Questions and Answers Alike

“Torynth?” I ask with a smug expression, “Who came up with that?”

“I did. Just now,” Christoph replies, “Get it? Tori plus Labyrinth equals…”

“I get it, I get it…just…please stop.”

Christoph’s pride seems to take a small hit, as he sulks back to his normal standing position and coughs out in embarrassment.

I breathe in deeply for a brief moment, before letting out a loud sigh. “Please sit down. All three of you. I have need of the knowledge you have gained from your experience here. Just as much as I’m sure you have need of my own.”

“Doesn’t seem like such a fair deal, you know. Like swapping out a gold bar for a few silver coins, don’t you think, Mr….” Christoph beckons his hands towards me for an answer.

“Ho. The name’s Nehman Ho.”

“Hmm. I take it you are originally from somewhere in Asia, then?”

“Southeast. Born and raised. Before all this happened, anyway.”

Christoph takes a seat, and Zadek and Kedaz follow suit behind him. I stare fervently towards the twins, taking notice of their quiet nature but attentive eyes.

“So they’re both deaf?”

“Only the female is. The male, Zadek, can hear perfectly fine. But he is mute, so unable to speak. Sign language is the only way to communicate with them both.” Christoph ends with a smile towards the two behind him.

Zadek begins to sign his twin sister, causing her to laugh at what I assumed to be a joke between the two.

“What did he just say?” I ask Christoph.

Christoph pauses before his answer, “He says your eyes make you look like a ghoul from a video game they used to play back home.”

I glance towards the twins with a soft smile, “Thank you for the compliment.”

Zadek begins to sign towards me with a smug expression. Christoph coughs out in embarrassment once again, prompting me to understand it clearly wasn’t supposed to be a compliment.

Little brats.

“Your eyes are certainly peculiar…one is bright blue while the other is bright silver.”

“What can I say…” I smirk confidently, “I was born with em. And I’m glad I was.”

“Why is that?”

“Whenever my adrenaline spikes, my left eye with the silver irises turns blood red, making it hard to see the field of vision coming from my left side.”

“...I would imagine that to be a curse rather than anything else,” Christoph replies with concern.

“No, that’s just it,” I say while sitting up further, “In such a moment…the worse the field of vision, the less you are able to recall. It’s like going in half-blind…and with such a disadvantage…comes an advantage. I can never seem to hold back…simply because in such a moment…it feels like I have nothing to lose…”

“...so you’re saying it’s easier to go berserk simply by losing an eye? Is that a psychological thing?”

“Think about it. Whenever you read a story, whether it be the protagonist or the antagonist, it’s only when they lose something valuable that they feel they can truly give it their all. An arm or leg, it doesn’t matter. It could even be a loved one. Or loved ones. With nothing to lose, you become ten times more dangerous than you already are.”

“...well that’s certainly one way to apply fiction to your reality.”

I slink back, and confidently place my hands behind my head, “It certainly worked for me plenty of times in the past. Answer me this, Christoph. How does a slave manage to become a king?”

Christoph twists his head and strokes his beard, eager to know the answer. “...how?”

A sinister grin escapes me, clearly making Zadek and Kedaz uneasy.

“By being the only one left to take the crown.”

Christoph continues to stare at me, before looking towards the ground while still stroking his beard.

“An interesting answer…” He finally replies, “Is that more of a mindset you believe in, or a fact in which you abide by?”

…a mindset to believe in, or a fact that I abide by?

I look down and chuckle softly, “Let’s just say it's an answer I found from experience.” My attention then returns to Christoph, whose gaze has also now returned to me, “Speaking of experiences, aren’t we getting off topic, here?”

Christoph jumps in his seated position, “Right! You need answers, and I need a few from you as well.” Christoph extends his hands once more, as if displaying himself to me, “Where would you like to start, Mr. Nehman?”

“First things first,” I lift my finger up slowly, before pointing towards the nearby corner of the area we are situated in, “What happened to the woman that was previously here?”

Christoph freezes, before slinking back, “Huh? Who are you talking about? Is that truly the first question you wish to ask?”

“Absolutely. She has something of mine, and I wish to retrieve it as quickly as possible.”

Christoph glances over towards my new three weapons he had thrown towards me earlier, along with the longsword he had returned to me. “...you truly are a greedy one, aren’t you? Or are you simply materialistic?”

Zadek aggressively signs towards me, expecting me to understand. I return his gesture with one of my own, although an inappropriate one.

“Zadek is saying!...” Christoph interrupts, “...that we didn’t see any woman of whom you speak of. The only one we found here was you as soon as the last white feather was about to disappear.”

Tch.

“Do you know what this woman looks like?” Christoph asks, “I’m certain I can perhaps identify her? I have certainly been here a while.”

“For how long?”

“In this cycle, it’s been about five months now? Funny enough, I am starting to look close to how I was before I died.” Christoph ends with a soft laugh.

…what?

“What did you just say?” I ask fervently.

“...I said I am starting to look close to how I was before I died.”

“Died? What do you mean died?” I say as I rise to my feet, “You weren’t transported here like the rest of us?!”

