Chapter 63 :

Episode 63 - Selection (1)

Bang!

Half a day after Seya was captured, the basement door finally opened with a rough sound, and three men entered.

The children, having learned that someone entering meant the beginning of another terror, jumped in fright and scattered in every direction.

Though it was only a small room with nowhere to hide.

Moving along with the children, Seya noticed that one of the men was holding a child dressed in rags.

‘So I must have looked like that when I was dragged here too.’

Just as he had done to Seya, the man threw the child onto the floor.

When the child rolled across the ground with a dull thud, small screams erupted from here and there.

Among the two men standing on either side of the skinny man, one was the man who had captured Seya and brought her here.

With a face full of obvious annoyance, the skinny man pointed at the wall.

“All of you, stand against the wall.”

At the man’s order, most of the children moved in the direction he pointed.

The newly brought-in child seemed not to be completely oblivious, and even while writhing in pain, he quickly followed the others and stuck close to the wall.

Seya and Mir also slipped in among the children and took their places.

The scrawny man looked over the children, who were frightened and barely managing to stand against the wall, then opened his mouth.

“Everyone, roll up your sleeves.”

They were all bewildered by the sudden order only for a moment, but when the other two men shouted at them, asking if they could not move faster, everyone hurriedly and awkwardly rolled up their ragged clothes.

Seya, Mir, and Nihil were mixed in among them as well.

Unable to adapt to the sudden change in situation, Nihil was glancing around with a bewildered expression.

That confusion was soon covered by fear.

The man standing beside the skinny man had pulled out a sharp dagger from his chest.

At the sudden appearance of the blade, piercing screams burst out from here and there.

Even those soon quieted down when the man kicked one child hard as an example.

Scratching his head as if annoyed, the skinny man approached the lined-up children.

“If anyone dawdles, you’ll see something even more painful, so don’t try anything useless. First, you. Say your age.”

“E......eleven years old.”

As soon as the child answered, the dagger of the man standing beside the skinny man flashed.

The sound of flesh being cut rang out, along with a scream.

A few children panicked and left the line, but the men dragged them back as if they were used to it.

As though to make an example of them, merciless violence fell upon two of them.

Thanks to that, among the sounds of crying and screaming, the screams stopped, leaving only sobbing behind.

Merciless, blood-soaked violence continued.

Mir bit his lip hard, anxious because the one cutting wounds into the children’s arms was none other than the man who had brought Seya in.

Just as Mir worried, the man standing in front of Seya raised the corner of his mouth in a grin.

“Age.”

“Eleven.”

At the skinny man’s question, Seya answered while looking straight ahead.

He took his eyes off the paper and stared at Seya.

“You said eleven?”

“What, did you think I was a hundred and ten?”

Even at Seya’s rebellious words, as if her liver had leapt out of her body, the man merely narrowed his eyes and looked her up and down.

Instead of the skinny man, the man with the dagger shook the small blade a short distance away from Seya’s arm.

The sharp tip of the knife repeatedly moved dangerously close to the child’s flesh, then away again.

“I don’t know whether you’re brave or stupid, but you should act tough only after reading the situation. Actually, you’ve already been cut, so there’s no need to cut you again. How about it? If you say you’re sorry and lick my foot, I might let it slide......”

His vile smile was erased when Seya’s spit flew into his face.

“Idiot. Then that guy would have to do the same work twice. Do you think he’d just let that happen?”

Seya’s mocking laugh that followed was a bonus.

Wiping his face, the man roughly snatched Seya’s arm.

“You. I’ll keep my eye on you. I’ll make you beg me to just kill you instead.”

As though extending her pain, the man moved the knife very slowly.

As soon as the men left, Seya waved her hand at Mir, who rushed toward her.

“Mir! How’s the wound? It isn’t too deep, is it?”

Seya, who had been asking cheerfully, gradually lowered her voice at Mir’s face, which looked as if he were about to cry.

“If he tells you to lick it, just lick it. If he tells you to lower your head, just lower it! You do it perfectly fine in front of nobles, so why are you acting like this now?!”

