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In a corner of the city reeking of filth and decay, Colin crouched beneath the last remaining eaves of a dilapidated building. He gazed absently at the fog-shrouded streets of the Holy City, Thera Maryth, where shadow-like figures silently navigated around mud, garbage, and filth as they passed by.

What Colin wore was a tattered set of ragged old clothes, his only decent outfit, paired with mud-caked fabric shoes riddled with holes. His wet hair, uncut for over a year, had clumped together in places from grime and dirt.

“…A year, huh.”

It had been over a year since he came to the Holy City.

At first, the shop he’d been introduced to through a recommendation forced him to work like a slave every day, all for a bowl of salty soup and a piece of moldy black bread. If the shopkeeper or his wife was in a bad mood, even that meager reward would be withheld.

Loneliness and hunger soaked his pillow with tears every night. He thought he had hit rock bottom in life… But it was only after he realized that, at the very least, he’d had a roof over his head and a shred of social status, that he understood how much worse things could get. That realization came the day the shopkeeper’s family fled overnight under the weight of debt.

One morning, Colin rose from his attic room as usual, only to find the shop completely deserted. While he stood there in shock, debt collectors’ thugs burst in, shoulders squared with fury.

The moment they saw the state of the shop, they struck him down without a word. When he came to, he was bound with rope, one step away from being sold off to a slaver—

The only reason he managed to escape was that he was left half-abandoned in the rundown shop, deemed worthless as merchandise, and by sheer luck, an unexpected series of fortunate events had piled up in his favor.

Even so, while he managed to escape with his life, he had nowhere left to return to.

Three full days passed, spent sleepless under a bridge, constantly dreading the shadows of those who might be pursuing him.

He thought he had finally hit the true rock bottom of his life… But as it turned out, he was still standing on artificially raised ground.

By then, the hunger gnawing at him outweighed his fear of danger. Staggering out from his hiding place, he tried to fill his stomach with the last few coins he had left. But before he could do so, he was found by a gang of vagrants who roamed the city’s slums. They beat and kicked him mercilessly, stripping him of his entire wealth of iron and copper coins.

Even the bridge beneath which he had been hiding rejected him, as the vagrants kicked him away.

Half delirious from pain and fever caused by his injuries, he wandered aimlessly for more than half a day. It was then, guided by a small friend, that he stumbled upon this broken-down, abandoned building and made it his new refuge.

It’s been over a month since then.

He tried to earn some money, even if it meant scavenging through garbage or working as a day laborer. But no shopkeeper was kind enough to hire a scrawny, ragged boy with no connections. As for scavenging, the dumpsites were controlled by groups of street kids, and when he unknowingly searched one of their territories, he barely escaped with his life.

He moistened his throat with the misty drizzle of morning and evening, and with the meager coins he gathered from pretending to beg, he managed to eat once every day or two.

He kept up this lifestyle, but malnutrition, constant stress, and the unending drizzle that had started falling that morning left him completely drained of energy. Now, he just sat collapsed in front of the entrance to the abandoned house.

“Am I… going to die?”

People passing by wore proper clothing—hats, cloaks, thick-soled shoes, or boots. Their neat appearance only highlighted his own miserable state, hunched over by the roadside.

It all felt like a blatant symbol of the entire city’s rejection of him. Hugging his knees even tighter, Colin mumbled to himself.

Then, half-consciously, he let out a faint whistle.

“Squee, squee, squee, squee…”

At once, his little friends—rats he had befriended since arriving in this city—emerged from somewhere and swarmed around his feet.

Were they begging for food? But he didn’t even have so much as vegetable scraps… Ah, but if he died, maybe he’d end up as food for the rats and crows.

As his dim consciousness drifted toward such thoughts, Colin was about to let himself sink into a sleep he wasn’t sure he’d wake from.

“—You’ll get wet if you stay there, you know?”

Suddenly, a voice like tinkling bells spoke to him. Moving his gaze slowly upward, he saw a girl around his own age, dressed in clothes that clearly marked her as someone of good upbringing. She was looking at him with genuine concern.

Had his escort to the afterlife finally arrived…?
In his hazy mind, Colin thought so.

The girl stared at the lifeless-looking boy’s face, blinking a few times. But when no reply came, she tilted her head with a troubled expression. Her gaze drifted down to the rats squeaking persistently at the boy’s feet.

“Hey, are these little guys your friends?”

Colin followed her gaze and nodded reflexively, without thinking.

“Wow. They seem really comfortable around you. Are you maybe a mage or something, and these little guys are your familiars?”

She asked with genuine curiosity. But Colin had never learned magic, and he had no idea what a ‘familiar’ even was, so he honestly shook his head.

“…I don’t know.”

At that moment, one of the rats stood up on its hind legs and squeaked, as if protesting.

“But… maybe because we’ve been together so long, I kind of feel like I understand what they’re saying.”

When he added that, the rat nodded in satisfaction. The girl narrowed her eyes gently at the sight.

As they spoke, Colin gradually realized that the girl standing before him wasn’t an angel or a spirit. He started feeling a slight sense of wariness. In this city, no one would approach a stranger without some hidden motive. What could she want…? No—he brushed the thought aside. It hardly mattered; he’d probably end up dead in a gutter soon enough anyway.

Sensing Colin’s despair, the rats began chattering noisily, as if trying to cheer him up. Watching them with a strangely mature expression, the girl’s lips curved into a smile.

“That’s amazing. So, what’s your name?”
“…Colin Thompson.”
“I’m Maria Lou Sheffield. Nice to meet you, Colin.”

She offered her pure white hand to him with innocent sincerity. Colin stared at it, blinking in bewilderment.

“Uh… um… what?”
“A handshake. Let’s be friends.”
“Eh?! B-but I’m dirty and soaked from the rain.”
“It’s fine. See? The rain’s already stopped.”

Colin hesitated a moment longer, but Maria Lou took his hand and pulled him up, practically forcing him to his feet. When he looked up, he saw that at some point, the rain had stopped, and the sun was peeking through the clouds.