After the whole fiasco, the orphans meet up in an alleyway to discuss what just happened. "What was that whole mess you guys created," Magnus asked in a not so happy tone.

One of their own was this close to being caught. It is in moments like these that Magnus hates himself for getting the kids into a life of crime.

An older girl responded to Magnus's question as she held her head down. "We thought that it would be easy prey, the man was drunk on his feet, so we went after him. Halil was going to swipe him, but things went wrong from there."

"Yeah," another boy said, this must have been Halil as he got into detail on what happened. "I sliced his coin purse easily, but quick as that the man grabbed my hand, and he said…"

"Didn't your mother teach you better?" Like cats whose tails got stepped on, all the orphans turned to face the person who finished Halil's sentence. From deep in the alleyway, three men walked out, Magnus immediately knew that they were a dangerous lot; not only did they have numerous weapons, tools, and other trinkets under their cloaks. These men also exuded a deadly aura of death and blood.

The one leading them spoke up, Magnus recognized his voice, he must have been who interrupt Halil, "I got to give it to you kids, stealing from Bulut like that, you kids sure have guts."

Magnus did not listen to that man banter; he knew that they had to escape; this was a fight that they could not win at all nor live through it. So Magnus signaled with his hands for the orphans to Run, he would hold them off the best he could.

However, before he orphans could act upon Magnus command or more likely not at all, their only exit was blocked. The drunk man that they tried to rob stood in the exit of the alleyway, bruised and bloodied a bit.

At the sight of him, one of the men, who was standing on the left of the leader chuckled at his companion's predicament. The other man, who was on the right, just shook his head, and the leader laughed his ass off.

Mr. Bulut growled at his friends, but that just made the leader fellow laugh even harder. "I guess that beating woke you up from your drunken stupor, huh, Bulut?"

Bulut grumbled under his breath, "Stupid snot-filled brats, who set's upon a person a whole angry crowd."

The leader's attention now turned to Magnus, "Alright kids, now hand over the coin purse that you stole. That much wealth in there might be too much for you."

Now that Magnus thought about it, he never looked into the coin purse that they stole. His mind was too busy with the close encounter that they just had. At that statement from that man, Magnus reached into his shirt, pulled out the coin purse, and looked inside.

The young mech builder jaw dropped to the floor when he saw how much money was inside the coin purse; there were dozens of gold lions inside the thing. Magnus's mouth watered and thought of what he could do what this wealth crossed his mind, but he immediately remembered who this coin purse belong to.

Magnus turned to face the bruised man and threw him the coin purse, with deft hands, the man easily caught the purse. Magnus turned back to face the leader, "I am so sorry, Sir, this was all a misunderstanding. Who knew that my little brother would pick up his purse with yours. What a terrible mistake, good thing you caught up to us, or we wouldn't have been none the wiser!"

The two men on either side of the leader looked gobsmacked at the blatant lies coming out of the young child's mouth. The leader just raised an eyebrow, and Mr. Bulut looked like he got injected with chicken blood.

Nevertheless, Magnus continued with his facade, "Halil apologize to these good sirs!"

Halil, who was keeping up with the game, made himself look miserable and said in a shaky voice, "I am sorry sirs, sniff, this was all a very terrible mistake on my part. I am sure that, sniff, in your good hearts, you can forgive."

Magnus nodded his head very sagely, "Well, you heard how distraught my little brother was, now we need to be on our way. Our mother will get worried if we do not make it back soon."

With that statement, Magnus turned on his feet and headed off. The orphans followed after him as they too said their sorries and how terrible they felt. Without stopping, Magnus tried to bull his way through, but the beat-up man was as solid as steel; the only thing that happened was that Magnus came to heel.

Magnus craned his neck up to look at the man, he stared back with his arms crossed not moving an inch, then asked, "What about calling me a rapist, huh, brat?"

"Ahh, that was truly the worst error I made in my life. When I saw you grabbing my little brother, I feared the worst, but I see now that I had nothing to fear with you, sir. You are truly a good person with a righteous heart. I am sure that a great person like you could forgive us. Now, like I said before, our mother is waiting for us, so we need to go."

Magnus was about to try to bull over the man once more, but the leader spoke, "Do you think those lies are going to work on us, kid?"

At the leader's words, Magnus was shameless enough to look hurt, "What do you mean, sir, I am telling the truth. Our mother is truly waiting for us, and she is a sick woman, so we do not want to make her worry about us by waiting for too long."

