My Disciples Grind, I Get 100x Their Progress

In these narrow alleys, life was even harsher than out on the main streets. In this place, robbery happened out in the open, alongside murder, casual violence, sexual abuse, and every other kind of moral rot imaginable.

In that place lived Clana, a little girl about ten years old. She had dark navy-blue hair reaching down to her shoulders, and yellowish eyes she’d inherited from her mother, different from her brother’s.

Having lived her whole ten years in these cramped alleys, she understood exactly how hard her brother had fought just to keep her alive. That was exactly why, without her brother ever knowing, she’d started fighting on her own too, trying to scrape together a little extra food.

She’d only started doing it a few days ago. Even though what she managed to find wasn’t much, it still felt better than just sitting hidden away, waiting for her brother to come back from struggling out there alone.

And today just happened to be a bad day for Clana. What she’d been doing was digging through trash for food, but she was still too new to it to understand that not every spot was open for her to scavenge. There were certain territories she wasn’t supposed to enter, and today, she’d gotten caught by one of them.

"You damn brat! Who told you to come around here, huh!?"

A man, painfully thin, his skin darkened and scarred all over, grabbed Clana’s wrist and hoisted her straight up into the air.

"Ack..!?" Startled, Clana let out a small cry, staring at the man with tears welling up that she refused to let fall.

"S-sorry, I-I didn’t know... I—"

Slap!

"Eugh!"

"Didn’t know? You think I look like I care!?" The man bit down hard, his teeth grinding audibly. "I haven’t even eaten myself lately! And you have the nerve to come wandering in here!? Heh! You’re really something, aren’t you."

Whoosh!

Baaam!

"Ugh...!"

Clana went flying, slamming into the wall of some crumbling shack. A brief tremor rattled through the impact, and Clana’s frail body immediately felt the full weight of it. Her whole body screamed in pain, blood gushed fresh from her nose, and she couldn’t manage to pull herself back up.

"If you’d wandered into someone else’s turf, they’d have already carved your organs out to sell, heh... But since you ended up here instead."

The man smirked, closing in on Clana, grabbing her wrist again and hauling her back up.

"Wouldn’t hurt to keep you around for the next two or three years. By then, I could turn you into a nice little whore working for—"

"CLANA!"

The man snapped his mouth shut, spinning around to find a boy charging straight at him, his eyes burning red and sharp, brimming with murderous rage.

In his hand was a brick, snatched up off the street, raised and swung straight at the man.

Seeing that, the man clicked his tongue.

"Nothing but an annoying little pest."

He raised his leg and—

Kick!

Baam!

"...Uagh..!"

Given the sheer gap in reach and raw physical strength, there was never any real chance Ariel could take on a grown man directly. The kick landed square on his face, sending him flying, two of his teeth knocked clean out. Blood poured from his mouth and nose, but he pushed himself back up and bit down on his lip again.

"Let her go! Let her go! Let her go! Let her go!"

Ariel didn’t show even a trace of fear. He got back up once more and charged again, and his sheer stubbornness only made the man angrier.

The man threw punch after punch, kick after kick, but even after all of that, Ariel refused to give up. The bruises covering his body grew worse and worse, while Clana watched him with tears streaming down her face.

"B-brother...! No!"

But Ariel wasn’t listening. Every thought in his head had been stripped away, leaving only one thing: he had to do whatever it took to get that man away from Clana.

No matter what, regardless of the state he was in or the risk involved.

"AAARRGH!!"

He screamed at the top of his lungs and charged forward, full of raw determination. The man, finally out of patience, snatched up a brick from beneath his foot, glaring at Ariel with pure irritation.

"Fine then. Just die."

Clana squeezed her eyes shut, screaming in terror as the brick swung toward Ariel’s body. If it landed on his head, Ariel would genuinely die.

But it never happened. A silhouette moved in fast, cutting past Ariel, barely registering to the man at all. But even once the man did notice, all he managed to register was a clenched fist right in front of his face.

