Istoria was divided into 4 main sectors, with the Tower at its centre. To the South of the Tower was the Adventurers Support Headquarters, which was connected to a chain of businesses and services that their organisation provided.
On the western end of the city was a large section of cheap single-roomed houses, lined up in a grey atmosphere to make up the Slums of Istoria. I didn’t bother going there, I’d just be asking to get mugged or possibly worse.
To the North was the Market District and in the North-Eastern block was where the higher-end businesses and dream houses were built. Many of the top guilds rented from there, something that’s impossible for someone like me but maybe one day with enough money I could rent somewhere with a good view of them…
Speaking of which, on the lower side of the slope beside them was the Residential Sector, where the common markets, smiths, and housing were located. Those were for starting businesses or if you’re looking for a cheap place to live.
In other words, that was the section of the city where someone like me would spend most of their time.
I walked down the cobbled road between 2 rows of dainty wooden houses toward the very last building at the end of the street. The road I walked on, as most of the ones in the Residential Sector, was built on an angle. It made walking pretty uncomfortable but it was something we all had to put up with.
I used to love sticking out my arms and keeping my balance as I walked in a crooked line, alongside my dad. But lately, it just seemed like a chore since I got older.
I eventually arrived at a three-story building with white stone walls and a wooden gabled roof. There were 4 windows visible from the front of the building, each belonging to a separate room inside. The front was quite well-kept, with only a few scratches on the paint.
Above the front door was a massive sign that read, ‘Fifth Block Orphanage’ in bold paint.
My eyelids were heavy, sleeping was the only thing on my mind. I dragged my feet through the streets towards the building with one goal in mind, to reach my bed!
I stumbled through the front door, greeting the elderly lady sitting behind the front desk. Her eyes shot open with surprise the moment she saw me.
She was the caretaker of the building and took care of the younger tenants, however most of the day she spent her time sitting at reception with a bored expression.
“Good afternoon Rei! Oh, your hair is… uhm uh-”
I practically flew past her with a polite wave as I hopped onto the staircase ignoring her dishevelled expression. As I climbed 2 steps at a time, the creaking old wood of the stairs triggered a harmony of eerie noises, like a creepy wooden piano as I rushed to my room.
My room was on the top floor seeing as I was the oldest resident in the building. It wasn't anything special, but I did like that the room was slightly larger than the others. I deserved it after spending nearly five years in that place.
As I stepped into the hallway of the third floor, I noticed an elegant figure waiting outside my door.
“I swear he should have been home by now…geez where is he?” Her radiant voice groaned in frustration.
“Oh Miss Kana, what are you doing here?”
The youthful figure stood in front of my door, with her arms joined behind her back. Her brassy-blonde hair bun flicked around as she faced me. Both arms were joined together behind her back, which made her chest stick out quite a bit.
She was rather gifted in that regard. My face turned red and all I could focus on was her…
I lowered my head so that only the floor was visible to me. Even if I didn’t do anything wrong, there was no way in hell I wanted to risk getting called a pervert or something.
“R-Rei, are you not feeling well?”
The radiant figure before me was Kana, a representative for the Adventurers Support Headquarters, or ASH for short. She started there 3 years ago and was put in charge of being my consultant once I started going into the Tower.
She was only about 5 years older than me but she had a lot of experience for her age. She'd been seriously helpful to me ever since we met. It didn’t seem like a big age gap but she often exuded a mature aura for her age.
Adventurer Consultants act as your support behind the scenes in a sense, by giving helpful tips and suggestions on where to buy equipment or updating you on events inside the dungeon. I suppose that's why she seemed so mature, the more we spoke the more I realised how seriously she took her job.
In my case, she mostly just helped me stay alive by telling me where to stay away from…
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It didn't take her long to figure out that I was weak after all, so we hadn’t had much time to talk about the higher floors.
“Where were you? I asked to meet you this afternoon for a meeting, remember? Geez… you had me waiting out here for nearly an hour now.” She yelled, with one arm buried into her hip.
“…Sorry, I got into a bit of a mess today.”
She probably didn’t notice the state I was in at first but after a second look, her mood changed completely.
“Oh my goodness, what happened to you? Wait a minute, even worse than that…Rei… where's your sword!!”
Her eyes went wide with frustration as she continued to lecture me for a good couple of minutes, shouting without needing to take a breath. All I could do was stand there and take it. I was in the wrong after all.