The leader chuckled, totally ignored what Magnus said, and asked, "How many people does this work on?"

Magnus paused in his tracks, the innocent, childish facade he took up disappeared, and an intelligent, cunning look took over. "Four," Magnus answered, "I guess the only reason why it works is that they usually stupefied by our audacity like your friends there."

Magnus pointed to the two men on either side, they were too stunned to even say anything, "They will be five and six. It would have worked on your friend here Bulut if he wasn't so crossed with us. You, on the other hand, well, it was just our fucking luck to run into you."

Magnus looked at the leader head-on, "Anyways, what do you want?"

"I guess you are the one who trained this little band, huh? You really got some talents kid. It is so difficult to find people with intelligence and guts like yours these days."

Magnus rolled his eyes, "Could you please get to the question on hand?"

"Fine, fine, if you do not want compliments, that is you. All I just wanted to say if you want a lucrative job find my crew and me. We will mostly be at Nasty Fish Tavern, and if you can't find us there, tell the owner you are looking for Soykan, he will get the message across."

"What! Soykan, you want to let a kid in?" The man standing on the left said it seemed like now was a good time for him to wake up finally.

"I will have to agree with Taylan. This is not a good idea," the other man said.

"I guess your guys answered that for me, anyway, I am quite busy with my own stuff, so I will have to say no politely. Now could we be on my way?"

"Sure, but if you change your mind, you know where to find me."

-----------------------------------

Today was the day that the inspector would be coming to the orphanage. Magnus had not yet met her since she usually came at the start of the season, and the little orphan came into this world in the middle of last season.

The Mothers rushed to and fro, making sure that the place was in tip-top shape and that all the orphans were presentable.

Every one of the orphans where here today, in their Sunday's best, including all the older boys; it would seem that they canceled work today.

From outside, Magnus heard the Mothers talking to somebody, one of the kids who were sneaking around came back and shouted, “She is here!”

All the orphans quieted down, the older girls hurriedly straightened out some of the kids' clothing, and even Magnus helped by quieting down a little squabbling baby.

However, what Magnus noticed from all the orphans was a ting of fear; that confused Magnus, but before he could put any more thought into it, a lady walked in.

She was tall, with prickly features and thin lips, instead of the simple trousers and tunics that all the orphans were wearing or even a dress. The inspector wore trousers, a long chemise, an ankle-length outer robe, a vest, and a belt tied at the waist.

Magnus recognized what she was a guilder or, more accurately, one of those who hang off them.

“Well, are all the kids that you in charge of are accounted, correct?” The lady asked Mother Selin.

Mother Selin nodded her head and said, “Yes, all 30 of them; there is Etkin, Tamer, Mazhar, Magnus…”

As Mother Selin as counting off all the orphans, the lady rudely cut her off, “Yes, yes, I could see that you have plenty of children here.”

Then she moved on to other questions in a dull monotone voice; for example, some of them were ‘how are you taking to this place’ or ‘are the caretakers doing their jobs.’

Magnus was pretty sure those questions where the orphans, but the inspector did not seem to care at all.

Finally, the lady finished with her questions, Mother Selin did her best to answer them, but the lady did not seem to care at all of the responses. It was like she was only going through a process and trying to finish it as soon as possible.

She turned to face the Mothers and said, “We are now done here. This is how much you will be getting from Guilds.” At that statement, she gave Mother Nevra the slip, which was an official Guild check.

“Now, the only thing left is how many kids will be turning 14 this season?”

At that question, all the kids recoiled back in fear, and the Mothers had a dejected look. It was clear now where all fear was coming from; not only does this lady inspect this place, which she does a terrible job at. This lady also brings in the checks, and most importantly of all, she kicks out the orphans when they become adults.

“Yes,” Mother Selin squeaked, “just one.”

Then Mother Nevra quickly added, “but he will be turning 14 seasons old in the 4th moon turn, not now.”

At Mother Selin's words, Erhan stepped forward. The inspector looked him over then asked. “Are you he isn’t 14 seasons old? You know how difficult it is to tell the age of these kids born out of wedlock and with nobody to verify their age.”

Magnus clenched his fist; her insult was clear as day, and filled with so much disdain and mockery.

However, before the bitch could continue with her insults, a voice interpreted her, “Do you doubt the Guild, inspector? They are the ones that verified everything.”

Everyone, including the orphans, Mothers, and the inspector, turned to face the owner of the voice, which was the Matron.

