Aywa sat with Seima at her window, watching with her as Teerom tried to desperately swipe a silver watch Jiggan had stolen a few weeks ago.
"He's a determined kid, isn't he?" Aywa smiled as Jiggan threw Teerom into the ground face-down for the sixtieth time.
"Hm," Seima nodded with a sorrowful smile on her face, "Aywa?"
"Yeah?"
"Can you keep him safe for me? He's really stupid, so he'll get himself in trouble someday." Her expression grew worried, "As determined as he is… He isn't strong. And Aneros isn't a good idol for him."
To that statement, Aywa became slightly annoyed and very very lightly slapped his hand onto her back. "Not only does your brother have a strong mind, but there's something else within him. Something… weird." He began, squinting his eyes with thought.
"What do you mean?"
"I tried to ignore it, but I can feel an unusual power within him. You see, we elves can sense mana and its feelings kinda. That mana within Teerom is filled with hatred and vengeance, but there's no malice." Suddenly, Seima's expression grew anxious.
"He got it…" She said with wide, worried eyes.
"Got what?"
Seima hesitated. "O-our dad was a Dark Conjurer."
"Dark Conjurer!" In shock, Aywa shouted and fell out of his chair, "So, he's a Dark Conjurer!? WE have to tell Jiggan." Aywa tried to race out of the room, but the ill girl reached out with her frail arms and mustered all her strength to stop him. He looked back at her, his surprise fading when she began to tear up.
"Please don't…" She sobbed helplessly. "He doesn't know. He can't know. He already hates how he looks..."
Aywa stared at her in sympathetic silence. "Was your dad a piece of shit? "
Seima nodded.
"Maybe that's why Jiggan's so close to that kid." He mumbled, "Don't worry, Seima. I won't tell Teerom. But what about Jiggan?"
"He already knows. He's the one who told me."
Aywa's heart warmed at the sight of a little sister's affection for her brother.
Outside, Teerom stared at Jiggan with a huge smile on his face as he realized that there was no 'secret technique' to stealing.
"Jiggan!"
"What? I'm getting bored, you know." Jiggan teased.
"Aneros had only one way of winning his battles. Be stronger. Be faster. Be better!" He saw a smirk break onto Jiggan's face as he prepared for another attempt by Teerom. '87th time is the charm' Teerom charged forward.
He blocked out the sound of the wind rushing past his ears, Aywa coming out of the bungalow. All of his focus was on two things: the silver watch that hung from Jiggan's pocket, and Jiggan himself. His heart raced as he mustered forth much more Strength Magic than usual. He emitted a glow and sparks of red as he increased in speed and before Jiggan knew it, he had swiped the watch and stood behind him coolly with the watch on his index.
"Very nice-" Jiggan began but was interrupted by a sudden, tight, and for the first time, affectionate hug from Teerom. It was so surprising it froze him, but he gladly hugged Teerom back when he saw Baluchta and Aleed's malicious expressions that threatened his life as a consequence of not hugging the boy back.
"Let's do some real stealing now!" He exclaimed animatedly.
Jiggan and his friends watched Teerom casually make his way toward an unsuspecting man purchasing clothes at a well-known stand. Anyone that bought clothing from there was bound to have coin to spare.
The man himself was well-dressed, unlike most citizens of Gouon who have some sort of damage to their clothing. his shirt and pants were intact; it was very clear they were taken care of well.
However, harder to acquire yet more valuable than a few silver coins was a shiny bronze ring with a few silver stripes running down its sides on the man's middle finger.
Jiggan watched with fatherly pride as Teerom chose this man as his target. The others were more anxious, watching intensely as he casually walked forward, acting like he was just passing behind the man.
Teerom took a quick and deep breath before tripping into the man. He expected the man to fall as well, but he was far too light to even move him an inch. His target was silent, watching awkwardly as Teerom patted him and then himself.
"Sorry," Teerom grinned and walked off.
"Weird kid," The man continued asking about the quality of the jacket he'd picked out. He reached into his pocket and took his wallet – a sack with three accessible interiors that contain either bronze, silver, or gold coins (the wealthier of the population contained diamond coins instead of bronze coins - out to pay for the jacket.
