I swore I will have my revenge on The Empire, but I didn’t know how to go about it. The system is a vast untouchable wall that can’t be climbed, or so that’s what I thought. But now, fuelled by revenge, I started thinking of what I should do for the first step.

“I have to live,” I muttered.

It was an obvious answer, but it also made sense. If I don’t survive, I can’t get my revenge. Plain and simple. Problem was that I had no idea where to begin talking about my problems.

I had no money, no home, and I'm all alone. The biggest problem I’m facing right now was the people in these parts of the city. They travel in groups, extorting others for money and using violence if they disobeyed.

“I need a place to stay and hide from others.”

I closed my eyes and thought about all the places that I visited with my parents, whether they were good to stay at or not. Maybe, but someone might recognize me, and notify the authorities in order to catch me. No. It's unsafe to even think of living there.

So, when I opened my eyes, I only had one place at which to stay; the dump yard.

The place smelled horrible, and hardly anyone comes by except to throw away their trash. For someone like me, it was the best place to stay and avoid making contact with other people.

While that's good and all, it didn’t solve my other problem of money. I need to do something about it.

“I could work?” I thought aloud to myself while pondering my options.

There was that, but I instantly saw the flaw in it. By work, it basically meant that I’d have to do hard labour for fifteen hours a day and get paid a very minimum wage. Maybe two silver coins by the end of the day? At most five silver coins. I could great bread and have food to eat, but I wouldn’t be able to save anything from that.

The other drawback in doing hard labour was that they don’t like children. Dad sometimes told me how the boss at his workplace would make the children work like slaves and only feed them two times a day, once in the morning and once in the evening and that's without giving them money. Apparently, if a kid were to complain, his boss would have the kid whipped fifty times to teach him a lesson.

“That’s why I’m working as hard as I can so you don’t end up like that.”

Those were the words my dad told me at that time, and I could only feel happy for his dedication towards me. Thinking about the situation that I’m in now, I feel as though his worst fears had come true. I’m now a nobody, an orphan with nothing of significance about me that makes me special.

“Working is a no go,” I muttered with finality.

If I did not work, what else could I do? How would I make money and eat food? Money doesn’t grow from trees, and food isn’t handed out freely.

I thought back to the people that attacked me and imagined seeing their gloating faces. They felt triumph at beating me up, taking my food and leaving with success in hand. If I must live, I have to do something like that, but I’m alone. I don’t have many friends, and I didn’t feel like I could trust anyone at the moment. Well, maybe I could trust other thieves, just not the not Al citizens.

There must be something that only I can do, something that doesn’t require me to rely on anyone else. That’s when the thought struck me, and I felt a chill go down the back of my spine.

“I have to become a thief.”

Robbery. If I have to live, I have to steal from others. That was the very last thing that I ever thought of becoming because my mum always told me strictly to never steal from others. Now, however, I must do the very thing I was taught not to do.

But what choice do I have? What options am I left with other than begging on the streets? Even if I do beg, I would be found as a nuisance and taken away only to be tortured and thrown out on the streets again as a broken man.

“There is no choice,” I muttered, coming to the conclusion that I must do whatever I can to live.

Just then, my stomach rumbled, and I felt a slight pain in my belly. I feared that I might starve to death, so I immediately began searching the dump yard for any food that I could eat.

People throw out their trash every day, and this included unfinished food that they no longer felt like eating. As such, there would be a regular bag full of food thrown out, a waste that no one considers after all the money they spent getting it in the first place.

“Scum.”

I cursed them with that single word, summing up what all of them were in my eyes. There were so many others struggling to make money and eat properly, but these people with good income waste so much food. They are the worst kind of people ever, a different kind of being worst compared to The Empire obviously.

After searching around the dumps, I found a bag full of meat, rice, and some other supplements. Luckily, they wrapped the packages neatly so none of the food got split. I quickly unwrapped them and took a bite at the meat, which made me immediately cough and spit it out.

“Disgusting!”

It had a bad taste, so bad that only dogs or rats would eat it. This was probably left outside for a few days and then thrown out, by which time the taste had gone bad.

I didn’t like the thought of eating it, but I didn’t have any other alternatives, and frankly speaking, if it was edible, then I don’t mind the taste. The only thing that did bother me was about hygiene, but when you have limited options, you have to do whatever necessary to live.

