A young hand snatches a single loaf of stale bread as the stall owner catches a glimpse.
"Hey! Kid!" The man shouts, looking around in all directions. "Thief!" he exclaims, hoping to catch the attention of the city guard, which he does.
The child, barely taller than the stall, begins to run into a nearby alley. The guards give chase, heavy clunks of their armor striking fear into the child, the child sprints faster.
The unfortunate child finds himself at a dead end, cursing the newly erected wall in the back alleys he knew so well. He attempts to back track slightly, but the guards have already closed the distance.
"You know the punishment for theft. Your hands, or your life." The guard said, unsheathing his sword as the other readied a magical spell.
"I… I can't! I need this for my mom! She's sick!" The child yelled.
He had no mother. She died a year ago. He just hoped to get enough pity to keep one of his hands.
"Resistance? Sounds like death." The guard said amusingly, ending with a slight chuckle. "Alright. Hit him".
The guard with the spell released, sending a sharpened stone straight through the forehead of the child, who immediately slumped onto the alley floor, now coating it in a small pool of blood - which soaked into the bread which fell from his hands.
"Shit. We lost the bread. I don't think that stall keeper is going to want it back red."
"It happens. Let's return to the post."
The two guards turned around and strided back to their positions.
A few moments passed, then the wound on the child immediately healed - quite grotesquely - and a gasp of air is heard.
"No! Wait! I'm a quick-soldier, number 0732!" The child shouts.
He then looks around. He sees he is in a dimly lit alley. All things are either gray or brown, from the bricks that create the ground beneath him to the sky. All things except for himself and the area around him, anyway, which is red.
"Wh- what the hell?" He said, realizing how high pitched his voice had gotten. "I didn't… they didn't actually… oh no…"
The realization of what had happened set in as his most recent memories came back to him. The eye, the men, and the bullet.
"Those fucking bastards! He killed me just to save his job, and he didn't even try to stop him!"
"Okay. Calm down. Assess the situation."
He looked upon his new body. It was clothed with mere rags, reflecting the 'poor child' stereotype. He initially thought they were dyed red, until he noticed the smell and the wetness. He wasn't sure what this body was doing before he was in it, but considering the size, he couldn't have thought it was much.
"What am I? Four, five?" He questioned himself.
He activated his mana core and let the mana flow through his body.
"Yep, still there."
As he stopped the circulation, his stomach growled. He looked around and saw the piece of blood-soaked bread.
"Hm. I… guess that's supposed to be mine." He said as he picked it up. He picked around the blood and dirt for his first meal in his new body.
"Not as bad as that nutrient puke from last time" thought Thebe. "Still gross though".
He wandered around the back alleys, coming across the occasional person slumped over against one of the buildings.
A sudden mental ping hit his conscience. It was an image of a worn out room and how to get to it. Because he had nothing better to do, he followed the memory until he reached his destination.
He ended up behind a large building, seeming to be a bar from the stench of booze and vomit. A small crawl space was open behind a sack of trash, which, after a good bit of crawling, opened up into a room sealed off from the bar. Small slits of light bled through the creaky tavern flooring and double the sound. Sounds of rumors, fights, and laughter could be heard from the bar above.
In the open room was a single crate next to a few layers of worn cloth, which could only be assumed to be the bed.
"Jesus, this kid must've had it rough." He thought to himself.
On the crate was a single piece of paper and a gold pendant. Thebe picked up the paper and began to read it.
My dearest Lilam, I will be passing soon. I love you more than anything in this world, so please, take this pendant and sell it in the market. Search for a man named Gatten, he will give you a fair price. Just tell him you are my son. It should be enough to hold you until you are old enough to enter the workforce. Goodbye, sugarbear. I love you. - Mama
"Oh man. Oh that's really sad. Damn". He thought looking at the pendant, unsold.
He took the pendant into his hands and opened it, revealing a bright blue gem embedded into the metal. He then closed it and placed it back onto the crate.
"Backup plan, I guess."
His stomach began to growl again, as if to mock his lack of food.
"I need to eat. It's getting dark so I doubt that Gatten guy is available. That leaves two options. Steal, or dumpster dive. I don't really feel like eating literal trash, so stealing it is.".
His thoughts were interrupted by another ping into his mind, just that this time it was more like a stab. It was the memories of the moments that led up to young Lilam's demise.
"So… stealing is off the menu. Trash it is." He thought as he headed towards the crack in the wall.
As he crawled, he began to think. He is in a place that cuts off hands for stealing.
"What is this, ancient egypt? Am I a character in the Bible or something?". He joked as he reached the end of the path.
