The people surrounding him didn't ask him about his house. They all unconsciously thought that his house was empty because of no parents and siblings. He was in the market to do some shopping. They were all feeling sad at the child's loneliness.

Looking at the child's state, the merchant took pity on him and could not break his heart. He decided to hire him even though he already had an aide that was helping him and didn't require another one.

I can help this child for a few days. If I start having problems with money, I will try to find another job for him. These were his thoughts as he opened his mouth to speak after looking at Jacob in silence for a few seconds.

"What is your name kid?"

"I am Jacob, uncle."

"Ok. Listen Jacob. You can work for me. I will give you one bronze coin and two free meals a day. You will work for me from morning to evening. Effective immediately. Come with me." The merchant decided to help Jacob in his tough times.

He was a merchant. He had been through such conditions in his life. He was also helped by other kind people in his tough times. If he had not been helped then, he along with his family would already have turned into a skeleton by now.

"You have my eternal gratitude, uncleee..." Jacob elongated the word in the end as a question to ask for his name.

"Call me Algo. Now follow me."

Jacob nodded toward the merchant. The merchant turned and headed towards his shop. Jacob started following him from a couple of feet away. They quickly reached the shop.

Algo had a grocery shop. It was not that big but it was also not small either. The shop was sporting a few vegetables, some spices in their little sacs and some other household products such as natural detergents and soaps.

A person was already waiting for him anxiously just outside of it. His face was young but he was also bearded and had a moustache just like Algo. It was as if he had copied Algo's style of moustache and beard. He was Algo's aide.

"Algin. Did anyone come while I was gone?" Algo asked the person standing outside his shop.

"No, father. Nobody came to buy anything. You left just a few minutes ago. Did you catch the thief? Are you hurt somewhere?" Algin asked his father anxiously. He was also inspecting his body, trying to discover any sign of struggle.

"No, young lad. Your father is quite strong for his age. You think a coward tiny thief will be able to hurt me?"

"Of course not father. I was just a bit worried."

"Hmm. You are a good lad. Meet Jacob here. He is our employee now. Jacob, this is Algin, my son." Algo introduced both of them to each other. Jacob also greeted Algin and he did the same with Jacob.

Listening to their conversation, he already knew their father and son relationship. The son was like a younger version of his father.

Jacob also found their names a bit too similar. Did Algo change the last letter of his name "o" with "in" while naming his son? What kind of weird naming sense is this.

These were some of his inner thoughts. But he would never voice them. He was extremely grateful to this kind man who was helping him in his difficult times.

He even thought this thing to be funny. Even, he could name people better than the merchant. He wondered why the merchant had done so despite his wisdom.

Whatever. He is my benefactor. I have no right to question him about such things. Thinking about this, Jacob instantly stalled his line of thought.

"Help Jacob in understanding the ways of our shop. He works with us now." Algo ordered his son while entering his shop.

"But father. We don't need any new helpers in our shop. Didn't you say so a couple of days ago?" Algin asked his father curiously.

"You idiot, shut up and do as I say. No questions asked." Algo looked back at his son and replied angrily. This idiot. Cannot he see that Jacob is the same person whose money got stolen just now? He just had to go and open his idiotic mouth.

"Ok, father. Please forgive me." Algin shrank back at his father's outburst and asked for forgiveness.

Algo grunted in response and entered the shop. The shop was fully open outside from one direction and closed from the other three. Several types of vegetables were lying outside the shop on small tables while the other commodities were inside the shop neatly arranged on various racks.

Jacob had first become amused at their naming sense. Now he was amused further at the little father-son interaction. The sadness in his heart decreased a bit and warmth blossomed in his heart.

Algo didn't require any helper at all. He hired him just to help him in his tough times. He was so nice. Jacob started smiling at that.

At the same time, the guards have blocked most of the main street entrances by now. In addition to that, the progress on the rest of the entrances was also almost complete.

The guards from the nearby clan had already arrived and they were moving to cover the remaining main entrances as well as the little streets that lead out of the market.

After doing that, they would launch a search for the stolen pouch. They would have to check the suspicious people for the pouch. They knew that the chances of finding it were very low due to the lack of clues but they had to go through the motions in order to placate the citizens.

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They had a duty. And that duty was to protect the citizens from the crimes. They also had to catch the criminals and bring them to the city centre for justice.

The city centre was a full-fledged castle. So it also had an underground prison and torture rooms. Those were designed for the beasts but they could be used for humans after some minor modifications.

Their judiciary system was not that advanced and consisted of a jury whose only purpose was to judge the criminals based on their crimes.

The people being selected for the jury were heavily vetted by the three clans. A person had to contain certain qualities since childhood in order to be selected as a member of the jury.

Those qualities included truthfulness, unbiasedness, justness and infallibility towards bribes. These were the perfect criteria for selection. Not many people were able to fulfil it. So the clans had to select the people who fulfilled those the most.

Even clans themselves could not dictate their judgements. If they had the capability to do so, the city would have long plunged into chaos due to clans fighting each other while accusing each other of cruelty and injustice.

The clans were exempt from the court only when they were involved with each other without affecting the life of a normal citizen. There were many cases clans had to pay damages to the citizens for destroying their property due to their fights.

But there was always the chance of slipping. So the clans had to always their keep eyes on them in case they tried something funny.

The clans were fully capable of getting away from anything they did, including hurting the local populace. But they did not do so. They did not want to rule the city like this. They wanted peace and justice. That was the reason they jointly created the jury.

