Interlude: Noah (part 1)

‘No.’ This was the answer of everyone to the little girl who tried to sell flowers. Even though she was only eight years old, the girl was responsible for supporting her mother, or rather, she was forced to.

“Sir, do you want to buy a flower?”

“What? Get out of the way, can't you see we're busy!?”

“Calm down, darling, you don't have to be so rude.” A woman, clinging to the shoulder of a muscular man, looked at the girl with teary eyes holding a basket of flowers with pity.

“Calm down, calm down. Look, I'll take three, you don't have to cry.”

The woman, an adventurer, chose three roses from the basket, a kind smile was seen on her beautiful face.

“Th-thank you!”

“No problem… What's your name?”

“I-it's… Hu-huh… Noah…” the girl spoke the name amidst sobs and tears she was trying to contain as she was comforted by the adventurer.

“Look, Noah, it's for you.”

Receiving the payment, the girl blinked numerous times and her body trembled in surprise. There were ten gold coins, more than enough, since one flower cost one coin.

“Ehhh?! Dear, this money was to buy another bow for you!” the muscular man protested.

“Forget it, we'll get more money tomorrow. The people in this city need it more than we do.”

Noah, the small flower seller, was paralyzed for a moment in front of the kindness of the adventurer, who now went in the direction of the forest with the rude man. The flowers in the basket were collected from the same forest, and the girl was constantly scolded by the adventurers when they saw her there. That place was full of dangerous monsters, so it attracted adventurers like them to the city.

Clenching her fist tightly, Noah ran as fast as she could to get to her home. She needed to tell her mother the news.

Fallen, which was once a prosperous city, was bustling with the presence of a local noble who visited, so it was difficult for the girl to cross the crowded area in the commercial area.

Squeezing through the people crowded in the main square, she managed to get to the entrance of the slum.

This was the part of the city where the poorest of the poor lived, like the small flower seller. The slum dwellers, people completely forgotten by the nobles in their own land, resembled the rats that roamed those dark and dirty alleys.

The dark alley in the middle of the city, full of houses falling to pieces, gave an air of a haunted place where many crimes had taken place — and, in fact, that was where most of the criminals hid.

Jumping over the dirty puddles of water, Noah arrived in front of her house. Compared to the other shacks, it was in the best condition.

“It was fun.”

“Huh? What are you talking about? That bitch has been better, but she's old!”

“No use complaining, it's the cheapest one you can find around here!”

Two men — one fat with a beard and the other thin with an eye patch — were leaving Noah's house. It wasn't the first time strangers had walked in and out of there with a mean smile on their faces, it reminded her of ‘that incident’.

Ignoring the pair, the little girl entered the house that used a white curtain as a door.

“I'm home, Mom.”

“You're early, did you manage to sell everything? Haha! Just kidding, you never sell this crap!”

“That's not true! Look, today I got ten gold coin…”

“No kidding!”

“It's true, here.”

The girl held out her hand with the ten gold coins, which were taken by the woman instantly.

Noah's mother was in her mid-forties — she never told her daughter how old she was — and she looked like a prostitute, despite her age.

“I still can't believe you managed to earn all that with those stupid flowers…”

“Actually, a lady adventurer was very nice and gave me ten coins for three flowers…”

“I knew it! These flowers are not going to get us anywhere!”

Stuffing the coins in her breasts, Noah's mother started to stare at the dirty little girl in front of her.

“Hmmm, you are… eight years old, right? I think you're old enough…”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“I'm getting too old for this, men prefer younger girls. The younger, the better.”

“W-wait mom… What do you mean?”

“Don't be an idiot!” the mom shouted. “I'm telling you to sell your body to the pigs in this hole! Give up this stupid idea of selling flowers and do something that makes us money, like sucking on some…”

“Wha-what…”

Noah listened to her mother's words with a confused expression. The only noise produced in the filthy room was the sound of the basket of flowers falling from the girl's hand.

“Actually, I have already arranged everything with a man who came here the other day, he seems to have a lot of money. The deal was that he would come after you in a week, but we can't wait any longer, I owe some guys who only accept gold coins as payment…”

Seeing the little girl's expression, the woman shrugged her shoulders and left the house, leaving only the little girl motionless inside.

When Noah's mother returned, she was accompanied by a girl with a lot of tattoos.

Ruthy, the tattooed young woman, had known Noah since she was a baby. She was like a sister to the girl, and now, at this moment, she was in charge of preparing her for slaughter.

They were like animals, just waiting for that moment. Losing their virginity like that, so young, was common for children growing up in that dark godforsaken alley.

“Give her a bath and some tips so she won't leave the client unsatisfied, I'll use these coins to buy some new clothes,” Noah's mother said to the young woman as she left again. The monster-woman didn't show any remorse.

“Let's go, Noah… I'll take you for a bath.”

…

Noah and Ruthy left the house towards the only place in the alley that had clean water. This water was dedicated to bathing women who were going to please a client.

The place that was behind a brothel was protected by a wooden wall full of holes — made by the boys to spy on the women — in the center of the enclosure was a pool with drinking water.

Ruthy gently washed the back of the little girl, who had remained silent since her mother's last words.

“Are you scared, Noah?”

“Y-yes…”

“I know what it's like…”

“Hey, sister Ruthy…”

“Huh?”

“They're going to do ‘it’ to me, aren't they?”

“Depends on what you mean by ‘it’.”

“O-one day I came home early, and I saw my mother naked with two men… She was screaming while two men… One of them looked at me, licking his lips, and my mother said I would be ready soon… And-and then they gave her lots of coins…” the little girl spoke in a melancholy tone, fearing what awaited her in the near future.

