01. Cripple No.1 and Pocket No.6

"WAKE UP! YOU SCRAWNY, DIRTY LITTLE

RATS! GET TO WORK!!!"

Bang! Bang! Bang!

in the morning, hoarse and loud voice could be heard from the direction of dilapidated warehouse door with occasional banging sound of someone hitting its surrounding with a rattan stick.

the one eyed boy jolted awake from his reverie, the one gaunt and thin face of his now looked much worse as he gathered his thought all night without a chance of getting some sleep, despite his empty stomach growling occasionally, his eye now filled with clarity and wisdom.

thanks to his reverie all night, he finally sorted everything of what he could do for now including his memories and thought.

ferocious banging sound could still be heard and the scene of now fully awake beggar childs all around could be seen hurriedly getting off their small feet towards the exit door, the faces of those childs filled with anxiety and helplesness.

"brother cripple...quick, quick...we need to get out now!" the blonde child unknowingly already kneeling beside him, with panic written all across his face he tried to help and hurried the one eyed boy.

the cripple calmly assess the situation while tried to stand whilst helped by the blonde child, he saw the blonde child gave him a quite thick tree branch with Y shape, obviously it was used as his walking stick.

the length was around 1.3m, and it look quite sturdy, with both of its edge worn out cause of long time use, several mark on its body indicated how he usually use the walking stick.

with much effort the cripple one eyed boy finally stood on its left feet with the right side of his body trying to adjust his body weight with the stick, now everything was clear to him, his right leg was really missing from his knee to the bottom.

while adjusting his thought, suddenly the hoarse shout could be heard once again now with him and the blonde child as its target,

"YOU! PAIR OF DILLY DALLYING B*STARD BACK THERE! DIDN'T YOU HEAR WHAT I SAID?!"

with stomp the man with hoarse voice walking towards both of them, when the one eyed boy saw who was coming, he saw a burly man with fierce and cruel face holding a thick rattan stick approached, his face was ridden with stitching mark all over making his looks really hideous .

the burly man sneer when he saw which two child staying behind...

"oh aren't these two pair of lovebird, cripple no.1 and his boy lover pocket no.6? how's your day?" he raised the rattan stick in attempt to hit the crippled boy.

"master Q, p, please be lenient he still wounded and need rest." the blonde child beside the cripple boy tries to shield him behind whilst stutter, yet what happens next was obvious.

Pang!!!

without warning the burly man slapped the blonde child face quite hard and making the child tumbled back.

"do i permit you to speak, maggot rats? ptooey!" said the burly man, he spat toward the blonde child face, a thick phlegm now hanging on his cheek.

the burly man continued while arrogantly pointing his rattan stick close to the one eyed boy nose, "listen, what i did to you yesterday was an act of mercy boy! i did it so you can scrounge more today with that pitiful beaten up face!"

hearing the explanation, the crippled boy mind whirling at full speed, and only in split second his calm face now filled with terror and anxiousness facing the burly man.

with weak voice and meek expression the cripple boy replied, " i, i thank you of generousity master Q, i, will try to do my best today...." he bow toward the burly man hurriedly tried to gain sympathy.

looking at the fidgety thin figure in front of him, the burly man crack a sneer on his face satisfied on how he acted, with a snort he turned around and walk away.

"if you happened help each other once more like yesterday, don't blame me if one of you ended up like this rat!!!" with loud voice the burly man kicked the body laid on the floor away, "F*cking useless. ptooey!"

the cripple boys eye flickered when he saw the sprawled body on the floor, clearly that poor child has lost his poor life in this hell hole.

composure return to the boy face, the ones meek and anxious expression of his now replaced with calmness.

"are you okay?" asked the cripple now as he saw his buddy pocket no.6 stood up.

wiping his face from the phlegm, little smile could be seen on the blonde child,

"this much is nothing, don't worry..." replied him, his face has clear slap mark on it now.

now he could see better, he looked at his buddy

cheek line, the contour of her face, and body shape...what a smart girl. thought the cripple, from his observation he could deduce that the child beside him was not a he but a she.

as to why the blonde child disguised as a boy, it was obvious in this hellhole, the boys would scrounge or pick pocketing on the street and the girls would be sent to the brothel beside the door.

last night while assessing the situation, the cripple boy could vividly heard and saw the building beside this shoddy barn was a brothel of some sort of red light district, all of kind debauchery sound came out of it, if it wasn't for her tomboy act and wits she would be sent to brothel long ago, of course the cripple won't be a snitch for her, what for? some sort of bullsh*t praise? nothing will change if he himself doesn't act.

