Chapter 118
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The street urchin quickly nodded his head and agreed without any thought. He didn't want to die yet and he trembled under her intense stare. He stopped resisting as well when he found it harder to breath. He didn't even care what the job was as long as he didn't die.
"Good," Altair said with a bright-yet-dark smile on her face. "Then I want you to lead to me to the wells near the market."
Altair wanted him to help her find out where her brother lived. That was the whole idea she got the very second she saw him. She knew that he wouldn't be able to refuse her because he would have to not be afraid to die then. If he wasn't afraid to die then why would he be pickpocketing people instead of mugging them in the alleys?
Mugging people in an alley was more risky but yielded greater rewards. You would have to put your life on the line to try and get the money. Plus, the guards would be out looking for you if you left the victim alive.
If you pickpocketed someone, it relied on stealth and sleight of hand. You were attempting to go unnoticed to your target. It was far easier to get away with than mugging someone and the punishment wouldn't be death either.
Because that was the case, Altair decided to use the threat of death because she appeared to be the daughter of someone important with how good her clothes were. Since she would be seen as trying to kill him when she dragged him into an alley, it only stirred the boys survival instincts even harder so that he blindly agreed to do some work for her without a second thought.
Altair needed someone to guide her to all of the wells near the market in order to find that little courtyard. Once she found it she would then still have to find where her brother lived, but that was a problem for later. The first problem was finding it at all.
Who knew a town or city the best? The street urchins. Their very lives depended on them knowing where all the streets led so that they could escape from any guards or people who spotted them. It was also important to know where the other gangs of kids operated so that they could avoid their territories. They could wind up beaten up or killed by the kids of other areas if they weren't careful.
Of course, that didn't mean she could trust the child completely to do the task she set for him. Thus, she burnt some Mana and created a small shadow bead that dug into the urchins clothes. With a miniscule shadow creation on the urchin she would be able to track his whereabouts by sensing the area where her Mana was being sent to.
She also grabbed his hand again with her free hand as it had wandered to the top of her satchel again and stated sinisterly, "Don't try and play me or you know what will happen."
The boy gulped loudly as she pushed herself away from him. His hand immediately went around his throat as he rubbed it, still feeling the pressure from when she grabbed him even though she had let go already. He asked in an immature voice, "Why are you looking for the wells?"
Altair gave him a flat stare as she responded, "You don't need to know. Get walking, I don't have all day."
The boy eyed her suspiciously for a few moments. When Altair started to tap her foot on the ground he finally started to walk off down the alley.
Altair followed behind him by a few steps. She kept an eye on the direction they were heading in the alley. She didn't want him to lead her in the wrong direction as she knew the general location of the market from where she was. So long as they went in the right direction for a while she wouldn't mind a sudden turn in the wrong direction. However, she would snatch him up the moment he went in the wrong direction too early.
As Altair was led along, the boy glanced back towards her several times. She didn't pay this action any mind as she figured he was nervous about someone of higher status following him so closely.
Eventually, Altair was led to three different wells. None of them were what she was looking for. So, each time she had him lead to her the next well without bothering to stay very long. And with each passing well that she was led to, she saw the boy get more anxious.
'He's not planning to do something stupid is he?' She thought to herself with a smirk on her face. She could tell that he was trying to hurry them forward since the last well that she was led to. It was like he was in a hurry to get somewhere.
As she was getting led down a particular alley, the boy suddenly dashed off down a side lane without any warning. This caused Altair to sigh as she started to run after him while holding her satchel to her body.
'Stupid kid,' she thought to herself as she rounded the corner he just rounded.
She came to a dead stop as the alley opened up in to a wider pathway that was cluttered with barrels and stacks of boxes. There were several offshoots of the path that the boy could have run down but, on first glance, it was as if he had never come down this path.
But Altair could sense the direction he was in thanks to the Magic she put on him. He wasn't really that far away and he had stopped moving.