"Ah."

Punch—!

BOOM—!!

"GAH!"

His face was slammed with an absolutely terrifying amount of force, enough to knock Clana free, enough to make Ariel jolt to a stop, and enough to send the man flying clean into a wall in the distance.

Braak!

The wall of the building collapsed on impact, rubble crashing down along with it, burying the man beneath it. After that, there was no more movement at all.

As for the one who’d done it, Kina, she glanced briefly at Clana, then turned to look at Ariel, who stood there in stunned silence.

"What the hell were you doing? That was seriously stupid. You trying to get yourself killed?"

Ariel flinched, biting down on his lip, wiping the blood off his face and looking away.

"Shut up!"

He then bolted toward Clana, his face crumbling the instant he saw the blood on her nose and how much trouble she was having just moving.

"C-Clana? Are you okay? What were you even doing out here."

His hands trembled with fear, while Clana just kept crying and apologizing over and over, saying she didn’t want to be a burden, saying she just wanted to help Ariel too, saying her own attempt had ended up getting him nearly beaten to death instead.

All of it unfolded in the span of a few seconds, and Kina stood quietly, watching them. And what her Master had said earlier, about the kind of life they were forced to live and everything that came with it, suddenly made a lot more sense.

Now Kina was starting to understand why someone like Ariel might end up turning to theft. Not because the act itself was right, but because the life they’d been forced to live had turned choices that seemed completely unreasonable to Kina into the only way people like them could survive.

’Ah, whatever, this is annoying.’

Kina let out a huff, looking away and turning her gaze toward Julian, who stood not far off. Her face immediately brightened, her eyes practically sparkling.

"Master! Did I do good?"

"...? Yes."

Still confused, Julian nodded and agreed anyway. That only made Kina light up even more.

"Uhm..."

At the same moment, both Julian and Kina turned toward Ariel, who now stood there with Clana beside him. Unlike Ariel, who looked stiff and awkward, Clana looked genuinely in awe as she bowed her head.

"Thank you for helping me and my big brother!"

Clana then went quiet, tugging at Ariel’s sleeve and whispering something to him. That made Ariel flinch, biting down on his lip, looking away before finally forcing the words out:

"...Thanks for saving Clana."

Watching that, Kina paused for a moment, a crooked little smile spreading across her face.

"Ahaha~ of course, I’d be more than happy to help a cute little girl like her out. But, aw, I don’t know, don’t you think you could’ve said your thanks with a little more sincerity, Ariel?"

Hearing that, Ariel felt his whole body tense up with discomfort. He glared at Kina, clearly displeased, his hands clenched into tight fists, his whole body rigid, and his expression was genuinely comical to watch.

Kina was fully braced for Ariel to snap back at her, but funnily enough, he didn’t. He forced his expression to settle, bowing his head to Kina, and his face crumbled almost instantly after.

"Thank you...! Thank you...! I-I, I wouldn’t be able to survive without Clana and... I’m sorry if I was rude, I’ll do anything to make up for it."

That... caught Kina completely off guard. She stood there, awkward and silent, thoroughly uncomfortable with this sudden apology and gratitude coming from someone who’d just been mouthing off at her a moment ago.

"Tsk. This is so unpleasant."

In the end, all Kina managed was a click of her tongue, muttering under her breath.

Sure, her Master hadn’t been wrong, there was real truth in what he’d said. Seeing it play out with her own eyes had given Kina a whole new understanding.

For a moment, Kina felt genuinely awkward over what Ariel had said. She had no idea how to respond, but then, suddenly, she remembered the last part of what he’d said, and her lips twitched.

"...Wait, you said you’ll do anything?"

"Eh? Ah, yeah..?"

A wicked grin spread across Kina’s face.

And what happened next made Ariel deeply regret ever saying those words. He regretted it so much, and swore to himself he’d never let his emotions get the better of him like that again.

"So, we’re going this way... uh... um... esteemed Empress Kina."

Yes. That had been a truly horrifying experience.

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