The room I had entered was filled with all kinds of plans - house architecture, copies of instructions for the purification machine, recipes for meals from various cultures - and finally, what caught my attention: Weapons and armor. Many of them required machinery manufacturing, so I finally found something simpler that could be replicated by hand.

A simple gun from the eighteenth century, the dragon blunderbuss - easy to carry, simple to use, and with enough power to knock a person down at point-blank range. They couldn't be made in ten seconds, but with help... it would suffice. With so many blueprints here, I didn't think anyone would notice.

I folded it four times and stuffed it into the pockets of my overcoat as best I could. I don't know what made me think going to the third floor was a good idea, but I wanted a better look at that tower.

There were two types of stairs - one that was manually operated and another that was spiral. I slowly climbed up, and when I reached the outside, I saw it. I didn't dare go too high because the tower was extensive, but from where I had climbed, I had a view of the entire city.

Seriously, one thing is to see it from the outskirts, but from the lower floors of the Merciful Palace tower, I had a view of the central plaza and the various streets and neighborhoods with different purposes and architecture applied to them. A whole potential wasted by a king who was more drunk than merciful.

But to not waste any more time, I looked for a way out in the courtyards of this place. There were gates that had fallen, so I could leave from several places.

I started to go down the stairs, but I noticed that there was now a line of guards retreating. The second floor was now crowded with people. It seemed to be the king's meeting with his guards that I had mentioned before.

I was waiting for them to leave one by one so I could continue down this hallway that led to the stairs to the first floor, but on the side of the room where I entered, I had less distance to cover.

This was the last guard who was to speak with the king, as you can imagine, the purples were the first and the blues were the last to have the opportunity to be heard.

"I can assure you that Nassoumi is an accomplice, my lord."

"And I have already told you that I can't do anything about it."

"If we don't do something, we will lose control."

"If we do something, we will lose control." He raises both hands to emphasize his point as if he had an invisible box. "And credibility."

"So what do we do? Do we wait?"

"Broken Forever is just a mysterious figure. When people get to know him better, they won't have their own ideas projected onto him."

"I don't want to question you, but I'm sure there are people who have denied talking to him, but I'm sure they did, which means they're defending him."

"That means they think alike, nothing more."

"Let's give him a lesson, let's lock him up."

"When I started my reign, I did that and believe me, it's been questioned to this day. I can't go around disappearing people without making noise, which is why I've been doing it this way until now. People don't say 'They must have done something' anymore, but rather 'Could I be next?'"

"That's not the message or image I want to convey, and even if I did, it would go wrong. I know you feel invincible in your armor, but we're outnumbered and there are people who, no matter how prepared they are, won't be able to control the masses.

"I don't want to question your management, my lord, but I don't think we can pressure them with tributes anymore."

"You answered yourself. The thing is, I don't know if you did that to suggest that I haven't been paying you enough, if you're asking for more guards, or if you're warning me about something else."

"I'm saying it because maybe you've thought about raising tributes even more to pressure them, but they've already-"

"Don't be ignorant! Tributes are not a punishment!"

"No? I mean... I understand, my lord."

They seem very indecisive, good to know.

It was time to go, I'm going to hurry down the stairs this time when I see someone coming up and they hear me.

Without thinking and relying on my reflexes, I impulsively go back up and run into the guard who had just finished talking to the king.

I had to run, he seemed frozen at first, but then I heard his cries for help.

I didn't even know how to get back, I was just focused on running while hearing the sound of their armor and boots approaching me as I went down the stairs of the other hallway on the ground floor.

"It's a ghost!"

"Don't be ridiculous, fool! It's an intruder!"

"Get him!"

"Go down the other hallway! He's heading that way!"

Those were the things I heard echoing, my heart racing to the beat of two drums being played at full speed.

My hands were shaking, my legs were running on their own without even thinking, my eyes were throbbing, my throat making strange movements, I wasn't scared, just full of adrenaline to escape alive.

I'm sure at that moment they were the ones more scared seeing a figure running in the palace, as Erick had told me it wasn't something that happened every day.

But unlike them thinking, I knew I wasn't a ghost and that I could die in that place, which is why I got so nervous.

I dizzy the guards running in circles and miraculously find the room I came in through.

I look behind me, the worst decision, there were more than 5 guards running at full speed while grabbing the handle of their swords.

I open the door with my hand on the doorknob and push it closed with a kick.

I pull a wardrobe next to the door to block it.

I had managed to get more time, what I put in front was heavy enough to only hear the banging on the other side.

I turn around and carefully climb onto the window, not wanting to waste time in case I did it wrong.

This place was easier to enter than to leave.

When I was on the outside, I turned my head and saw that they had already opened the door, and were clumsily trying to get in by climbing on the wardrobe I had thrown to block them.

"Alert the guards at the entrance! Go to the stairs!"

