Night fell and I returned to my bridge, crawling beneath its safety and curling into a ball on the cool grass, sighing contentedly as I fell asleep, my belly a bit full after having worked at the church again, whilst the metal shard was cool against my leg, strapped there with some bits of rope I found.
It wasn't the greatest start to a new live ever, but I had something that could serve as a weapon, a source of food for now, and a peaceful city with law enforcement that wasn't completely terrible... so far, anyways.
If I remained off the deep paths of the city's underbelly, I would be fine for right now; until I got a true weapon and some good food from a stable source, I wasn't going to risk much...
Besides, that thought of needing to rush for everything and climb from being a street rat to something decent would be tedious, and I really~ wanted to just relax, but I knew it'd be good to have a healthy mix between the two.
I could relax a bit AND work towards having a better lease on life at the same time, and to start I needed to get this body healthy and stronger.
For that, I needed to keep up this current pace before finding some work as an apprentice or something, where I could earn a wage of either coin of food, maybe even both.
Once that was secured, I could begin tempering this adequate body into something worthy of relaxing in!
After all, why do nothing and feel terrible when I could eventually reach a level where I do nothing and it feels great!
I still need to be healthy, after all; there is a large portion of mental strength required to be efficiently lazy.
When morning came around, I crawled out from the bridge and stretched, before taking advantage of the water and cleaning myself off and getting something to drink, leaving me only hungry, yet refreshed.
Making sure I had everything, I began my journey towards the church once more, though on my way there I noticed that the kid from the other side of the bridge was following me from a distance, making me sigh.
Knocking on the door to the church, I smiled at the elderly nun and went inside, helping her and the others with whatever they needed before getting my payment of bread, which I savored for a few bites before devouring the rest, making them chuckle as they sent me on my way.
Outside, the kid was hiding around the corner, watching me from afar but not moving forwards, making me a tad confused about their plan but not something that made me worry, so I returned to scoping out this portion of the city and committing it to memory, creating a map in my mind that I would eventually need for when I was moving around.
That included most of the alleyways that connected main roads and side roads, helping me find the stores and houses of people I could potentially ask for help or of people that I should avoid entirely no matter what.
Some of those people were older men and women who asked if I wanted to 'help' them with something, some of those people were extremely rude and arrogant after seeing my appearance, and some of the people just ignored me entirely; they were those that I wanted to avoid without any plans on giving them a second chance.
As for the people that could be of use and were kind, they were far and few between, but I made sure to note where they were and what I might be able to get from them through work or bartering.
There was a blacksmith who was kind to everyone, a fletcher who was constantly giving out scraps to the other street rats, a tailor who 'forgot' to close her gate and provided shelter for those less fortunate, and a retired adventurer who sat on his porch with an axe leaning beside him, which he would lift whenever someone who looked like they were up to no good approached the tailor.
They were few, but I did find some people who - at the very least - restored some faith in humans for me, though the sheer amount of thugs or indifferent people wasn't evening that out, but instead outweighing them.
But, either way, I had a good idea on who I could go to for things or to seek help from, so I was happy with this excursion and turned back towards the church when the sun began to set, my journey having taken longer thanks to my shorter legs and weaker body.
As I maneuvered the various alleyways and made my way back, I was followed closely by the kid from the bridge, who was always just a dozen or so feet behind me as they 'quietly' and 'stealthily' followed me.
I wasn't in the mood to get rid of them, but I wasn't going to cater to them, so I just continued on anyways.
However, before we could reach the church and relative safety, a wiry thug stumbled out in front of me, a liquor bottle held loosely in his hands.
"Hey brats... Yer both the reason Billy and Bobby got arrested, aren'tcha?"
Glancing over my shoulder, I saw another thug coming down the alleyway, forcing the other kid to scurry closer to me as we found ourselves stuck between the two thugs.
Looking back at the wiry one, I didn't bother listening to his drivel as I took in our surroundings, making sure there was no one nearby to interfere.
The thug behind was holding a metal pipe loosely, whilst the wiry one held the bottle like a club, though I could see a dagger strapped to his waist.
Taking a deep breath, I dashed forwards and barreled into the thug's legs, knocking him over and onto the ground.
Before he could react, I slammed my sandaled foot against his temple and knocked him out, before I scooped up the bottle that thankfully hadn't cracked and turned around, throwing it hard towards the other thug.
The kid shrieked as they saw the bottle shatter against the thugs head, scoring a few cuts and making him stumbled back, cursing in pain.
Kicking the wiry thug again, I swiftly grabbed the dagger and hid it in my clothes, before shouting "HELP! THESE THUGS ARE TRYING TO KIDNAP ME!"
My voice wasn't the strongest, but it did it's job as a few pedestrians filtered in to see one thug unconscious and another holding his head, which was bleeding.
The other kid shivered beside me, looking around at the new people with cautionary fear in their eyes, before relief filled them as a guard pushed through, glancing at us.
"These two? Again?"
Seeing the same guard as yesterday, we stared at one another before he just sighed, walking over to the bleeding thug and binding his wrists with mana.
He approached us next, and as he bound the unconscious man below us, he muttered "Something fishy about you, kid... Two days, four thugs arrested? That's too odd."
I just smiled wryly at the guard, scratching my cheek as I remained quiet.
"Whatever... Clear way! C'mon, wake up!"
Turning, I made my way back towards the church, with the other kid following closely behind me this time, not taking any chances with the people we came across.
~~~
Oooooh...
That was efficient~!
Though, what could you expect from the former Rank 1~?
~~~