Chapter 27: 30. Their City Part 3

Shaula’s plan requires the cover of the night. Ajax and Shaula can use their advantages in the dark to move around secretly. Their upgraded senses of smell and hearing are crucial. They have also become more comfortable with their ability to sense air pressure changes. This ability, facilitated through their sense of touch, lets them sense moving things around them.

Any change in airflow can point to hidden movement within whichever room they’re in. If they reverse track the air flow changes, they could even tell how large the moving figure is. If they are at least cautious, they should be able to sense the opening and closing of doors.

The most important part of this plan is to make it into their target buildings without being seen. Due to this world’s soundproofing technology, Ajax and Shaula need to be inside to hear the inside. As soon as they get in, they should be able to tell if there are people within the building. They have to be careful about that.

[No home invasions, Shaula. I know you understand me, right?] Shaula lightly smacks the back of Ajax’s head in annoyance.

[Come on, Ajax, what kind of girl do you think I am? No fucking way I’m going anywhere near ‘home invasion’ territory. It’d be too fucking stressful anyways.] Neither of them have the stomach to steal stuff from houses with people sleeping inside them. For this to work well, they have to break into empty houses.

Shaula doesn’t like Ajax’s distrust, but he isn’t exactly wrong to want confirmation of her behavior.

[I just had to be sure. You’ve been making some very ‘creative choices’ since we’ve stepped foot in this city. You don’t deny that, do you?]

[...Well, I guess you’re not wrong. What can I say? Strength opens up a lot of pathways.] Shaula is having the common feeling that those with newfound advantage feel. Overcompensation. It is that feeling when a person’s newfound power dictates things. They try to go right up to the limits of what their power can provide. Sometimes they overreach.

Shaula understands that power is a tool, nothing less, nothing more. She must never lose sight of that. Each person has their own lines. Power should not be an excuse to cross them.

[Ajax, one more thing. Let’s not grab anything easily identifiable. Nothing at all sentimental or meaningful to whoever lives in whatever house we’re at. Stick to only grabbing cash or coins or whatever and getting out.]

Grabbing anything identifiable would be annoying for them. If they wanted to sell it on the blackmarket, it would be a hassle. It might also be a trail that could lead law enforcement to become more aware of them. Even catching them.

But, Shaula thinks it over once more and realizes a potentially worthwhile exception.

[...Do you think we should take any books? We are lacking a lot of useful context even now, don’t you think? Books in a wealthy person’s house have gotta be worth reading. This city might not have any good libraries or bookstores as it is.] Ajax thinks over her idea.

[I think… we should leave books alone, not even touch them, and I’ll tell you why. Magic.]

[What about magic?]

[Well, just think about it. The weird sound barriers must be made of magic, right? We saw a few magic tools as well, right? But, we saw the buildings around here and they don’t seem to come with any power lines. No electricity infrastructure at all, not even for the running water. The buildings we entered didn’t have anything that ran on electricity either. But, it wasn’t like they were still using wood burning stoves or some shit. No steam engines. A lot of their tech uses magic.] Shaula does remember this fact. Even at that clothing store, the equipment that employees used to record purchases was magical in nature.

No magical tool was connected to anything either. When Ajax had asked someone in the store about how the tools worked, someone claimed it didn’t need any external power sources. The power sources for magical tools were almost always built in and ran until the tools broke. Self sufficiency, no batteries, battery chargers or power cords needed. The tools were also quite expensive.

Ajax reaches his point.

[So, how can we tell if something has magic on it? Or uses magic? Or has some spell woven into it? If we steal any books, we won’t know if the original owners can track them down. We don’t know how to detect magic spells or what they do either.]

[...Huh. I would say you’re being paranoid but… we know jack shit about magic. Literally less than nothing, fuck. It’s actually crazy to me how different it is from electricity while doing a lot of the same shit. So, you’re saying that stealing books from rich houses might end up biting us. Just coin then?]

[Actually, that brings me to another thing. We can’t steal gold coins.] Shaula is about to argue back at his weird proposition, but she considers it a little bit. If a bronze coin is worth at least $5, then a gold coin is worth at least $3000. For units of currency with that much worth, it certainly wouldn’t hurt to be more careful.