The yelling stopped after she took a look at my head, her eyes didn’t move from that spot. I thought something was crawling on me from the way she stared at it.
“Eh…uhm… Rei, when did you have that done? It wasn’t like that when I saw you yesterday?” Kana asked as she pointed to my hair.
She seemed genuinely surprised by something even though I had no idea what she was talking about.
Is it some sort of prank, no I doubt she would do anything like that. She doesn’t seem like the type to do anything so childish, especially not in the middle of shouting at me.
I don’t feel anything strange on top of my head either, is it something small?
“I don’t know what you mean, what’s on my head?”
Kana moved my hand down to the bangs hanging above my eyes.
“My hair, what’s wrong with it?”
“You honestly don’t know??” She repeated with an alarmed tone.
I quickly broke off from the conversation by entering my room and rushed off to the bathroom mirror.
…
“HUH?!”
This has to be some kind of joke right- right?!
“When did this…how did it even happen?”
My usually solid black hair had a handful of red streaks in it, after poking around a bit more it looked to be dyed to the roots.
Hearing my nonsensical rambles, Kana peaked around the corner of the bathroom door to check on me.
After giving me some time to adjust to it, she finally spoke out.
“I think it looks kind of…cool.” She muttered under her breath.
“Did you say something, Miss Kana?”
“O-Oh no! Nothing, I was just saying it’s not that bad!”
I blushed.
“You think so?”
She nodded her head pretty violently with a bobbing motion. I appreciated that she was trying to make me feel better, most people in business wouldn’t bother to go that far. It just went to show how much she loved her job.
“If you think so, then I guess it’s not the worst thing to keep it for a bit,” I replied while coiling a strand of red hair around my finger.
I had no idea how it got there, I never did anything with my hair before so there’s no chance it was on purpose. After playing with it for a bit, I recalled the incident in the Dungeon. The warm sensation I felt above my forehead right before I passed out came to mind.
Could it have been from then…? There’s no way blood could dye my hair though, right?
“So then Rei, seeing as you’re feeling a bit better let’s get straight to the topic of this meeting.”
Miss Kana had already come over to my place before for other meetings but she still wasn’t comfortable with just sitting where she pleased. Seeing that she was waiting anxiously by the foot of the couch I gestured for her to sit down.
“You can have a seat if you’d-” Before I could finish my sentence she had plopped herself down opposite me on the couch.
“-like…” I uttered.
If you were so eager to sit down then why didn’t you just sit…?
Kana rifled through her notes and my eyes began to wander to her side of the couch. Every action she took, from gliding her fingers across the papers in her bag to the way she adjusted her hair, all seemed beyond elegant. That was where my eyes should have stopped.
They continued downward and noticed a glimmer of skin peeking out from the cleavage of her breasts. It looked as if they were trying to break free from a laced prison as her white blouse stretched from her large volume.
Why am I looking at that...this isn't right! I’ll just look away!
My eyes continued to dart around the room as I tried not to look directly at them. The temptation was crippling, to the point where my bright red face began to release single drops of sweat off the sides of my cheeks.
“Are you sure you’re okay to continue?” Kana asked me politely as she pulled out the files from her bag.
“U-uhm…yes!”
She handed me a single piece of paper that straightened her expression and dulled the atmosphere. When it came to her work she was pretty reliable, which meant that the mood would have to grow a bit serious from that point onward.
“As you know the orphanage is funded by the Adventurers Association, which is why you and the other kids can live here every month, as well as receive your monthly allowances.”
After my dad died, I wasn't sure where I would end up. thankfully he seemed to have saved up quite a bit on the side after my mom passed away, so ASH managed to place me in that place. If not for that, there was a good chance I would have ended up in the slums…
Although it was technically an orphanage, my contract never forced me to get adopted, it was more so for roof and food every day.
“Yes, I know.”
“Well, the thing is…”
Kana gripped the papers in her hands, she crinkled the corners with a tight grip. Her face scrunched up and released an anxious stare. She wouldn’t even look me in the eye, whatever she had to say was too much for her.
“Is there something wrong, you can tell me, Miss Kana.” I blurted out.
Kana took a deep breath after my words snapped her out of it. She looked me in the eye and opened the document in front of me.
“Since you’ve turned 16, you are now legally an adult. This means that you…you can no longer live here.”