‘Em hungry.’
A small skinny boy thought while looking up towards the enormous walls.
They reached all the way to the gray sky.
Tall.
Super tall!
“….Hehehe.”
Maybe if he climbed it he could touch the sky.
‘Give food to people so no hungry. Make sky not sad.’
He wanted to make the sky happy.
Just like in the tales.
Blue and bright.
Gurgle~
The child’s stomach started to growl and he bent over as a result.
‘Em very hungry.’
The child wanted to work, but unfortunately, he wasn’t very smart. If he was smart then he would have food and maybe mama wouldn’t have…
‘Eng, I need to be smart.’
‘Smart means I can eat.’
‘Eat means good.’
“Line up, please! If you want food, please line up in a single line.”
The child waited behind a very long line that connected to the walls. Big tall man wearing shiny clothes stood with a large pot, giving out food.
‘Such nice people.’
…..Feed even me who is not very smart.’
With a silly smile, the child waited patiently behind the line. He waited and waited and waited until his hand started to freeze. But soon, his turn came.
“Em turn.”
Holding out his wooden bowl, the child looked at the shiny man with a glint in his eyes. His stomach was empty, and it hurt.
“A child?”
The shiny man looked down.
“Are you alone?”
“Em is, yes.”
“Wait…”
The shiny man looked at the other shiny man, their eyes locking as if reaching a mutual understanding. Placing his finger near his temple, he quickly rotated it.
The child tilted his head.
‘What that mean?’
“Will he be useful?”
“…No, not really. He might even be a burden.”
“It’d be a waste giving it to that.”
“Yeah.”
The two men exchanged glances before turning their attention to the child. After a moment, they both looked at the large pot in front of them. They then scooped a small portion of the soup and carelessly placed it in the child’s wooden bowl.
“There.”
“You can go now.”
“……”
Staring at the bowl in front of him, the child blinked his eyes.
The soup hardly filled half of the small bowl. Compared to the others, it was almost nothing.
But…
“Hehehe.”
A silly smile formed on the child’s face as he laughed.
“Thank you.”
It was food.
The child felt very thankful to the two men. They were very nice. Even though he was very dumb they gave him food.
“Hehehe.”
Holding the bowl, the child walked away.
He walked over to a familiar empty hallway. A place he was used to going.
Sitting in front of a small flight of stairs, the child sat down and prepared to eat his soup when
he stopped and looked up. There he saw a group of children looking at him.
“Gig, Kon, Min.”
A happy smile surfaced on the child’s face upon seeing the children.
He knew them all.
They were his good friends.
“…I see you managed to get some food. But isn’t that too little?”
All three were eying his bowl.
The child blinked his eyes and proudly showed his bowl.
“Yes, Em got food. Hehe.”
His smile was as silly as it could be.
The children looked at one another before looking at the bowl.
“That, can you give it to us? We’re hungry.”
“Eh? But what about…”
“We work. We need energy. You don’t work at all. You can survive skipping a meal. We can’t.
Aren’t we friends?”
“Ah.”
The child looked at the small bowl in his hands.
‘Yes, Em is stupid. He don’t work and they work. Even though I is stupid, they stay with me. I must be
good friend.’
“Okay.”
“Ah, thank you!”
“You’re such a good friend.”
“….Haha.”
As soon as the child extended his bowl, his three friends wasted no time, eagerly snatching up
his share and devouring it.
The child watched all of it with a silly smile.
‘Friends are happy. So I’m happy.’
“Hehe.”
As the children finished the food, they waved goodbye and left shortly after that, leaving the
young child alone.
It was silent.
Growl~
He was hungry.
And he was cold.
The child remained sitting on the staircase as his stomach growled. Closing his eyes, he
waited to go to sleep.
When he sleep the pain go away.
He tried to sleep, but the pain made it hard for him to sleep.
‘Em, hungry.’
Growl~
But he was used to the pain.
Ever since he could remember, he felt this type of pain.
But he didn’t really mind.
Everyone around him was so nice. How could he not be nice to them when they were nice to
him?
Closing his eyes, the child tried to forget about everything.
‘…It’s cold.’
‘Can’t sleep.’
‘So quiet.’
‘Em hungry.’ But it was hard.
So hard.
“Hey, kid.”
The silence ended with a rough voice.
“Eh…?”
When the child raised his head, his blurred vision fell on a tall and skinny man.
“Are you that retar-keum, I mean, are you that kid that isn’t very smart?”
The child pointed at himself while his vision started to clear up.
“Me? Em not smart.”
“Ah, it looks like it’s you.”
Dark black hair.
“…That’s good, I’ve been looking for you.”
Deep brown eyes.
“There’s no better test specimen than you. With your help, we’ll be able to get out of this
forsaken place.”
The tall man.
The more he looked at him, the kinder he looked.
He held out his hand for the child.
“Do you want to be smart? Strong?”
“Smart? Strong?”
The child nodded. Of course. He always wanted to be smart and strong. To help the nice
people and eat food until his belly exploded.
“…Yes, I can make you smart and strong. So long as you follow me, I’ll help you.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Hehe.”
The child reached for the hand.
It was warm. A stark contrast to the bitter cold that lingered in the air.