Christoph becomes startled, “..what? No, I died in the previous world, and then spawned here…oh, that’s right. You may have not realized it yet because you haven’t been killed in here yet. But…everyone that spawns here does so after dying in the known world.”

“That’s impossible.” I begin to laugh awkwardly, “I was only twenty-six. I was healthy as could be. You’re trying to tell me I died?”

“...unfortunately, Mr. Nehman, you did.”

Zedak and Kedaz begin to exchange a flurry of sign language amidst each other, only prompting me to get more angry. However, in trying to quell my confusion and rage, I begin to pace quickly around the area.

Impossible. Me? Dead? Was I killed? How? Pin Joe? King Kenji?

Impossible! I own those fools! That’s genuinely not possible! I was literally asleep! Thousands of my guards all around my penthouse!

“Listen, I know I may have a lot of enemies, but can you even imagine how much security I have?! I’m more protected than the damn President of the United States!!!” I scream out.

“...I don’t doubt you did,” Christoph responds.

I finally freeze, and begin to look towards my hands, in the same way I did when I first arrived in this strange place.

…why can’t I remember anything from that night?

I return to where I had been seated, and sit up tall to face Christoph and the twins behind him. All three seemed concerned, but also exasperated by my restlessness. I let out a deep sigh.

Forget Chen for now. There seems to be much more important answers I need.

“Let’s start from the top.” I solemnly state, “Who are you, really? And just what happened to you when you arrived in this place?”

Christoph stays quiet for a brief moment, before starting our exchange, “Not too different to what I am doing here, I used to be an engineer in my motherland. I served my nation, working diligently in our economic recovery plan after the war, even with the great division between our people at the time. I was hailed as a brilliant mind, and I had it all. My wife and children loved me dearly. I couldn’t complain.”

“So you died of old age, I assume?”

“I was executed.”

…well…that’s one hell of an answer.

“Would you like to know why?” Christoph asks with a serious expression.

“Forget it. That’s in the past. Right now, I need to know what happened to you when you got here.”

“When I arrived, I was saved by a group of hunters,” Christoph glances towards me with a concerned look, “...just like you probably were.”

“Yes. I was rescued by a party of nine. Two bird monsters had come to greet me, but they were killed by them before they could kill me. However, three of them died in the process.”

“And you saw the six paths, correct?” Christoph asks.

“Yes.” I respond quickly. “Six paths, yet I chose the only wrong one.”

“Haha, that isn’t for you to decide. That is for Pandora to decide.”

“And who is Pandora?”

“The angel at the top. Floor Zero. Rumor is that Pandora is the one guiding people towards her, while the Tori are the ones trying their best to stop us from reaching her. Stories of others have been passed down through the generations that this place has existed, speaking of the valiant heroes that fought their ways through these halls and reached Pandora, enabling them to escape from this collective hell and reach their individual heavens.”

“So she’s the one in control of the shifting of the halls, that you spoke of earlier. She’s the guardian of the labyrinth, then.”

“Precisely. And if she decides it's better for you to have an early death, then it must be so.”

An unimpressed look glosses over my face, “...that makes no sense,”

“It technically does,” Christoph adjusts his seating position to make himself more comfortable, “The reason you had no idea you had died before coming here is specifically because you hadn’t been yet killed by a Tori. By experiencing that realization of death, and being swallowed into the halls, you then have a relapse of what happened to cause your death. The idea of who you were before you died always remains, which is why you still remember yourself. But you don’t simply remember everything that you might wish to, including why you died.”

Christoph leans in, “In the case of murder, or an unfortunate set of circumstances, you probably will not immediately remember what may have caused it…that was my own case for a while when I first arrived, and even after my first few deaths in this place.”

“So everytime you die, you eventually respawn in the same way you were spawned here in the first place? With the rags, and with the laughing bones…wait…those bones…were the people that lost their minds while being stuck in this place, right?”

“Correct, my friend,” Christoph responds with a smirk, “However, unlike with your first spawn, the bones will no longer appear again to welcome you, no matter how many times you spawn again.”

I wipe my nose, distressed by the realization of the situation I have been placed in, “Just how many times have you died in this place, Christoph?”

“Three hundred and forty times, and counting. Twenty of those times I had died of old age, which happens after one full year here by the way. About sixty of them, I was murdered by others. One time I committed suicide, which is a long story. And the rest…you guessed it, I was killed by the Tori.”

…yikes.

“...sorry to hear that,”

“Now it’s my turn.” Christoph says as he clasps his hands together, “First, what calendar year was it at the time of your death?”

“Oi.” I squeeze my face while glaring at Christoph, “Enough with that death stuff. I didn’t die. I was transported here.”

“Right,” Christoph responds with a soft laugh, “But please answer the question,”

“2024.”

“Oh my, the sun has certainly come around many times since I have been gone, hasn’t it?” Christoph continues to laugh, “Zadek and Kedaz here were killed around 2021. And you in 2024. Oh, to be so young.”

“What about you?”

“1955.”

“...well damn.”

