After the events that had unfolded, Kaelis was left completely alone on that roof.

  The only two things on his mind were the young boy Asaf, who had been killed right before his eyes, and the things Carlos had said.

  It had never even crossed his mind that Carlos might be hiding something like this. To the outside world, Carlos was someone who lived a perfectly happy life and helped people.

  Kaelis was slowly pulling himself together. Death was a terrifying thing, and he had witnessed it with his own eyes.

  “What am I going to do now?”

  Left alone on the roof, it seemed like the distance between Kaelis and Carlos had widened—or rather, that was exactly how Kaelis thought it.

  He had at least some knowledge about this new world he had arrived in. Could he return to the only place he had stayed, Carlos’s house? Or could he go back to that part of the city? While he tormented himself with these questions, his hopelessness grew even stronger.

  “Damn, I have nothing left to do.”

  With nothing left to do, Kaelis would once again do what he always did—follow someone. This time the person he followed would not be much different. It would be Carlos, the very person he had been following ever since he came to this city.

  Even though Kaelis’s relationships with people had gone downhill over the last three years, Carlos was someone who could understand him. At least, that was what Kaelis believed.

  Kaelis moved closer to the edge of the roof. When he looked down, the Bazaar below was filled with a dense crowd.

  After gazing at that crowd, Kaelis lifted his eyes to the open sky. He clenched his fists—the ends of the arms that hung loosely at his sides from his shoulders.

  “Then I’ll start over”

  Saying these words, Kaelis let his faith in himself shine outward.

  Thinking about what he needed to do, Kaelis murmured aloud.

  “First, I have to drop this suspicious side of mine. When the time comes, I can gather enough information just by listening to the people around me”

  Instead of constantly asking questions, Kaelis now wanted to become someone who listened to his surroundings and shaped himself accordingly.

  ***

  Kaelis climbed down from the roof using the same pipe Carlos had used. Descending alone was extremely risky, but he had managed it.

  Stepping out of the alley onto the main road of the Bazaar, Kaelis was once again swallowed by the huge crowd.

  Looking around, he searched for Carlos, but there was not even the smallest trace of him.

  Slowly making his way through the crowd, Kaelis kept his awareness at maximum. He kept scanning everywhere for Carlos, but to any outsider it would have looked like he was fleeing from someone.

  ***

  After walking for some time, Kaelis found nothing—more precisely, there was no sign of Carlos at all.

  He sat down on the small stone steps leading to the entrance of a house and continued watching his surroundings.

  Time had passed, and he needed to find them before evening. Otherwise he would be left completely alone here.

  While he was observing, Kaelis noticed a person. It was Atlas, coming out of an alley, wearing a blue haori.

  Atlas was working alone—more accurately, he was stealing. He was carefully watching his surroundings and doing his job. The clothes he wore looked a little strange on him, but they gave him freedom of movement, allowing him to escape quickly or change position in an instant.

  Kaelis stood up from the stone steps and started running toward Atlas. Even though he tried to run, the dense crowd kept him from moving at full speed.

  “Hey Atlas!!”

  Atlas turned toward the sound—toward where Kaelis was coming from. When he saw Kaelis, a small smile appeared on his face.

  Kaelis reached Atlas and wanted to start talking right away. As if giving him permission, Atlas did nothing.

  The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “Thank God I found you.”

  “Shouldn’t you be with Carlos?”

  “Mhm— Yeah, but we might have had a little argument. I think I made him angry.’

  “That’s not good. Where is Carlos right now?”

  “I don’t know either. That’s why I was looking for you.”

  Atlas wasn’t supposed to know Carlos’s location anyway, so the questions only led to this. It was perfectly normal—after all, Kaelis was the one on Carlos’s team and the one who should know where he was.

  Atlas straightened up fully and scanned the area.

  After his inspection, a smile formed on his face.

  “I found him”

  “Huh— Where?”

  “Follow me!”

