This time it was Seth and Leo’s turn to see if they could outperform me and Georgios. Their plan was very much the same as mine from just a few days prior. Just go into the crowd as well as possible and snatch things. Their method however had one key difference. Because I did it alone, I did a beeline straight through the crowd, with some minimum changes in trajectory, but nothing ever gave me away to possible onlookers because I minimized any deviations between my starting point and my end point. From another person’s perspective, I was mostly just going in a straight line, not accounting for the moments of the crowd of course.

  The trick is in aiming for the best trajectory before you even start moving.

  Regardless, none of this matters because the relative lack of people today compared to just a few days ago would have made that same strategy difficult to implement. The two kids had a particularly different approach. They actually circle around the perimeter from the edges, sometimes walking into the crowd just enough to take something, then they store it somewhere temporarily so as to not have anything on them as much as possible. They keep moving and each covers half of the perimeter, then they swap places and keep on repeating this pattern. They are careful to make good use of the blind spots created by the buildings, the people and the rest of the obstacles that they might spot.

  Overall, it is a good method, but it just takes too long in my opinion. Even if they store the goods somewhere else so as to not be easily caught, taking longer means that there is an increasing potential of the guards eventually catching on to what you are doing, especially the people in the area have time to notice that their things are missing and they have an incentive to notify the guards. Furthermore, it isn’t like temporarily storing your loot somewhere less definitive won’t lead to more opportunities for somewhere spotting the hiding location and stealing your bounty from right under your nose.

  I sigh.

  These kids still have a lot to learn and if their luck ends up being rotten, then the consequences will be severe.

  Anyway, not my problem.

  Still, I have to admit, their coordination is admirable.

  I wish that I could have something like that myself.

  Currently I am able to observe them going all over the plaza because I am actually sitting on top of a roof of a house that overlooks it.

  As for how I managed to get here, the answer is “crates”. It isn’t hard to take advantage of a couple of these by lining them next to a wall and using your climbing skills to make up the difference until you are finally able grab unto a balcony and then some tiles and pull yourself up to the roof.

  From where I am sitting, it is actually very difficult for any guards in the plaza to get the right angle to even see me, assuming that their eyes are good, while I have a perfect view of the area.

  I guess that that means that because I can see the two kids clearly despite the distance, that I must have some good eyes myself.

  Out of the corner of my eye, something catches my interest.

  I see yet another clump of red on top of a person’s body, near the farthest edge that I am still able to see from my vantage point.

  While I can’t accurately make out their face at this distance, I can tell by the people that surround them that that is Aporia.

  Normally I couldn’t see myself sparing two seconds to look at them, the eternal disappointment that they are, same as everyone else. Yet, this time, I was surprisingly looking at them with some measure of curiosity. It was a nagging sensation like having something off of the corner of your eye moving or an inconvenient brightness shining upon your eyes just at the edge of your sight.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  They felt different from just a few days ago somehow. It was hard to describe it. Were they more vibrant in their pursuit of living life? Perhaps they had acquired some goal that was unique to them and unlike those of the masses?

  Strangely enough, they started to slow their pace significantly, their body language becoming more tense, yet somehow I could tell that whatever had drawn them to my attention had suddenly intensified.

  “This is pointless”, I thought to myself.

  I looked away from them. It wasn’t even my intention to let my gaze linger in the first place. Something about them was just annoying my eyes a bit, that is all.

  I kept surveying the two kids. As before, Georgios was the one that was keeping an eye on them on the ground and choosing the best route to get to the safehouse without alerting any guards. If necessary, they would go to one of the other safehouses for us to meet up and go off in odd pairs.

  If that happened, I might lose track of them and have to circle around to visiting our various safehouses until I find the right one where they are waiting at, but it shouldn’t be a problem.

  Suddenly, I heard some commotion beneath me.

  Going by the tone of their voices, I thought at first that it was some guard at first getting angry at me for having snuck atop the roof, however, I soon realized that it was just people arguing and that the noise was coming from the balcony that I had used to acquire easy access to my current location.

