"Stray" is use for something/ someone homeless and have no where to go. Not only they have no house, they also mean of someone who have nothing belongs to in their mind.

Alvis and Ekpen are the one like that.

The stray, the homeless one

They became partner in crime, Ekpen offered when Alvis find the book of God, he also want to write something in it.

But what he want is still unknown

Alvis didn't believed in what Ekpen says, however, it won't lost anything if he use that man for information about the book of God.

Not to mention, Ekpen also know about Alvis' secret so he can't let go of that man. It will be risky if he tells anyone else about that

After thinking, he agree

Ekpen offered to cooperate with Alvis.
He is an information dealer who usually works with the nobles and people in black market so he can help Alvis have more info about the messenger' books

Because all the messengers are the noble, a low-level one like Alvis will find it hard to reach them

If Alvis cared about human, he wouldn't have that reckless decision. He want to change the world so that he could have a place where himself could be happy.

It's all for himself so win all or nothing, risking his own life and then dying would be better than doing nothing.

Alvis understand what Ekpen mean, because steal messengers' book will be seen as a serious crime that can even make himself and all human perish.

But Alvis still do that, after all, he didn't want to change the world for human. He do that for himself

In order to get that book, he need to have the books that relate to it, that's the reason why he stole a lot of book for the clue
There's a rumor that if you have 12 special books from "Messengers of God", you can call out the God book through ritual

No other choice, Alvis told Ekpen about the Book of God. If you have that book, you can rewrite anything even the world

And Alvis want to rewrite this world, change it into the one human can live normally

Their conversation:

Alvis: "If you are angry when I throw that book at your face, I'm sorry, okay?"

Ekpen: "You dropped this." *give the pocket watch*

Alvis: "!!! Why ya didn't tell me earlier?! Don't make me scared like this please."

Ekpen: "A revenge for throwing book at my face."

🗿

Alvis agree, he told Ekpen to release him first and he will do as he says
After that, Alvis took a small paper in the book he stole and quickly throw the book into Ekpen's face

And then run away

He thieves books for a very long time. One day, he's being captured by Ekpen- a lonely traveler who just stop by the bookstore.
He told Alvis to give back the book if he doesn't want things became serious

These things make human become something inferior in the eyes of others. Human are something others animals couldn't accept normally because of their strange beings

In other words, human in this world are treated like trash

Compare to others animals, human don't have good sense of smell like dogs, hearing like rabbits, nor good sight like cats.
They also don't have wings to fly like birds, venom like snake, nor a strong tail to climb tree like monkey, etc

"Stray" is use for something/ someone homeless and have no where to go. Not only they have no house, they also mean of someone who have nothing belongs to in their mind.

Alvis and Ekpen are the one like that.

The stray, the homeless one