So, I sat down and ate through the disgusting meal and threw the bag away once I was done. Then I yawned and found a decent spot to sleep for the night. I wasn’t sure for how long I slept, but I woke up to find the sun high in the sky, meaning that it was probably well past breakfast time.

“Oh well,” I muttered and shrugged my shoulders indifferently.

I didn't feel remotely hungry, so I decided to move on.

“Time to go hunting.”

This was going to be my first day as a thief. I was resolved to do what I can to steal from others and live. So, I washed my face at a nearby water well and headed out to perform my first robbery.

Once I arrived at the main street, I was amazed. There were so many people going around, chatting to one another happily. I didn’t care for their chatter and started looking around for a good target to steal from. I was mainly aiming for purses because they contain all the money.

Slowly, I walked with the masses looking around for anyone that I could steal from without appearing as though I'm a suspicious person. A few minutes later, I found a guy at a nearby stall with his purse out and rummaging through it. Judging from the time he spent looking through it meant that there must be a lot of money.

With my eyes focused only on my target, I moved while trying to keep a low profile. That was what I remembered from yesterday’s encounter with those people, who stole the bread from me. They came at me when I dropped my guard and made me trip before stealing the bread.

I was trying to use that as an experience for my first-time robbery when, to my surprise, someone snatched the purse and began sprinting away before I could reach the man.

“What?!” I exclaimed, shocked by what I just witnessed.

“Oh no! Thief!” The purse owner began shouting, hoping someone would stop that person.

Gritting my teeth, I began chasing after the thief as fast as my legs could carry. I didn’t do it because I felt sorry for the purse owner, but because he was my first target, and I wasn’t going to let some random punk steal my catch.

So, he and I weaved through the crowd and entered the alleyway. Turning a few corners later, I realised where we were headed, and I was able to figure out what was going to happen. After all, this had happened to me yesterday as well.

Thus, I glanced around at the alleyway for something that I could use to stop him. That's when I found a rock. I quickly stooped down, picked it up while running and threw it at him. It through the air quickly and smashed into the back of the thief’s head.

“Ah!” He screamed, stumbled and fell flat on his face.

I ran up to him while breathing a little quickly and saw that blood was oozing out of his skull and forming a puddle around him. It shocked me at first, but I quickly ignored it and turned my gaze towards the purse that landed a few centimetres from his hands when he let it go during his fall.

I stepped over his body and picked up the purse before looking back at him.

“Sorry,” I apologised as sincerely as I could, “but that man was my target, so I’m taking this.”

The person did not respond or move at all while blood gathered around him. I wondered what was wrong with him when I heard footsteps coming towards me from behind and swirled around to see the men from yesterday appear.

“Morty’s taking time.”

“He’ll come soon.”

They spoke to one another casually when one of them noticed me and made everyone stop. I also became cautious of them from the worry that they might attack.

“Oh? What do we have here? It’s the guy from yesterday,” one of them said, seeming to recognise me and give me an eerie smile.

Their eyes focused on me for a moment before shifting to the person lying while being surrounded by his own blood. In an instant, their smiles vanished and was replaced by shock at what they were witnessing.

“Morty!”

The one that recognised me shouted, which was probably the unconscious person’s name. They instantly moved towards me, their smiles replaced by anger with the clear intentions of attacking me.

I widened my eyes and leapt over the person’s body while maintaining a good distance between me and them. As I landed, they stood over their friend while one of them knelt down to check on their friend.

As if finding something shocking, he looked up at his friends and said in a hushed voice, “He’s dead.”

His friends exclaimed in shock, and the one who recognised me, shouted, “You bastard! You killed Morty!”

At his claim, I was horrified and widened my eyes in shock. I could not believe what I was hearing. Only moments before I was chasing after this person and hit him with a rock to make him stop, but I suppose the impact was stronger than I realized and it instantly killed him.

I was horrified with my act of taking someone’s life for the first time without meaning to. My revenge towards the empire was because they ruined my life, but I had nothing against them.

Yes, they did attack and rob me yesterday, but it was so that they could survive, and since I am in the same position as them, I could understand and forgive them for their actions. That was all. I had no ill intention towards them. I just did what I had to do to survive.

At that moment, their leader appeared, and I instantly recognised him as the mean looking man that slapped me yesterday. He presently had a cool expression on his face, however, his expression changed to seriousness when he saw his people around their dead comrade’s body.

