Halo Effect

The fall was brief but deeply etched into my memory. Air resistance pressed on my back as though I were in a storm; my inner organs felt like they were about to float out of my body. The crash didn’t crack me open like an egg, as part of me expected. My body landed right on Zeroc’s arms; he even let his arms droop a little upon impact to soak up more of the impact. The sensation was akin to landing on a trampoline.

Zeroc set me down on the floor. The site was more of a bunker than a basement, with walls lined with steel and a single light source in the form of a bulb on the ceiling. Crates piled up at the back, the open ones exposing fresh produce within them. These food items were definitely real, judging from the fruity scents I hadn’t encountered since coming to this world. There were apples, melons, and strawberries, while I was close to being forced to endure at least a month of dried snacks. The world was truly an unfair place.

Matching what the commander reported, six men were kneeling on the floor, each watched over by a soldier. Zeroc stepped to the center of the six men. He opened up his arms and took a deep breath, both of which could be misinterpreted as part of some weird ritual.

“I know you’ve been providing the citizens with a food supply. For this, I have to applaud you.” He said. That was a probe to test their reactions. “Mr. Topaz would have done the same if no one else was going to do it. So, that is a question. Are you really giving food to those in need? Because this place smells like a criminal hideout.” Liar. Topaz didn’t once ask us to give away the dried food products sitting idly in the storage room.

The caught men didn’t reply, well… except the one, who bit onto Zeroc’s hook. He was a bald man who looked to be in his twenties.

“How dare you say that? We have been feeding the city, while you incompetent soldiers were too lazy to take walks beyond the main streets.”

“Oh? If what you are doing is so great, why sneak around like this? You don’t even have a sign outside. No normal person will know that you are giving out food here.” As Zeroc laid out insults, the bald man’s face got more flushed, and his fist trembled more.

“We didn’t have a choice! We-” The bald man’s words were drowned out as the other five men yelled for him to shut up.

Zeroc’s expression changed little, the same contemptuous look, but I knew in another setting, he would be licking his lips right now. He grabbed onto the bald man’s shoulders and said, “I wonder why your friends here want you to stop talking. If what you are doing is right, there shouldn’t be anything to hide. Tell me everything, so I can help you clear your name. The soldiers won’t stand in your way anymore, and they can even help you.”

“We have nothing to hide, but we also don’t trust you soldiers.”

“Then, tell me, where does the food come from? You definitely have a benefactor. Who is it? How do you communicate with them?”

“My companions here recruited me, and fresh food gets delivered to this place every morning. We don’t know who sent them here.”

“Do you expect me to believe that?” Zeroc scoffed, beginning to tap his feet. I could understand his impatience. Those answers didn’t provide us much in finding the real culprit behind the incident and their true goal. Zeroc directed his attention to the other five men. “Hey. Who among you was also recruited by your companions here? Raise your hand. Slowly.”

All of them lifted their arms. Zeroc shook his head, and a frown surfaced. I didn’t know he was capable of this expression. He must be very annoyed. “All of you? How is that possible? Then, answer me. Who recruited you? Point at the person.” The six men reluctantly pointed to one another. Their arms wavered with uncertainty. Two of them even switched who they indicated midway.

“Then, did any of you recruit anyone? Point at the person you recruited.” They let their hands slump at ease, confusion disclosed on their faces.

“What’s the matter? Do you need time to coordinate your lies? I said point!” For the first time, I noticed anger in Zeroc’s voice. Even the soldiers shuddered; the men scrambled to pick a target to point at. Their responses were so rushed that two of them pointed at the same person. I guessed they could explain it as the two of them took part in the recruitment together, but I wasn’t sure Zeroc would believe their excuses. It was hard for me to even peek at his face; his voice was scary enough, and I didn’t want to be caught in his fury.

The bald man had other ideas. He didn’t point at anyone; instead, he must still have eye contact with Zeroc. His expression was more resolute than scared. With the biggest threat to his life before him, he still stood his ground. This bravery was way above that of any other person here. Even though I knew Zeroc wouldn’t hurt me, I was nonetheless overwhelmed with the desire to climb back up the ladder (Zeroc would probably snap the ladder in half if I did that).

“What about you? Did you recruit anyone?” I didn’t have to look at Zeroc to know that he was glaring at the bald man. With renewed focus on my ragged breaths, I dreaded the bloodshed waiting to happen.

“I didn’t. And that is the truth. Are you going to kill me for telling the truth? Like you did yesterday?” The bald man said. He really had no sense of self-preservation, especially when he knew what Zeroc was capable of. It was over for the man. I closed my eyes, praying that he had lived a good life up to this point.

