It’s been ten years since I lost my parents, and since then, I’ve begun to live off the streets without ever returning to my home in the slums. In the capital, there were four different slums, one in the north, one in the south, one in the east, and one in the west. I used to live in the east slums that was attacked by the night raid that resulted in me losing my parents and becoming homeless.

My main reason was that I didn’t think about it. I just walked away without a single thought of returning to my home. Later, I felt happy with my thoughtless decision because it appeared that the houses were burnt down the next night. So, if I had stayed there, I would’ve been reduced to ashes and then begun construction for some kind of industry.

So, what have I been doing for the last ten years? Stealing. Robbing. Killing. Well, I normally don’t intend to kill, but when people come after me, I do what I got to do. Right now, I live in a predatory world where those with strong teeth and sharp claws survive while the weak perish. I did what I could to live so that I may, one day, carry out my revenge against The Empire and destroy them for ruining my life.

At first, I tried to pickpocket from random people on the street, but I ended up failing miserably and ended up having to run for my life. For the rest of that day, I kept a low profile because I saw them searching for me after having seen my face.

“I’m an idiot for not hiding my face,” I thought.

It was the fundamental thing to do when doing something bad, but I just didn’t think about it. That was my very first attempt at stealing, and I didn’t expect it to go so badly. I always imagined stealing to be easy, but apparently not as I realised, I’ve got to train hard and acquire certain skills in order to make a successful steal.

So, I lived off the eating trash from the dump yard and attempted my steal the next day. This time, I careful crept up to him and covered my face with a bandanna before snatching at his purse. After that, I ran as fast as I could away from everyone so that I didn’t get captured.

“Thief!”

I heard the owner of the purse shouting and crying out for help, but I didn’t care. If there was one thing that I learnt about these people was that they would not help nor care about thievery. After all, they don’t want to get involved in anything dangerous.

The authorities patrolled the cities that day in search of a person wearing a bandanna. Since they didn’t see my face, I was able to easily stroll back into the street and finally have a good meal. Like that, I continued to steal each and every day, giving me a good amount of money to live off.

However, it wasn’t a smooth process. I had to face obstacles sooner or later, and I met some soon in the form of other thieves living in the city. They too are praying on unsuspecting people and stealing their purses just like me, and since I am taking their game away and making the authorities become alert, they were angry at me.

One group even tried to corner me while I was making my way after conducting a successful robbery. They all had knives in hand and looked as if they would be willing to take my life.

“Because of you, we’ve been having a tough time stealing!”

“Yeah! You’re getting in our way!”

Then complained about how I was ruining their chances of success and survival. Did I care? No. Not one bit. I did what I could to live, and I was successful in what I did. As for these morons, I’m actually surprised that they were able to live this long with that kind of attitude. It’s a shame, really.

So, I pulled out my hay knife from my side and said to them coldly, “Get lost.”

“Not going to listen, are you?”

“It’s a waste speaking to this guy.”

“Let’s just take what we came for and get rid of him!”

“Yeah! I don’t like him one bit!”

At the last man’s words, I actually chuckled and startled them.

“Well, isn’t that funny? The feeling’s mutual,” I replied and smiled evilly at them.

Obviously, I was taunting them to make the first move and run into a blunder to give me the chance to take them out. It was successful, and one of them charged forward and swung his knife at me. If It was me from two days ago, I would have been nervous and run away, but I am more confident in myself now and it’s all thanks to that mean looking guy being one of the two people I first killed.

“Rest in peace wherever you are,” I thought, giving him a small prayer for the help he provided with his death.

I easily dodged him and slashed at his throat, causing him to instantly get shocked and try to stop the blood. But it was too late, and he collapsed on the ground with blood forming around him.

“Next,” I said coldly, ready for the kill.

The death of their comrade shocked them, but it must’ve made them resolve themselves because two people charged at me at the same time. I merely took one step back and tilted my head slightly to avoid one knife while using the hay knife to block the other. Then I used my free hand to pull the second knife I got from my second kill and slit the left guy’s arm. While he was distracted, I contended with the person on the right with my hay knife and eventually slashed at his throat.

“Dammit!” The left man yelled, ignoring the pain in his wrist and moved forward while swinging his knife.

I ducked and used my knife to stab into the side of his neck, instantly killing him. As he collapsed, I stood back up and began moving forward towards the rest of the group, who began to back away with fear after seeing three of their comrades get killed right before their eyes. They hesitated for a moment before turning around and running away as fast as their legs could carry deeper into the alley.

Once they disappeared, I sighed and used their own clothing to wipe the blood off my weapons and stowed them into my pockets. Then I put my hands together and prayed for them to have a peaceful afterlife. It was not my intention to kill them, but I lived in a world with only one rule; survival of the fittest. For me, I was going to do anything to keep on living and get my revenge on The Empire.

Like that, I spent my days stealing, escaping, eating, reading newspapers, and sleeping. I did that continuously for the last ten years, and I had earned quite the fame in the city. My skills had improved greatly, so great that I stopped needing to cover my face as I stole from people in broad daylight, without them even noticing it.

