He grunts in pain and staggers backward, ripping the blade from his abdomen and doing even more damage. His eyes turning glassy as blood starts pouring from the wound.
“Why you little…”
His voice died and he fell over with a soft *thump*, never to get up again. I looked at the pooling blood, the dagger in my hand. It had a leather grip, and a curved sliver blade. There was a name carved into the pommel,
“Grimmauld”
I felt sick to my stomach, and fell to my knees, about to throw up. I had just killed a person. A living, breathing person, who had a life, same as me.
[Its not the first time]
I heard a voice, and a memory rushed to the front of my mind. Victor, no I was walking in an alley, trying to find a place to sleep. There were other people here, so Vict- I was about to leave, when someone in a cloak with a strange, chilling aura appeared at one end and they started staying something strange, while a glowing pattern formed in front of him.
F̷̧ͮ̚͝į̢̩͇͇͛ͦ͂́ŗ̶̨ͯ͋̊͠e͍̻͓͘b͙͈̪̟͑a̴͔̔ͩ͘͟͏l̖̹͉̖l̵̡͉͟.̖̰͓̎̑̀́
A giant ball of flames appeared in front of him, flying down the alleyway, straight towards me. I quickly grabbed a nearby person and threw him forwards, then dodged as far to to side as I could. I saw the person I threw, a boy about the same age as me, dressed in scrappy clothes. His face went from surprised, shocked, and angry before twisting in pain as he was engulfed in flames. His scream, and many others, echoed in the alley. As it passed by me, I could feel the heat on my skin, and some of my hair burnt straight off.
I snapped back to reality, still on my knees. I wanted to think about what just happened, the voice I heard, and that memory, but nearby shouting and the sound of armor clanking stopped me. On the instinct of a scavenger, I ran forward and grabbed the sheath for the dagger. Then I ran.
With hazy eyes and thoughts, I had no destination. I recognized that I was bleeding from my right forearm, but couldn’t think what I should do about it. I stumbled into a small road, and collapsed against the wall.
I managed to hide the now sheathed dagger in my pants, and felt my consciousness start to slip. I realized with a tired thought,
‘I guess the adrenaline wore off’
And everything went dark.
When I woke up, my first thought was,
‘Soft’
Then I realized, why was I soft? I was not in the modern world anymore, with the luxuries of soft beds, cell phones, and instant food, but an orphan in the slums, who had passed out on a wall, with a bleeding arm.
I swiftly opened my eyes, and sat up. My right arm felt fine, in fact, I felt better then I- Victor ever remembers being. As I looked around, I noticed 4 things.
1. Everything was white, or golden.
2. There lots of beds, all identical to the one I was in.
3. There were people in priest robes.
4. My body felt better and cleaner than I ever have... Victor has.
And I realized where I was. The Holy Church. I let out a groan. One of the nuns must have heard me, and hurried over.
She had gold hair, blue eyes, and dainty white skin. While it tried to hide under her robes, she had a rather… erotic body.
‘Great… this common trope…’ I thought. ‘I am leaving as fast as possible.’
“Are you feeling okay?” She asked
“I’m fine.”
“Do you hurt anywhere?”
“Once again, I’m fine.”
As she continued asking me questions about how I felt, I thought about what I- Victor, knew about the church.
The Church was one of the 5 major powers of the world, which were;
The Empire,
The Treedom,
The Church,
The Magus,
The Academy,
and the Guild.
The Empire is one of the largest and most powerful country on the continent. There were others, but most were supported by the Empire, or were weaker.
The Treedom is the home of the Elves, and are the reason that The Empire has not spread to the rest of the continent, as while smaller, with less population, elves have extreme lifespans, with the oldest currently being 200,000 years old, and they are all amazingly talented, thus becoming a rival of The Empire.
They struggle over talents, resources, alliances, the like.
Other countries of other races do exist, but the Treedom was the only one with enough political, economical, and warfare might to rival the Empire.
If fact, the kingdom I was in, the Adrestea Kingdom, was just a puppet for the Empire, with its own king being one of the Empire’s many princes.
The Church is the largest religion. There are others, but the Church is spread over the entire continent, with cathedrals and churches in nearly every major city. They follow the Holy Mother, bringer of light and life. Also, they are insanely corrupt. Believers of the church see it as “paying homage to god” and beat anyone who says the church is corrupt in front of them for “slander of the goddess”.
