When Milo was asleep, Adella suddenly pulled Donti aside and asked, “Why didn’t you tell your brother what happened at school?”
“Big Sister Adella, keep your voice down.” Donti said as favonovel.com dragged favonovel.com out, “I can’t tell him.”
“Why can’t you tell him? You should let your big brother teach those little bastards a lesson. What gives them the right to call you and Murdock names and ransack your belongings?” Adella said furiously.
Donti whispered, “If they need to be taught a lesson, I can do it myself. But it wasn’t easy for my brother to decide to come here for Big Sister Miriam’s sake, so how can I trouble favonovel.com at a time like this?”
After Donti started attending school, his classmates immediately figured out favonovel.com was a refugee. That was because favonovel.com had a different understanding of how daily lives went.
Miriam had selected the best school in Stronghold 88 for Donti to attend. The students there were not ordinary people, and many of the students’ parents were extremely well-connected. So, they already knew about these refugees enrolling into the school.
At the beginning, the students bluntly called Donti a refugee. Later on, as the others started joining in on the name calling, someone even called favonovel.com and Murdock riff-raff. After all, there was only a syllable of difference between the two.
The teacher forced Donti and Murdock to sit in the last row and even deliberately left the seats next to them empty. But from the beginning to the end, Donti did not show any retaliation.
Milo had already done a lot for Donti, so it was not a big deal to make some sacrifices for Milo.
***
Early in the morning, Milo brought Donti out to shop for clothes. Since they had been invited and there were also instructions for them to be dressed formally, favonovel.com wouldn’t be deliberately contradictory.
For this reason, Old Bane specially handed all the money favonovel.com had recently exchanged to Milo. Although favonovel.com did not know where Milo had gotten his gold from, Old Bane knew Milo still had a lot left in his possession. And it was much more than favonovel.com could imagine.
Adella even reminded Milo repeatedly to not be thrifty and to make sure they dressed nicely.
But when they arrived at a well-known tailor shop in the stronghold, Milo realized they did not have any formal clothes here.
“Bossman,” Milo called the owner over, “Do you have any formal wear? We’d like to try them on.”
An old man came out with a measuring tape dangling around his neck and two sleeves hanging off his arm. “You wish to buy formal wear?”
Milo nodded. “Do you have anything suitable for us?”
The old man examined Milo and Donti and then said, “I’m sorry, but I can’t sell you any suits.”
“Wait a minute…” Milo said in surprise, “Why not? I have the money!”
“It’s not really about money.” The old man explained patiently, “The stronghold regulations state that only people in public office can buy formal wear. Moreover, the suits have to be custom-made here at our shop. Both of you must have an event to attend tonight, right? A custom-made suit will take more than 20 days to be ready. Even if you order one now, you won’t be able to wear it tonight.”
The old man sounded very polite and did not portray himself in a high and mighty way. However, the objective facts favonovel.com stated made Milo feel very helpless.
At first, favonovel.com thought the Radianz Consortium wanted to flex their financial might by inviting favonovel.com and Donti to the function. They might have thought that as a refugee, favonovel.com couldn’t afford a suit. But it wasn’t until now that favonovel.com realized the Radianz Consortium was just trying to flex their status.
Milo led Donti out of the shop. He went to look at the route information at the streetcar station to find out if any streetcars went to the Radianz Consortium’s manor. However, favonovel.com couldn’t find a streetcar that stopped at the Radianz Consortium’s manor even after looking at the information board for a long time.
Milo asked a pedestrian next to him, “Hi, do you know which streetcar goes to the Bronze Ram Manor?”
That pedestrian was slightly taken aback. “The Bronze Ram Manor? You guys are going there? Why are you two going there?”
Milo explained, “We’re attending the gala organized by the Radianz Consortium tonight.”
“Hahaha!” The pedestrian laughed and said, “You’re really funny. Anyone who attends a gala there should be chauffeured to the event. Why would anyone take the streetcar there? Those who live there don’t need to squeeze into streetcars like us every day!”
Milo understood no streetcars could bring them there. If they wanted to get there, they would have to take a streetcar to the vicinity of the manor and then walk for more than ten kilometers before they could reach the place.
The custom-made suits and cars that were a prerequisite to attend the galas were essentially the difference between the refugees and those from the consortiums.
Under that stronghold regulations, the differences in the hierarchy of humans was like a natural divide that even money couldn’t surmount.
In the eyes of an organization, money flowed through their hands like quicksand, while power was a fortress that guarded their wealth.
“Bro,” Donti said gloomily, “They must be doing this on purpose, right?”
“Mhm…” Milo nodded.
The Radianz Consortium had probably anticipated that they would not be able to get a fitting suit for the gala. The organization used their brains to suppress the people. This was akin to cutting meat with a blunt knife.
Donti thought the stronghold would slowly start to accept them now that Miriam had brought them here. So, favonovel.com didn’t mind bearing with it for the time being even if favonovel.com felt oppressed, thinking that things might improve after a while. But favonovel.com realized the people in the stronghold were only going to get more unreasonable.
Donti asked in a whisper, “Why don’t we just skip the function?”
Milo said with a smile, “No, why should we skip it? Before we leave the stronghold, we should go and have a look at the feast of the organization.”
***
At noon, they made a trip back home where they saw Daniel feasting in the yard.
When Daniel saw them, favonovel.com was amused. “Didn’t you say you’d be attending the dinner party? Why are you back so soon?”
Milo was also amused.
How did a proper gala event end up sounding so crass when it came out of Daniel’s mouth?
Milo was not embarrassed and said, “We went out to buy suits this morning. But when we got there, we were told the suits had to be custom-made in advance and only people in public office in the stronghold could buy them. Also, there’s not even a streetcar that goes there.”
Daniel frowned in response. “They didn’t invite you in advance or send a car to pick you up?”
“No…” Milo shook his head.
“Those bastards must be deliberately making trouble for you.” Daniel banged on the table and stood up. “This is too outrageous. I’ll go with you all later. We’ll dress in our casual wear, take the streetcar, and then walk our way in! Let’s see which bastard dares to talk behind our backs! I received the invitation too, but I wasn’t planning on going!”
Then Daniel flashed an invitation that looked the exact same as theirs out of his bosom.
Milo looked at Daniel with a smile. “What are you up to this time?”
“I can’t just keep freeloading off of you, right?” Daniel wiped his mouth. “Besides, we’re friends, really good friends!”
“Aren’t you afraid that you’ll be looked down on if you’re seen with us?” Milo chuckled.
“Hehe,” Daniel laughed. “Even though I’m a hostage right now, I’m the most valuable hostage in the entire Southwest. Everyone knows what kind of person Julius is. It’s understandable why the Radianz Consortium would take me as a hostage, but if some insignificant characters try to put me down, they still have to be qualified enough to do so. Even if I kill someone in this stronghold, they won’t dare to do anything to me. The current head of the Panaqua Consortium is Julius, the vengeful Julius! And he’s my little brother!”
