Keziah didn’t consider himself paranoid. If anything, he was the opposite. Worry was often gone from his vocabulary as it more often than not resulted in nothing more but his hair turning gray faster. Catching a glimpse of some street thug running away as soon as Kez entered the vicinity of his apartment made him doubt his character. It’s been a long time since he was worried or scared about anything. Ten or so years, to be exact. Even then, it was for his friends, not for himself.

He ignored these thoughts for now and run up the stairs on the side of the building and into his room. Quickly rummaging through his belongings, he grabbed his stash of money and packed clothes and whatever they could use on the road into the bag. He put the custom-made scabbard on his back, Augustus in it, and took one last look at the room in which he had lived for the past year. It wasn’t spacious by any means, but it was enough for him. The floor was creaking in the smallest of movements and the walls couldn’t hold in heat at all during the colder months. It wasn’t anything that a few layers of blankets couldn’t fix, though. The one thing that made Keziah stay in it for so long was that the roof didn’t leak.

That was all that mattered to him.

He closed the door behind him and hoped that the landlord wouldn’t chase after his late payment. Kez quickly stopped that thought when he realized that by not killing Annette, he wouldn’t be welcome in Avinea altogether. The nice parts of Avinea, at least.

He jumped down the stairs and went back for Annette. Running to beat the imaginary ticking clock, he was back at the place where they met the three adventurers. They were standing around as casually as they have before. Annette was inside the ‘circle’, looking nervous but trying to hide it in her body language. One of the men seemed to be trying to have a conversation with her, probably to make her feel more comfortable. The other detail that was different was two bodies lying in what could be considered the gutter of this narrow street. Keziah couldn’t see any blood on them, so they must have been just knocked out.

“They were snooping around so we took care of them, just in case,” explained Anwas, noticing Keziah’s gaze on the unconscious hoodlum. "Don’t worry, it was free of charge.”

“Appreciate it,” said Keziah, tossing him a small pouch with silver.

Anwas caught it and stored it in his coat’s inner pocket, not counting the coins. “We are leaving the city ourselves, just one last visit to the guild’s inn.” He approached Kez to shake his hand. “Good luck in whatever you’ve been caught up in. May the road be wide and the forests sound.”

“The coin be round and the beer never denied,” replied Keziah, grabbing his forearm. It was a traditional saying among adventurers. He was taken aback by Anwas saying it, as it usually was spoken as a farewell between either party members or people who considered themselves equal.

“Maybe someday we will need a little help and you will be around.”

With that, they left Keziah and Annette and went their way, most likely having the guild's tavern as a destination in mind. Thinking about the local guild reminded Keziah of Mattias. He was the closest to what he could call a friend in this city. He wished he had a chance to at least say goodbye, but he had to hope that Mattias would understand.

It could be considered a strange thing by many to not have made more contacts in the whole year he has been in Avinea. Keziah was just too busy snatching low-risk contracts during the day and then being too tired to socialize during the night. Or simply not wanting to. He preferred to keep his circle of friends small. It was easier to manage it that way. His days as a charismatic heart of the party were short and sweet, and he wasn't planning on coming back to them anytime soon.

He looked at Annette, who was staring at him expectantly.

"Let's get out of here."

She nodded.

"Shouldn't we go this way?" she said after Keziah went in another direction than the one in which they came from.

"We can't go through the same gate. The guards would remember us and this time they would be much more suspicious."

"Where are we gonna pass through, then?" She sounded worried.

"Main gate."

"Main gate?! Weren't we crawling through that field to avoid Main Gate?"

"The closest pass outside the walls, other than the one we came through, is in Lower Waterside. I don't have any contacts there that would let us pass there. The syndicates guard it much more closely than the city guards in the upper districts. It's also much more dangerous, which in turn means much more time-consuming, and we are low on time right now," he explained while they navigated through the streets, toward the Main Road. "It's likely that we have been spotted already, meaning being careful is useless now. Speed is what matters. Going through Main Road will make it harder for even the Royal Guards to make a commotion or, Gods forbid, arrest someone. It would damage the reputation of the city and the king, and he doesn't want that, that much I can tell you."

Keziah met King Clemen only once. He was just a boy then, not even past the age of ten. It was before the two accidents that would change his life forever happened. One took his family, the other his talent in Elementalism. He was just a boy who liked climbing trees then.

He met the king at a party commemorating the close ties that Aldunis had with Grenica, the neighboring land where Keziah was from. His family was invited due to the status of his father as the heir to one of the most historically influential clans. Their bloodline reached the times of the First Empire and helped conquer new territories during the expansion and transformation of the empire into its second phase. The status that came with having a bloodline reaching even the Second Empire was almost a guarantee of getting an influential position within the current political environment.