As he pushed the flaps separating the interiors to find his gold coins, he noticed something amiss about his left middle finger. At first, he couldn't place his finger on it (pun intended) but then quickly realized that his ring worth 80 silver had vanished.
Quickly, he checked his other hand and then the ground before recalling that Teerom had just fallen onto him recently.
"Which way did that kid go again?" He asked the stall owner, who pointed to the right, "Hold on to that for me." He demanded, gently pushing the jacket he was about to purchase into the stall owner's chest before running with ferocity toward the right.
As he grew further distant and began asking the passerbys about the boy – unable to describe him since he'd paid no attention to him – Teerom made his way down the building that Jiggan and his friends sat under.
"How'd I do?" He jumped down and landed in front of them, spinning the ring on his index that was too thin for its large circumference.
"Very well." Jiggan ruffled his hair, "Now let us show you some of the more advanced stuff."
"We doin' this? Right now?" Aleed asked, groaning.
"We gotta show the kid the real stuff. Come on." Baluchta pulled him to his feet with Aywa's help.
"Okay…" Aleed sighed and patted Teerom on the shoulder.
"Where are you going?" Teerom asked as he followed them down the street, the opposite direction the man he stole from ran.
"You'll see," Jiggan smirked.
They stopped walking nearly half an hour later on a T-shaped street. Aywa grabbed Teerom, who was panting from exhaustion, by the shoulder and with a perverted smile on his face pointed to a building down the street in front of them.
"You know what that is, Teerom?" He asked as Teerom tried to identify the building. It was a shop; he could gather that much. However, it had a strange outline on top of a sign that read "Braltar's Brothel". The outline was a vagina drawn with plastic.
"Braltar's Brothel?" Teerom queried.
"Yes. What do ya say about popping down there and paying a few gold coins to have some fun with a girl?" He grinned.
"Fun?"
"Don't rub your filthy misogyny on the kid." Baluchta chided.
"Hey, I'm not a misogynist!" Aywa replied.
"If you're not a misogynist, then I'm a ferret that shits out perfectly intact acorns. You think that a woman's body is worth two gold coins?" She sneered.
"Hey, Braltar is a beautiful and powerful woman. She makes sure that her girls are always treated well and compensated for accidents."
"Heh?" Teerom tilted his head from confusion.
"You are a bit of a misogynist, Aywa." Aleed took Baluchta's side.
"I am not!" Aywa argued.
"Oi. Will, you three shut up?" Jiggan turned to them, irritated, "And Aywa. You are a misogynist."
"Whaat!?" He gave up on his losing battle and retreated into an angry crossed-arms pose.
"What we are looking for, Teerom, is over there." Jiggan pointed to a street with single houses. The wealthier – though not by much – part of Rukae began here. "We're gonna rob some houses." He grinned maliciously.
The houses, despite being more like two storey, oversized run-down shacks made of vibrant loose wood, impressed Teerom. He became even more impressed once he looked into one of their windows.
He saw a living room with a clean circular red rug covering most of the floor. On top of it were two cream-colored sofas; they looked soft and comfortable he thought. They faced a big black screen which piqued Teerom's curiosity and drew his attention away from all the shelves full of valuables like books and luxury items like figurine-sized marble statues and paintings on the walls.
"What's that?" Teerom asked, pointing to the black screen.
"That's a TV. Wanna steal it?" Aleed answered and asked.
"A TV?"
"Television. It's kinda hard to explain. Imagine you can record what you see. That's TV."
"Huh?" Teerom didn't get it at all, so Aleed just decided to choose that house as the target.
"Jiggan. This one's got a TV. Teerom wants to know what it is." He called out to Jiggan, who was walking past. Teerom nodded approvedly as he did so.
"Sure. Anyone home?" Jiggan turned and came back to them with Baluchta and Aywa. Aleed used his Sound Magic to enhance his hearing, and once he couldn't hear any breathing nearby apart from their's, he shook his head.
"Nope," He said.
