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"Hey, twerp, if you are trying to beg here, you have to give me a cut. Don\'t you know the rules?" The ruffian grinned at me, showing all his missing teeth. His hand was meaningfully resting on the hilt of a dagger that hung on his belt.

Oh, I knew the rules well by now. Strong got the spoils of kicking the weak, like me. One day, that would change. No monster, human or not, would be able to get me.

After my father died, I didn\'t stay long at home. I couldn\'t… Besides, what was left there for me? Not even goats. The monster took everything, and there was no trace or a rumour of it afterwards, when the villagers posted the notice in the Glesk\'s Guild. Though, as I learnt later from rumours, the cattle continued to disappear for a while longer—not just in my village, too.

I sold and bartered what I was left, and walked away. My own man, on my own road. I was fourteen! That was old enough to not listen to those who urged me to stay. Not that they urged me so hard.

My legs carried me to Glesk. I wanted to become an adventurer—not for the glory of it, but to have power to fight monsters if one appears again. To protect myself instead of running and hiding and waiting with madly beating heart for a clawed hand to break through the trapdoor.

The Guild\'s counter girl turned me away.

"Listen, boy, this is a tragic story, but you will just lose your head if you go on adventuring yourself. Go back home, think again. You can\'t convince me you are really sixteen."

Well, that wasn\'t the only Guild in the world. There were others. Plus, I knew to be more careful next time. I\'d disguise myself. So I went to the next city big enough to host an Adventurer\'s Guild building—Tinaris.

They turned me away, too. "Your voice is breaking, boy. Nice try, go back to your parents."

I didn\'t say that I had none. That\'d be too much like whining… and the adventurers in the hall already snickered at me.

I didn\'t know where else to go. I only heard about Tinaris because it was the biggest city in the area. If there were others, I just didn\'t know how to get there.

I was lost again. So I stayed around, waiting and looking at adventurers, studying what they did and training by myself in empty alleyways. Until I ran out of the last dredges of my money and food. Then I had to learn how to get more. Begging was humiliating, but I was too hungry to complain. It was better than thieving, either way.

But it was barely enough, and when people like that guy interfered…

For now, I could only bow my head and hide what I already got before the ruffian took it away. "I\'m not doing anything… I was just sitting here. I\'ll leave."

The ruffian tsked. "Do you think I\'m blind or something, twerp? I\'ve seen all that you begged off these thick purses. Since you are sitting on my turf, half of it is mine by right. Give it, or I will take it with your fingers. Will make it easier for you to beg, ha!"

I inched away, not taking my eyes off the man. Whatever few passersby were around pointedly ignored our exchange—they would, in that part of the city. This was another thing I learnt. Cities were cold and unfriendly. In a village, everyone banded together—pretended to. In cities, every man was for themselves. It was more honest, in a way. Though, in better parts of it, there would be guards to protect at least the semblance of order.

If people in villages were really thinking of everyone\'s good, why no one, not even Magda, did something to stop my father from hitting me? Why a monster had to eat him to free me?

Either way, I couldn\'t give the ruffian the money. I barely ate yesterday, and I knew I had to eat today, too—something decent—or I will be fainting tomorrow. I couldn\'t be fainting if I wanted to train.

"I… I don\'t have anything!" I blurted, and sprung into a run.

This was the best idea I came up with. It was a poor one, too—the ruffian ate better and had longer legs. He caught up with me in a dozen steps and wrenched my arm behind my back.

"Now you made me chase you, twerp! I will have to take all you got here as a punishment, so you\'d remember not to try and run away from Dagger."

I wriggled in his grasp and kicked him in the shin with all my strength. Dagger staggered, but didn\'t fall or let go of me.

"Damn you!" He got his namesake out of the sheath, and I realised—too late—that I maybe I should\'ve just given the guy what he wanted.

My fingers were worth more than some coin.

"Wait—"

Suddenly, Dagger froze. His dagger, polished to the point you could use it as a mirror and wicked sharp from only a look of it, paused mid-movement.

"Do something stupid and I will cut off your balls." A child\'s voice sounded from behind the guy. There stood a short—not taller than me—figure cloaked in cloth from head to toe, and I realised a moment later, holding a knife to Dagger\'s groin. "Let the boy go and fuck off, or…"

"Who—" Dagger swallowed nervously, "Who the hell even are you?"

"Don\'t ask questions. Do as I said. And don\'t think you can just move away and then stab me. My knife will be in your eye faster than you can blink."

There was some deadly seriousness in the child\'s voice that made even the ruffian like Dagger think twice and, eventually, relent. "I will deal with you later, twerps!" he promised as she skittered away from the silent promise that my saviour gave by raising his knife by the blade.

Who was he?