03. Secrets and Surprises

a week passed and the morning came, the execution date had come.

on the way towards west outer ring square which the execution ground was at, pocket no.6 chirping endlessly to her buddy cripple no.1, occasionally he would nod or replied adequately. he didn't find it annoying listening to her chatter, in fact he quite enjoyed it. cripple no.1 past as subject no.1452 seldom having such kind of loose chatter, moreover in such free manner with the other test subjects.

"brother, were you looking forward to this day?" she asked while strolling, matching her pace with her limping buddy.

cripple glanced at her for while, "weren't you the one who has such expectation?"

"hehehe..." she giggled while rubbing her head.

sensing something unusual, he squinted his left eye and questioned her, "you don't have any funny idea later don't you?"

"humf! of course not! you're such a worrywart brother...." pouting her small lips forwad she continued to walk, cripple no.1 failed to notice such serious countenance flashed which quickly replaced by her usual grin from her thin face.

soon they reached the execution ground, it was filled with lots of spectators, mostly commoners who has nothing to do at home, after all, execution was rather rare and it serves as a means of entertainment.

in this era, most people doesn't have many entertainment outlet, mostly they would gone to bar for a drink, brothel, or listening stories and songs from roaming bards.

snickering besides cripple, pocket no.6 silently looked around, then swiftly she held her buddys hand and maneuver through the crowd, due to their small bodies they could easily reached the very front row of execution ground stopping just right in front of cold faced armored guard.

"hey, why we're here?" squinting his eye cripple ask pocket, soon with grim expression he began to think several conjectures of what his buddy attempted to do.

"isn't it nice if we could watch closer?" feigning ignorance, pocket's head began to bobbed up and down left and right. seemingly trying to get a better view of 2 convicts right atop of stone stage.

cripple no.1 could also seen better, he saw 2 convicts with their heads covered by black clothes kneeling on execution spot, he also observing his surrounding in case anything happen, everything seems normal with boisterous chattering around.

his awareness jolted awake as he focused exactly on his left side, there standing peculiar middle age man, he has black hair with slick-back style and pencil mustache, he was quite handsome for middle aged man around 40, yet his face was devoid of any emotion, he also covered with dark brown long robe from his shoulder to toe. and there was some sort of shield shaped crest made by silvery metal on his right chest. in the middle, there was also a golden scale with nothing else on its background, on top of the crest there lies inconspicuous two small red colored star.

the more he observed the man, the more he felt unbearable, ever since he awakened his mana control a week ago, he could feels the mana movement around much more clearly, and the man besides him gave cripple no.1 bizzare feeling, he felt the man emitting some kind of mana fluctuation from his body. and it made him more vigilant to the man identity.

seemingly aware he was being observed, with a dead-pan face the man look towards cripple just right when he scoted away further from him, he frowned slightly but soon his attention shifted besides the crippled boy, there was standing another child seemingly another boy with ragged cloth and messy blonde hair covered with dirt, both of them locked each other in the eyes but soon the blonde child stick his tongue out in mischievous manner then turn back his head toward the execution spot.

seeing pocket no.6 manner, cripple no.1 felt like slapping himself on the face, helplessly sighing, thankfully he noticed that the middle aged man attention was back to the front.

not long after, the sound of trumpet reverberate throughout the square. soon, loud voice of man could be heard announcing the arrival of Northern Vannahar Earldoms lord, Earl Maron Bradtford the 7th and his entourage.

with gallant figure, the lord looks like someone on his thirties, he was being escorted by some officials followed by silver armored guards with violet cape, each one of them looks imposing while bringing iron spear.

after some ceremonial act from the master of ceremony, soon it was lords turn to gave improptu speech in attempt to condemns the atrocity of said convicts, also giving reminder towards the masses that the lord would keep peace in the city and warding evil away from his beloved city.

seeing all this, cripple no.1 couldn't help but smiling reufully, '...how ironic..', he thought about the lords speech.

on top of the stage, there was a gallant figure of earldoms lord himself adorned by elegant outfit with sharp appearance and surrounded by his entourage as a showcase of might, yet just right in front of him ,

'....can't the lord sees us?..', cripple could also saw the other childs beggar other than him and pocket, here and there on plain sight, they looked at the lord figure with hopeful eyes seemingly conveyed their plight to him.