“Hey, that and this are different. In front of nobles, you’re supposed to do that.”

“You can just think you’re supposed to do this too.”

Mir was a good friend, but sometimes he got angry like this.

“I don’t like bowing and watching people’s moods when there’s no need to lower myself. We have to crawl on the ground even if we make the smallest mistake.”

Seya knew most of it came from Mir worrying about her, but a sulky complaint slipped out before she knew it.

“If I do that all the time, I feel like I’ll forget how to raise my head.”

At that answer, Mir made a face as if he had chewed something bitter.

“If you keep doing that, you’ll lose the head you’re supposed to raise.”

At the sarcastic voice, Seya turned her head.

At some point, Nihil had approached and quietly taken a place between Seya and Mir.

He was struggling to make sarcastic remarks, but his face had turned pale.

It seemed he was forcing himself to calm down after being shocked by the sudden bloodshed.

That was better than being a simple coward.

Seya highly evaluated Nihil’s guts and returned the sarcasm.

“What? Weren’t you going to live here for the rest of your life?”

“Who said I was leaving? I’m just watching what you’re doing.”

Having blurted out anything out of embarrassment, Nihil turned his head toward Mir.

“Since you’ve been singing about escape, escape, since earlier, I guess you must have some brilliant method?”

Mir looked at Nihil’s shameless face for a moment, then held out his hand.

“If you want to know something, you have to pay the price. Where do you think you’re trying to listen for free?”

At Mir’s answer, Nihil’s eyebrows shot up.

“No, that’s not right! You already squeezed everything you could out of me earlier, and now you’re doing this?”

“Ahem! That was because you just told us everything on your own. Originally, when making a deal, you’re not supposed to reveal everything you have.”

Seya, who had been listening quietly, grabbed Nihil as he tried to take a step back and spoke.

“What do you mean, I told you willingly? You threatened me!”

“That was because you surrendered to violence on your own, so it couldn’t be helped.”

This time, Mir joined in from the side.

In the end, Nihil had to declare his surrender through gritted teeth with a grinding sound.

“Fine, fine! I just have to give you something, right? But you have to include me too, understand? For reference, the only thing I have is this rag I’m wearing.”

Mir did not need anything like the clothes Nihil was wearing either.

“Water. Give me the water you were given for distribution.”

It was a calm demand, but Nihil’s face turned pale again.

“This isn’t just robbery, you’re complete thugs, aren’t you? They only give this once every two days. So what, you’re telling me to die of thirst for two days?”

Mir, covering his ears as if Nihil’s furious shouting was noisy, turned away.

“Then handle it yourself. We don’t care whether you’re with us or not.”

Seya’s arm, which had been placed on Nihil’s hesitant shoulder, pressed the child down even harder.

“Hey, hey, think carefully. An opportunity like this doesn’t come often. If you miss it this time, you’re really risking your life, you know?”

With one smart person and one strong person pressuring him, Nihil had no way to endure it.

It was such a familiar threat that he could clearly picture how these two had survived outside.

In the end, Nihil handed the waterskin he had carefully hung at his waist to Mir with trembling hands.

Though as soon as Mir received the precious water, he turned it upside down without hesitation and poured it over the wound.

“Hey! What are you doing?!”

Whether the startled Nihil shouted and sprawled down to try to catch the flowing water or not, Mir continued pouring water over the wound.

“It’ll heal faster this way. Wounds heal faster when you clean them properly.”

After confirming that the arm had been washed to some extent, Mir now rolled up the sleeve of Nihil, who was still sprawled on the floor and unable to think of getting up.

Then he poured the remaining water over Nihil’s arm as well.

By the time only half the water remained in the waterskin, making it slosh lightly, Mir stopped pouring water over the wounds.

While Nihil, who had watched the water flow away in vain, could not take his eyes off the puddle on the floor, Mir this time took out a small bottle from his pouch.

It was the honey Seya had received from the ducal residence.

And he immediately took a little of it and applied it to his own wound.

Nihil could only blankly watch what this annoying little child was doing.

