NovelEnglishT/N: Side story (after Robert’s tailless whip scorpions prank + Melsa returned from Imperial Japan with an Over sample)
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Playboy [Part 1]
‘There are too many things I don’t know.’
Second Prince Edward sat in his own office, holding his head in his hands. Even though the academy had no classes on weekends, there was no end to a prince’s official duties.
Piled up on his desk were the investigation reports on food distributions by high-ranking aristocrats concerning the current situation in the slums that Emma Stuart made an appeal about during the Royal Family-hosted banquet the other day.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtAs Emma said, the content and quantity of food given out in the food distribution differed depending on which high-ranking aristocrat was in charge. And not so few nobles only provided poor quality meals with very few amounts that, no matter how you looked at it, seemed like it wouldn’t be enough for one portion worth, let alone for a week. It wouldn’t even be an exaggeration to call it leftover food.
“How have they managed to live until now with this?”
The report stated that the buildings in the slums were in a state of disrepair and were on the verge of collapse. Even though it was an area with poor public order, let alone being able to lock the doors, the doors themselves and the windows were rotting and falling off. Not a single building was still left with intact roofs, walls, and floors.
As the prince’s eyes scanned through the report, he couldn’t help but wonder, ‘How about windy days? Or rainy days? Or hot days? Or cold days?
How do they live in a place like this?’
“Your Highness, I have also followed my sister several times to the food distribution. I remember that there were only a few familiar faces. The ones who gathered would mostly be different people every time.”
Arthur replied with a stiff expression to the perplexed prince. Because Arthur attended to the prince as his bodyguard and could rarely leave his side, the food distribution from House Bell was mainly done by his younger sister, Marion.
Marion was also concerned about the state of the slums and tried all she could to help. But because any activity done on weeks other than the one their house was in charge of was frowned upon by other nobles, she could only give up. For the ridiculous reason of letting nobles keep up appearances, it became challenging to help, and their hands were tied.
“I have heard that people of working age were luckily able to find a job and had left the slums. Because right now, job offers for manual labor are especially many. However, the small children…”
The Royal Capital’s orphanages were always full, and the children who couldn’t be accommodated flowed into the slums.
There also existed a type of parents who suffered from poverty in the countryside and came to the Royal Capital’s slums to abandon their children there to reduce the number of mouths to feed. Using their last shred of parental affection, they brought their children there with the consideration that ‘If it’s the Royal Capital’s slums, they will get food distribution.’
However, with the actual situation of food distribution being like this, wouldn’t there only be fewer than a handful of children who could grow up until they reached working age?
—“It’s not a matter of how they have survived until now… Rather, it’s more like they couldn’t possibly survive.”
Arthur recalled the lament his younger sister, Marion, once uttered in pity.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm“How could I not know this… They are also the Kingdom’s, the Royal Family’s subjects…”
The prince felt his chest tightened every time he went through the documents. His current cluelessness overlapped with his foolish act of cutting a slime without thinking out of ignorance during the local barrier hazard.
‘Even though it isn’t even somewhere at the borderland…
Even though the slums are a district within the Royal Capital, which can be seen by an hour’s carriage drive from the Royal Palace where I live, how could I have been unaware of this?
Ignorance is a sin.
-“There’s nothing I can do”-
I don’t want to live a life where such a way of thinking is acceptable.
Nor I should.’
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