shaking his head, cripple could only helplessly sigh, '...you're the lord, can't you be more meticulous enough about your people? we can't only helplessly see you without any hope for reporting our plight...', cripple was 100% sure, once some of his peers tried to do anything funny like getting closer to plea towards the lord, the guards in front of him would prevent it from happening, how could the guards be sure that no one even children could do nothing to the lord? so, before they could meet the lord, they would just be thrown away without much anything to do, then it would be their nightmare when they return back to the beggars den, afterall cripple could already felt that he was being watched occasionaly, as his sense was enhanced several times by serum and mana he always absorbs.

he could identify more than one, some of the spectators around him were Master Q underlings, they splitted up in ingenious formation so they won't have any blind spot and surveying around how their money pouch (beggars) would act,

back to the execution platform made by stones, after the lord finished his speech, he sat back down on his chair, and finally, cripple saw the executioner approaching the convicts, he frowned as he saw the executioner wasn't bringing any tool, in fact his attire gave similiar vibe with the peculiar man besides him, he wore black color long robe with a mask covering his face and there was another crest on the man right chest, the crest was different from the man beside cripple, it still made by silvery metal but it has inverted triangle-shape with 2 golden spears crossing in front of it and its red colored background. also there were 5 yellow colored small sun-shaped pins right atop of it.

just when the the executioner stop 5 steps behind the two kneeling convicts, he brings out a black book from behind his robe, next his right hand pointed upwards.

all of sudden, cripple no.1 could feels the mana gushing out from the executioner body upwards, right there he witnessed something phenomenal, right atop of the 2 convicts head, there was a huge complicated red colored magical pattern drawn by mana that suddenly appeared.

he could also feels that the mana surrounding the magic circle also drawn into those array pattern as though feeding it endlessly, when he percieved that the mana movement has stopped, his attention was back toward the executioner which right now turned his head toward the lord seemingly asking for his order.

then with a flick of his hand, the lord gave him the permissions, and with a quick sweeping motion downward, the executioner gloves covered hand points his finger towards the two convicts.

WHAAAMMMM!!!

pillar of fire came out under the array pattern with overbearing manner, the fire diameter was around 5 meters with 10 meters height, it directly engulfed the 2 convicts without mercy, the high temperature from the fire made cripple flinched, it felt like he was just right in front of a forge working in maximum capacity. witnessing such scene made the witnessing people blood boil in ecstacy, their cheering voices could be heard reverberating around the square.

after 5 minutes, the executioner stopped his spell, the fire and the array pattern on the sky was gone instantly as if they were never there in the first place, next the executioner returned to the back of the stage, and what was left on the stage was only pile of ashes, cripple no.1 felt quite incredulous, yet the people around was still excited about it whilst leaving the square with orderly manner, the middle aged man beside him was also already walked away from the spot.

cripple no.1 thought to himself,

'...really, such a fantasy world, even execution was done in such an eye-catching manner...', at the beginning he thought it would be just like any other normal execution with blade or guillotine full of blood, never he expected it would turn out like this, just right when he stopped looking, he sensed that pocket no.6 was no longer standing besides him,

astonishment and worry immediately shown on his face as he knew 100% of what was that silly girl planned to do, immediately he casted his mana to spread around as much as possible, he gained this ability just yesterday after he could control the mana using five of his fingers.

at this moment some of long robed people with magician identity around the square stopped of what they were doing and observing where this mana sense comes from, including the dead-pan face middle aged man from before, looks of astonishment could be seen from his face, yet just as he wants to investigate, the casted mana sense was gone. thinking for a while the middle-aged man casts his thought aside and walking back seemingly forgetting what had happened before.

after he casted his mana only for a short moment, cripple no.1 finally determined where his buddy went to, as hasty as possible he limped away to pocket no.6 direction, in just couple of seconds he was finally able to see her, right now she has anxiety and fidgety contenance on her face, the opposite of her usual cheerful and mischievous nature. right now she tried her best to be as visible as possible towards her target, the lord.

the guard in front has already noticed her, and began to prepare if this dirty blonde child would act on something, cripple no.1 could also seen it, hastening his pace with his walking stick he saw that her eyes became wider and wider, he knew he didn't had much time left. just right when pocket no.6 wants to jumps out of the guards line,

'...this silly girl...really?...' cripple no.1 with no other choice thrown his walking stick quite hard at her tiny calf from afar.

