《Stolen》


 [Prologue]

    I have never written anything, this is my first time attempting to write with English, so please forgive my mistakes as English is not my main language.

    =========================================

    A nameless boy, upon birth, was stolen away. Taken into nowhere, lost to his parents.

    In the dark place he known as his home, he grew up starved and beaten daily, by a unknown figure he could never see.

    At first it didn''t hurt too much and quickly healed, however, the miraculous healing which infuriated the figure led to his disappearance for a few hours, and when he returned, a needle was stabbed into the child''s body, ceasing his healing and the figure immediately continued ceaselessly punching the child.

    The tiny boy was allowed only the bare minimum for his survival, except for water due to the figure''s hobby of drowning him in the barrel.

    Occasionally, a woman would appear in his home, to clean his waste and provide a new barrel, but her conscience could not turn a blind eye to all that had happened to the poor child and she took care of him as much as she could, feeding him, tending to his wounds or even teaching him words, she did her best to help him without being caught, to the man the both of them feared.

    She made a promise with him, the promise was to never speak words in front of the man, to never reveal his knowledge of her language to the man.

    However, the boy was one day subjected to a new horror, it was to kill others who were much larger then to himself, or more skilled.

    Though unwilling, he had no choice but to murder them as they seemed to be greatly motivated by perhaps the man''s promises, which would come true if they killed him. carving an instinct of trusting no one but that woman.

    Though their death screams as they trashed in fear of their end shook him greatly, but the rewards of their flesh that satiated his unending starvation for days quickly took away his hesitation and instead turned it into anticipation, for the days of torture to pass and the days where he could kill to come.

    However, when he was 6, one female child, who seemed too weak and unworthy of the now savage him, appeared before his eyes, and spoke the language which he had learnt.

    "Please... Do not kill me." she had begged, her eyes and words boring holes into his concentration, his mind playing scenes of the kind woman he knew, his arms dropping to the sides, instinctively recoiling from the thought of killing the girl who was similar to the woman.

    But as his hands dropped, the girl''s expression and immediately attacked at his heart, her arm reached out and her sharp nails threatening to take his life. Instead of finding its mark to his chest, a shock flashed passed her eyes and the man who stood behind her kicked her legs, causing her to fall to the ground as an hole in the middle of her torso was revealed to the boy.

    "Why...?" his voice unknowingly leaked out, questioning the man who had never stopped any fatal attacks for him before.

    Before he could react, the man gripped his throat and for the first time, spoke, "Who taught you how to speak." and as he speak, his grip gradually became stronger, the evil glint in his eyes scaring the boy.

    "I''m sorry, I''m sorry, I''m sorry...." he said continuously.

    She had taught him, ''I''m sorry'' was a phrase that would let another forgive him if spoke with sincerity, but he did not mean for that man to receive those two words, it was for the woman whom he knew he had doomed, as it was no trouble to find the culprit that taught him since only she was given the chances to enter his home for long periods of time.

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

    The man who held him up dropped him, and stormed out of his home only to return with the woman, holding her by her neck.

    Throwing her to the ground before him, he spoke, "Move and I will make her pay even more." finishing his words, he started to hit her carefully, making sure to not kill her too quickly.

    Seeing the gentle woman who took care of him beaten, his heart started to race, too afraid to move, his hands ripped at his hair, his eyes unable to look away at the eyes that screamed at him for his betrayal.

    While beaten, the woman groaned out, unable to forming words due to the pain, but from the way her lips moved, he knew what she wanted to say.

    She wanted to say, "You traitor." with her eyes full of hate.

    Knowing what she meant, he started to tremble even more, the two words he wanted to say could not come out, he could only watch the relentless beating ensued as his heart and his mind gave him more pain he had ever experienced, pain that surpassed the all of the beatings he had ever experienced.

    Watching such a scene, his mind shattered, and his mouth was sealed, words refusing to come out. And slowly, the emotions that raged in his mind disappeared, leaving only indifference as he looked at the beating.

    He knew that it wouldn''t end, until that man wanted it to end, but he cared no more, the love he had for that woman a few moments gone, nothing was left, not even the frantic beating of his heart or the guilt that led him to hate himself.

    His hands that originally ripped at his hair stopped its activity, leaving the emotionless him looking at the woman.

    ''I''ll kill him, don''t worry, because you can''t, I will.'' a unknown voice spoke in his mind, perhaps to reassure him, but his unstable state did not bother to react.

    ''Then do it.'' another replied, amusement lacing his tone, ''I want to leave this place.''

    And before he realised, his body was no longer in his control, though he saw the world with the same eyes, he could not move what once was solely his.

    With strength he never knew he had, his body''s hand grabbed the arm that was aimed at the woman and stopped it, without waiting for the man that was caught off guard, the one in control of his movements jumped up and tore at that man''s neck with his teeth, ripping his flesh as blood sprayed into his mouth.

    Strangely enough, he could taste the metallic blood he was accustomed to drinking and the flesh of the man, but as he thought of the strange reason he could feel the senses of his stolen body, he was suddenly interrupted of his thoughts by the new sensation of bright light assaulting his eyes.

    "Ah!" the current owner of his body cried out as he instinctively shielded his eyes.

    After a while, his eyes became accustomed to the light and he moved his hands away, finally taking a look at the surroundings.

    Though enthralled by sight of the world he had never explored, he quickly asked the voices in his mind, ''W-who are you?''

    ''I wonder...'' the calm voice said.

    He could feel it clearly, 5 other beings shared this body, all of whom he knew nothing of.

    ''Ahh.... What are we going to do?'' the calm voice spoke again, ''But for now, lets enjoy our freedom.''

 Chapter 1

    At first I contemplated whether to give him personalities that represented his wishes, like his live for that woman can be represented by a kind female personality that he wants to protect, but I quickly decided against it.

    This chapter I will provide names so as to prevent confusion between everyone, I apologize in advance, I do not have a good naming sense. I took them from random nice sounding constellation names, blame me if you so wish to.

    ====================================

    Finishing his words, he promptly took over control of the body and broke into a run, taking deep breaths of the clean pure air that was incomparable to the damp bloody smell their home had.

    As he ran, all of the personalities in his mind was awed by the array of colors that flashed by their sight, he had learnt each of the colors'' names through the female, she would bring small books that she would hid in her clothing, books that told of a world filled with many interesting things he never knew of.

    He could not help but slowly recall the names of those colors; green, yellow, brown and also red. Though he was puzzled about the voices in his mind, no one could resist the prospects of looking at new, intriguing things.

    But they were suddenly interrupted by a small growl, a beast as large as the boy appeared in front of them, a beast with pointy ears and a bushy tail.

    Though a small distance away, it quickly managed to propel forward by pushing its two hind legs, its jaws widened to clamp onto the boy.

    The personality in charge quickly fell to the ground, his butt landing on it with a ''thump'' as he effectively escaped the attack of the possibly rabid beast. He immediately shouted, "You take care of this!" and retreated, bring forth the most aggressive one to handle the attack.

    Upon taking control, he quickly stood up and ran forwards, not giving the beast any chances to attack him from behind. Turning around, he glared at the fox, the malicious intent apparent to all of the personalities.

    Bending down and picking up a fallen branch, he looked at the beast with no urgency, his posture giving off a feeling of ''Come and attack me!'', as if threatening the beast.

    Obviously angered by the mocking gesture, the beast that had assumed a child to be inferior to him, pounced yet again, rejoicing in its mind at the prospect of a easy kill.

    But unfortunately, the child thrust the branch in his hand into the mouth of the fox, burying 3 quarters of it into its insides, and immediately let go and jumped backwards, avoiding the fox''s death throes that would happen in the next few moments.

    Losing its momentum, the fox fell to the ground, choking on its blood as it created spluttering noises, with the occasional spurts of blood coming out.

    Seeing the threat to be taken care of, using the instinct that had been carved into his mind, the personality squatted down to pick up the corpse, but was immediately stopped by the calm voice.

    ''What are you doing? If there''s one beast, there''s bound to be more!'' He snapped.

    ''We can return home, where there isn''t any beasts.''

    ''No!'' The violent personality shouted, instantly recoiling from the thought of returning from that place.

    ''Then lets climb the trees, it''ll give us a good vantage point.'' suggested the calm voice.

    Walking around the place carefully while the calm voice listened carefully for enemies, they finally came to a giant tree with branches they could sit on with their legs crossed, clumsily scaling the large trunk, he sat down and laid onto the trunk, perhaps worn down by the spontaneous events that happened in merely a single day.

    The violent personality that currently took control of the body, spoke , ''Who....are we?''

    ''I don''t know.'' the calm voice replied.

    After a long silence, the boy finally spoke, but he spoke not of why they were formed in one body, but of a wish he had in a rather petulant tone, ''I want a name.'' He knew about names from the woman, though she refused to share her name.

    ''Name?.....I want one too.'' The violent personality said, in a similar tone of the boy''s.

    ''What names do you want?'' the calm voice spoke, seemingly deep in thought.

    ''Anything.'' the boy replied.

    ''Then lets use the names of the stars.'' the calm voice said, the woman had frequently spoke of stars, she had loved them much more than she loved him. He then continued, ''You are Lupus.''

    ''Lupus....'' the violent personality repeated his name, perhaps enjoying the thought of having something that represented him, that was unique amongst the multiple beings in his mind.

    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    Pointing to the smiling image of the boy that hadn''t spoken yet, he said, ''You are Vulpecula.''

    Turning to the sleeping boy that laid in a foetus position, he named him ''Lepus.''

    As if announcing his own name, he said ''I am Noctua.''

    And lastly, he said to the boy, ''You are Argo.'' with a tranquil smile, perhaps to praise himself for naming all of them, but the inconspicuous meaning behind it was not disclosed.

    ====================================

    Slowly eating the flesh of the beast, Lupus groaned and spoke out loud "I''m thirsty." they had moved more than usual today, normally they spent their days on the ground, slowly enduring the healing process of their wounds or perhaps the tortures of the man.

    ''We need to find water, is there any ponds nearby?'' Noctua said in deep thought, of course there would be, right? If not even the beasts won''t be able to live here.

    Hesitantly jumping down from the tree, Lupus started to walk brazenly, showing no fear of the beasts that will appear, though Noctua attempted to scold him about the dangerous beasts, he merely replied confidently that he would kill him of they did attack.

    Perhaps by ironic coincidence, a beast immediately appeared, only to be quickly defeated by Lupus who weilded yet another branch, along the way they encountered a few more beasts but none of them posed a threat.

    After a while of walking, they noticed the feel of the damp soil and Noctua immediately urged for him to walk further, assuring a water source to be nearby.

    "Ah! Water!" Argo called out in joy, all of them could feel the irritating dryness in their throats, and in his excitement, he took over control and sprinted to the water, happily yet clumsily cupping his hands to get water.

    Seeing Argo''s pathetic attempts to drink the water, Noctus took control with a snort, retrieving a large nearby leaf and curved it into a cup like shape, effectively collecting water for drinking.

    After a few satisfying mouthfuls of water, the tranquil scene of the pond was disrupted by the quiet movements of a group.

    They are not beasts, was Argo''s first thought, and the originally sleeping Lepus started screaming, for them to run, for races were their biggest enemies.

    Afterall, they were faced with years of battle with all kinds of races, thus so they knew large varieties of races and their capabilities, these beings that they currently faced were humans, though not the strongest, they were amongst the smartest.

    Their body was an human''s but Argo always knew, that they were not humans, as the strength and the capabilities that they possessed far surpassed a human''s. The man also looked like a human, but he was far from a human, thus so it led him to believe that neither him or that man were humans, but artificially looked like them, perhaps due to the strange circular markings on his torso.

    Though humans could not reach the levels of other races in terms of strength, they could not be belittled as they possessed high knowledge of fighting and also magic.

    ''Let me kill them.'' Lupus said savagely, anticipating the moment where he''ll end the lives of every single one of them.

    ''How foolish are you?'' Noctus asked sarcastically, ''They''ll kill us in instants, look at their numbers.''

    ''We run! We run!'' Lepus screamed, seemingly terrified of the humans.

    ''You shut up, they will bring us useful knowledge if we follow them without being caught.'' Noctus said, childlike eagerness at the thoughts of learning new information.

    As Noctus sneaked away from the banks of the pond, he entered the forest yet again but this time he scaled the trees, carefully and silently making his way to the group of humans who was merrily setting up camp.

    "Get the fire up, we''ll be feastin on dis boar tonight!" a large bulky man said joyously, pumping his fist in the air.

    Closing in, Noctus started carefully inspecting their every movement, greedily taking in every bit of information that could be derived from the actions, speech and even gestures of every humans along with the appearance and uses of every item he could see.

    Though before he could finish spying and escape, the bulky man suddenly turned to his direction and smiled, before Noctus could react, a large rock was thrown his way, with such force that easily broke the branch with a snap, causing them to fall to the ground.

    ''AHH! I TOLD YOU TO RUN!'' Lepus shouted, hate and fear mixed into his voice.

    Immediately taking over the body, Lupus ran, though slightly unwilling. But instead they was quickly surrounded by the group of humans.

 Chapter 2

    ''...'' is the personalities speaking in the mind and "..." is only available for the personality in control, the personality can alternate between speaking out loud or speaking mentally, but when agitated or over excited, they may speak out loud which can be heard by other people and personalities together, while speech said mentally will only be heard by personalities.

    ======================================

    "Eh? A kid?" The burly man said in shock and slight curiosity.

    ''What do we do? Won''t we be killed?!'' Argo questioned, trembling at the thought of death.

    ''We''re doomed....we''re doomed..we''re doomed...'' Lepus repeatedly mumbled as he cradled his head.

    ''I''ll take out a few before our death! Oi! Get out Noctus!'' Lupus attempted to take control but ultimately failed as he was stopped by Noctus who took charge after they were surrounded.

    "Shut up!" Noctus shouted, seemingly annoyed by the wave of noises.

    "How rude....either ways, why are you here, don''t you know its dangerous." The burly man asked.

    Noctus did not reply, but instead had a troubled expression as he seemed to be in thought, perhaps thinking of a way to escape this predicament without any dangers to their life.

    "Ohhh, hey hey, Wukai, remember that damned book? About the one with the....the, what was it again, Wolves?" Another guy with dishevelled hair called out with his hand on the burly man''s shoulder.

    "Che, I don''t read books like you, you damned fool, so what about that book?" The burly man named Wukai retorted.

    "This kid is totally the one in the story, the one where.... Umm, the kid gets raised by wolves." the man said rather excitedly.

    "Eh?" suddenly being talked about, Noctus who was currently ignored made a stupid voice.

    "You can talk?" Another woman called out, running over towards him in interest.

    "Lira, don''t just go over!" The messy haired man said while rubbing his head, "He could be dangerous, you know."

    "Look how cute he is, I''ll be fine~" she said, patting Noctus''s head.

    ''That damned bitch, where is she touching!'' (Lupus)

    Noctus looked at the woman with shock, "W-what are you doing?"

    While patting him, her hand accidently moved his rather long hair to reveal multiple gashes on his face.

    "Eh, kid? What''s with your injuries?" the messy haired man said, his face coming close to Noctus''s.

    Touching his largest wound on his forehead, Noctus awkwardly said "I scratched myself."

    ''What are you doing! Don''t talk to them! Why are you talking to them, we shouldn''t talk! We never talk!'' Nepus screamed.

    ''Aa~ah, shut up, I know what to do." Noctus replied in annoyance.

    "Where are you from?" the woman called Lira asked, continuing to pat him gently.

    "I...don''t know.." Noctus sniffled, trying to fake innocence.

    "Eh, d-don''t cry kid." the man said, his hands awkwardly patting his back to perhaps comfort him.

    "Ugh, I''m getting cold, let''s just go back to the campsite first." Wukai said, turning around to leave.

    "Hey," Lira said, squatting down to reach Noctus''s eye level, "what''s your name?"

    Rubbing his eyes to fake the action of wiping away his tears, he replied with hiccups in between, "N, Noctus..."

    Moving away his hands, he revealed a tear stained face which he had created by wetting his hands with saliva.

    "Its alright Noctus, lets go to the campsite together and I''ll have them heal your wounds, okay?" Lira asked gently, holding her hand out for him to hold.

