Chapter 114 Different but the same [4]
"H-help... me. I'm scared.."
Within a dark cave, a boy cried. He looked no older than eight, and he held his legs with both hands.
"Waa...!"
"Uha!"
In the distance, he could hear the cries of the other children. Hugging his legs tightly, he hugged his body tightly.
'Where am I...?'
'What's going on?'
'I'm scared.'
Such was Leonard's first memory at the Inverted Sky.
From then on he was subjected to endless torture.
"...I'm sorry..."
He was beaten.
"It... h-urts... It's my fault... Don't hit me."
He was forced to repeat the same words each day.
"For the inverted sky!"
And he couldn't remember the number of times he had starved.
"I'm hungry."
Everyday.
"....Sorry "
Life was hell.
'Ah... I can't do this anymore... It hurts...'
"Hic... Hic..."
His cries echoed quietly as he wept to himself.
"....H-here."
That was when another child approached him.
Holding onto a piece of bread, he handed it to Leonard. Raising his head, Leonard stared at the bread. He blinked, unable to understand what was going on.
"F-or me?"
"....Yes."
That was when Leonard first met Giel.
He was taller than the other children. He was also smarter. He'd give them his share of the food whenever someone was hungry.
It didn't take long for him to become the group leader.
But even then...
He could only help out so much. Even as he starved, and took beatings over the other children, the number of children within the group dwindled.
What at first had been a group of over one hundred children slowly turned into a group of thirty.
"I'm hungry..."
"My stomach hurts."
"It hurts... M-mom... I-want to go home."
"Here."
Giel continued to hand over his food. Even as his stomach roared in pain, and his arms were so thin you could see the bones, he gave his food to those who needed it the most.
"H-here."
Leonard followed after his example.
But even then...
The deaths continued.
In the end, only ten managed to survive.
"From this moment forth, you will be the Dragon Charred Unit."
Giel, Arian, Jacob, Clyde, Laura, Johanna, Karl, Rowan, Evan, and Leonard. These were the names of the members.
They were the last remaining survivors of the first trial.
Having survived, they had now become full-fledged members of the Inverted Sky. Because of the shared trauma, they were close to each other.
"Have mine..."
"Take my towel."
When one suffered, the other would sacrifice their comfort to help the other. It was like this that they carried forward.
In his time with them, it was a certain conversation that struck deeply with Leonard.
Sitting by a bonfire, he remembered asking,
"Do you remember your families?"
"No."
".....No."
"I do not."
As the flames from the fire reflected in the eyes of the children, one of them spoke.
"I do."
It was Laura. The second youngest of the group.
With an expression he had never seen her make, she went on to say,
"My mom. I think she had blonde hair and green eyes. I don't remember much, but I remember that she was warm. Like this fire. But it doesn't hurt like this one. I don't know where she is."
Looking up, she asked,
"Do you think she still remembers me?"
Crackle!
The fire crackled as the members remained silent for a brief moment.
Giel was the one who ended up answering as he threw a wooden stick to the fire.
"....Maybe."
To Leonard, Giel was an enigma. He was kind and helpful, but at the same time, ruthless when it was necessary.
He was a person whom he found hard to understand.
But at the same time... He was someone he looked up to.
Just what were his true thoughts...?
"I want to meet her."
"You will."
Another member said, staring at the fire.
"Once we reach a higher rank we'll get more freedom. By then, you should be able to meet your mother."
"I will help you."
"....Thank you."
The group was united. They had to be. They had only each other left.
That conversation became an irreplaceable memory to Leonard.
From then on the group worked together. They followed a similar routine. They would wake up. Train. Eat. Receive missions. Return, and repeat.
"Let's keep going."
".....Just hang in there for a little longer."
"Ugh, Laura, you aren't a very good cook."
"Then you cook!"
"Ah, well... I'm kind of lazy."
"Then shut up and eat."
"Hey! That's my bedsheet."
"Whatever."
"Here, have mine."
"No, I want his."
"Damn it!"
"Hahaha."
Their lives were slowly starting to get better. But... to Leonard, there was still something that he felt was missing about that life.
He couldn't quite explain it.
.....Every time he would go out for a mission, he'd feel that something was missing.
It only hit him in his latest mission.
They had fully grown up now. No longer were they children.
Standing further back from the crowd, Leonard stared at the sea of people heading for the stadium when he mumbled,
"....I envy them."
The members turned their heads to stare at him. Unlike in the past, they were all different. No longer did they seem as hopeful as they once did.
