A Ride and a Talkative Stranger

“You brats!”

A middle-aged man’s voice suddenly rang in everyone’s ears.

He had rushed over from a nearby town.

A wild kid wandering outside the town had told him that someone had destroyed his wheat field, so he hurried back to his shabby stable, mounted his old brown horse, and rushed to the scene, afraid they might run away after causing damage.

For a farmer, a wheat field is not just a symbol of food and money.

That nearly ripened crop brought him hope and joy.

Every single ear of wheat represented his hard work and sweat.

He did not want his efforts to be ruined by floods or droughts, so he took great care of them every day.

They had survived droughts, floods, and even storms.

Yet in the end, they were destroyed under the crushing wheels of a carriage.

He was extremely angry right now.

If he were younger, he would have grabbed them and taken them straight to the town chief.

But when he saw the miserable state of the carriage, his anger faded.

The already shabby carriage had been smashed to pieces, scattered everywhere.

The few of them sat collapsed on the ground, silent, as if still immersed in the shock from earlier.

“These kids didn’t have it easy either…” he thought to himself.

After all, wheat could be replanted next season, but human lives were far more precious.

“Sigh… forget it… if it’s a blessing, it won’t turn into a disaster, and if it’s a disaster, you can’t avoid it. Since you’re injured too, I won’t pursue it…”

He rubbed his forehead, got back onto his carriage, and prepared to return to town.

“Wait! Uncle! Can you take us to the town?”

Seeing the man arrive, Eugene’s dull eyes suddenly lit up.

Eugene reacted much faster than Luna and Allen.

In such a remote place, the existence of a nearby town was a great opportunity.

After all, it was because of him that the horse was lost, so this was the least he could do to make up for it.

The man looked at the three of them with a strange expression and stroked his stubble as he thought.

“Alright… consider yourselves lucky. I’ll take you along.”

He cleared out the clutter from the small cart behind the horse.

He patted the backboard of the cart, signaling them to climb on.

“Eh?…”

Luna let out a confused sound.

A second later—

“Eh?…”

Allen echoed in surprise.

It could actually work like this?

They had thought it would be good enough just not to be arrested.

They never expected to be given a ride to town instead, solving their urgent problem.

Is this… the power of words?!

Luna and Allen couldn’t help but think so.

After all, Eugene had been navigating society for over a decade.

To him, this was completely normal.

But to these two inexperienced ones, it felt like a groundbreaking discovery.

The three quickly climbed onto the cart.

Only then did they realize—it was his field they had destroyed.

“Sorry, uncle… I didn’t expect the carriage to overturn and ruin your wheat field. We didn’t mean it.”

Allen explained awkwardly.

She didn’t even know why she had fallen off the carriage in a daze.

“Hahaha… it’s fine. As long as you’re okay. Just some minor injuries. If it were serious, that would be bad.”

He raised his whip and lightly tapped the horse, which began to run toward the town.

“After all, human life is more valuable than crops. People don’t come back to life, but crops can always be replanted.”

He spoke calmly.

“Life doesn’t always go as one wishes… just forget about it.”

He began chatting with the three dirt-covered youngsters.

They had wiped their faces with handkerchiefs, but traces of dirt still clung to them like camouflage.

“Hahaha… you know, when I was young, I had quite a temper!”

He started telling his story.

“That was back when I was young, and my wife was still alive.”

He drove the horse as if narrating someone else’s life.

“I was hot-blooded and became a notorious bully in town.”

“I relied on my strength to bully others, robbing commoners and forcing them to keep quiet. Over time, almost everyone in town had been robbed by me. I became someone people feared deeply. No one wanted anything to do with me—even the guards kept their distance. But the more they avoided me, the more violent I became. Eventually, the townspeople resisted—but I beat them all back.”

He gave a self-mocking smile and glanced back at them.

Seeing their attentive expressions, he continued.

“Later, I wanted to do something big. So I sneaked into a minor noble’s house, looking for some excitement…”

“And I was caught by one of their elite guards.”

“I was locked in a special dungeon. They planned to punish me properly.”

Meanwhile, outside, people celebrated his capture and praised the noble family.

“What’s funny is… I fought my way to their treasury… and found piles of gold bricks…”

He sounded excited.

“That was the most money I had ever seen in my life. If that wealth had been distributed to the poor, maybe things wouldn’t have turned out this way…”

“You should know—I had my own sense of morality. I robbed wealthy exploiters and gave their money to the poor. After all, I came from people like them.”

“To the poor, I was someone they wanted to see, because I helped them survive.”

He paused.

“But to the rich, I was like a disaster. Hearing my name made them hide like rats.”

“That’s why I kept using violence to fight violence.”

He smiled faintly.

“But later I realized… this method only treated the symptoms, not the root problem. I helped them once, but they still faced the same struggles again. I had become like a walking treasury to them…”

“So I tried to find a real solution. In the end, I thought of only one way…”

“To completely eliminate the problem, there had to be enough money to distribute evenly. So I decided to rob that noble family.”

He laughed at his past naivety.

“And that’s how I ended up in prison.”

“Hyah!”

He flicked the whip, and the horse sped up.

“At the time, I thought I would never get out. I believed I’d either grow old or die there.”

“I don’t even remember how many days and nights passed. I only remember my beard growing and being shaved again. Before twenty shaves, I was released.”

“The strange thing is—the elite guard who caught me was the one who let me go.”

“She said she wanted me to see the people I had once helped.”

“So I followed her.”

“When we arrived at a family I used to support, we overheard them talking about me.”

“They called me a scoundrel, a thug, a bad person. They weren’t grateful at all. Instead, they questioned me. At that moment, I realized how foolish I had been. Feed someone once, and they are grateful. Feed them forever, and they resent you. They hated me just because I didn’t give them money on time.”

“Later, I left my hometown with that guard and came here to live an ordinary life.”

He smiled, as if his life had quietly come to a conclusion.

Looking ahead, the outline of the town was already visible.

They were almost there.

“Uncle, why do you think that happened? Why did they resent you?” Eugene asked, confused.

“I think… it was a misunderstanding.”

He answered as they approached the town gate.

“A misunderstanding?!” Allen asked.

“Yes. A misunderstanding—a beautiful one.”

He slowed the horse.

“They misunderstood me as someone who could support them forever, so they gave up improving themselves. They left everything to luck and abandoned their future. In the end, they remained at the bottom.”

“And I misunderstood myself as a savior. I wanted everyone to be equal, but I only did foolish things. Thinking about it now, I still feel guilty.”

“A misunderstanding…” Allen murmured, feeling a trace of sadness.

“Yes… a misunderstanding.”

But between Allen and her family, it was no longer a misunderstanding.

It was deception.

“Alright, everyone, get off. We’re here. Welcome to Lante Town.”

He bowed slightly in welcome.

“You should go wash up first. You all smell like dirt.”

Only then did they realize it.

“Yeah… we really should wash.”

Allen hadn’t washed for two or three days.

Luna hadn’t washed during her long journey either.

And Eugene—after being locked up for a year—smelled even worse, like rotten eggs.