The midday sun beat down on the back of my neck, but the sweat running down my back was pure nervousness, not heat. I clutched my Guild ID card so tightly that the cheap metal edges began to dig into the palm of my hand.
[Rank F — Alaric]
The letters seemed to mock me in the harsh light. I stood before a makeshift counter of rough wood at the construction site of a new annex to the merchants' guild. Around me, men with arms as thick as my thighs carried iron beams as if they were sticks.
"Next!" shouted the recruiter, a man with a scar across his nose and a clipboard that seemed more important than my life.
I stepped forward. I tried to puff out my chest, but my shoulders seemed to have an invisible weight pulling me down. My eyes, probably sunken from sleepless nights eating stale bread, avoided direct contact.
"Name and Rank," he growled, without taking his eyes off the paper.
"Alaric. Rank F, sir. I... I came for the transport assistant position."
The sound of the pen scratching the paper stopped abruptly. The recruiter slowly raised his head. He looked me up and down with a gaze that was not one of anger, but something much worse: pity.
"Rank F?" He let out a dry laugh, pointing at my card. "Kid, have you seen the size of those grindstones over there? They weigh eighty pounds each."
"I'm hardworking!" My voice came out a little higher pitched than I intended. I hate when that happens. "I may not have the strength of a Rank D Warrior, but I make up for it with..."
"With what?" He interrupted me, leaning over the counter. "Look at yourself. Your hands are shaking just from holding your registration. You look like you haven't slept in a week and that a breath would knock you over."
I instinctively hid my hands behind my back. The trembling. Always the damn trembling.
"It's because... I haven't eaten much today..."
"Listen here." His tone became lower, almost paternal, which hurt more than a punch. "Construction work in border towns is dangerous. If a beam gives way, you don't have the reflexes of an adventurer to jump out of the way. If a sewer monster decides to climb up, you're just a snack." I need workers, not a corpse that I'll have to pay the city to bury."
He took my card and slid it back across the counter, as if returning a piece of trash someone had dropped.
"Go back to the beginner's academy. Or learn to sew, I don't know. But get off my construction site before you get hurt. Next!"
I took the card. The metal was hot. I didn't say anything. There was nothing to say when the truth hurts as much as the lie you tell yourself every morning.
I walked toward the exit, feeling the stares of the "real adventurers" on my back. I could hear the muffled laughter. I was Alaric. The guy who couldn't hold a sword, couldn't conjure fire, and now couldn't even carry a stone.
I really am trash.
.
[POV: Instructor Owen]
"NEXT!" I shouted, already looking away to the next worker in line.
That's when the sound changed. It wasn't the rhythmic noise of hammers or the creaking of pulleys. It was a sharp metallic snap, followed by sudden silence.
"LOOK OUT! IT'S COMING DOWN!" The shout came from above, from the second floor.
I looked up and my blood ran cold. A tempered iron beam, three meters of pure solid metal, had come loose from the guide rope. It wasn't falling vertically; it was descending horizontally, like a giant guillotine weighing half a ton.
And that F rank was right in its path. The boy walked slowly, head down, exuding an aura of defeat that seemed to blind him to the real world.
"BOY! GET OUT OF THE WAY!" I yelled.
My former adventurer's reflexes kicked in. I jumped over the counter, the clipboard flying to one side, my hand outstretched to try to grab the collar of that cheap tunic and pull him back. I knew I wouldn't make it in time. I could already picture the sound of bones breaking and the trail of blood on the flower bed.
The beam hit his back with the force of a hammer.
BOOM.
The impact sent a shockwave that kicked up dust from the floor. I froze, falling to my knees about five meters away from him, closing my eyes for a millisecond, waiting for the scream of agony that never came.
Instead, I heard only the sound of heavy metal hitting the ground. Clang.
I opened my eyes, gasping... He was still walking.
He gave a little jolt forward, as if someone had given him a friendly push to quicken his pace, and continued walking with his head down. He didn't even look back right away. He just... kept going.
"But what...?" The words died in my throat.
My eyes dropped to the iron beam on the ground. My heart nearly stopped. In the exact center of the hardened piece of metal, there was an impossible curve. The iron was dented inward, molded perfectly to the contour of the boy's back.
"YOU LET GO OF THE WRONG SIDE, YOU IDIOT!" The workers started yelling from above, but their voices sounded like they were coming from another planet.
I looked at that adventurer. He stopped, turned his neck with an expression of apology for existing, and stared at me.
"Are you okay, sir?" he asked, in that soft, defeated little voice. "Sorry if I got in the way of your... thing falling. I'm leaving now."
He didn't have a tear in his clothes. Not a hair out of place. Not a drop of blood, nothing. And he still thought he had gotten in the way of the beam.
"How..." I tried to say, but my throat was as dry as the desert. "How are you still standing? Why aren't you... in pieces?" That's tempered iron! What are you?
He gave me a sad smile, the kind of smile of someone who has accepted that the world is an unfair place, and said:
"Me? I already told you, sir. I'm Alaric. Rank F."
He turned and walked away, his shoulders slumped, kicking a stone as if it were the most useless thing in the world.
I stood there, kneeling in the dust, looking at the crumpled beam and then at the boy disappearing on the horizon. I've seen a lot of strange things in this world, but an indestructible "piece of trash" apologizing for not dying... that was new.
"Rank F?" I thought, feeling a chill run down my spine. "If that's a Rank F, then either the guild system is broken or the world is about to end."