118 Execution

"Huuu."

Rowen took slow, shaky steps as he approached the decrepit house. He had known about this place for a while now, ever since the kids in the slum began to hang out there. 

Their behavior had become strange since then, and they had invited him to join them several times, but he always declined. 

He knew something was off.

Rowen never really had any friends. 

Being an orphan and an outcast, he had always been called weird by the people around him. 

But he didn't think he was the weird one. It was the slum itself that was strange. 

Nobody here dreamed anymore. 

People – both children and adults – had given up on escaping this place and had resigned themselves to this lifestyle.

Occasionally, a child would awaken to mana and be drafted into the military, which was technically a way out of poverty since being a soldier meant earning a lot of money.