"Search for him outside! Corner him!"

"Someone guard the king!"

I couldn't go around the edges, they would catch me.

I gathered my courage and jumped down about three meters in height.

The fall made my legs cramp up when I touched the ground. I tried to stand up, but my legs were numb. However, I wasn't hurt, I just had to wait a few seconds to be able to stand.

I looked up, none of the guards dared to jump, so I lost sight of them.

I got up, I couldn't run, but I managed to keep walking and escape from that place.

I didn't bother going to the central plaza, anyway, I could use my compass and the tower to guide me. Maps didn't serve me in this part of the city, I had never been on these streets before.

Just when I thought I was far enough away, I heard three guards running from the other side of the corner, shouting suggestions and orders to each other.

I hide in a nearby wishing well.

"We should alert other guards!" One of them shouted.

The one at the back looked around, including the well, but didn't come close enough.

"Keep searching! I thought I saw him around here!" Another one yelled.

He almost saw me, but I was so well hidden that he didn't notice I was there. You could say I'm a real chameleon.

Well, I had gotten rid of them, but now I couldn't go back to the underground storage or the housing block, they would find me if they realized it was me.

I thought about going to the ministry, but it quickly crossed my mind that it would be stupid to hide in a government building.

I had to find a way to copy the gun blueprints, but I didn't have my diary with me nor anything to write on.

I kept checking to make sure I didn't lose the plans along the way.

I had wandered away from the central plaza; the houses were low, but their walls had enough edges and pipes for any small creature to walk along the cornices or roofs.

Even to cling to...

Would anyone in my situation think the same as me? Then it wouldn't be a surprise.

"Tell me, what gets bigger the more you take away?"

I stay still upon hearing a voice, but... I think I already knew who it was, so I play along.

'Bigger the more you take away'... Mmmhh...

I follow his voice and see Erick, the deformed dwarf of the city.

"A hole."

"Right! Right! Broken Forever gets a point." He cheers as he raises his index finger.

"Glad to see you."

"Same here. I was remembering some riddles I liked as a kid, memorizing them in case someone else appears from outside the city again; I want to give this place a mystical aura."

"Believe me, it already has it."

"Not yet, not enough, because I will be the... 'Guardian of the Gate.' " He laughs uncontrollably and adds; "Sounds mysterious, doesn't it? Yes! I will be the one with riddles."

"It sounds like a way to distract, that is, riddles that don't lead to anything."

"Aish, it's just to give a warm welcome." He responds a bit disappointed. "But listen, I also composed one myself."

"Okay, tell me."

"Who has a face with an empty gaze but must be thinking about everything?"

I know where this is going.

"Eh? You don't know?" He asks cheerfully.

I don't plan on answering him.

"Shall I tell you the answer? Shall I tell you?"

I sigh; I already know what he's going to say.

"You! Haaa hahaha!" As he laughs, he starts coughing.

I stare at him without saying anything.

"Oh, that wasn't good, alright, I'll keep working on that."

"By the way, the streets are full of guards. I've never seen the outskirts of the city so closely watched. What happened?

"I think they saw me leave the Palace of the Merciful."

"Did you actually go and come back in one piece? And how was the place?"

"I saw... several things, it makes sense now."

"Tell me, tell me."

"For starters, it's full of surveillance, as one would expect. The place is quite clean, and, on the other hand, it has about a dozen maidens."

"Maids?"

"Yes, women."

"Oh? What were they doing?"

"It seems they were there for the... King's pleasure, eating a large part of the tributes or letting them rot while they flirted with him. Just thinking about it makes my stomach churn."

"But I don't get it, what's wrong with that?"

"Besides using the tributes for his guards and his, let's call them 'wives'? The idea that I now understand the social difference in this city, I don't understand how a woman can be with someone as unjust as the king; I refuse to call him merciful, he's more like the lustful one."

"I would say yes, but I don't know what lustful means."

"The point is that he takes away from the people who need it the most to keep it for himself. "

"The merciful doesn't seem like someone who takes things from others..." He responds confused.

"Sometimes the ones who steal the most are the ones with the most power, Erick."

"Wow, I hadn't thought of it that way... It actually makes sense. But what do you plan to do?"

"Not so much idea, now I'll go back to the central plaza but... Where do you think I can sleep? They'll be looking for me."

"I know a place where different criminals go, it's a tavern with a very bad reputation near the central plaza, not only because of drunken fights, but also because the people who go there have no proof but there are no doubts; They are delinquents."

It seems like the central plaza is bigger than it looks. I thought at that moment.

"Alright, thanks. If I make it through in one piece, maybe we'll see each other again."

"I hope so. Good luck, Sir Broken!" He says goodbye as he continues jumping between walls.

Another one who calls wrong my name... Well, I was going to that place, I didn't have any other option.