CHAPTER TEN: MY SOCIAL STANDING.

-The obvious choice is to kill the kid…he's seen too much.- Kaira thought to herself.

-No...No, that's too rash. But still…If I'm caught, Spade won't be on my side. That stick in the mud will obviously tell me to swim on my own…-

"Umm…here." The child said as though he was trying to rush her, why?

So that he could tattle?

As though he read her thoughts, he continued.

"I'm offering my hand to you. To help you get up." He said.

Irritation.

"If I take your hand, I might break it." Kaira sighed, then used her own strength to lift herself.

"Right, so you've seen the ham, haven't you?" she asked the child.

"Ohhh…I wouldn't say… 'Saw it,' it umm hit me square in the face, will you still eat it?" he asked.

The child that had stammered at first now spoke clearly. Kaira couldn't help but peer into his feelings. He was quite odd.

*Anger*.

"Of course….." they stared at each other for a few seconds. "I mean…maybe…maybe I just want to throw the ham away." She flushed.

Was he angry because he also wanted the ham?

The child had confused her, his face showed worry, but the child's emotion oozed anger.

The child laughed, but because she could feel his emotions, it sounded hollow and practised. Was the child trying to get a promotion? Did that mean that the child would tattle…should…should she kill him? No, seriously…

"You know…I think that I should kill you," she blurted out testing the waters to see if a threat would work.

"Over ham?" He frowned.

*Confusion.*

"Well, if you put it that way, you make me seem kind of petty."  Kaira said, hoping he would say 'I see' and then feel fear and then promise not to tattle.

"Is there another way you could put it? I mean by all fronts that would be considered quite petty," The child responded.

-Huh? Which script is he reading from? Is this child really a cleaner?-

"I can't tell your gender." Kaira decided to switch it up.

"I'm a boy…oh, people may find the discarded ham!" The boy scurried over to pick the fallen ham then brushed the top dust and handed it back to Kaira.

Kaira took out her dagger and sliced the ham into a quarter, and three-quarter portions then handed the quarter portion to the boy.

She hated having to share food…but this seemed to be the only way, was the boy a merchant? He was good…too good!

"Now we are accomplices." The boy's face froze for a few seconds as though he couldn't believe how kind she was.

-That's right! I'm a saint, soak it up.-

Kaira smirked at the thought of him saying thank you and later promising to steal with her next time.

But instead, the boy laughed. He laughed so hard that Kaira almost felt insulted.

*Joy.*

-Why the hell is he laughing?-

-Is the ham not enough?-

-Does he want more? Hell no! I have plans for this ham!- Kaira fumed.

"Hey! I worked hard for this ham!"

"You stole the ham!" the boy corrected her.

"Yes! Alone."

"Where is your heart, I'm a malnourished boy…shouldn't you give me the three-quarter piece!?!"

"Are you nuts? If you are malnourished then why don't you eat more?"

"Do you not know how the world works; it's obviously because I don't get enough food!?" he frowned. "How should I eat more when I only ever meet people like you?"

"So, I'm supposed to feed you?!" Kaira fumed.

-Was he serious?-

"Hey…you didn't help me take the ham! I'm doing you a favour, YOU are the one who doesn't know how the world works."

The boy looked at her as though she was crazy.

"Any way…I have to go, I can't be found with these items on me," Kaira said then took off without looking back.

The malnourished child laughed as Kaira left.

The juice had spilt on the ground, but she looked pleasantly happy with just the ham. He took the mop that had been left abandoned and mopped up the spillage as he continued to laugh.

"What a strange girl." He said. When she was entirely out of sight, his dirty hair fell off, his height increased, and the dull, murky brown colour grew lighter and blonde as his beady brown eyes grew larger and blue.

-Who the fuck gives a malnourished child the smallest portion? Doesn't she have any compassion?-

"Were all commoners like this?" he mumbled then an image of Rosa filled his mind. Fuck, he needed to confirm some things.

"Hey! I got some ham!!" Kaira announced as she entered their shared room, she raised the ham upwards with one hand while she shut the door with the other.

