The Shattered World was divided into three realms. The low, middle, and High realms, named in accordance with the concentration of spiritual energy in the Pearls of that realm. Each set of seven pearls made up a realm, and the closer you were to the anomalous mass of spiritual energy and light that had fused with our planet’s core, and now served as our second sun, the higher the realm.

All around us were sheep. Bowing softly to one another as they ate the hay that was hung above their cages, and right within their reach. Jack and I currently sat in the storage bay of an airship that was carrying several flocks of cloud-sheep from our 17th Pearl to the 14th realm, meaning in one fell swoop we were jumping from the low realm to the middle realm. Ever pull off something, and have no clue how you did it? This was one of those moments for me. I suspect I might be some kind of criminal genius, or maybe Jack is just a really, really, bad influence on me.

I swear I was a good kid back in my hometown. I was obedient to my parents. I was patient and loving to my sisters. I did all my chores. I helped with the family business. I helped the neighbors. I was kind to animals. I never stole. I never fought. Fuck, I didn’t even swear back then. I was a good kid. The kind of kid, all the teachers give gold stars and glowing recommendations.

Now look at me, I was stowing away on a ship, after the theft of hundreds of books, and tens of thousands of gold worth of food, water, and various other supplies. We also carried away everything that looked like it might be of value. Basically, carrying away a solid two-thirds of the Marrow estate’s wealth with us. Or, everything that wasn’t nailed down. Only leaving behind the stuff that was marked so that it could be tracked. Data-sampling pointed out the things that were best left behind.

What’s that saying? If you’re going to eat poison, you might as well eat the plate too? They were already probably going to do their level best to hunt us down regardless of what they did. Preserving their face and avoiding the Orsino clan’s wrath demanded it. If they caught us, I was a deadman, and Jack was looking at a fate worse than death. So why the hell wouldn’t we take some souvenirs as the icing on the cake and a nice, hearty, fuck you? We’d definitely be needing supplies wherever we were headed after all.

We would have taken most of their actual wealth, as in coin, too, but...Patriarch Conrad didn’t actually keep that much of the family’s wealth on the estate. Banks were a thing for a reason, I guess. We also didn’t touch the staff’s possessions because we didn’t have any beef with them, and I had a feeling Old Achilles would show up at an inopportune moment if we did.

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It was almost too easy. Jack and I had ended up becoming quite the adept little sneaky-sneaks over the years, and I was basically a human get-away wagon. They might not be as rare as system-users and true-sight holders, but people with spatial-abilities and storage-type abilities weren’t as easy to find as rocks on the road either. What’s more, my Idle-Clicker’s system’s inventory was basically infinite. To make matters worse, I even had an insider accomplice leading me to where all the good things in the house were. The Marrows never had a chance.

Escaping the Marrows after our robbery was surprisingly easy. Nearly everyone on the estate was asleep when we left. Then our home city, or rather our former home city, was a semi-important trade hub within the region. That meant that there were always airships coming and going. With Jack’s shadow-walking, and my slowly developing ability to walk on the narrow edge of the real and imaginary, the there and not-there, it wasn’t hard for us, two stealth-focused brats, to sneak into the port authority.

Then all I had to do was use my data-sampling to rapidly read the ship-manifests and schedules. We picked a ship that would take us the farthest away from our current location while hopefully putting us in the least amount of trouble. That meant avoiding military ships heading to far-off warzones, and ships that the port authority had marked for keeping a close eye on, due to potential ties with illicit activities. That’s how we ended up surrounded by all these cloud-sheep.

“Heh, heh, heh…” I heard a bit of light, slightly creepy, laughter at my side. Jack was chuckling in her sleep. Huddled up at my side.

She fell asleep almost immediately after we’d made our way to the ship. I don’t blame her. Between being told she was about to be sold off to a monster that would eventually kill her after playing her to death, resolving to do whatever she needed to escape such a fate, and actually running away, I imagined she’d had an exhausting last couple of days.

I shushed her, and then I sort of…” pulled” on the world to keep the sound from escaping and giving away our presence. The [Tale of the Hunter] was quite the strange and esoteric story. Ditto, for the [Tale of the Empty Archivist’s Heir]. I definitely didn’t count as a mage, but it was hard to say that I was completely lacking in magical talents. I spent some time “clicking”. I didn’t dare use all my potential, but I wanted to shore up some of my weaknesses before we arrived at our destination.