    "Nnn..." he said, grabbing onto her hand with a small smile.

    Her hand was....warm, comforting.

    Which they hated.

    ======================================

    "What are you wearing anyway? It''s so dirty." she said while two of her fingers pinched at the large piece of cloth that covered him.

    They had been wearing this for as long as they could remember, this yellowish, tattered cloth dotted with blood.

    Putting his two hands up in the air, she smoothly pulled up the cloth, with the intention of letting him wear the large shirt of one of the men in their group. But after taking off the cloth, her eyes widened in shock and her mouth opened and closed, seemingly wishing to say something.

    "K-kid, what happened to you."

    After taking off the tattered old cloth, a strange circular mark that was engraved on the child appeared, it seemed fairly obvious it was carved onto his flesh with a magic tool a long time ago. However, what shocked her was the wounds came into their sights. Bruises larger than his palms, gashes so long that it crossed from his chest to his back filled his entire body, from his head to his toes.

    "What in the world...?" she could not help but ask.

    "I fell down." he replied, taking the large shirt and fumbling to put it on.

    Though shaken, seeing his attempts to put on the shirt, she helped him wear it as she silently thought about what could have happened to this child.

    "You fell down? What kind of an excuse is that?!" the messy haired man shouted, seemingly rather shocked at the countless wounds.

    "A....Alice, please heal him." Lira said, turning to a woman who wore white robes.

    "Yes." she said as she aimed her palms at him, her eyes closed as she softly mumbled a chant.

    Seeing the light in her hands, Noctus fought the urge to run away.

    They had seen others use magic before, to them, magic was something extremely painful. But the word ''heal'' did not seem harmful, thus so, Noctus fought against his instinct for the first time.

    Noticing Noctus''s wariness towards Alice, Lira held his shoulders in attempt to calm him down as the white light slowly embraced his body.

    The magic enveloped him, his bruises fading and gashes closing, eliminating the pain all the personalities were used to feeling.

    ''M-magic?" Argo said fascinated, he had seen people use magic before, but all of them were harmful and painful, however for the first time ever, magic that was used on him, did not hurt.

    In his trance, Noctus''s hand reached out to touch the light, perhaps in curiosity of the new type of magic, or perhaps in gratitude of the light''s healing that took away his pain.

    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

    Seeing the child so engrossed and intrigued at mere healing magic they encounter everyday, a sad atmosphere surrounded them as they thought of what had happened to this child.

    "Do we turn him to the guild?" Alice asked, a worried expression appearing on her face. The mark seen on him could be the act of a devil, or perhaps a human that went down the wrong path.

    "What will they do to him...it''s not safe for him there...." Lira mumbled, her expression showing that she was deep in thought.

    Silence reigned over the crowd that surrounded the campfire, all of the humans seemingly rather disturbed.

    "What''s with this atmosphere, eh? It''s simple, if you don''t want to hand him over, then let''s just keep him! Hahaha!" Wukai guffawed at their idiocy.

    "Keep him?! He''s not a pet!" Lira shouted.

    "Then let''s hand him over to the guild." Wukai said, tearing off the meat of a bone with his teeth.

    "....."

    "Make up yer mind, will you?" he asked, his gaze aimed straight at her.

    "I....don''t mind if we keep him." Alice said, her expression as blank as always.

    While they had their conversation, Noctus was replaced by Argo who interestedly ate the cooked meat.

    ''What''s with this, this is disgusting!'' (Lupus)

    ''It''s unexpectedly good, huh, I wonder how they made it.'' (Noctus)

    =======================================

    Though they were invited to sleep next to Lira, Alice and a few other women, Noctus rejected their invitation to read a few magic books Alice brought with her sitting on the branch of a large tree.

    They did not need any rest mentally, but physically yes. Fortunately, reading was not too taxing physically.

    Though he did not know some words, the easier spells were easily picked up by him.

    With a small flame burning at his fingertip illuminating the book in his hands, Noctus read from dusk to dawn.

    "Good morning~" Lira greeted with a drowsy smile, she had just woken up and was heading towards the pond to wash up.

    "Eh? Um, good morning." Argo greeted.

    Carefully climbing down the tree, Argo returned the books into Alice''s bag and met with the messy haired guy that had introduced himself as Kao, he was currently cooking the leftovers of the boar for breakfast.

    After washing up, Lira greeted Kao and sat down next to Argo.

    Within a span of 2 hours, everyone had woken up and eaten, after packing their things, they delved deeper into the forest to complete their mission.

    "Um, what is your mission?" Argo asked hesitantly, pulling at Alice''s robe.

    "It is to kill a Red Mamba, the requestor wants the snake for cooking." She replied.

    "It''s venomous and strong at the same time, the rewards for killing it is damned good~" Kao said happily.

    After 3 hours of continuous trekking and killing beasts that came too close, the beast known as the Red Mamba was finally spotted.

    Upon noticing the humans that trespassed its territory, the beast quickly slithered over with the intention of killing.

    As instructed, Argo stayed at the very back to prevent being attacked, all of the personalities were rather intrigued as they watched the battle start.

    Alice and Lira stayed at the back, their duties were to weaken the beast with magic and bolts, Lira had a contraption called a crossbow that greatly interested Noctus.

    Almost simultaneously, the both of them fired a bow and a lightning bolt towards the beast.

    "Bang!" the snake that was distracted by it''s agitation towards the humans that stood the closest to it were easily struck.

    "Ssss...." Noticing the threat this group of humans posed, it raised its body off the ground and revealed it''s neck flap in a imposing manner before striking multiple times at the humans in front of it.

    "Be careful of it''s attacks, there''s poison!" Kao shouted to the rest of his friends before raising his shield to block the attack, however the beast''s tyrannical strength pushed him back.

    Despite it''s attack being blocked, the beast did not stop and instead aimed at the next human, who were rather unlucky, he did not react fast enough and was bitten at the head, a disgusting noise sounded and his life was ended.

    "What the fuck!" Koa shouted as his teammate''s blood was splattered onto him.

    Seeing their friend killed, the others immediately raised their shields, though the beast had already stopped striking.

    "I already noticed that your team were bad, but I didn''t expect you people to be that bad!"

    Despite the death, both of the women were unfazed and continued to rain magic spells and bolts onto the beast.

    Wukia who took the chance as the beast prepared to strike again, jumped out of the defensive line with his large axe chopping down onto the beast''s head.

    However before his axe could hit his mark, the beast''s tail swooped him away and the force caused him to be sent flying towards a tree.

    "Argh!"

    Seeing them struggle, none of the personalities came to help, they merely continued to watch with indifference to their plight. Luckily, the group of humans all assumed the child to be weak, thus so they did not question why he did not assist them.

    After Wukia was sent flying, the defensive line kept the beast at bay whilst Alice prepared a large spell, she was trying to form a large ice bolt that will pierce through the beast''s scales and into it''s head.

    And as she chanted, Wukia who was sent to the side and forgotten, had gotten up with his axe.

    Silently creeping up to the almost blind beast that was occupied, he chopped off a large part of it''s tail.

    "Hssssssssss....." it cried out in pain, as it turned to retaliate, Alice finished her spell and effectively killed the beast.

    "....Thank god it''s over." Koa sat on the ground panting, he had used up all his strength to keep the beast at bay.

    Wukia who supported himself with his hands on his knees, said while being out of breath, "Come on, lets go back."

 Chapter 3

    Grabbing onto Lira''s hand again, Argo walked with them back to their home.

    After leaving the forest and walking on a dirt path, they met with various humans, though not much attention was paid to them.

    Finally they reached a city, civilization of the humans.

    ''Is this where the human''s call home?'' Noctus took in every detail carefully.

    ''...che.'' (Lupus)

    "Woah...." Argo could not help but call out, astounded by the cobble and wood houses that situated on the sides of the stone brick path.

    Two of the outsiders in the group carried the snake corpse, Noctus had noticed that a few members of the human''s group were merely a team that had participated with Wukia''s team to hunt this beast.

    After reaching a large building that was called the Guild, Lira waited with Argo while the rest of the group went to turn in the corpse to receive the reward.

    While waiting, Argo nibbled on the Fish stick Lira had bought for him at a food stand, however as he ate, Noctus seemed to have a thoughtful atmosphere around him, as if he found something fishy.

    After completing some small talk with the other team, Wukia split the rewards and said their goodbyes to each other.

    "Let''s go rest, I''m tired~" Kua yawned, rubbing his head as he did so.

    Leaving the guild building, they came to an Inn and entered on of it''s rooms.

    Seeing Lira enjoyably bouncing on the bed with a relieved expression, Argo hesitantly did the same, "Go to sleep, Noctus, you didn''t sleep yesterday night right?"

    "Eh?"

    "You were still on the tree late into the night, I saw you reading while I came out to use the toilet."

    "O-Oh, y...yea."

    Suddenly being hugged from behind, the both of them fell to the bed and she said softly, "Go to sleep, okay?"

    Closing his eyes, he fought the urge to wrench away from her and repeated in a small voice, "Okay."

    ''We really can''t trust anyone, huh?'' Argo sighed.

    ''Of course not, only fools would.'' (Noctus)

    Sighing yet again, Argo closed his eyes, focusing on the colorful lights that greatly contrasted the darkness of his blocked eyesight.

    ===========================

    Waking up, they noticed himself in an entirely white room, with only a single door and a bed.

    Noctus who took control started to laugh, clutching his stomach as he did so.

    "Come out, where ever you are." He said out loud.

    ''Who are you talking to?'' Argo asked.

    ''I''ll kill that person when he comes out.'' (Lupus)

    "You''re intelligent, huh." A girl said as the door opened, a big smile on her face.

    "..."

    ''Damned bitch, who is she looking down on!''

    "I''ll explain everything to you, okay? Listen well~" she continued, skipping into the room without any wariness towards them.

    Noctus who sat on the bed pulled his legs together and sat cross legged, his head rested on his hand as he replied, "Please do answer my questions after you''re done explaining."

    "Of course~ Now where should I start..." she said, rubbing her chin with a thoughtful expression was seen on her face, "Ah, how about your parents? That''s a worthy topic, isn''t it?"

    ''I...have parents?'' Argo thought to himself, he known the meaning to this word, it belonged to a pair of beings belonging to the opposite sex, a pair of beings supposed to care for their offspring.

    "See, they are dreadfully strong you know~ Taking their child for myself was an impossible mission, however I pulled it off since you had a twin, two from the same egg, something they did not know about~" She said as she parted her index and middle finger nonstop in a scissor like gesture, as if implying the number two. "Thus so, I didn''t have any problems with a pair of angry parents hunting me down."

    "And after taking you, I decided to destroy your ability to trust anyone, it was really simple you know," she said, counting on her fingers, "Abusing you, letting you escape and meet a few humans that''ll eventually betray you, but a miscalculation was the trash I had sent to clean your dwelling, that trash was only tasked to teach you words, not give you pity and support." speaking until this point, her expression became extremely twisted as she was dragged into her own world.

    As she bit her already bleeding fingers in frustration, her train of thought was stopped by Noctus''s words, "Why are you telling me all this? Are you not afraid that I''ll kill you? Or regain my trust to others?"

    "Haha, of course not," she said, leaning her face near his, "you can''t kill me, neither can you trust anyone anymore~"

    ''I''ll kill her, I''ll chop her to pieces, I''ll do it....I want to kill her!'' Lupus screamed. He had thought back to the sights to children playing with their parents, the unspeakable envy he had felt, now that it was combined with the anger her words had induced, he forcefully took control and pounced towards the girl.

    But as his fingers coiled around her skinny neck, strength refused to enter his grip and instead left his hands trembling.

    "I already said," she mocked while giggling, "you can''t kill me."

    "Buut, if you let me do as many experiments on you as I wish, I''ll let you kill me when I''m done." she said, wagging her finger in front of them.

    ''Lupus, get out.'' Noctus shouted as he took over.

    "I don''t see how I will benefit from it." Noctus replied as he returned to his original position of sitting cross legged.

    "Oh my, are you perhaps Bipolar? How interesting..." She said whilst thinking, "I''ve already noticed this for quite a while, but why do you change so drastically in terms of personality...."

    Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

    Within a short silence, an array of emotions swept through her face, suddenly, an enlightened expression appeared on her face and she grabbed the hands of Noctus, "If by chance, do you have Dissociative Identity Disorder? Oh that would be marvellous, imagine all the endless possibilities of things I can do!"

    Wrenching his hands away from her grasp, Noctus said seemingly annoyed, "Answer my question."

    As if brought back to reality by his words, she nodded and replied, "You see, I always had interest in Human Enhancement, my goal was to create the strongest human in history, but no one listened to me, they thought it was blasphemy! Those fools will never understand what I could have accomplished, so while holding onto my beliefs, I ended my life, thinking that perhaps if there was reincarnation, I would definitely accomplish my dream!" As she spoke, she gnawed on her fingers, the originally bleeding finger was injured even more, with a stream of blood going down her hand.

    "Now that I am reborn, I will do what I could not in that world, using you, I swear that you will become a being that far surpasses other beings and when I have accomplished my goal, I''ll gladly let you kill me." She finished with a smile, thrusting her hand out for him to shake.

    "How will I know that you will keep the end of your promise?" Noctus asked, seemingly swayed by the plan she had.

    "We''ll make a contract, those who fail to keep their end of the promise will be killed by a higher power, hehe, don''t worry~" she then continued, "So, tell me, about all the personalities you have, I wanna know!" as she moved closer to Noctus with sparkling eyes.

    ''Personalities, we''re....personalities?'' (Argo)

    "No, lets do the contract first, and about why Lupus couldn''t kill you." Noctus said warily.

    "Lupus? You have names for each personalities? Oooo...." She said as she yet again started to drift away in her thoughts.

    "Answer me!" He shouted, perhaps unhappy at how vulnerable he would be if she could control him.

    "Che, I guess she didn''t teach you manners or patience, you inpatient little....ahhh...." She said, rubbing the bridge of her small nose, "You know that circular marking on your torso? I carved it on you so that you''ll be seen as a human by others, your original form is much more troublesome. Either ways, your race makes it so that I can tame you as a familiar, the marking not only conceals you, it also allows me to control you."

    "If you want me to cooperate with you, take it off."

    "Definitely not, who knows if that personality, Lupus, would attack me~ I can''t die just yet~" She said with a thoughtful expression, her cheek leaning on her index finger.

    ''You bitch, I''ll kill her with that stupid mark, it can''t stop me!''

    ''You''re noisy.'' Noctus said with an exasperated tone.

    ''N-noctus, let me through, I want to ask her something, please.'' Argo said rather hesitantly, and right after he finished his words, he was given the control.

    "Umm, is it okay if I kill those adventurers..." He hesitantly asked. They already knew they were going to be betrayed, at the guild, Noctus had noticed a piece of paper on the board with the word ''Claimed'', on that paper were details regarding himself and where he could be found. Though, what had made him want to kill them was not because of the betrayal, it was because of the fake kind acts they had done for him, though he did not trust them, he was still rather sad thinking about how those smiles they had gave him was fake.

    "Another one?! This is great...." she said chewing at her fingers, the act seemingly one of her habits, "Of course, that is if you willingly agree to signing the contract without me forcing you, I won''t take off the familiar mark, but I will add in a rule for myself in the contract of how I would not harm you for no reason."

    "Umm, I agree." Argo said with slight hesitation, it did not seem to them that she was dangerous.

    "Hehe, I already have the contract with me, look~" She said as she took out a piece of paper from her pocket, shoving it close to his face, "Sign here~"

    After reading the seemingly okay contract, Noctus gave a okay and Argo signed it.

    "Now that that''s over, tell me about the personalities. No wait, answer this first, which of you are the original?" she asked with sparkling eyes.

    "O...original?" Argo asked, as if incapable of understanding.

    "There must be the original personality, who is it?" she asked, grasping his hand in excitement.

    At that moment, all kinds of thoughts went through the personalities.

    Noctus took over and answered, "It''s me."

    "Are you sure? Why do you think so~" she asked, her palms resting on both sides of her face.

    "I have memories of what happened before the other personalities entered this body." he said calmly.

