Chapter 1: I Dreamed of Living in a Mansion

I am Luke, and currently I was on the balcony of my mansion, looking at the picturesque scenery of the sunset right in front of me.

I was sitting next to a round table, full of delicious foods and drinks that I can choose depending on my preference.

You may think that my life was something to be envious about.

Well, who wouldn't like to have their own mansion where you can relax and look at the beautiful surroundings?

However...

"It's such a pity." I sighed

It's really a pity... After all, for someone like me, such a life can only exist in dreams.

I grew up as an orphan in Sylvestre County.

When we were kids, we are taught how to handle a sword or use magic.

It turns out...

I have no talent in both.

Although I didn't tell anyone,

The only thing I can do is dreaming.

By dreaming, I can live however I want but no matter how many times I dream at night, no matter how strong I am in my dreams...

'Everything will be over once I woke up.'

"If it's only possible to turn dreams into reality..." I sighed once more

No, there's no such thing as turning dreams into reality.

I, who always dream, know it very well.

There will only be satisfaction once you accomplish something through hard work.

That's why I focused on reading books on the orphanage library when I was a kid.

Although there are only a few books there, most of it were stories about legends and history.

There are also some novels, and other story books that other people who grew up here have brought back as a souvenir from their travels.

I become engrossed into reading that I decided that I will, one day, write my very own story.

Crack~

Faint sounds of cracking can be heard on the surroundings.

"Hmm..."

I noticed that the world around me was breaking apart creating faint cracking sounds as pieces of the sky falls into the ground.

"It seems that it time for me to wake up."

I closed my eyes as the world broke up and darkness covered my entire body.

When I opened up my eyes, I was back in my room.

It was early in the morning and it's still dark outside, but I need to prepare as I need to go work.

I hopped out of the bed and wiped myself up beside the well at the back of the orphanage.

It was already sunrise when I finished my preparations.

"Are you going to work now?"

As I was walking on the hallway of the orphanage, Aunt May called out to me and gave me a lunch box.

"Take this with you; you can eat it later for lunch." She said

"Thank you, Aunt May!" I smiled at her who have taken care of me since I was young. As it was a normal occurrence in the morning, I took the lunch box as I gave my thanks.

Aunt May is a middle age woman with brown hair.

According to her, she was also an orphan who grew up here and decided to remain on the orphanage to help taking care of the children.

After saying my goodbyes, I left the orphanage and walked towards the central area of the county.

It took me a few minutes to reach the post office where I work as a mailman.

Post Offices were a new type of business that almost entirely caters the needs of the commoners, and deliver mails for them.

I've been working here since half a year ago as a mailman and delivered messages to the nearby cities.

Every month, I would either deliver mails once or twice depending on which city I need to deliver the mails.

We use fast horses whenever we need to deliver letters to ensure fast deliveries.

There's also an express delivery which uses pigeon carriers to deliver messages that are mostly used for emergency messages.

I walked through the door of my workplace and saw a co-worker of mine.

"Good morning, Steve." I greeted him with a smile on my face

"Good morning, Luke." Steve followed suit and greeted me in return

Steve is my senior at this place. He's been working here for 3 years and basically knows everything about this kind of work.

He's also the one who taught me on what I need to do as a mailman.

Well, the work here was pretty much normal. You know, aside from bandits trying to catch your horse, there's actually no one who would try to loot you.

And because most nobles have their own carriers, they mostly didn't need to send their mail through a post office.

After greeting Steve, I placed my things on the locker and proceeded to my work.

The work was easy in normal days like this.

Sorting out mails, receiving guests and costumers, pretty much normal, time will just pass by and the next thing you know was its break time or maybe closing time.

The day passed just like that and it's time for me to go home.

I checked my schedule before leaving the post office after saying goodbyes to Steve.

According to my schedule, I'll be delivering the mails the day after tomorrow.

Being able to experience this kind of peaceful life is not that bad isn't. Although it's kind of repetitive and boring but... that's just how life is.

