Marsh and Mogi had met up with Vic and went to a nearby alleyway. It's looming walls set in a sense of being trapped as well as shielding the alley from direct sunlight. The almost eerie quiet of the alley starkly contrasted the busy street and provided the boys some respite.

Mogi made sure to stay vigilant, ready for the Vargas carriage to arrive at any moment.

Vic raised an eyebrow with a shocked look in his eyes looking at Marsh's clothes.

"How did you guys manage this? The clerk must have been a real dimwit to let Mogi steal this from right under their eyes."

Marsh had a slightly confused look on his face.

"No, she gave it to us for free."

Turning to Mogi, Marsh had a questioning look in his eyes.

"How did you know she would let us have it for free? You didn't even have to ask her."

Mogi smirked.

"Yeah she made my job easy. I would have egged her on if she hadn't reached that conclusion on her own."

Mogi giggled turning to Vic.

"You should have seen her. She was practically drooling over Marsh."

Glancing back at Marsh, Mogi slapped his back.

"By the way she was acting she must have thought you were an ice cream cone. She would have licked you if you had asked."

Marsh groaned rolling her eyes.

Mogi winked.

"I'm sure she would have licked you anywhere you would have liked."

Marsh face flushed, shoving Mogi away.

"Shut up."

Vic had little reaction, ignoring Mogi's vulgar words.

"So do we just wait now?"

Mogi looked back at Vic, but before he could answer he saw a flash of maroon in his peripherals. Mogi's eyes lowered in a focus, suddenly jumping to his toes.

"Let's go, it's here."

The three boys nonchalantly made their way to the bustling street.

A horse drawn wagon had stopped in front of the tailor shop. A beautiful white horse snickered while shaking its head. An embroidered maroon noseband contrasted its stark while mane showing off the value of the horse as if it wasn't already obvious enough. It was attached to a wooden wagon that had a canvas tarp covering its contents.

A Vargas servant hopped off the saddle, making his way into the store.

Meandering through the crowd Mogi slid up the hood of his ragged tunic while the other two boys did the same.

The three slipped their way through the crowd until they reached the side of the wagon facing towards the middle of the street. Around ten feet away from the wagon the orphans grouped up, as if they were just a normal group stopping to talk in the middle of the street.

Mogi glanced at Vic and Marsh and then pointed to a random street vendor on the other side of the street in an attempt to avoid suspicion.

"The Vargas servant should be back any moment put the clothes in the back of the wagon. He should then walk on the other side of the wagon to mount the horse. While he's walking to his horse, I'll go up and pull up the tarp. You two jump in and I will follow."

Marsh and Vic quickly nodded. Marsh was fidgeting with his fingers nervously. Vic looked up into the sky contemplating what they were about to do.

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With his head down Mogi turned to look back at the tailor shop.

A quiet ring could be faintly discerned in the middle of the busy street as the door opened and the servant left.

Mogi quickly turned and gave the other two a light punch and then motioned for them to be ready to follow him.

The servant quickly made his way over lifting up the tarp from the back and carefully slipping the package of clothes into the wagon. Wiping the sweat off his brow the servant exhaled loudly and made his way over to his horse on the side closer to the middle of the street.

Mogi's eyes widened in panic.

'Fuck'

Shaking off his bad luck, Mogi focused on the task at hand. Quickening his pace, Mogi walked down the street while keeping the servant in his peripheral. As soon as the servant started mounting the horse Mogi took a sharp turn. Hastening his pace he made it to the back of the wagon and began unstrapping the tarp covering the wagon.

Mogi's hand's slipped a few times nervously struggling to figure out how the tarp worked. By the time he got it undone the carriage was slowly starting to move.

Mogi lifted the tarp up while keeping up with the carriage, allowing Victor and Marsh to slip under into the wagon. Quickly glancing around Mogi checked if anyone had spotted them. The bustling street didn't seem to mind the suspicious hooded figure, too busy to care about the questionable hitchhiking they were doing.

