I opened my eyes slowly, recalling yesterday’s event. They were swollen from crying too much, and I still felt like I was going to burst in tears any time soon.

“Finally awake?” I jumped when I heard a voice next to me. Looking around, I saw I was on a bed, in a well lit room. Was I caught again?

“Who are you? Why am I here?” I asked roughly, paying attention to not look at his face while I searched my mask.

“My name is Tetsu. I found you asleep in the forest, so I brought you here. That’s it. Any other question?” He answered, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

“Where are we? Why did you take me here?” I ignored his annoying tone of voice.

“We are at my place. You looked like you were going to die, so I took you back. Anything else?”

“Wh—I wasn’t going to die! You could have simply left me there!” I said, looking at him by habit.

“Ohh, you’re finally looking at my face!” He said happily. As he said that, I quickly looked down again. Shit, did I just look at his eyes? I’m not sure. Crap. I hope I didn’t. I don’t want to kill anyone else, I thought.

“Where is my mask?” I asked him.

“Your what? Oh, that! Yeah, I hid it, ahaha!” He answered happily.

“Why? Give it back!” I said angrily. How dare he take away the only object linking me to my mother!

“Well, I don’t think you need it. Your face looks good, why would you want to hide it?”

“You don’t need to know that. Give it back.” I was relieved nothing was happening to him. This meant I didn’t actually look at his eyes.

“Hmm, would it have anything to do with those Special Eyes of you?” He said, looking uninterested.

“!!—How do you know about that?” I took a defense position, suspecting him to have something to do with my father, or the rest of the villagers.

“Actually, I’m sorry, I had a peek at your stats earlier, I just couldn’t help it!” He said while laughing.

“You don’t look sorry in the least! And what are those stats? Speak clearly!” Annoyed, I snapped at him.

“You don’t know?” He looked surprised. Apparently, that was common knowledge.

“No, I don’t! Stop trying to waste time and tell me already!”

“Well, if you don’t know about that, I guess you don’t know about the adventurer’s guild either…?” He looked impressed while saying that.

“Stop mocking me! So what if I don’t? Explain, already!” He really was making fun of me, this Tetsu guy. I lowered my guard instinctively, as this person had an aura that made him seem trustworthy.

“Here, put your hand on this, I’ll explain after.” He said, giving me a crystal ball.

I did as he said, and a card appeared out of nowhere, going straight to my unoccupied hand. I caught it and read it:

Name: Norr Rank: G

Age: 11 Level: 8

“What is that? Why does it have my information on it?” I asked, impressed.

“This is a guild card. As of now, you are officially an adventurer! I mean, you don’t have to act like one if you don’t want to, but at least, you can if you want.” He said.

“I see, a guild card. Actually, I don’t understand more, so explain for real! What are those Level and Rank things?”

“Let’s see… How do I explain this? Oh, I know! Jenny!” He said, calling for someone.

After some seconds, a woman entered the room. “You called, Tetsu? – Oh, who is that? A guest?”

“Yeah, actually, his name is Norr and I picked him up in the forest!” The guy answered. I raised my head slightly to see what the person looked like, but payed attention to not let my gaze go anywhere near her face. She was wearing an elegant white shirt tucked in her long, black skirt.

“Not again? I told you to stop bothering people! We have enough adventurers here, no need to go in the woods and get some child into this kind of work!” She scolded him. “Young man, I’m sorry about Tetsu. He lacks some common sense… Where are your parents? I’ll bring you back to them.” She then said with a much gentler tone. Remembering my mother’s death, tears came to my eyes and I looked the other way to make sure they didn’t see me cry.

“Wha—Why are you crying? What’s wrong?” The woman hurriedly asked.

“Hoo, Jenny, you just said something you shouldn’t have! That’s surprising, coming from you.” Teased Tetsu.

“Shut up, you! You are not better than me, so you can’t say anything! Norr… I’m sorry, did something happen to your parents?” She asked me.

“… Hm.” I had finally made the tears stop flowing, and I felt that if I opened my mouth to talk, they would come again. I didn’t want to cry in front of strangers about my mother, I still had my pride.

“I see. Do you have a home to go back to?” She continued.

“...” I shook my head from right to left.

“Alright. How about you stay here until things get better on your side? I’ll arrange something for you.”

