The next morning Rufus woke up alone with neither Haley nor Harley present. Harley had woken up at the break of dawn as she worked at a brick manufacturing factory.

Rufus quickly put clothes on and went outside. The streets in the slums were a bit nicer and safer during the day.

"I better go to old man Haufen's bar to try and find Haley."

~~

When he reached the bar where Haley had gone to last night the door was locked. It looked like there was no one inside. Rufus hesitated to knock on the door and was very nervous to disturb old man Haufen the owner.

"Knock or to not knock. That is the question," thought Rufus while imagining in his head holding a skull.

"Oi, brat. It was funny the first time seeing you deciding will you grow the balls to knock on my door, but nowadays it's just sad."

"Old man Haufen?"

"Who else you idiot and don't call me old. I'm only thirty-five," yelled a voice from inside. Come inside. The doors open."

The bar was dirty, and the ground was sticky. With each step, you could hear a squishy sound when Rufus's shoe would get a little stuck to it. At the center of the bar was an old-looking man mopping the floor. He had no hair and had a small grey beard.

"How did you know I was behind the door?"

"Haven't I told you? I was in the army. Fighting for those twat nobles and royals for a reason I never got to know. Being able to hear well was a must if you wanted to stay alive back then."

Old man Haufen had been a family friend of Harley, Rufus, and Haley. He had known them since they were kids.

He had been a soldier in his teens and youth but when he was discharged he couldn't get a job because of his bad mouth and bad temper, so he decided to open a bar in the slums where he had grown up.

Would think a bad-mouthed and bad-tempered man opening a bar was a bad idea, but his bar was the only one that wasn't trashed on a regular basis by the inhabitants of the slums. Even the gangsters didn't want to trash the place or start asking for protection money from him.

He was only thirty-five years old but looked way older. People say it was the stress from the army that made him go grey early, but he insisted that running a bar and a restaurant was way harder.

"So, what are you doing here? Hopefully, you're not making Harley stress about something?"

"No, no. I'm just looking for Haley. She apparently came to eat here late last night and she didn't return home."

"Yeah, she was here. Came here with some questionable money, but we ourselves are not that rich to turn down a paying customer." said an older woman who came from the back.

The woman was Ms. Jean, old man Haufen's wife. She was weirdly older than Haufen even though she looked younger than him.

She was part nobility and was married to a nobleman before she had met Haufen. Unfortunately, that nobleman was a bad man and abused her often. One day she tried to escape from her husband but was caught. At that moment when the husband had caught her, both the nobleman and Mrs. Jean ran into Haufen.

Haufen then proceeded to kick the ass of the nobleman and his henchman. He had just been discharged and was arguably very annoyed at that moment and needed a proper punching bag at that moment.

After that Mrs. Jean clung to Haufen, helped him to open the bar with her own money. Later all that clinging on Haufen paid off and they got married. True beauty and the beast story.

"Your sister has been hanging out with some questionable people, I saw her walking with members of the black rat gang."

The black rat gang was one of the three gangs that ran the underworld of Jacobstadt. They were notorious thieves that stole from rich and poor alike. They were known for their insignia, a rat eating its tail that was tattooed on their bodies.

Rufus got cold shivers down his back. He was afraid of what they would do to Haley and also thought why had Haley decided to hang with them.

"That's not good. The black rat gang may be known for their thieving ways, but they won't shy from plunging a knife into a person's side. You should keep a better eye out for Haley. She is your little sister. You can't always expect Harley to take care of you two. Now that you're a man, you should take care of that younger sister of yours." Haufen explained.

"I always remember when I met you three for the first time. Harley was holding you by your hand while she was carrying Haley on her back. She asked for some leftover foods to feed you two but unfortunately, we didn't have any food to give."

"Then she offered to work for some food. She worked an entire shift while you two were waiting behind the bar counter. All she did was clean, but she did so well we decided to let her serve the customers. They were so amazed by such a hard-working young girl that they decided to behave once without having my husband threaten them with violence. In the end, we couldn't afford to hire her, but gave her as much food as she wanted and no leftovers as she had initially wanted. Eventually, she just gave the food for the two of you and didn't eat herself."

Rufus still remembered it. Harley had just found him on the streets with no memory and worn-torn clothes. During those times Rufus still didn't speak a word and still doesn't remember anything from the time before the age of three. He had almost learned to talk from Harley.

"You still want to find Haley don't you?" asked old man Haufen.

"Now more than ever," said Rufus diligently.

"Good answer. I don't know where they went, but I know the black rat gangsters hang at the forum near the statue of the current king. Most likely a meeting place for all the pickpockets of the black rat gang. Try your luck there."

