Things calm down after a while.
I ask Mona how long I have until work, and she points at the sun "Here", when it should be "There".
Meaning I have no idea at all of how long I have until then. I just ask her again to tell me when it's time to go, and she nods at me.
"Then, take me to the guy who sold you the medicine."
She nods again and scuttles away, as I follow. The tall boy--- John, follows too.
...
We turn some corners, walk through some shady streets... Terrible smells...
And finally reach a run-down barrack. Some letters on the top, but I can't read. Mona points at the door, and I tell them to wait here.
I enter, while holding that plain grass pouch they sold Mona while pretending it was medicine.
Hoooh, this'll be fun!
"Welcome---" A scrawny older man starts saying, before noticing it's just me entering.
"Urgh, get out of here urchin, we don't do charity here."
"Good, I'll feel better about fucking you up then."
I throw the pouch at his face. And he flinches, but doesn't manage to dodge. The grass scatters.
"Wha---! You!"
"You sold my sister this fucking grass, faking it as medicine! I almost died because of your shit!"
He slowly gets up from behind the counter.
"You little shit! I'm going to kill you for real now then!"
That's that then.
I run to the shelves and start grabbing anything that's throwable and looks expensive, and hurl at him. Everything else, I run with my arm and drop to the floor.
"Fuck!"
He shields his face.
Glass is breaking all around.
He grabs a knife from behind the counter and starts rushing towards me. But he is out of shape. He fails to reach me in time, and misses his swing.
Oh, now he's asked for it.
I run around, making use of my size to avoid him, all the while breaking everything around.
Hyahahahahaha! That! That! Throw that glass at him!
I notice a glass at the top of a faraway shelf and run towards it.
The shopkeeper swings his knife again, and I feel a burning at my ear, but I don't stop.
I climb the shelf and reach for the glass, then throw it right at his face.
"Ahhhhh!!!!"
He starts screaming, and soon foams come out of his mouth.
He falls on one knee and then on the next, as he starts choking.
A very disgusting sight---
Hyahahahaha! Look at him go! So ridiculous! What kind of idiot dies from their own poison? The antidote, idiot! You should keep it on you at all times, not on a different shelf for sale! Kyahahahaha!
He tries to reach his hand for one of the shelves.
I hurry for his other hand and take hold of the knife as he tries to open a flask.
I stab and stab and stab and stab his neck. Using strength I didn't even know I had in this small body.
After a while, he finally falls. Gasping for breath as the blood gushes out...
Thanks... You're full of shit most of the time, but you always come through when I need...
Kyahahahaha! Don't thank me, haha! Really. It makes me want to do things to you, but it's too soon. Hyaha! Kyahahahaha! Or maybe too late.
... Fuck.
Well... This is a sight anyways. I clean the knife on his shirt and hide it under my shirt. I grab some clean cloth and put it over me to hide the blood. Them I go for the counter and grab all the money, as well as everything I can carry that looks expensive.
Drink that.
I look at one of the shelves and fond a murky liquid... I drink it and the pain in my ear starts to fade.
I find a key.
I lock the front door and rush out of the shop. Then I tell Mona to show me the way back to our barracks. They try to ask me something, but I brush them off.
...
...
...
Back at the barracks I clean myself as well as possible and throw the dirty cloths, knife and key at different parts of the open sewage.
I look at the coins, but can't make much sense of how much they're worth. There are some small grey coins and some slightly bigger white ones, with some inscriptions, I have no idea if they're numbers or letters or what the fuck. I try asking Mona, but she just gives me a surprised face and starts saying that it's a lot...
But then again, she is a street kid who doesn't know how to count yet, so, yeah, let's take it with a mountain of salt...
And then there are these expensive looking glasses, which I have to keep reminding these damn brats not to touch, and specially not to drink...
I need to sell them, but, well, I did mug them. Also, I have no idea about money here.
Any ideas?
Money is just a concept. If you actually want something, just go and take it lol
Right...
I'll try taking a little and buy some food... We're all starving in here...
Mona and John follow me, again.
...
They take me to a busy street, with some food barracks around. The food feels mostly familiar. But they don't seem to have fresh ingredients.
What should I even buy here...? We can't actually prepare any meal if I just take some raw ingredients. But anything already cooked should be more expensive...
The kids are heading for some barracks. It seems they usually ask for food around here… I stop them. We have money this time.
I look for some bread for now. Maybe we can find some old pots for cooking in the trash later...
There's a girl, not that much older than us, holding a basket and screaming "Freshly baked bread!", I head to her.
"Freshly ba--- A client? Wait..." She looks happily at me at first, but then shows a scrutinizing look.
"I said already, I can't give any more bread to you little fellas, mom got super angry last time..."
I ignore her remark and show her a grey coin.
"How much for the bread?"
She looks at the coin, then at me and then at the basket.
"Mom told me it's 1 Canus for each bread. The whole basket has 12 breads, so I need to come back with 12 Canus. You have 5 Canus. So that's..."
"Five breads...?"
"Y-yes!"
"Do you still have 12 breads in there or did you sell something already?"
"N-not yet... I'm on it!"
Sure.
I take two other coins that look like the first one I showed her.
John is wandering around, staring at the food stalls and salivating. Meanwhile, Mona is just standing by my side and watching intently.
"Tell you what, give me the whole basket and I'll give you these three."
"That's..."
"Fifteen... Caulus?"
"Canus." Mona quickly corrects me.
Did she already know, or did she memorize it just now...?
"15...? But you want the basket too...? I don't know..."
"Didn't you say the whole basket is 12... Canons---?"
"Canus." Mona says again.
"Yes, that. Then your mom will be even happier if you bring her 15, right?"
"Ohhh! You're right!" She smiles brightly as her eyes start shining. "Here you go! The customer is always right! Thank you so much for your continued services!" She starts blabbering salesman nonsense she probably heard at some point from her parents.
I give her the money and bring the bread back to the barracks. It's too heavy for me... So John ends up taking the basket in my place. There's no way we could have carried everything without the basket. Hopefully the kid won't be scolded.
...
And just one basket wasn't anywhere near enough for this bunch of starved children... We'll need more food later. Also, I have no idea at all of what babies eat...
Kyaha! I'll take you to a nice place later!
I already know we'll end up at a fucked up place.
I mean, it would be hard to put you in an even more fucked up spot than you are now, haha! And believe me, I would if I could! Kyehahaha!
Reliable as usual…