Laying on the ground in an alley I watched snow flakes slowly fall down from the sky and land on my body. Of course I couldn't feel anything. I hadn't ate anything in over a week and mixed with the relentless cold of the winter I was on the doorstep of death.

"It's so cruel how beautiful the snow is. I know every snow flake is a nail in the coffin but I can't take my eyes off it."

Even if I wanted to I didn't have enough strength to move anyways.

As the cold finally penetrated the numbness my mind had spread to defend me, I felt my heartbeat slow while counting the snow flakes.

*ba dum*

*ba dum*

In a dirty little alley in the slums I, Artemis Sloan, died.

*ba dum*

*ba-*

****

I didn't know when but at some point I must have closed my eyes.

'I guess I'm not dead yet... But I want to die at least looking at the beautiful sky.'

Forcing my eyes open I thought I would be looking up at the bright blue sky while snow fell down, but instead I saw an unexpectedly dark room.

Confused I pushed myself up.

'Pushed myself up? How did I do that?'

I looked down at my body and noticed it was in perfect condition. Which only added further to my anxiety about the situation.

Brushing it off I decided to just accept that it was a good thing. Looking around I tried my best to make out the objects in the room.

Well 'room' is a modest description. It looked more like I was in a warehouse. There were streams of light coming in from high windows along the walls, that just barely illuminated the place enough for me to recognize there were stacks of crates everywhere and an unconscious body laying nearby.

I noticed there was an open window nearby that could be reached by climbing some crates, so I decided to wake up the other person just in case they were also brought here against their will and wanted to escape with me.

I tried shaking them awake but after a few moments I had to stop because of I heard the large doors of the warehouse being opened.

I shook guy on the ground one more time but he wasn't waking up. I realized that it was hopeless so I gave up. I quickly ran to the side of the room where the crates leading up to the window were, and began scaling up the boxes.

As I was hanging on the edge of the window, from the outside, I saw a couple rough looking men enter the room.

"Where'd the other one go?!"

I heard the two argue for a moment before I let go of the window and started to run away. They would surely start looking for me soon so it was best to run away before they find me.

After running frantically for ten minutes I finally stopped and caught my breath.

I stood up and put my hands behind my head while gasping for air, when I realized that the houses surrounding me were weird.

I couldn't put my finger on what was weird about them, I decided to just keep moving. I found a group of homeless looking kids and walked up to them.

One thing I learned from the slums in my past life was that kids knew where best to get help if you were homeless.

When I approached them they immediately raised their guard and faced me.

Stopping just outside of a dangerous range to enter, I raised my hands in good will and spoke.

"I'm not looking for a fight."

A girl with dirt all over her face stepped forward and spit on the ground to the side.

"What do you want then?"

"I don't know how I ended up here... But I was wondering if there was somewhere I could stay?"

Looking me up and down warily, the kids seemed to have realized I was like them. They visibly relaxed and the girl walked up to me.

"I don't know if I have somewhere for you to live, but I can bring you to Aaron. He's kind of our leader, he's about your age."

I smiled and put my hands down. I walked closer and followed after the group of kids. They were all around the age of 10 and excitedly talking to me.

"My names Rachel. What's yours?"

"Artemis Sloan."

A wave of surprise passed all the kids' faces and they stopped in place for a moment.

Confused I asked them.

"What's wrong?"

Rachel was the one to first gather herself.

"Uh.. You have a last name? Are you a noble or something?"

Now it was my turn to be confused. The mention of nobles was weird and really outdated. I never went to school or anything but I didn't think that nobles existed still.

"Uh, no I'm not a noble or anything. I've just kind of always had a last name."

I wasn't sure why I had a name but I always assumed everyone had a last name. I guess things were a little different here, where ever 'here' was, but I hoped it wasn't an issue.

The kids looked confused but they just continued walking while talking about different things. They were telling me about the different things they did like stealing or being guides around the city. That was when they told me something I couldn't believe.

"Yeah we also sometimes hop on the train and pickpocket the academy students."

"Academy?"

"Oh right, you're not from here. The famous Hero Academy is here. They teach them how to use magic and other stuff."

I stopped in place.

'Magic? What is this kid talking about?'

"Hey, c'mon Artemis, we're here."

I walked around the corner they had just turned and saw a bustling town square. There were people walking around everywhere and merchants calling out their goods.

I followed the kids in a bit of a daze and entered a small unmarked shop front.

A small bell rang as we opened the door, and a teenager from behind a counter shouted at the kids.