It was simple, I simply walk up to the person and gently bumped into them. As I did, I would quickly take his purse from his pocket, apologise for not waiting my step and keep going. It wasn’t much later that victim realised he had lost his purse and was searching around in a panic while I made off with it. It was a quick and simpler approach compared to having to wear bandanna and run for my life each and every day.

The authorities soon understood that there was a master thief in the city, doing most of the plundering. I found about this while I was reading my daily newspaper of the events happening around the city. It wasn’t something I gave myself, it was something they gave me, and I didn’t really care for the fame or glory it might come with it; I did it to survive.

That was one thing that I kept doing no matter what; reading news. The reason that I did read it was because I wanted to have a good vocabulary and good reading abilities. You never know when such a skill might come in handy in the world of thieves or in the normal society.

I always read the newspaper in the tea shop because they always had the best tea possible. Maybe, I should’ve been interested in drinking bear or smoking to forget about the past and all, but I have a target, a goal to reach, and I wasn’t going to let stupid things divert my attention away. Besides, I’d be wasting my money on that jump when I could have this lovely tea that I’ve come to really like.

“Great tea as always, owner,” I said, speaking politely to the shop owner.

“Glad you liked it, lad!” He replied cheerfully at my praise.

The reason I call him master was because, when I was thirsty, his shop was the first place I came to have my first tea. That was five-years-ago, and since then having tea was a daily thing to me, once in the morning and once in the evening. It was just that good!

“The master thief sure is plundering around,” the owner said while making tea for the customers. “I wonder how much money he stockpiled over the years?”

“I wonder,” I replied and chuckled.

Yes. I do wonder about how much I made over these ten-years. If anyone asked me directly, I wouldn’t say much because it seemed that somehow each time I stole, I would find only change in there. It was like these people were very cautious of their purses being stolen and decided to not bring much money out.

While that was in a way good for them, it wasn’t great for me because that means I had fewer earnings that I envisioned. As such, I was only able to save up on so much silver and lived a less than average lifestyle. At least, I was able to build my own shack at the dump yard away from prying eyes and lived there in peace that no one disturbed.

As I pondered about how slowly my earnings were, a group of men came in and sat down a couple of tables away from me. They looked very important with the professional clothing they were wearing, but I didn’t care. They were just customers at this shop, and the owner busied himself by serving them tea.

The reason I didn’t bother to steal from the owner was because I came to like him. He seemed like a wonderful guy doing an honest man’s job of living his life to the fullest serving tea to his customers. This didn’t mean that I trusted him or anything. No way. I would never do that again, but I liked him as a fellow human being. He was kind, caring, and well-mannered to his customers and had a good income, so I didn’t want to ruin his chances of survival by putting mine at the top of the list.

“I’m not a cold-blooded killer or some kind of heartless monster,” I thought and smiled wryly.

So, I sat there in silence, reading through the newspaper while enjoying my tea. As for the important looking people, I completely ignored them, that was until I heard them whispering something and two words caught my attention.

“…night raid…”

I widened my eyes in shock, and I wanted to put down my paper to listen in on their conversation. However, I instantly knew that would be bad for me, so I kept the paper up to hide me. To any person, I looked like I was reading the newspaper, but I was instead listening on their conversation.

“Yeah. They’re thinking about it.”

“There was a rumour circulating of a revolutionary start up at the west slums. Maybe the survivors from the east slums went there?”

“Maybe, but it’s still a scary thought. Imagine what the emperor would say if he finds out?”

“You’re right, and that’s why the higher ups are deciding to deal with it in a few days from now.”

“It’s a piece of cake, guys. Relax. The plan to take out the east slums went successfully, and so will the west slums. I mean, who cares about those people when our city and the empire can prosper?”

“Harsh.”

“As expected from the mastermind.”

A man suddenly laughed and replied, “Don’t start calling me that. I just gave them the suggestion of the night raid and everyone approved it.”

“I see. Is that why they’re going to do another night raid? To get rid of the problem?”

“Well, when you’re faced with a thorn in plain sight, you can’t just ignore it, right? You have to pluck it out with force. Same thing here.”

“But the people…? So many would be killed,” a man said, sounding worried.

“Like I said, who cares so long as we, the city, and the empire prospers?”

“Yeah. You said it!”

“Nicely done.”

“Fine. Whatever,” the man with the reasonable voice said with a sigh.

“You’ve got all the documents with you?”

“Yeah. Right here,” and I heard a hand tapping on what sounded like a briefcase. “Everything’s still in the drafting stage for now, but I’ll get it done by tonight and submit it in the morning.”

“Great.”

“Sounds like a plan to me.”

Then they went silent as the owner came and asked if they wanted anything more, to which they declined. After some time, I heard the sound of scrapping chairs as they rose to their feet and left the shop after paying the owner.

“They sure are some important people,” the owner said, looking amazed.

“Yes. They are,” I replied in a quiet voice, watching them leave.

I focused my attention on the man carrying the briefcase since I heard him tapping it just now. Nodding once in assent, I bid the tea shop owner farewell and slowly began to tail those men, especially with the briefcase.

“It looks like I got a different hunt to do today,” I muttered as I followed them out of the shop.