'He's probably hiding behind something,' Altair thought to herself as she walked into the alley. She didn't walk in without burning her Mana to strengthen herself though. She didn't know if it was an ambush that was set up ahead of time by the urchin to catch any chasers who went after them too far in the alleyways.
The Coalition had used such strategies to lure in people of interest before. They would then capture them and interrogate them to get the information they were after. That was how Altair knew to be cautious about this setup she had found herself in.
She gingerly stepped through the pathway and checked behind barrels as she went. She didn't see anyone hiding behind them so she continued forward. The side paths appeared to be devoid of people as well at a glance so she didn't pause her steps at all.
As Altair approached where the urchin was she heard a boy's voice shout, "Now!"
Immediately after, multiple groups of feet sounded from the side paths and Altair immediately put up her guard.
Over a dozen children came dashing into the pathway brandishing sticks and stones towards her. They were a motley gang of kids who were all shouting vigorously with not-very-menacing looks on their faces. They were all younger than ten years of age just by looking over them.
Altair frowned as they charged at her. What followed wasn't even a fight and couldn't be classified as a scuffle. Altair simply disarmed them and treated them as if she was training them on group tactics as she had done so many times in the training camps at the Coalition. She went out of her way to not hurt them too bad.
But this backfired on her. Since she wasn't really harming them, the children thought she wasn't really that strong. So, even though they were unable to do anything to her, they continued to attack even after she tossed them aside in a half-hearted manner.
The children would grab the weapons she tossed aside and swing them at her again without pausing at all or thinking through their attacks. Most of real wounds they got was because they wound up hitting their own friends and allies instead of them being from Altair.
The scuffle seemed to attract more urchins and children that were in the area. Soon, the pathway was filled with small demons trying to assault Altair. There got to be so many of them that Altair had to toss her satchel into the air and secure it to the wall with her Shadow Magic. She had no intention of letting any of these children have her things.
There was a limit to her patience though. As more and more children continued to pour in like a never ending river, she started to get agitated. She originally didn't want to hurt them because any one of them could be a Demi-Human in the future. It wouldn't be so good for her to, potentially, keep them from joining the Coalition.
But that was before she got agitated.
A youth's voice suddenly rang out from atop one of the barrels, "Stop! All of you stop!"
Altair was in the middle of tossing one of the children aside by their head when the wave of bodies stopped pressing against her without warning. This caused her to look towards the youth who commanded the rest. He looked vaguely familiar to her.
The youth flashed her a big dumb grin as the group of kids quieted down. He then stated, "That's the girl that Allie's was interested in. Obviously, she isn't someone we should be targeting unless you want to make her cry!"
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The street urchin quickly nodded his head and agreed without any thought. He didn't want to die yet and he trembled under her intense stare. He stopped resisting as well when he found it harder to breath. He didn't even care what the job was as long as he didn't die.
"Good," Altair said with a bright-yet-dark smile on her face. "Then I want you to lead to me to the wells near the market."
Altair wanted him to help her find out where her brother lived. That was the whole idea she got the very second she saw him. She knew that he wouldn't be able to refuse her because he would have to not be afraid to die then. If he wasn't afraid to die then why would he be pickpocketing people instead of mugging them in the alleys?
Mugging people in an alley was more risky but yielded greater rewards. You would have to put your life on the line to try and get the money. Plus, the guards would be out looking for you if you left the victim alive.
If you pickpocketed someone, it relied on stealth and sleight of hand. You were attempting to go unnoticed to your target. It was far easier to get away with than mugging someone and the punishment wouldn't be death either.
Because that was the case, Altair decided to use the threat of death because she appeared to be the daughter of someone important with how good her clothes were. Since she would be seen as trying to kill him when she dragged him into an alley, it only stirred the boys survival instincts even harder so that he blindly agreed to do some work for her without a second thought.
