It’s been a while since Maurice has had the chance of doing a little exploring by himself. He’d done some of that back in Thalis, of course. But this was different. Back in Thalis, he’d walked around with his true form. The people knew of who and what he was, and they accepted it readily. He could afford to be himself back there, especially considering their protector wasn’t even human. The same couldn’t be said for this place so before he stepped outside, he made sure his disguise was as perfect as it could be and once he was done, he stepped out, confident he looked like any other person. All with two hands, ten fingers and no shell.

  That last part was bugging him a little, if he were honest. Maurice felt exposed as he walked down the street, smiling at those who gave him curious glances. Even though his shell was still with him, gently resting atop his real, shrunken body around which he had built his current disguise, he still felt a little off.

  They’re all so… soft, he thought as he watched a bulky man shove someone before dipping away in a dark alleyway while the victim shouted obscenities half of which Maurice didn’t understand. Glancing around, he continued his stroll, watching the humans go about their business. It was still day, but the sun was slowly making its way toward the horizon and he’d approximate one or two hours before it was dark again. It was plenty for him to look around and get some air.

  As much as he liked spending time with Ash and Fabian, sometimes he struggled to really understand why they felt the way they did.

  Ash was on edge. She had been ever since they had begun approaching the island. But that he didn’t struggle with. That made sense to him. A confrontation was over the horizon, and Maurice could understand that. The silence and quiet before a big battle. That clicked. But while she did tell them about the why and how she came to despise the Clydemar nobles so much, Maurice found it a bit difficult to relate. Of course he understood she had suffered because of them. That part was easy. But he also didn’t know what it was like to have a family. Parents. Siblings. A home. He knew enough not to say his thoughts out-loud as today wasn’t the right time for him to request lessons in being human, but he also didn’t understand what the big deal was, either.

  Being mad made sense. Being this angry?

  Maurice could only grasp a portion of the picture. He was missing something.

  Stopping in front of a food stand, Maurice produced a C-rank core and took the fragrant bread-bowl from the merchant’s limp hand. The bulky man could not stop staring at the fist-sized glowing purple orb, which Maurice believed came from those venomous climbing crabs below Thalis and as he saw the stares of the people around him, he realized he had probably overpaid and not just by a little, but he didn’t really care that much, so he briskly walked away before taking a sip from the creamy, rich soup, he continued on down the street, the scent of the sea growing stronger as he approached the docks.

  These Clydemar sounded powerful. Their neighbors—Ash’s family—had not been as powerful. So it made sense to him that the former could take things from the latter. That’s how life worked in his experience. If he caught a fish and couldn’t hold on to it because something else stronger than him had shown up, how mad could he really be?

  “It’s probably the family part that hurts the most… right?” he muttered to himself between bites. Maurice would likely be pretty mad himself if something similar had happened to Henry, but he also had trouble seeing that take place. As for the Clydemar taking over Ash’s home, well… it seemed like if it hadn’t been the Clydemar, it would have been another family or another group.

  Ash had said that there were supposed to be rules that prevented this sort of stuff from happening, but the people with power cheated. Again, that was also understandable, but if all it took was power to protect oneself from this sort of stuff, why did they let themselves be weak?

  Maurice sighed. This sounded like he was blaming Ash, but he really didn’t. He just knew there were some nuances he was missing. Maybe because he was young… or maybe because he was a crab and hadn’t grown up around humans and their culture and whatnot. Still, him not understanding didn’t mean he wouldn’t help.

  That went without saying. In fact, he was willing to go there right now. But apparently, they had to do this all by the rules. Maurice got that part and he was 100% in with whatever his friends decided on. He did understand this all came with painful memories, but that did not change the fact that there were bits he couldn’t parse well so before it showed on his face or he slipped out and made Ash feel worse, he opted to go on a walk.

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  Standing at the edge of the docks, he smiled at the sloshing waves and grinned when he noticed two crabs fighting over a piece of discarded bread.

