1 The Application

The streets were littered with plastic and black mud, last night's rain washing all the grime and dirt away from the Upper-Class areas to the dirty, broken roads of the South Side.

The air was pungent and cold.

Many of the people on the streets stood in a line under broken old umbrellas in front of a Yellow truck.

Everyone was pushing and shuffling, splashing specks of mud everywhere.

A man in his late thirties, with a military, cut hairstyle and a green military grade button-up shirt handed over plastic bags filled with all kinds of goodies.

A fourteen-year-old boy sat by his side. His dirty blonde couldn't obscure the emotions of his deep ultra blue eyes. He took a wooden seal that had a light blue crystal on its handle from his pocket and stamped it on the receiver's hand.

The bluestone on the handle glowed and the hand of the man was encircled with glowing blue symbols.

"Next!" the little boy said.

A new hand replaced the symboled one.

"Jason," the man called.

The blonde boy looked up. "Mr Eric?"

"Has Number 56 not come yet?"

Jason pursed his lips and bowed his head.

"I see," Mr Eric said.

"I'm here! I'm here!" a young voice called.

A girl with almond eyes ran towards them, her shoulder-length brown hair fluttering in the wind.

She wore washed-up jeans and a green military-grade button-up shirt.

Mr Eric frowned. " Do I have to mention you for you to appear now?"

She shook her head. "No sir!"

"Report to the Head of the Department after this," Mr Eric said.

Jason looked up in shock. "But sir, Sister Freya was only late for some time!"

"Hey!" a man in the line called. "Can you speed it up? We have work to get to!"

Mr Eric grumbled and started to hand out the bags again. "This is the third time this week. Report to the Head, 56."

Freya shuffled. "But sir, my mom went into surgery yesterday. I couldn't leave before the operation was over!"

"Don't you have a little brother?" Eric asked.

"He is only ten," Freya said as she went into the truck.

It was filled with packages of food and beverages.

After the Great Storm in 1662 that led to the barriers between the Human Realm and the other Realms being merged, finding safe food for normal human consumption became difficult and the government started to give out rations to the poor to satisfy their basic needs.

The Ration Truck was now not exclusive to the poor and anybody could make use of it.

The Ration Truck had evolved from giving out sacks of rice, salt and oil to cooked meals for the working class at an affordable price.

It stopped becoming a necessity to something that was their birth-right.

Freya started to put things into the plastic bags. Her grip tightened on the handle.

This was high-grade material made from a Silver Slime. She wished she could have one of those. If she did, she could make bags out of them and sell them, make a business out of it.

She sighed. What was the use of Daydreaming? She was a grey grade Human, a Normal Human. She couldn't hope to get permission to leave the city walls and hunt for Slimes in the forest.

"Stop daydreaming and move your hands faster!" Mr Eric screamed.

Freya hurried over.

They finished up each of the alleys in the city one by one and finally reached the HQ.

Mr Eric went to report to the Department Head, leaving Jason and Freya to clean up the truck. Though magic made things convenient to do, magical users demanded too much in payment so normal humans still had jobs.

"Sister Freya," Jason called as he walked towards the Brunette girl who whipped the metal shelves with a gotten cloth.

"Yeah?" She responded without looking up from her work.

"How is Aunty?" Jason asked.

Freya stilled, her grip tightened. She went back to work. "She should be fine. She asks about you and Aunt Meredith a lot."

Jason fidgeted. "Mom...she..."

"Doesn't want to meet her big sister who could die at any time?" Freya still had her back to him.

"She..."

Freya turned around and smiled. "Let's finish this up and have Ramen!"

Jason's eyes glimmered. "Yeah. I guess."

They finished up and were about to leave when Freya was called to the Department Head's Office.

The round man who sank into the chair only had one thing to say to her.

She was fired.

She was fired.

Mr Eric looked at the man in surprise. "Sir, shouldn't you give her a warning instead of-"

"You shut up!" the man said. "I know what I'm doing. Miss Wang, it's not personal. There are just better candidates than you."

She gritted her teeth.

She understood.

How could she not?

Better Candidates. Magic-Users.

"Thank you for your care, sir."

She gave him a bow and ran away.

Mr Eric stopped her before she made it far and stuffed a roll of money into her hands.

Freya looked at him in surprise. "I can't-"

"Don't show the poor person pride right now. Your mom is still in the hospital and you will need the money to pay the bills and buy the medicine. I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to get you to lose the job."

Freya smiled, her eyes are bloodshot. But you wanted to make things difficult for me.

She wasn't stupid. Mr Eric had never liked her in the job and always complained.

He did mean for it to happen.

Why pretend to be nice now, she wanted to ask him but decided not to.

She took the money he offered. She would return it to him someday but today wasn't it. Today she needed it.

Freya left Hestia Food Corp HQ with a broken heart and returned to the small shack that they called home in the slum area of the city.

Her brother was with their mother right then.

The rain outside started to become heavy.

Freya grabbed various bowls from the kitchen area and placed them around the shack to capture the rainwater.

Freya sat on her tattered mattress and grabbed a chunk of her hair and pulled in frustration. She let out a small scream that turned into a sob soon.

A rat squeaked near her leg and dragged something over.

Freya screamed in fright and grabbed the broom.

The rat ran away, leaving behind its food.

Freya took it up to toss it out but stopped at her eyes fell on the fried food wrapped in a piece of white paper.

Her stomach grumbled.

Her trembling hands took the food.

Freya shook her head. She couldn't fall so low.

She put the food back into the paper.

Just as she was about to toss it out, her eyes fell on the words "Application Letter".

Curious, she unfolded the crumpled paper.

"Saint Vlad's Academy for the Gifted?" Freya read. "Never heard of it."

Though the application could be scammy, it gave her hope. She could try to apply for the position of Substitute Teacher!