Dagger

For clarification, there aren"t many pickpockets around these parts, though the marketplace indeed had the most record of them that it even beaten the number in the slums.

A kid particularly at thirteen years old was tailing a merchant who was pushing a cart, the latter was unaware that he was being followed at broad daylight.

"Looks like a newcomer, he should probably have some money on his pockets.", the kid judged in his mind.

He slowly shortened the distance between him and the merchant; the former inwardly said, "What big pocket holes... this is a bit weird, no, I must do it, it"s William"s birthday tomorrow."

The kid further shortened the distance between them, as the merchant was about to turn to a corner, the kid managed to pickpocket him in time.

He then immediately ran and hid at the nearest alley.

When the merchant already turned around the corner, it checked it"s pockets, to feel that it was devoid of money.

However, he only smiled under his cap that shadowed up the half of his face and took a pouch full of coins from the cart and poured in some of it to his pockets.

After which the merchant continued pushing his cart while humming a tune.

...

At the alley, Allen panted, it wasn"t the first time he stole something, as life was harsh, rather, he felt that he was being watched earlier.

"I"m alone now... huff... stop sweating!", Allen told himself. He then checked how much he got from the merchant and was surprised.

It was 10 bronze coins! It might sound small amount, but in fact for Allen, it was already a month worth of risky stealing!

Allen kept the coins in a small pouch and hid it under his shirt; he then climbed the wall of the alley towards the opposite alley and walked away.

He was going towards his family house at the outskirts, luckily, there was no wall around the town; he sneaked out of the town by going to a gra.s.sy yet muddy location and went towards their house at the foot of a hill.

As he doesn"t have any slippers nor even worn out boots to wear, he washed the mud off his feet on a river on the way.

When he saw a familiar house on the horizon, he finally relaxed, as there were no patrols in this area, but nonetheless it was still peaceful...

Rather, only outside the house.

Before he even got to open the door, Marco, his father, opened it first and looked at him.

"How much did you steal today?", Marco asked slowly, seemingly drunk while giving out his hand.

Allen gave the pouch of 10 bronze coins.

Marco inspected it"s contents and his face changed into anger, "Why is it only this few?"

"This is how much I could steal for a month, father.", Allen replied hastily as he backed off due to fear.

"So you"re saying you"ve been hiding this for month?", Marco shouted angrily.

"No I..."

"You"re sleeping on the outside tonight! If you dare go in, you will sleep with the gra.s.s for a week!", Marco closed the door with a loud bang.

Allen lowered his head and muttered, "This day can"t get any worse, can it?"

-rumble-

A large rumbling from the sky could be heard, afterwards rain fell down to the ground.

"A storm?", Allen immediately hid under the nearest tree in the vicinity.

The kid shivered as he tightly crouched himself behind the tree where the raindrops were coming from, however, the wind"s direction was unpredictable and kept changing.

...

The storm didn"t stop until it was afternoon, but the sky was still full of black clouds.

Allen then saw the door of the house opened and a kid who looks like much younger than him ran out and went to him.

"William?", Allen asked.

"Big brother, you look so miserable and you might get cold anytime.", William tossed a blanket to Allen. "Use this."

"Huh, it"ll just get wet too and will be useless to block the rain afterwards.", Allen said.

William rolled his eyes, "Come on brother, father said you"re not allowed to go in the house, but that doesn"t mean you"re not allowed in the shed."

"Uhh...", Allen inwardly slapped himself hundreds of times. How could he forgot?!

"Let"s go before it rains again.", William pulled Allen up while carrying the blanket towards the shed.

Afterwards, Allen told William to immediately go back to the house as it might start raining again. The latter wanted to accompany the former a bit longer but was persuaded to go back.

Allen looked at William"s back view and muttered, "After all, this is not the first time I will be sleeping outside."

-rumble-

Rain started to pour down again, Allen closed the door of the shed and looked around.

The roof has some small holes which droplets of water could go through, though the shed doesn"t have any flooring, and only the gra.s.sy ground itself, which was absorbing the rainwater.

Allen climbed up to a higher place where there were no holes on the part of the roof there and even has a tiny hole on the wall for taking a peek outside.

"When this rain stops, I should find a way to get more money today to give at least a little gift to William.", Allen closed his eyes and took a rest.

...

A few hours later, the heavy rain stopped and the sky cleared up a bit.

After which, Allen left the shed and sneaked back to the town. As soon as he entered the town from the same path he used, he saw a unit of guards turn around the corner towards the dirty exit and saw him.

"You... stop there!", one of the guards ran towards Allen.

"Oh no.", Allen immediately ran away to the opposite direction. It was a crime to not use the official road when entering the town, because only people with bad intentions would use other ways to enter.

"Split up!", the guard running towards Allen commanded to the other ones.

The four other guards ran towards other directions to block the exit of the kid.

The townspeople saw what was happening but didn"t interfere, because they know that the kid would be caught sooner or later.

As Allen was about to reach and turn to a corner the street two guards appeared on his front, almost catching him, before he even got to run to his right side, two guards were already running towards him from that direction.

Two guards at the front, two guards to the right, and a guard behind him.

Seeing there was no more choice, Allen ran to a alley to his left, even though he knew it"s a dead end.

"That kid will reach a dead end, hurry up!", the commanding guard said.

...

Allen immediately reached the dead end, after which, he started climbing as fast as he can on the wall towards the other side.

Of course, why would he go to dead end alley if he can"t escape by other means, right?

As soon as Allen reached the other side of the wall, the guards have reached the dead end too.

"Where"s that kid?", a guard asked.

"d.a.m.n it! Find him, he"ll bring us merit if we catch him, not using the official road is already a grave crime.", the commanding guard said.

After a pause, he added, "Luckily, I saw his face, I"m going to report this to the regiment, so at least we could get something else."

"Alright, we"ll keep running after him.", a guard said, afterwards they left the alley.

Meanwhile, Allen heard their conversation, he then inwardly cursed himself for his bad luck today.

"I hope I won"t get posted to the bounty office.", Allen thought as immediately ran out of the alley towards an another street.

As soon as he exited the alley, he saw a tavern right in front of him. The name of the establishment was "Three Heads Tavern".

Allen has no intentions but has the urge to enter the tavern, after which, he saw from the corner of his eye that the two of the five guards trying to catch him earlier were on the other side of the street, luckily, they didn"t see him yet.

Allen thought, "I"m really unlucky today." He followed his urge and entered the tavern.