On the east side of the capital, a girl sits on the top of a house bathing in the moonlight above her.
Her high collar long coat covers her mouth. Her black short hair blows with the night breeze while she looks down expressing no emotion on her face.
Seeing through Penance, my prey is close. He looks smarter than what someone would expect from a criminal, im watching him for some days now, he is a criminal but he is an ok guy I guess. He is more like stealing from the rich and giving to the poor criminal type, his subordinates respect him too. From what I could observe he is proficient with mana but thats it, his combat skills are slightly above the average though he is still somewhat rare among peasants.
He is walking in an alley, this alley is the way to his house so he does this same trajectory every day.
Today I have decided to talk to him. I jump falling behind the man.
Hearing the noise he drew his sword and turned to face me. He seems bigger from up closer. He is tall, lean, and muscular. Has slightly tanned skin, and black short hair.
"Zen, I only wish to speak" I say apathetically
Zen is his name, though he never told me. He seems skeptical, well I dont blame him, im a kid and I just jumped behind him from nowhere.
"How do you know my name? Who are you?" Zen says calmly trying to hide his emotions
I walk toward him empty-handed, stopping very close to the edge of his sword. He seems puzzled by my actions.
"You dont mess with kids or women Zen" I say apathetically
Even if he tried something I could overpower him easily anyway. He may be a criminal but he kinda has his own philosophy about this type of thing. I simply cant understand, if you are already doing something bad what does it matter if you do to men, women, or kids?
"What do you want?" Zen says with a passive-aggressive tone
"I just said it, talk for a few minutes thats all" I say apathetically
He put his sword back on his waist. I sit down on a few barrels in the alley, he is opposite to me standing with a sharp look on his face.
"I have been watching you for a while now, and I need you to do something for me. I will give you some items and you need to distribute them around to the peasants" I say apathetically
When I say the word peasant his expression slightly changes to anger for a second.
"Nobles always trying to use the common folk, I refuse oh great noble why dont you use your money to get what you want?" He says sarcastically
First of all, not every noble is insanely rich, some of them are poor.
"Im a peasant though" I say apathetically
His face got angrier.
"So nobles are even taking kids and using them now, I feel sorry for you, if you need a place to hide I can help" Zen says worried
What this guy is on about? Technically he is right, Claire used to go around taking kids she found cute enough.
I sigh heavily.
"I got a glimpse of something interesting on the north side, Yura boys are up to something but I guess you dont need to know anyway" I say casually
I learned a lot while working with Claire, information never comes for free much less favors. It is always a give-and-take where everyone tries to take more than give.
The north side of the poor part of the city is dominated by a guy who is almost a dictator, he is dumb, prideful, and arrogant. North and East are pretty much clashing with each other all the time, Yura is the opposite of Zen he is a cruel murderer, rapist, and even keeps a few slavers.
I ask myself sometimes why the law officers allow this kind of thing but there is a good reason. Criminal factions are a necessary evil because they push away every other criminal, these criminal factions focus only on loan sharking and drugs. Stealing and other little crimes are of no use to them and it actually hurts their business too.
A criminal faction is the core of society but to tell the truth, the law officers mostly dont care about peasants, after all, those who pay them are nobles. This does not court that much because we are in the capital but in minor cities for example Gevineia where I killed Krag, Claire could install her own criminal faction there making it easier to overtake the city behind the shadows.
Zen seems curious but hesitant, he stops to think for a few seconds before answering.
"I would never work with a noble dog, I still refuse" Zen says casually while leaving
Calling me a dog kinda pisses me off, maybe I should scare him a little
"Flazete looks beautiful cooking, today dinner is vegetable soup, oh and you have a daughter about my age, maybe I should try to be friends with Elize" I say casually
He flinches stopping on his track turning his head to me and staring at me with bloodshot eyes.
"Tell whatever noble that was you on a leach, im not scared of kids you piece of shit dog" Zen says inraged while leaving
I sigh heavily while staring at his back while he walks away in the dark alley.
More fearless than I thought, this might have backfired a bit. Whatever, let's see if he really is all that fearless.
.....
Zen walks the street thinking about what happened to him a few minutes ago. A kid just popped out of nowhere and threatened his family.
A lot of questions are going into his head. How did she know his wife and daughter's name? What is Yura planning? Who is she? And much more.
Soon he arrives at his house, and his wife and daughter come running to greet him. The air is filled with a soup smell which makes him remember what that girl said. Doubt appears in his thoughts.
"Dad come take a look at this" Says his daughter Elize cheerfully
He walks with her toward the dining table. When he arrives he sees something strange, a crow standing on a shelve without moving a muscle.