  He had started slipping through the alleys again—how many times today, he didn’t even know—but this time Kaelis was following Atlas.

  Atlas moved smoothly through the crowd, leaving a clear path behind him so Kaelis could follow easily.

  Ahead of them, a man was looking at the stalls in the middle of the crowd. It was Carlos.

  After parting from Kaelis, he had apparently continued with his work.

  Atlas waved his hand and approached Carlos. Carlos had noticed both him and Kaelis beside him. His face showed regret after anger.

  Atlas, Carlos, and Kaelis had reunited inside the Bazaar.

  “Hey are you okay, Carlos?”

  “Ah, yeah. I’m fine”

  After that short exchange, Carlos turned his gaze to Kaelis. Noticing the look, Kaelis tensed up slightly.

  “Sorry. I lost control. I’m glad you’re all right, Kaelis.”

  “I still don’t fully understand you, but I’ll try to. I’m glad you’re okay too, Carlos.”

  Kaelis still hadn’t forgotten Asaf’s death. After that, seeing Carlos continue his work didn’t feel right to him at all. But this was something whose full background he didn’t know.

  “Well then, shall we keep going?”

  “Let’s do it a few more times, then start moving the goods to our side.”

  “Got it”

  “———”

  “By the way, Kaelis, have you tried it yet?”

  “What do you mean? If you mean stealing, no”

  “Then let’s find a target you can try too.”

  “ Hey hold on, Atlas. Do you really want this, Kaelis?”

  Kaelis had seen with his own eyes what would happen if he failed while stealing, yet he still didn’t want to look pathetic. He didn’t even want to try—he was so scared he wanted to get away from there immediately—but deep inside there was a feeling that he had to do this.

  “I’ll do it”

  “Okay then let’s begin.”

  Atlas moved ahead to look for a stall while Kaelis and Carlos walked side by side behind him.

  Kaelis started asking Carlos questions again—this time in a low voice, without shouting.

  “Why are you still stealing?”

  “You’re talking about death again.”

  Carlos spoke the words with a sorrowful expression.

  “If I dwell on one death, I’ll have to see the deaths of dozens of my brothers again. Everything has its time. Right now I’m doing my job.”

  Kaelis wasn’t completely satisfied, but Carlos’s explanation made sense. At least, that was how he thought it.

  Atlas, walking in front, suddenly stopped.

  “Hey, look at this, guys”

  He pointed at a fruit stall piled with apples. The front of the stall was empty again. All he had to do was sneak up and take a crate.

  Carlos moved closer to Kaelis.

  “Are you ready?”

  “I think so”

  “You know what to do, right?”

  “Yeah, just like you did.”

  After those words, Kaelis moved away and tried to get closer to the stall.

  Atlas and Carlos were watching him.

  Kaelis quietly approached the side of the stall, but he had failed—the merchant had noticed him.

  Panicking, Kaelis kept his posture and started inspecting the apples as if he were a customer planning to buy them.

  He picked up apples in his hands and looked left and right, pretending to inspect them.

  At that moment, another customer arrived on the opposite side of the stall. The merchant’s attention shifted. Seizing the chance, Kaelis grabbed an entire crate of apples and started running.

  Running with the heavy crate slowed him down, but Kaelis was strong, so it wasn’t too much of a problem.

  While running, he looked ahead. Atlas and Carlos were signaling him toward an alley.

  As Kaelis headed for the alley, the merchant whose apples he had stolen chased after him.

  Kaelis entered the alley. It was a dead-end, but there was a pipe, so he could climb up.

  Atlas had already started climbing. Carlos stood right beside the pipe.

  “Carlos, take the apples—I can’t climb with them!”

  “Okay, hand them over quick”

  Kaelis gave the crate. The moment Carlos took it, he began climbing the pipe. Even carrying the crate of apples, he climbed fast.

  After a short distance opened up, Kaelis started climbing too. Since he had only just learned how, he was much slower than the other two.

