[color=#b97703]“Twelfth district…”[/color] Cas repeated in a murmur. That was Tongsen, just south of Bel Bicis, the two districts with the lowest GDP per capita in Aspiria, if he remembered his economics lesson correctly. Even though the number had been low, it still reflected a better quality of life than what he was looking at now though. He glanced at Iris. Whether she was helping him or not, she was still a rebel, so they were probably in the slovenliest part of the city and she was just playing it off as if this was what the entire district was like. There was no way the rest of Tongsen was equally as filthy. The numbers he’d seen just didn’t add up to that.

As they made their way into what looked like an abandoned shopping center, he lifted his gaze slightly to take in his surroundings. Like the rest of the area, he guessed all the buildings had been standing since before his great grandfather had made the decree to renew Aspiria’s architecture and infrastructure. There weren’t many people around, and all those he could see looked homeless. They were probably living here to avoid being arrested for trespassing in the more populated parts of the district. Not used to being around people who lived on the streets, he walked tensely behind Iris. He’d seen statistics that told him many homeless men and women were criminals, and they were both very exposed out in the open. His wallet had been missing since he’d first woken up in his cell, but no one else knew that. If anyone recognized his face, they might think he was carrying money and try to rob him.

Just as he was starting to feel paranoid about being mugged, Cas jumped at the sound of someone shouting behind them. Turning around, he watched confusedly as someone sprinted away from one of the stores. It looked like his hunch about thieves was correct. He shivered and averted his gaze, heeding his guide’s advice. If any of the people around them were potentially dangerous, he didn’t want to draw attention to himself. His goal was to make it back to the capital without taking any more injuries than he already had from Regis.

Subconsciously sticking close to Iris, he followed her around to the side of a bakery and stopped while she dug through a pile of trash bags. He shifted his weight restlessly from his left foot to his right, and a wary frown creased his mouth. She had said she was going to be taking him back to the capital, so he wasn’t sure what she was doing by sifting through literal garbage. For a fleeting moment, he worried she had brought him to this back alley because it had been a trap and she was going to kill him, but his anxiety was quickly laid to rest when she stuffed a bag into her backpack. It probably wasn’t a weapon. He relaxed, though a bemused and mildly disgusted expression lingered on his face as he wondered what she could have possibly wanted with someone else’s trash.

[color=#b97703]“I’m fine,”[/color] he answered without hesitation when she asked if he could keep moving. In truth, he was practically swaying on his feet with exhaustion, but he wanted to get out of the run-down part of the district as quickly as possible. [color=#b97703]“But I thought we were going back to the capital,”[/color] he added, narrowing his eyes suspiciously at her comment about finding somewhere to stay for the night. [color=#b97703]“Why don’t you just call a taxi? You can have them drop me off at the edge of the city, and I’ll go through border security on my own. The soldiers know who I am, so it doesn’t matter that your rebel friends stole my wallet.”[/color]