Chapter 57: Agnes’s Practice Method
"Where did you even get the money to buy me a gift? Are you expecting me to pay? Let me tell you, I am broke. I have no money."
Sally’s eyes turned cold when she heard his words. She walked closer to Jinn and stomped on his feet with full force.
"You idiot." With a growl she turned around and said, "I took a job like you did. I have been saving money since I turned 10, never used it much before. Now i can buy you a decent gift for your graduation."
Jinn did not mock her, hearing her proud tone. He did not care how much money she would even have saved. Instead, he was preoccupied with the thought that she would spend the money she had saved after so much effort on someone like him.
Someone who had never even given her a birthday present.
Jinn moved again, his thoughts no longer dismissive of Sally’s presence.
After walking through the residential area, they arrived on the street bustling with a life that seemed completely detached from the quiet gloom of the orphanage.
The path they took was a narrow, uneven one, lined with old brick houses patched up in too many places to count.
Windows creaked on their hinges, and laundry lines sagged under the weight of faded clothes fluttering gently in the afternoon breeze.
The smell of damp earth and coal smoke clung to the air, mixing faintly with the sharper scent of cooking oil drifting from small corner stalls.
Children darted past them barefoot, their laughter echoing in bursts before fading into the crowded alleys.
A few older folk sat outside their doorsteps, watching them with amused eyes as they walked by.
Jinn ignored their free minds, but Sally felt confused why they were looking at them like that. But when she saw Jinn’s uncaring attitude, she ignored it as well.
Soon the narrow lane spilled open into a wider road, throwing them into the crowded ’Pens Street.’
A well-known area among the common folks of the city, famous for its cheap yet durable wares.
"You did not tell me what you want the most." Sally asked while skipping through the crowd with eager steps. Her eyes sparkled as they darted around from one object to another.
Suddenly she neared her face to Jinn’s and whispered, "Oh, I only have saved up enough to exchange for thirty of those bronze coins. What can we buy with them?"
’Seriously? You are out shopping with Dor coins? We might only end up having a meal in a Tavern.’ Jinn almost stumbled and looked at the girl for a while. ’in the end, she is just a child who knows nothing about the outside world.’
"Why don’t we look around for now? There is nothing here I can use." Jinn did not break the little girl’s heart by telling her the truth since he still had to check the surveillance in the city.
Sally’s shoulder sagged, but she nodded and resumed her search.
"There are so many law enforcement officers walking here." Even Sally did not miss one or two officers popping up in the street every now and then.
They appeared as if they were searching for someone or something.
"Who knows what they want?" Jinn shrugged, but his eyes traced their movement.
Even after searching the whole street, Sally could not find a thing Jinn liked. So they decided to move to other streets.
...
While Sally was dragging Jinn around, Agnes was getting accustomed to her new living quarters.
"We had already collected so much trash in three years." Surrounded by broken and old furniture, the former head acted like a clueless heir.
She was sitting in a cross-legged pose; her previous brown hair had permanently turned flaming red even when it was not on fire.
Her eyebrows and lashes had also taken on the same color. Her eyes had turned green.
She had spent the last half hour resisting the urge to clean the room upon Jinn’s strict instructions. In the end she could not win over the urges and cleaned the area she sat on because she refused to sit on the dirty floor.
Closing her eyes, she channeled her flaming hot dragon energy with care.
But as soon as she channeled it, she could smell the scent of burning clothes and had to stop again.
’Why is he not here yet?’ Opening her eyes, the matron let out a long sigh and lay down flat on the ground. Her eyes stared at the webbed ceiling, where she noticed a spider crawling and shivered all over.
As if sensing her fear, the spider slowly webbed down towards her. Agnes almost screamed out loud, but she used her hand to block her mouth.
Her eyes trembled as the spider continued to descend. Once the spider was only a meter away from her stomach, Agnes snapped her hands upward, and a wave of flames exploded out of her hands.
The flames roared like a dragon’s breath and rushed towards the spider, swallowing it alive.
Agnes blinked, and the flames had disappeared along with the scary spider. Then almost instantly she raised her head and looked down.
’Thank god, I did not burn the rest of my robes.’ With a breath of relief, she relaxed and closed her eyes.
...
The search ended after an hour.
Sally had already lost her initial cheeriness, but they had yet to buy anything. "Why is shopping so hard?"
Unlike her, Jinn still appeared to be full of energy; his eyes scanned every street and each turn.
Because of his vigilance, he did not miss a single thing that happened around him, not even the two shadows that had been following behind them for a while.
"Shall we return then?" Jinn suggested, while his mind worked on the plan, to let Agnes escape the city without being caught. ’That way, it should be safe for us to leave.’
Despite her lack of willingness to continue, Sally panicked when jinn suggested going back. Her mind spun as fast as she could until her stomach growled. Instead of being ashamed, her face bloomed with hope. "Let’s go eat something; I am starving."
Jinn stared at her face for a second, making her sweat, but he relented to her demands.
"Very well."
They traced their steps back. Everything was going smoothly until they stepped into a narrowed and empty street.
The two kids heard the sounds of rushing steps and turned to see two figures rushing towards them with wide grins on their disgusting faces.
Watching the two ruffians finally revealing themselves, Jinn’s eyes flashed with a cold light.
"What a brain-dead choice," Raising his hand before his face, he whispered. "To step on the stage of the trickster willingly."
The two ruffians looked confused, but they did not stop and picked up the two kids before running away deeper into another dark alley.