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As they walked, Hector had many more opportunities to witness--and indeed experience--the chaos of Babbadelo first-hand. They’d been attacked before, but now it was almost constant, probably because they didn’t have intimidating numbers on their side anymore. Nearly every street had a new group of Hun’Kui bandits who seemed keen to test them. Several tried to extort a toll beforehand, but just as many attacked without warning.

It never went well for the assailants. They were rarely ever armed, and even when they were, the reapers noticed it immediately, having become hyper-aware of the threat ever since their first encounter with it.

But the fact that these people weren’t armed and yet were still so bold as to attack them anyway... it spoke to Hector of desperation. And Garovel agreed. Maybe some of them were just being assholes, but a lot of them were probably trying to feed themselves or their families in whatever way they could.

It was more than enough reason to go easy on them, Hector felt. And the others seemed to agree, excepting the Lady Stroud. She didn’t kill anyone, but she dealt out plenty of broken fingers, hands, arms, and ankles. She just about pulled a guy’s leg off before her reaper, Ezura, told her to stop.

Hector wondered if he should ask her to return to the inn. He doubted she would listen to him, but maybe the others would be able to convince her. Regardless, he decided to hold off and just keep an eye on her.

At length, the frequency of attacks began to die down again. Hector wasn’t sure if they’d just been passing through a particularly bad area of the city or if the attackers had realized it was a lost cause.

Either way, this sudden calm, though welcome, was rather unsettling, in its own way. Hector could see the reapers constantly scanning their surroundings.