The air blows a subtle and cold wind throughout the mountains, a vestige from the harsh winter signifying the coming of spring. From across the land, people are gathering around the marketplace to get themselves fully prepared for the new year. As for Julius, he is just looking for a change.
Walking around the market on new year's eve is something he had always found fun while growing up in this world. The sound of people talking about the past year, the cool breeze combined with the numerous new and exotic commodities laid bare upon the streets by the vendors make it an even more enjoyable experience.
Of course, in his current state they're all just experiences. There is not a single thing here in this market that he can buy with the miniscule amount of money he has in his pockets. But he really doesn't mind it that much seeing as he would rather spend some fun and memorable time than buy something useless that he will never use again. Either this is how he always was or living in poverty for 12 years from his birth has changed his ideals from his past life, but who knows.
"Dont fuck with me you brat!", The scream of a woman shook the entire market and the people wandering around curiously started looking at the commotion. Yes, this includes Julius too, as he makes his way toward a group of people standing at the corner of the street.
Right around the corner of the street there is a small fruit stall where a child, seeming to be around 12 years old, which is the same the age as Julius, is lying on the ground in pain as a woman around her 40s is standing right beside him with a clenched fist emitting sheer anger brimming on her face.
"You steal my stuff again and I will kill you, you hear that!".
The woman yells as she kicks the kid again into the street. The kid screams in anguish as he is lying down on said street, unmoving for a few seconds until he slowly gets up and limps away from the crowd. All the while Julius is just standing there, watching.
Things like this are nothing new. With the amount of poverty and uncontrolled child births in this country, a child getting beaten to death for a petty crime is almost a daily norm. But also something that is not that easy to ignore for Julius, even if it means defending the wrong side.
As the crowd subsides, Julius begins making his way towards the fruit stall. The woman has just finished cleaning up the mess and is putting the apple that the kid tried to steal back into its place.
"Excuse me, Miss, how much will two apples cost?", Julius asks her, pointing at the apple she just put back and another one which is just right next to it.
The woman stares at him out of disbelief. A brown pair of linen trousers, a white shirt, on which a gray jacket with stitches all over it lies, and down there are some messed up leather shoes. To her, he looks just like some brat walking around, sniffing for chances like the previous kid.
"Get lost kid, if you want to steal something then be prepared to kiss my fist first".
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"No, no, I am not intending to steal anything, I just want to buy some apples", says Julius with an innocent smile.
"One… bronze… per... apple".
Julius rattles his pockets around and slowly takes out a small copper coin.
"Well… I don't have two bronze coins, how about copper?". He reaches his hand holding the coin toward her, all the while maintaining the same innocent smile.
"Get the fuck out of here kid, before I beat you up!", She raises her voice accompanied with an intimidating stare.
"Alright alright, I'm going", says Julius hastily as he puts the coin back into his pocket and slowly walks away.
As the woman turns back to continue her job, from the corner of her eyes, she notices that two apples from the front row are missing. She stops in her tracks, dumbfounded she quickly starts looking for the apples. She bends down and checks below the stall, in case the apples fell down on the ground. Seeing that the apples have mysteriously disappeared, she quickly turns her attention towards Julius, who is still still standing some distance from her. Without hesitation, she dashes toward him quickly grabbing onto his shoulder and yanking him around to face her.
"You stole my apples didn’t you, you piece of shit?!".
Julius, after being shocked by this woman suddenly grabbing his shoulder, quickly gathers his wits and when the realization finally struck him about the question imposed towards him, all you can find on his face is utter confusion.
"Get off me, i didn’t steal any of your apples", says Julius as he uses both of his hands to force the woman's hand off his shoulder as he quickly puts some distance between him and the woman.
"Don't lie to me, you just walked away a few seconds ago and two of my apples are suddenly gone. You were the only one standing near them, only you could have done that".
"Well, I'm sorry, but I didn't steal any of your apples, they could have fallen to the ground".
"Not possible, I checked there already. Either you give me my apples back and receive your beating or I will bring you to the guards!".
Although standing in front of him is a raging storm in the form of a woman, Julius doesn't seem to be fazed at all, rather he looks quite calm and contemptuous, like he knows full well how to subdue this beast. He stretches out his arm and walks toward her with a challenging attitude on his face as if he is mocking her.
"In order to prove my innocence, I will let you search me, if you can find them you can do anything you want, but if you can't then I'm free to leave, are we good?"
"You want a fucking game… sure! But be prepared to go to jail!"
She grabs his tiny body and begins searching for every nook and cranny, his jacket, his shoes and even his mouth. But to all of her frustrations, she finds a single copper coin.
"Where? Where did you hide them?"
"I told you, I never stole them… and as promised, I'm free to leave".
Julius walks off with a smug grin on his face, but out of anger the woman tries to chase him, but stops herself when she sees the crowd of people staring in a judgemental way. So even though she was at her breaking point, all she can do is walk back to her stall.
She hits her hand on one of the wooden columns of her fruit stall to release her pent up anger, but as soon as she lifts her hand from the stall, the column gets split in perfect half like it has been cut by something sharp. And exactly at that moment, multiple columns and supports of the stall are broken into halves like they had been sliced down by a sword. Ultimately leading to the entire stall's collapse.
Julius is right now standing outside the market, laughing at the top of his voice like a maniac, thinking how he finally gave that woman what she deserved.
"Ahhh, I hope you enjoy as much pain as you inflicted on that kid… *wheeze*"
"But I have to say, you were right about one thing"
Julius lifts up his hand as he focuses on his ring finger, as the finger slowly morphs into a shining metal claw the dimensions of 10 cm with 3 holes on each side, in each of them. All pumping out air like an engine. Julius slashes it across his jacket, creating a line with it on the jacket as the line quickly expands and forms a hole and what comes out of that hole are two apples.
"Well, I did steal your apples". Julius takes one in his right hand and slowly moves it towards his mouth, biting on it as he walks towards his home.