    ''So do I! Noctus!'' Lupus shouted.

    "Hmm, so it''s not known, huh~ " she said while rubbing her chin.

    "I already said, it''s me!" Noctus said, seemingly annoyed.

    "Then, what''s with your expression? Doesn''t seem to me that you are sure." she said, wagging her finger. "Well, lets put that matter away, don''t you want to kill those adventurers? But of course, you''re still too weak to fight them, therefore, lets begin the tests~, Okay~" she asked with a tilted head and a happy expression.

    "...Why not."

 Chapter 4

    "Nnn, good job, it seems your strength has improved yet again..." she muttered softly as she scribbled down some words onto a piece of paper.

    Its been a few months at least, within these few months, he grew much taller and his slivery hair grew even longer, reaching his hips.

    "Got it." Lupus replied as he left the training room, she seemed to have a large amount of space and rooms.

    "Oh and, since you''ve improved by quite a lot since the last time, I prepared something for you, hehe." She said happily, her face resting on her hand.

    "What is it?" Argo asked as he took over, Lupus had given control to him.

    "Ah, Argo is it? Good thing you''re here, since you''re the one that asked for it~" She said even more excited, "Come with me, okay?~"

    "?" As Argo thought about what could his request be, he tilted his head and looked at Iris as she opened the door.

    "Nnn?" she turned around, perhaps wondering why he hadn''t moved, "You forgot? Haa... The adventurers! You said you wanted to kill them, right? I got them for you but it took quite a bit of money! I can''t believe your memory is that bad! Geez..."

    "Oh..." Argo muttered, he had thrown all of his thoughts about them to the back of his mind, now that he was suddenly reminded of their existence, his mood was slightly dampened as he recalled his short time with them.

    "Lets go!~" she chirped, "Hurry and do the deed so we can attend to other things~ We can''t be wasting time on your wilful requests."

    Hearing her chirp excitedly, he was brought back to reality and he answered with a "Okay." and wearily trudged on as he thought about what their reactions would be when they saw him.

    The whole building was white, within these few months of living with the girl named Iris, he noticed that her favourite color was white, though perhaps by coincidence, her hair was pearl white and her skin was similarly milky white.

    She did not speak much about herself, or the world that she used to inhabit, in return, neither did any of the personalities attempt to connect with her, their relationship was rather vague.

    Though, Iris had seemed to be rather compliant to the requests of the personalities and all her actions were to their benefit, she had provided literature to Noctus as well as weapons for them.

    As Argo thought about the elf named Iris, she suddenly called out to him as he bumped into her, it seemed that she had abruptly stopped in her tracks to talk to him, however since he was lost in his thoughts, he failed to notice her and continued to walk.

    "Ouch, oi! Snap out of it!" she shouted as she waved her hand in his face, after confirming that she had his attention, she continued, "I have them tied up in there in case they attack you together, if you want you can always untie them, I''ll be monitoring you with him, okay?~" She cheerfully said while a bird appeared in her hands.

    Noctua knew about her familiars, they were kept in a space using magic and can be summoned at her will, all of her pets were modified to suit her needs, this white hawk in her hand was modified with mind magic to relay visual information to her.

    "...I got it." Argo said as he hesitantly placed his hand onto the door''s lever handle, slowly pushing it open, he entered the room as the door closed behind him.

    How would they react to him? Perhaps guilt for betraying him? Or relief knowing he was fine? Or anger at him for kidnapping them?

    As he walked further into the room, he caught the sight various small rooms enclosed with glass panels and glass window doors, though they were strategically made so that the occupants of a room was unable to see into an another room.

    They had been tied up and placed individually in those rooms, as he came into their sights, Koa''s worried expression had suddenly changed to relief, though his mouth was blocked with a cloth, the muffled shouts were still audible.

    Opening the door to Koa, he sat down next to him and asked, "Umm, are you okay? Can you tell me something?"

    Seeing the child he betrayed sitting next to him with a sad expression, various thoughts whirled in his mind as he attempted to relay the fact that he was unable to speak due to the bindings at his mouth.

    "Oh, eh....I''m sorry!" Argo apologised as he took off the cloth that was stuffed into Koa''s mouth.

    "Haa, haaa...." Koa panted for quite a while before he finally spoke, "Kid, why are you here? Please take off these ropes for us, its dangerous here!"

    "Eh? It is?" Argo asked, "Whose dangerous?"

    "I dunno kid, but someone is out for us, you need to release us!" He explained in a panic.

    "I''ll get you out of here too! Just take off these ropes!" He shouted again, seeing Argo who was lost in his thoughts.

    "Umm, Iris will be angry if I let you go...." He hesitantly said, she would most certainly be upset if she found out that the adventurers she had caught for Argo was released.

    "Is she the one that abused you? Don''t listen to her! She''s not a good person! She caught us here to kill us!" He shouted as his arms shook violently in attempts to escape.

    "Eh? No, I''m the one who wants to kill you, she only got you all for me..." he replied, unsure why Koa would think that Iris would want to kill them, she wouldn''t even bother to.

    "What?" Koa asked in disbelief, this innocent looking child would want to kill him? It was a ridiculous thought.

    Brandishing the knife Iris had bought for him, Argo said softly to him, "Umm, please answer my question.

    "What are you doing! You''re being manipulated, aren''t you! She''s the one that''s been abusing you, why are you helping her!" seeing the knife, he started to shake more violently to get the ropes off.

    "Eh? She didn''t manipulate me or did she abuse me, she said it was a necessary process to go through if I wanted to be strong.... Plus I''ll get to kill her soon, so it doesn''t matter..." he muttered, wondering why Koa would speak such things.

    Lupus who was watching at the sidelines suddenly spoke, ''What are you doing? Just kill him already!'' he shouted, ''If you can''t do it, I will!''

    "Umm, Lupus... I can do it... I just want to ask him things..." he said rather petulantly, perhaps upset at Lupus''s words, he hated the idea of being weak anymore.

    "Who are you talking to? No, is it Iris? N-Noctus, listen to me, please just untie these ropes, I''ll take you away from her, don''t believe her lies, okay?"

    "Don''t call me Noctus, that isn''t my name.... I''m Argo...." He said seemingly upset, within these few months, Iris had been treating all of the personalities differently, causing the personalities'' to develop a strong sense of identity.

    If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    Suddenly being recognised as another personality irked Argo, he repeated yet again to perhaps further highlight his point, "I''m Argo, don''t call me Noctus." as he spoke, he threw the knife to the ground with upset.

    Gritting his teeth, Koa profusely apologized, "I-I''m sorry, okay? A-Argo, let me go and then we''ll talk, okay?"

    ''You''re too fucking slow, you shitty bastard!'' Lupus shouted, upset that Argo had taken too much time, he forcefully took control and took up the knife that was thrown to the ground.

    "Now...Argo, please cut the rope, okay?"  thinking that perhaps Argo had relented and decided to save them, he smiled as he asked him.

    "Fuck you." Lupus smiled and stabbed at Koa''s heart with the knife.

    Noticing the knife embedded in his chest, a shocked expression appeared on Koa''s face as his mouth opened and closed, it seemed as though he was attempting to speak but only incoherent noises were formed.

    After being taught the basics of biology by Iris, Noctus had learnt various things, though uninterested, Lupus who could access the senses of the body even when he was not in control involuntary learnt some facts, one of them was that by puncturing the  right ventricle or perhaps the major veins or arteries, the pericardium sac would be filled with blood causing the heart to be incapable of expanding and thus causing a quick death.

    After stabbing him, Lupus pulled out the knife and left the room, his hand reaching for the door that led to Alice, pushing it open, he smiled and did the same, however this time, he punctured the left ventricle.

    "Hey hey, Alice, does it hurt? Can you heal yourself?" Lupus asked, due to Noctus''s request of experimenting with Alice''s healing power, he had decided to not cause a quick death.

    Sitting down facing her who was still gagged, the personalities watched with varying amounts of interest, but instead of amusing them, Alice died from blood loss as she was unable to chant and cast the spell.

    After that Lupus went on to kill the rest, their deaths were rather anticlimactic, finally they reached Lira''s room.

    Entering her room, Lupus who was covered in blood smiled, but somehow, his hands trembled at the thought of killing her, it was as though Argo was a phantom that was currently holding back his hand.

    Fighting the resistance that kept his hand still, he spoke to Argo, "You idiot, weren''t you the one that said you can''t trust them? Weren''t you the one that asked to kill them?!"

    ''E-even so, I wa....want to trust them....please just.....just ask her why...''

    "....Tsk." clicking his tongue, he pulled off all of her restrains and grabbed Lira by her neck, "Tell me, why did you betray us?"

    Noticing the bashful child whom she had known had disappeared and changed into such a character perhaps because of her betrayal, a guilty expression appeared on her face, "I''m so sorry, Noctus, I didn''t want to do it, but we already agreed to the request.... If we did not hand you in before the deadline, other groups would steal you and pass you in, I just, believe me, I''m sorry okay? I really liked you Noctus, I tried to convince them but they said you had to go, I wanted to keep you..." she apologized profusely, fear evident in her eyes as she saw the blood stains on her clothes, "I have a sick brother, I need to collect money to cure him, I had no choice, neither did the others, are they okay, please tell me they''re okay, we''re sorry..."

    They had bee kept here for a few days, she who was worried about her sick brother was worn down mentally and physically, seeing the child she betrayed stained with blood, her mind was on the brink of collapsing.

    "I''ll love you okay? Please let us go, we can go and live together with my brother, he''s very sick so we need to go back and cure him, I''m sorry Noctus, please don''t do anything rash."

    Hearing the words "I love you", Lupus''s hand dropped, a shocked expression seen on his face.

    Realizing that Lupus had reacted to those three words, she who fell to the ground, hugged him, "Thank you Noctus, I love you, we can be happy together with my brother, my brother''s name is Linley, you''ll like him, he''s your age, I''ll adopt you and love you, lets go back with the others, okay?"

    Instead of registering what the desperate Lira was speaking, Lupus fell down as he was attacked with a painful headache, he was blocking Argo from taking control, but someone other than him was pushing against his block.

    "Vulpecula?! You bastard, what are you doing?!" Lupus shouted as he grabbed at his head, seemingly incapable of fending off the personality that had never spoken or took control before.

    After merely a few seconds, Vulpecula took control and blocked all of the personalities, cutting off any sensory feed to them as he did so.

    Becoming the sole controller of the body and blocking away the senses of the personalities, he gently caressed the face of Lira with a wide smile, "Sister Lira, I''ll love you back if you love me."

    Finally seeing hope from the child, she replied with a shaky voice, "Yes, I love you, but what happened earlier?" Although she had a bad feeling about the sudden change of demeanours, she couldn''t help but ask.

    "The other personalities are mean, they want to kill you but I won''t let them, because you''re mine and I love you, Lira." He said with the same wide smile as he embraced her.

    As Vulpecula spoke, the personalities who were entirely cut off from the body were panicking, especially Noctus.

    After talking with Iris, they had came to the conclusion that the personalities were formed by the mindsets they had possessed before.

    Noctus was the calm and intelligent side of the original that longed to learn more about the world he was forbidden to explore.

    Lupus was the violent and hateful side of the original that thirsted for the deaths of those around him.

    Lepus was the fearful and weak side of the original that feared everyone.

    Vulpecula was the twisted side that had first thought what the man did to him was love.

    They were a social being, living in a place and experiencing only beatings by a man he always saw, he had somehow interpreted the man as his father and that the beatings were a way he showed his love to him.

    They who had experienced nothing else, thought that those beatings were good, that the time he spent alone was bad, they had first spent their times awaiting eagerly for that man.

    Of course, such thoughts were abandoned after they received kind treatment from that woman, but somehow, that part of them were resurrected in a personality.

    The personality that thought abusing was a form of love.

 Chapter 5

    Everything is so fast paced....I can''t help it!

    =================================

    After a while, which seemed like an eternity to the personalities, they finally saw a crack in the wall Vulpecula had built to keep them away.

    He was seemingly upset at Lira, perhaps due to his emotions, the block he had created was affected.

    "Shut up!" he had screamed at her as he twisted the blade of his knife into her arm.

    Receiving the wound that accumulated with the rest of the injuries on her body, tears started to flow as she clenched her teeth to bear the pain.

    Noticing her tears, Vulpecula''s expression immediately softened and her cupped her cheek, kissing the other cheeck, he softly mumbled to her with his hand ruffling her hair the way she had did it to him.

    However as he did so, Noctus who had slipped through the cracked wall, took over the body.

    Running out of the room and regulating his breathing, Noctus made sure to block Vulpecula out, he had hated the idea of loving anyone, even if it was through a twisted way.

    Pushing the hair that was damp with his sweat out of his face, he shook his head a few times to clear his mind before entering the room yet again.

    Upon entering, he was greeted with the naked body of Lira, there were rather beautiful markings crossed onto her body, markings that Noctus knew well.

    The one stab she had received as Vulpecula was agitated seemed out of place, however, Noctus was glad for it''s imperfection for it would not bring back those memories.

    Glancing at her face, he had noticed the fear in her eyes as her arms trembled to cover herself up.

    Knowning that it was useless to act his way out of this mess, he sighed before speaking, "Blame yourself for every taking up that mission."

    Though she was surprised at his change, her bleeding self could not move, she could only position her gaze onto him as she waited for death and thankfully, it came swift. Noctus had effortlessly pierced her chest bone and her heart.

    As she died, she softly sputtered a single word, "Monster."

    Pushing his hair that had yet again invaded his vision back, he replied the now dead Lira, "Who''s the monster here."

    Leaving the room for the last time, he looked that the white falcon that had perched up top, signalling for Iris to open the locked door.

    As if on cue, the door unlocked from the other side, allowing him to leave the bloody room.

    Iris was standing on the other side, she looked rather interested at him with her eyebrow raised, "A new dominant personality?"

    Rubbing the back of his head while his back rested against the wall, he replied, "Fortunately, it''s an old personality. Unfortunately, he seemed to be dominant."

    There were two categories the personalities belonged in, one actively fights for control over the body while the other were submissive and did not want to be in control.

    Noctus had a rough idea of Vulpecular''s trigger, the trigger that had fuelled his desire to take over despite being dormant for a long time. He needs to be careful from today onwards, if Vulpecula knew how to block them out, the probably knew many other things.

    "I''ll need medicine." He abruptly spoke.

    "Eh?" she made a stupid noise at the sudden request.

    "There is isn''t it, medicine to calm the nerves, reduce agitation." he asked.

    If there were such things, he wouldn''t need to fear that Argo or any of the personalities would slip up, if they wanted to take control and block Vulpecula out without any risks, they needed some sort of thing that''ll prevent their emotions from running rampant, as the block will crack and Vulpecula could take over.

    It was a scary thought, they couldn''t do anything while Vulpecula was in control, only when he was agitated they could escape, he seemed to be rather against them and if he was in control again, who knows if they''ll ever escape, the thought of spending his time in a place without being able to see and feel anything.

    He''ll go crazy.

    "It''s not impossible, I''ll get it for you, but for now, I need you for something." she said as she pointed at him with her index finger, "I was so excited when it finally came, since I got those humans for you, it''s time for you to repay me!"

    "You do know I wasn''t the one that asked for them." he replied.

    Ignoring his reply, she grabbed him by the hand and dragged him into the room as she spoke, "Good thing you came out, I needed you anyways~"

    Whilst being dragged, he entered another white room which were separated in the middle, the other side only had a bed and a few machines while this side had a good amount of cages and machines.

    Automatically entering the other side, he hooked himself onto the once silent machine which were now producing a steady beat according to his heartbeat.

    Taking down his vitals, she murmured to herself, "Mm, you''re healthy as always...."

