1 Leaving the Village

My blond sparkling hair had turned into a rugged brown as my family were struggling to get by with the recession.

Technology was rapidly evolving, as more and more work that used to be done by human beings got replaced by machines developed by alchemists.

Modern trains, boats and cars were fueled by an existence called, "magik" that was discovered during a pandemic five years ago.

People who have contracted the disease and survived became "magicians" where they would be suddenly be able to use "magik".

"Magik" was the existence of the force that stabilized the energy of living beings of this world. "Mana" was the amount of power you had in order to use "magik".

Five years ago, my small village of one hundred people were fortunate enough to not contact the disease. We were an inclusive village that didn't let anyone through unless it was approved by the village chief.

However, the people of this village were currently unemployed. Three years ago, the government rounded up some talented individuals to develop magik to a further extent. The result was that people with magik got employed by the government with huge benefits and people without mana got frustrated and rebellious.

Some of these people who were frustrated for not having any mana became an existence called, "alchemists".

They claimed to use the power of "science" to develop a power where they could do similar things as people with mana.

A year ago, the government had finally recognized the important existence of alchemists and decided to hire those with similar capabilities as people who had magik.

Currently, for the people who didn't possess magik or have exceptional capabilities as an alchemist had a limited amount of opportunities for what they could do.

Many people were let go from work as the employers could use machines or people with mana to do those jobs for them more efficiently.

Last month, I had sold my favourite silky white dress for a single silver coin to a wealthy merchant. A silver coin was going to last my family one weeks without starving.

It wasn't that my family was big. I had a typical family of four people: a younger brother, a mother and a father. However, it was hard to live when there was no source of income.

The sewing job that my mother had were replaced by machines. My father who was a craftsman had also gotten replaced by machines. My younger brother was five years old, so he was too young to start working. Even I who used to be my mother's apprentice was let go after the factory manager got his hands on some machines.

Our village that was known to be abundant for craftsmen and seamstresses died down into poverty.

This was why I harshly determined to leave my dying village in order to earn some money for my family.

I left a note on my bed and moved carefully to sneak out of my house. My family slept early nowadays so if I quickly went out through the back door, they wouldn't notice. I grabbed some my clothes from when I was well-off to sell them along the way so that I would survive before getting my first paycheck.

When the I left the house, all I was carrying was a small backpack with my clothes, water jug, a loaf of bread and a map.

Now all I needed to do was to leave the village unnoticed.

I ran through the empty streets to eventually arrive in front of the village gate. The village gate was deteriorating with a lack of funds in order to repair it.

There was a hole near the village gate that was in the wall. I was skinnier lately with giving my some of my portion of food to my younger brother who needed it more than I did. While an average eleven-year-old would not fit into this hole, I would with my small nimble frame.

I crawled through the hole and I was outside of the village now.