Keziah's parents, along with Keziah and his younger brother, were introduced to Clemen by a mutual friend, an ambassador from Aldunis in Grenica. His impression of the king was that of a charismatic, finely dressed, nice old man. Keziah remembered how he mixed himself with multiple groups present at the party and how he always seemed to guide the attention and conversations of other party attendees to himself.

Later on, when Keziah was older, he judged King Clemen as intelligent and as someone who knew that the power of a king lasts only as long as the people he rules over believe him to be someone who is worth putting above them. If there was one lesson Keziah learned while dealing with all kinds of nobles and aristocrats, it’s that an angry peasant with a pitchfork can quickly remind even the richest and most powerful lord that in the end, everyone bleeds the same.

Clemen must have learned that too, as he was instilling in his populace over the years the idea of kings and aristocracy being above-average people. He didn’t exploit peasants and low-class workers as much as lords and kings in other parts of the continent. That kept all politically curious peasants that could happen to be in close vicinity of a pitchfork satisfied enough to not question the structure of power in the kingdom and focus on their work.

And paying taxes.

Keziah and Annette were coming close to the brightly lit, smooth-paved, massive street when Kez got momentarily blinded. For a moment he thought it must have been the difference between the dank alleyways of the Inbetween and the strong, bright lamps of the Main Street, but he quickly remembered who was chasing them. Main Street was around 50 yards ahead of them and Sebastian, with a curious mix of two heavily panting thieves and a handful of watchmen, was behind them. One of the thieves had his arm in a sling.

"Debt is repaid," said Sebastian to the two thieves. "You can leave us."

The thieves didn't look back as they scattered away. Keziah had to applaud their stamina because they looked utterly spent in his now squinting eyes. Maybe they just really wanted to get away from this situation. Either way, it worked for Keziah. Fewer bodies to overcome.

As to make fun of his thoughts, five more watchmen came out of the alleyway behind them, surrounding them. A quick escape to Main Street now wasn't an option. Five watchmen on one side, another five, plus Sebastian on the other. All carrying blades. Keziah suspected that most of the swords that the watchmen used were quite dull, but still, a sword is a sword. He was still tired, both stamina-wise and mana-wise from his previous fight. His mind raced to find a way to get out of this situation without fighting, but he prepared himself for anything. He saw Annette looking nervously between the two groups of men. Hopefully, she was also looking for ideas, but he couldn't blame her if she hadn't.

"I should have known better than to hire a lowlife from the street to do this," said Sebastian, looking genuinely angry at himself. "But no matter, in the end, the outcome will be the same, despite your meddling."

"Meddling? How could one not meddle when faced with such cruelty!?" Keziah raised his voice and spoke with authority, while slowly pacing toward the group of watchmen blocking Main Street. He subtly motioned Annette to follow.

He continued, "To force one to commit arson is one thing!" Keziah mustered all his acting skills into this performance. "But to kill a child! That's too much."

He now turned to face the group of watchmen he was walking toward, instead of Sebastian. Unsurprisingly, they started paying attention to his words once he mentioned killing a child. "I understand that you followed him, not knowing what kind of person he was. I urge you to help me save this child from this wicked monster!" He pointed his finger at Sebastian, who looked increasingly furious. In comparison, his henchmen looked unsure of what to do. "I'm sure you will be rewarded for revealing the true nature of someone so important to the well-being of the Royal family."

His last words suggesting that the supposed credit in unmasking the Captain would go to them seemed to convince at least the watchmen blocking the path to Main Street. They lowered their weapons and seemed to be ready to let them pass.

"Enough of this!" boomed Sebastian. "Apprehend the criminal who kidnapped the princess at once!"

The watchmen, who weren't usually under the command of the Captain of the Royal Guard, took a hesitant swing at Keziah. Keziah quickly drew Augustus and parried the blow, throwing the man aside by the arm. His act worked somehow, at least as they were now close enough to the confused men that all it took was to dodge the initial attack and shove two of them away to run past them.

Not that they were found, their escape would complicate a little, but not all was lost. If they could just quickly blend into the crowd that even during the night, or dawn as it was, then, was substantial enough to hide in. Once they were blended in, it would be almost impossible for Sebastian or the watchmen to arrest them without a warrant, which he hoped there was too little time to issue. Keziah, dragging Annette by the wrist, ran around the corner and into Main Street. He tried to put both of their hoods up while they were momentarily out of sight of the chasing watchmen, but he bumped into a wagon, situated just on the corner of the alleyway and Main Street. Panicked, he tried for a way around it when he heard the silky voice of the owner of the wagon call them.

"You must be the pair of my little Fools. Good timing."