“Are you ready for today, Gregory?”

Gregory? Who the fuck is that? Is he talking to me? I thought it was Balthazar something-something Gruel IV now.

“Uh… yes?” I replied nonetheless. At this point in time, I couldn’t care less anymore. That’s just how this man in front of me was.

“Good, now, let’s go spectate the fruits of our labor”

With that said, it was pouring heavily outside. A good thing that he had two plastic umbrellas that he pulled out from one of his bags, though. One for him to use, and one for me, so it’s all good.

“I always carry duplicates with me” He said. “And bringing a spare is always necessary when you need to use the other one to whack the hands of pesky beggars away”

His reason for things really astounds me, and we only met a couple of days ago. Imagine what sorts of things I’d find out about him later on.

We made our way to a store a few blocks away from the city hall. Where, if you take a look around that area, you could see a lot of guards on standby at all sides of the building. And a colorful mess in front where a poorly written message of ‘We’re going to bomb this place’ was at. It must be the large note that he left.

“Yo' fuckwit, gimme some of this ‘ere fine lookin' bread”

“Potatoes! Get yourself some baked potatoes here! Fresh out of a stone oven!”

“What are you looking at? Huh?”

“So… that’s one, two, and… what?”

“Where did you hide the bodies at?”

“Ah, the east's be spittin’ some fine ale this week. It’d be a damn shame if their warehouse burns down… you know, just a coincidence”

Other than that, the people were busy with their own normal ways to get money, and as much as possible from someone else, too. Some even broke out into fights over a small disagreement in price.

“A lovely place this is~” He cheerfully said.

Lovely, huh?

“It’s rubbish” I replied, as I watch two people fight over something so trivial on the streets. If they had enough energy to squabble, then they could just put that effort into something else more productive. Like, stealing or robbing someone with more dough on them.

“I think it’s marvelous, though” He looked at me as if he knew what he was talking about.

“How so?” I asked even though I already knew that he can’t answer it. If I’m not being nice, I’d have labeled my King as a deranged fool. In the first place, if he wanted a decent Piece, then he should have headed to the other more developed cities where they were taking the Ranking Wars seriously. Serious enough to make it their raison d’être, unlike filth like us who only worry about what would and wouldn’t kill when we put something in our mouths to eat, or anything that we see, for that matter.

“This place is where the scum and the abandoned go to. Branded people like me aren’t allowed to enter other places with a good neighborhood, or fancy food and clothes. We don’t even have anywhere else to go, so this fucking place is the only one we’ve got left. But, you…” I looked at him.

“You aren’t even supposed to be here in the first place. You stick out like a damn circus clown in an office” I could already tell from the way he looked and acted. He was an upper-class that managed to rise and become a King. Not like us that wear rags and eat rats. We don’t have a future besides rotting near other trash like us.

“Oh, I’m not talking about this garbage dump you call a home. I’m talking about you, the people that live inside of this cesspool of sin and slavery”

“Huh?” What the hell is he prattling on about now?

“People like you that have a deep sense and drive to survive in an undesirable environment. People that know and live in hardship, suffering, pain, and bitterness all day long. Where you do things that no one might do just to get a crumb of bread in your stomach, or pushing other people inside a furnace just to earn a quick buck” He gave me an all-knowing look.

“So? Does that make us any better than the rest of you lot? Cause if it’s being inhumane as possible that you’re looking for, then there are others, gits that are far worse than me out there, so take your picking” If all he wanted was a cutthroat, then I think ninety-eight percent of the people in here would happily oblige just to get out of this place. Hell, they’d even volunteer to become a footstool for him.

“On the contrary, I despise people that have no moral values of their own” He said. “But, I’ve got a very keen eye for people that do fit most my criteria. And almost all of those egocentric plastics that are inside of those petty walls are just softies and incompetents that can’t bear to live up to my standards”

“And that is?”

“I want someone that does everything they do like their life depended on it. A person who knows how the world works deep down in this hideous under crust. An individual that can think and act on their own and not just be some stupid marionette waiting to get their strings to be played. So, to sum it up, I need…”

He pointed his index finger directly at me.

“YOU”