98 SIDE Chapter 98 - From Cero to Zero (1/2)

Cero didn't know what to do.He had trained to be a spy for his entire life and now he has lost his place.He could probably make a living by stealing from people but that would go against his personal code of honor.If he did anything illegal then it had to be at the direction of his master.Right now he had no master.

The Duke had caught wind of his son's failures and sent someone to replace him as regent.As punishment for assisting Robert, Cero was cast out of the castle.Homeless and hungry, Cero roamed the streets looking for work.With no experience with fighting monsters, he couldn't make it as a mercenary.With little experience with melee combat, he couldn't become a soldier.The information brokers already knew about his recent failures so they wouldn't take him in.He couldn't think of any marketable skills that he had besides being stealthy.

After going without food for an entire day, Cero became desperate.His throwing knives and armor were easy to sell and the amount that they sold for let him buy a small shack in the slums.There was enough money left over that he could eat for the next few weeks if he stretched it out.

For a couple of days, Cero was content with his life and thought that things might not be so bad.His fingers were dextrous and he quickly found out that he had a talent for sewing clothes.It wasn't much but he finally had an income.

Then, out of nowhere, disaster struck.While Cero was out to buy food for the night, the heavy snowfall had collapsed his roof.As bad as that was, it was not the worst thing that had happened to him that day.All of his in-progress and completed projects had been stolen after the collapse.Almost all of his money was used on the materials to make those clothes so he was back to being broke.His house was completely destroyed and, besides the tools he hid under the bed and some furniture, there was nothing left that he owned.

There was a family nice enough to let him stay in exchange for patching up their old clothes.They were originally one of his customers so they knew how skilled he was with a needle and thread.Finally, good news reached their doorstep a couple of days later.Someone was going around removing the snow from the buildings that had collapsed and it was all done for free.Although he wouldn't be able to fully rebuild his shack on his own, there was enough scrap wood that he could find to at least patch it until the end of winter.

In the morning, Cero said goodbye to the nice family that let him stay with them.The family only lived a few blocks from his home so it didn't take long at all for him to reach the street he lived on.”It's still covered in snow.Did they not reach this place yet?”There was a crowd of people in the streets that seemed disgruntled.Cero wasn't really asking anybody in particular but a nearby man told him what happened.

”If you're talkin' about the kind young lad that had been helpin' out, he's not comin' back.”An older man with a thick beard spoke out.Cero recognized him; he was an independent mercenary that lived only a couple houses down from him and he could remember that the guy's name was Krieger.”Those darn bastards from those guilds 'tacked him and made him run for the hills.My partner, Suze, saw it all happened with her own eyes.There were nothin' that she could do 'bout them.”

Cero felt dejected.He already said goodbye to the family that allowed him to stay for a while so it would be awkward to return.”Now what am I supposed to do?I don't have a place to stay and I don't have enough money to move.”

”I'm 'fraid I don't quite got an answer to that.If you got a good arm you can make a livin' choppin' wood or somethin'.”Cero didn't have a strong arm.His body was flexible and agile but it wasn't what people would call strong.

For the next few days, Cero lived in someone's stable.They no longer had horses to tend to so it was empty.There were other people staying in the stable so it wasn't secure but everybody there was down on their luck.

Cero didn't like to sleep in plain view when there were others around.He slept on the beam near the ceiling and made sure that nobody noticed him.If he didn't have odd sleeping habits then maybe things would have been worse for him.At night, several men entered the stable and rounded up the sleeping vagrants.They attached slave collars to them, tied them up, and gagged them before loading them up onto a wagon.