Since it was the closest, he dug through the bar's trash. Big mistake. The only food this bar threw out was either very rotten or very digested. He couldn't eat it if he tried. Thebe heard the backdoor of the bar swing open.
"Haha, yeah! I'll be right back folks." A hearty feminine voice chatted, closing the door behind her. "Oh, hey Lilam, I thought I told you not to dig through there, you aren't gonna find anything." She said tossing the sack of trash off of her shoulder. "I'll be right back, hold still." She said as she headed back into the bar.
"She seems nice. She also seems to know Lilam, so I'll trust her for the time being. Worst case scenario, I run. I can see better than anyone who'd chase me, so I'd probably escape."
The backdoor swung open once again.
"The bar isn't doing particularly well at the moment, but we can still spare some food." The woman admitted, handing Thebe half a loaf of bread and a small cup of soup. "This'll keep the hunger pain away."
This wasn't any American breakfast, but it was a whole lot better than nothing.
"Thank you, Ma'am." He said, dipping the bread into the soup and taking a bite.
"Ma'am? Please, that makes me feel old. I told you to call me Valya." The woman remarked.
"Uh, thank you. Valya." Thebe managed to say in between bites of food.
Valya opened the door into the bar. "Hey, kid, try not to pick through the trash so much these days. Lot of bad sicknesses going around." She said, a worried expression worn on her face. "I'll try to spare a little more food than usual."
She shut the door behind her, returning to the chaotic party that awaited her service.
Thebe was happy to have food and shelter, considering when he dies he never knows when or where he may end up.
With a full stomach, he decides to wander around the town to familiarize himself with his new surroundings.
His new home was quite underwhelming. By what he saw, most of the residents were incredibly poor, but some of the residents were only mostly poor. After venturing a small while longer, he discovered a long abandoned clock tower. The door practically fell off, so it wasn't really breaking and entering.
After a few minutes of climbing stairs that might collapse under him at any moment, he reached the top. What he saw invoked only pity in the people of this world. Slums seemed to stretch for miles, dense and murky.
However, he noticed that beyond the large wall that bordered the entire slums were large, lavish marble buildings, with grand braziers shining a multicolor flame. A family dressed in high formal attire exit a pristine carriage onto gilded bricks that guided them to their exorbitant entry doors.
Jealousy.
In his original life, while he wasn't poor, by no means was he rich. He had always envied those born into better lives than himself, and this only made his bitterness scratch at the front of his mind.
"Rich pricks. All of these people suffering right next door and they haven't a clue."
*sigh.*
"Why couldn't I have been reincarnated somewhere in there." His face dropped. He decided to head home for the night.
Thebe's return to his room was interrupted by a pair of men, dawned in gray cloaks and leather boots.
"Hey kid. Where're ya' goin' this late in the night?" The taller of the two men asked.
He was an older man, approximately forty years old, unshaven with brown and gray hair. After the man got closer, Thebe saw a sigil that was embroidered onto the cloak, resembling a two-headed serpent. Thebe knew immediately that this was bad news.
He attempted to turn and run, but he was blocked by the other man, who had gotten behind him while he was distracted.
"Woah kiddo, you should answer your elder's question." The second man said mockingly. He was younger, maybe twenty-five, and wore an eyepatch over his left eye.
The older man stepped forward, getting far closer than he needed to be.
"Listen. You hand over anything on you, and we'll let you leave." He said, grinning, revealing a few silver teeth.
Thebe was freezing up out of fear. Perhaps it was instinct due to his new body. Snapping out of it, he readied himself for a fight.
The younger man put his hand on Thebe's shoulder. "Are you sure? I know a few creeps in the gold district that'd pay quite the coin for a kid like this."
The older man's grin grew into a manic smile. "Looks like we stumbled upon quite the lucky find!" he said, laughing. His laugh sounded like a cross between a mule and a demon.
Taking the opportunity, Thebe elbowed the younger man in the crotch, causing him to kneel over in pain. Thebe then sprinted as fast as he could back to the bar, filling his eyes with mana to see the way.
"That fucking brat…" The younger man groaned as his head hit the ground.
The older man immediately gave chase, catching up in only a few seconds.
"Damn short legs!" Thebe thought to himself.
Ready to fight to the death, he conjured flames to launch at the man. Although most of them missed, a few hit their target. Three of the seven flames managed to hit him. Two on his torso and one directly on his face.
"ARGHHH, YOU BASTARD" The man cried out, now stopped and holding his face. Thebe could hear subtle sizzling as he turned a corner.
After a few more minutes of running, he made it to the back of the bar, immediately ducking into the passage that led into his room. Crawling panicked until he was able to stand in his room, he was finally safe.
He collapsed onto his makeshift bed, preparing to meet the next day.
"This town sucks."