“What happened yesterday?” The traces of rage in Zeroc’s voice vanished. The contrast with his previous sentence was so vast that I pivoted my gaze to him. He had that creepy, mismatched smile on him again, but now, even that smile gave me a sense of warmth.

“Your underlings killed some folks in the back streets.”

“Those weren’t normal people. They were violent criminals.”

“You could beat them up or even cripple them, but killing them is too far!”

The soldiers visibly relaxed their stances. The bickering, even though it was about gruesome murders, dissolved away the tension. Zeroc didn’t defend his actions; he only stared at the bald man and turned around to leave. “You should work for Mr. Topaz someday. I’m sure he will hire you.”

We climbed back up the ladder, which turned out to be only two stories long. Logically speaking, deep bunkers should be impossible to build with the technology in this time period, so my fears were for naught. Once we reached the surface, Zeroc spoke to me. “What do you think about it?”

I knew this was coming because there was no way he would take me here without an alternative motive. He suspected I was older than I looked, and denying my maturity at this point would just get on his nerves. My best choice would be to demonstrate my worth, so then he might protect Lyla, Coyote, and me when danger came knocking.

“I think they were telling the truth when they said they were all recruited by each other. It sounds contradictory, but there are many ways to confuse people into mixing up the identities of those they don’t know well. And when you consider money kept vanishing with no one knowing how, the situation isn’t that far-fetched.”

“I’ll consider that as a possibility.”

“Also, I don’t know if you have noticed. There has to be a second secret entrance, and it is likely in that basement, because how else can they transport this many items every day without being seen? And the food they have there can’t be enough for the entire city. There has to be more than one of these basements.”

“It is possible with magic.”

“Excuse me?”

“They can teleport in the crates with spatial magic, or hide their movements at night with light magic. That said, I will also ask the soldiers to examine for other hidden routes.”

Judging by his softer smile, Zeroc seemed to be satisfied with my observations and deductions. He led the commander to a corner to discuss detailed instructions going forward. I surveyed the blank house again, only temporarily inhabited by people. The faces of the vagrants were the same hopeless gloom, but knowing that they at least had basic meals empowered me to meet their eyes. The soldiers didn’t have the same look of empathy. They stood solemnly at their assigned positions, watching where they were told to watch. Did they know whether the citizens were fed? Or did they simply not care?

The discovery of the food distribution operation left me with more questions than answers. Why did the workers have to conceal themselves? If the citizens in the alleys had their basic needs for food met, why would they stay out of the buildings, and why did they let the back streets, their home, deteriorate to a point of neglecting essential hygiene?

The prospect sent shivers down my spine. Considering how primal the need for food is, whoever gained control of the food source could control the populace. When I told Zeroc my theory, he assured me that the soldiers would scrutinize the distribution operation from now on. They would also monitor the movement of the citizens to look for other buildings like this one. He let out every word with confidence, but for a split second, I saw another unfamiliar expression on his face, one overtaken by worry.

…

Since that day, I had settled into my role at the shop, which was to sit around all day doing nothing. The notebooks I found in the storage room were a great outlet to keep me occupied, as I could record what psychology knowledge I remembered. My writing was all in English, since I only got the ability to speak Chomaonian, the language used here, from the illiterate Coyote; plus, this world wasn’t ready for psychology yet.

Lyla kept cleaning her bow every day, even when there weren’t any stains to wipe away. Her thought process really was an uncrackable enigma. Our conversations usually comprised comments about the products in the shop and the meals that Zeroc brought, nothing else. I would like to learn more about magic in this world, but her answer was always “you understand it to use it,” and she always refused to elaborate further. She would even ignore me if I asked about her healing abilities. At least she was willing to teach Coyote and me to read and write.

Coyote spent her time drawing on pieces of paper and playing with the children’s toys she found in the storage room. I tried to raise the question of why she was disguising herself as a boy, but she just ignored me whenever I asked. She sometimes would show her drawings to us; their quality was about what you would expect from an average teenager who dabbled in visual art.

Topaz stopped by twice to check on us. He didn’t comment on our private use of his merchandise, and he seemed more concerned about our well-being and comfort than the sales. Zeroc, as per his promise, delivered cooked meals to us twice every day. He explained they were freshly cooked from the guard station. The delivery was an excuse for him to discuss updates to the situation in the city regularly with me. The reason he bothered to get my opinion might be that he was desperate for a fresh perspective to give him a lead.

The food distribution basement that he set the soldiers to observe got no supply refill at all. The citizens there began going into conflict with soldiers, so the commander then practically forced Zeroc to tone down the surveillance. That left Zeroc feeling bitter and irritated. He complained to me a lot that day; maybe I should charge him.

A week had passed. And one morning, Lyla called me to her room.

“Will you go out with me?” She said.

Excuse me? Remember, I was in the body of a ten-year-old.