In the meantime, Algin had started teaching Jacob the names of various things in the shop, their prices and their purpose.

Jacob knew some of the merchandise. He had dealt with them before. But it didn't stop him from listening carefully to an enthusiastic Algin.

After teaching Jacob about the products, Algin started teaching him how to call out to passersby. They were all potential customers so he had to always remain nice to them no matter how they behaved.

Those things were not that hard to learn so Jacob learned everything very quickly. Barely half an hour had elapsed after his start of employment and he had learned it all.

All that was remaining to be learned was the location of the warehouse where the reserves were being stored and the location of the places where they had to buy fresh vegetables daily.

He would be shown those places tomorrow. Now, he had to call out to the passersby. And he started doing that immediately. Jacob found it to be fun and amusing, trying to get the attention of the passersby.

He quickly forgot about his predicament and became fully engrossed in his fun activity. He even succeeded a couple of times but the customer was handled by Algo himself.

Both he and Algin stood on the side as Algo coerced the customer into buying the product of interest more than he initially wanted. It was fun to watch. He also noticed guards running around and stopping random people to look through their belongings. He guessed that they were searching for his pouch.

Soon, the afternoon was approaching. Algo stopped the duo from their calling-out activity and ordered Algin to bring the meals to the shop. Algin quickly disappeared into the crowd and a few minutes later, he returned with a tray having three bowls of vegetable soup on it. They all sat together and chewed on it.

As they were eating their meal, a couple of guards approached the shop accompanied by a person. It was the same person who gave Jacob the lecture about the dark side of humanity in the morning.

"Algo!! Come out with the child. The guards are here to inform him about something." The person shouted while standing outside with the guards.

He could perfectly see the trio from outside but wanted them to come out to listen to the guards. The guards were not going to enter the shop to inform them.

"Alright. Stop shouting. Give me a few seconds. I will come out." After replying to the shout of his old associate outside, he looked towards the two other people sitting near him.

"Quickly finish it. We have to listen to the guards outside."

Both Jacob and Algin nodded toward him and quickly finished their meal in under one minute.

They then stood up and walked outside. As they came to stand in front of the guards, one of them looked toward Jacob and said,

"Are you the kid whose pouch was stolen?"

"Yes. That's me."

"Kid. We have searched for that pouch of yours for hours. Unfortunately, we could not find it. We are lifting the market blockade now."

Jacob didn't say anything after hearing the bad news. He just nodded toward the guard.

"Thank you so much. It is due to you people that we feel safe." Algo said to the guards when the silence due to Jacob's unresponsiveness was becoming a bit longer than necessary. He also nudged Jacob from behind to do the same.

"Uhh. Thank you all. I will not dare to become careless from now on." Jacob said in a sorrowful voice.

"Good. We should learn to move on." The guards nodded toward him and left them alone.

"See you later, Algo."

"Yeah yeah. Now get lost." Algo replied with an annoyed expression.

His old friend smiled at that and left for his destination.

After that, they resumed their shop activities. But the thought of losing his mother's savings kept bothering him and he remained sad for the rest of the afternoon. He was less enthusiastic about his job and was no longer feeling fun due to his sad mood.

Algo and his son had immediately noticed the change. They did not bother him with anything though. They had done the most they could. They could only leave him alone for now. According to Algo, he just needed some time to adapt to his new reality.

Soon, it was evening. Clouds were forming in the skies above their heads and they had already covered most of the sky by now. As a result, it was darker than usual.

The clouds were dark in colour so there was a great chance of rain. It was winter so the temperature would decrease greatly when it rains. So people were already preparing for a cold night. The winter season did not affect them much normally. It was due to the location of their country on the planet. But summers hit them very hard.

Algo stopped them again and ordered his son to bring the second meal. Algin left and returned after some time. He was holding three pieces of bread in his arms this time. Jacob was still sad and staring into space in front of him with nothing in his mind.

"Here kid. Have some bread and stop worrying about it. Things happen sometimes. It is life." Algo handed Jacob bread and tried to assuage his sadness.

Jacob took the bread and nodded toward the older man. He started eating it silently.

After they finished with their meal, Algo looked toward Jacob and said,

"This is it for today, kid. Your work ends here. From tomorrow onwards, you have to come to the shop right at 8'o clock in the morning and work until 6'o clock in the evening. Here is your pay for today."

Algo took out a bronze coin from one of his pockets and held it out for Jacob to get it. Jacob looked towards the coin in Algo's palm but did not take it.

He looked into Algo's eyes and said,

"Thank you for your help, mister Algo. I will remember it forever. As for my pay, can you keep it with you from now on as a form of safekeeping? I will take the coins from you whenever I need them for something."

Jacob didn't want a repeat of today in the future. It was too horrible. He was too defenceless to keep the money now.

He knew how to fight better than most due to his training in the clan. But it was his body. It was too weak and could be easily overwhelmed by an adult. It did not matter how much skill he had, he could not fight an adult due to his lack of strength.

"Good decision kid. I will safely keep it for you till you decide otherwise. Goodbye. Head straight to your home now." Algo nodded at that and gave Jacob a praising gaze. He was impressed by the kid's intelligence.

Jacob unconsciously nodded towards him, slung his bag over his shoulders and got out of the shop. Just when he had to choose a direction to walk, he realized something and halted in his steps. He stood there stunned and a thought kept repeating itself in his mind. I have no home to go to.