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[Hm. Let me think. If magic is something that wealthier people have more access to, then they’d definitely mark their gold with magic… Realistically, they probably wouldn’t waste their time marking silver and bronze coins so we can grab those no problem. Also… it might be like bank robberies back on Earth. The feds don’t get involved in low scale robberies where you only grab what the teller gives you and don’t crack the safe. It’ll only be the bumfuck local police who come after you. Like, as long as we’re not doing grand larceny, we’ll face less people trying to find us.]

[Exactly. As long as it’s a smaller haul, they’ll prioritize us less. Honestly, do you think I’m overthinking this, Shaula? Like, the more I think about the ‘magic’ of this world, the more crazy it sounds to me. I mean, I’m just trying to guess how the rich people here would safeguard their money. I’m sure we’re not the first thieves to target their houses, they have to have some countermeasures, right?]

[I wish I could just say you’re crazy, but this world seems to have a lot of crazy. It’s not wrong to take some countermeasures. How did you come up with that shit, anyways?]

[Lots and lots of tv. Like when people steal from banks, the money the teller hands over is all marked or has ink bombs. When you’re stealing duffel bags full of cash from crime families or cartels, the duffel bags always have some kind of hidden tracker. The bad guys always track you down with the tracker and then kill your family or something. And magic. Holy shit, magic feels even more insidious… I just think we should shy away from doing anything too risky. Money is definitely shit they’d kill your family over, you know?]

[Well, you’re certainly paranoid, but not too paranoid so it’s whatever. Rich people will do anything they want when they’re being stolen from. Fine, alright. We’ll stick to your limits for now. At least until we get more information.]

So, at midnight, they find their first target. A gated community bordering the central skyscrapers where the Baron and the ultra wealthy live. The gated community also borders Astrid. It is a large expanse of land for the upper class. They can see the houses through the perimeter fence.

They are two to four floors in height and quite exquisite. Shiny, but not too tacky. They have a medieval European feel.

Meanwhile, they’ve seen hundreds of beastkin who live out on the streets in the neighborhood of Astrid. If they walked around Astrid a bit more, as well as other neighborhoods near the city walls, they would have seen thousands of people suffering through poverty.

Shaula feels not a shred of guilt over their cat burglary. It’s practice for her and Ajax in using their powers, and they get some money to help them live comfortably in this world. The fact that mansion-dwelling rich people lose some pocket change is the cherry on top.

Since this is a gated community, security is tight around the twenty-foot tall, perimeter fence. In exchange, the interior of the gated community is only lightly patrolled. In order to enter over the huge fence, both of them back up a bit, take a running start, and leap right over. They had practiced their leaping abilities and become confident. This part is easy.

Nobody is patrolling where they land. They cautiously inspect the layout of the properties. 

This walled neighborhood contains over three thousand properties. They had found this out when they picked this enclave as a target. It was a massive, sprawling neighborhood where everybody had carriages for their personal use. The properties in their vicinity are made up of a house sitting on a half acre of empty land. The land is well maintained and grassy, surrounded by relatively short brick walls and a fancy gate at the front.

The community looks like a grouping of small golf courses with main houses attached. Aside from the two to four floor houses, there are small, closed stables with two or three Miella on each property. But, as Ajax and Shaula listened closely, they realized that the houses themselves had been soundproofed.

Their first candidate property has a two floor house and an empty stable without any Miella. They try looking for a carriage on the property, but there isn't one. A hopefully empty house. The only way to know if it is truly empty is to enter.

They first decide to check for anyone on the property or patrolling nearby. No one. They leap over the walls and circle around to the backyard. The backyard has more area than the front. The backyard of this house overlooks the backyard of the house behind it. Ajax and Shaula see three second-floor windows, each with curtains drawn. The lights are out.

Right now, they are wearing some cheap clothes (t-shirts and pants), under black cloaks. Shaula had bought these clothes as a spare for her and Ajax when they picked their everyday wear. Of course, she had this purpose in mind for those cheaper clothes all along.

There are a lot of people wearing dark cloaks and cheap clothes like these in the city, so they look fairly inconspicuous. Their everyday wear was just too easily identifiable. After tonight, they can just dispose of these cheap clothes anyways. No fuss.

Of course, they look much more out of place in these clothes now as they leap up to the second floor of the house exterior.

This neighborhood would be experiencing a slew of robberies.

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