Dzan and Sigvor move towards the source of a great amount of commotion. The crowds at the entrance of the square are dull and almost listless, hiding what's going on past them. There are also some apartment buildings surrounding the square that seem to hide a large crowd. Dzan and Sigvor turn right down a side street.

At the entrance of the side street they see four apartment buildings, two at the left side of the street, two on the right side. There are no other buildings in the area, just these four. The buildings are fairly tall, about fourteen stories each.

They are all designed the same way with similar architecture, so, considering the type of neighborhood, it is likely that they have a single owner who rents out all the units for each of these four.

Surrounding one of the four apartment building entrances, there are a number of humans chanting, making noise and shouting racial epithets. Dzan stares at the sight in disbelief. Near a single apartment building entrance, there are almost a hundred gathered. It really doesn’t make sense to him.

"...what the fuck are they doing?" Dzan grits his teeth. "What the fuck is the point of this!?"

Dzan wonders why all the racists decided to come out today of all days. He was having such a nice day. Nothing was bothering him. Then, all of a sudden, all these human supremacists swarm around this area like an aberrant crawler hive. Sigvor watches the scene carefully. His mind tries to piece together an explanation.

"They're… waiting for people to come out and go in. It's probably mostly demihumans who'd live in the buildings of this neighborhood…" Sigvor comments while nonchalantly moving towards a more shrouded area, behind a bush. His answer is unsatisfying. It doesn’t explain why they all gathered in front of a single apartment building. It can’t be a spontaneous protest, could it?

"There aren't any guards around here. If someone tries beating their asses, nobody can really stop them…" Dzan smiles slightly, but quickly frowns again. This area isn't like the square. Hardly any demihuman protesters are waiting around here so if someone tries to take this crowd on, they'll be without backup.

Sigvor takes out a pair of small binoculars from the bag he's carrying on his shoulder. However, Dzan is already walking over towards the crowd. Sigvor reaches out to him, but she's too late.

What the fuck are you doing, Dzan!?

Dzan has dark purple hair that looks almost black, and the hood of his coat is up so he's able to hide his ears. He can blend into the crowd as a human more easily than Sigvor who has light purple hair, a non-human hair color. Sigvor bites her lip, unsettled. She wonders why Dzan had to choose this angry situation to be so reckless.

She decides to risk it.

"...Are you sure you want to be doing this?" Dzan asks. Sigvor is walking next to him with a calm expression. He has his hood up and his light purple hair is covered by a head wrap similar to the one that Shaula sports. She was hoping to capture a human style, so she chose Shaula as a reference, perhaps being too hasty.

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"What if they figure you out, idiot?" Dzan whispers, slightly unsettled by Sigvor putting herself in harm's way. However, Sigvor discreetly shows Dzan the earring on her right ear hidden by her light purple hair; he decided to wear it just now, specifically for this crowd.

The blue earring is a special article, a symbol that the demihuman individual wearing it has an owner. It used to be worn by all enslaved demihumans, a widespread symbol used prior to the abolition of slavery that is still recognizable to this day. Nowadays, it is often worn by the demihuman servants of the wealthy, a “uniform” to clearly demonstrate their hierarchy.

"If I start to draw attention, we can pretend as if I'm your servant. It's a last resort anyways, don't worry. They’re not going to notice me at all. I’m still a professional thief, you know?" Sigvor whispers with a small smile.

"...Why do you have that? Since when did you become a servant?"

"It's… not for that."

"..." Dzan decides to stop asking.

As they walk at the edges of the crowd, some people look at Dzan and Sigvor. It looks like more people believe that Dzan is human while others either eye Sigvor suspiciously or piece together that she must be his property. Both their tails are hidden away as well. Though Sigvor is hiding her demihuman features, her eyebrows are still light purple, a dead giveaway.

Luckily, most people are preoccupied with the spectacle taking place around them.

Many of them are chanting loudly for demihumans to leave the "human-built" cities and venture off into the wilderness where they belong. The wilds outside large cities has been popular places for demihumans to escape and form villages after the abolition of slavery. Another aspect of their racism towards demihumans is that human supremacists view a lot of demihumans as hicks.

Dzan wonders how all of this started so close to the square. Could a human supremacist rally just pop up so quickly and organically? Did someone quickly prepare an adjoining protest filled with humans? But, the protesters here don't look like really committed racists, they look like they're just here to cause some small time trouble.

Sigvor believes that they’re here as the small match to light a larger fire. Some of them look like they’re just standing around, waiting for their rally to grow larger. Dzan stops walking through the crowd as he considers whether this place is good for lifting coin pouches. The people here don’t seem all that dangerous.

It might not be as risky as I had thought earlier… Well, whatever. I need the–

However, he stops after Sigvor points something out to him. The doors to one of the four apartment buildings are opening as two people exit.

There is a mother and daughter standing there with hoods over their heads, almost completely covering their hair. The daughter appears to be in her preteens while the mother is in her early forties. They are wearing long, beige coats and they walk quickly through the crowd, making sure not to get caught up.

However, people start to crowd around them and shout at them. Sigvor realizes that although the crowd is small, they are still a crowd and can act with the force of one if necessary. Wouldn’t they start to build confidence in themselves by picking off the weak first? Dzan also realizes the danger at once. He can see people who aren’t just poseurs.

They’ll be the ones to lead things off, won’t they? Oh shit.