“It's a disgraceful punishment to be born in this shithole…” Ruthy stopped bathing for a moment and looked up at the sky thoughtfully. “My purity was also sold when I was about your age. I still remember that pig... I screamed and asked him to stop, but he enjoyed my suffering…”

“Do you think my mother will sell me to him too?”

“Tsc, I doubt it! I stabbed the bastard in the throat when I met him these days in a bar.”

To survive in this city full of social injustices it was necessary to give up many things, virginity from an early age was one of them. Ruthy never wanted to become a drug dealer, but this was the only way she could support her younger brother.

“Hey Noah, have you ever thought about giving up this life?”

“Huh?”

“You know, if it wasn't for my brother, I would have given it up for sure. Nobody deserves to live in this hell. When I get enough money, I'm sure I'll give Raul a decent life. They say that the land of the Marquis Soul Za is good to live on.”

The young woman began to wipe Noah's malnourished body slowly, while she continued to think about the future. Dream! It was the only thing she could do. To hope that tomorrow would be better. That he would escape from that hell full of rats and pigs.

“I promise, Noah… I'll take you too, and we'll all live happily, so… I want you to go to a safe place until then…”

“W-what?…”

“I want you to run away! I won't let you suffer like me… Take advantage now that your mother has left home and run away. Wait for me in front of the alley exit, I know a convent that takes care of homeless children, I have already arranged to send Raul there, surely Sister Rose won't mind taking in one more child.”

The idea of running away from home, from her mother's mistreatment, has crossed the little girl's mind a few times. She has even run away aimlessly to get away from it all, but where would she go?

This time, it was different. She had somewhere to go and the promise that someone would take care of her in the future.

Clinging to this hope, Noah agreed to run away immediately. She possessed nothing but the clothes on her body — a tattered gray dress — so she wouldn't have to stop by the house.

…

Ruthy asked the little girl to wait while she picked up her brother from the shack where she lived. The darkness in the alley was never as frightening as it was that night. The silence made Noah more and more apprehensive, waiting patiently for the arrival of the person she considered as an older sister.

That person never arrived… Hours passed and no one appeared.

Where was she? Had she given up on the idea?

Suddenly, she heard someone approaching. The footsteps were not coming from within the darkness of the alley, but from the main square. It was a tall woman with sharp eyes and dirty brown hair, just like her soul.

“What are you doing here?”

“M-mom!?”

“Don't tell me you were thinking of running away… How many times have I told you that this idea is useless!”

The woman pulled the girl's thin arm into the alley. Clearly, she had more strength, after all, the woman was eating with the money Noah got from selling flowers while the little girl was only entitled to bones and crumbs.

“I-I'm not going back! Sister Ruthy will get me out of here!”

At the little girl's scream, the mother put a macabre smile on her face. It was the darkest expression the woman had ever made up to that moment.

“Don't be an idiot… that bitch is probably dead by now…”

“I-impossible! S-she said she was going to get me out of here!”

“Really… she could have gotten you out of here if someone hadn't been paid well enough to denounce the drug lords of this region to a certain nobleman.”

“W-what? N-no…” The little girl fell to her knees, watching her last hope slip through her hands. Tears began to stream down her clean face. “S-sister Ruthy is so strong, she's never lost a fight!”

“Haha… that's because she's never faced these guys sent from the capital. Look, they paid me a hundred gold coins for the information!”

“Y-you… sold sister Ruthy?”

“Just like I'm going to do with you!”

Was it just for the pleasure of seeing the girl suffer? Even with a hundred coins, the woman still had the idea of selling her daughter to the pigs in that town.

Noah was dragged away by her mother, the tears didn't stop even when she got home.

The pretty dress bought by her mother with the dirty money seemed, to Noah, like a ritualistic object. Why make it so beautiful if it would soon be destroyed?

Hours went by… Nobody came. She had the chance to escape, since her mother was away… but she had nowhere to go.

Where was Ruthy? Did she really lose to the idiots from the capital? Did her mother go to get the terrible pig that would soil her honor?

There were too many questions. The little girl could only stand in the corner of the wall pondering, still hoping that her sister, her heroine, would come to her rescue just as she always did when she was confronted by the slum thugs who wanted to steal the money from the flower sale.

The curtain of the door opened, making Noah's heart flutter even more. Who entered the cold house was his mother… accompanied by a man.

Certainly, it was someone important, judging by the clothes and the sloppy physique of a man who lived the good life.

The thing that looked at Noah with malice while salivating was the true definition of a pig.

“I'll leave everything to you.” The mother, without a drop of regret, left the house, leaving only the pig and her daughter inside.

“Little Noah, right?” he spoke in a husky, almost bizarre voice with that forced, silly tone. “No need to be afraid, we're going to have fun.”

The man approached with slow steps, making Noah's heart race. ‘Why doesn't that heart stop for good? Ah! I know…’

Still there, at that moment, she was hoping her sister would show up and save her...

‘… I have to stay alive to congratulate sister Ruthy.’

The man reached a distance where Noah could feel his heavy breathing on his face, the pig's rough tongue went to meet her forehead.

Tears returned to the little girl's face, making the man laugh.

“I won't hold back any longer… Huh?”

Something was thrown into the house and rolled over near the man's feet, taking off his pants…

“W-what?”

The thrown object began to splash on the floor, forming a puddle of red liquid.

“Is this where there is a little girl in trouble?” The silhouette of a woman in armor appeared in the curtain of the house. She held a medium sword in her right hand… which was used to wound the little girl's mother. ‘That’ thrown into the house was the head of the hateful woman. “Noah, your sister asked me to save you!”