"okay, quick we need to get out and get to business..." the blonde child hurriedly walk towards the exit, the cripple boy limping away following her out.

a minute later while withholding searing pain all accross his body he could finally saw the sun light shone outside,

the blonde child keep walking while the cripple followed, while limping slowly he also observed his surrounding, astonishment shown on his face but quickly faded once again.

all because this region building and people style of clothes walking around him wasn't the same from what he could remember of his memory, the building and the people looks straight came out of renaissance era, humble color and broken road occupied his vision, occasionally he saw horse carriage brought some supplies passes by.

after walking for quite a while,

"brother cripple, you should get to your usual place, i'll scatter around to look for target..." the blonde child in front of him said.

"my usual place?" asked the cripple.

"hmm? what happened, can't you walk there? you need my help?" said the blonde child again tinge with concern.

raising his brow slightly the cripple replied, "i think...i forgot, sorry my memories was jumbled right now, i can't remember much of what happened."

hearing that, the blonde child was full of shock, "oh my! really? cant you remember me? what about your name? how about me, who am i?" asked her pointing to her face.

the cripple boy acted like he wasn't sure but he replied, "i think i was called cripple? do you know my name? and what's yours?"

with strange expression the blonde child observed the cripple boy quickly, she says, "name? that's rich....we don't have one, in this hellhole we got the code name only."

"i called pocket 6...." said her with resigned sigh,

"pocket 6, so your job is pick pocketting?"

suddenly with panic the blonde child cover the cripple mouth, her emerald eyes wide open,

"ssssussh!! don't say that, i'll get in trouble if someone hear that!!!"

the cripple boy nodded slightly showing his understanding,

chuckling slightly he says, "sory my bad, so what about me?"

with a sigh, the blonde child told the cripple in hushing voice. "your name is cripple no.1, you really don't remember don't you? fine, let's go i'll drop you in your usual place i'll tell everything i know on the way." her slightly coquettish face says it with a smile, if only there wasn't slap mark on her face she could smile more brightly.

along the way both of them conversed back and forth, as to not getting unnecessary alert from his buddy, the cripple boy asked in roundbout manner.

on the way the scenery slightly changed, now the street was filled with horse carriage with supplies and the people working in and out the shop, the surrounding shop front was riddled with wriggly unknown characters to show what shop was it, while conversing, the cripple boy occasionally saw the boards at the shop front with wriggly character, albeit he didn't know what character was it suspiciously enough he could read it quite smoothly.

weird, i can read? why? he thought, at this era most people was illiterate as education usually wasn't for the mass, but he still could read, which mean the cripple boy was somehow educated in the past.

shaking his shoulder made cripple no.1 out of his own thought, the blonde child said, "brother, did you hear what i say?"

glancing toward the blonde child, he replied, "sory i got lost again, what'd you say again?"

"really, you should just get rest, i'll help you for today quota, don't worry i won't implicate both of us..." said the blonde child in resigned manner. "i say if you ever encountered someone with lavish clothing style or someone with mage robe, or some knight in armor you should hurry scurry away, don't even mess with them lest your head got chopped off from your neck. in short, stay away from trouble." she continued with grim expression.

hearing that, cripple no.1 couldn't help but asked, "say, why you're so kind to me? something happened betwen us before?" he squinted his remaining eye with interogatting manner.

hearing that, the blonde child was surprised a little, a tinge of blush could be seen slightly on her dirty face.

"w..what are you talking about? you helped me covered yesterday, its normal i cared for you now, right?" she also added some in her mind, you were the only one amongst child beggars to show me the rope and care since 2 years ago, it should be me who feels ashamed of it. wait does he know that i'm a gi.... she forcefully stop her line of thought,

glancing secretly at the cripple boy face in attempt to find any hint on it she continued,

....no way riight? hint of wariness and slight anticipation shown on her face but it soon quickly diminished and she continued to put small smile.

not knowing what she thought of, the cripple continued, "covered? so thats why my body was ridden with these wound now?" mumbled cripple no.1, he deduced that yesterday, the cripple boy was somehow covered the blonde child quota of the day which was money gotten from scrounging, and it got found out by the burly man, then he was beaten up black and blue due his act yesterday, but no one knew that the real cripple no.1 was already dead, and subject no.1452 soul from earth occupied this body last night in unfortunate manner.

well, since i got another life albeit with different body, i'll try to live as free as possible, it would be my payment for this body predecessor. he thought once again.

flustered by his reply, the blonde child quickly tried to appease her buddy, "we...well, so, sorry because of me..." she said drooping her head.