"Hey! What did I tell you guys about coming in the front entrance? Use the backdoor so no one sees you! It's bad for business."

"Hahaha, Aaron, what business? Who's going to buy these musty books?"

The teenager, Aaron, reached over the counter and rustled the kid's hair. Then he noticed me and slowly let go of the kid before getting serious.

"Who's this?"

Rachel walked over and patted me on the shoulder.

"This is Artemis Sloan. He said he doesn't know how he ended up here."

Aaron raised his eyebrow at that. He looked at me for a moment, and while the kids might not have noticed I saw a dangerous glint in his eye.

However I grew up on the streets too.

So I stared back at him. Trust was not easily earned but respect was a little simpler.

After a short staring contest he finally laughed and held out his hand.

"Looks like you at least know a little how it works on the street. Name's Aaron, I take care of the kids around here, but I also run this shop."

I shook his hand.

"I wanted to know if you had a place I could stay at. I'm willing to work.. Even the 'dirtier' jobs."

That was something I had done previously. Shaking people down, collecting loans and even stealing from dead people.

However the worst of the things I had done came from a necessity to survive. At least that's how I tried to justify it, but I knew the truth of it.

There was only so much food that was not only edible, but there was enough of it to fill my stomach. With a limit on how much food there was there were... Fights.

I had taken some fights too far, for the sake of reducing the amount of mouths to feed and to ensure I got more food.

However I couldn't regret doing it. I wanted to live and this was the reality of the world.

Aaron shared an understanding look before putting on a smile.

"Let's talk about that in private... The kids only do odd jobs, and I want to keep it that way."

I nodded and he went to the back. I followed him and he led me to a staircase. At the top he pushed open a hatch door and climbed up. I followed after him and when I stood up I found myself in an old attic.

There was everything you would usually find in a bedroom. Aaron walked over and started checking the state of everything.

"It's not much but you can stay here. The back door is unlocked until I close up shop, so you're free to come and go as you please until then. I'll uh... Get another key made sometime but until then you'll just need to come back before it gets too dark out."

I nodded and thanked him. The kids had all climbed up into the small room and were poking around curiously.

"We have dinner downstairs. Breakfast and lunch are kinda up to you, but I'll always provide dinner. Anyways, let's go downstairs and talk about some work you can do."

We headed downstairs and Aaron told me about some things they did to make money.

"This store is a front. People come here and ask us to collect information about people. That's how we pay the bills, but we don't make a lot since we can only work within our territory."

"Is it rival gangs?"

I asked. Aaron nodded and began looking for a piece of paper. That was when he held out his hand towards the shelves and a glow surrounded his hand.

After a moment a piece of paper floated over to him and he grabbed it like it was entirely natural.

I stared in awe and pointed.

"How did you do that?"

Everyone looked at me with a weird look.

"Huh? This? I just used wind magic to bring the piece of paper over to me. Oh, you're probably just surprised that a street rat like me can use magic, but it's nothing that amazing. I can only use basic magic."

He started doodling on the piece of paper and drawing the different territories of the local gangs.

Everything he was saying kept going in one ear and out the other as I sat questioning everything around me.

'He... used magic. That couldn't be explained by science... Wait, earlier they were talking about the academy or whatever. They teach... MAGIC.'

I began to piece things together as I took a look around the room. It looked modern, but also old. I stood up abruptly and stepped out of the front door. Looking around I began to notice things I neglected.

Horse driven carriages.

Knights in armor with swords.

Turning around in a panic I opened the door again and asked Aaron very seriously.

"What uh... What year is it?"

"2030?"

Nodding I calmed down a little since it was indeed the right year. However that only confused me further.

"What country are we in?"

"Haha, country? We're in the Kingdom of Ancaster, the current ruler is Alphonse Ancaster."

My heart dropped and my mind became flooded. My heartbeat started rising rapidly with every thought that confirmed my suspicions.

'My body... I was starving to death.. No! I DID starve to death! The unfamiliar style of the buildings. The presence of... magic.'

That was really the nail in the coffin that made me believe that this wasn't a dream or a mistake. I really was no longer in the world I was before.

I took a quick look at myself in a mirror and noticed I was still the same person. However I couldn't understand how my body could have travelled worlds or even dimensions.

I realized I didn't really care though. I had always fought to survive, and being in a different world didn't change that.

However the presence of magic would make things complicated. Magic would increase the ways I could die randomly.

I needed to learn as much as I could to increase my chances of survival.