  “…happen this time of the year…”

  “…border town…”

  I could make out two different voices, a man’s and a woman’s.

  I threw one additional glance at the two kids in the distance and figured that it would still take a bit until they were done.

  I had some time to kill.

  I crawled until I was close enough to the entrance of the balcony that I could clearly listen in on the conversation, as I put my ear against the ceiling.

  “Dear, I am getting apprehensive. My cousin told me that her husband is starting to worry about that too.”

  “So are you saying that you want to leave?”

  “Yes. Far away from here. To the capital even. Just for a few months.”

  “How would I keep everything up and running with me being so far away from my dealings? You are asking me to do something that is massive, unexpected and that I have no experience with doing.”

  “Can you just not leave it to your associates in town?”

  “Hardly. I can’t be away from those half-concealed snakes for long or too far. My money is going to vanish through the cracks if I do that.”

  “But staying in a town like ours could end up becoming dangerous. The conditions are always the same. And you have heard those awful rumors too.”

  “About the strange creatures that the armies of Sodom have been rumored to bring with them? I think that those are just tales of soldier too bored and too drunk to be coherent.”

  “I don’t want the kids to be caught in this, if anything comes to pass. Please, let me make preparations to leave. I will stay with my brother for just a few months.”

  “I see…well, I can indeed make due without you all around, as lonely as the evenings will be. Very well, make your preparations. I will make some myself just in case. I will have a boat ready to leave and docked in the nearby waterway, so that I can easily travel to the capital to meet you.”

  I listened to their discussion for a few more minutes.

  To be honest, I can see why the woman would be concerned.

  We are close to the border, meaning that the security here is scarcer than deeper into the mainland. Attacks on towns like this are not improbable, albeit still uncommon.

  Then there are the rumors.

  “The soldiers bearing black and red bring with them beasts most foul, neither animal, nor natural”.

  That is something that I have heard a few times in these last few years. Apparently it didn’t use to be like this. Only recently have the attacks grown bolder, with the arrival of these entities into the fray, the adults say.

  I lay down on my back staring at the clouds.

  Will I be forced to join the ranks of the military? I am close to the age where they will see me as a prospect.

  Will I be asked to go to the frontlines and die in the mud? Or will I be asked to stay with the navy and sail the waterways and lakes of Limani?

  Neither. I wish to be in neither. They don’t take in people with a criminal past, which is yet another incentive for my lifestyle.

  Let the country be overrun for all I care. Let the beasts consume the citizens for their pleasure. It means naught to me.

  If nothing here is of any quality worth salvaging, let the ones that are less worthless take it over.

  Out of habit, I end up clasping my hands together.

  Please God, let no worthwhile things in this world be lost. What would I do with myself if only the valueless ones populated the land?

  I stood like this, staring at the ivory sky for a little.

  I should probably go somewhere else.

  I have been in this town for a few years now, but I am starting to get the urge to go somewhere else. Maybe the capital as the woman in the house mentioned.

  I have heard that Megaskrene is something that to us in the outskirts would feel like something out of a dream. The streets are crisscrossed endlessly by waterways, the buildings are made of pure white stone and that the royal palace’s construction has baffled every foreign architect that has visited it.

  It does sound like something that would be built and populated by remarkable and talented people. I doubt that I would get bored there.

  The military and the police would be problems though. I would either get enlisted or get dragged into a jail cell within a few months at most. Dropping the pickpocket life would probably be in my best interest if I went there.

  “Should I try to bring anyone over?”, I think out loud.

  Making the trip and living there all alone is probably a good recipe to get myself screwed in some way or another.

  Georgios is a relatively big guy. He could help out in case things get rough. Same for Seth, given his bloodline.

  And Leo …

  Well, Leo would probably find some easier way to make his dream come true. The closer one is to the center of culture and entertainment, the more chances to become a successful artist one has. According to common knowledge at least.

  I snap back to reality and raise my chest up and look down at the square.

  Wait, where are the two kids again?