“Huh? What are you doing, Jenny, inviting him to live in MY house?” Asked Tetsu, more amused at the situation than anything else.

“And you, what do you think you are doing, taking an orphan here without actually taking responsibility for your actions?” Retorqued Jenny.

“Ouuh… Good one, Jen.”

“I told you not to call me like this! So, what do you think, Norr? Want to stay here? I’ll take care of your expenses for a while.” She turned towards me once again.

“…Why…” I muttered.

“Hm? What did you say? Look at us when you’re talking!” Said Tetsu.

“Tetsu, shut up. Continue, Norr.”

“…Why would you do this?” I asked her, still showing them my back.

“The real question here is why wouldn’t I, isn’t it?” She said as a matter of fact. Weird lady. Who would just take care of any orphan they find? “Actually, I lied, sorry. I saw your status when I entered the room, and there’s one of your Passives that I just can’t get myself to ignore; Special Eyes – Steal. Would you happen to know what that is? I would like to say it is fine if you don’t say it but… It seems like a dangerous ability. Is it why you avoid looking at us?” She said.

I didn’t know what half of the words in that sentence meant, but one thing was certain: my ability had been exposed, once more. Will I be imprisoned again? I don’t want to. What should I do? Hear her out? It’s 50-50. They might imprison me, try to use me or kill me, or they might want to help me. Actually, it’s more like 75-25. And it’s not in favor of the helping me part. My other option is facing them and running away. I don’t know their strength, but simply looking in their eyes should do, right? Targeting the strongest looking one – Tetsu – should be the most efficient. I don’t want to kill more than necessary, but it’s better than being captured, I thought. And so, I decided on using my ability once more.

I turned around slowly, staring at the ground. I then lifted my head quickly and stared at the guy’s face, since he was the most dangerous looking. He was already quite old, judging by his grey hair, but his body was more then healthy. He had a scar across his jaw and a short beard that made him look a little bit wiser, but it contrasted so much with the rest of his body that it simply looked ridiculous. His eyes were ferocious and black. I shivered slightly when I looked in them.

“Ohh, he’s looking at me in the eyes, Jenny, look at this!” He said excitedly while supporting my gaze.

“Right, he’s probably trying to use his ability… Which means he thought you were stronger. He’s not entirely wrong, but… I must say my ego has taken a hit, being compared to you in this way…” She answered.

I started panicking, seeing how nothing was happening to the man. I changed my target to Jenny, but she stared at me back, alive and well. Why weren’t they affected? Did I lose my ability? Why now? I had so much questions, and the woman started talking.

“Look, we really do not want to harm you in any way, so please don’t be so wary of us. I’m sorry for peeking at your stats earlier, I realize I shouldn’t have, but what is done is done, right?” She apologized.

“Yeah, I must agree with her, but what is your power anyways? You gave me a real headache simply by staring at me! I mean, that’s overpowered! No one should be able to hurt me, right, Jenny?” The man foolishly said.

“I told you to shut up, didn’t I? I think you should be happy to get away with only a headache, by the way.” She told Tetsu harshly. “Boy, I will explain to you all you want to know, so please promise me to tell me about your power, hm? I will do all I can to help you later on.” She pressed on.

“… I will see after I heard you talk. Explain first.” I answered, wary of them. If I couldn’t take them down with my eyes, I didn’t have the choice. I had to cooperate.

“Haa… Alright, let’s do this. What do you want to know?” She gave in.

“First. What are those stats you keep talking about? And who are you guys?” I asked.

“Isn’t that two questions? Aha, he’s so funny, right, Jen?” Tetsu barged in once more, but Jenny ignored him blatantly.

“My name is Jenny and he is Tetsu, as you might have understood. We are part of a group of five people who started the Adventurers Guild. I am currently acting as Tetsu’s secretary, and he is the guild master. Back in the days, we were a party of adventurers who traveled everywhere, solved problems for people and explored dungeons. Now, we only participate in very dangerous and important missions, so we don’t get to go outside as much as before…”

“What is the Guild?” I cut her.

“It is an organization meant to create jobs and solve different kind of problems that involve some danger related to, most of the time, monsters. People or groups give us missions they wish to see accomplished as well as a reward to give to those who complete it, and adventurers who register at our Guild can take those requests and make money with them. The Guild takes a small commission off each quest completed. Of course, there aren’t just quests to make money. Adventurers can also sell things they gather to the guild, like herbs or body parts of monsters, and we buy them at a competitive price. We then resell them on the market, or exchange them for equipment to crafters.”