“I doubt that the linear clock of the known world is in line with that of Torynth’s, but it’s nice to see that the world has continued on for so long. In my time, it seemed like the rapture was sure to happen at some point soon, one way or another.”

“You being a Christian makes even less sense. How did you end up here?”

“Just because I believed in the rapture doesn’t mean I longed for it, my friend,” Christoph takes out another cigarette, “I was too stained to sin to even be considered for God’s kingdom. That much, I realize now.”

I stare at Christoph for a brief moment, analyzing the dichotomy between his blonde hair and grey beard. Kedaz fetches one of the torches they had set up around the area, and hands it over to Christoph.

“You said you knew Lennon, right?” I ask, “It was his party that saved me.”

As the distance between Christoph’s torch and cigarette becomes smaller, it suddenly halts in position. Christoph slowly glances back towards me, before shaking his head and lighting the cigarette properly. Traces of hollow sand initially pours out from the fixed rag paper content, but eventually hardens enough to stay in place due the heat of the blue flame.

“Then you were unlucky. I’m not sure how you made it out, but I’m sure it must have been a struggle.”

“...hmm. Yeah, I guess. The monsters were pretty difficult to beat.”

Christoph takes a deep breath away from the cigarette, “No, you know that’s not what I mean. I mean getting sold like…wait, a minute, how long did you stay with his party for?”

“An hour at best.” I respond with a shrug.

“Hm. I see. Then there must have been a break in plans.”

I continue to stare at Christoph, inspecting the innovative cigarette he holds. However, his concerning words don't escape my mind.

“Go on then,” I voice out, “Explain what you mean.”

“There are three types of hunters in this place. There are those like Zadek, Kedaz and I who seek ways to solve the mysteries of this place so we can escape. You can call us: explorers. There are also those that simply wish to fight with brute strength and push their way up towards Pandora, no matter how difficult it may be. You can call them: warriors. And last, but certainly not least, there are those who wish to exchange goods and services to others here in order to pig off their efforts. They aren’t necessarily interested in how to escape from here, they are only concerned with how to survive in the best way they can. Many of the warrior parties tend to offer fresh materials in exchange for items they don’t have, while explorer parties like ours wish to offer our own goods in exchange for the information they may have. My former students are often made out to be explorers or warriors, using what I taught them in order to reach the highest floors of Torynth. However, there is the case of Lennon, who sought to be on equal footing as others, but not at the risk of his own survival. He will do anything to satisfy others in order to appear needed, even carrying out sickening requests that have certainly made its way to my ears over time.”

Christoph reaches out and hands me the cigarette, prompting me to hold it and take a hit for myself.

Not quite like the real thing.

“You can call people like them: traders. ” Christoph finishes.

I begin to cough loudly, as the dust of the hollow sand fills my nostrils, “And what exactly would Lennon and his party have likely done to me if I didn’t find myself separated from them like I have?”

Christoph sighs. “Just like what happened to these two over here in their previous cycle…you would have likely been sold off to Bruno’s warrior party. Either to be used as a meat shield in combat, or to be used as a toy to satisfy his fetish for young ones.”

My stomach begins to churn, and I can feel my blood beginning to boil. However, a sinister grin escapes me yet again.

Chen also knew of this, didn’t she?...Hmm…Considering how much she didn’t seem to get along with Lennon or the others, even with all the time they had surely spent together…yet seemed somewhat careless around a stranger like me…or maybe the right word is confident…

“You men are all the same. Some of you just know how to hide it better.”

Ah…Ahhh….why do I get the feeling these two are linked somehow…

“Bruno, huh? I’d like to meet this…Bruno.”

Christoph sharply lifts his head, surprised by my phrasing, “Didn’t you just hear what I said? Or do you have the same disgusting fetish or something?”

“Not at all,” I respond quickly, “But wherever he is…I simply have a feeling that a raging bull will be there as well.”

“...a raging…bull?” Christoph asks while looking towards the twins with a confused expression. The twins return his gaze with confused expressions of their own.

“Change of plans,” I say as I rise to my feet once more, “It seems I have to go hunting, after all.”

Christoph and the twins follow suit in rising to their feet. Christoph then places his hand on top of my right shoulder and leans in with a worried expression across his face.

“Listen, I don’t know how you came to such a conclusion, but please don’t think you can fight Bruno by yourself. He has the largest party of all the warriors, and he himself is one of the strongest warriors we have here. He’s always been a brute for as long as he’s been here, and in this cycle, he’s currently in his prime. Probably around 25 to 28 years old in human years, but two months in Torynth time. I’m begging you, let’s return to our discussion. I’m sure you have more questions you’d like answered.”

“Stress isn’t a good look on you, Christoph,” I respond with a confident grin, “That’s why you have a grey beard so soon. Don’t worry…it’s not Bruno I’m after.”

Christoph pauses, “...I take it you are after this ‘raging bull’, then?”

“Well, like you said, I still have a lot of questions I need answered. However, it’s not you that can give me the answers I am looking for anymore.”

I crack my neck by placing my hands carefully along my head and chin, before walking to pick up one of the torches situated around the area.

“Now then…I’ll be taking this with me.”