50 Years Later.
SMACK!!!
"Fool, how dare a dirty rat like you touch a robe meant for nobles? You were only told to pick up the garbage!"
A loud slap echoed through the empty halls of the grand, poshly-looking fabric store, leaving a couple of passerbys staring for a short while before peacefully minding their businesses.
To the outside world, it was just a boss and an employee moment, where the younger individual had slipped up and had been corrected with a beautifully earned hit on the face.
Except, in this situation... Err, it was just a pretty messed-up/ awkward moment between someone of a lower social status being put to his place "unremorsefully" by someone of a higher status.
Nothing special, really.
"I'm really sorry, Mister... I just thought of someone special as this beautiful piece caught my eye".
The bullied young boy mustered enough courage to speak, even after brutally bruised on the cheek all the while struggling to keep a straight face while the belly of the rich store owner danced with every laughter that escaped his lips.
"Ahahahahahahahahaha... What did you just pfftt hahahahaha".
He crackled, unable to complete his words even though the narrow dark eyes which stared back at him remained completely silent and clueless to why he laughed so hard.
What did he say that was so funny?
Did he keep a weird face just now?
Maybe he did...
Eventually, the store owner came around after a few rounds of laughter and more belly work, wiping off the smile completely off his face and replacing it with a frown.
"You smelling pig..." He seethed through his teeth, grabbing him by the hair. "Who do you think you are coming to my shop with your miserable, pathetic self desiring something out of your league?"
Ah!
This time, he saw his hand coming, and clenched his teeth together, anticipating a harder hit.
Of course...
The big man's large hands moved mercilessly without stopping, smacking over and over again on his head, while pushing his face forcefully.
It wasn't what he said...
"How dare you filthy street rat step your feet in here?"
Neither was it his face...
He kept pounding mercilessly as the young boy struggled to cover his face, but everything was already oddly placed from the beginning.
From size to height to status, the man was a monster.
"Know! Your! Place!" Each delivered hit left a bruise.
It wasn't anything he did...
The system was already wrong from the very beginning... It was all a set up. A big lie sold to the people to work until the day they die.
It was the hierarchy.
A divided country...
A world divided between the poor and the wealthy.
A country made up of two different parts – The streets of Aldon - the home for the poor, reckless, and less privileged, then The peaks of Aldon - A civilized society for the rich.
In other words, it is a discriminative society where the gravity of your wealth determines your power and status.
In the poor man's world, working hard was like adding a drop of water every single day to an empty lake, expecting that one day before you die, it would be filled up...
No matter how much you work, the ladder was already compromised to attain levels which suited their criteria.
For the street rats;
Grow up > Study to be a slave > Work for a master > Attain leverage skills > Get paid pennies > Give eighty percent back to the government > Keep working.
For the noble ones (relatives of government officials, the average citizens, and the privileged families of past government workers);
Grow up > Attain Education in the most elite institute> Attain skills that would carve your personality> Opportunities to work in only the most elite companies > Raise a family of wealthy heirs.
While the poor became poorer from doing the most diligent and law abiding careers, the rich become richer from doing the most atrocious and illegal things, getting away with it.
They bend the rules...
Fattening up after discovering the secret of abundance.
After the return of the emperor from his secret mission, on his third year of reign, he made new laws that was not in any way favourable to the middle class / average society, worse of all the already struggling people.
He created a new world so strict and sophisticated so much that it was difficult for so many to adjust in such short period.
His rules shaped the way of life of the new generation.
A rigged game of survival...
"Get the hell out of my shop!" The shop owner scooped him out the door after beautifully bruising him to his satisfaction, throwing his haggard cap mockingly right after.
"And never step your feet in here, you piece of shit!"
Survival of the fittest...
It has always been this way for the street rats. Being shoved into dust, and fed by sand is something anyone who survived on the bustling streets of Aldon bragged about.
The black market of the entire East Coast.
What goes on in there goes beyond just buying and selling, or importation and exportation, no, no...
Camouflage...
The streets of Aldon teaches you the smoothest and the cleanest way of carrying out the most corrupt, nasty, malicious, nefarious, dangerous, terrible and the most awful thing you could ever imagine.
As though his body had adjusted to the pows and bruises, and as though he was done playing with the dust, the young boy rose on his feet with the most stern expression...
All that naive and stupid act was just a façade. It evaporated in air.
He brushed his shirt sharply, exhaling in exhaustion as though he was done for the day all the while cracking his neck.
With a gaze cold enough to freeze the entire valley, he brought out more than a dozen diamonds from his pocket, exhaling in relief.
"It always works like magic". He mumbled, shoving them back into his pants and picking up his strides. Nothing ever goes wrong when he pulls off this trick. Getting beat up as a distraction to achieve his actual goal.
He ran his fingers above his sore cheeks. "That fat punk's got a few hits in him, huh?"
"Geez, he's just a shop owner, why so foul mouthed? Ugh!" He spoke to himself, taking his eyes back to his environment.
As least he didn't draw much attention this time, he thought.
"Gotta hurry".
In one swift movement, he blended with the crowd, and with a turn, he disappeared through the alley just by the left.