Altair needed someone to guide her to all of the wells near the market in order to find that little courtyard. Once she found it she would then still have to find where her brother lived, but that was a problem for later. The first problem was finding it at all.
Who knew a town or city the best? The street urchins. Their very lives depended on them knowing where all the streets led so that they could escape from any guards or people who spotted them. It was also important to know where the other gangs of kids operated so that they could avoid their territories. They could wind up beaten up or killed by the kids of other areas if they weren't careful.
Of course, that didn't mean she could trust the child completely to do the task she set for him. Thus, she burnt some Mana and created a small shadow bead that dug into the urchins clothes. With a miniscule shadow creation on the urchin she would be able to track his whereabouts by sensing the area where her Mana was being sent to.
She also grabbed his hand again with her free hand as it had wandered to the top of her satchel again and stated sinisterly, "Don't try and play me or you know what will happen."
The boy gulped loudly as she pushed herself away from him. His hand immediately went around his throat as he rubbed it, still feeling the pressure from when she grabbed him even though she had let go already. He asked in an immature voice, "Why are you looking for the wells?"
Altair gave him a flat stare as she responded, "You don't need to know. Get walking, I don't have all day."
The boy eyed her suspiciously for a few moments. When Altair started to tap her foot on the ground he finally started to walk off down the alley.
Altair followed behind him by a few steps. She kept an eye on the direction they were heading in the alley. She didn't want him to lead her in the wrong direction as she knew the general location of the market from where she was. So long as they went in the right direction for a while she wouldn't mind a sudden turn in the wrong direction. However, she would snatch him up the moment he went in the wrong direction too early.
As Altair was led along, the boy glanced back towards her several times. She didn't pay this action any mind as she figured he was nervous about someone of higher status following him so closely.
Eventually, Altair was led to three different wells. None of them were what she was looking for. So, each time she had him lead to her the next well without bothering to stay very long. And with each passing well that she was led to, she saw the boy get more anxious.
'He's not planning to do something stupid is he?' She thought to herself with a smirk on her face. She could tell that he was trying to hurry them forward since the last well that she was led to. It was like he was in a hurry to get somewhere.
As she was getting led down a particular alley, the boy suddenly dashed off down a side lane without any warning. This caused Altair to sigh as she started to run after him while holding her satchel to her body.
'Stupid kid,' she thought to herself as she rounded the corner he just rounded.
She came to a dead stop as the alley opened up in to a wider pathway that was cluttered with barrels and stacks of boxes. There were several offshoots of the path that the boy could have run down but, on first glance, it was as if he had never come down this path.
But Altair could sense the direction he was in thanks to the Magic she put on him. He wasn't really that far away and he had stopped moving.
'He's probably hiding behind something,' Altair thought to herself as she walked into the alley. She didn't walk in without burning her Mana to strengthen herself though. She didn't know if it was an ambush that was set up ahead of time by the urchin to catch any chasers who went after them too far in the alleyways.
The Coalition had used such strategies to lure in people of interest before. They would then capture them and interrogate them to get the information they were after. That was how Altair knew to be cautious about this setup she had found herself in.
She gingerly stepped through the pathway and checked behind barrels as she went. She didn't see anyone hiding behind them so she continued forward. The side paths appeared to be devoid of people as well at a glance so she didn't pause her steps at all.
As Altair approached where the urchin was she heard a boy's voice shout, "Now!"
Immediately after, multiple groups of feet sounded from the side paths and Altair immediately put up her guard.
Over a dozen children came dashing into the pathway brandishing sticks and stones towards her. They were a motley gang of kids who were all shouting vigorously with not-very-menacing looks on their faces. They were all younger than ten years of age just by looking over them.
Altair frowned as they charged at her. What followed wasn't even a fight and couldn't be classified as a scuffle. Altair simply disarmed them and treated them as if she was training them on group tactics as she had done so many times in the training camps at the Coalition. She went out of her way to not hurt them too bad.
