Chapter 2 - Everything Within Me (2)
A moment later, after the minion disappeared, Tiber cautiously picked up something that had fallen nearby and returned.
"Phew, I've got food. Ahem... it smells like berries again. It's like bread made from acorns."
"Ba..."
"No, calling this bread is an insult to bread. It tastes awful. But I'm hungry, so I have to eat. People should always be true to the present. So, I have to eat it, but..."
Tiber pondered for a moment, then neatly broke the palm-sized bread in half.
"Can you eat it?"
No, I couldn't eat it.
I felt like I shouldn't.
"You still have to eat. If you don't eat, you'll die. You'll be able to eat it somehow. You even drank water while unconscious. Here, try a little. I'll tear it for you."
Tiber tore off pieces of the bread and put them into my mouth, little by little.
Just like feeding a bird.
My friend, who would go crazy for food, wasn't eating this small piece of bread by himself; he was sharing it with me.
Grateful and pitying, I tried my best to swallow the bread.
Little by little.
Slowly.
As I swallowed the bread piece, the faces of other people began to flicker before my eyes.
The people who worked at the mansion.
Tiber's father.
And even my father.
They all died.
And we too would die the same way.
Like the fathers who had gone before, their children too would meet their end here.
So, it was agonizing.
It felt like I would die from the pain.
But even in such agony, the food went down my throat just fine.
"That's right. That's right. Good job. That's my friend. To be my friend, you have to be able to eat steadfastly even in a situation like this."
"Ugh..."
"Come on, swallow slowly. Humans have to eat. You eat to live. Yes. You're eating well... But why did those minions bring us here without killing us?"
Indeed.
Why did they?
"It's definitely not for anything good. But why do they call us 'frogs'? At first, they said something about sacrifice... Still, 'frog' is better than 'sacrifice'. Frogs taste good if you cook them well. You just need salt. Remember when we caught a few in the back mountains and ate them last year?"
Nod.
"If it were now, I wouldn't throw away a single one, I'd eat all hundred of them... Ugh, if I'd known this would happen, I would've eaten the entire pumpkin pie Father made that morning. I only ate half because I was saving it. That's a shame."
Tiber stayed by my side, chattering incessantly.
As if to reassure me.
Emphasizing every single action.
"Munch, munch... See? I ate it all too. Anyway, I don't feel so good. Well, I guess it would be stranger to feel good in a toxic den like this, wouldn't it? For now, I should rest a bit, and once I adapt, I'll aim for an escape."
Escape?
"Even if I don't look it, I was called Tiber the agile of Granvelle Village, you know? Huh? No? Fine, then. Anyway, those guys are human too, so surely they can't stay up all night guarding us without sleep, right?"
Unlikely.
They'd usually rotate shifts to fill any gaps.
But I didn't want to extinguish my friend's hope by saying so.
And anyway, I wasn't in a situation where I could speak.
"Hmph, don't worry. I won't abandon you. I still have the strength to carry you out of here. Not now, of course. After things calm down a bit... Actually, just a little while ago, the brothers from the beekeeper's house downstairs tried to go outside, got caught, and were beaten to death. It was incredibly loud."
"De..."
"Yeah. If you die, it's over. You have to survive first. As long as you're alive, opportunities will arise. Maybe a rescue team will even come."
A rescue team, huh.
It had already been a week since the Granvelle family, one of the eight great main houses of the Sword King family, was utterly destroyed.
Of course, the 'Feria Holy Alliance Empire' was just a grand-sounding scarecrow that couldn't do anything, but at least the Sword King families would grasp the situation and move swiftly.
Because the Sword King families protects the world.
But looking at the fact that there's been no news until now...
"Someday, I'll be able to eat delicious food again, right? Ugh, anyway, it feels like something's constantly seeping into my body. I keep getting chills... Is it poison after all? It's eerie. Maybe because I ate, I suddenly feel sleepy too... I can't take it anymore. I need to get some sleep. Ugh..."
Tiber leaned against me, lying face to face.
"Ray? You're listening, right?"
Nod.
"I'm going to get some shut-eye. I'm too tired. I wonder if food will come again after I sleep? I hope so..."
And then, he closed his eyes.
Slowly.
Very slowly.
And he never moved again.
Did Tiber know he was going to die?
As time passed, my friend's body grew cold.
I felt a chill, but I couldn't move away.
Nor could I get any closer.
What kind of poison was I infected with, anyway?
What kind of poison was it that kept me from embracing my dead friend's body?
Then, something strange happened to Tiber's body.
Red smoke.
Red smoke began to emanate from Tiber's body and seep into the body of the person next to him.
Into my body.
Just as I couldn't avoid Tiber's death, I couldn't avoid that smoke.
What was this, anyway?
It definitely wasn't good.
My aching body ached more, and the terrible feeling became even more terrible.
"Ugh..."
I wished I could just die like this.
No more prolonged suffering.
But even as time passed, there was no sign of death, and instead, things I hadn't seen before began to appear.
Red energy.
It turned out that the entire surroundings were filled with red energy.
The cave was inherently producing red energy.
Although its color was paler compared to what came from Tiber's body, this too was seeping into my body little by little every moment.
Yes.
Tiber was right.
This place was a den of poison.
The poisonous aura seeping from the cave accumulated in the bodies of the children brought here, and when they died, the accumulated poison transferred to the bodies of other children nearby.
So that's it.
That's what it was.
Now I understood why the monsters of the Poison King family didn't kill us but dragged us here.
We were bugs trapped in a jar of poison.
Bugs that ate poison and held poison.
It was a structure where they devoured each other, and the strongest poison accumulated in the last remaining one.
But why?
