Chapter 1:

The city of Baris - slums district.

A group of filthy and unruly looking youths stood around a young girl who looked to be 6 or 7 years old.

A short and plump boy, who looked to be the leader of the group shouted, “You know we saw that copper coin first, hand it over!”

“I found it first Felix,” the little girl said with tears in her eyes, “please, just this once, let me keep it.”

“I won’t ask you again kid, hand it over!” he said again, in a harsher tone.

A cold hand gripped Felix’s shoulder.

“Oi, Fatty. I told you before that you shouldn’t bully people. Especially not little kids,” a voice said from behind.

Felix turned around and glared at the tall, lanky youth that stood behind him.

“I told you not to call me Fatty, Titus!”

“… Besides, my mom said I'm not fat, just big-boned” Felix declared, sounding almost proud of himself.

Titus held no interest in debating Fatty’s bone size and ignored him.

“Fatty, If your mom knew you stole from little kids, she would beat you to death.” Titus said, again provoking him, “Should I go let her know what you’ve been doing?”

The Fatty’s face paled. Out of all the things Felix encountered in his young life, his mother was the scariest.

He was about to respond when a voice behind him shouted, "Thank you, Titus!"

Felix turned around to see that while his group focused on Titus, the little girl had slipped past the boys and escaped.

The boys turned back toward Titus but then realized, as their attention had been, once again, directed elsewhere; Titus had also ran away!

"You idiots, why weren't you paying attention! Don't let him get away!"

But Titus, with his long legs, was much quicker than the rest of the young boys and escaped with no trouble.

…..

Sometime later.

Titus sat in the dirt resting. He relaxed, sighing deeply.

Earlier, Titus had provoked Felix to give the little girl a chance to run away. If the little girl had failed to take the opportunity he had presented to her, he would've escaped alone. While better than most of the other kids at fighting, Titus didn't want to take his chances against four people at once. The risk wasn’t worth it. This may seem cruel or even spineless to some, but to Titus, getting injured was a death sentence.

Once word of his injury got out, others would rob him blind. He would be defenseless. Enemies of the past would certainly take this opportunity for revenge. Brutal as it may sound, this was the harsh reality of the world Titus lived in. At any hint of weakness, others would always be ready to take advantage of it.

Having lived his whole life in the slums, Titus knew everything there was to know about surviving in this horrible place. He had learned, not only do you have to be strong, but also intelligent and clever. Since those who appear weak may use others to fight their battles for them. A lesson Titus first learned from a smaller kid named Thomas.

It occurred some time ago, when a larger kid, who's name we need not mention, beat and robbed Thomas. Not even a week later, after rallying a group behind him, Thomas ambushed his assailant and beat him senseless! When Titus saw this, he could not help but to admire Thomas. Not only did he regain most of his possessions, but he also scared off any other future attackers.

After this event, many kids were inspired by Thomas and banded together to form gangs. Nowadays fights often occurred between whole groups instead of one-on-one. Many of the gangs, recognizing Titus’ strength, attempted to recruit him. Some tried using bribes, while others used force.

But Titus preferred doing things by himself, and many of the gangs required a monthly fee to the leaders. He had no intention of giving up the little silver he had and with no hesitation, refused all the offers he received.

One of the gangs, after being rejected by Titus, resorted to using force in an attempt to make him reconsider. Even after being surrounded by many of the gang’s members Titus once again refused, despite knowing that it would result in a beating.

After he had recovered, for the next couple of months, Titus made life a living hell for the members of the gang that assaulted him. He would stalk and ambush his enemies. Most of the time he preferred to use his fists, but sometimes he would even use improvised traps or anything that he could find to use as a weapon to fight against multiple people simultaneously.

For those few months, the members of the gang lived in constant fear. Those that were unfortunate enough to be a victim of Titus had all of their possessions taken by him. Of course, his conscience was clear over this. After all, they chose to attack Titus first. Naturally, they must pay for the damage they caused him… many times over.

In the slums district, Titus mostly kept to himself. He didn’t enjoy bullying or stealing from other people. However, if provoked first, Titus would strike back ruthlessly and without mercy. Even most of the older kids became afraid of provoking him.

Tired of thinking about memories of the past, Titus sighed as his long, black, wild-looking hair blew in the wind. He put his arms behind his head and nonchalantly laid back, enjoying the feeling of the warm sun above.

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Looking up at the beautiful sky and watching the clouds pass by, Titus drifted off into the land of Fantasy. Despite trying his best not to, he often dreamt of indulging in various kinds of foods or having his pockets full of gold coins. By the end of this, he ended up feeling quite depressed. Most of the time, however, he liked to fantasize about the world unknown to him outside of the city walls.

Never once in his 13 years of being alive had he dared to venture outside the safety of the city walls. Although Titus was considered a monster amongst his peers, he was still very young, and also, in a lot of ways, naïve and immature. The world beyond the city walls was far too dangerous for him.

Usually, Titus got his information about the outside world from the stories of a local drunkard. Of course, a drunk in the slums was not an unusual sight. In fact, there were dozens of them. However, this drunkard was especially good at telling stories.

He often told dramatic stories about the many dangers of the world outside and had fully scared, at the time, the very young Titus away from wanting to wander out of the city. But, as Titus got older his fear was replaced by fascination.