Grabbing the hand, he stood up.
Groan~
But as he did, his stomach growled and his face turned red.
“Hehe, em… hungry.” Staring at the child, the old man brought his hand to his pocket and retrieved a small snack he
gave the child.
“It isn’t much but have this for now. You’ll have plenty of food later.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Really, really?”
“….Yes.”
Squeezing the child’s hand, the man brought him away.
To a warmer and safer place.
*
“Julien-!” Kaelion’s face appeared a few inches from mine, prompting me to move back.
“Uh?”
I looked around to see that we were currently in the familiar room belonging to the old man.
“Are you alright? You’ve been acting strange since before.”
“Ah, that…”
Even I wasn’t too sure.
Thinking back, I had only managed to catch a small glimpse of the old man’s memory. It was
complete and that made me frown.
Then again, this was understandable.
‘He’s very strong.’
Strong to the point where I felt he was comparable to Delilah and Atlas. It wasn’t strange for
the second leaf to not have a full effect on him.
But it made me think.
As I gazed at the old man, memories of the child from the vision surfaced, causing a subtle
shift in my expression.
‘…I can hardly believe they’re the same person.’
Unlike the child, the old man felt… more clear in the head.
The child was clearly mentally impaired in the vision. Observing the man now, moving and
speaking with clarity, I couldn’t help but think of the person who had once aided the child.
‘Is it possible that he managed to cure the child and even make him strong to this point?’ …Or was it all an excuse to train the child?
‘Yes, it’s possible that he was very talented to begin with and an old master took him in to make him
stronger.’
Though this seemed like the logical conclusion, reflecting on the various fragments of the vision, I recognized that the reality was far more complicated.
“Hey, you’re spacing out again.”
“Right.”
Coming out of my thoughts, I let out a short breath and pointed at my head.
“I’m not sure. I feel like my thoughts are slowing down. I think it’s because of the strings
attached to me.”
“What?”
“Are you saying these strings are affecting our minds?” When both Caius and Kaelion looked at the strings, the old man spoke. “The strings do indeed affect your mind. With each reset, a new one will appear. The more you
have on you the harder it will be for you to move and free yourself from them. Your thoughts
will also lessen and you will start to lose your memories, essentially becoming one of the
puppets.”
“That’s…”
Kaelion’s face grew grim while Caius’s remained the same.
This was information that I already knew but purposely revealed in order to get the old man
talking.
Like before, he moved towards the piano and started playing the notes.
Deng~
“Urkh, that’s wrong.”
He scratched the back of his head.
“What was the note again?”
Dong~
“No, that’s not quite right.”
Ding~
“…That’s not it either.”
A familiar scene.
Staring at him and seeing the number of wires attached to him, I knew he was barely holding
on. Caius and Kaelion also noticed the strings and they both looked at me.
‘What should we do?”
‘….I suggest we rest here and wait for the reinforcements to come. We’ve found a safe spot where the puppets can’t reach us. We should be able to hold on until then.’ Listening to the two of them, Caius’s suggestion felt like the most appropriate one.
We couldn’t escape nor could we do anything about the puppets unless we looked for the
mastermind behind all of this.
The only hope of finding the mastermind was Pebble. However, with no leads on who was
behind it all, I felt at a loss for where to begin. Perhaps the old man might know…
Dung
“Eish, that’s also wrong.”
Or maybe not.
Seeing him struggle to recall such simple notes left me feeling utterly at a loss.
I thought about going over to teach him, but I stopped myself.
‘Who knows if he might kill me for it?’
The guy was a lunatic after all.
“So, are we essentially stuck here with this old man?”
Glancing between the old man and then Kaelion, a bitter smile tugged at my lips.
“…I guess so.”
Oh, and apparently.
He wasn’t old.
Though I refrained from saying the last part.
After all, I wasn’t supposed to know.
“Great.”
Kaelion covered his face while sitting down on the ground. Though I couldn’t hear his
thoughts, it almost felt like I could see them.
‘…He’s still worried about the children outside.’
He tried his best to hide it, but I could see it.
That also made me think.
Just what sort of past did he go through to even think about the children in such a situation?
Dang!
“Wrong! Wrong, wrong-!”
Smashing his hand down on the keyboard, the old man stood up from the seat and stared in
our direction. At that moment, I felt myself lose sight of myself as his deep blue eyes locked
in our direction.
They stared fiercely at me before he rubbed his beard.
“You three…”
He alternated his gaze between each one of us and then shook his head.
“This won’t do.”
What won’t?
I was almost prepared to stand up when he sat crossed legged right before us.
“At your current strength, you will not lasting a few days. It has been a while since I’ve intreracting with another human. I don’t want you all to break so soon. Close your eyes. Let me test you all individually.”
“Uh?”
“Test…?”
“Wh-“
“Shut up, and close your eyes.”
The old man suddenly raised his large hand and grabbed Caius’s head. Thump-! Right after
touching it, Caius slumped down on the ground. Before Kaelion and I even had the time to
react, his two large hands pressed down on our hands and I lost consciousness.
But just before fainting, I heard the old man’s voice.
‘Can’t follow such simple commands.’
He seemed disappointed.
…I’ve got myself three idiots.’