    After a while, she looked up from her papers and said to him, "Remember about the ''Mana Blood'' theory I had? I''ve gotten a breakthrough recently and had to order more of those reeeally expensive high quality mana potions to refine them, after a while of testing and modifying, I finally finished a tested recipe for safe Mana Blood!~"

    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    Pointing to the cages that were stacked near the wall, she continued, "They''re mostly all dead you know? Those ones that survived with version 5.4 Mana Blood is already tamed as familiars, they''re your seniors~"

    "Anyways, the functions of my Mana Blood version 5.5 is basically erasing the need to drink, eat or breath since the blood will provide energy to the body by absorbing it from the surroundings, but still recommend doing those, I''ll need to modify your enzymes and stuff, basically it''s troublesome but worth it, the Mana Blood will help circulate mana throughout your body and thus so by manipulating the mana in your body you''ll me able to do all kinds of stuff!~"

    Pushing him onto the bed, she hooked up a few more things before speaking again, "I''d have to drain a bit your blood and pump the Mana Blood into you, the process will be repeated a few more times before its done, I''d give you a sedative but I ran out of it, so I''ll just do it like this."

    Writing down a few more words, she strapped him down onto the table and started the machine, it really didn''t make a difference whether he was awake or not, the only pain he received was when the needles were inserted and it did not even feel painful.

    As Argo looked on with curiosity at the blood flowing out of his body through the tube, Noctus examined the Mana Blood that filled a bag. It was red like real blood, perhaps for convenience.

    After a while, perhaps due to blood loss, they started to feel drowsy and fell asleep.

    =======================

    Waking up, Argo found himself completely refreshed while he could clearly feel every single cell in his body buzzing with life.

    Raising his hand, he watched with fascination as he manipulated the blood in his body to his fingertips, causing the nails to become redder than usual, it felt like he was manipulating mana.

    His mana capacity also soared, with every single one his cells absorbing the mana from the surroundings non stop, he could pull off large scale magic skills without breaking a sweat.

    Iris was next to him, her body slumped onto his bed while she sat on a chair, her soft mumbles were audible and was accompanied with the steady rhythm of the beeping  machine was heard.

    How long has it been since his birth? If he remember correctly, he was seven years old now.

    Days seemed to have passed a bit too quick for his liking, perhaps if there weren''t these other beings in his mind, he would have killed himself already.

    Noctus would never allow him to do so, he had a goal, so did Lupus.

    Who knew if Vulpecula cared while Lepus was sleeping, Lepus had been sleeping for a long time, shaken after seeing the sights of the human city.

    He instinctively knew, today would be the day he leave this white building. After all, the Mana Blood was Iris''s main project, once it had been administered, it would be the end of their deal.

    Without a care in the world, he lay down again, focusing his enhanced hearing on the beeping whilst he closed his eyes, it was comfortable, the tranquility.

    "Nnn." after a while, Iris woke up.

    "Umm, H-hello." Argo greeted as he sat up to face her.

    "Hi Argo, it''s been a month you know?~" she greeted in return with a smile, "I noticed from your pulse that you would probably wake up today, how to you feel?"

    "I....I fe-feel great." He replied, not knowing how to bring up the matter of the end of the contract.

    Noticing the hesitation his in expression, she sighed, "Well, your intuition is right, I already took off the familiar mark."

    As she spoke, Lupus took over and stood up, perhaps preparing to kill the woman, he had always hated her, she was the one that took him away from the normal life he could have had and thrown him into hell.

    "You sure are anxious~ Do go ahead, I''ve prepared a few things for you guys, its placed at the entrance, you''ll see it when you leave."

    "Always the prepared one, huh?" Lupus replied as he gripped her neck.

    Slowly lifting her body, he watched as she winced at the increasing pressure.

    "Unfortunately so, I''m...I''m, always the prepared one~" she replied with a awful smile before the pressure crushed her neck.

    After verifying her death, he dropped her and her body fell limp onto the ground as blood leaked from her broken neck.

    As Lupus turned to leave, Noctus had softly spoke perhaps to himself, ''Fool.''

    Reaching the entrance, he started to rummage among the items left for them and as he did, a shiny white gem caught their attention among the pile.

    Noctus suddenly spoke, ''Hey, is that not her familiar necklace?''

    ''Ah, it is mine~'' a familiar voice called out.

    ''?!''

 Chapter 6

    ''Ah, it is mine~''

    ''?!''

    "What the fuck!" Lupus shouted, grabbing his head, "You!"

    ''I-Iris.....?"

    ''Hello!~''

    ''How did you, get it in here, Iris.''

    ''Ufufufu, black magic! As I''ve said, I''m always the prepared one, teehee?~''

    "You fucking bitch! You broke your promise!"

    ''Hey hey, I didn''t do that, I totally died okay? I just found a loophole, I mean, after coming to such a world, how could I leave just like that?~''

    ''I should have known...''

    ''Come on, come on, lets go!~ Don''t stand here~ The world is vast!~''

    Noctus then picked up most of the equipment after making sure that all of the useful items were taken, they left the white building.

    Opening the door, they were again attacked by sunlight, strange that they''ve had hardly spent a week under sunlight, turning around, it became apparent that it wasn''t a building, but a cave.

    ''Whats with you and caves.''

    ''It''s nice you know? Away from the troublesome people~''

    Taking out a dagger from the backpack she had packed for them, Noctus summoned one of Iris''s pets, a white Argentavis that had a large stature, and mounted it while it flew towards North, as recommended by Iris.

    ''Trust me, the place there is wonderful, their technology is very advanced, it''ll be fun for you guys~''

    ==========================

    The flight was rather uneventful as the fast speed of the bird had allowed them to speedily move along without any interference from the other flying beasts, during this time, Noctus had examined the multitude of items left behind.

    There was a necklace containing an unimaginable amount of money, not that he questioned it''s origins, he could not care less even if it was dirty money. In the necklace was also another pile of bottles, though the pile was relatively small, it''s small quantity did not pose a problem as she had provided a recipe for the pills he had requested.

    ''Aa~ah, you see, hehe, I could only produce that much within one month~'' was her excuse.

    In the bag was multiple weapons in the shape of a small cylinder he could wrap his hands around, when mana was inserted into it, the item would turn into a weapon. As she did not know which personality would prefer which weapon, she had bought almost all kinds of weapons she could get her hands on, though the daggers who were almost exclusively used by only Argo were normal daggers.

    Despite their fancy shape shifting abilities, she had informed them of how common it was and that they should purchase higher quality weapons in the future once they had each found their preferred type.

    There was a Bracelet for her familiars, filled to the brim, though the chances of using them were low, she still insisted on keeping it as releasing them would bring unnecessary trouble and killing them would be a loss.

    For the middle finger, there was a ring that contained only books that had seemingly been prepared for Noctus.

    Lastly, armour. It was relatively simple leather armour, though she had boasted how the leather came from a powerful beast and that it had great resistance to magic.

    After examining the contents, Noctus gave control to Argo so as to make time to speak with Iris, getting the details of the pros and cons that came with the Mana blood that was now running in their veins.

    Argo enjoyed the ride, the sensation of the wind brushing past his skin was enjoyable.

    Though night quickly came and they had to land, since the bird was seemingly tired after a day of flight, they had landed near a village due to both Iris''s and Noctus''s curiosity.

    Entering the village, he was greeted with the sight of simple wooden houses accompanied with large acres of land, children played cheerfully with their hands linked as the melody of the song they sang together resounded in the village.

    Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

    "The children sat on the flower wall~ One fell down and hit the floor~ Two panic and cried mommy~"

    Ignoring their singing, he walked towards one of the woman that stood close to the children, it seemed as though she was the parent of one of the children.

    "Umm, excuse......excuse me, i-is there an....any places to rest in and eat...?" Argo asked hesitantly with a small smile he had forced himself to plaster on his face.

    She opened her mouth once, but quickly closed it after a moment of hesitation.

    "Ah, an inn you mean? Certainly! Rui! Bring him to the inn!" Hearing the woman shout, a little girl with adorable plaits looked their way and walked over with a sulking expression, "Moooommy! I was playing with them!"

    "Ah, sheesh, you kid! Now go! Bring him!" Smacking her lightly on her head, she pointed to the direction of the inn.

    "Ouch! Mommyyy!" With an upset expression, she started walking towards the inn while looking at Argo interestedly with sideway glances.

    After a short, awkward, silence, she finally spoke, "Where are your mommy and daddy?" She asked with a curious expression, she was apparently curious about how this child who where perhaps close to her age were here without his guardians.

    "Th-they''re busy somewhere else." Argo replied with another smile.

    Stopping suddenly in her tracks, she moved closer to Argo with a curious expression and asked yet again, "Why is your smile so ugly?"

    "....eh?"

    Pointing to his face, she said yet again but this time louder as if to announce to the world, "Your smile is faaaake!"

    Hearing her words, he instinctively placed his hand over his mouth and with his brows furrowed, he used his other hand to slap the girl with a small amount of strength, perhaps upset by her comment.

    "Uwaa......" She cried out, cupping her red cheek, "You hurt me!"

    Although they had walked quite a distance away from the mother, her cries would definitely alarm the surrounding people.

    In his panic, he grabbed a dagger and stabbed the overly loud child in the heart.

    Cupping her mouth to prevent her death screams from leaking out to the ears of the villages, he slowly eased her now limp body onto the ground.

    ''Hey, that isn''t nice to treat people like that you know?~''

    ''Damn it, get out of there!'' Noctus shouted as he took over, casting alleviation spells on himself and using wind magic to propel himself out of the village.

    After exiting the village, Noctus who was definitely angry started to scold Argo..

    ''What are you doing!'' Noctus shouted at him, certainly, it would be troublesome if the mother were to alarm others of this murder.

    ''I-I didn''t know what to do! She was the one that started crying...if they found out I slapped her....''

    ''That''s still better than killing her, they know our face!''

    ''Wha...what do we do....''

    ''You know, they''ll put up all kinds of posters everywhere and you''ll be caught!~''

    ''What''s with all this useless blabbering?! Let''s just kill them!''

    ''Aa~ah, let''s just rush over to the city I told you about, it''ll totally be safe for you there~''

    ''.....why are you overly obsessed with that place?'' Noctus asked, certainly, she had asked them to visit that place for a long time now, as if there were something interesting here.

    ''Nn? I''ve been caught? Hehe, I prepared a surprise for you there.''

    ''That makes me wary about that place.''

    ''It won''t be dangerous for you, that I can promise you that~ After all, you are my life''s work, right~''

    With a sigh, Noctus headed towards the city named Eropagnis without the slightest of worry, perhaps reassured by the thought that she wouldn''t hurt them and interested in the aforementioned surprise.

 Chapter 7

    After a night of rushing, he summoned the bird yet again. It seemed that his mana pool knew no bounds, as explained by Iris, he has probably one of the largest mana pools, if not the most.

    A being''s mana pool was decided by their body, the soul amasses the mana and the body acts as a medium, if the body''s capacity was small, then the amount of mana available for use would be affected, but with Mana blood, every cell has been genetically modified to contain mana, even his skin cells were absorbing them right now.

    Though, one can never assume to be the best, as there will always be another to surpass you.

    Within only 3 days, he reached far north without any interruption from any pursuers he could have, the village did not seem particularly wealthy and could probably only produce out a small amount of money for his bounty, if pursuers were to come, they probably would be rather weak.

    However, playing safe was one of Noctus''s habits, after being promised by Iris who has no reason to harm them, he still had a few worries, after all, you can only trust yourself.

    Purchasing a hat from one of the peddling merchant, he covered his face and attempted to enter the city.

    Walking through the open gates of the large walls that enclosed the city, he was greeted with the sights of another open gate guarded by multiple officers, at his sides were various rooms.

    "Name, age and reason for entering the city!" one of the officers asked.

    "Noctus, 7 and I''m here for touring." he replied without hesitation with a child like smile, if he were to act his age, he should be able to work through this easily.

    As he spoke, he saw from the corner of his eye that a few officers were bumping each other with their elbows while another hurriedly tapped his fingers speedily on a strange metal device.

    ''Ah~ It''s a phone~'' she called out with interest.

    ''Pfo-phone?'' Argo repeated, ''W-what does it.....it do?''

    ''Communication~''

    As she spoke that single word, the officers ran over and one of them spoke, "I need you to stay here for a while, please."

    "For what reason, mister?" Noctus asked with a innocent smile and his tilted head.

    "That''s...."

    "If it''s nothing, can you please let me through?" He asked again thinking that all this were related to the murder Argo had committed.

    "....Okay, I''ll issue you a temporary pass to enter the city, however it will take quite a while, so please follow me to one of the rooms."

    "No it''s quite alright, mister, I''ll wait here." He replied.

    If anything were to happen, he could easily escape through the large gate behind him.

    "Okay then, please wait here." he said before turning around.

    Noctus was pretty confident, his mannerisms is different from Argo as well as the aura of his mana, if anything, they would just write him off as a child similar to the murderer.

    Though if anything were to happen, he was prepared to run at a moment''s notice.

    Waiting for quite a while, who appeared before him was not only the officers he had seen earlier, but a man and a woman.

    Instantly, he was covered in a barrier type magic the woman had casted.

    Though he could not explain why, he felt fearful of the pair, especially towards the man, his legs gave out and he fell to the ground.

    Looking straight at the pair, because of the sun that had positioned behind them casted a shadow upon their face, he couldn''t see their faces.

    "Who.....is he! Iris!" He screamed at Iris.

    Noticing her lack of a reply, he started to stand up while attempting to keep his emotions under control, turning, he instantly absorbed her magic with his body and ran.

    After running for quite a while, he hid behind the tree as he took out one of the bottles, he knew if he did not calm down, Vulpecular would take over, he would quickly eat them and run even more until they were gone. Even now, he could hear their footsteps.

    With shaky hands, he tried to pour out a few of the pills, but his trembling hands caused the bottle to fall to the ground and it''s contents to spill onto the grass covered ground.

    As he was trying to pick them up, his body became limp and his head touched the tree''s trunk, perhaps the stress that had been induced from the situation caused him to fall unconscious.

    In his stead, Lepus took over.

    In fear, he did not run, he merely pulled his knees to his body and cradled his head.

    The man was here to beat him, he needed to protect torso and his face, because it was vulnerable.

    Within seconds of his control, the pair caught up to him, seeing his protective posture, the woman broke into tears while the man attempted to calm him down by touching his head.

    His body shook with fear non stop, he instinctively knew that the man was closing towards him. Closing his eyes, he silently prayed for the man''s rage to be easily quelled today and that the beatings would not go on for a long time.

    Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

    With tears flowing down from his face, he prayed and prayed, but the beating that he knew would come, didn''t.

    For a few moments, the man''s hand lingered near him, but it never made contact.

    He didn''t stop, after all, he had learned that the man despised him and that since they had hurt him and ran away, he came for him.

    It was crazy for them to ever think that they could beat that man, he was much stronger than them, all they had did was to anger him and now that he''s here, Lepus was to take in all the fear and pain, that was all he could do.

    He was just here to take the pain away for them.

    He hated them.

    If only they stayed at that place and endured the beatings, than this wouldn''t have happened.

    The man would beat him until he was half dead and only he will feel all the pain, they''re all asleep so that only he will be hurt.

    It''s unfair.

    If only the man will just kill him.

    With that thought, his hands dropped to the side.

    Let him kill them, it''s fair then.

    After what seemed to be eternity, he looked up at the man''s eyes, he wanted to scream at him, ask him why he isn''t doing anything, but as he opened his mouth, no sound came out.

    Looking at the man while his eyelids felt like lid, he slowly closed his eyes, ignoring the rest of the fear in his heart.

    It was strange how he could never see faces anymore after the woman died, everyone seemed to have black holes for their faces.

    Let them kill me, he thought before falling unconscious, the stress had burnt him out and the fear that kept him awake left.

    If he was lucky, he wouldn''t wake up ever again.

    =========================================

    When he awoke again he was in a room by himself while the other personalities were on the brink of awakening now that the threat was gone.

    If they were to awake, then he would go to sleep, wouldn''t he.

    He would be asleep until the threat returns.

    The man would probably return soon, so they won''t stay awake for long and he''ll be pulled back to withstand whatever the man had in store for them.

    Returning to his previous thought, he gathered the resolution for death and stood up, hitting his forehead against the wall with a thud, he threw his head back while taking a deep breath.

    "Bang!"

    The wall collapsed.

    Strangely enough, it didn''t hurt. Rubbing his bleeding forehead that had been scratched by the fragments of the broken wall, he wondered to himself.

    ''Ouuuuuchhh! What are you doing! It''s dangerous!'' A pesky woman called out.

