Chapter: 9
Noah looked at Lian, who was a total mess, and thought to himself,
‘How could you do that?’
He recalled the unfamiliar woman’s voice he had heard not long after Lian had handed out cookies to the kids and left the prison.
In the prison, sounds traveled easily due to its acoustics, so all the children had heard every word exchanged between Lian and Lania.
“Managed to run away, did you?”
“That, that’s…”
“Hmm, you ran away from me just to end up here? Why? Did you hide something good here?”
From that brief chat, the kids in the prison figured out that the person Lian had said he would “try to block at all costs” was this woman. Instinctively terrified, the kids huddled together in a corner of the prison, burying their faces in their knees. Noah had pulled Nero into a hug, biting his lips out of sheer helplessness.
“There’s nothing, nothing at all!”
A desperate voice rang out just as the kids were losing it.
“You were running around scared before, do you have something you want to protect that badly?”
At those words, Noah froze. Lian wasn’t some brave knight or a hero from a fairytale. He was just a regular person full of fears, just like Noah. Unknowingly, he gripped so hard that his nails dug into his palms.
Bang!
The two’s conversation ended abruptly with the loud bang of a door slamming shut. The children held their breath and tuned in to the sounds coming from upstairs. Before long, a massive explosion made the prison shake, almost like an earthquake!
“Sc, scared..!”
“It’s okay, it’s okay.”
Noah was busy soothing the terrified Nero when—
Bang!
The door burst open violently, and Lian came rushing down to open the prison doors.
“Kids! Get out fast! There’s a fire!”
“Fi, fire?”
“Ah… uhh…”
Something serious had definitely happened above. Noah gripped Nero’s hand and rushed out of the prison. He spotted panicked children in the adjacent cell and Lian, looking troubled and grabbing his head.
‘…Is everyone safe?’
For a moment, Noah was frozen in place as he noticed Lian’s tear-streaked face. Soon, a thick, acrid smoke began to seep into the prison, snapping everyone back to reality. After shouting to awaken the panicked kids, Noah’s voice calmed as he spoke.
“You all heard that noise earlier.”
They had all heard Lian’s voice as he defended them against that woman. The kids’ expressions hardened as they agreed with Noah’s words.
“And look over there.”
Noah pointed toward the staircase, indicating the flickering flames and thick black smoke.
“There’s really a fire. If we stay here, we might all die. So no more fussing around; just follow me. You don’t want to die here, do you?”
Finally, the kids snapped back to reality and began to flee the prison one by one. Thankfully, the flames weren’t too big, and no one got hurt during their escape.
‘What the…’
As soon as they came out of the building, they were greeted by a dismal sight of blackened buildings and orderly dirt paths, with eyes gleaming from the alleys, watching them like hyenas eyeing a snack.
“Ugh…”
Terrified, Nero burrowed into Noah’s side.
‘At least everyone is okay—’
While thinking this, Noah felt something was off as he scanned the surroundings.
“Hang on, where’s that girl?”
The girl with the red hair was nowhere to be seen.
“I shared a cell with that girl with the red hair—”
“…!”
Before Noah could finish, Lian sprinted back into the flames.
“Wait..! Are you crazy?!”
Noah reached out to grab Lian, but his hand only grasped air.
Whoosh! Boom!
The flames had grown frighteningly huge, making it impossible for Noah to consider going back in. He stared at the burning building, pale with horror.
‘She must be dead… There’s no way she survived.’
Not in a blaze like that.
But his thoughts were interrupted when Lian burst out of the flames.
“Lian!”
“Brother!”
Nero, who had been frozen in Noah’s embrace, rushed to Lian, tears in his eyes. Lian looked serious, like, super serious. His skin was peeled in several spots, blood dripping down. Noah clenched his teeth.
Even if Lian survived, he wouldn’t last long with injuries like these. A disgusting wave of despair washed over him.
“It’s fortunate!”
“…!”
