Chapter 70
The Man's Injury [Part 1]
"Watch your step."
The three siblings entered the dimly lit building and were guided by the boy to his older brother's place.
They went up the stairs, continued going up while paying attention to the creaking floor.
"Shouldn't he be on the first floor if he is injured..."
George curiously whispered.
"It's because we can't see anything at night on the first floor. The top floor is a little bright because some parts of the roof have collapsed."
'Isn't that also a little problematic?' While thinking so, the three siblings continued to follow the boy.
The stairs are made of bricks, the same as the walls, but the floor is made of wood. They could see that it had decayed and had some holes here and there. The siblings moved forward by only stepping on the place the boy just walked through.
"Big Brother, I'm coming in."
In front of a door of the room on one side of the third floor, the boy called out to the man inside.
"............"
There's no answer. The boy entered the room without minding it, and the three siblings followed right after. The inside was a little brighter than the floors below. The roof was open in the middle, and the twilight sky was peeking through it.
A man was lying, not making any movement as if he's asleep.
Emma ran towards the man's side and started checking his wounds.
"H-Hey, if you move recklessly, the floor will collapse."
While cautioning Emma, the boy also headed over with George and William.
The man still didn't move when Emma touched him.
"He was still talking fine and could walk on his own until yesterday..."
Perhaps not tied well, a not very clean cloth wrapped around the man's leg to stop the bleeding started to get soaked red.
Emma peeled off the wrapped cloth briefly and examined the wound condition.
"......"
"............"
"............"
The three siblings shared glances with each other. This is...
"H-Hey, how was it! Is he going to be okay?"
Emma reached out to the man's leg to check it further, then said to the boy.
"It's not a severe wound. There's no broken bone either."
Although it's bleeding, if the wound is washed and pus doesn't form on it, he should get better soon. It's not that big of an injury for the boy to cry desperately.
"T-Then, why is my brother like this..."
The confused boy looked at his limp brother and sought an answer from Emma.
Even when the four of them surrounded the man and confirmed his hurting wounds, he didn't move at all.
Emma isn't an expert and couldn't say it for sure, but... about that story before the man got hurt...
"Maybe... he is starving?"
The man's leg was thin, and the skin was dry and rough. He's definitely malnourished.
You don't have any energy if you're hungry. Emma knows that too.
In his current condition, he might be dehydrated from the bleeding.
"When was the last time this man ate?"
The boy started to think after William questioned him.
"Uhh... The food distribution was yesterday... but Big Brother has always been the last one to eat, so because there's not enough food for everyone yesterday, he hasn't eaten. ...the food distribution a week before didn't give the usual goodie bag with biscuits, so..."
It seemed he hadn't eaten any proper food for a week at worst.
"Rather than his wounds, that's the real problem!"
William reflexively shouted.
"Ah, when Brother finds nuts or something edible, he will give it to other children. Even with the distributed food, he won't eat it all himself but will share it with others."
That amount of intake was definitely not enough for an adult man.
He has done well surviving until now.
The siblings had thought of the slums as a more brutal place. To think there's a man who liked to take care of others there... There are some things you can't come to understand just from their appearance, the siblings realized.
"Anyway, the most important thing for now..."
They were thinking about it together while discussing the amount they had in their wallet.
They're worried about his dehydration, so first...
"Water... salt, and... sugar?"
"Salt and sugar are expensive!"
The boy interjected.
"It's okay, we don't need that much... Maybe buy one copper coin amount(?) of each, and what's left will be used for a food that's easy to digest... something like porridge... I mean, like oatmeal? If we boil it together with milk, I guess it will be softer?"
The siblings didn't know the price in the royal capital, but in Palace, 100 grams of salt was 1 copper coin, and 50 grams of sugar was 1 copper coin.
"Let's just go first!" George, who snatched the wallet from William, ran off with the boy to buy the things.