"nah...don't think about it, we're buddy right?" says cripple no.1 again smiling slightly at a glance.

sigh with relief the blonde child widely smile like the most beautiful sunshine to him.

"un, brother cripple is the best, hehe, hehehe..." she laugh while patting the boy shoulder with force.

pat, pat...

with a grimace the boy said, " akh, okay, okay, stop it, it hurts!"

"ah! sory, sory brother." flustered she tried to rub his shoulder.

"okay, just stop it, you said where should i stay here again?" asked cripple.

"ah, oh right, just in front a little more."

both of them slowly walk toward the designed spot right beside a restaurant and grocery store, the sound of walking stick hitting the ground accompanied them toward the spot.

pointing toward tattered gunny sack on the floor, right beside it was a broken clay bowl used for collected money from passerby, the blonde child said, "usualy you would stay here, just sit and don't move, and also try to stay out of sight of some thug or noble if there's any, you should just stay quiet okay." warned the blonde child with concern.

"don't worry, at least i know what to do." he replied, slowly he uncovered the gunny sack with practiced motion as if he was trained for this for long, he sit on the spot and readied the clay bowl, he pushed it forward slightly so the passerby could seen it and hoping they'll throw some money in a pity for his condition.

seeing that the blonde child sigh of relief, all of sudden just like she remember something she jolted and said. "wait here for a sec brother."

trotting toward small alley in the back the blonde child goes to it, her shilouette could be seen scrounging some sort of trash bin, just as quick as she left she return while bringing something that looks like yellow moldy bread with the size of adult fist on her hand.

quickly she split the moldy bread and gave half of it to cripple no.1

"here, we should eat for survive, its little moldy, but if we don't eat the moldy parts it should be fine..." smiling the blonde child start to eat the moldy bread with gusto.

cripple no.1 also don't have any choice, right now he was really hungry, after he cleaned the moldy part, he ate the bread, it felt like eating a stone given how hard it was, thankfuly after he dipped the bread to the water from another broken clay bowl beside him he could finally ate it , the taste was awful, still he ate it with relish, at least he could fill his stomach albeit slightly.

"okay brother, i'll go now, hope there'll be an easy target for me," smacking her lips and palm she was filled with vigor,

"okay, be careful don't get caught." warned cripple no.1.

"don't worry, it won't happen."

then she waved and left.

after a while, cripple no.1 start to think whilst sit, he gathered his thought surounded by unkind gaze rife with contempt and disgust from passerby, he didn't care of those and sometime a few kind soul would gave him some copper coins or leftover food, he thanked all of those kind people with zeal, while in his head he planned for his subsequent action in the future,

his remaining eye was filled with composure and wisdom uncommon for the folks around his age.

he tought,

first, he need to deduce and assess his situation, the surounding region, and people perspective, what asset he has and as he start to slowly grasped of what happened here in general, he could make correspondent action towards it.

second, after he grasp the situation clearly for at leat 80/90% sure nothing would go wrong, then he could get him and his buddy the blonde child girl out of that hellhole, and out of this misereable life. his situation was clearly very unfavorable now but he still could try to adapt for any situation as he planned, thanks to enhancement serum effect and all of his knowledge from past live as lab-rat that he brought here along with his soul.

right now he was 98% sure that the beggar syndicate has a mean to restrict or prevent their money pouch (beggar childs) from escaping their evil grasp.

i still can't do anything now, but in future as i plan ahead, we shall see how it'll turn out... gritting his teeth he remembered how abusive the burly man called Master Q from before, he bore this grudge deep in his heart.

subject no.1453 was not forgiving person given how he planned to destroy the secret facility on his past life before, if he didn't died back then he was 100% sure he would succeed destroying the facility with how meticulous he was. alas, heaven has its own plan.

thirdly, what to do after he successfully escape from here, stay? or leave the city? he still couldn't decide as he observed how the people act and how tidy the city was, he was sure that the city lord was good ruler for his teritory, but why was there still some hellhole on this good city?