"What the? What a strange crow, for how long it is standing here?" Zen says shocked but still happy
He felt something strange about this crow like he had already seen it before somewhere.
"For a while now, I feel like I keep seeing crows everywhere usually" Zen's wife Flazete says casually
His daughter agrees. Zen finds it very strange and tries to put the crow outside but it didnt move even after Zen tries to scare it. When he tries to grab the crow it flies to another shelve so he just leaves it be, it is just a bird anyway.
He sits at the table to eat with his family, and they laugh and talk about their days. Zen is a little sad about having to hide his criminal life, for all his family knows he works at a distillery.
After bathing he prepares himself to sleep. Like every night, he does a night walk around the house making sure everything is safely looked but when he arrives at the dining table, he is shocked to see the same girl from before sitting there.
She is reading a book with an expressionless face and a crow on her shoulder. The crow turns its head to Zen and he wakes up from his thoughts getting his sword in his hands.
"You have a beautiful house for a peasant, no offense of course" She says apathetically without even taking her eyes off her book
Zen head is on high alert. How did she manage to enter here without him even noticing? Why is there a crow on your shoulder?
His sword is ready to strike but cold sweat is dripping from his forehead and he dont know why. His eyes see a little girl reading but for some reason, all the danger alerts on his body are telling him this is not it.
"You are smart Zen, grasp your situation and sit down" She says apathetically
Zen hesitates but there is nothing he can do, if he tries to fight her here his family will get involved, Zen dont want to kill a kid in front of his family even though now he is not sure of this girl's strength.
He sits down with his guard up, strangely the crow keeps following his movements while she reads.
Zen's expression is sharp trying to hide his fear.
"What do you want?" Asks Zen seriously
...
So finally decided to take me seriously, but is he going to make me repeat?
"I will provide you with a few items, all you need to do is make sure these items appear on the as you said, common folk, hands" I say apathetically
He seems hesitant, Does this guy really dislike nobles that much?
"For what? Exactly" Says Zen seriously
"Cant tell, but if your concerns are with the common folks then rest assured, and im not expecting you to do it for free either ask whatever you want" I say apathetically
Sincerely, the only thing stopping me from taking his daughter and wife as hostages is Claire who said something about happy people working better or something like that. Well, I kind of agree, if I do this he would betray me quickly after I return the hostages.
"So what if I refuse?" Says Zen seriously
Sigh... this guy is something else, he really sticks to his moral code.
"Plan B would be me going to tell the same thing to Yura, he is rude and stupid so I prefer if you accept it, but if I go to Yura what do you think he would ask for as a reward?" I say apathetically
His head, and everyone from Zen's gang. Basically, he would ask to dominate the east side. It would be messy, tiring, and possibly would leave a few traces behind too.
Zen sighs heavily.
"Then you expect me to follow your orders completely blinded, you are some dog of a random noble but im not" Says Zen aggressively
This guy is really trying his best to piss me off.
"Why do you even care? You sell drugs, kill, and take money from your so-called common folk, but you come back here to your family to eat your wonderful dinner with your wonderful wife and daughter right?" I say apathetically
He looks at me in anger.
"Nobles are scum, if our society worked equally for all no one would need to do all this to put food on their tables, but no they choose to take all the money and step on everyone underneath" Says Zen with a low voice but expressing anger
I close my book and look at him with an emotionless face.
"Thats your excuse? When you die you going to say that to yourself? Oh, but it was all the noble's fault, they forced my hand. Cut the crap, you are taking the easy way out, you are not honored nor a fucking peacemaker, you are just another piece in the system" I say apathetically but with a hint of anger
He stays speechless for a few moments. When he opens his mouth to say something I cut him.
"Kevinar, remember the name? Im sure you dont, a few days ago he killed himself because of all the debts he had with your people. Yet you stand there talking about equality and nobles stepping over others. It is almost laughable" I say apathetically letting out a laugh at the end
Zen clenching his fists in doubt, he tries to think of something to say back but it is impossible, deep down he knows im right thats just it.
"I sigh... I do it, just leave me be and stop whatever Yura is trying to do" Zen says with a frustrated tone looking down
Finally, I got a little angry in the end but it worked out. I still have a few things to say though.
I rise from my chair.
"Im sure you know but just to make sure, I have my eyes on you, on your family, and everyone you talk to, try anything and they all are dead. Every time you see a crow you know who is watching" I say apathetically while making my way out
Zen dont say anything. I go out of his house and jump into a house going from house to house until I arrive at Claire's mansion.
I still need to sleep and eat sigh... this is tiresome but this is a good experience for my growth intellectually speaking. Claire must be in a horrible mood too, I leave her side for a few hours and she goes crazy.
Tomorrow, I will pay Yura a little visit.