    When did she get into his head? He didn''t know.

    As she spoke, she took over and casted a healing spell whilst mumbling to herself in upset, though her ramblings were stopped as the man ran over towards her after hearing the commotion.

    "Are you alright?!" He asked with worry in his voice, his hands placed on her shoulders.

    "I''m not, you fool." She replied, still rubbing her forehead with displeasure.

    "Eh?" Shocked by the change of the boy, he fell on his butt.

    "You find your long lost son and you decide to lock him in a room? Wonderful parenting." She commented, "Give me a chair, I''ll explain."

    As she issued the request, he nodded with a dumbfounded expression and led her to another room where the woman was, seeing from her red nose and eyes, it was evident she was crying.

    "Afternoon.....no  it''s night isn''t it?" looking at the dark scenery through the window, she greeted the woman half-heartedly.

    Seeing her son who had changed drastically, she had the same dumbfounded expression.

    "I''m sure you have a lot of questions, however, first and foremost, get me a chair." she said with a annoyed expression.

    After receiving a chair, she promptly sat down and started to explain, "Where should I begin? I suppose since the letter I sent you already had the details regarding how I took your son, I''ll just go about explaining the details regarding his growth and the end results, keep in mind I don''t have much time," She said pointing to her temple, "they''re waking up soon."

 Chapter 8

    Ufufufufu, comment more! If you do I''ll try my best to post faster, commenting on this spectacular piece of horrendous writing makes me feel fuzzy inside as I kill off characters.

    ============================

    "The least you can do now is to tell us how to treat his condition."

    "That is something I cannot do, I have already helped you to reunite with him, either ways, I do not specialize in psychological treatment but if I did, they would never willingly recover and I also doubt they could." She said, wagging her finger in his direction.

    "They seem to be awaking now, I''ll see you next time, kay?" she said with a smile before her body slumped onto the chair.

    Only a second passed before Argo took over, seeing the two figures in front of him upon awaking, he jumped up from his seat.

    All of them knew this pair of mismatched beings were dangerous to them.

    A silver haired demon with white, curled horns and silver wings and a purple and blue haired woman whose pupils were slits, not only were their appearance new to them, their aura gave off a feeling of dangerous.

    But even before he could take a step, the woman grabbed hold of his wrists.

    "Don''t touch me!" Argo shouted, wrenching his hand from her touch.

    "Then don''t run and listen to us, we won''t touch you then." The man said with a calm expression and folded arms.

    "W-why should I? Who....who are y-you to lock me here?!" he shouted while taking a step back, his instincts screaming at him to run.

    "Believe it or not, you are my son and I have every right to do so."

    "And how do you know that is true? If I may ask, Mister." Noctus asked with a innocent smile as he took over, "For all you may know, I am a fake being created to pretend to be one of your sons." He continued whilst silently cursing the situation he had been brought into by Iris, he made a fool out of himself coming here, thinking nothing harmful to him would be present.

    He knew why they instinctively feared this pair, perhaps by instinct, they are recognised as his parents, however as they grew up, the abusive man were the father figure in his life while the kind woman was the mother figure, their existence had been overlapped with this current pair.

    "Don''t lie to yourself." As if knowing that he could feel the bond, the man replied.

    "Even if I am your son, I have never needed your protection or care and never will, mister."

    "Despite that, you will stay here."

    "Are you serious? Mister? I apologise but I will have to refuse, you cannot and will not confine me in this place." Noctus said as he stood up to leave, "Now if you may, I will have to go."

    "And how will you leave? By running?" The man asked, standing up to look down upon him.

    "Enough." Noctus said through gritted teeth and clenched fists.

    "You cannot leave." He said, his figure towering over him.

    "You have no right over my life and you never will, move out of my way this instan-" Before Noctus could finish his sentence, the man slapped him.

    "That is no way to speak to your parents!" The man shouted.

    "You are not my Father nor is she my mother!" He shouted before casting a fireball towards him, however strangely enough, Mana did not gather as he casted.

    "You cannot cast harmful spells here, now sit down and let us have a civil conversa-" This time, Lupus interrupted his sentence with a kick to his thigh.

    "And you old bastard thought that we''ll lose to you without magic."

    The man grunted as the flesh at his thigh healed, his hand clutching it. Seeing her loved one hurt, the woman wanted to step forward but the man stopped her by stretching out his other arm, "Leave this to me, Flyn."

    ''Let me through!'' Noctus said as he attempted to take control, he''ll be damned if he lost to this bastard.

    "Fuck off Noctus, you''re useless here anyways!" Lupus shouted before blocking off the other personalities.

    Facing the man again, he spoke with hatred evident in his eyes, "You''re my dad, you say? Well fuck you, I was starving and on the brink of death and you weren''t there for shit, you ain''t got no right to call yourself my dad."

    "If you know what''s right, you give me the freedom we deserve and stay out of our life like the way you have." He said with his eyes glaring straight at the man.

    Unlike all the other personalities, he wouldn''t lose to fear.

    "If I know what''s right I''ll be treating you from this disorder instead of letting you go around killing children."

    Obviously angered by his statement, he pounced towards the man pulling his fist back to gather momentum, "We are not sick you fucking bastard!"

    Despite putting all his strength into his punch, the man caught it unharmed, "No matter what that girl did to you, you are still far from reaching my level."

    Twisting his body to immobilize him, that man spoke near his ear, "I won''t let you leave."

    With no way to escape, Lupus who were enraged at that moment had a crack in his block, allowing Noctus to forcefully take over.

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    Seeing Lupus who were attacked with a headache caused by Noctus, the man let go in fear of seriously harming and attempted to help him up but were pushed away by Noctus.

    "Look here," he said, "what ever obligation you feel about my past, it is not needed. And mind you we are far from disabled, even if we are mentally ill, it doesn''t concern you or that woman."

    "But I can''t just let you go! If I were to let you go, you who looks so much like my other son, what will become of me?" The woman who had stayed silent all along screamed in reply.

    "Ten years," The man suddenly said with a sigh, "Stay for ten years, its not safe for you out there right now, the hunters that will come for your is not to be underestimated, to be known as our child while running out there is very dangerous for you right now. Ten years is my final compromise."

    ''Agree to him, Noctus, everything he says is true, that''s why I had you come here.'' Iris finally spoke to them.

    ''H-how could you.....lead us here?!'' Argo shouted at her.

    "You won''t let me go either ways, fine, ten years it is but I do what I want and you leave me alone." Noctus replied defiantly, perhaps this is the best offer he could take right now.

    ''You know, it was reaaaally troublesome, I realised that you''ll make all kinds of enemies with your personalities and get killed off sooner or later, if I don''t have you learn the fact that not all beings are merely meatbags, you''ll really be in trouble, you know?~''

    ''I knew from the fuckin start that you''ll do this kinda shit you whore!''

    Turning to the side where the door was, a few faces could be seen peering in, a varying set of emotions present on their face.

    Walking to the door, he pushed it open entirely but could not leave due to the children that blocked his way.

    One of the younger boy walked up and kicked at his knee with all his strength, but to the him who could not feel pain, he merely stared at the boy who were roughly his height.

    "You made mommy cry! Say that you''re sorry!" The child had slits for his pupils similar to the woman which were focused on Noctus.

    Before he could retaliate, the man behind him picked him up by the collar of his shirt and said with a gentle expression on his face, "Don''t worry about it children, now go and play, okay?"

    Hearing his words, most of the children dispersed, leaving a single girl.

    "Daddy," A shorter girl that had demon wings called out, "Why is it that this boy has a lot of people inside of him? There''s even a girl!"

    Placing Noctus behind him, he squatted down and patted the girl''s hair, "Don''t worry about it, go play with the others."

    As they watched her leave, Noctus spat, "No wonder you didn''t have time to even notice your child was gone, you were here busy creating your family."

    Escaping the room from the opening between the man and the door, he turned around to ask, "Where do I stay and where is my things."

    "Turn right, the fifth door labelled nine."

    Without thanking him, Noctus left and entered his own room, after figuring out how the locking mechanism for the door worked, he locked it and lay face first onto his bed.

    This will be troublesome.

    Though afterwards, he threw the matter to the back of his head and started to read the books Iris had gave him as the person herself explained the contents.

    Just like that, he spent the whole night reading with a interesting thing called a lamp and only realised the time when the woman knocked on his door, "Do you want to eat breakfast?" she had asked with a loud voice.

    This time, Lupus was in control and he was currently practicing with the axe he had grown fond of, he entirely ignored her as it wasn''t necessary to eat, his cells use energy from mana that it collected.

    Though his axe was blunt and couldn''t be used for fighting, their weapons had been switched to safer ones.

    Immersing themselves with all kinds of things in the large room, they spent days cooped up in there without bothering to socialise with the curious children that paced around the outside of the door, however after about a week or so, one of the children broke in.

    "Onii-chan! Let''s play!" A girl with twin tails called out, she had broke the door with a kick and excitedly pounced in, disrupting Argo who were drawing on the walls using the stationary Iris had provided.

    It was a pattern all of the personalities knew well, when there was only one in the past, the original had loved to draw onto the walls using the blood of the dead attackers.

    Hearing the girl shout, the marker in Argo''s hand dropped to the ground and he spun around to see the girl and a boy behind her, the boy eerily similar to himself.

    "G-Get out!" He shouted, running towards them to push them out of his room.

    Though as he ran, the two of the children didn''t move, they were dumbfounded at the state of the room, the bed will littered with countless books and weapons were strewn on the floor, the walls were scribbled onto beautifully and the smell was terrible.

 Chapter 9

    "What''s this?!" The boy called out, pinching his nose as he took a step backwards and out of the room.

    "Ewwwwww....." She commented, "How long has it been after your last bath!"

    At that point of time, Argo who was closing in onto them grabbed hold of her shoulders and attempted to push her out, with his strength, he easily completed that feat.

    However, the door that laid on the ground could not be fixed back to shut them out.

    He tried to pick it up and place it back onto the frame but it fell, without the hinges to hold it in place.

    "Y-you! F..fix this!" He shouted, looking at the fallen door and the girl.

    "It wasn''t me!" She denied.

    "It was you!" The other boy retorted.

    "Wha....." She paused for a moment, "Traitor!"

    "....." She looked at the boy with squinted eyes, her arms crossed as she sulked.

    After a short silence, her sulking expression changed, "A-Anyways! Lets go play!"

    And as she spoke, a clicking sound was heard, immediately turning to the origin of the sound, Argo saw a large cat like beast charging his way.

    "!" Seeing the large animal who''s eyes were locked onto him, Argo turned around to escape but found himself stuck in the room with the two children blocking his way.

    As the sound of the claws clicking against the stone floor became louder, Argo''s heart started to pump faster.

    ''Don''t kill them~ You''ll be in big trouble~'' An annoying voice sounded in his ear.

    As he thought of going against her words, he suddenly felt a chill, Noctus was agreeing with her currently.

    Without any chance of escaping, the beast leaped through the doorway and landed behind him, biting on the collar of his shirt.

    The girl pounced onto it''s back and it started to run, to who knows where.

    Quickly, they exited the large mansion.

    Looking around fascinated at the sights, Argo seemed to forget the act he was being carried away.

    The mansion was situated in the middle of a large empty field that was surrounded by large walls, among the fields were a few other buildings and structures, children surrounded most of the structures, playing around with each other.

    There were also mighty beasts and adorable creatures that were either playing with the children or being mounted by them.

    All the children were most likely the couple''s, seeing how they carried features that belonged to them.

    As he started to think, his thoughts drifted from the previous topic and he began daydreaming  only to be pulled back to reality after the beast threw him into a lake.

    Sputtering and coughing the water out of his lungs, the memory of being drowned by the man flashed  past his sight and he started to panic.

    Finally reaching land, he noticed the girl laughing from the other side of the lake as her finger pointed at the dark colors of the water he had been in previously.

    Finally looking up, she laughed even more, "It''s your fault for daydreaming!"

    However, a somewhat familiar white bird in his peripheral vision caught their attention.

    ''Ehh? Birdie?'' Iris called out.

    Pointing to it, he turned to look at the girl with a stunned expresion, why was Iris''s pet out here being played with by these children.

    Rubbing her nose with a proud expression, she bragged, "Daddy gave them to us to play with, they''re really cool you know! They don''t get tired or even need to eat!"

    Instantly taking over, Noctus ran towards the mansion, hoping to retrieve the bracelet that contained the beasts, but before he could reach, one of the children that had chased after him through flying grabbed the collar of his shirt.

    After reaching a considerable distance above ground, Noctus who was dangling on the hands of the demon child struggled to make him let go.

    "You can''t bother papa and mama in the afternoon you know? They''re busy." he scolded with his childish voice.

    Still unrelenting, he pressed on the child''s arm, forcing him to let go.

    With a small thud, he reached the ground safely but was stopped yet again before he could move, this time a large claw gripped his back.

    With sufficient space between the ground and the palm, he flipped onto his back, albeit hesitantly, to see a light blue dragon on top of him.

    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    With not too much of his strength, he pushed the dragon back and away from him, noticing that he escaped, the dragon turned back into the girl.

    "You''re supposed to be my friend!" She said with upset.

    "Why would I be?" He retorted.

    "Daddy said that when you get a pet, you gotta first give it space and let it umm...ad, adjust! Adjust to it''s surroundings and then after that you can play with it and it''ll be your friend!" She said with conviction.

    After a short silence, Iris bursted out laughing, ''Bwahhahahahahahaha!  Pet she says! Pet! Hahahahahahaha.''

    "I''m not a pet!" Argo shouted as he took over, Noctus stunned due to her words.

    She shook her head, "When you came here daddy said to leave you alone and let you adjust, like how you do it with the new pets, so you are a pet!"

    "Either ways," She said while closing onto him, "I''m Reia! Be a good boy, okay?" Her hand gently rubbing his head.

    She was a bit taller than him, with his upturned eyes locked onto her, the other children started to surround them.

    "Chris, he looks like you!" One of the children commented, one of his index finger pointed at Argo while the other pointed to the boy.

    "He does, doesn''t he!"

    "I don''t like him, even if he looks like Chris! He made mommy cry!"

    "Well, I don''t like you!" Argo shouted at the boy who commented, at this point he was irritated at the fact he had to stay here.

    ''Hold it in, you''ll stay here whether you like it or not, you know?~ Let''s just make peace~'' Iris commented with a annoyingly chirpy voice.

    ''I still cannot believe you led us here!'' Noctus replied.

    ''Told ya not to believe the bitch, should have went in the opposite direction of where she told us to go, you dumb bastard.'' Lupus provoked.

    ''And you speak as though you''ve been against this since the beginning, well, I hadn''t heard your voice when we made the decision together.''

    ''Though I''m truly flattered to have myself as the topic for an argument, they''r-'' before she could even finish her sentence, they were suddenly exposed yet again to the cold waters.

    "Don''t ignore me!" Reia shouted, pointing at Lupus, who had came out instinctively thinking there was danger.

    As Argo''s attention was focused on the conversation going on in his mind, he completely ignored whatever she or the other children said.

    Floating on the water''s surface, he stared blankly at the enfolding events, calculating the number of these children he could kill before Noctus could stop him.

    However, at that moment, Noctus was busy discussing with Iris.

    ''Take off the mark, Iris.'' He demanded, after looking at the physical abilities of the children and weighing the pros and cons, he decided that the extra mobility would do them well.

    ''I don''t wanna.'' She replied.

    ''....''

    Before he could even speak again, he suddenly felt a hand grab their body.

    "Let go!" Lupus shouted, but to no avail, the man was already pulling him out of the water and towards the mansion.

    Despite all the modifications Iris had did on their body, they were still weaker due to her preference of  making all the modifications with the idea whereas it would be weak at first but the will grow stronger as the body adapts to it.

    Not only that, his strength was also limited in a Human''s body, if she were to remove the mark, perhaps their body would be able to adapt quicker and also increase his strength greatly.

    The man dragged him into the room whereas they first had their conversation, and this time, the woman sat across from the lady from the village, the mother of that little girl.

    Seeing her child''s murderer come in, she furiously pounced and grabbed onto his shirt, screaming, "How could you! She was only 5! My daughter, my poor daughter!"