They looked like a shell of what they had in the past.
After everything they had been through, it was hard for them to not lose their humanity. But even then, they were the only ones Leonard had left.
"You envy them? Why?"
Why...?
Leonard looked at the crowd.
".....Look at them. All those people. They're all here to watch them."
"Them?"
"The cadets."
".....Ah."
A strange silence befell the group shortly after. As all members turned their heads to stare at the audience, Leonard asked,
"What do you think it's like?"
He nudged at them with his chin.
".....The acknowledgment of one's existence. How do you think it feels?"
In a world where the only ones who knew about their existence were each other, how did it feel to be acknowledged?
.
.
.
I pondered over Leonard's question for a very long time.
Looking around me and seeing everyone looking at me, I felt the center of everyone's attention. But even then. Even though I stood before them. I wasn't really there.
.....I was merely an abstract image of Julien Dacre Evenus.
They were looking at me, but not the real me. In a way, the story resonated with me. It was hard to keep going when nobody truly looked at you.
But...
I didn't need people to look at me.
I was fine with what I had. There was a goal that I had in mind. One that I had to accomplish regardless of how much it hurt.
....and it was exactly because of such thoughts that I was able to push away the current pain that I was experiencing.
"Haa."
The pain...
It was eroding every part of my body. From my muscles to my internal organs. I could feel a boiling heat from deep within me.
I could feel the pain swell with each second that passed. My stomach started to bloat, and I started to feel stiff.
"....."
The energy that was accumulating inside my core was threatening to take over my entire body.
I needed to let go of it.
Let it out.
Looking around and seeing everyone desperately fighting against the mammoth, I took in their struggling expressions.
It was obvious that they were having a hard time defeating the beast.
It looked imposing from where I was.
Powerful...
Tok--
I took my first step forward.
As I did, I extended my hand. The one thing that limited me each time was the lack of mana. However, things were different now. Mana. I had plenty of it. So much so that my body was starting to break down as a result of how much I had.
"Haa... Haa..."
As my breath grew labored, threads started to emerge from my forearm. One, two, three, four, five... ten.
"More..."
I could feel it.
With the amount of mana I had, I could create more threads.
I wanted to see it.
Just how many threads could I create with the amount of energy that I had?
"Twenty."
No, I could do more...
Even as my body started to heat up, I squeezed everything out of me.
Shhh—
"....Thirty."
Such were the number of threads that were currently enveloping my arm. Staring into the distance, I focused my attention on the recording device hovering in the air.
I took a good look at it before closing my eyes.
"Huu."
I took a deep breath and sunk my consciousness within.
....There I could feel four other faint personalities trying to take over. However, I didn't let them.
Not yet.
"...."
"...."
In the silence that took over my mind, I slowly opened my eyes again. When I did, I found the entire world before me covered in threads.
"Haa..."
Looking ahead, I could see everyone's attention fixed on me.
From the recording device to everyone else that was within the room. At that moment, they were all looking at me.
I was the center of everyone's attention.
I...
....Was existing.
***
Everything happened so fast that nobody knew how to react. In one moment, Aoife and Johnathan's team were struggling, and in the next moment, they stopped. It wasn't as though they wanted to stop.
It was more like...
...They had to stop.
[W-what is this?]
[Threads?]
Covering every inch of the chamber were threads. They surrounded the entire space without leaving anyone with any room to move.
"What's going on...?"
"What the hell is this?"
The unexpected change caught the audience off guard, prompting some to stand up for a better view of the projection above. However, just as they were trying to understand the situation, the recording device suddenly focused on a certain individual.
"Ah..."
He stood still at the center without saying a single word. He just stood there, and yet, the moment the recording device stopped on him, he seemed to suck the very air out of the surroundings.
"It's him..."
"....What is he doing?"
It was a figure that most people were already aware of.
Having witnessed his play, they were all too familiar with him. He was a sort of celebrity.
Back then, he had gripped the attention of the world with his acting. This time, he grabbed their attention for a different reason.
"...How?"
"The threads... They are coming from him?"
It was hard for the audience to make heads or tails of what was happening. Before his stream had turned off, everyone saw his group. It was nothing special.
Due to technical errors, their stream shut off and everyone turned to look at the other groups that were possible to watch.
Everyone had forgotten about them.
Him.
.....With how everyone had been performing, it wasn't hard to forget about him.
But...