  Going for a walk had been a good call, he had to admit, and he was glad that whatever had been going on with Henry was getting better. Which meant that Maurice would soon know what was going on because over the last hour or so, he had been feeling a weird sense of dread echoing out of the clone watching over him but just in case something big was taking place, he didn’t want to risk distracting Henry. The clone was inactive, just observing in case of emergencies, but it still allowed Maurice to get a sense of what was going on and usually, dread meant either a problem or something fun. Or both. So Maurice was looking forward to that.

  As he headed back toward the hotel, he eyed the food stand and was almost tempted to get some more of the creamy soup, but between him considering that and thinking over the events of the day, he nearly missed the malicious intent that wafted toward him as a hand shot out from an alley and grabbed on to him.

  Maurice could have easily dodged, but this felt sort-of fun.

  Letting himself be pulled into the dark alley, he focused on his surroundings, readying himself to respond in case this turned out to be more dangerous than he expected and now that he was paying attention, he sensed the intents swirling in the air more clearly. Still, it was no reason for him to be alarmed. Practically everything and everyone he had encountered had been wildly underleveled so it wasn’t a surprise when he saw that the man who’d pulled him—as well as the two with him—were barely into C-rank.

  Maurice’s face fell, which it seemed the three were taking for fear or shock instead of the disappointment it was.

  “Where are you guardians, little boy? Are you lost?” asked the short-haired woman at the front, giving him a concerned smile as she hunched forward while the two taller men behind her leered. By now, thanks to Henry and thanks to all the people of Thalis, Maurice had plenty of experience reading people’s faces, so he knew her concern was completely fake. Because the feeling he was getting from her was the same that he’d have when he was about to chomp on a particularly juicy morsel.

  Still, this was fun, so Maurice opted to go along.

  “They’re b-busy,” he said, adding a little stutter to underline his nervousness. He might have gotten decent at reading other’s expressions, but he’d be better served by practicing some himself and seemingly, it worked. At least partially. The two men behind her sneered wider, sharing a glance before one of them gestured to other to go watch the alley’s entrance, but the leader didn’t seem to buy his charade that quick. Her brows narrowed for barely a second, her smile flickering, then calmly, she stood straighter and casually reached behind her back. “Just give us the anti-appraisal gear, and we’ll let you go on your way. I’m sure your family can afford you another.”

  “Boss, what’s wrong,” her second muttered, suddenly glancing above and around, but the boss never looked away from Maurice who continued his attempt at looking nervous, but he could sense the unease of the boss growing stronger which in turn, was making her second more worried.

  Letting out a sigh, Maurice hung his head for a moment before he looked up at the two and smiled. “No. I’m going to leave now.”

  Maurice was pretty sure this would count as an attack on his person, and he could technically defend himself, but why even bother? There was nothing these three could do to him.

  “Now hold—”

  The man stepped in front of Maurice, past his boss whose eyes narrowed, and a heavy hand fell on Maurice’s shoulder, trying to immobilize him, only for the man’s words to cut off when Maurice just calmly walked past him. The man’s hold applied almost as much resistance as a stalk of algae, which Maurice completely ignored. The man was puffing and cursing, calling for his friend’s help, and Maurice considered escalating, but he decided to give them another chance. Glancing back to the woman, he simply spoke. “Call them off.”

  The alley went quiet, and he could swear he saw the woman swallow, but the two men—now with the second having come back from watching the exit, narrowed their eyes at him. Maurice sensed their intent, and he wondered if he even needed to defend himself, but unfortunately, the boss was reasonable.

  “Hemlock, Bo. Leave him alone. We’re leaving.”

  “But—” began the one who’d tried to stop him, only for the boss to shout.

  “Now!”

  The snap made the two men recoil, and both backed away from Maurice, who just walked past them and groaned in his throat when he noticed the man with the food cart trundling away, having finished selling his inventory for the day.

  "Dammit," Maurice muttered, shoving his hands in his pockets as he stomped back home. Before leaving the city, Maurice would absolutely buy a bunch of the man’s food. Henry would likely be able to store it for him.