked like a beautiful boy, and the stray cat made a picturesque scene, although they were holding food scraps.

Still, Mate thought it tasted better than the food in prison. The food in prison was truly inedible.

“But brother, I still think it wasn’t as bad as when we broke into that empty house…”

“Ha… Don’t even mention that time. I could never do that again. Besides, back then, we were more driven by the thought of getting revenge on that damned Latanda.”

The two brothers sighed and lowered their heads. Instead of stealing something, they helped someone and ended up in prison.

That was their fate. No parents, no connections, nothing to their name, just misfortune.

But Linte had his brother, and Mate had his brother. That was the only thing that kept them going in this world.

“Oh, now that I think about it, brother, there was a notice on that board saying they were hiring.”

“Huh?”

During their childhood when their parents were still alive, they learned to read to some extent. So Mate recalled the notice and spoke to his brother.

“Let’s see, there’s a ranch on that hill, and they were hiring.”

“Hmm, a ranch? Would they really hire us? It probably won’t work out.”

“But brother… we have to try something. Even if we get kicked out! If we stay like this, we’ll freeze to death. We have to do something, even if it means going back to prison!”

“That’s true…”

The brothers looked at each other and lowered their heads.

“Besides, a ranch isn’t related to the construction site that Latanda controls, so our reputation might not have reached there. Isn’t that what we should hope for?”

“That would be fortunate… Alright, let’s go! Better to do something than return to prison. Prison is not an option because of those who want to mess with you!”

“Brother…”

Compared to the manly-looking Linte, Mate looked like a beautiful boy. Because of this, many wicked men tried to take advantage of him.

Each time, Linte stepped in and took the beatings for him, which pained Mate just to watch.

Just thinking about it made Mate tremble, but he shook his head and nurtured his dream of the ranch.

Their last hope.

With that hope, the two walked up the hill to the ranch the next morning. They stopped in their tracks when they saw a quaint restaurant.

“There’s a restaurant here?”

“Brother, it’s too broad in daylight to steal food scraps.”

“No, I’m just surprised there’s a restaurant here.”

“Is that so?”

The restaurant wasn’t the problem now. The anxious brothers hurried on their way again.

Soon, a large ranch unfolded before their eyes. Linte and Mate were overwhelmed and looked at each other in astonishment.

“There’s no way… they’ll hire us here?”

Linte sighed and spoke, and Mate quietly nodded in agreement.

“That’s true….”

“Are you here for an interview?”

Miltain, who found the two hesitating like scared puppies, patted Linte’s back, who looked younger than him, and asked. Startled, Linte and Mate stepped back like frightened puppies.