Everyone inside Carlos’s house was caught up in a frantic rush of preparation.

  Kaelis suspected it had something to do with what happened yesterday, but he couldn’t be sure. That was why he walked over to Atlas, who was still sitting on the chair beside the table, and prepared to ask his questions.

  “What’s all this preparation for, Atlas?”

  “Today is Sunday. On Sundays, new goods arrive at the Bazaar and go on sale.”

  “———”

  “To put it in a way you can understand, today is restocking day.”

  “How does the Bazaar’s restocking benefit you? Or—”

  “During restocking, the Bazaar gets extremely crowded. It’s already crowded, but it swells up even more—you get what I mean. We take advantage of that chaos and steal the goods.”

  “Hey hang on a minute... so the stealing Zeyd mentioned yesterday was real???”

  “Yes, but not in a serious and proven way. It is generally accepted that we are the ones stealing, even if nobody catched us in the act. Even if they did catch us, it wouldn't really matter.”

  Hearing this, Kaelis considered keeping his distance from Carlos and the others. Yet, having seen the poverty here with his own eyes, he couldn’t think of any other way to cover it up.

  While Kaelis and Atlas talked, the rest of the group prepared themselves for the theft.

  Carlos wore the same pants as always and pulled on the short-sleeved t-shirt he had been wearing the day he first met Kaelis. He covered part of his face with a piece of cloth—probably to protect their identify.

  Piera stayed dressed as she was, but like Carlos she had wrapped a scarf-like cloth around her mouth and the area around it. Other than that, she simply watched everything happening inside and waited for their preparations to finish.

  Maisy was still in the pink short-sleeved nightgown she had woken up in, but she had put on loose blue cargo pants underneath. Two swords that had been resting on top of the wardrobe were now strapped to her waist. She didn’t feel the need to hide her face.

  Atlas was already ready, standing beside Kaelis in his usual clothes. Kaelis himself had made no preparations at all.

  “Cover your faces with these!”

  Piera tossed two black cloth pieces toward Atlas and Kaelis. She wanted—or rather, ordered—them to cover their faces.

  Atlas asked Carlos a curious question.

  “Is Kaelis coming with us too?”

  “I didn’t ask, but I doubt he’ll refuse, right, Kaelis?”

  Carlos turned his head toward Kaelis. He had never been involved in anything like theft before, and there's no need to mention the madness of professional theft. He felt indebted to Carlos, the man who had brought him here.

  *Yeah, I’m coming!”

  After accepting with that burst of determination, Kaelis wrapped the cloth around his face so that it only covered his mouth and the surrounding area.

  ***

  The team gathered in front of the door, everyone ready to leave.

  To make their movements easier, they wore tight black shoes. Fortunately, there was a pair left for Kaelis as well.

  Everyone in the room looked toward Carlos—the leader. In response to their gazes, Carlos spoke.

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  “Today we’ll focus on basic food necessities as much as possible. That’s the observation plan Piera put together.”

  “Got it.”

  After Atlas’s reply, they all stepped outside. Their target was the famous Bazaar on the other side of Naucratis, the heart of the city’s trade!

  ***

  They reached the far side of the city. The team had used the bridge during the journey and planned not to travel any farther on open ground. That was only natural—they were wanted and hated people, after all.

  The area near the poor district had very few buildings, so the surroundings were completely empty.

  Piera approached the water drainage pipe of a stone building. The pipe was well-made, with small protrusions at regular intervals. Holding onto it, she began climbing upward.

  Seeing her start, Maisy also prepared to climb.

  Atlas, Carlos, and Kaelis stood right behind them, close to the pipe.

  “Wait a second—are we seriously going to climb up using this??”

  “I guess you don’t like it, but yes.”

  Carlos spoke friendly, yet Kaelis was staring up at the height of the pipe. The house was roughly seven meters tall, and the pipe ran about the same distance. Climbing such a high, unsafe spot had terrified him.

  Maisy and Piera had already reached the top and were looking down at them. Not wanting to keep them waiting any longer, Carlos began climbing the pipe as well. Only Atlas and Kaelis remained below.

  “Have a little confidence in yourself. Nothing’s going to happen—you have to face your fears.”

  “Even if you say that—”

  “Trust yourself!”

  After those words, Atlas started climbing the pipe too. Kaelis didn’t want to be left far behind. Even though he was scared, he knew he had to confront his fear, and he had no choice but to do it.

  A short while after Atlas began, Kaelis started climbing as well—slowly at first. With every move he made, he moved farther from the ground, and that only intensified his fear.

  He had to get off that pipe as quickly as possible. He couldn’t stay on it any longer. Atlas and the others were waiting for him on the roof.

  Kaelis made a faster move. He made a second. But on the third, just as he was about to reach the top, one of his feet slipped. Right as he was about to fall, Atlas—who had been waiting on the roof—grabbed his hand.

  Kaelis hung there with one hand still on the pipe and the other held tightly by Atlas. He strained with everything he had. Atlas pulled him upward and helped him reach the roof.