The one in question didn’t even mention his pain and instead smiled cheerfully, thinking he’d saved the little furball. Heat rushed to Noah’s face at that sight.
“What’s fortunate about this?! Have you lost your mind?!”
Why was Lian brushing off his injuries like they were nothing? How could he smile through it all?
Noah couldn’t comprehend Lian. But one thing was for sure: Lian had endured a past so dreadful that he could casually shrug off terrible wounds.
“Oh, it’s fine. I’ll heal up quickly.”
“Hmmm. That’s quite an interesting story you’ve got there.”
Behind the excuses of Lian, a dark wizard stroked his chin and looked down at him. Noah and Nero froze like mice caught by a cat.
Thump thump thump thump!
His heart raced madly, and he was having trouble breathing. Cold sweat flooded his body as Noah gasped, unable to shake off the ringing in his ears.
“Just one arm, one leg should be enough.”
“Then I’ll take one heart.”
Dark wizards, wielding wands like Mia’s, were ordering body parts from the kids like they were ordering food at a restaurant. Amid the ongoing screams, Noah and Nero swallowed their tears, petrified—making any noise would send them off first.
The trauma etched in their minds, like brand marks, shackled them tight. Even as Lian’s wounded arm was tugged like it was just an object, Noah couldn’t muster a single word, frozen like a deer in headlights.
“Um, if it’s okay with you, can I take those kids too?”
Lian’s voice snapped everyone back to attention. Noah looked at Lian with trembling eyes. There he was, desperately pleading for his life in front of a merciless dark wizard, his face a mess from burns.
“Those kids are like siblings to me. If they go, I’d be so sad, I might just die from depression.”
He spun such an outrageous lie, desperately trying to protect them. Noah instinctively realized why Lian was saying this.
‘If we don’t follow this person, we’ll just end up as slaves again or… get killed on the spot.’
Most had fled because of Lania’s presence, but those who needed money were eyeing this place hungrily. If Lian and Mia left, the kids would be hunted.
“The experiments might get a bit more intense, is that alright?”
“Y-yeah.”
Noah felt tears brim in his eyes and bit his lip hard. He was powerless to do anything. Absolutely powerless. A nauseating sense of helplessness and relief mingled inside him, flooded with disgust for feeling that way.
*
Lost in these thoughts, he nodded blankly, and Mia smiled satisfactorily before stepping back. I rubbed my chest, staring dazedly at Mia.
“Li, Lian… you…”
Just then, a trembling voice snapped me out of my haze. Turning my head, I found Noah looking terrified, clutching Nero. Not just Noah, the other kids looked scared stiff or were in tears.
‘Oh man, looks like they were really scared, huh?’
I had been through body modifications and had been torn apart in the world of comedy, so it didn’t faze me— but that must have been terrifying for the kids. It probably felt like the horror of the red MaX from their childhood nightmares.
So, I rushed over to the kids and said,
“Don’t worry, they don’t seem like that bad of people. Oh, if you’re worried about the experiments, you shouldn’t be. I’ll make sure you guys aren’t subjected to them.”
Thinking back on what we’d faced over the past few days, it seemed like a comedy filter was definitely at play. So, the experiments didn’t concern me all that much.
‘How brutal could the experiments actually be?’
In the world of comedy, half of the socially inept scientists were mad scientists. They showed up during various holidays, fussing like a nagging mother-in-law, trying to wreak world-ending havoc on Valentine’s Day, White Day, Christmas, and Halloween.
‘I’ve been caught and experimented on a few times myself.’
Being tied up while feeling the insides of my stomach being welded was just seriously horrific. I had no clue where in my stomach they would tighten bolts, but there was always the sound of construction during the trials.
‘Well, it might not be such a burden for me… but it wouldn’t be the same for the kids.’
I couldn’t recall well, but I knew one thing: in a normal world, wounds don’t heal easily.
“…”
“…”
The kids stood frozen, not affirming or denying my words, just in shock. It seemed my words had come too abruptly for them.
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