Taking a deep breath in while almost breaking into a jog to keep up with the moving carriage, Mogi slipped into the wagon under the darkness of the tarp.

**********

It felt like they had been in the wagon for an eternity despite the fact that the ride could not have been much longer than an hour.

Mogi stifled a groan as the wagon traveled over another bump. His whole body felt sore from the whole ride, especially his butt, and he was certain Marsh and Victor could not have been having a much more pleasant experience.

Marsh had seemed to have passed out while laying against the side of the wagon, but Mogi was hopeful that he had just fallen asleep. Marsh was not weak after all.

Mogi could barely discern Victor's figure in the darkness, yet he could tell that he was lying down with his back flat against the front of the wagon.

Mogi on the other hand sat towards the back of the wagon with his back hunched in an uncomfortable position. Turning himself around with his hands Mogi faced towards the back of the wagon, peeking through an opening he had left through the tarp at the back of the wagon.

The sky had taken on a pinkish orange hue as the sun about to set beneath the top of the sky, indicating the inevitability of midday. Mogi could never quite seem to understand why, but the four hour period of darkness that plagued the world in the middle of the day was called midday. It made more sense to him to call it midnight as it was basically night time in the middle of the day time, but midnight referred to the middle of the night, which begrudgingly somewhat made sense to Mogi.

Sensing the incoming of midday, Mogi tore into the box of clothes that sat by his side the whole time. He took out a pair of servant clothes and held them up to the dim ray that flooded the cart from the back of the wagon.

The clothing itself was nothing extraordinary, but to Mogi it was better than anything he had ever owned before.

A ghostly white under shirt contrasted the dark black sheen of the blazer and pants. The black bowtie meant as the finishing touch to the outfit left a deep impression on Mogi as he had never thought he would have the chance to wear anything like it.

Struggling in the confines of the wagon Mogi slipped on all the butler-like clothes, bruising his butt even more when trying to pull up the tight pants. He then grabbed two other sets of clothing and crawled his way over to Vic.

Mogi lightly tapped Vic and then gave him the clothes, indicating to him to put them on.

He then made his way over right next to Marsh with the last set of clothes. Leaning close to Marsh's ear, Mogi's lips moved in a whisper.

"Just put these on over that tunic."

Marsh quickly nodded while taking the clothes.

Mogi quickly made his way over back to his peephole.

The last signs of the sun had almost disappeared yet with the faint hint of orangey light left from the sun Mogi could tell they had just passed the gates of the Vargas mansion.

The gates themselves were just a preliminary measure of security, but passing them would have been near impossible with a more direct method. This in itself filled Mogi with great relief. They had made it past their first obstacle.

Mogi watched as the vast fields of the Vargas manor that were home to a variety of crops slowly grew dimmer and dimmer as midday set in, until finally at last true darkness filled the world. The only light Mogi could discern was the dim light emitted from an oil lamp held by the driver of the wagon. It shone in a small circle, barely reaching the ground below the back of the cart.

Mogi glanced back to Marsh and Vic, who to his surprise were already crouching right next to him. With a serious face Mogi looked at the two figures hidden in the darkness.

"We're going to have to jump off this wagon. I'll go first, then you two follow. We're almost to the entrance of the mansion, but the midday darkness should help us escape from being caught. We should not have to separate from each other, but if we do just pretend that you work for them as you bide your time to escape."

With those last few words Mogi slipped feet first out of the back of the moving wagon.

The initial impact of the ground send sharp tendrils of pain up Mogi's legs, but luckily Mogi was able to break most of his momentum from the moving wagon by rolling across the ground. The sharp gravelly pavement felt like pinpointed spikes stabbing his back throughout his roll, making his exit extremely uncomfortable.

Turning back, Mogi watched Vic and Marsh tumble across the ground as they made their ungraceful exits out of the wagon.

By looking around in the darkness Mogi couldn't tell, but he knew that they had just successfully snuck into the Vargas manor.