Paak!!!

without warning the walking stick flew and landed accurately on her calf, making her stumbled aside. thankfully she didnt fell toward the guards line lest the situation would be messier then now,

pocket no.6 grimaced in pain while holding her left calf on the ground, with a grim face she saw familiar looking stick lies beside her, stunned for a while her eyes began to look around, just few steps away from her, there lies her buddy lying on the ground face down seemingly injured,

of course it was only cripple no.1 acting so that her buddy would help him stands, he was gambling, a gambling if pocket no.6 would come and cared for him first or straight casted him aside in order to beseech help from the lord.

she looks conflicted, she need to make a choice now, her buddy that was right in front of her, or seemingly distant freedom towards the lord.

the lord steps was getting closer and closer, yet her buddy was lying down few steps over. just when the lord was right over a guards line away from her, she finally steps up while holding the stick, not towards the lord but towards her dear buddy, the crippled one-eyed boy who always be there for her all this time, she casted aside her thought of plight to the lord only for helping her friend on the ground.

sensing her movement, smile of relief bloomed on cripple no.1 haggard face, his gambling had paid off, other than his focus towards pocket no.6, his focus were also everywhere using his peripheral vision and hearing, he could determined that some of the thugs that keep track of his and pocket from afar since the beginning begins to fade away and look elsewhere while conversing in different topic.

hurried small steps approached his body and sound of panting could be heard accompanied it,

"brother! brother! are you alright?!!" pocket no.6 knelt beside him, her voice was slightly hoarse and apprehensive.

yet, cripple stays still as he kept his calm, waiting for a while in order for those watchful eyes to lower their vigiliance much more. seeing no response from her buddy, pocket no.6 starts to shake his shoulder and tried to turn his friends body around, she struggled for a while but she finally succeed.

she was startled when she saw that her buddy was actualy quite fine, she saw cripple no.1 speechlessly seeing her back to back, right before she could breathe a sight of relief, cripple no.1 flick her forehead quite hard this time.

"ahk! what was that for...?" pouting her lips while holding her forehead with both of her hand she stared at cripple in aggrieved manner.

cripple harrumphed and said, "i should be the one ask you about that..."

"what do you mean?..." tilting her head and feigning ignorance she asked back.

while struggling to stand up holding his walking stick, cripple no.1 continued on, "you know what i mean, dont play a fool, you should have known that what you almost did would jeopardise everything we built!" after standing up, he turn around and walk a few steps, but he stopped when he realized his buddy wasn't following him, he looks back then found pocket no.6 shoulder was quivered and her breathing became irragular, she looked down on the ground without any intention to stand.

sob, sob, sob.

soon she starts sobbing softly seemingly tries to hold her tears back, cripple no.1 feels he was quite harsh with his word just now, helpless he walk back to her, then with a thud he sat in front of her, his bony hand gently caressing her head.

"I'm sory, i was quite angry before...." he said softly.

while sobbing pocket tried to speak, "sob...sob, it, it wasnt, wasn't your fault brother, i...i, i just feel really helpless, i..sob, i...felt powerless, it's been 2 years, without any hope in sight...i, i don't know what to do now..." her tears now fell uncontrollably, she looks so pitiful right now, as if all hopes were gone for her.

cripple no.1 looks quite conflicted, he struggled for a while, then with determination on his eye he whispered,

"i understand how you feel my dear brother, lets go somewhere else, it's not safe here, i will tell you all of my plan..." stopping for a while next he said,

"...don't be afraid pocket, i'll always be here with you, even if the world crushing down, i'll always stays beside you." his husky magnetic voice carried some persuasion within it, soon while keep sobbing pocket no.6 stood up followed by cripple no.1, then he strode limping away with his buddy tailing behind.

on the way back, both of them keep their silent, only sobbing sounds could be heard occasionally from his back. after a while cripple no.1 turn towards an abandoned alley, then he keep walking. finaly inside the alley there was a gap between stone building not too big just enough for both of them squeezed in.

there, cripple no.1 found old wooden boxes strewn around, next he tidied it all up a little, took some tattered gunny sack and lay it down for both of them to sit.

after he sat, he look at pocket which still downhearted, her tears were already stopped but she still looked miserable with puffy eyes. he pat the spot beside him, asking her to sit, pocket slowly sat while hugging her knees.

both of them stays quiet until.

"im sorry."

"sorry..."

they speaks at the same time, looking at each other, cripple no.1 smiled gently to her urging her to speak first, pocket no.6 nodded her head then with soft voice.