“What happened?”

“Morty’s dead and it’s because of him!” One of them replied and pointed his finger at me.

That’s when the guy looked at me and narrowed his eyes to form a serious look.

“It’s you,” he said in an ominous voice filled with animosity. “I should’ve known you’d come after us.”

I finally found my voice and managed to stutter, “I… I didn’t mean this to happen. Honest. I was just… taking this from him… That’s all,” and I held up the purse for them to see.

It looked like none of my words made it through his ears because he suddenly growled, “I should’ve known letting you live was a big mistake.” Then he ordered his people, “Get him!”

“Yeah!”

His companions said in unison and began running towards me with eyes filled with anger and rage. I was momentarily stunned from their action, but then I found myself turning around and running at full speed back the way I came. But instead of going into the main street, I turned left at the next corner and went in a different direction with them chasing after me.

I didn’t know what they were going to do to me once they catch up, but I had one thing running through my mind.

“Run like your life depended on it.”

So, I ran away from them as fast my legs could go, desperately trying to escape from them. Unfortunately, they were fast and kept up with me as I turned random corners with hopes of losing them. Finally, I ended up reaching a stockyard where all the hay for the animals were stored at, with the men right on my tail.

“You can’t escape now!” The mean looking man said, glaring menacingly at me.

I turned around to face him and said while out of breath, “Please…! I didn’t mean to… do it!”

“I don’t care whether you did it knowing or not; because of you, our friend is dead. You will have to pay the penalty with your life.”

That’s when I finally comprehended that they were indeed trying to kill me. I mean, I had the thought while I was running away from them, but I really didn’t think they would have that much hatred for me. It wasn’t my intention of murdering their friend, but they aren’t in the mood to listen anymore and it was naïve of me to even think I could trust these kinds of people.

As the mean looking man slowly stepped towards me, I held the purse out to them and said, “Please wait. You can take this back. This was the reason your friend died. Please, I had no intentions of causing him to die.”

I wanted to do a fair trade for the goods that brought this unfortunate incident upon us. After all, we’re all thieves, and we must do what we can to live. Besides, I was confident that he would take the money and leave, thinking that between thieves, these things shouldn't matter.

There was a moment of pause in the man’s footsteps, and he looked curiously at me. Them he smiled as if being understanding and nodded in agreement.

“Alright. I suppose if you hand that over, we’ll forget about everything.”

We both smiled, and he walked forward to take the purse from me. When nothing happened, I sighed in relief and looking.

“I’m sorry for your friend,” I said to him apologetically.

“You should be.”

The moment he said that, the man pulled me forward by my shift front and kneed me in the gut. I gasped for breath and groaned from the pain. Without pause, he hit me on the side of my face with his clenched fist and sent me staggering away before I fell to the ground coughing and spluttering.

“You’re a fool, you know that?” He said, pocketing the purse and glaring at me. “Even after what I told you yesterday, you still stupidly trusted me.”

I coughed and groaned from the pain to my head and stomach as I turned over to look at him.

“But… I thought thieves valued money… above anything else,” I said to him.

He nodded at that and replied, “You’re right. Normally that is the case, but these are my friends, and you just killed one of them. How did you think I would just let it go with just a shrug of the shoulders? I’ll make you pay for the life he lost by killing you!”

When he said those words, I finally understood my life was in danger, and how stupid I was to believe in him. I should’ve known that thieves are scumbags and would do anything for a living. Except, in this case he actually cared for his comrades and took it very seriously when something harms them.

Was he wrong in what he was doing? Of course not. He was fully right in attacking me because I killed his friend, close friend judging from how much he was affected by it.

But, did I care? No. I didn’t care. I didn’t care about any of that! For all I cared, I wanted to live, and I wanted to keep on living and avenge my parents by taking my revenge against The Empire! And, right now, the biggest obstacle I have is this man threatening to take my life.

“I have to kill him.”

A cold murderous thought formed in my mind, and I knew it was the right decision. I couldn’t allow myself to be killed by a bastard like him when I have so much to do. That’s right. I have to do whatever I must to keep on living, even if it means dirtying my own hands.

