Raya remembered his eighteenth birthday vividly.
* FlashBack…. *
The moonlit hill where he sat that night, the quiet breeze brushing the grass, and the small arms wrapping around him from behind.
"Happy eighteenth birthday, Raya!" a petite girl said, her voice was bright and warm.
"Thanks, Elena," he replied with a rare smile tugging at his lips.
She presented a handmade trinket, scrap metal bent into a crooked charm. To anyone else, it was junk. To him, it was a treasure, shaped by the only person who made his harsh life feel survivable.
That night, pain flashed through his mind, 'An office, truck. Screams, a stroller, his own body breaking and how he died'.
His past life snapped back into place all at once, memories, emotions, even his name. He had been Raya in that world too. Whether coincidence or cosmic design, he didn't know.
His current life was cruel, unlike his past, but Elena softened it. Two nameless strays clinging to each other in a world that didn't care if they lived or died.
Refugees surviving on scraps, chased from a village destroyed by demons. His parents had died that day; Elena had lost hers long before. This city they fled to treated them like dirt, but they endured together.
* Back to the present… *
It's now Elena's eighteenth birthday!.
Raya inhaled shakily and pulled out a small bracelet wrapped in cloth. He had saved for years, skipped meals, done filthy jobs, swallowed insults, just to buy it.
He tightened his grip on the gift and hurried toward the Middle District, home to the Blue Phoenix Guild where Elena works.
---
Zach, co-founder of the Blue Phoenix Guild, stood on the rooftop overlooking the courtyard. The guild was one of the top hundred in the region, but internal rot had been spreading for months, and he was rapidly losing patience with everyone around him.
A faint splash of water drifted up to him. He looked down toward the workers' washing area, a place reserved for the lowest ranks. Between the gaps in the wooden wall, he glimpsed smooth skin catching the sunlight.
His lips twisted into a slow, predatory smirk.
"…Interesting."
He descended the stairs and snapped at a passing subordinate. "Bring that woman to my office."
....
Knock. Knock
"Enter," Zach said.
Elena stepped inside, bowing politely. "Sir, I was told you called for me."
"What's your name?" he asked, though the gleam in his eyes said he already knew.
"Elena."
"Oh, right. The refugee girl we hired." His gaze slid shamelessly over her figure. "I also heard it's your birthday."
The word refugee stung, but she dares not complain. A man like him could end her life without consequence.
"Come here," Zach said. "I have a birthday gift for you."
"I appreciate the thought, sir," she replied quietly, "but… I don't need anything."
Zach rose from his chair, with just two steps, and he was towering over her. His hand shot up and gripped her jaw, forcing her face upward.
"For someone dirty poor," he murmured, "your skin is surprisingly soft…"
She flinched as he leaned closer, inhaling her scent like a beast savoring a meal.
"Please… stop," she pleaded.
He chuckled softly. "You want to escape your pathetic life, don't you? Kneel and please me. Do that, and I'll move you from cleaner to adventurer. Money, Status, Power. Everything you've never had."
Her voice trembled. "No. I don't want anything from you."
His smile evaporated, his grip tightened a little bit harder.
"You think 'no' means something to me?"
* Hours later… *
Zach sat back in his chair, frowning with annoyance instead of guilt.
"Tch. Humans with no mana are so fragile, they break too easily."
Elena's lifeless, naked body lay discarded on the cold floor.
One of the guild members entered, bowing slightly.
"Dispose of her," he ordered.
The subordinate obeyed without reaction, this wasn't new, he only pitied the poor girl.
Moments later, one of the guild core members burst into the room, face tight with restrained fury.
"Zach, I heard what you did again. The Guild Master warned you severally to stop this dirty behavior ... .Do you want to ruin the guild's reputation?."
"Relax, Levi," Zach said casually. "She was a nobody. I checked her background."
Levi pinched the bridge of his nose, exhausted. "Her boyfriend is outside asking for her. Are you planning to explain why she isn't coming back?"
Zach smirked. "Not a problem."
Levi stormed out, disgust and hopelessness written all over him.
Once again, he wondered how a man like Zach ever became co-founder of a guild with such potential.
Zach straightened his clothes. Time to meet the "boyfriend."
Raya was waiting in the guild hall and felt the atmosphere hit him like a wall.
Adventurers moved around with polished armor and confident strides, glancing at him with thinly veiled contempt. His patched clothes marked him instantly as a beggar, a category barely above vermin in their eyes.
He lowered his head out of instinct. Even after two lifetimes, crowds squeezed the air out of him.
"You must be the one looking for Elena, yes?" a voice said.
Raya looked up. A handsome man stood before him, but his expression held a hint of disgust, as if Raya's existence offended him.
"Yes," Raya said. "I'm here for her."
"Well," Zach replied with a friendly smile that didn't reach his eyes, "she's out running errands. Might take a while. I can tell you where she went."
Raya hesitated but nodded. "Please."
Zach handed him a small map.
Raya studied it, his eyes narrowed. "This goes toward a dungeon. Why would Elena be sent there?"
"Oh, it's just a rank-D dungeon," Zach said lightly. "She went with trained adventurers to collect materials. Good pay, so she volunteered. Don't worry, she's perfectly safe."
Raya frowned, he knows Elena, she avoids danger like plague. She would never volunteer for a dungeon run.
' Something is wrong'.
Zach, already irritated by the amount of time he had wasted on a "nobody," turned and walked away.
Raya left the guild hall immediately, gripping the map so tightly the edges crumpled.