Besides the stories from the drunkard, Titus also enjoyed reading any book he could get his hands on. Although he hadn’t the opportunity to be properly educated like kids from the middle and noble districts, Titus was incredibly intelligent and a fast learner.

When he was younger, with some help from an old man in the slums, Titus quickly learned how to read. Since then, he spent most of his extra silver coins on old and damaged books that no one else wanted. To him, they were precious treasures.

Other than being an avid reader, Titus was also very creative and quick-witted. Many of his brawls with some of the older and stronger kids, had been won by outsmarting and tricking his opponent. His methods of doing so were not always the most honorable, but Titus cared little about such a thing. What he needed to do, he did. Whatever that may be.

For the time being, Titus was quite content with his current lifestyle. However inevitably his curiosity would drive him out into the unknown world.

…..

While Titus had been watching the clouds, he had unknowingly fallen asleep.

When he awoke, he lazily stretched and yawned. Suddenly he felt his stomach growl. He slightly frowned.

“That’s right, I haven’t had anything to eat today…” he said to himself, sighing.

Titus could only afford to eat every couple of days as he did not have much money. Usually, he made most of his money by doing odd jobs for people in the middle district. Or, on rare occasion, he might be fortunate enough to find a coin someone had dropped, like the little girl earlier had found. Such a find was like a blessing from heaven for the children of the slums.

He reached inside his poorly made, dirty pants pocket for a small brown pouch. Within it were two small copper coins.

“I have enough for two loaves of bread, that will probably last me a week or so… While I’m in the middle district, I’ll have to see if I can find anyone who needs any errands done for them.”

Doing odd jobs around the middle district was the only option for most of the kids in the slums. Shop owners didn’t like to hire the dirty looking kids to work in their shop, and most of them were too young to do hard manual labor.

Titus headed off toward the middle district, expertly navigating through the unorganized maze of shanties. If one who wasn’t familiar with the slums wandered in here, they might be lost for hours. As the slum district had no rules for housing, people just built make-shift shacks and other poorly made structures wherever they wanted to.

The slums were truly quite a horrible place to live. Every area was completely filthy and littered with trash and waste. In such awful living conditions, it was quite common for disease to spread throughout the district. During such times, the city guard closed the gates connecting the slums to the middle district.

These times were often the worst for the people living in the slums. Not only did they have to worry about disease, but the amount of food they had access to decreased even further. Kids like Titus couldn’t even find errands to do for copper coins since they were unable to leave, thus cutting away their supply of food. While many of the adults living in the slums also lost their jobs.

Titus had just walked through the gate separating the two districts. This moment of seeing the inequality between the two districts still surprised him, despite him living here his entire life. It felt like he had entered a whole different world entirely. Comparing the two would be like comparing the heavens to earth.

Besides the middle district, there was also another smaller district called the ‘Noble district.' As the name implied, the people living there were mostly of noble descent. Everything from the housing to the shops, to the shows and attractions were vastly superior to the middle district. It is, of course, the “noble” district, they only had the best.

All of this, naturally, was unknown to Titus. Only in his dreams could he enter such a place.

Arriving at the bakery, the shop owner greeted him as he entered, “Hello again Titus!” the middle-aged store owner said, with a bright smile on his face.

For whatever reason, this store owner was always in a good mood. Sometimes on bad days, the shop owners cheerful attitude made Titus feel much better by the time he walked out of the store.

“Hello, sir,” Titus said, returning the shop owners smile,  placing a copper coin on the counter. “I'll have the usual.”

A single copper coin wasn’t enough to buy a fresh loaf of bread, but the shop owner agreed to sell any bread leftover from the day before for this price.

“Of course, Titus. One minute please.”

The shop owner disappeared into the back of the shop while Titus stood there enjoying the savory smells of baking bread.

“If only I could afford fresh bread,” Titus thought, sighing to himself.

At this moment the shop owner came out from the back holding a large tray of freshly baked loaves of bread.

“Good news Titus, today we have no leftover bread. Instead, I’ll give you a fresh loaf,” he said, maintaining the same happy appearance.

“Holy shit. Did he read my mind?”

Swearing was a bad habit Titus picked up from living around thieves and criminals his whole life.

“Thank you very much, sir,” Titus said respectfully, with a huge grin on his face.

Titus happily strolled out of the shop carrying a small brown bag that held his bread. He hadn’t been this happy in months, rarely did something this fortunate happen to him. Gleefully he began heading back, still wearing a huge grin on his face.

While walking he happened to overhear some gossiping from a lady in front of him that piqued his interest.

"Have you heard what the city guards have been doing? “ the woman said to another that was walking beside her. “They’ve been rounding up men and forcing them to join the army!”

“I heard! I hope it’s just a rumor, what would I do if my husband died at war?” the other woman replied, concerned.

“Look!” cried one of the ladies suddenly.

“Hm?”

Titus turned his head toward where the lady was pointing. Two city guards were struggling to drag a young man down the street.

“So it is true then…” Titus thought, surprised.

“Good thing this doesn’t concern me.” he said aloud, as he happily ripped a piece of bread, greedily throwing it into his mouth.

Suddenly, a voice from behind him shouted,

“Halt!”

…