“Look at those beggars! Hahaha!” The taller Tzappian sneered.

“Big bro, don’t be so rough on them! Them Eustacians will drop dead the moment you touch them, hahaha!” The shorter Tzappian said.

This triggered Tar’s memory: Some days ago, Bern told him that Eustacians had a smaller stature than Tzappians and the Tzappians would make fun of them, calling them beggars, malnourished, and so on.

“Those two Tzappians are quite tall but there are two boys on the ground who are just as tall, if not taller… If all those people stand up and retaliate, they can certainly win,” Tar went into deep thought. “No, there are no signs of injuries on the brothers. Why did they not want to retaliate?” And then it hit him. “It’s not they don’t want to retaliate, but they can’t. Those Tzappians must be some big shot’s sons who are exploiting their status. But in that case…”

Tar suddenly appeared from the alleyway and coughed loudly, garnering the children’s attention. “If I were you, I’d stop doing that,” Tar said.

The two brothers were startled and quickly turned towards Tar. Upon seeing a defenceless boy much shorter than they were, they both laughed. “Standing up for your fellow beggar-mates?” The older brother asked.

Tar merely crossed his hands and smiled confidently.

“Are you deaf? Answer my big brother!”

And then, Tar spoke coldly, in fluent Tzappian, “Watch your mouth, you don’t want your father to know about this.”

Eustacian and Tzappian were different, but very similar languages. It would take an adult Eustacian no more than half a year to reach conversational level Tzappian, and even if Eustacians never learned Tzappian, they could understand about fifty to sixty percent of it.

However, accent was another thing. Bern was a scholar who spoke Tzappian fluently, but even his Eustacian accent leak out from time to time. Tar, on the other hand, had been taught native Tzappian since he was very young, so it was no wonder he could speak with a natural Tzappian accent.

The brothers looked at each other, shocked, trying to gauge whether the other recognised this black-haired boy, but neither of them knew.

“Explain yourself,” the older brother said.

Tar stole a glance at the brothers’ clothes. He noticed that the dark blue gown they wore had light green stripes across their chest. “Blue and green, blue and green… Too many noble houses have blue and green colour scheme…” He thought. “Wait! The four big houses in West Frey are the Ims, Revelles, Parolles, and Scheids. Not the Ims and Revelles, obviously. I vaguely remember that the colour scheme of the Parolles consists of bright yellow… It’s risky, but I’ll do that…”

The younger brother saw that Tar was being unresponsive and felt a surge of heat rushing to his throat. He walked up to Tar and grasped his collar tightly. The younger brother opened his mouth wide and was ready to spew all kinds of insults to him.

“You dare?” Softy, Tar spoke with a smile.

Never had someone talk to the brothers like this. From the moment since they were born, they were the ones people were afraid of and never the other way around. But today marked the first day that they were intimidated by a boy, and by a boy who was at least three years younger than him.

“See, my father is acquainted with Reverik,” Tar continued to speak in Tzappian. “Reverik often comes over, and I look forward to the next time he does, because he always brings gifts to us! Reverik also talks to me super politely! He’s like the only one in the world who will treat me like an adult.”

“Huh? Like our father would do that…”

“Imanu! Shush!” The older brother whispered into Imanu’s ear. He then put on a smile and asked Tar, “Can I ask what my father calls yours?”

“Hmm… I don’t remember. Was it president? No, no…” Tar rubbed his temples, thinking hard, “Ah! It was council master! A weird title, right?”

The older brother suddenly felt a strong heat in his cheeks, and cold sweat dripping down his back.

“Big bro, big bro!” Imanu shook his brother’s shoulders. “Imano!”

“Imanu, we gotta get out,” Imano whispered to Imanu before giving Tar a bow. “We’ve had our fun now. We’ll go,” Imano said with a forced smile.

“Big bro, who is he? Why is…”

“Shhhh. Just go.”

After dragging Imanu out of the alleyway, he looked back and forced a smile again. “Please don’t tell your father, will you? I know! I’ll beg my father – I’ll tell Reverik to send more gifts!” And the brothers quickly scuttled away.

“Whew, that went better than expected,” Tar thought, as he wiped his sweat on his forehead. “It was good that I remembered Papa said that the Scheids were deathly afraid of the council master. Heh, that’s what you get for embezzling the people’s hard-earned money.”

It was pure luck though, that the Scheids brothers never met the council master. They did not know that the council master had no children, much less a black-haired child. Later, whenever Tar thought back to this event, he could not help but sweat a little and regret not extracting more information before lying to them.

After doubly making sure the brothers were out of sight, Tar helped those children on the ground up.

“Man, you’re such a hero.” “You god damn saved my life.” “Love you dude.”

Each of them repeated their thanks, and Tar finally had the chance look at them. They were four boys and two girls, and they did not seem to know each other well.

“You’re really clever!” The boy who looked the oldest was impressed and said, “I can’t believe you made up such a bold-faced yet convincing lie like that on the spot!”

Tar softened up his expression. “No, it’s nothing,” he tried hide his happiness. “I mean, it’s not really a lie.”

“How so?”

“Well, my father is a military official and he told me about them.”

“Oh…” There was a hint of uneasiness in the boy’s expression, and the excitement from his tone vanished. “Are you perhaps… a half-blood?”

“No, I am a pure-blooded Eustacian,” Tar answered truthfully, feeling a bit puzzled by the boy’s sudden shift in tone. Tar saw there was still doubt in the boy and the other children’s eyes, so he clarified, “My father is a legitimate Eustacian. He’s called Torc Im, you know.” All the children in the group frowned. Some boys at the back of the group even let out a sneer.

“Haha… That’s not funny. You shouldn’t make jokes like that.”.

“But… I’m not?”

“What’s the Amber Manor?”

“It’s my home. Why ask?”

The older boy nodded a few times before smiling at Tar and giving him a friendly tap on his shoulders. “I see… I see… In that case, thank you for helping us. We’ll leave now, take care!”

“You, too. Everyone, take care!”

After Tar bid farewell to the group of children, he thought, “I’m just glad all of them made it out,” before walking away from the alleyway.