Emma wants to grab onto this hope. She remembers the alleyway where she first woke up in this body, and how she felt the hunger and the helplessness. Emma doesn’t want to go back. In front of her is someone that can change that.

The man looks straight into Emma’s eyes. Emma stares back at him with a strong and steady gaze.

“I want you to know that there are no lazy or weak minded people in my house. There are a lot of rules and if you can’t handle living here, you’ll have to leave,” says the man.

Emma releases the breath that she didn’t know she was holding and smiles.

“Thank you!” says Emma. She doesn’t know what the rules are or what the man meant by weak minded people. Emma doesn’t think too much on it and is just happy that the man is letting her stay.

“While you’re staying here, you may call me Mr. K. Just don’t call me corporal in the house.” says Mr. K.

“But are you a corporal? That boy Eric called you corporal,” asks Emma. She remembers Mr. K saying that he’s an officer, and that boy called him corporal. So Mr. K should be a corporal.

“I am. But I would rather the children in this house not call me that. I prefer not to bring my work life home, even though it does sometimes,” explains Mr. K.

“Oh.” Emma nods her head in understanding. Her parents were like that too. They rarely mentioned their work at home.

“Here.” Mr K hands Emma a sheet of paper with a list. “Here are the rules of the house.”

Rules

1 - All children under the age of 12 have to be home by sunset.

2 - Chores will be assigned to everyone on the first morning of the week. All chores must be completed everyday.

3 - When a class title is assigned, must visit instructor everyday.

4 - Must do missions assigned. *Completion of mission has reward.*

5 - No fighting between those living in the house.

6 - ……

7 - …....

Emma understand most of the rules. There are a few that she’s curious about. “Are there more children in this house? And we have class? What does it mean by missions? Is that homework?” Emma asks multiple questions all at once.

“Yes there are two more street children that I allow to live here. There’s also my son, Regi.” says Mr K. He continues to explain, saying, “You might have a class title option, but that depends on you. For missions, you could say that they are homework. The missions are posted in the adventurer’s guild. I will pick those that are appropriate and assign them to you.”

Guild? Isn’t that a game term? Emma only played one computer game in her 22 years since birth. She played a MMORPG called MapleStory when she was in middle school. She’s pretty sure that they had a thing called guilds, but she never heard of an adventurer’s guild.

“What’s an adventurer’s guild?” asks Emma.

Mr K is surprised by this question. Everyone knows about the adventurers guild, even street children and those without a class. “You don’t know about adventurer’s guild?” asks Mr K.

Emma shakes her head. Is she suppose to know what that is?

“The adventurer’s guild is one of the biggest guilds in this country and many other countries. The adventurer’s guild is a place where members can post missions and accept missions. It’s pretty much a transaction place for members. Also, members can sell to and buy materials at a standard price from the adventurer’s guild. The biggest job the adventurer guild does is ranking it’s members, but you don’t have to worry about that at the moment. There are many other things that the adventurer guild does, but those are the main ones.” Mr K explains vaguely what the adventurer guild does. He doesn’t think that Emma would need to worry about anything other then the missions and item transactions that go on in the adventurer’s guild.

“So it’s like a business.” says Emma in understanding. She doesn’t really understand what he means by rank, but Emma’s more interested in the classes that Mr K mentioned before. She asks, “How do I get into a class?”

Mr K furrows his eyebrows. Her way of saying getting into a class sounds like she’s going to school. It seems like she doesn’t know about the class system, missions and the adventurer’s guild.

Maybe she hasn’t gotten to interact with many people in the city and has only lived by hiding in the shadows. Most of the street children interact with the people in the city, mostly doing small jobs for food to survive. There are a few that live in the shadows of society and only survive on the scraps. This could explain why she’s so thin, even compared to other street children.

He decides to explain in more carefully so she’ll understand. “When I’m talking about a class, I’m not talking about those in a school. The one I’m mentioning is a type of trade that a person will train in. Some examples are swordsmen, priests, and even thieves. Everyone can train in a trade but to obtain a class title, one has to be blessed by god and be destined to have one. For example, two people can train to be a swordsman, but only one is blessed by the gods. The one that is blessed by the gods will get a class title while the other one doesn’t.”

Swordsmen? Priests? Thieves? People still train in these? Has she gone back to the olden days? What does he mean by bless by gods and class title? Keeping the part about going back in time to herself, she asks, “What’s the difference between those that have a class title and those that don’t?”

“Those that are blessed by a god and receive a class title will be official class holders and can reach beyond the limits of normal skills. Here’s an example. A thief that doesn’t have a class title, they can still steal from people. If they are good with their hands, they can take the items of others without the victim knowing. Now for the thief with the class title, they can steal something just by activating a skill that will allow them to steal in a way that doesn’t even need them to move their hands. This is why I say those with class titles are blessed by god. They can do things that normal people can’t.” Mr K explains this very slowly, trying his best to allow Emma to understand.

Steal without moving their hands? How is that even possible? Emma understands the difference between the two thieves from what Mr K said, but doesn’t understand how someone could steal without moving their hands.