Why did those Poison King family bastards go to such lengths to gather poison into a single body?
I don't know.
But suddenly, I felt hungry.
"Ha..."
I must have gone crazy.
I never imagined I'd feel hungry in this situation.
But it was a truly unbearable hunger.
It felt like my stomach lining was dissolving and screaming for help.
This is strange.
I've never felt such intense hunger before, unlike Tiber who would complain about dying of starvation if he missed even one meal.
My sister even used to chase me around when I was little, struggling to force me to eat every meal.
But now it's different.
Even in this hellish abyss, something inside me, oblivious to the situation, screams out its hunger.
-I'm hungry!
-Ugh, too hungry.
-Let's eat.
-Eat.
-Lots of everything.
-The tastiest possible.
-Let's eat until we burst! Anything!
-I like sweet things. I like savory things. I like greasy things...
A chill ran down my spine.
These were all complaints Tiber used to make.
Was this Tiber's voice?
Had Tiber's dead soul seeped into me along with the poison?
Or maybe I was just losing my mind.
Anyone would be driven insane in this situation.
"Ugh..."
Suddenly, a groan escaped me, without me realizing it.
"Uuugh..."
But this isn't my voice.
"Ugh..."
"Ugh!"
"Waaaah..."
"Uuugh..."
Groans began to spread around.
"Ugh... Die..."
"You... I'll kill you..."
"Kill..."
"Aaaah! Die!"
"Argh! Die!"
The groans soon turned into screams.
Were these all children, like me, who had been kidnapped and dragged here?
The sounds of fighting and flesh tearing rang out, and things broke and fell, tumbling together.
Why are they fighting each other?
Is something wrong with the children's bodies?
I don't know.
There's no way to know.
I'm just half a corpse lying on the floor, waiting for death.
Guarding my already dead friend's side, feeling already half-mad.
-I'm hungry.
-I'm going to starve to death like this.
-I wish I could eat my fill of anything.
The hallucinations grew stronger.
Then, at some point, another dead body, sprawled out, overlapped in my vision.
Me?
It's me?
Is this also a hallucination?
I see my own corpse before my eyes.
Of course, it doesn't matter if it's a hallucination or not.
It's a predetermined future anyway.
Like Tiber.
And like Father, and like Mother who left us even longer ago.
I too would die soon.
So what I'm seeing now is ultimately my future self, dead.
Yes.
I'm going to die soon.
Then, suddenly, I wanted to see the faces of my other family members.
My brother, and my sister.
I was closer to my sister than my brother.
It's not like my relationship with my brother was bad, though.
Both of them were really good to me.
Especially recently, they came back to the mansion every vacation and helped me a lot to get into the academy.
But I failed to live up to their expectations.
I'm sorry, brother.
I'm sorry, sister.
I didn't see them die myself.
But the fact that they're not here probably means...
"You... You!"
Just then, a child stumbled towards me.
He was the second son of the village mill owner.
What was his name again?
"You, I've seen you before. You're definitely from the Granvelle family..."
Then several children shouted at once.
"What?"
"Granvelle!"
"A person from the Sword King family is alive?"
"This is all Granvelle's fault! The Sword King family got defeated by the Poison King family!"
"Hmph! Pfft! Eight Great Sword King Main Houses, my foot!"
"If you're from the Sword King family, you should've protected the people like one!"
"Everyone died but me! Mom! Dad! Even my little siblings! This is all because you guys failed to do your job! Damn Granvelle! Go to hell!"
Resentment, and hatred.
Negative emotions boiled over and exploded in an instant.
The scattered children began to rush towards me.
Slowly, but relentlessly.
Though they were all poisoned by some unknown toxin and couldn't even stand properly, they staggered and struggled to move forward somehow.
Kids.
Calm down.
The enemy isn't me, it's the Poison King family.
Of course, I'm sorry the Granvelle family didn't do its part.
But that doesn't mean I killed your families, does it?
But what did that matter?
They were just looking for an easy target to unleash their aimless hatred on.
The first to approach was a tall, blond boy.
Was he more of a young man than a boy?
His face was obscured by the dim lighting and his disheveled hair.
Would I be beaten to death by this blond boy now?
No.
The blond turned around in front of me and spoke.
"Get lost."
Towards the other children rushing in.
"All of you stop right now. Or you'll die by my hand. If you come any closer, you'll die. Can't you hear me?"
His voice, hoarse and raw, sounded like metal scraping.
It was a tone I'd heard somewhere before, but I couldn't be sure.
Anyway, these weren't children who would stop at that.
"Shut up!"
"Who are you?!"
"That bastard! He's Granvelle's dog!"
"Kill him! Kill him first!"
The children, with bloodshot eyes, continued to surge forward.
In the end, the blond began to casually knock down the approaching children.
With his bare fists.
Thud!
Wham!
Crunch!
Horrifying sounds quietly echoed.
"Gah!"
"C-C-Crow!"
"Aaaah! Die!"
The fallen children screamed and rose again.
Each time, the blond calmly knocked his opponent down with his fist.
Slowly, but mercilessly.
And with only one fist.
"Hoo... Hoo..."
The blond seemed tired, bending down and taking deep breaths.
The screams and groans were no longer heard.
And red smoke billowed from all directions.
The children knocked down by punches.
Smoke began to seep from the bodies of the children who had been beaten to death, and into the blond's body.
Fiercely and rapidly.
But the blond seemed unaware that the smoke was gathering into his body.
"Tch, these kids suddenly all went crazy... Cough!"
The blond coughed, then turned towards me.
He pushed back his disheveled hair, and this time, I could see his face.
"Bro..."
Brother.
It was my brother.
My brother was alive.