"Thank you old man Haufen," said Rufus and ran out of the bar.

"I can't let Harley know about what Haley has gotten herself into. She's worried about us already enough," Rufus thought.

He quickly got to the forum and marketplace of the capital.

Rufus quickly found the statue of the king but currently, no people with a tattoo of a rat eating its tail could be spotted close by.

~~

Rufus was still waiting for someone noteworthy to come by as the sun was about to go down.

"Get your best vegetables here ladies and gentlemen! Only here! The best vegetables from the entire universe only here!" yelled Rufus from one of the stalls.

Someone had asked Rufus to help him sell some vegetables from their stall and as a proper pushover was unable to say no.

"Why can't I learn to say no," thought Rufus to himself while shedding a tear.

"So, you got yourself some more salesperson experience. Probably you'd open your stall in the future," said Harley who surprised and scared Rufus.

"Ha..Ha.Harley. What are you doing here?" asked Rufus shaking knowing that he couldn't let Harley know that her sister was hanging with the black rat gang.

"What am I doing in the forum? Obviously not shopping for anything. That is like the one thing you can't do at the forum," Harley stated sarcastically.

Rufus spotted a couple of people with the black rat gang tattoo on their necks hanging near the statue. He had to get Harley out of there one way or another before Haley would come as well.

"Aaaaah, of course, of course. Shopping. Well it's getting pretty late so you better get back home also," said Rufus trying to get rid of Harley.

"Eeeeeh. Are you forgetting about your yesterday's exercise? You are not staying late tonight. This city is not safe during the dark. You are coming with me and Haley right now back home."

"Eh. Haley?"

"Yeah. You and Haley over there." Harley said and pointed at the statue.

Rufus spotted Haley near the statue. He felt as his soul was leaving his body. There Haley was talking to the two black rat gang members who had arrived there earlier.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit. What do I do? Harley can't see Haley talking to those gangsters."

"Hey, Haley, what the hell are you doing with those two," said Harley and went to Haley without Rufus noticing.

Again, Rufus felt like his soul had left his body. Harley spotted the tattoos on them and recognized them as part of the black rat gang.

"Oi Haley. Shouldn't you be inside? Having blood puke disease is bad. It's very contagious," said Harley trying to bluff the gang members to leave.

The gang members got startled and looked at Haley as she was caring a plague. They had never heard of such a disease, obviously since there wasn't any disease called that.

"What the hell do you think your doing sis?" whispered Haley to her sister.

"Oh no. I heard that being close to an infected person will make men's genitalia bleed and open up like a flower," said Harley and bluffed again.

Haley felt embarrassed and turned around and saw the two gang members had already left the vicinity. Haley felt a murderous aura coming from behind her. It was Harley who was super mad.

Harley dragged Haley out of the forum with Rufus following them.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" yelled Harley at Haley.

Haley didn't even dare to look at her sister.

"You know what those gangsters do? They are as equally to blame for the slums as the nobles," Harley yelled.

"I know that, but don't you ever wish for something better? Even for the slightest bit. I hate it when you have to work so hard to provide for me and for some reason you also provide for him," Haley yelled.

Haley then took a small box from her pocket.

"With this, we can move out of our crappy house. Just the two of us. I just did this one job where I had to steal this thing for the black rat gang."

Inside the box was a small necklace with precious stones embedded in it.

"Give me that here now!"

A skinny man came with a gang tattoo on his forehead. Haley recognized him as the leader of the back rat gang.

"I don't know what happened with the exchange that was supposed to happen earlier at the statue, but Haley just give it here now please," said the gang leader nervously.

Harley didn't know what to do and Rufus also was stunned. With him were a few gang members, but all of them looked like they were scared of something or someone.

"Yeah of course, but remember the price you promised for this," asked Haley.

"I am sorry, but let's not talk about that here now. We need the item right now. So, give it here please," explained the gang boss in a terrified and desperate voice.

"This is taking too long you mongrel," said a voice coming from behind the gang leader.

A man started to walk towards Haley from behind the gang leader. He had fine clothes and carried a scimitar sword on his back. Behind him were two soldiers armed with halberds and some basic armor.

"See Mr. Blausaber. We have your stolen item right here as promised," said the gang leader like he was fearing for his life.

The man with the sword slashed the gang leader in two by the waist. Blood spilled everywhere. The other gang members froze up in terror. Rufus, Haley, and Harley were also frozen from shock by what they had witnessed.

"Damn these street vermin. Forcing me to come all the way here. I knew immediately to find that idiot of a gangster when I figured out that the necklace was stolen. Even I know they had to have been involved in this robbery," explained the man.