I was lost, sure, but was I a boy? Hell no. I was a grown adult, thirty three if I could trust my own memories of another world. Surely not a boy.

“Is it me?” I asked, and for the first time, I stopped to analyze my own voice.

It was rasp, dehydration probably not playing nice with my vocal cords. But other than that, nothing suggested it was a boy's voice.

“Well, who else do you see being lost?” The voice, a woman's voice, asked in one of those are-you-dumb tones.

“Well, that might indeed be the problem,” I snarkly remarked while turning around into what, hopefully, was a deadpanned stare into her eyes.

“Oh my! What happened to you?” I tried to answer, but I didn't have time. “And so young!”

“I-”

“Has someone looked at you on the associati-Saints!”

There we go… I thought while she still rambled on.

“Your chest! We need urgent help! Does it hurt? But you are not bleeding? Hurry! What happened?”

At some point I had enough.

“Stop!” She was panting. I was panting. “I'm okay! I was born like this!”

Because I was, wasn't I? At least if you considered my new life as being born in this world.

“You were… like this?” I could feel the awkwardness in her voice. She didn't know what to say anymore, and I bet she was feeling lucky I could not see her.

“Yes, like this. And no, my parents are nowhere to be found. And, to answer your original question, yes. I am lost.”

“Ah…”

“Do you know the way to the nearest…” I doubted what the best world would be, one that didn't sound like an alien was trying to invade their home. “Establishment?”

“A city you mean?” I mentally facepalmed. Why wouldn't that be also automatically translated? I nodded. “In that case, it is around 2 days in horse carriage following along the road that you can se-” she cleared her throat, stopping short of saying see but still making me smile. “That you are now on.”

“Thank you!” I started walking as soon as she finished, tired of the unspoken weirdness of the situat-

“Boy?” She said a bit louder. “It's the other way around.”

“Sure!” I happily jumped around and faced the other direction. “Thanks again!”

“Actually,” she said once I was once again passing by her, “I am going the same direction. For a while, that is. Maybe…”

“Feel free to accompany me,” the smile on my face betrayed the joke I was trying to get across.

“You sure are an interesting boy, aren't you?”

I bet you could never guess how much of that is true.

What followed was the 5 most awkward minutes that I have ever experienced my life. Well beyond that time when I accidentally called a total stranger mom. Even worse than when all my friends laughed at me for wearing a rocket-stamped pajamas to a night over we did—when we were 16.

It was five minutes of pure humiliation where I kept going into random directions and she kept saying variations of “no that way!”, or “over here!”, or “come!”.

“Why don't you just hold my hand?”

The words were said; no bad faith behind them whatsoever. What wrong could it do that an adult held a kid by the hand as they happily walked home? That was humiliation, a whole other level compared to the previous five minutes.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I would like to say we walked the rest of the trip in silence, but how could that be possible?

“So, what's your name?” She happily swung her hand as she said that.

“I'm Darian.”

“That's a unique name if there is one! Nice to meet you, Darian! I'm Charlotte!”

“Nice to meet you.”

Normally, I am not a talkative person. When I'm in a foreign world, and when I'm not sure what can be safely said and what not, I shut into myself and let the bare minimum out.

“So, are you going to the city to have you checked out?”

“Maybe?”

“If you get blessed with a class, maybe you can recover?”

But I could play the dumb kid card, couldn't I?

“Blessed with a class? I… no one ever explained that to me…”

“Oh my, poor Darian, how did they even bring you up?” She pitied me for a moment. “Classes are the basics of the system! If you take every crucial opportunity and trained for it, if you focus and are driven towards something, the system rewards you with a class that aids in that matter.”

I nodded. The concept was not foreign, I had seen similar things in videogames and even some novels back in my world. Strive and you should be rewarded!

“For example, blacksmiths learn the role by following a mentor while they do their job and helping whenever they have an opportunity. If you are lucky and inheriting your father's class, they trian you even more thoroughly and your starting point is higher!”

“And what about magic?”

“That's… sorry kid.” I could literally sense as her voice lost all energy. “Only those of good classes have such education.”

“But it is possible?”

“Well, yes? Most kids dream of flying and casting lightning above the heads of their enemies. And it's not just imagination, some of our greatest heroes were archmages capable of that and more.”

“I… I think I would like to learn that,” I let my inner kid take hold of the reigns for a moment. “Flying and frying my enemies. Sounds good!”

“Tsk,” her tongue clicked. “You should forget about that. Learn a trade, practice it, and earn enough money to have someone fi-”

A bittersweet smile appeared on my face.

“Don't worry, I know. No one in their right mind would teach a blind kid, it’s a waste of time and resources.”

“That… I'll teach you! I'm only a [Farmer], but I'll teach you!”

Ah… fuck. As much as it looked like it, I was not a heartless cold stone.

“I have a class already,” and that took all my defences down. “I just-I can't-“

“Don't tell me,“ she quickly interrupted me. “I'm sure you have your reasons, and you should trust them.”

The conversation died there. I didn't know what to say, and I'm sure she felt betrayed. She went to such unnecessary lengths for me; even offered to teach me her class. And I had been lying all alone—she knew.

We walked, or rather she lead and stirred me to the right direction. Always gently, never pulling or getting angry when it took my a while to get where she wanted to go. And, not even once, did my skill mark them as an enemy.

Our peace, one that I initially wanted but one that I was loathing now that I got it, was abruptly interrupted as an animal stopped by our side. A horse if my ears didn't lie and if such a thing existed here.

“Ma’am!” A man with a profound and commanding voice announced. “This roads are not safe!”

“Yes, I am aware. We—my son and I—are hastily making our way back home.”

“Good! There was an incident at the summoning location and we are unsure of the nature of the events. Please lock yourself in your home and don't go out under any circumstances.”

The horse complained after something hit on it and sprinted towards the same direction it had come from.

“You are safe.” She said, and I realized I had been clenching my hand on hers.

Likewise, I realized what my unspoken actions meant, and what she implied by saying I was safe.

“You know…”

“The news about the summoning facility have been circulating for days, and it is not a common occurrence to have a blind kid aimlessly wandering the surrounding woods.”

I was about to complain, but she shook her hand so that I would let her continue.

“I wasn't sure. Not sure if it was you, and not sure of your true nature. Sorry for testing you.”

“I-what?”

Testing me? I re-examined the whole conversation, scrutinizing every single detail.

First she overwhelmed me so that I wouldn't think too much of the happy coincidence of she finding and approaching me.

Then she got me to say where I was going, and even tried to see if I knew something about the association or if I was seeking any cure.

And finally, she made me reveal I already had a class by making me feel bad about her.

“Truly… that was beautiful.” I could only say as much. “But, how do you know I'm not planning to kill the entire city you pointed me to?”

She took a few seconds to think, and finally spoke. “Call it gut feeling? You chose to tell me you had a class, and that's the mildest of the options. I’ve met others that become too suspicious and attempted to kill me right then and there.”

“Ha! You are not a [Farmer] are you?”

“Not even close!”