"Why does it look freshly cut?"

"Oh, well you know…" Kaira chimed not wanting to admit that she had been caught. "I found it this way."

"Right," Spade said uninterested. "Aaaaand it doesn't scare you that maybe the chef had plans for it?"

"What...pssshhh, no... It was...pr-practically abandoned." she lied through her teeth, and Spade sighed.

-Does Spade think that I am a lost cause?-

Kaira put the ham in her locker and then dropped her wet cloak.

Why did she have to fall in mop water?

"So, when do you think we'll arrive?" Kaira asked changing the topic.

"At the port or guild?" Spade asked for clarification.

"Guild." Kaira clarified.

"Well…guild...not sure, could be a month, we'll have to visit the towns from southeast then south till southwest, then finally the west. There are like what, twenty-seven towns to pass through before we reach? It might even take longer. We should buy some clothes, and maybe equipments on the way." He said, scratching his head, Spade stood momentarily to gather his things.

"Oh, do you think I can get my dagger repaired?" she asked, pulling the said object out of her locker. "It got damaged when I had to fight a silent pig, you know how tough the skin is. I guess I got careless." She confessed.

"Those are the kinds of slip-ups you need to avoid in the guild," Spade said. "How many daggers do you have now?"

"I carry five, but that's broken so currently four. Two main ones, I keep them on my outer thigh and two on my belt and one small one on the holder on my back."

"You said we had to look out for each other, right?" Spade reminded her. "Pick and choose your battles well, a silent pig isn't that hard to fight."

"Uh, when you are exhausted, it is!" she defended.

"Well whatever, just be cautious, okay?"

Kaira wasn't really good at looking after people, she often forgot the other party entirely. Maybe that had been okay before because Sienna had always been one step ahead of her, but with Spade...they were equals. She needed to fight more cautiously.

She suddenly felt a burst of motivation to train.

"So, any news on board?" asked Spade.

"Like what kind of news?"

"I don't know…something about the passengers or the boarding crew? I don't know?" he elaborated.

"Spade...do you want to participate in gossiping with me?" Kaira asked mockingly then sat on the table opposite his position on the chair.

"Argh, why do you always make things weird?"

"I can't help it...I thought you never gossip!"

"Kaira, I'm human. I need gossip to survive. Especially now that we are at sea and there are only old newspapers available."

"Oh...you mean, political gossip," she sighed, unable to hide her disappointment.

Spade rolled his eyes, then cleared his throat.

"Just tell me everything that you have heard, and I'll decide what's important info."

" Spade, everything I say is important."

"Right."

"Well there is this guy, Lord Monroe, he is on the ship. Apparently, he is deeply infatuated with a maid on board."

"What!? Really? I've heard of the guy," Spade drummed the table as though he was trying to recall the piece he had read before about him," He is a merchant right, an inventor and a nobleman."

"What do you mean inventor?" Kaira asked.

"Have you ever heard of 'Fauz carpet industries'? A Lord ‘Kaiden Monroe’ introduced a new alternative to fur carpets. That's currently the ‘in’ thing in the capital 'apparently'. Haru told me all this from a gossip magazine. I mean, IF, this is the same Lord Monroe that you are talking about. Though it’s hard for nobles to share names, what if he is a fake?"

“I didn’t get that far, I just know that he stays in room zero.” Kaira shrugged.

“Oh, then it’s probably the actual ‘Lord Kaiden Monroe.’” He confirmed.

“You mean there are people actually willing to risk posing as a noble?”

Posing as a noble is considered treasonous, but the punishment is not death. Instead, if you are caught, the noble family you posed as, take ownership of you and all you own, for seventy-seven years.

“All sorts of people, especially bandits.” Spade sighed.

“So what's this ‘Room Zero’ business?”

“Room zero is the best room,” he said, then continued. “It has everything, from chandeliers to buffet delivery.”

“Oh, my Gods! A buffet?!”

“Settle down, and wipe your drool. The room is only gotten through connections, not even your iches can get you access to that room. So, in other words, you need power for access to that room, or rather ‘such’ rooms.”