Luckily, unless they live under a rock, most people who are not members of the church know it’s corrupt, but, the church has a very large monopoly on healing and divine items, which are necessary against undead and fiendish creatures.
The Magus is less a power and more of a gathering of knowledge. Many Mages, Witches/Wizards, and Magicians join this organization to meet other magic users, and work on new spells, as far as I know anyways. They are very secretive about what happens in there.
The Academy is another continent spanning power, with their schools being pretty much the best place to learn just about anything. To get in, you have to have enough talent and have the recommendation of someone influential, or be a noble. Otherwise, anyone can go in. Going there guarantees you a good life, or so people say.
The biggest school and their headquarters lay on a neutral piece of land on the border of the Empire and the Treedom, made by a treaty so upcoming geniuses won’t be stifled by political interests.
The Guild is your classic adventurers guild. You sign up, you do tasks, you get paid. You get to a high enough rank, and you get to do more dangerous missions, but more pay and prestige.
These 6 powers hold a monopoly over their specific areas, and work together to create a “fair” economy system, while also checking each other from getting too much power. Magic users from the Magus can do jobs from the Guild, and the Empire and Treedom often get first dibs on talents from the Academy.
Shaking me out of my thoughts, the nun asks,
“Can you walk?”
“Yes.” I reply, for the who knows what time.
“Then come with me, and we can get you out and going, after we talk about payment.”
I groan again, and say,
“I don’t have money.”
This, along with adrenaline and fear of being caught, is why I had run while I was bleeding. If I was found they would immediately bring me here and heal me, and then I would have to pay.
As for imprisoning me, there were plenty of people who saw me running from him, not to mention him being unable to defend himself due to being... yeah.
She frowns as she hears that, and tries to reassure me.
“It’s fine, Thomas can probably help you lower it, or work something out.”
3 minutes later…
“Due to the would being deep, and very dirty, we had to cast both cleaning and healing spells in it, along with a cure spell in case of infection. In total, 5 Silver.”
Did I mention that the Church was greedy? Because that is an exorbitant price for a simple clean, and heal. The cure makes a bit sense, as it is a bit harder of a spell to use, but they are charging me with cleaning, curing, and healing my entire body. I didn’t ask for it, and could’ve asked for it just on my arm, reducing the price to maybe 2 silver, but someone found me unconscious, and brought me here, and they healed my whole body, without needing to, so they could extract more nonexistent money out of me.
“Once again, I have no money.”
“Can you ask your parents?” Said the nun.
I give the nun and Thomas, the person in charge of payments, a deadpan look.
“If you couldn’t figure out from the fact I was passed out on the street, with an open wound and old, dirty clothes, I don’t have any.”
“Ah.. I am sorry…” she says with a sad look.
“I don’t care about that. So, how am I gonna pay you?” I ask looking at Thomas.
“Hm…”
He sat and thought for a bit, muttering.
“He could… no no… maybe… but that would… perhaps…”
Suddenly,
“What if he worked at Johnson's?” The nun offers.
“That’s a possibility… actually that might work. He owes me a favor for that time I healed his son’s burns, and I wouldn’t really get a better profit from any other…” replied Thomas.
“Johnson's? You mean Johnson's Bakery near the noble district?” I say, surprised.
""Yes"" they both answer.
I’m surprised because that’s the name of the bakery I get my (thrown out) bread from.
“Here is the deal” Thomas starts, “You will go work for Johnson, and you would give half your pay till you paid 6 Silver.”
‘Now it’s 6 silver huh?’ I think. Well, I suppose that he wants payment for using up his favor. In the end, it might be a better deal for me if I manage to get good at my job, so they won’t fire me, and then I won’t have to sleep on the streets.
“Fine.” I say, “So…”
“I will give you a letter. Go in and give that to Johnson, and he will accept you. Then, whenever you get paid, you will only get half, and the rest will got to the me for the payment. Once you pay off 7 Silver, you will get paid in full from then on, if Johnson doesn’t kick you out immediately after.”
I look at him deadpan.
“I agreed to 6 Silver, cause you are using a personal favor. I won’t do it to pay 7 Silver. Don’t take me for a pushover.” I say as I reach under my shirt, where I hid the dagger. I probably couldn't do anything with it, but having the in my hand gave me a strange sense of safety, if only slightly.
"Whatever" he says, and then quickly writes a letter, and seals it with a special stamp. He hands it to me, and says "Out you go."
I am led out by the nun, and start walking down the steps, looking at the letter in my hand.
'Time to go to Johnson's.'
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