    Lupus''s right eyelid twitched, his hands balled into fists ready to kill the woman.

    However before he could even move, Noctus took over and looked at the woman with obvious disdain, she who was probably a demi human actually dared to grab onto him.

    "Let go. " He spoke with an commanding voice, as if he was superior to this woman.

 Side Chapter (Rylain)

    After reading the suggestions, I decided to try writing a different Pov, the father''s Pov to be exact. Thank you for all the comments, I do know that I''ve been rushing through the story, but I really couldn''t find any interesting ideas to continue the Laboratory part of the story, so I decided to rush through it and slow down at this part.

    I may write full chapters for the alternate Povs, but I want to first make sure I''m not doing a poor job of it. So, please tell me if you found this Pov alright or outright disgusting. Afterall, I''m not a father and never will, I can''t even if I wanted to be one, so I could only assume what a father would feel in this situation.

    ======================

    It was tradition for dragons to lay their eggs in an undisclosed location, for them to not disturb the eggs until they hatched. The nest was heavily guarded with magic, but that magic was targeted towards beasts, normally anyone powerful enough to take the eggs did not even want it, knowing that we are the owner of them.

    But to think one of my children were damned.

    Very rarely, one child among the millions produced through the mating of two different races would be damned, perhaps due to the upset of the gods. The curse made the child beast-like.

    Perhaps if that girl wasn''t there to take him away, he would have killed everyone in that cave along with him and eventually died himself because of his unstable body.

    And to think I was oblivious to that child''s existence for 7 years.

    Now that the scientist, as the girl had called herself, was in my child''s body, I can do nothing to her, not even exact revenge. Not that I could, after all she did save my children from reaching their early demise, murdered by their own brother.

    If she weren''t there to take him away, what would I have done, when I entered the cave with Flyn, to see one of our children bathed in the blood of his siblings? Surely it would drive Flyn mad, she was so caring and gentle, such a sight would break her heart.

    I''m a failure as a father, am I not? To escape from this situation, I had kept that child in a room for so long, now that I see him playing with Reia and the others, I''m terrified that he''ll attack any moment and kill my children.

    Despite what the scientist spoke about his current strength, I still cannot contain that fear, I could only hope that with all those pet beasts my children contracted, they would be able to hold on if it were to happen.

    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

    .....Ha...ha, what kind of a father am I? To dislike my own son who bore a mental illness caused by my negligence.

    What could he have gone through? She refused to speak of it but surely, those scars meant something, something so scary that it caused his mind to break down.

    What should I do? Other than comforting Flyn, I fear that I can do nothing else that was considered a contribution to my family regarding this matter.

    "I''m so sorry.... I will compensate for your loss." Flyn who spoke beside me grasped the hands of the crying mother.

    Murder was nothing special in this world, it happened daily, however for such a young girl to suddenly  die must be devastating for the mother, for her to use up perhaps all her savings to seek revenge with a wanted poster.

    Hearing Flyn''s words, the mother made no response, her tear stricken face distorted with grief and hate.

    Even now, I could hear the laughter from my children from the window behind me. If I had suddenly lost one of them.....would I make the same face?

    It''s unbearable to think that my little Mia, or Chris, or anyone, would suddenly die one day.

    Am I wrong to want a family? Having them also meant all this fear, the fear of their wellbeing, the fear of whether they would grow up to become a honourable adult.

    Right now.....as his father, I must bring him here, to personally apologise about the matter he had caused himself. I cannot let such a thing fly past his mind, as a father, no matter what kind of a child he has, he must treat them all equally.

    Gathering my determination, I stood up and glanced at Flyn, informing her of what I was about to do, before I walked out to find that child, no, my son.

    He was currently climbing onto land from the pond that perhaps, Reia had thrown him into, with a swift blast of wind magic, he dried himself and glared at her.

    My heart thumped, slightly worried that he''ll attack.

    Taking a deep breath, I walked over and grabbed his arm, pulling him to our house.

    I need to remember, that he was no monster, he was my son.

 Chapter 10

    Life threw a curve ball and it sent me flying, school just started and I apologise if I''m late with the chapters, as always, thank you for reading my story.

    ==========================================

    The woman cried obnoxiously whilst clinging onto him, her bodily fluids tainting his white shirt, albeit it was already dirtied and soaked. She showed no signs of even letting do, despite his cold word.

    Already preparing to cast a wind spell to eliminate this hindrance, he was of course, hit by the realisation, this place was guarded by a strong spell.

    Cursing the amount of inconveniences it had brought him, he sighed audibly before turning to that man, with an annoyed expression on his face.

    He would leave right now, but the benefits of staying here outweighed the losses he would suffer outside.

    He did not doubt Iris''s words to much, he had already analysed her personality during the short period of time he had with her live self, she was an extremely objective being and would not do anything that would not benefit her in achieving her goals, though she had a habit of speaking vaguely, she never technically did lie.

    She had promised him that if they stayed here obediently, she would remove the markings on his torso.

    Either ways, even without her promise, it wouldn''t be too bad staying here, he would be able to access various literature only present in this manor, some pieces of information were unobtainable even with money. With the knowledge of their ''mother''s'' hobby of collecting literature, as well as their obvious high status, he would be able to learn many things.

    Lastly, safety was also a huge factor, Iris had implemented slow working modifications, their benefits would only become obvious with either time or hard work, the him right now only a bit more powerful than amateur adventurers.

    With a seemingly genuine smile, he apologised for Argo''s actions, "I sincerely apologise for the actions Argo had done." He did not have the slightest of morals and couldn''t be bothered to pretend it was he who had done it, either ways, it was not his fault.

    As if finally hearing his words, the woman looked up to him with anger and sadness, her hoarse voice thick with upset, "You were the one that did it! You killed my precious daughter without reason! Stop lying!" as her sentence ended, she started wailing even louder whilst producing incoherent noises, perhaps agitated once more with the mention of the deceased daughter.

    Noctus looked to the side yet again, his eyes locking onto their ''father'' with an impatient expression.

    What was he supposed to do? That lady refused to accept his apology.

    However, a thought suddenly flashed past his mind. It would resolve all these troublesome matters.

    With a single thought, a pile of gold coins appeared. With a small smile, he spoke yet again, "I apologise, perhaps this coins may aid you in your grief."

    This pile contained perhaps a few dozens of gold coins, though it was considered a large wealth to commoners, to Noctus, that amount could not even dent a hole in the mountain of the coins in the necklace.

    Assuming that this may sate the grief of the woman, he shook her off and took a step backwards.

    After all, wasn''t greed one of the biggest sins present in all beings?

    Without even a glance, he turned around and left unobstructed by the man.

    He still couldn''t understand why he would need to apologise, murders weren''t uncommon in this world.

    With a thought, a thick book appeared in his hands and without even needing them to recall where he left off, he managed to find where he had stopped reading the previous time.

    As he read, he spread a thin layer of mana, committing the layout of the mansion into his mind as he walked back to his room.

    Though before he realised it, he had already reached the end of the hallway.

    With a confused look, he turned around, unsure of how he could have missed his room.

    He had already memorised the placement of every item in that room, upon being covered in his mana, he would be able to check the location of each item.

    Could it be?

    Turning around, he lowered his book and ran, counting the number of doors, he finally saw the room.

    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    The door was pushed to the side, revealing a clean room with a woman sweeping.

    A human, most likely, he thought as he entered.

    With a harsh pull, he spun the woman around as he spoke, "Get out."

    Though he seemed to be calm, he hardly was, as well as Lupus.

    How dare she clean his room? Who was she to be allowed to do so?

    Glancing at her arms, it became obvious that this woman was a slave, which made him even more furious.

    This woman knew not of what to say, it seemed much too obvious that this child was upset, though he masked his anger, it was still present in his eyes.

    Perhaps he was too young to fully learn the art of acting.

    ''What a coincidence~''

    Before he could retort, Lupus grabbed the woman by her neck, his nostrils flaring.

    The woman''s eyes widened, looking down at the seemingly harmless child''s attitude change so abruptly as he showed off his magnificent strength.

    Wasn''t this a human child?

    ''Don''t you dare kill her!'' Noctus commanded.

    "What''s wrong with you?! When have you become so protective of other people?" Lupus shouted, not understanding why Noctus was asking him to stop.

    ''There''s no benefit in killing her, you fool!''

    After a moment of slience, Lupus retreated, giving control back and secluded himself, perhaps having a child''s tantrum.

    Instantly letting go, Noctus told her in a cold voice, "Get out."

    The slave was utterly terrified, she had a good life here since her masters weren''t abusive and only needed her for cleaning, but this child was far too scary.

    Speaking to himself, changing demeanours without a moment''s notice and also the violence.

    The look in Noctus''s eyes signified how small the significance of her life to him.

    Scrambling to get up, she quickly ran out of the room, turning once to give a hastily bow perhaps in apology or fear, before she continued to run as far as she could for him.

    Those eyes that looked down on her, it was far too cold.

    Those eyes that held her immobile, was far too scary.

    ================================

    After that day, Noctus started roaming the mansion, his favourite locations being the library. Argo did not like wandering and preferred to stay in the room while Lupus did nothing, perhaps still upset.

    Though they walked around, none of the slaves dared to speak to him, knowing of the plight of the slave that cleaned his room.

    Most of the children left them alone, except for Reia and another girl called Alice.

    Alice was a strange girl, someone worthy of Noctus''s interest, when they first came to this place, this girl was the one that asked why there were so many people in one body.

    She was someone interesting, knowing of such a thing.

    Perhaps her eyes were special? He did not know much, but was interested by the tales of Iris regarding the special talents some people had in her world.

    Alice liked to follow him around, she was the one that frequented his room when he during the period whereas he secluded himself in his room.

    She didn''t speak much, but she seemed to know a lot about them.

    Noctus had played a brother''s role, pretending to play with her in attempts to learn more about her special talent, though it bore no fruits.

    She seemed to know that who was who and did not fall for his acting, no matter how much he tried.

    It only made him more frustrated.

    To him, this girl was far more interesting that anyone he had met.

    But unknowingly, she had somehow became glued to them, after a while, she even started to sleep in their room, draw with Argo and read with Noctus.

    Argo didn''t hate her, neither did he like her, he probably wouldn''t bat an eye if she were to die suddenly, but he did admire her drawings.

    Though Noctus became seemingly closer to her, Argo still remained as if an acquaintance, it was as if no one could become close to him.

    Perhaps it was because he couldn''t come to care, no matter how much he wanted to.

    He just didn''t have the ability to do so.

 Information and Questions

    RIP to Sildrean, I lost my password for this account and could now only post with my laptop, which convienetly has a large amount of malware that I can''t get rid of, I can''t get a new password either since I forgot my password for my email.

    Well, I''ll figure it out. In the meantime, all this stuff for all of you.

    -------------------------------------------

    Firstly, the guy, yes the one that tortured my poor MC. Hes dead, its obvious. More information will come about him in the future chapters after the introduction of a new character. Let''s sit tight and wait.

    Secondly, there''s quite a LOT of foreshadowing, anyone noticed any? Its about......ya know......people......COUGH COUGH.

    Thirdly, character development about those around the MC. One thing I must highlight is that our main character(s?) does not care. They don''t bother to analyze the surrounding people with their currently personalities, though there''s always the exception of Noctus.

    If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    Fourthly, I have some situations thought out regarding the addition of more personalities, would you all prefer personalities split off from the original personalities in the body, (NOT INCLUDING IRIS SHES PERFECTLY SANE.......well to a certain extend?), or would an entirely different character? I''m having this question here so as to limit myself to a certain number, in case it gets too confusing.

    Lastly, the title. This story was written on a whim so.......... The title was something I made within seconds. Any suggestions? I would love to think of a title myself but I''m bad at naming.

 Chapter 11

    Alice was here again, seated on the ground offering her accompaniment, her eyes locked onto the book in Noctus''s hands.

    He had searched fervently and found this single book that carried lost information of the runes carved onto his torso. It was placed at the furthest corner of the room, covered with a thick layer of dust and grime.

    No wonder he couldn''t find anything else, Iris had used ancient runes to seal him, rather than magic circles which he had first assumed the markings to be.

    He had thought it to be a dark attributed magic circle, which explained the ominous Color, however upon laying his eyes on this ancient book, he found the runes to be very similar to what present on him.

    ''Tsk.'' She had clicked her tongue when she saw him find the book.

    Though as he laid eyes upon the words inked onto the parchment, he found out to his dismay, that those words were not the ones he learned to speak.

    It was the language called Rushk, almost exclusively spoke  by Elfs.

    Perhaps that''s why Iris could the runes this book taught of, she was of the Elves'' descent.

    ''Teach me.'' He stubbornly asked Iris.

    ''I don''t wanna~'' she replied with a smirk, herself full of pride and mockery. ''As I''ve already said, I''ll take those off when you''re done with all this.'' She continued.

    However, Noctus who thirsted for knowledge refused to relent, although he asked yet again, he was rejected.

    In frustration, Noctus threw up his hands, the book moving along with it as he made the motion of throwing.

    He''d just have to find a book that taught of the language, perhaps a translation dictionary.

    However before it could be catapulted across the room, Alice grabbed hold of his hands.

    Despite his obvious distaste for skin contact, she touched him, for the first time.

    With only the briefest of hesitation, he jerked his arm away and left the book to fall to the ground as he grabbed hold of it protectively, fearing that her touch would harm him.

    And at that moment, Noctus could feel a cold stare, perhaps from Argo, or even Lupus.

    He wasn''t like the other personalities, he could understand the concept of making friends, and that not all beings are selfish from all the books he had read.

    There were multiple classifications, though they were still under careful modifications, he roughly knew when meeting new people, who could he use, manipulate, ignore or kill.

    Though to him, Friends were an useless thing, they could betray you without a blink of an eye if you just flip the correct switch.

    Perhaps for a loving Brother, you would capture his Sister and hold her next to you, promising to only return her after the deaths of his companions.

    It wouldn''t take much thought, would it?

    "PAK!" Alice suddenly used the thick book to hit the back of his head.

    "No��..Not everyone��.are like that��." She refuted, as if she could hear his thoughts.

    Turning his head to look at her with surprise, he held down Lupus''s pushing for control, Lupus was furious.

    It hardly hurt, it was nothing, he merely felt the contact between the thick book and his head, but none of the pain he knew so well.

    He was too numb for something like this to hurt him.

    "People��.are nice." She continued, "The bad ones��.are not people."

    He could barely understand her point, perhaps because of prolonged abstain from speech, she couldn''t connect her words properly, or perhaps a defect in her birth.

    "So," Noctus asked with a self-depreciating tone, "We''re not the people you speak of?" He knew he was far from good, after all the deeds they had committed.

    There was too much blood stained onto their hands, too much hate present in their heart.

    "No��..you are not��.evil��.., because�� I can hear it��.. You''re sad��..all of you want��.help." She finished her sentence with difficulty, a sad expression on her face.

    "Help?" He asked with disbelief.

    She nodded in return.

    Closing onto him, she hesitantly placed her hand onto his heart seeing that he didn''t move, she smiled.

    "Many of��you in there��.., because one alone��.cannot handle the pain��.. He gives away everything��..in here��.to you��.and he slowly forgets��.." She said, her eyes sadly looking at his chest, "He''s scared��.he doesn''t want to be alone����he doesn''t want all these things����because he��..will disappear when he''s��..alone."

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    "��.." He dared not speak, his mind furiously processing the words she had spoke.

    After a Long time, he finally opened his mouth, "Who is the one?"

    "��..Argo."

    Could it be true? Argo was forgetting? He thought with unpleasantness.

    So he was just a companion Argo created amongst all his solitude and fear?

    He shifted his attention to Argo, himself hesitantly enunciating the words he had to ask, ''Do you remember��the times in the cave?''

    Argo who listened to their conversation did not dare to reply, he could tell Noctus was afraid, furious.

    Like a child who were questioned by his parents for stealing from the cookie jar, he could only cower without knowing the wrong he had committed.

    But Noctus understood from his hesitation.

    Argo couldn''t remember.

    Argo was the original.

    And that he threw away everything to them, so that he wouldn''t be afraid.