Staring at the very scene before them, the audience found themselves unable to tear their gazes away from him.
If they could forget about him before, they couldn't now.
He was deeply etched in their minds.
[Tok—]
The singular sound of his footstep echoed within the confines of the projection as he stepped forward.
As he did, the other cadets remained still.
It wasn't because they were scared, but simply put, they couldn't. The threads. Despite being so thin, they looked sturdy.
[Weeee—]
The silence shattered as the mammoth emitted a thunderous growl, its piercing cry echoing through the air as it fixed its gaze upon Julien.
Snap! Snap! Snap!
As it moved, the threads snapped.
"....!"
"Ah!"
The audience screamed as they watched this. It was a scene they were familiar with. Just moments prior, all the other cadets struggled to even put a dent in the creature's body.
The same could be said to be true for the threads which appeared to not affect the mammoth's body.
[....]
Standing still, Julien started at the incoming creature. He didn't seem particularly bothered by the mammoth.
Bringing his hand forward, he clenched his hand.
The threads compressed into the mammoth who let out a shrill cry.
[Weeee—]
Blood splurted everywhere.
But even so, it continued to change forward.
Snap! Snap! Snap!
10 meters.
[....]
Julien remained still.
8 meters.
[Weeee—]
The creature neared yet again.
Even so, Julien remained still. The audience watched this with bathed breath as they clenched their hands against the seats tightly.
While he stood motionless, a certain voice floated in Julien's mind as he stared at the incoming mammoth.
'I'm tired.'
It was the continuation of Leonard's speech.
'And it's not the type of tiredness that sleep can fix. I'm tired of not existing. Not knowing whether, besides you guys, a person out there even acknowledges my existence. You guys also feel it, don't you? That we're slowly fading away.'
6 meters.
It drew nearer to him. Its massive presence loomed over Julien as the audience looked at the scene with widened eyes and looks of horror.
"Oh no!"
"Ah!! Get away...!"
But he didn't. Julien remained standing where he was, his expression changing again as he took on a new persona.
'.....It feels empty. I feel empty. I don't know why. I just feel this way. And it's sucking me deeper and deeper each day that I keep on living.'
4 meters.
It was now practically in front of Julien.
"Akh..!"
Some of the audience wanted to close their eyes. They wanted to look away from the bloody scene that was inevitably going to happen.
But...
For some reason, everyone kept their eyes fixed on him. It was as if their eyes were glued on him, making them unable to tear their gazes away.
'So if you ask me why I'm envious, it's because I don't get to have the privilege of even knowing what's it like to know I exist. I'm just a shadow. An endlessly drifting piece of nothing.'
2 meters.
[Weeee—]
The mammoth roared.
Its body elevated from the ground as its foot drew near to him.
'....I am nothing.'
And then...
Thump!
The mammoth fell flat a few inches before Julien. Around it were over a dozen purple threads. The audience started at the scene in shock. The same was true for the cadets.
As everyone wondered how it was possible? Julien turned his head to face the recording device.
His expression appeared for all those to see.
"....."
A strange silence suddenly overtook the arena as everyone stopped speaking. As he looked, his eyes seemed to say,
'Are you seeing this...?'
Seeing this? Who was he talking to?
His face changed slightly. So did his eyes. All of a sudden, it appeared as though he was a completely different person.
Julien's eyes widened as he looked around him.
'They're watching you.'
Despite his strange behavior, the spectators couldn't take their eyes away from him. Again, his expression changed.
This time, he appeared different again.
A new persona.
'.....All of you.'
He didn't seem to be addressing the crowd.
But something else.
'Your existence...'
He was speaking to the four entities within him. There were ten, but he could only enter the mind of four.
Even so, Julien understood that despite their differences, they were the same.
He had seen it through the four he managed to enter.
Giel, Arian, Jacob, Clyde, Laura, Johanna, Karl, Rowan, Evan, and Leonard. These were the names of the young children.
The Charred Dragon Unit.
This was the tale of ten young people.
It was a sad tale.
A tale of ten people who the longer they existed, the less they felt like they existed. In the end, they all wanted the same thing.
To have someone out there acknowledge the fact that they existed.
And he put on this performance to let the world see them.
'The world sees it. I've shown them.'
Staring into the recording device, he returned to his usual expression. His eyes looked down at the mammoth, and his lips parted slightly.
".....That you exist."
Existed.
Different, but the same.
Such was the name of their tale.
***
Sorry for the delay, very long chap.
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