Biting the unpalatable and hard black bread, Ezio stole a glance at the girl who gave him a small piece of bread last night, feeling a little guilty. She didn't show up for work in the morning, and the reason was quite obvious. The girl was so thin and weak that even standing was a little difficult, and she coughed from time to time.
He watched her take a small piece of black bread from her big brother, eat only one or two mouthfuls, and then put away the rest. Of course, Ezio knew that a child like him couldn't eat enough. He wanted to help her, but he didn't know where to start.
At this moment, he remembered a doubt from before. With particularly good eyes, he remembered that the reward the boss received didn't match the money paid for the black bread in the end.
Compared with the other children, the difference between Ezio and them was that he had a certain concept of numbers. This was thanks to the several older sisters in that family who calculated things all day long. Under the influence of what he saw and heard, he more or less understood a little.
He might not be able to accurately calculate how much money the boss kept for himself, but he knew that they should be able to buy more of that unpalatable bread. At least, they could let everyone eat a little more. So Ezio decided to ask the boss who was leading the group.
The area where this group of children lived was within a certain range. They didn't say which side was particularly comfortable or which side was particularly uncomfortable. In Ezio's opinion, they were all equally bad. And the boss's position seemed to be around the wall, just a few steps away.
But just as he was about to turn the corner, he saw what should be the oldest child talking to an adult. Ezio subconsciously took a few steps back, hiding in the corner and peeking.
The adult looked rather sloppy and wretched, and the tone of his voice was very arrogant. He reached out and took the money bag from the child in front of him, cursed a few times, and slapped the child directly to the ground. His ferocious appearance was as hateful as that of the Mage who didn't care about adults or children and beat people to death when he caught them.
The moment he saw his new boss knocked down, Ezio wanted to rush out and fight the adult to the death. But the Mage's teachings … Twisted logic, made him a step slower. It was also this step that made Ezio get grabbed by the shoulder and dragged back behind the broken wall.
The girl's brother grabbed Ezio and put a finger to his lips, signaling him to be quiet. Then, he gestured for the little fatty, who had just arrived and didn't know anything, to follow him.
When they were a little further away, Ezio asked, "Who was that?"
"An annoying scum," the girl's older brother criticized. But then he said dejectedly, "But we have to get their permission before we can work here. Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to stay here. "
Then it occurred to Ezio that the sisters had said something about their adventures. It was mentioned that the children in the slums would steal for a living, but they were still controlled by despicable adults. He couldn't help but exclaim in a low voice, "Don't tell me we're going to be pickpockets and steal things?"
The girl's brother's face darkened at the fatty's imagination. He shook his hand and said, "No, no. We won't do such a thing. "
"Hmm, so the person who hit Boss just now is actually a good person?" Ezio asked doubtfully.
The girl's eldest brother said firmly, "No, that's even more impossible."
"Then why?"
"Don't tell me you don't know where you are?" The girl's eldest brother looked at the little fatty in front of him with a strange expression. He continued, "This is a city of Mages. If you casually steal and pick things that have been marked by Mages, and then they come looking for you, I've never heard of anyone who can survive. "
What the boy said was the reality of the Holy City of Estali.
Like most cities in the Lost Land, the Holy City of Estali naturally had so-called slums and slums, which were called the Lower Street here. Most of the people who lived here were from other places who did menial jobs that mages or magic apprentices who thought they were better than others were unwilling to do.
Such a place was, of course, a mix of good and bad people. There were also some low-class people who did despicable things. But the problem was that this was a city of Mages, not a city that rose to prominence because of trade routes or sea routes for ordinary nobles. The biggest difference between the two was that the Holy City didn't have public prisons or dungeons.
This meant that if a crime was committed in the Holy City of Estali, as long as one was caught by a supervisor wearing a yellow cape, they would either have their hands and feet broken or be executed on the spot. There was no chance of being locked up in prison for people to repent and start anew. If you survived, then please find a chance to commit suicide. This was because it wasn't safe to become materials for magic experiments.
And in addition to the yellow capes that represented the public power of the Holy City, there were also many Mages who were "righteous and courageous." They would also do some uncivilized things to criminals, and as long as it was proven that these people were indeed criminals, the supervisors wouldn't punish the Mages who used vigilante justice. Then the criminal's property would naturally become the spoils of war for the righteous and courageous Mages.
So in the Holy City of Estali, when the members of the Thieves' Guild were at their most rampant, from time to time, there would be Mages who lost items that had been marked with magic. Then the mages would follow the clues and go to the door to greet these little thieves. While retrieving the stolen items, they would also take away things that they had their eyes on. As for the blind thieves, they would just beat them to death. It was a classic situation where both lives and money were wanted.
It was precisely because this kind of fishing situation was too rampant that the mages who dared to play like this wouldn't be amateurs. This unexpectedly caused the crime situation in the Holy City of Estali to drop the major crime of theft. Gradually, theft became a taboo in this city of Mages.
Of course, there were also some veterans who thought that they could tell the difference between a fat sheep and a fisherman, so they acted unscrupulously. But most people would still carefully avoid situations where the mages had a reason to make a move, and the children were the same. Don't think that children could win much sympathy. The mages didn't care about age when they wanted to torture people or put them on the table for dissection.
To this day, there weren't any thieves or snakeheads who dared to test whether or not the mages had let down their guard. So this group of gathered orphans wasn't forced to do some criminal things, just some dirty work that most people weren't willing to do.
The reason behind this, with Ezio's little brain, he still couldn't figure it out. But for him, it was enough for him to know what the current situation was.
And the current situation was that this group of children was still on the weak side, exploited by those despicable adults.
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