Keira had already her eyes on the small bakery. She wanted to steal some delicious food but stealing from a restaurant or a food stall that was in the middle of a busy street would be much harder.

‘Now I understand why the peasant in the first world I transmigrated into decided to steal from a bakery instead of the food stalls. How ironic, that I would also come to steal bread from a bakery.’

Keira went inside the bakery, her hood was still pulled down but she acted like she was a normal customer looking through the different loaves of bread. Good thing, not all bread was locked in a display case. Loaf breads were just displayed within arm's reach. Keira took one of the bread and took a quick glance at the man behind the counter who was catering to another customer.

‘How funny would it be if his name would also be Rob.’ There was an urge in Keira to straight up just ask the name of this baker, but she suppressed it.

When the baker turned his back to get something on the shelf, Keira who was already holding two loaves of bread in both of her arms, made a run for it. She quickly exited the small bakery and ran into the streets. She heard a man calling out to her, but paid no attention and just ran holding to the loaves of bread like her life depended on it.

Keira thought that it would be an easy heist. She hadn’t expected the knights who were patrolling the area to hear the commotion and chase her down.

She clicked her tongue but still did not relent. She quickly ran through the people, making left and right turns on the street in hopes to lose her pursuers.

She went inside the alleyway but she could still hear hurried footsteps following her.

‘Why would they go through so much longer for a person who literally just stole two loaves of bread?!’

Keira made a quick turn in the alleyway and scaled the wall again. She was somewhat familiar with this area as this was the same place she had taken the clothes from.

“She’s there!” Someone instantly spotted her climbing the building.

Keira who instinctively looked at the source of the voice made her upper body twist at an awkward angle that made her face crumple in pain. She suddenly coughed up from the discomfort and felt farm liquid dribble down from the corner of her lips.

She actually tasted blood. She aggrieved her internal wounds so much that it caused her to cough up blood. Her wounds might actually be worst than what Keira initially thought. Nonetheless, Keira continued to run away from the knights, who were still persistent.

Because of her familiarity with the alleyway already, Keira finally manages to lose the knights, only after running around so much that made her internal injuries worsen. She leaned on the wall and sighed. Her hand was already on her stomach. She couldn’t understand if her stomach was hurting from the hunger or from the wounds, or both.

New small scratches formed on her body from the escape earlier. She was only left with one loaf of bread, for it was hard to climb up the walls holding two pieces of bread. The other one had long fallen off.

She sat on the ground, and carefully ate the bread in the dark alleyway, leaning on the wall and hiding.

The bread was dry and had become slightly dirty from all the running but she could not be picky. The floor where she sat was cold, and the atmosphere in the alleyway was dreary.

“Urk!” Keira covered her mouth and stopped herself from spitting everything on her mouth and forced the dry bread down her throat.

Maybe because her stomach was weak right now and she was injured, Keira wanted to instantly vomit the dry bread but was forced to stop herself from doing so.

“Mmph…” She continued to cover her mouth with her hands and forced herself to swallow everything.

She had to replenish her energy and could not afford to become even weaker after vomiting everything out. Moreover, she doesn’t know when she could steal another batch of food. Tears were already forming in the corner of her eyes after forcing herself to eat the pale bland bread.

She began to miss the warm soup made by Ezekiel. She was in so much pain right now that she was even thinking of just giving herself up. However, she knew she would regret doing so. Going out without a fight wasn’t her style. Above all, she just had a very ominous feeling.

Keira looked at the remaining bread in her hand. She wasn’t very fond of bread because of something that happened in her past. Nonetheless, she swallowed the last piece of bread. it was better than starving to death here.

She was tired. She had moved none stop the whole time she escaped the palace, with her injured body.

Keira managed to force herself up after some effort. She was really weak right now, she could barely move. Her legs were shaking as she stood up. She held the alley wall for support as she moved forward. She wanted to walk deeper into the alleyway, hoping to find some resting place she could slide in for the night.

“Ugh…” But only moving a few steps forward, she could not help but groan in pain.

Keira leaned on the dirty alleyway wall as she clutched her bruised stomach. She lifted her tucked-in shirt and saw a very unsightly bruise. It looked so much worst than before.

‘Looks like a land where aliens could live from the bizarre colors mixing on her skin.’

Keira bit her lips in frustration and hid the disgusting wound again with her shirt. She looked at the corner of the alleyway and her thoughts naturally wanders.

‘Why do I always end up hiding in the alleys? Maybe I truly belong in the slumps.’

Keira let out a pitiful laugh before she continued walking deeper into the alley and still holding the wall with her other arm as support.

It was really painful. She just wanted to lie down and let the world take her—just not the male lead.

‘I can’t fool around now. System 999 isn’t here. I can’t remain laid back and act foolish like before. Now that there is a big possibility that Leal might be part of all of this…”

Keira clenched her fist hard.

‘I just need to wait for System 999’s news to confirm everything, not just regarding Leal, but I will also be able to see if System 999 will be on my side.’

Maybe this was all a scheme of some sort by the main system and System 999 is working with the main system to screw Keira over, or System 999 could also just be a pawn. Who knows, but it was an irrefutable fact that System 999 is suspicious.

‘System 999 might be pretending all this time to be this gullible system, yet… something is telling me it isn’t. Talking to System 999 makes me calm and relaxed, and just feel like I could fully rely on it. Maybe that’s why I have been too laid back.’

Walking absentmindedly, Keira accidentally tripped on a fishing line that had been discarded in the garbages near her. Keira’s body fell down as she had nothing around to grab for support besides the empty boxes and slippery walls.

“Ack! Nngh…!”

Keira fell directly to the dirty floor. Her vision was enshrouded with white from the sudden impact. She could hear ringing in her ears.

More of her blood vessels broke. Her whole body had already been aching, especially her stomach area. Now that she met the direct impact of the cold floor made her feel like her whole body broke down.

The pain had become so unbearable that tears began forming in the corner of her eyes.

‘It hurts so much…’

She hated pain. She despises feeling pain. Even more so when the pain she feels now feels so known to her.

‘Why am I even in this situation? What did I do to deserve this? I only wanted to live…’

Keira curled her body into a ball and hugged her throbbing stomach. She didn’t mind that the floor was dirty, she could not even move anyways if she wanted to. She did not even stop her tears.

“Hick…”

The coldness from the floor seeped into her bones making her shiver and hug her body even more tightly like a caterpillar in a cocoon.

‘Leal… Where are you… I really… need you right now…’

Everything around her was dark, desolate, and cold. She was already so deep in the alleyway that her muffled whimpers of pain and sobs could not be heard from the bright bustling streets.

…