"Let's do it then." Jiggan moved out of the way, and Baluchta stepped forward at the house's door with a focused and neutral expression on her face.
"It's been a while since I've done this." She said, confusing the others.
"How've you been surviving, then? You been working at a brothel? Hahaha!" Aywa laughed but received a swift rock straight into the side of his head from Baluchta before she began to pick at the door lock with a thin metal stick she kept in a pocket hidden in the interior of her thick gloves.
In fact, the only times that anyone would get to see her slender smooth hands that she even applied black nail polish to was when she picked locks. Even when she ate food she'd grasp the utensils with clear discomfort due to those thick gloves.
"I work for Shuggadu." Her words surprised them – apart from Jiggan whose face and stature remained handsome and cool, and Teerom who had no idea who Shuggadu was.
"You're a hitman. I didn't think you'd stoop that low, Baluchta." Jiggan said disappointedly.
"Have some sympathy for me," She replied, showing guilt, but continuing with her lock picking, "I only take escort and vengeance contracts."
"Vengeance?" Aleed inquired.
"Most of the time, they're fake. Just petty bastards trying to get an innocent person killed. I investigate first, of course, to make sure that doesn't happen. But now and then, they're not fake. This girl contracted me to kill her rapist. Fifteen gold coins she said. It was obvious she was lying, but I took the contract anyway. I could always get my money from someone else." She said coldly, sending shivers down Aywa's back.
"I'm sorry, Baluchta!" He bowed.
"For what?"
"I will never go to a brothel ever again!"
After a moment of silence, Baluchta giggled, breaking her permanent neutral expression. "Come on, you goober, the door's unlocked." She opened the door, which, because of the slowness with which she opened it, creaked extremely loudly.
Teerom followed them inside, closed the door behind him, and watched as they ransacked the place. Aywa took out a small brown ball that seemed to be made of leather.
It was a runestone, and he said, "Open." To activate it. The ball expanded and became a giant bag in which they intended to put the stolen goods. It floated in the air for a few seconds before falling to the center of the rug with an underwhelming impact.
From one of the sofas, Teerom watched them gather around the bag and play Rock Paper Scissors to decide who would have to carry it on the way back.
"Aww, why is it always me?" Aleed asked out loud after he lost.
"Cause you're too easy to read. And Jiggan's unbeatable." Baluchta said, having returned to her usual neutral face.
While the others gathered valuable items like paintings, Aleed looked for the TV remote while Teerom waited patiently on the sofa. "Aha!" He exclaimed when he found it (it looks a lot like our remotes, but it's much simpler and more stylized).
"Alright," He handed it to Teerom, "Point it at the screen and press the ON button." He instructed.
Teerom nodded and pressed down on a big black button with the word ON written boldly in white at the top of the remote. It was adjacent to the OFF button.
The screen suddenly came to life, turning a relatively bright white. A menu popped up, listing multiple channels under different categories.
"You wanna watch a comedy? A romance?" Aleed asked, but Teerom was too flabbergasted by the awesomeness of a TV to listen.
"You can steal that TV, and I'll lend ya some of my DVDs later," Aywa said as he passed by, smiling.
"Teerom's 12, misogynist," Jiggan called out from another room.
"Is he offering to give his pornos to the kid?" Baluchta asked, disappointed, from upstairs.
"Yep," Jiggan answered.
"They're very well made!" Aywa defended himself, "The plots are masterfully crafted!"
"Yeah, *plots*." Aleed mocked before putting on a documentary about the Moon Church.
Teerom gawked at the high-quality videos on the screen, not the portrayal of how great the Moon Church was.
"Pretty neat, isn't it?" Aleed sat back, enjoying Teerom's childish awe.
"Can we take it, Jiggan?" Teerom asked.
"Sure. I bet Seima woud love it." Jiggan came into the room with a bunch of silver jewellery and a sword that was large but diminished in grandeur when compared to him.
"Come on then. Let's not waste any time." Aleed stood and approached the TV to throw it in with everything else. However, as he did so, and as Jiggan packed into the bag the sword and jewellery, the door opened.