Right now I'm walking on this usual road where I always pass by on the way to the post office and back to the orphanage.

Alright, I know that some people will ask about why I am still staying on the orphanage but that's because I still can't afford to rent an apartment, much more a house.

Although there are several inns in the city, it's just too expensive for me to live there and it's not good for the long term.

And also, there's a vacant bed on the orphanage so Aunt May let me stay there for a little longer until I can get a place to stay and finally become independent.

Besides, my goal is to have my own house at least and not to rent a place. So I need to save as much money as possible.

Before I head back to the orphanage, I took a detour along the way and made it to the public marketplace.

I bought some vegetables so I can help on the expenses of the orphanage.

It's the place where I grew up after all, so I must help them even for a bit.

After shopping for a bit, I bought a skewer on the stall before heading back to the orphanage.

As I was walking down the road, I decided to take a shortcut and walked through the alley.

"You bastards! Do you know the punishment for what you are doing?!"

As I was walking, I heard an angry voice. As I was curious of what's happening, I decided to get near the location where the voice was coming from.

"Well, you see, punishments are for those idiots who got captured."

"Hehe, that's right there's no punishment for not getting captured."

As I peek into the corner of the intersection, I saw two guys surrounding a young girl.

'It seems that this is just a common robbery. I'm already here anyway, so I better help out.'

You see, I grew up in the orphanage where people help each other and I just naturally the art of meddling in other people's business... Ahem! I mean, socializing.

After observing them for a while, I decided to make a move.

I put down the basket of vegetables, and then I took a deep breath before walking silently towards them.

As I was walking, I took a bite on the skewer before looking at the two thieves as if I'm looking down at them before speaking in a condescending tone.

"What are you two doing by surrounding a young lady?"

"Who ar-!?"

Without letting one of the thieves finishing his words, I continued speaking as if their words held no significance at all.

"I've heard of you saying that there's no punishment if you're not caught."

"I..."

I bit the last piece of meat on the skewer before pointing it at them and making a short evil laugh.

"Hehe... It seems that the two of you needs to be taught a lesson."

It seems that this is enough, those two looks so scared now by the looks on their eyes.

"Tsk! Let's get out of here."

One of them said before walking away as fast as he can while the other guy followed him.

As I see them turn to the intersection up ahead, I heaved a sigh of relief.

"Huu~"

It seems that I have talent on intimidating others.

You may not know but I learned that from the stories that I've read in the past.

Also, I can only do that to small time thieves like those two.

They're not very strong after all, so even though I'm weak, I can still intimidate them.

And most importantly, those two seems like a newcomer here so they didn't know that I'm weak.

"Hehehe..." That was easy; I won without even breaking a sweat. I have a smug smile on my face as I laughed over my victory.

As I was busy on celebrating my triumphant conquest on my own, I heard the young lady's voice calling my name.

"Umm... Luke?"

I looked at her and this time I clearly saw the young woman.

"Eh?"

She has a long black hair, and a beautiful angelic face. Looking at those striking eyes, I realized who she is...

"Umm... H-Hi, sister Ellie." I said while smiling awkwardly but in truth...

Whaaa!! It's sister Ellie!

It's embarrassing to think that I acted like that in front of her!

I covered my face with both hands as I look away from her before saying "Damn! I just embarrassed myself!" I look exactly like I was about to tear off the skin on my face out of shame.

"Hehe! That's quite a good acting you did there Luke..."

Her mesmerizing laugh echoed in my eardrums as she said that.

"Ugh, don't say it... I just thought that I must help at least because I'll feel guilty for leaving after seeing someone who was about to get robbed."

"Thank you for helping me Luke..."

"Ah!"

Hearing her thanking me calmed me down a bit.

I turned towards her before saying...

"It's fine; I just did what a normal passerby would do."

"A normal passerby won't meddle in other people's business."

"Ahem… Ah! Right, the vegetables!"

Avoided her eyes and ran towards where I left the basket of vegetables that I've bought before returning by sister Ellie's side.