A few days had passed since the group had done the mission for the prince. It was the middle of winter and Jacobs day, the day when everyone celebrated the creation of the kingdom and celebrated the founder of the kingdom Karl Jacob. After he founded the kingdom he was thought of as a god-like being and his lineage still rules to this day.

Many people were celebrating the day, but most couldn't afford to. Winter was the harshest time of the year and people didn't have the luxury to spend on any celebration. Food was rationed to last until the next harvest, but the nobles didn't ration. They went all out on their parties feasting and drinking until they could no more.

Rufus was walking on the streets of the city of Jacobstadt. People were trying to somehow keep themselves warm with small fires made on the streets. Meanwhile, the hill in the royal palace and the buildings close to it had their windows shining bright and sounds of music could be heard far away. The nobles were all having wild parties.

Rufus saw Leif walking with four children. Two of the children were hanging from his back while the other held on from her hands.

"Oi. Leif."

"Aaaaah, Boss."

"Are these your kids?"

"Yeah, This is Helen, Lisa, Arthur, and Michael. We are all going to help out in the shelter. We always scrape money here and there to provide for people of the slums there."

"Sounds nice."

"You wanna join us Mr." asked one of the kids from Rufus.

"No. no. The boss more important things to do Helen."

"No. Actually, I'd like to help," said Rufus the pushover who couldn't even refuse a kid.

~~

Rufus tagged along with Leif and his kids. They reached the shelter where many elderly and children took refuge during the harsh winter months.

"Oi. Husband. You are late," a woman yelled from the crowd.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

The woman was taking care of four other children. She had torn clothes and was helping out in the shelter.

"Sorry, sorry, aah. Let me introduce you boss. This is my wife Daria," Leif explained.

Rufus was flabbergast seeing how many children Leif had. All together Leif and his wife had eight children.

Rufus was also surprised to see Leif as such a heart-warming family man. He was the vice commander of the black rat gang, a notorious gang that was known in the city.

And Rufus was the boss.....

"Oi, you wanna help us. We have a lot of mouths to feed here and we could use some help," Daria asked help from Rufus.

"No. no. The boss surely...."

"Yeah I'll help gladly," said the biggest pushover in all of the kingdom.

~~

Rufus happily started to help in serving food for the people with Leif. He looked at Leif who seemed like the happiest person in the Aesis world helping those in need. The image of what kind of person Leif was shattered instantly inside Rufus's head.

"Uhmmm, Leif. Mind telling me how you ended up as a gangster?"

"Heh….I used to work for a factory. I ran the logistics of it. The pay was good and I was able to afford to support my family. It was not much, but it was an honest and a good living. Unfortunately, I couldn't let well enough be, and my greed had the better of me. I checked the books of the factory and saw that money was being stolen. the owner's son had been stealing money at an alarming rate. I went to confront the son about the skimming of money.

After I confronted him he reassured me nothing bad would happen. I first didn't believe his reassurances, but he then dropped a bag of money in front of me. I could not resist and so he then bought my silence. Money started to pour more into my life. Believing I had more money we had more children. We had always imagined us having a large family.

Eventually, that backfired on me. The owner's son had stolen so much money the factory's owner couldn't pay its debts. The factory went under in a few years while we all lost our jobs. Not just me, but all the workers. Because of me.

"Having eight mouths to feed is costly so I was ready to do any job. I was then scouted to work for the black rat gang because of my experience with numbers and logistics. I had to do it. First I was terrified, but I had to suck in my cowardice and morals for my family."

Rufus looked at all the unfortunate people at the shelter. Many of them had lived through similar experiences.

"My family was taken in by this shelter when I lost my job. They took care of me and didn't care what I had done. I promised that I would take care of them. After giving the necessary payments to my wife every month to take care of the kids the rest go towards this shelter. It's my penitence."

He saw also many other of his gang members inside the shelter helping other people.

"Many people join a gang of a similar situation as me. They had no choice then to turn on their fellow commoner. Their fellow outcast. But now it is different. You have shown us a new path. The way you fought for us against the sons of the red moon ignited an old flame in all of us we thought had dwindled ages ago. We are giving back just like you have."

Rufus spotted a beautiful girl helping with aiding the people of the shelter. She carried a large box that was too heavy for her to carry. Rufus went to help her carry it. The girl was Emilia the significant other of prince Markus, but of course, Rufus didn't know this.