light and darkness were the two side of same coin, brighter the light the darker its back.

from what he observed, this city was filled by content people, they got along in harmony, every household looks like they're free of worries, why so? simple, all of their need was fulfilled, be it food, clothes, or housing, quite safe to determine the city was prosperous enough. that's why beggar syndicate like his could have the life of their time as the people in this city has some wealth.

he learned along the way from people chattering that this city name was maron city, the capital of bradtford earldoms. he didn't even ask as his ears and eye work better that anyone.

the city lord was earl Maron Bradtford the 7th, cripple no.1 marvel of how the people was full of praise of their ruler, some bards along the way were also sung full of praises for the lord.

too bad, seems like the teritory wasn't meticulous enough as there were many unfortunate soul bound by evil criminal den that still at large in this city, but it also couldn't be helped as he also learned how big the city was, the city was divided by 3 parts and a huge rampart surrounding it.

the three parts of city were called. inner circle, middle ring, and outer ring respectively, it were divided by walls for each ring surrounding the area.

inner circle was an area for nobles of prestige residences in this city, the commoner without permission or written guarantee from member of inner circle has no right to enter this area.

middle circle was an area of shops and residences of rather well off famillies or clan mostly wealthy merchant or distinguished artisan stays here. and also for some of earldoms commoner officials, it was also place for big hospital, market places, and famed schools.

and the outer part was an area for mid-lower income commoners, the area wasn't quite paid a lot of attention by the authority, only some guards could be seen patrolling the area occasionally, as all sort of people and dwelling resides here, this place was also where cripple no.1 stays and roam.

off course all of this was heard and learned by cripple no.1 along the way with his blonde buddy.

he heard folks say something like,

"hey ma'am, i heard your daughter was called as lady in waiting for lords daughter? how great. come, as celebrarion this meat will be half price for you, congratulations ma'am" said some butcher to his customer, the middle aged lady customer also beamed with smile as she chatted with the others surrounding her.

she boasted with glee,

"hohoho, it was for the lords lady generosity, it wasn't much, really...my daughter daney was called upon after she caught lord ladys eyes at middle ring hospital, given how kind, pretty, lovely, and meticulous my daughter is, she's bound to have great future ahead of her, she's my pride.."

at that time the surrounding people could be seen tinge with envy for the ladys luck, yet they could do nothing but sent their congratulations to the her.

there were also time when middle aged man chatting with his friend inside the teahouse on the way, he says something about his son graduate from maron academy in middle ring area and will become future official of earldoms.

there were many kind of information gathered by cripple no.1, even now his left eye, ears, and brain even his nose worked at full speed, tried to grasp everything all around. chatter, laughter, angry voice, everything could be used as means for information gathering, as he believes that knowledge is a weapon.

and lastly, ever since he awoke last night, he could see many motes of light lingering in front of his vision for some sort of strange reason, if he focused enough the motes of light amount would increase and its size grew varied, but if loosen his focus the mote of light will dissipate and not for long gone, he tries various experiment regarding his focus about this motes of light.

he also asked about this to his blonde buddy before, but what he got only strange look and he was asked if he was really okay and really need rest?

obviously his buddy couldn't see it, but what surprised him the most was when he tried to touch the motes of light close to him, the light would permeate through his skin and not only that, when he tries to inhale those motes through his mouth, it got sucked in and suddenly albeit slightly he felt that his body got reinvigorated in an instant, so without knowing what was those motes of light, he proceed to inhale them with caution, this time he tried to absorb it through his nose, and its still worked, albeit small amount.

what's this motes of light, could it be some kind of organic matter? or its only my illusion? but this reinvigorated feeling is real, some kind of power was building inside me, maybe....

he tried to reason with logic but it doesn't work, he seeks his immense knowledge and even though the conlusions was far from logic, he could deduce it that this motes of light has something to do with mana! the mysterious power in this world, he learned before that magic existed and the existence of wizard and witch was something common in this world.

i guess this motes of light was the so-called mana right? it was quite far fetched from the logic of my understanding of nature on earth....if it so, then maybe not so far in the future our freedom could be obtained...

reaching some sort of conclusions, cripple no.1 relaxed his body. he continued to act of how he was supposed to be, pitiful cripple child beggar asking for some fortune from the passerby.

~~~