"I'm sory brother, i actualy don't want to implicate you in this, i get it why you stopped me. but i thought, even if i got found out by those thugs, at least you could be free from that hellhole with the lords help, that was why i determined to tell the lord about it, you already said that we were being watched back then, but still i don't care, they might beat me up when i get back, but still. i want to help you brother..."

paused for a while she continued, "...can't you remember when we first met? 2 years ago i knew nothing, but you helped me, showing me the rope, even with your crippled leg and missing eyes, you imparted all of your knowledge about pick pocketting, you said, 'becoming a pick pocket was better than beggars, at least even if the wallet was empty, you still had a chance, unlike beggars. as a beggar, if you didn't brought anything back, you would get beaten and starved.' after everything you did to me, i become better and better, I'm always grateful for that...you always helped me without asking anything in return..."

with a blank look she stared at the wall ahead, after grueling moment of silent. she continued,

"...i have a secret, i came from a farming family in capana, when i was 5 years old, the landlord who owns the field came to check my parents, he was such a lustful beast with violent tendency, many girls had had becomes his victim, i know about it from our neighbours. at that time, he looked at me with his lustful eyes, then asked my parents so they would married me to him..." gritted her teeth, she closed her eyes seemingly remembers her distant memories, cripple no.1 keep his silence while staring at her shivered body.

"... i ran away to maron city once i know that my parents had sold me off to him, i disguised my manners so i looked like a boy, trying my best to act as manly as possible when i got caught by those beggar thugs, i know what fate awaits those unfortunate girls had got...thus i acted the way i am now..." stopping her murmurs she looks straight to cripples eye,

"...yes brother, I'm a girl, I'm sorry if you feels that i had deceived you, i was quite warry at you first, but you respected me, helped me and keep me covered, without knowing who i really am. and for that, i thank you..." she finished her story while bowing her head toward her buddy.

pat, pat, pat...

keeping his silent, cripple no.1 only patted pocket no.6 head gently, then he oppened his mouth,

"...actualy it was somewhat clear to me...", with his immature and husky voice.

pocket tilted her head seemingly surprised yet confused , seeing her buddys face close-up.

"uhum, actually...i already know about you being a girl quite a long time ago," it was not a lie he thought, newly rebirth cripple no.1 which his body occupied by subject no.1452 soul only met with pocket 2 weeks ago.

hearing that, an indescribable blush could be seen across her thin and dirty face, then she tried to denied it waving her tiny hand.

"w...well, well, now you know it, i doesn't really matter for sure..." she said while feeling quite relieved.

cripple only chuckled in return.

"hmmpf, bad brother..." she said pouting whilst turned her head away, then as if she remember something, she looks back and with serious expression she questioned,

"okay, now you know my stories, then what about your promise?"

"hmm? what're you talking about?" he asked foolishly.

pocket's head was getting closer and closer, she squinted her eyes and her sight looked as if she tried to drill o hole through cripple face

"well, okay, okay...calm down." he said quite flustered,

pocket no.6 finally backed down, while folding her thin arms across her chest, she looked ahead.

"okay then...what's it? quick tell me..." she urged, she didn't realized that beside her, there was a bonny right hand of cripple right in front of his chest, facing it upwards soon on top of the palm there was an ethereal azure colored ball appeared floating gently.

when she finally realized the ball, her eyes was wide-opened, her small mouth was agape looks like if there was boiled egg, it could be stuffed fully into her mouth.

astonished, she looks quickly back and forth between cripple face and the azure ball on top of his hand.

"bro...brother, what,...what's this...?!!" she stammered.

with little smug on his face her buddy said, "well, it's exactly as what's you're thinking..."

"you awakened as magician??? how...how's that possible?" full of shock, her gaze wandered around with blank look, while occasionally mumbled something along like 'no', 'but its brother', 'no way', 'yes way', 'impossible', 'probable'....etc

tried to stopping her from her own thought, he pat her back hard a few times. next, he proceed to shares his plan, he also told pocket about the mark made by mana that attached to their left palm by the magician that he suspected as their big boss, he told pocket for now they need to keep on of what they were always normally done in case the thugs grew suspicious of them.

while hearing all that, pocket kept her blank and contemplative look on her face, seemingly tried her best to ingest lots of information she just learned.

finally after talking for quite a while, cripple felt it was enough for now, in any case their first objective was to escape from the beggars den first. after that, they would think about it again in the future.

"okay, that's enough, now you understand right? lets go, forget about it for now lest your silly mouth won't stop blaberring, leave everything to me." reminded cripple, he stopped just right before pocket's minds frizzled baddly.

shaking her head seemingly trying to remove the unnecessary thought out of her mind, as quick as lightning pocket stood while helping her buddys up.

with silly grin plastered she flatters, "well master, i'll be on your beck and call lest you need something in the future, he..hehe, hehhehe,"

speechless with her, cripple flicked her head twice, "okay lets go back" he said leaving out the cramped gap between stone building in some quiet alley. and pocket, whilst still keeping her silly grin soon followed...

~~~