The inspector looked disgruntled at the Matron’s remark, but she held her tongue back since she dares to say otherwise of the Guild.

“I believe we are done here, correct, inspector?” The matron asked, “We will make sure to remove Erhan once he turns 14 seasons old. Now I trust you know where the exit is, huh?”

If the inspector could, Magnus believed she would have spit fire, but like she said, her inspection was over, and she could see that she wasn’t invited anymore.

Without a word, the inspector turned on her heels and left the orphanage with humf.

Once she was gone, and out of the premises, Magnus asked the Matron, “Matron, with the way you handled her, can’t she make things difficult for us?”

The Matron snorted, “I know her lot; they think that they are everything and that everyone should worship the ground that they literally step on. But the truth is that they do not matter; they are not truly part of the Guild, so they are all bark and no bite. They have no authority or power!”

“But still,” Magus said.

The Matron held out her hand, “I know what you mean, she can go ahead and give us a bad report. However, if she did that, somebody higher up will come and see that it is untrue; that means she will be investigated. I can tell you now she wouldn’t want that. From the way she operated, she takes bribes from other horrible orphanages that use their charges.”

It all made sense to Magus now, how could those other orphanages take advantage of their charges and make them collect money when they get paid. It is all thanks to people like that, bitch!

“Can’t we do something to stop them?” Magnus asked he remembered those kids he meets on the streets, nothing more than slaves who are tied to some number.

“We can’t,” this time, it was Etkin who spoke up. Magnus didn’t know that his conversation attracted so much attention. “If we reported her and all of those like her, there would be many who would be unhappy. Nobody likes it when you come between them and their profits.”

“Also,” Andrew added, “if we play dirty, so can she; even if it would cost her a lot, she could pay off this higher up that comes to reinvestigate us.”

“There are rules here, Magnus,” Mazhar said, “even if they are hidden, they are still there. All the Matron did was remainder the inspector of that.”

Magnus was shocked at how wise the older kids were; indeed, hardship and desperation make a person wiser than his or her years. Yet the thought that stuck to Magnus was; if everyone is corrupt, why can’t they be, but for a good cause.

That is exactly what Magnus voices, “then can’t we ignore the rule of kicking out somebody when they turn 14 seasons old.”

The Matron sadly shook her head, “That would require bribes, and what money do we have?”

Magnus's shoulder fell, how could he forget that, how could he forget how dirt poor they are, and how desperate their situation is.

As Magnus was crestfallen, somebody tapped him on the shoulder, Magnus turned to who it was, and it turned out to be Erhan. He had a bright smile on his face, but Magnus could see how false it was, “Don’t worry, Magnus, I will be going off to war so I wouldn’t even be here.”

Oh, yeah, how could Magnus forget that at all, Erhan would be going off to fight in some so-called another world? There he would join the war effort and, like so many others, be forgotten, unthanked, and uncared for.

Magnus couldn’t deal with this anymore; everything just seems to go to the shits, and nothing is getting better at all.

“I am going to my room,” Magnus said with a deep sigh.

Nobody said anything as Magnus left. They, too, felt the walls come tumbling down upon them just like Magnus.

----------------------

Magnus laid back in his bed, looking up at the upper cot as thoughts and ideas swirled his mind.

The mech builder’s mood was so great at the start of the season, there was hope that things would turn out great, and for a moment there, it even did look like it. Magnus thought that he would be able to get the kids an apprenticeship after that, those kids would be able to support the orphanage, and we would be out of this vicious cycle. Finally, at that, his duty would be over, and he could rest comfortably.

However, now things just look horrible; all hopes and dreams he had were shattered, none of his goals will ever pan out, and the orphanage will shut down eventually.

Magnus's head felt like exploding, all he wanted to do was sit down, weep bitter tears, and just give up and resign to his fate since all the efforts that he made was worth basically nothing.

Yet there was still one more avenue left, the offer that he was given by that man still stood.

Magnus sighed; it was such a tired and bone-weary sigh that revealed all the mental and emotional fatigue that Magnus was feeling.

Ever since he came to this world, he has aged so much, seen many horrible things, reached new lows, and grown in many new and unexpected ways. To top it all off, his position in life got better and better; first a beggar, then a thief, now what… an assassin?

That was the only job that Magnus could think of that was ‘lucrative.’ Well, so be it then. If he had to take some lives to save others, let his soul be damned in the fiery pits of Hell.

~