Chapter 19: Volume 4 - Prologue

「Listen up, you guys. Alcohol is an adult's drink. That means whoever drinks alcohol is an adult.」

In a snowy country in Eurasia, under a dark gray winter sky. In front of a church shed, a red-haired ten year old little girl held an emerald-green alcohol bottle in her hand and raised her voice.

「Once you guys taste this, you won't be kids anymore! You'll join the ranks of cool adults like us. And cool adults would never betray their friends! They'll never abandon weaker people! This alcohol is that kind of an oath between friends. Are you ready for it!?」

At those words, the two five- or six-year-old boys standing in front of her stood straighter and answered in loud voices.

"Yes we are!"

"Good! Then show me your readiness!"

"Okay!"

With their answers, the two boys held forward wooden cups in their hands. Into each of those cups, the red-haired girl poured a little bit of alcohol. The two boys sipped the alcohol that had been poured for them at the same time, and swallowed without hesitation.

「Wh-Whoooooaaa…」

And they spat it out simultaneously.

「Wh-What the heck was that!? It's so bad!」

「My throat's burning…!」

The two fell to their hands and knees in nausea. At the two underneath her gaze―the red-haired girl laughed cheerfully with a great voice.

「Looks like it's still too early for you! We'll have another trial next year, so be protected by me and Alice for another year!」

「Ugh….」

「Becoming an adult is hard, huh? Timur….」

While on the verge of tears, the two boys wiped their mouths with the snow at their feet. Watching over those two, the red-haired girl and the boy of around her age both showed parental smiles.

「Ha ha ha. There's still a long way to go before you become cool adults.」

There was a youth whose ash-blonde hair looked somewhat gloomy. At a glance, he was a shabby child who looked like he was dirty with soot and mud, but upon careful observation, he was a young boy with horrifyingly beautiful features.

This was the childhood of he who would someday call himself Nagi Arisuin, and enter Hagun Academy.

Arisuin―no, Alice―turned back from the two boys to address the girl.

「All things considered, you're a wicked adult, Yuuri. Timur and Condra are both only six, and you knew they couldn't drink something like that, right?」

In response, the girl gave a proudly evil smile.

「It's fine. Trying to overreach will make them bolder.」

Her name was Yuuri. Like Alice, she was a child of the streets, and the leader of this team that held their headquarters in the church's storage shed.

Yuuri, the girl who had a lively personality full of unyielding spirit.

Alice, the boy who had a delicate personality full of gentleness.

They were two diametrically opposing people, but they had one thing in common. It was―the thought that they had to protect the weaker children who could not survive on their own.

So they cared for the younger street kids more than themselves, and raised those children. Yuuri had a father's dependability. Alice had a mother's affection. Even though they were children themselves, they took on these roles splendidly.

―And what was happening now was a rite of passage for that team. The kids who drank from the green bottle of indecently strong liquor, they were being accepted not as children, but as adult friends. They had no parents. They had no adults to depend on. So they had to overreach as much as possible, to become adults as quickly as possible.

Yuuri, who thought that, had held the ceremony. But it didn't matter what kind of reason she had. There was no way children drinking alcohol was―

「Hey! Yuuri! You're feeding young kids alcohol again!?」

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「Oh crap! It's the nun! Everyone hide!」

Having been discovered by the frightful Sister who managed the church alone, Yuuri and the two younger boys fled, scattering in all directions.

The boys escaped instantly at their leader's command. Their trust in Yuuri was deep. Well, even if that was so….

「Hold it right there, you wicked brats! If you don't come back here, you'll have no soup today!」

「We were caught up in Leader's ways against our will.」

「It's all Leader's doing. We weren't bad. That's the truth.」

Before the promise of warm soup, their loyalty was only as strong as tissue, but….

「Y-You bastards―!? I'll remember this―!」

「Ha ha ha.」

While letting out a smile at that bunch of youths, Alice stood. The day was drawing to a close. It would be time for work soon.

Suddenly, at that moment.

「U-Umm... big sister Alice!」

Three girls came from inside the storage shed. They were children around five, six, and seven years old. And the seven-year-old Anastasia―the eldest among the kids besides Yuuri and Alice―stood before Alice with her white cheeks blushing as red as apples.

「H-Here….」

She nervously presented a hand-made scarf. It was something that she had made over the last few days from knitting wool she had gotten from the Sister, after learning from the skillful Alice. So knowing without a doubt that this was something she wanted him to see if she had done well, Alice took it in his hands.

「Oh my. You've knitted it beautifully, haven't you? You must have worked hard.」

Praising the craftsmanship, he tried to return it. But the girl pressed the scarf back into Alice's chest firmly.

「It―It's a present for you, big sister!」

「For me?」

Anastasia nodded forcefully.

「Because you're always… working… in the cold, doing your best….」

「….I see.」

Understanding Anastasia's feelings, Alice wrapped her hand-made scarf around his neck. Mysteriously, it felt warmer than the usual bargain-sale scarf he used.

「So warm…. Thanks, Anastasia.」

「Ehehe....」

Receiving the thanks, Anastasia broke out in a delighted expression. It was a smile that warmed not just his body, but his heart.

―Speaking honestly, their daily lives were miserable. With only the storage shed that the Sister was lending them, it was impossible for two ten-year-old kids to care for two boys and three girls. There were jobs to be had from the criminal gangs in their hometown, but after the government took away taxes, there was almost nothing left. For food, there was only the soup that the Sister made everyone once in a while, and hard bread stored in plastic bags. Those were shared among everyone. Naturally, one could hardly say it was enough to satisfy growing children, and everyone was always hungry.

But even so, these days were a blessing for Alice.

Compared to the amount he ate when he was alone, this was less. In order to raise the children, he had to do more work. But―if he compared these days of being loved to those where he lived alone, stealing and scavenging, he was much more content with the time spent here.

Living close to precious friends. Could he want anything more? No, there was nothing.

If tomorrow, and the day after that, could be just as peaceful―

Ahh, if only―

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