  Atlas and Carlos waited for him on the rooftop. The roof wasn’t flat; it had slightly sloped tiles, but there was still a small flat area.

  While Kaelis kept climbing, footsteps echoed from the entrance of the alley. They came from the alley’s only opening.

  The person making the footsteps was the male merchant who had been chasing him.

  Kaelis spotted the merchant and tried to climb even faster, putting everything he had into it.

  While Atlas waited on the rooftop,

  “Come on, faster!”

  As Atlas spoke, the merchant raised his right hand. His right hand was aimed directly at Kaelis.

  “Me Ignis”

  The moment the merchant spoke, the only thing Kaelis saw was a red dot hurtling toward him at high speed.

  ***

  “What just happened…? It hurts…”

  Lying in the middle of a dead-end alley that was supposed to lead somewhere from the main street, the person—Kaelis—spoke these words.

  Kaelis had only now realized how dark the alley was.

  As he spoke, he felt a massive explosive sound. The noise hurt his ears terribly.

  Looking around, he saw the pipe he had tried to climb now lying in pieces beside him.

  “Damn it—I can’t… move”

  Kaelis had fallen hard from roughly seven meters up. His ribs, legs, and hands were probably broken; his spine was likely damaged. Of course, these were the expected consequences for someone falling from that height.

  The child, unable to stay still from the pain but he couldn't even turn his head.

  His vision was slowly blurring. The impact from the high fall had damaged his head, and he was probably suffering a brain hemorrhage—that was his own conclusion. Blood had filled the whites of his eyes.

  He weakly moved his hand and brought it into his line of sight.

  “Aaa! That’s blood!”

  The child’s shrill voice was loud enough only for himself to hear. He could barely speak, yet he still heard his own words.

  “Is this— my blood…?”

  The child continued helplessly. Were his eyes showing him a bloody hand, or was his hand really bloody? In truth, it didn’t matter. He was already slowly losing consciousness.

  “I’m cold… I’m cold… I’m cold. I’ve never felt this kind of cold before”

  As the warmth slowly left his body, Kaelis began to shiver.

  What had happened just now? He thought and thought, and the only thing that came to mind was the red dot he had seen at the very end. Has that caused all of this?

  Footsteps started coming from the entrance of the alley. They belonged to someone walking slowly, but in the empty, enclosed space the sound reached his ears with terrifying clarity.

  Forcing open his eyes that were closing from blood loss, he hoped to see something and lifted his gaze a little more. Every movement he made was hastening the end of his life.

  “Damn it… damn it…”

  The child had started cursing. He had now realized he had no time left. This was his last conversation with himself. Only angels or gods could hear his voice now if they exist.

  “If only… if only I had one more chance!”

  Facing death, he had lost his sanity and begun to ramble.

  The sounds he had heard earlier grew much closer. His eardrums felt like they were about to burst. He couldn’t bear it.

  His eyes caught sight of black shoes. From his angle he normally wouldn’t have been able to make them out clearly, yet they were perfectly visible.

  The owner of the shoes stopped. The child could no longer hold his head up. What would happen to him? He didn’t even need to think about it anymore—he would be dead soon anyway.

  No longer able to lift his head, Kaelis slammed it against the stone ground.

  Kaelis could no longer see or move. The only thing he could still do was hear, but even the smallest sound made his eardrums feel ready to explode.

  While Kaelis lay motionless on the ground after hitting his head against the wall, he heard only one powerful, single instant sound.

  The beautifully patterned stone tiles on the floor of the narrow alley were now painted with Kaelis’s blood. Drops of blood had splattered onto the alley walls.

  If anyone looked down from above into this dark, narrow alley, what they would see was clear: an average-height man and a child lying on the stones, his head no longer attached to his body, in a pool of his own blood.

  With this outcome, one thing had become certain.

  That child was no longer alive.

  That was the moment Kaelis Varn died.