“Our goal is to heal as quickly as possible and get out of here. So you put your arm here too.”

While Nihil hesitated, Seya quickly rolled up his sleeve and shortened the time.

By the time Nihil escaped from Seya’s grip, he had already obtained an arm with sweetness added to it.

“Where did you learn something like this?”

Nihil asked suspiciously, but Mir said nothing and merely sat there, watching Seya carefully apply the remaining honey to his wound.

“Seya, you apply it too.”

When the honey was almost gone, Mir took the bottle from Seya’s hand, scraped out the remaining honey, and spread it over Seya’s wound.

“ .......What is this? You let others apply that much, but why did you only apply that little on yourself?”

At that sight, Nihil complained again.

“I don’t need it. Mir, just use it on yourself.”

Seya tried to pull her arm away, but Mir held Seya’s arm tightly and carefully finished the treatment.

At the wound that had deliberately been made deeper than the other children’s, Mir had to struggle to keep strength from entering his hands on its own.

Mir also knew that Seya did not need treatment like this, but even so, he did not want to simply watch something like this happen.

Even while his head boiled with anger, he could be certain of one thing.

What they were looking for were children like Seya.

Strong, sturdy, quick to heal from wounds, children slightly different from others.

* * *

The first thing that entered the young duke’s eyes upon meeting Priest Vesper was the smile spread across his entire face.

Even if a knife were pressed to his throat and he were threatened right now, it seemed he would not lose his composure, the young duke thought.

“You have worked hard coming all the way here.”

At his greeting, Tollin’s eyebrows rose.

“......To think you came all the way out here. Thank you for such a generous welcome.”

It was generous. Far too generous.

Someone like Priest Vesper had no need to wait not at the temple entrance, but all the way at the place where they got off the carriage.

In the strangely subdued atmosphere, Tollin observed Priest Vesper, who alone was smiling round and round.

Without even giving Tollin a glance, Priest Vesper slowly extended his hand toward the young duke.

“To be able to share the moment when the heir of Feedus becomes a true citizen of Abiran, I am truly delighted.”

“I am grateful for your words, Priest Vesper.”

At the young duke’s answer, the corners of Vesper’s eyes narrowed.

Feeling an unpleasant sense of unease from that kind smile, the young duke moved his steps under the priest’s guidance.

The identity of that unease was immediately revealed.

Clang!

The temple knights blocked Tollin, who had been about to follow behind the young duke.

“Tollin!”

The startled young duke unconsciously called his aide.

“What is the meaning of this?”

Tollin glared at Priest Vesper, who stood behind the knights and watched him.

“Sinners cannot set foot in the temple.”

Vesper answered without erasing his smile.

“A sinner? What are you saying right now......!”

“The young master of the Selby family has disappeared.”

A child and a disappearance.

While Tollin flinched for a moment at the combination of those two sensitive words, Priest Vesper’s voice continued.

“I heard he was on his way into the capital to attend the so-called ‘education’ managed by the Feedus family.”

“What of it? The Feedus family has no obligation to take responsibility for every incident that happens in the capital......”

“That is not a matter for Tollin to decide, is it?”

There was no need to think deeply to know who had more decision-making authority than Feedus.

Tollin, who had not lost his reason so completely that he could not understand even that, was forced to close his mouth again in frustration.

Because there was nothing he could do.

There were too many eyes watching, and this was in front of the temple.

If he moved his mouth wrongly even once, he did not know what he would have to bear.

He was far too powerless.

Tollin turned his head and met the young duke’s worried eyes once.

This could not happen.

He had not prepared everything just to send the young duke inside alone like this.

Unable to endure the emotions boiling up inside him, Tollin quietly glared at Vesper.

Priest Vesper, who had calmly received Tollin’s fierce gaze, turned his eyes behind him.

The sound of a horse urgently striking the ground came closer, and dust began to rise.

It was a courier.

Pushing through the people, the horse stopped in front of Tollin.

The news he brought was despairing.

“Lord Tollin, you must return to the mansion immediately. His Highness the First Prince says he will visit the mansion.”