So, with my mind clear and focused, I noticed a shard of glass lying next to me. It was as big as my hand. I didn’t know how it got there, but I knew it was what I needed in that situation. So, I slowly moved my body in a way that masked me grabbing the shard and get into a kneeling position while facing him.

He slowly approached me, pulling out a knife from his pocket with the clear intention of taking my life. However, I was in waiting and the moment I judged that he was within my reach, I moved forward while leaping to my feet with all the leg strength I could muster.

As I went up, I brought the glass shard forward while he reacted in surprise by taking a single step backward. Big mistake because it gave me all the chance I needed to move forward and stab the shard into his stomach.

In an instant, the man widened his eyes while spluttering from the shock and pain while his stomach wound sprayed my face with his blood. But I didn’t stop there. I pulled the shard out and forcefully stabbed him again. Feeling this was not enough, I pulled the shard out and stabbed him once more. Like this, I continued to pull it out and stab him repeatedly in quick successions. It hurt my hands as I feel the shard digging into my palm, but I didn’t care; I wanted this man dead.

Suddenly, I felt a strong blow to my back, and I immediately reeled back from the pain followed by a kick in my gut that sent me staggering back before I slipped and fell on the hay. The guy had been shocked from the continuous stabbing, but he still had strength left and managed to use it by hitting my back and kicking me away.

I coughed and rubbed my stomach where it hurt and glared at him. He was strong, as proven by his ability to endure and fight back. I needed something that would surely kill him, something that would end this all in an instant.

Realising that I didn’t have the glass shard with me anymore, I began quickly searching for it with my hands. If I didn’t have at least that, there’s no way I was going to get out of this alive.

As my hands moved around in the hay, I felt something, and I glanced sideways to see what it was. The moment I recognised it, I widened my eyes before instantly appearing to look normal as I turned back to face him

He spat blood out of his mouth and said, “You certainly are feisty little brat! Too bad you couldn’t finish the job!” Then he raised his knife in the air and said, “Blame yourself for being a weakling!”

A moment later, he took one step forward and held his knife behind him as he was preparing to charge at me. That was when I grabbed the weapon firmly with my hands and leaped to my feet while moving forward at the same time.

Due to the multiple stab wounds in his stomach, the man was in pain and slow to react. So, he wasn’t able to bring his knife at me as fast as he wanted to and it gave me the chance to move forward and bring the hay knife in my hand swinging at his face. In an instant, it pierced through right from under his jaw and through his head before the tip popped out at the top. At the same time, blood got sprayed all over my face.

The man stared at me in shock, and tried to say something, but his mouth was stuck, and he could not say anything. I did, however, see the fear in his eyes at what had happened before their light vanished. His grip on his knife slackened, causing it to slip and fall to the ground. I stared at his lifeless eyes while breathing quickly from the fear I felt at the thought of losing my life.

There was a moment of stunned silence in the stockyard, where his friends stared at what happened in shock. I moved from the side and shoved the dead body aside, causing him to topple and fall with a dull thud. Then I picked up the knife he dropped and stood facing his men.

“Who’s next?” I asked with a bloodied face, giving them a deadly look that I could muster with my face.

They were clearly terrified off me after watching the death of their leader, leaving them with no one to depend on. With fear guiding them, they took a few tentative steps back before turning around and hurrying away from there while making small whimpering sounds.

I made sure they were gone before I breathed a deep sigh in relief. Then I glanced at the motionless figure of the man whom I just killed while feeling nothing inside.

“What a waste,” I muttered wearily.

He brought this on himself, not me. I was going to die, and I did what I could to survive. This might label me as being selfish, but all humans are the same in this regard that they want to live, same as me.

I walked over to his dead body and looked at his lifeless eyes before muttering, “I need this,” and pulled out the hay knife from his face, which leaked more blood onto the ground that formed a pool around him. Then I rummaged through his pockets and pulled out the purse before pocketing it.

I used the man's own clothing to wipe away the blood on the weapons and left with both weapons in hand, with my face and my clothes smeared with blood. I decided the best thing to get rid of the stains was to quickly go to the well and wash it off before it becomes permanent

And so, that was how my first job in being a thief began, with me killing two people that got in my way, and since then, I've been doing good as a thief by robbing people whenever I was running low on money. I continued doing this for the next ten years until I had the one fateful encounter with a certain woman, a woman that I wished that I hadn't ran into because that encounter changed my life forever.