Before they knew it, Mihe found themselves in front of the old man's bakery.

Although they didn't have much time—the sun was about to rise, and some people were beginning to prepare for a day of work—no one yet recognized the criminal standing in front of the bakery. Still, they needed to move out of public view before someone did.

Knock knock. Mihe thumped their hand on the old, creaky door of the bakery.

Peering through the front window, they saw no one had come out yet, so they tried again, this time louder.

KNOCK KNOCK.

Finally, from a door leading to the backroom, a small boy peeked out. His hair was a light hue of platinum blond, and his face was covered in all sorts of markings.

Eventually, someone called from inside the room—Mihe couldn't hear what, but the boy quickly bolted back inside. The old man then exited the backroom and meandered over to the door before opening it.

"Sorry, we are no—"

Mihe cut him off, grabbing his arms and staring deep into the old man's eyes.

"I need you to hide me right now! It's difficult to explain, and you can kick me out once you let me in, but I cannot be seen in public!"

The old man tried to jolt back and opened his mouth to berate Mihe, but then he noticed their eyes—desperate, begging for rest and comfort.

With a sigh, he opened the door and gestured for Mihe to follow. They obliged and stepped into the back room of the bakery.

There wasn't much back there—just a small pantry holding pre baked goods for sale and a small setup station for heating up sandwiches and the like. Beyond that, it was what one would expect to see in a bakery.

At least it would have been, if it weren't for the massive trap door under a rug that the old man pulled aside. He lifted the trap door and began to descend. Although Mihe was uncertain about this decision, they had no option but to follow.

Upon descending the stairs, they entered a cramped room that contained a kitchen island for a set up and baking station, with a bed in the corner where... Something large was sleeping. To the left, directly across from the island, was a walk-in pantry filled with various ingredients and a small box—presumably for refrigerated items.

At the kitchen island was the small child from earlier. Although he appeared quite different than they expected. He was of a muscular build, with clear definition on all four arms. The strange markings on his face continued throughout the rest of his body; while there weren’t many, they were noticeable enough for Mihe to see from the top of the stairs. They also noted that the child's eyes were a deep blue.

Once Mihe fully descended, the old man scrunched his face at them. Initially, they weren't certain why until they saw him crawl up the ladder and close the trap door before crawling back down.

The old man then proceeded into the pantry to find a thin mat, which he rolled out onto the ground and pointed at without saying a word.

Mihe felt uncertain about sleeping in this man's house; alarms were ringing in their mind. They would have loved to say, "Oh sorry! I just realized I need to do something else!" But they knew the instant they left the pantry, they would have to start sprinting into the woods to avoid being caught by the guards.

Thus, the only option Mihe had was to sleep on the mat rolled out on the floor near the giant's bed.

So, that’s what they did. While they hoped for a light sleep, exhaustion, hunger, and the aches throughout their body overwhelmed them, and they quickly fell into a deep slumber.

That night, Mihe did not dream.

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A puff of air brushed over Mihe's face, causing their eyes to twitch as they slowly woke to see a face staring right at them.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

They attempted to shove the body belonging to the face away and back up, but even with all their force, the stranger did not budge—they were too heavy to be pushed around.

Mihe succeeded in backing away, however, revealing a massive four-armed man covered in markings similar to those of the child. Not only that, his eyes were peculiar.

Not for their color—by this point, Mihe had seen plenty of turquoise eyes—but rather for the inscriptions within their irises.

It appeared to be a triangle with circles around each vertex, and at the intersection point of the three circles—where the center of the triangle lay—was the pupil.

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Then, in a strangely effeminate voice, the giant stated, "Oh wow, this person really is odd! A shattered iris and an eye that's all black? That doesn't belong to any race category out there. Maybe we found someone of a new category of race! They may even be an Iptath!"

The giant laughed before standing up from their crouched position and moving to the edge of the bed they had been sitting on, being careful not to wake the child from earlier who was laying in it.

From the pantry emerged a man with brown skin and short, pink hair combed to the side. He had light blue eyes and large, circular rat-like ears atop his head, along with an incredibly fluffy tail behind him.

Mihe instinctively moved away from the two, eventually hitting a wall as they cowered in fear.

"Damn! You killed someone and still act like a coward! I've never seen anything quite like it!" the chinchilla man exclaimed.

"Who are you?" Mihe replied, keeping their gaze locked on the man.

