Waking up from my thoughts, I realized I was in a section of the city I never explored before. The streets were narrow and dirty. The sll was bad, a mix of unwashed skin and fur with so whiffs of rotten food. So species were sitting on the ground, wearing old and decayed pieces of clothing, watching
with empty eyes that had lost all hope. So of the oldest people were also coughing heavily as if on their last breath.
I was in the city's slums, a dark and dangerous area if any. The contrast with the rest of the city was so marked that it felt like a different world. Yet, it wasn't that surprising. There wasn't a single place in the world that didn't have destitute people. Geola, the never-sleeping city, full of rich rchants and foreigners, was no exception to the rule.
It wasn't my first ti in such a place since visiting a slum was part of my curriculum, for so reason. It felt like our instructors were telling us that this was where we could end up if we didn't do good enough. The true objective, though, was sothing I learned much later. According to the Trader Union's saying, everything could be used. They had proven it once more with how they handled slums and slum dwellers.
As I turned another corner, I bumped into a small form, which soon revealed itself to be a child, two heads smaller than .
"Sorry!"
After excusing himself, he swiftly ran past , running away at high speed. I wasn't stupid and I knew what this child had tried to do. Unfortunately for him, not only was I easily able to feel his hand searching my body for a split second since I was at rank 4, but all my possessions were also kept in my storage. I had nothing on
except my clothes, which ant I was the worst possible target for a pickpocket like him.
I could have caught the kid but that would have been a mistake. Once again, I had to think about the long term. Plus, he only searched a small part of my body in his hurry and I was sure another pickpocket would try to pick up from where he left.
I continued to walk around, observing everything curiously while ignoring the terrible sll and dark looks of the people living there. I wondered if so of them would consider
a good prey to shake off since I had decent clothes and looked like a rank 0. I could certainly feel like so of the younger groups of species were having thoughts about . Yet, they remained more prudent than I expected, maybe because they had been burned in the past with similar acts.
Still, no more than ten minutes later, I was proven right with my first assumption. Another kid bumped into
when I turned a corner, a young girl this ti. Her swift hands searched a different part of my clothes and I could see a slight frown appear on her face as she still didn't find anything she could steal.
"Sorry!"
Right as she tried to escape, I caught the back of her dirty tunic, stopping her right on her track.
"One second, kid."
Her reaction was quite violent. She instantly trashed around while trying to escape my hold. I now had a better view of her. She had black fur and two small triangular ears on each side of her head. Her small body looked gaunt and malnourished, with patches of fur losing their shine here and there. She was barefooted, the rest of her clothes consisting of a dilapidated large tunic that she wore as a dress. Her long and thin tail was standing straight in furor as she glared at
with pure anger.
"Let go, old fart!"
I felt my eyebrows twitch at the appellation but tried to keep my cool.
"You should stop trying to pickpocket people. Sothing bad will happen to you one day."
"Shut up! Let go of ! Who are you to say that? You're just a lowly rank 0!"
This ti, the corners of my mouth faltered a little.
"Ha… Haha. You're quite the lively one. Aren't you a rank 0 yourself?"
"I'm a lot younger than you! It's pathetic to still be rank 0 at your age! Let go already!"
She was getting more and more agitated physically, while I was getting agitated ntally. What a cheeky kid. Still, I had plans for the future. I took one of the fruits I just bought out of my storage and showed it to her.
"You tried to steal from
because you were hungry, right? Here, eat this."
She suddenly stopped thrashing around, looking at
with both surprise and distrust.
"Are you crazy, old fart? Do you think I'm stupid enough to eat sothing given by a suspicious guy like you?"
"Yeah? Look."
I bit into the fruit, which was the size of my palm and round with a red skin. The juices invaded my mouth and I tasted a fruit for the first ti in a long while. It was called "apple
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