    "Hah����bastard." He spoke out loud, perhaps too distracted to mentally speak.

    He released his control over their body and left it limp, himself retreating to the comfort of the back of his mind to think.

    Not knowing what he had done wrong, Argo refused to come out too, leaving the body there while Alice looked on with worry.

    Though after a while, Lupus came out, taking control.

    Seeing the limp body finally move, she sighed with relief before mumbling, "Lupus��..don''t do��.bad things��."  before leaving the room and locking the door.

    She knew not to disturb him.

    Lupus scoffed and picked up one of the short rods on the ground and infused his mana into it. He may not be the best in terms of magic, he could at least activate his weapons and play around with the basics.

    A red light appeared from the sides of the rod, revealing an axe.

    It hardly weighed anything.

    There was a wall of hard stone erected by Noctus in the past, it served its role as his training dummy, though it seemed as though it was brand new, despite the fact that it was smashed down and rebuilt again and again.

    Of course, Lupus did not have the concept of any martial arts, he merely played around with the weapons and got the feel of them as he hacked away at the silhouettes of beings carved onto the wall.

    Before even landing a hit onto it, he swung the weapon around, getting used to the feeling of controlling the body again after a while.

    As he finally started to chip away on the extremely hard Boulder, his mind started to think.

    He wasn''t the smart, that was true, instead of thinking, he relied on his instincts, however, the words of Alice got to him.

    As his unused mind finally got into action, he was engulfed by hesitance and discomfort.

    What did it mean, to be the original?

    Was he created just to eliminate? Surely, he didn''t mind that, but what was the reason behind the worry and fear of Noctus?

    He wasn''t sure.

    He just didn''t understand.

    Why was Noctus so fearful?

    ''Argo��.why are ya the original?'' He asked as for the first time, as curiosity got hold of him.

    ''O-original?'' Argo asked, ''I dunno��''

    ''Ya remember the bastard that kept us in there��?'' He asked yet again, suddenly remembering that Alice had mentioned about his memory.

    After a moment of hesitance, he replied, ''N-no��..''

    ''Oh.'' He replied, unsure of what to mention next.

    After all, he wasn''t one for speaking, nor caring. This time, it seemed to be an exception.

    His arms dejectedly dropped, he was confused. Lupus had never experienced such discomfort or confusion, only perhaps a day ago, all the emotions present in him was anger.

    After a Long while, he seemed to have came to a conclusion, which disheartened him even more.

    What if��..Argo who was the original, due to his extreme fear in this place, started to expel his memories and emotions? And Lupus who only existed for fighting, was  given those excess emotions?

    No��.he wasn''t sure, but he hated it.

    It had been so Long when he last feared.

    Gritting his teeth, he tightened his grip on his axe and furiously chopped it, perhaps to him, that stone wall embodied the emotions he wanted to eliminate.

 Chapter 12

    The next day, Noctus seemed to have accepted what he had learned of the day before and returned from solitude, albeit he seemed to fear Argo subconsciously.

    Argo was also distant, more so than before, perhaps fearful of Noctus and his outburst from yesterday.

    Noctus cursed himself, for being ignorant, for not noticing the signs.

    The fact that the girl knew more then them compared to himself, he hated it.

    It should have been obvious, he was like a puppet, rarely disobeying their commands.

    He was forgetful, easily forgetting things he learned only minutes ago.

    Lastly, his emotions dwindled at a rapid pace, like how in the past his concern of Lira dissipated within minutes.

    It didn''t just start recently, ever since he made all of them, he was already in the process giving away his emotions, his memory.

    "FUCK!" Noctus shouted, his fist ramming against the wall.

    As his fist made contact with the wall, it was promptly cracked, a cacophony of stone crashing onto the ground sounded.

    After a moment of silence, he reformed the wall with magic before sitting down with his back leaning on it, his head buried in his hands.

    Mumbling to himself, he lamented, "��Why do I have all this redundant emotions��"

    ''It''s not that bad.'' A certain voice called out, a feminine one.

    "I''m not in the mood, Iris."

    ''I keep silent for a while and now you ignore me? How harsh~'' After a short period of silence, she continued, ''This is the first time I see you annoyed.''

    "I am not."

    ''Haha.'' She mocked.

    "I swear upon my life, I will eradicate your soul, if you continue to speak." He grumbled, his arms dropping limp to his sides, his head leaning on the wall.

    ''I''m so scared~''

    "Especially sarcastic today, are you not?"

    ''Mmhmm, I''m really not getting used to this sharing thing, the fingers I feel not following my commands. Plus, aren''t you irritable today? Normally you''d act like you have a broom stuck up your ass and an insatiable quest for knowledge.'' She commented, pushing slightly at Noctus''s control of the fingers.

    Of course, he didn''t relent in the slightest, his absolute will intertwining with the body''s control.

    "Do not push me, for you are merely a disposable tool."

    She spoke jeeringly, ''Shut up already, with your fancy words.'' Before continuing sarcastically, ''Your majesty, I will take my leave upon your acceptance of morals.''

    "��." Finding no interest in this pointless conversation, he retreated, still mentally tired.

    Without further delay, he took out the book of ancient elven runes and started another conversation, which he hoped to be fruitful.

    Flipping to a page with bland illustrations of horse headed men turning into a human, he pointed to a rune on the yellowed paper.

    "This, is the mark on my body, is it not?" He asked, though already knowing the answer through comparing the illustration to his marks.

    ''��.Maybe?''

    "Why would you alter my appearance?" He asked, but it was directed mostly to himself.

    He knew that she wouldn''t answer him.

    ''No comment.'' She replied in a monotonous voice as he had expected.

    He had stuck pieces of paper into each page, with detailed information he had collected regarding the important runes similar to the ones on his body.

    A surge of impatience entered his mind, he wasn''t one to give up, not when he already had the materials to study.

    If she won''t help him, he could try himself.

    Without rest, he scanned book once again, attempting to make sense of the strange orthography.

    His eyes had became slightly red, after the continuous and consecutive focus he had placed on a single line of gibberish for an average of half an hour each.

    Even after the sun had set, he showed no signs of relenting. Lupus who had silently watched on without interfering finally spoke with a confused voice, ''Why not ask that woman? It''s her books.''

    As if he had just attained enlightenment, he snapped the book shut and jumped to his feet, mumbling to himself with sentences so fast and short that others could hardly catch it.

    "Why did I not think of that��yes, I''ll ask that woman, it''ll be beneficial."

    Perhaps affected for the first time by frustration, he was like a mad man, his bloodshot eyes darting around the room, his overworked mind finally given a breather.

    If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    Seeing Noctus''s unstable self making his way to the door, even Lupus had been disturbed, Noctus was impatient only after a few hours, a short amount of time compared to the days he spent trying to learn from Iris, which never caused any form of upset.

    As if unable to contain the words she wanted to speak, Iris finally blurted out, ''Wait!''

    "What?" He snapped.

    This woman was no use to him, merely an obstacle in his pursuit of knowledge.

    ''Control yourself Noctus, you''re going mad.'' She spoke cautiously, acting as though her words could set off a bomb.

    "Mad?" He enunciated the word once, attempting to grasp its meaning.

    ''The��.emotions, you''ve received, it''s changing you, you''re not one to fear.'' She spoke again, with a serious tone.

    As if her words had shook him, he stood there motionless for a Long while before he sat down again with a weak laugh, "What is this sorcery? I am becoming another being." He lamented.

    Perhaps only a month ago, he was objective to no end. However at this moment, he was blinded by the torrent of unfamiliar emotions, it was illogical for him to act this way, for the actions which will ensue in the next moments would not be beneficial to his objective in anyway.

    ''Noctus.'' She called his name again, perhaps offering her support in this situation.

    Lupus did not speak, he himself knew that he was also undergoing change in his personality unwillingly.

    Noctus gritted his teeth, holding down his urge to beat Argo up. He was thirsting for some sort of satisfying relief from all this hate he was feeling.

    How was he going to accomplish that anyways? They share one body.

    Taking deep breaths with his teeth still smashed together, he took out a bottle of pills and poured a handful onto his had, thanking his luck that a certain personality had not came out.

    Condensing a small ball of water in his hands, he swallowed the pills down and laid on the ground, his thumping heart slowing down and his emotions reducing, himself drowning in his thoughts as a form of relief.

    However at that moment, a knock sounded, demanding for his attention.

    With only a thought, he spread his mana and took in the intruder''s body shape, identifying it as Alice.

    She couldn''t enter, Noctus had already locked the door to prevent that.

    As much as he''d like to conceal his instinctual fear of her power, he couldn''t, it was out for all to see.

    He was scared of other information that girl may release, he was scared to been seen through by her mysterious power.

    Thus so, he had no intentions of moving, placing his hand over his eyes, he beckoned for rest, to energise his weary mind.

    But he didn''t sleep, he couldn''t no matter how Long he spent with his eyes closed, he could only sink into mental oblivion as Iris offered short renditions of the life in her old world.

    It was like dreaming, but different.

    --------------------------------------------

    After perhaps a day, he walked out of the room, making his way to the library, where he felt the woman was at.

    Her magic signature was pungent in the air, making her magical prowess obvious, unlike the children, who had not developed too much regarding their mana.

    Before coming out, he had already swallowed another handful of pills, refusing to allow the excess emotions  to interfere.

    In his hands were the large book.

    His small feet barely made any noise against the light colored wooden floors.

    Perhaps now without his over zealous emotions pushing him forward on the quest of knowledge, time seemed to slow down, colors seemed to had became too bright for his eyes.

    It was noon, he told himself, he couldn''t tell the time in the room with the windows blocked with stone. His eyes could read in the dark and perhaps because of his past, he was more accustomed to the dark.

    His eyes darted around, taking in the suddenly brighter world, albeit his eyes were slightly blinded by the light.

    But alas, even without his zealousness, the world was still blurry.

    Finally reaching the familiar large stone enforced door, his small yet strong hand pushed it open.

    "Hello?" He called out, and at that moment, a total of six heads turned his way.

 Chapter 13

    The woman sat on a chair, her hands holding a thick book as the rest of the children surrounded her.

    Alice, was also there, she had snapped her head around upon hearing the sound of the door opening, her brows furrowed slightly.

    The woman looked at Noctus in astonishment while Noctus stood there blankly.

    After a long moment of silence, he walked forward and sat down quietly, finally understanding what they were doing.

    As much as he didn''t want to admit, he felt a bit of yearning at this sight, after all, he loved the little stories that woman told him in the cave.

    Seeing him sitting down, relief flooded Flyn''s eyes as a small smile appeared on her face, her eyes returned to the book, her lips enunciating the words for all of them to hear.

    Alice didn''t speak, but she scooted behind next to Noctus.

    She told the tale of a young prince, who selflessly participated in a war to protect his country, himself dancing on the threshold of life and death before finally winning, bringing peace and happiness to his country.

    As Noctus listened quietly, he felt as though he returned to the cave, where that woman would take care of him, and at that moment, he felt his heart soften in the slightest.

    However, as if Lupus could read his mind, Lupus growled suddenly, ''Don''tcha fucking fall for this, I''ll fucking pull us outta here the moment ya fuck up.''

    ''����shut up.'' He mumbled.

    Noctus sat cross legged, patiently awaiting the depart of the children, himself flipping open the Ruskh  book in preparation for his inquiry, ignoring the story telling.

    After about five minutes, he stood up and walked to Flyn, Alice slowly trailing behind him.

    With his outstretched arm, he offered the book to Flyn, "Do you know, this language?"

    With slight hesitation, she took the book and examined the contents before replying with gentle doe like eyes, "Ah, this book��.if I remember correctly, it was given to me by a Friend a few dozen years ago��.."

    "An Elf?" Noctus asked as he focused onto Flyn, after all, she belonged to a race he had never seen before.

    She nodded in affirmation, "Rushk, was it? Now, I''ve forgotten most of the language itself, but I can figure it out." Her eyes squinted to examine the letters, her fingers tracing each sentence.

    As she thought, he looked at her, taking in her appearance. She had large soft eyes and long lashes, her slit pupils dilating as she read.

    One thing he didn''t understand about her appearance was the massive chest she had. Perhaps it served as a form of defense  against frontal attacks to the heart?

    With a halfhearted snort, his mind started to wander and after a while, Flyn looked up from the book, her eyes now focused on Noctus, "Why do you want to know about these runes?" She asked, slightly wary.

    Without replying, he lifted his shirt, showing her the circular combination of the runes as he absentmindedly stared at the page of the book she flipped to.

    Seeing such a sight suddenly, her eyes widened in shock, not knowing how to react to this situation. She knew that Iris had done multiple modifications, but she never thought to see something like this.

    Layers and layers of runes were carved into him, pulsing with a dim red light, it seemed as though something was alive beneath his skin.

    She shifted forward slightly, causing Noctus to take a step back, noticing his reaction towards her movement, sadness flooded her eyes.

    "Does��.does it hurt?" She asked.

    "No, it doesn''t." He said dismissively.

    After giving a moment to the woman for gathering her thoughts, he asked "Is there a way to removed it?" As he peered at the book.

    Her hand reached out, "May I?" She asked.

    "��.yes." He replied, not knowing what she would do.

    Her hand traced a particular rune in the middle, "This��..this mark, it''s used on prisoners, I''ve seen an old elf carrying it once, he lost his ability to talk, or see."

    "What?!" Noctus exclaimed.

    "No, this particular rune isn''t for sealing speech��.or sight, just to seal runes permanently onto the subject until the one that marked the runes undo it, it''s to prevent convicts in the past  from ever taking runes off."

    "Is there another way to remove them?" He asked hopefully.

    "As far as I know, no. As I''ve said, the old convict I''ve met, he never got it off. I''m sorry." She spoke, her eyes slightly red.

    Disappointed, Noctus turned to leave, with a smug voice sounding in his mind. ''And that''s why you should just patiently wait~''

    Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

    "Wait." Flyn suddenly cried,her arm shot out to grab his shoulder.

    Scared by her sudden movement, he ducked and turned around swiftly, escaping her grip.

    "Ah��sorry, I didn''t mean��." She spoke hesitantly, "It''s just that I remembered, the Friend that gave me this book, she can maybe help you."

    "Is that so?" Noctus asked, his eyes flashing with hope.

    "But it''ll take a while before a letter can reach her, and then another year or so before she can come��" she continued, herself deep in thought.

    "That will be much appreciated either ways." He politely answered.

    ''����''

    After achieving his objective he turned to leave but was stopped yet again.

    "Lupus?" The woman asked.

    "No. I am Noctus." He spoke with annoyance lacing his tone.

    "Noctus." She repeated the name once, committing it to memory before she continued, "The other children will be of age next year and they''ll attend a magic academy, would you be going?" She asked.

    "No." He rejected curtly, perhaps his reply influenced by the annoyance at her mistake.

    "Why not?" She asked.

    "It''s a waste of time." He spoke without turning, already reaching the door, where he could feel Alice''s presence.

    As he took a step outside, he turned to the right and looked at Alice, who sat with her back leaning against the wall, her long hair brushing against the ground.

    He wasn''t one to say either, for as long as he could remember, he hadn''t cut his hair once, it was already almost as long as him.

    As he thought, his hand instinctively went to his hair, his hand grabbing most of it, while Alice who had slightly dozed off finally noticed the figure standing in front of her and immediately stood up.

    She was slightly taller than him, his head reaching her large purple eyes. Strangely enough, she inherited the color of her irises from her Mother but she didn''t receive the slit pupil traits.

    His eyes lazily focused onto hers, staring for quite a while before he snapped back into reality.

    "The pills��.are quite troublesome." He mumbled before turning to leave.

    Alice didn''t follow him, she merely stood there and watched Noctus leave.

    ---------------------------------------

    After arriving at his room, he rummaged around the corner Lupus claimed.

    ''OI.'' Lupus called out, seeing his pile being messed around with.

    ''I just need a knife.'' He replied dismissively without stopping.

    After a while, he pulled out a normal knife and raised it to his hair, thinking to himself.

    Should he just cut most of it off? Well, it didn''t matter, with a swipe, a large portion of his black hair dropped to the ground.

    ''Why did you do that?'' Lupus asked.