But this backfired on her. Since she wasn't really harming them, the children thought she wasn't really that strong. So, even though they were unable to do anything to her, they continued to attack even after she tossed them aside in a half-hearted manner.
The children would grab the weapons she tossed aside and swing them at her again without pausing at all or thinking through their attacks. Most of real wounds they got was because they wound up hitting their own friends and allies instead of them being from Altair.
The scuffle seemed to attract more urchins and children that were in the area. Soon, the pathway was filled with small demons trying to assault Altair. There got to be so many of them that Altair had to toss her satchel into the air and secure it to the wall with her Shadow Magic. She had no intention of letting any of these children have her things.
There was a limit to her patience though. As more and more children continued to pour in like a never ending river, she started to get agitated. She originally didn't want to hurt them because any one of them could be a Demi-Human in the future. It wouldn't be so good for her to, potentially, keep them from joining the Coalition.
But that was before she got agitated.
A youth's voice suddenly rang out from atop one of the barrels, "Stop! All of you stop!"
Altair was in the middle of tossing one of the children aside by their head when the wave of bodies stopped pressing against her without warning. This caused her to look towards the youth who commanded the rest. He looked vaguely familiar to her.
The youth flashed her a big dumb grin as the group of kids quieted down. He then stated, "That's the girl that Allie's was interested in. Obviously, she isn't someone we should be targeting unless you want to make her cry!"
The street urchin quickly nodded his head and agreed without any thought. He didn't want to die yet and he trembled under her intense stare. He stopped resisting as well when he found it harder to breath. He didn't even care what the job was as long as he didn't die."Good," Altair said with a bright-yet-dark smile on her face. "Then I want you to lead to me to the wells near the market."Altair wanted him to help her find out where her brother lived. That was the whole idea she got the very second she saw him. She knew that he wouldn't be able to refuse her because he would have to not be afraid to die then. If he wasn't afraid to die then why would he be pickpocketing people instead of mugging them in the alleys?Mugging people in an alley was more risky but yielded greater rewards. You would have to put your life on the line to try and get the money. Plus, the guards would be out looking for you if you left the victim alive.If you pickpocketed someone, it relied on stealth and sleight of hand. You were attempting to go unnoticed to your target. It was far easier to get away with than mugging someone and the punishment wouldn't be death either.Because that was the case, Altair decided to use the threat of death because she appeared to be the daughter of someone important with how good her clothes were. Since she would be seen as trying to kill him when she dragged him into an alley, it only stirred the boys survival instincts even harder so that he blindly agreed to do some work for her without a second thought.Altair needed someone to guide her to all of the wells near the market in order to find that little courtyard. Once she found it she would then still have to find where her brother lived, but that was a problem for later. The first problem was finding it at all.Who knew a town or city the best? The street urchins. Their very lives depended on them knowing where all the streets led so that they could escape from any guards or people who spotted them. It was also important to know where the other gangs of kids operated so that they could avoid their territories. They could wind up beaten up or killed by the kids of other areas if they weren't careful.Of course, that didn't mean she could trust the child completely to do the task she set for him. Thus, she burnt some Mana and created a small shadow bead that dug into the urchins clothes. With a miniscule shadow creation on the urchin she would be able to track his whereabouts by sensing the area where her Mana was being sent to.She also grabbed his hand again with her free hand as it had wandered to the top of her satchel again and stated sinisterly, "Don't try and play me or you know what will happen."The boy gulped loudly as she pushed herself away from him. His hand immediately went around his throat as he rubbed it, still feeling the pressure from when she grabbed him even though she had let go already. He asked in an immature voice, "Why are you looking for the wells?"Altair gave him a flat stare as she responded, "You don't need to know. Get walking, I don't have all day."The boy eyed her suspiciously for a few moments. When Altair started to tap her foot on the ground he finally started to walk off down the alley.Altair followed behind him by a few steps. She kept an eye on the direction they were heading in