Biting into the unpalatable and hard black bread, Ezio glanced at the girl who gave him a small piece of bread last night, feeling a little guilty. She did not show up at work in the morning, and the reason was quite obvious. The girl was so thin that it was difficult to even stand, and she coughed heartbreakingly from time to time.
Watching her take a small piece of brown bread from her eldest brother, only eat one or two bites, and then put away the rest. Of course Ezio knew that for children like him, eating so little food was not enough. I want to help her, but I don’t know where to start.
At this time, he remembered a doubt he had before. He had a particularly good eye, and he remembered that the reward received by the boss did not match the final payment for the black bread.
Compared with other children, the difference between Ezio and them is that he has a certain concept of numbers. This is due to the several sisters in that family who count things all day long. Under the influence of his ears and eyes, he understood more or less.
He might not be able to accurately calculate how much money the boss kept privately, but he knew that they should be able to buy more of that unpleasant bread. At least, it will allow everyone to eat more. So Ezio decided to ask the leader.
The areas where these children live are within a certain range. It's not that which side is particularly comfortable or which side is particularly uncomfortable. From Ezio's perspective, they were all equally bad. And the location of the boss seemed to be just a few steps away from the wall.
But just as he was about to round the corner, he saw the child who must have been the oldest, talking to an adult. Ezio subconsciously took a few steps back, hid in the corner, and watched secretly.
The adult looked quite slovenly, his appearance was wretched, and his tone of speech was very arrogant. He reached out and took the money bag handed out by the child in front of him. After cursing a few times, he slapped the person to the ground with his backhand. The ferocious look was just as hateful as that magician who beat anyone to death regardless of adults or children.
When he saw his newly recognized boss being defeated, Ezio wanted to rush out and fight with that adult. But the magician's teachings... were crooked and made him slow down a step. It was at this step that Ezio was grabbed by the shoulders by the person behind him and dragged back behind the broken wall.
The girl's eldest brother grabbed Ezio and put a finger in front of his lips to signal silence. He also compared the location far away and asked the little fat man, who was new here and didn't understand anything yet, to follow him.
When he was a little further away, Ezio asked: "Who is that person?"
"What a nasty scumbag," the girl's eldest brother criticized. But then he said dejectedly: "But before we can work here, we have to get their consent. Otherwise, we won't be able to stay here at all."
At this moment, Ezio suddenly remembered that the two sisters told them something about their adventures. It has been mentioned that children in slums will steal things for a living, but there are still despicable adults controlling them. I couldn't help but exclaimed in a low voice: "Are we going to be pickpockets and steal things?"
Regarding the fat man's ideas, the girl's brother had a dark face, shook his hands and said, "No, no. We won't do such a thing."
"Well, so actually, the man who just beat the boss is a good person?" Ezio asked doubtfully.
The girl's eldest brother said firmly: "No, this is even more impossible."
"Then why?"
"Don't you know where you are?" The girl's eldest brother looked at the fat man in front of him with strange eyes. He continued: "This is a city of magicians. If you steal things casually, steal things that have been marked by magicians, and then have them come to your door, I have never heard of anyone being able to survive."
The situation the boy mentioned is the reality of the holy city of Estali.
Like most cities in the Lost Lands, the holy city of Estali certainly has so-called slums and slums, which are called 'lower streets' here. Most of the people living inside came from out of town to do menial jobs that the magicians or magic apprentices who thought they were superior to others were not willing to do.
A place like this is of course a mixed bag of dragons and snakes. There will also be some low-life people who do vile things. But the problem is that this is a city of magicians, not a city of ordinary nobles or a city that grew up because of trade routes and sea routes. The biggest difference between the two is that there are no public prisons or dungeons in the Holy City.
This means that if someone commits a crime in the holy city of Estali and is caught by an inspector wearing a yellow shawl, his hands and feet will either be amputated or he will be executed on the spot. There is no such thing as being put in jail to give a person a chance to repent. If you survive, please find an opportunity to commit suicide. Because it will not be safer if it becomes a material for magic experiments.
In addition to the yellow shawl representing the public power of the Holy City, there are also many magicians who are "brave in what they do". They will also perform some uncivilized actions on criminals, and as long as it is proven that these people are indeed criminals, the inspectors will not impose any punishment on the magicians who use lynching. Then the property of the criminal will naturally become the trophy of the brave magician.
Therefore, in the holy city of Estari, when members of the Thieves Guild were at their most rampant, magicians would occasionally lose magically marked items. Then the masters followed the clues and went to the door to say hello to these little thieves. When you take back the stolen items, you will also take away the things you like. As for the little thieves without eyes, they were beaten to death. A typical situation where life and money are both important.
It is precisely because this kind of fishing is so rampant that the master who dares to play like this will not be a three-legged cat. Unexpectedly, the crime situation in the holy city of Estali has been reduced from theft, a major crime. Gradually, theft became a taboo in this magician city.
Of course, there are also some veterans who think they can tell the difference between a fat sheep and an angler, so they act unscrupulously. However, most people will still carefully avoid situations that give the masters reason to take action, and the same goes for children. Don't think that children can win much sympathy. Masters don't care about age when they want to torture people or put them on the autopsy table.
To this day, no thief or smuggler dares to test whether the masters have relaxed their guard. Therefore, this group of orphans who gathered were not forced to do any criminal things, they were just forced to do some dirty work that most people were unwilling to do.
Ezio's little mind couldn't figure out the reason behind this. But for him, as long as he knows what the current situation is, it is enough.
The current situation is that these children are still on the weak side and are exploited by those despicable adults.