    Noctus was about to ask him why he spoke, before he could finally process the question, he replied, ''It''s a hindrance.''

    But he knew himself, that he hated that black color. It reminded him of too many things.

    Carefully, he burned the hair into nothingness as his nose wrinkled at the smell, but his mind still slow due to the pills.

    His knees seemed to go weak as he walked to the large bed in the corner of the room, dust was evident on it.

    ''Noctus?'' Iris asked.

    Sitting down, it only took a second before his head fell onto the fluffy material of the blanket.

    ''��.I told him not to eat that much." Iris immediately justified herself to the lupus glaring at her.

    ''Noctus?'' Lupus called out, but no one replied.

    Seeing that he was finally gone, Lupus came out, taking control as he wriggled his fingers, it was already night.

    Noctus was somewhere back in the mind, oblivious to the world, it was Lupus''s time to roam freely.

    And at that moment, a fragrant smell wafted over, as if it was enticing the beast.

    It was the smell of food, something that drove Lupus on the brink of madness the first time he smelled it.

    Every inch of his being wanted to devour something, an instinct burned into him, despite the fact that he did not need to consume anymore.

    What was better, than to fill one''s stomach after a fight? Of course, he wasn''t in a fight right now, but his upbringing made his personality similar to a mongrel''s.

    The first time, Noctus was there to stop him, to block him out, subsequent attempts were similarly foiled.

    But right now, Noctus was who knows where?

    A lopsided grin appeared on his face.

    ''No killing anyone please~''

 Chapter 14

    Tracing the smell, Lupus walked swiftly down the hallway, the last rays of light piercing through the windows.

    His nose twitched in the air, searching fervently for the delicious smell.

    It seemed to be beneath the earth, and without hesitation, Lupus when on his knees.

    The scent was extremely faint, practically non existent, but with his enhanced senses, he finally located a small ledge on the wooden floor.

    Without hesitation, he immediately grabbed onto it and pulled it open, revealing a door.

    Entering, his hands traced the stone walls of the passageway, the scent finally getting stronger.

    ''Is this a dungeon?'' Iris asked without any expectations for a reply.

    As he made his way down the cobbled stairs, he grabbed one of the weapons he had, infusing his mana into it.

    It soon glowed with power, conveniently brightening the stairway.

    Strangely, the stairway became brighter as he walked, it was as if something was shining.

    Finally reaching the bottom, he found a small fox like creature, only, it wasn''t a normal fox.

    It was the source of the light, it was a chimera, only a wee shorter than his arm. It seemed to be a mix of multiple animals, tuffs of different colored fur evident on its body.

    As if instinctively sensing a presence near it, it awoke, it''s small beady eyes looking up at lupus.

    And at that moment, the light it gave off dimmed, the once innocent animal growled as the bones of its body cracked and twisted, mangling and disfiguring its form.

    Gripping his weapons tight, fear erupted.

    The Monster now grew two times his size, smoke seething from the corners of its mouth, it''s sharp teeth intimidating Lupus.

    ''Lupus, run.'' Iris''s voice became unnaturally calm, losing the ever present carefree tone.

    The Monster growled as it took as step forward, shaking the earth beneath it as made its way to Lupus.

    With hesitation, Lupus pounced towards the Monster, attempting to hack its head, his teeth gritted.

    He wouldn''t lose. He never did.

    And he never will.

    ''Lupus!'' Iris screamed, ''You idiot!''

    To him, running away was never an option.

    But before he could even get close, the Monster''s hand was already swinging his way, aiming at his head.

    Leaning backwards, he narrowly ducked the attack without changing his trajectory, but this time he rose his right hand, the blade of the axe meeting with the flesh of the furred Monster.

    The blade stuck in its flesh, only piercing shallowly, refusing to go further as it was encased in flesh in an instant, stuck to the regenerating meat.

    With a swing of his injured arm, the Monster sent Lupus flying, causing him to hit the walls of the dungeon near the stairway, the impact landing on his head and arm.

    Sharp pain pricked at his head, with a pained grunt, Lupus looked up at the Monster who was making his way to him.

    His eyes squinted and his fists clenched at the weapon''s hilt, he readied himself to attack yet again, enduring the pain that came from his head.

    It didn''t come from the impact of the collision, it just came.

    However, before he could stand up again to fight, he noticed the Monster stopping a distance away, smoke still rising from its mouth and nostrils.

    Seeing the monster''s stop, he too, lay down his weapon, clutching his head.

    When was the last time it hurt so much?

    "Fuuuuuuucckkkkkkkk!" He shouted, unwilling to stop.

    His vision blurred and as he attempted to focus on the Monster, everything started to turn black.

    The pain was also fading away, but he refused to let go.

    His nails seemed to have found its way onto the flesh of his hand, digging relentlessly into the meat in an attempt to incite pain.

    He needed something to keep him awake.

    Too bad it didn''t hurt.

    At least he liked the dark.

    ------------------------------

    The Monster watched on, as the boy inflicted pain onto himself, an inner turmoil evident in his eyes.

    However, it lasted only for a mere second before the demeanour of the boy changed.

    The boy became afraid, extremely so, his eyes became wet in an instant as he pulled his knees closer to his chest, his mouth moving but producing no sound.

    He didn''t even look up to the Monster , perhaps too consumed by fear.

    The Monster then calmed down, watching the threat disappear.

    Such a child couldn''t harm his Brother, could he?

    Turning back into a fox like chimera, he sat himself down as he observed the child even more, but no matter what he did, the child never looked up.

    After a Long time, the child changed yet again, this time his eyes became empty, void of anything.

    It was extremely cold, his gaze, but then again, he was smiling, ever so faintly.

    At first the boy looked at him with interest, his legs moving in the slightest seemingly about to get up, but the child quickly lost interest and stared into space.

    The Monster could only look bewildered at the child''s changes, himself still wondering how he even entered the dungeon.

    Yet again, the child changed, this time giving off the feeling of loneliness, his small body seemingly even smaller.

    His eyes radiated a tinge of intelligence as he stood up to leave, but he quickly fell on his ass again, his eyes now flooded with pain.

    Grabbing onto his head, the child''s particular gaze disappeared.

    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.And to the monster''s disappointment, he didn''t wake up.

    Huffing, the Monster curled up, himself going to sleep, losing interest in the unconscious boy.

    The child did not notice, but a line, faint but visible on the ground, stood between the two of them.

    --------------------------

    ����who am I?

    I can''t remember��..

    It''s scary����.

    It''s so dark here����

    There''s a Monster in front of me��..

    I don''t like this����

    ��..someone��.

    The animal before me slept soundly, faint puffs of air leaving its nose.

    The only light source in here was its fur, it''s multicolored fur.

    It looked strange, with bits of orange, white, black here and there.

    ��..but what am I comparing it to?

    Why was it strange?

    What''s normal?

    ��..I need to move.

    Pushing my hands to support myself, I stood up, my actions causing the animal to stir slightly.

    But it didn''t wake up.

    ��.my right arm hurts��..

    I don''t like this��..

    Noticing a stairway, my other arm leaned against the wall for support as my legs weakly climbed the stairs.

    Something within me��.told me that if I climbed this��.I won''t have to stay here.

    The walls were uneven, with bits poking out, the gray cobble my only support.

    As I slowly climbed, the pain faded, and the originally limp arm could be moved again.

    As I made my way upwards, light seeped through, my eyes squinted in irritation.

    Reaching the top, I narrowly squeezed through a hole and arrived at another place. It was a large hallway made of wooden floors and partially cobble walls with paintings covered them.

    It was strangely beautiful, peaceful.

    It was calming.

    Transparent windows of cobbled frames revealed dark surroundings, but nevertheless this place was lit.

    Before I could take another step, a confused voice called out, it sounded extremely foreign, but calming.

    "Argo?" Something near me whispered, her voice unable to contain her shock.

    Instinctively, I turned over, but I couldn''t recognize the owner of the voice, despite the sense of familiarity her eyes held.

    Who is she?

    ��.I don''t like this.

    The uncertainty gouged at my heart. Why was this person so....

    So.....?

    I don''t remember her...

    Taking a step back hesitantly, my hand reached out, ready to defend myself.

    I wanted to run, but the unknown feelings I had stopped me. The only thing I could was to hold out my arm, to protect myself if she were to attack.

    She won''t attack....would she?

    No.....I can''t trust her....

    But why can''t I?

    ....I want to...

    No....

    But despite everything, as my thoughts conflicted, the girl ran over, her hands thrown out for an embrace.

    Her soft body soon met with mine, her weight entrusted to my legs.

    She was strangely trusting me...why would she....?

    Despite expecting a painful impact, I easily caught her without being pushed back, it was as if her body were weightless, but it wasn''t so.

    She was taller than me.

    "W-wHo arE yOu����" I asked, my voice raspy, emphasising on the wrong places.

    Her embrace was warm, it heated my originally cold body.

    It felt nice......to be hugged....

    Strangely, the fear plaguing my heart dissipated, leaving comfort as my eyelids drooped.

    It was as if I didn''t wake up only seconds ago, waves of lethargy hit me, threatening to take away my consciousness.

    But it''s alright.

    I can sleep now.

    Because it''s safe.

    Right?

 Chapter 15

    One year later.

    "Argo~" Reia called out, her arms entwined in my right arm, dropping the book I held, "let''s go~"

    "Ah!.....um, yeah." I mumble out as I caught the falling book with my left hand, only for it to disappear into my ring.

    Together, we walked out to the field where our Mother and other siblings waited, a playful voice sounding, "Argo, you couldn''t have forgot, have you?"

    I can''t remember anything ever since that day, many people came and left, under the orders of Mother and Father, but it proved to be fruitless.

    I had asked them once about the scary monster beneath the floors of the mansion, but with only a twitch in his facial expression, Father dismissed me.

    Nevertheless, I became friends with a lot of children my age,who were my sisters and brothers. And erm, I guess I have another Friend, a girly voice that came from no where.

    She didn''t want me to tell anyone, so I didn''t, but in return when the dark scares me, she provides me delusions of another world.

    I think it''s alright here, I''m not scared anymore, but even with so many people, I still feel lonely.

    Today, all eight of us headed to an academy, the rarely opened stone gate was lifted for us. With Mother holding mine and Alice''s hands tight, we took our first step outside of the walled area we knew as home.

    It was connected to a city, as Mother had explained, the king here were a old Friend of theirs kind enough to cordon off an entire area for them to build their home.

    Suddenly, we caught sight of civilisation, men and woman roamed the streets, shouts of bargaining sounded, echoing in our ears.

    "Mom, Mom!" Dominan called out, his index finger pointed out at the different races present before us.

    There were beastmen, fairies,  dwarfs, all sorts of races. Mother had explained them to us, Eropagnis was a place of diversity.

    Of course, discrimination was still present, just in small amounts, something pretty evident to me as passerbys started to point and stare.

    "Human?"

    "Oh dear, shouldn''t it be leashed? Wont it attack?"

    I was a ''human''.

    In this world, humans roamed the continent, without cities to call home. Those that weren''t adventurers were slaves, it was a harsh world for them who brought on the "Raoik war".

    Most cities and villages were unaccepting of them, tales only told of their greed and intelligence, a scary combination. The ones that did never allowed them to stay permanently.

    My hand dropped from mother''s grasp, instead finding its way to my other hand as I looked downwards.

    Wordlessly, my feet dragged and I walked a pace slower then them.

    The academy we were going to attend was not too far away, only a quick walk.

    Similarly to our home, it was walled off from the rest of the city, guarded and secured. Perhaps the only difference was that the stone gate was open.

    Countless children were streaming in, incoherent cacophonous chatter were heard as parents excitedly enrolled their children.

    Instead of waiting in line like the others, Mother led us into the building without obstruction, upon seeing us, Guards had tilted their body to give way, nodding as a sign of respect.

    Without giving them another glance, Mother walked into the beautifully furnished building, with marble floors and mahogany walls.

    Doors lined the sides of the hallway, with a single room occupying at the end, on the door was a plate that wrote, "Mr Earis."

    After placing her hand onto the handle of the door, she turned around and spoke, "Everyone, I want you to sit tight and wait, don''t run around, okay?" Her hand pointed at the seats along the hallway.

    After speaking, she turned and pushed down on the handle, opening the door to enter.

    With a small "Thud" the door closed, leaving the seven of us seated outside on the velvet chairs lined orderly along the walls.

    In my hands appeared a sweet, taken from my ring. As I was about to eat it, Reia''s hand shot out and grabbed it.

    Ah, it hurts. How irritating.

    "?" I turned my head towards her, not knowing what to say other than malicious word, but I refrained from doing so.

    "Let''s go play!" She shouted a bit too loudly, grabbing my hand as she turned to the other children, a mischievous glint present in her eye.

    "We can''t, Mommy said so." Kevin replied simply, crossing his arms.

    Instant rejection.

    "Wha- Oi! Kevin!" She shouted, one of her fists clenching into a little ball, releasing my hand.

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    ��.thank goodness.

    Inching closer, she covered the side of her mouth as she whispered, "She''ll never know if we come back faster! Aren''t you interested! It''s so cool to come out!" As she continued speaking, her voice increased in proportion to her excitement.

    "Argo doesn''t want to go." Alice spoke with a dismissive tone before pulling me back onto my seat.

    "Plus," she said as she picked my candy off the floor, "he needs to eat that."

    Dusting the dirt off, she placed it in my hands with a smile, her gaze intently fixed on me, as if anticipating for me to eat the sweet.

    Instead of eating it, I widened the gap between my fingers and let it fall to the ground as annoyance enveloped me.

    "I don''t want it anymore." I spoke, unwilling to listen to her.

    As I said so, Alice turned her way to glare at me, but before she could speak, Reia''s voice sounded in the hallway.

    "Oi oi! What''s this! Let''s go!" Reia complained with her fists clenched, waving in the air.

    Annoying. I thought as I turned away.

    But instead of a reply, everyone turned their heads away in a similar fashion from mine, except for Christopher.

    "Tsk��Chris," she called out as she grabbed his hand, "let''s go."

    Without turning back once, she left with her hand still locked in Christopher''s. The two of them were together a lot, since it seemed that both of them were fanatics of the sword.

    Christopher was my twin, as Alice had explained, but he never seemed to like me a lot, his gaze were mostly cold, with another emotion in the middle of his indifference, but I never knew what it was.

    I don''t like him much, I suppose, we''ve never really spoken either.

    ''Who likes that smug bastard.'' A small voice muttered, perhaps a bit too faintly. It had a different tone to it compared to Iris''s, it was a guy''s voice.

    I wonder who it is? I dunno.

    He didn''t sound friendly, and was a bit too mean, at night is when his voice becomes really really clear, or when I don''t eat my sweets.

    There''s others too but I don''t like them, they scream and shout, it''s really noisy and annoying.

    They shout really loudly, ''Let me out!'' ''Let me out!'' non stop.

    As I slowly thought more about the voices, a sudden warmth enveloped my hand. Woken from my stupor, I stupidly looked down to the hand whose fingers intertwined with mine.

    "��.Argo." Alice mumbled, her hand clenching tighter.

    Without looking up, I could already imagine the bitter smile on her face.

    She explained to me once, that she could sense the hearts of others, and how it influenced her. Extreme rage from another near her, would also throw her into a fit of anger, or so she explained.

    Perhaps she had sensed some sort of emotion from me, and knew instinctively what I was about to do.

    I must not do that. She had reminded quite a bit. I must not find out who is, no��. The people, the origin of the voices.

    I must eat my sweets.

    "��..okay." I muttered halfheartedly as another sweet appeared in my hand. No matter how much I disliked being told what to do, I must listen to Alice, she''s right.

    After I ate my sweet, the world slowed down back to what it used to be, the colors became more vibrant and my previous defiant attitude disappeared, myself wondering how childish it was.

    The feeling the sweets gave was weird, hard to explain too, when I ate my sweets I would always feel��.umm��slow?

    Regardless, a book appeared I my hands and I started reading, it was about the technology of this world.

    As I started reading, Alice tilted her body and leaned on my shoulder, resting with her eyes closed.

    I like her warmth. My brain dully registered.

    Just like that, we waited for Mother to come.