the alley. She didn't want him to lead her in the wrong direction as she knew the general location of the market from where she was. So long as they went in the right direction for a while she wouldn't mind a sudden turn in the wrong direction. However, she would snatch him up the moment he went in the wrong direction too early.As Altair was led along, the boy glanced back towards her several times. She didn't pay this action any mind as she figured he was nervous about someone of higher status following him so closely.Eventually, Altair was led to three different wells. None of them were what she was looking for. So, each time she had him lead to her the next well without bothering to stay very long. And with each passing well that she was led to, she saw the boy get more anxious.'He's not planning to do something stupid is he?' She thought to herself with a smirk on her face. She could tell that he was trying to hurry them forward since the last well that she was led to. It was like he was in a hurry to get somewhere.As she was getting led down a particular alley, the boy suddenly dashed off down a side lane without any warning. This caused Altair to sigh as she started to run after him while holding her satchel to her body.'Stupid kid,' she thought to herself as she rounded the corner he just rounded.She came to a dead stop as the alley opened up in to a wider pathway that was cluttered with barrels and stacks of boxes. There were several offshoots of the path that the boy could have run down but, on first glance, it was as if he had never come down this path.But Altair could sense the direction he was in thanks to the Magic she put on him. He wasn't really that far away and he had stopped moving.'He's probably hiding behind something,' Altair thought to herself as she walked into the alley. She didn't walk in without burning her Mana to strengthen herself though. She didn't know if it was an ambush that was set up ahead of time by the urchin to catch any chasers who went after them too far in the alleyways.The Coalition had used such strategies to lure in people of interest before. They would then capture them and interrogate them to get the information they were after. That was how Altair knew to be cautious about this setup she had found herself in.She gingerly stepped through the pathway and checked behind barrels as she went. She didn't see anyone hiding behind them so she continued forward. The side paths appeared to be devoid of people as well at a glance so she didn't pause her steps at all.As Altair approached where the urchin was she heard a boy's voice shout, "Now!"Immediately after, multiple groups of feet sounded from the side paths and Altair immediately put up her guard.Over a dozen children came dashing into the pathway brandishing sticks and stones towards her. They were a motley gang of kids who were all shouting vigorously with not-very-menacing looks on their faces. They were all younger than ten years of age just by looking over them.Altair frowned as they charged at her. What followed wasn't even a fight and couldn't be classified as a scuffle. Altair simply disarmed them and treated them as if she was training them on group tactics as she had done so many times in the training camps at the Coalition. She went out of her way to not hurt them too bad.But this backfired on her. Since she wasn't really harming them, the children thought she wasn't really that strong. So, even though they were unable to do anything to her, they continued to attack even after she tossed them aside in a half-hearted manner.The children would grab the weapons she tossed aside and swing them at her again without pausing at all or thinking through their attacks. Most of real wounds they got was because they wound up hitting their own friends and allies instead of them being from Altair.The scuffle seemed to attract more urchins and children that were in the area. Soon, the pathway was filled with small demons trying to assault Altair. There got to be so many of them that Altair had to toss her satchel into the air and secure it to the wall with her Shadow Magic. She had no intention of letting any of these children have her things.There was a limit to her patience though. As more and more children continued to pour in like a never ending river, she started to get agitated. She originally didn't want to hurt them because any one of them could be a Demi-Human in the future. It wouldn't be so good for her to, potentially, keep them from joining the Coalition.But that was before she got agitated.A youth's voice suddenly rang out from atop one of the barrels, "Stop! All of you stop!"Altair was in the middle of tossing one of the children aside by their head when the wave of bodies stopped pressing against her without warning. This caused her to look towards the youth who commanded the rest. He looked vaguely familiar to her.The youth flashed her a big dumb grin as the group of kids quieted down. He then stated, "That's the girl that Allie's was interested in. Obviously, she isn't someone we should be targeting unless you want to make her cry!"