“…I get it. Now, what are those stats?” I asked.

“Every single person has them. Stats, or statistics, are a numeric representation of someone’s physical and mental abilities. People with the skill can see those statistics in the form of a grid. There are other ways to see the stats of others, but this one is the most common. It allows to see the person’s name, age, level, strength, agility, dexterity, intelligence, wisdom, as well as the passive and active skills. You received a guild card earlier, right? Some of those things are on the card, as you saw, and they are automatically updated when you level up, rank up or age. It is a nice way for people without to keep track of their progress.”

“Next. Why do you want to help me?” I asked once more. I hoped she would be honest this time.

“Right, let’s see… There are multiple reasons. Of course, there is a sense of responsibility that I have towards you, since that idiot of a guild master took you here. I can’t exactly chase you out of here, knowing you have nowhere to go! There is also the thing about your eyes… Actually, most of the reasons are about those. I’m not 100% sure about the details, but I think I’ve grasped what they do, in general. And, if they are what I think they are, letting you alone isn’t really an option, since you could be a potential danger to people. I’ll explain after I confirm my suspicions. And, there’s also a bit of selfishness in this, since I think it would be a waste to let someone with your ability work for someone else! I mean, if you want to know everything, I planned to train and raise you into an extraordinary adventurer. But, all in all, we really do want to help you and have no plan on making you stay here later if you wish to do something else. We would simply need to watch over you until we can be sure you won’t be a danger to the public, but we would make sure to do so in a way that doesn’t affect you too much.”

“… I get it. I’ll stay here for a while. I’ll see what I do later.” I said. She seemed sincere to me, and my situation wasn’t the best to begin with. Even if I refused her offer, where would I go? And, how would I survive? I decided to stay and trust her for a while, until I knew her enough to judge by myself what her intentions were.

“Great. Do you have any other questions?” She asked, obviously waiting for me to talk about my secret.

“No. … Alright, I’ll explain what I can about my eyes… But I don’t understand them very well, so don’t expect too much details. Actually, the only thing I know about them—Or rather, I thought I knew—Is that when I look at someone in the eyes and they look into mine, the person dies. That’s what happened to everyone who crossed my stare until now, but you two just blew the only thing I knew about my eyes. That’s it. I don’t know more.” I said, helpless. I really didn’t know about my eyes that well, now that I thought about it. The only thing I did until now was to cover them up whenever someone was close, and I only got to observe their effect twice, including that one time when I was a baby.

“I see. I have one last question for you, feel free to refuse answering, but if you do, please do not lie.” She responded. “I know this might be very hard for you, but would you tell me about your past? I’d like to know as much as possible, so that I can do some research on your specific situation.”

“I…” I didn’t mind talking about my past, but most of it involved my mother and I really didn’t want to think about her now. Tears started coming to my eyes once more and I hid my face under the bed’s sheets.

“It’s okay, don’t push yourself too much. If you want, you could also write it and I will read it later. It could also be a good way for you to take some distance with what you’re going through… Oh, can you write? I’m sorry for proposing this, you are still very young, it’s not surprising to not be able to—“

“No, I can.” I cut her harshly in her excuses. “I’ll do this. Thanks.”

“Buahahaha! Jenny! That was so funny! I never saw you panicking like this before! Pff…” Tetsu once again barged in our conversation.

“Okay, thank you, Norr. I will leave some paper and ink on the desk,” she said as she ignored once again the guild master. “We will leave you alone for a while now, so take your time. I will go to the library to do some research about your eyes, but Tetsu will stay here. If you need anything, ask him. Oh, and this room will be yours for now, so make yourself at ease. I will be back for diner.” She finally said, leaving the room.

“Heh? I have to stay here? I didn’t hear anything about that before? Why? …” Tetsu argued, but Jenny acted as if she didn’t hear him and closed the door as she left. “… I guess there’s only us left here, buddy.” He looked disinterested as he said that, and I simply stared at him in the eyes without saying anything. “… Okay, I get it, I’ll leave you alone. Call me if there’s anything.” And just like this, he left the room.