Chương 13: Childhood Flashback (Part 1)
— Oukiwa City, Ten Years Ago. —
Five children were climbing the immense wall of a dead-end street.
"Can you climb Sarah?" A child with short brown hair asked almost from the top of this wall. This was Matthew, The Fearless One.
"Y-yes, I guess so." The thin little girl with pink hair shouted. She was still on the ground, and internally, she was afraid to try to climb. This was Sarah, The Nice One.
Luke, The Dark One, was also almost at the top of this wall. Meredith, The Shrewd, was also very close. However, Shiro was worried about whether Sarah would be able to climb alone, so he was waiting for her to start.
With Shiro's help, The Nice One could scale the wall that was supposed to be just over four meters high.
"Do you think this is really gonna work out well?" Shiro, who was big and robust, asked Matthew, the gang leader at that time.
"Yes, I followed him. We're not that far away."
The quintet was now on top of a building, near the Central Palace, a place where the great families gathered and formed a council to set laws, punish criminals, and approve projects.
However, it's obvious that the Central Palace was not the target of a bunch of kids.
Last week, Matthew had followed an old trinket merchant, who had a warehouse full of things, which could be junk or precious items.
For the kids, who were not yet brave enough or strong enough to do big heists like robbing a wagon, this was an excellent opportunity, because the depot was enormous, and they were small, which gave them an advantage.
For them, it was a bit difficult to walk on the roofs, whose aluminum tiles were hot from the burning summer sun, and also because their old shoes slipped quickly on the metal.
"Sarah, I know you wanted to come, just don't delay us," Matthew said as he balanced on a steel rail. If he wasn't a skinny child, the rail would break the way down in the first step.
The pink-haired girl looked at Fearless with anger, because she knew that he was only acting this way. After all, she was against this plan. Sarah believed that robbing merchant depots were a mistake because they could pay dozens of strong mercenaries.
Matthew, who was going ahead, jumped under a small alley. "Here! Quick..."
After the jump, he hid behind a wind exhaust fan. Luke and Meredith jumped as well and hid. Shiro threw Sarah over the alley, and she made almost no noise as she landed.
"What did you see?" The half-fox asked Matthew.
"I think I saw someone." Matthew peered around but didn't see anything that looked strange.
People on the streets were walking with normality. The guards, who were wearing cadet uniforms, were chatting and laughing loudly as usual. That was just another peaceful day in the Upper Town, the wealthy part of Oukiwa City.
The quintet kept walking along the rooftops until they spotted a roof with windows to let in the sun. Without looking through the windows, Luke warned: "There are five guards."
"Sigh..." Matthew huffed in stress. There wasn't supposed to be anyone there. "Are we gonna try it anyway?"
In response to the boy's question, Meredith began opening the window.
…
Inside the deposit, the guards were talking. "Have you guys heard? The Landfords want to challenge Strogueher on the purchase of that new Dungeon, can you believe it?"
"The Landford's have a great leader, who is experienced and a Class-B adventurer, no doubt that they are trying to gain even more power."
"Hmph... Class-B? The Strogueher has much more firepower. After all, they've bought two Dungeons in just six months, so they're certainly swimming in money."
"Why are you arguing about that, suckers? In the end, they're gonna win, and we're going to stay poor."
"HAHAHAHA! That is the truth!"
Suddenly a loud noise came from the warehouse ceiling, where the guards were standing. TUM!
"What was that? Who's there?!" One of them shouted.
As the thought of checking the high shelves crossed his companions' minds, two knocks on the wooden gate could be heard. Knock, Knock!
Four of the guards turned their attention to the door, and one was still staring at the shadows the shelves made in the back of the shed, where the sunlight could not reach.
The moment a guard opened the gate to see who it was, he saw a little girl with pink hair and a gentle gaze.
"Hello, sir! Did I scare you? We knocked twice, but no one answered, so we had to throw a stone at your roof!" said Sarah.
This guard, disgusting as he was, soon found his attention captured by the little girl, who was only nine years old at the time.
"And I'm her older brother," Shiro said, and he leaned against the wall beside the gate with his thick hands.
The guard's countenance changed at this moment. The weak smile he was showing gave way to a sour expression. "What do you want?" He spoke angrily.
The attention of the other four guards was taken by the conversation at the door. "Ah! Was it just those children? Holy shit... I freaked out."
"Let's spit it out, I don't have all day to listen to you two."
"Have you ever heard of the Order of the Word? We are a small cult, which is gathering followers still—" TUM! The gate was shut tightly by the guard, who went muttering to his companions.
"What did they want?"
"They were from some crazy cult. I have no interest in such things."
"Don't they have anything else to do? In this heat and still have the nerve to go out knocking door after door."
"What about us? We are stuck in here while our boss is probably having sex..."
Meanwhile, in the shadows of that shed, a naked-tailed half-wolf stared intently at the five big men. He knew that he definitely would not win in a fight against any of them.
Since there was not a good place to land, by jumping out of that small window, Luke was the only one who made it into the shed. Since his fall made noise, the only escape tactic they had, which was called 'Word Order', had to be used sooner than expected.
Among so many items that looked valuable on those five high shelves, a glint caught the half-wolf's attention.
'Can I reach it?' He thought before he acted, the faint glow was high up, and if the sunlight hit it, the guards would surely see it.
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