"Oh yeah! I forgot I took off the form from earlier!" The man's eyes began to glow as his body contorted and twisted; the tail seemed to shrink back inside him, and the ears folded in odd ways until, eventually, the old man returned in his original form.

"Recognize me now?" The 'old man' said in his signature raspy voice.

Mihe could only stare, unsure of what to say.

"Yeah, I get that a lot!" The 'old man' laughed before transforming back into the man from earlier, ending the eye glow.

"Call me Yakti. That fine lady there," He pointed at the giant, "is Aorin."

She waved at Mihe as they looked baffled.

"...Aorin is a woman?"

Aorin's cheerful expression quickly turned to one of displeasure as she processed what Mihe had stated.

"O-oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean—" Mihe was cut off by Yakti's laughter.

"Y'know, I agree with you! The dumb bitch doesn't know what a woman looks like! I've never seen any woman as masculine as her!" he exclaimed while holding his gut with excessive laughter.

Aorin looked down in shame as Mihe began to feel guilty for what they had said.

Finally, Yakti broke the silence addressing Mihe directly.

"So! What's your deal, Miss Pink, Blue, and Purple?"

Mihe addressed the nickname "First of all, call me Mihe, second of all, what do you mean 'what's the deal'?"

"I mean, you did just blow up a church and kill a famous priestess. What's up with all that?"

Their heart fell to their stomach as they were abruptly reminded of yesterday's events.

"W-Why did you only bring up that you knew what I did just now!?"

"Hmm... I wonder why?" Yakti winked at them.

With a long sigh, they began to explain the story to Yakti, leaving out details regarding the stranger from the garbage bin and the COURSE OF THE INEVITABLE as they not only couldn't discuss those details, they didn't feel comfortable with the idea of it to begin with.

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"So let me get this straight," Yakti began once they finished their explanation. "You wake up in the middle of a fucking country's capital with no memory of who you are or jack shit, you go to a church, get spooked, and accidentally kill a beloved member of the Raastian community, and now you expect me to cover your ass and hide you!?"

He erupted into laughter, exclaiming, "An absolutely brilliant plan, madam! You're almost as smart as Aorin!"

At this moment, Mihe realized just how unreasonable their demands had been and began to fear being kicked out of Yakti's bakery, forced to go on the run deeper into the forest.

Finally, when he finished laughing, Yakti addressed Mihe more seriously.

"Look, I don't know how to help you with your lost memories because only the Tebidnatic Church handles that shit, but here's what I can do." He started, "You see, cute little Aorin and I run a small business delivering things to customers. Y—"

Yakti was cut off by Aorin.

"Yakti, they don't have to get involved! Just give them food and let—"

Infuriated by Aorin's interruption, Yakti began to glow his eyes while the magical arms would rapidly fling around the air, gathering threads before a knife quickly formed in one of them, and was launched towards the sleeping child, plunging right next to him.

"I didn't fucking ask you! Does it look like I'm taking requests here? Does it look like I'm everyone's bitch!" he snapped back.

Mihe... well, they didn’t really know how to react. To be frank, it was impossible to do anything in this situation. They couldn't think of a way to escape without trying to fight Yakti but there was a chance that Aorin would incapacitate them, further, running away now would also result in them being seen out in the open and they didn't know what time it was. If it was too early in the day, they would most certainly get caught.

He continued, "Alright, ignoring what Aorin tried to do, you're gonna be helping her with delivering shit to private customers soon."

They tilted their head. "Why 'soon'? Is there something wrong?"

He replied, "Well, you see, you currently have shit for brains! You don’t know anything!" He chuckled before continuing, "That little 'Aorin's a woman?' stunt you pulled would have resulted in me losing a customer if she was one. We gotta teach you how to treat customers and maybe a little something about fixing your memories if we've got the time.

"In exchange, we expect payment in the form of you doing work on our behalf and protecting cute little Aorin while she's off delivering products. Some people don’t like what we deliver, and they cause issues for us. Luckily, a yellow-iris individual like you should be able to fend off most of them.

"As long as you keep doing deliveries for us, we continue giving you protection. If you don’t want our protection anymore, it's customary to give us two weeks' notice before you move to greener pastures, understand?"

Mihe nodded.

Yakti's eyes began to glow again as arms flung out; yet another knife formed in the air and was tossed toward Mihe.