  Kaelis was soaked in sweat. The boy who had even forgotten to breathe finally started breathing again. After catching his breath for a while, he lifted his head and looked at Atlas.

  “You saved my life. Thank you.”

  “If it were me, you would’ve done the same. No problem. Just be more careful next time.”

  “Surely I will. I promise.”

  “You really scared us, Kaelis.”

  Carlos didn’t sound truly frightened when he said it, but he had been worried. The other two girls felt the same worry—after all, watching a friend die right in front of their eyes would have been horrifying.

  The roof they stood on was flat in this section, but toward the inner city it turned into tiled roofing. Still, there were parts where the roof remained flat.

  These roofs were connected to one another, yet gaps still existed between them. The gaps here were a little wider than the width of the alley he had seen when he first arrived.

  “Follow me!”

  At Carlos’s words, everyone began following him. They leaped across the gaps between the roofs. After all, their goal was to reach the Bazaar, and the rooftops were the only route they could take.

  Every time Kaelis jumped, his heart leaped into his throat, but he managed to make it. That wasn’t normal—the gaps were a little more than two meters wide. Under ordinary circumstances, Kaelis didn’t think he could have handled it. Even if he could jump the distance, the pressure of being seven meters up would probably have stopped him.

  Kaelis pondered this deeply. The most logical explanation was that gravity here was weaker than in his own world. In his world, gravity was 9.807 m/s2; here it was probably somewhere between 7 and 8. That was the conclusion he reached.

  ***

  Jumping from roof to roof, they finally arrived at the inner parts of the city. Carlos, who was in the lead, suddenly stopped. The rest of the team stopped with him.

  Before Kaelis stretched a vast open square surrounded by countless buildings. It was truly enormous.

  This was the place they called the Bazaar, and just as they had said, it was incredibly crowded—so crowded that if you dropped a needle, it wouldn’t hit the ground. The team, standing on the roof of a building near the Bazaar, watched the scene below.

  “Piera, start explaining the plan.”

  “Mhm! First, the food section is much denser in the northwest of the Bazaar—most of the food stalls are there.”

  “What about the other necessities?”

  “They’re fewer, but they’re in the southeast of the Bazaar.”

  Atlas joined the conversation between Carlos and Piera with a logical question.

  “How are we splitting up?”

  “Hmm… Piera and Maisy, you two will handle the necessities in the southeast. Kaelis and I will head to the northwest. Atlas is coming with us too, but he’ll operate alone.”

  “But while the rest of us are in pairs, won’t Atlas be at risk because he is alone?”

  “Atlas is a lone wolf. He works much better alone.”

  Kaelis’s objection was silenced by Maisy, the beautiful girl who looked like a princess.

  “Let’s go, Maisy.”

  “Mhm!”

  “May God protect you!”

  “May God protect you!”

  Maisy and Piera set off toward their destination in the Bazaar. As always, they spoke the familiar phrase and received the same reply from the others.

  ***

  The northwest section of the Bazaar was indeed packed with countless food stalls. Customers and visitors walked along the central path between the stalls, picking up whatever caught their eye or fulfilled their needs.

  On the roof of one of the buildings in that section stood the pair of Kaelis and Carlos. Atlas had separated from them on the way here and would handle his own job.

  If Kaelis had to comment based on the direction they came from, their original arrival point had been on the eastern side of the Bazaar—neither north nor south.

  While Kaelis was thinking, Carlos was checking the edges of the roof. Noticing this, Kaelis asked.

  “Hey, what’s wrong? Is there a problem?”

  “Nothing. I’m just looking for a pipe to climb down.”

  A pipe? Kaelis had nearly died climbing up one—now he had to climb down one too? Hearing that reignited the fear inside him, but he had given his word. This time he would be careful.

  “Found it. Come here, Kaelis”

  Kaelis hurried over. The spot where they would descend led into an alley. It looked quite similar to the one they had come from, but since the city’s layout was like this everywhere, he accepted it as normal.

  “Come down after I do.”

  After saying that, Carlos grabbed the pipe and performed a controlled free-fall descent, slowing himself near the ground so he landed safely. He let go of the pipe and looked up at the roof where Kaelis stood.

  Kaelis looked back at Carlos the same way, but when he saw the height he had to descend, he trembled with fear. Still, there was nothing else he could do.

  Kaelis slowly gripped the pipe—more accurately, he hugged it. Then he let himself drop exactly as Carlos had. The moment he released his grip, his fear peaked.

  Just before impact, he stopped himself. He let go of the pipe and looked at Carlos with a smile on his face.

  “Yay, I did it!”

  “Well done. Now let’s take care of our business.”

  “Mhm! Okay!”

  Carlos led the way out of the alley, and Kaelis followed right behind him.

  He had finally stepped inside the Bazaar whose name he had heard so often. He was extremely curious about what would happen next, and the only way to satisfy that curiosity was to experience the moment itself. That was why Kaelis followed Carlos.