Greedy Sun

Taking a seat on the bench in the garden, I began to calm myself down. What I had done was terrible, but there was nothing I could do about it anymore. It was out of my control, I had no choice, it was the only thing I could do. That’s right, this was the only thing I could do. There was no other choice.

While I was convincing myself of this reality, I looked around in the garden. I could see children playing around with one another in a game which seemed like tag. Their laughter echoed around in my brain, erasing whatever comfort I had created in my mind.

I realized what I had done was take an opportunity away from those poor children that the noble was taking care of. The goods I gave him wouldn’t provide them laughter like those in front of me. No, it would only be disappointing. I buried my head in my lap to block the sight of the children.

While digging my head into my lap like an ostrich to the ground, I used my hands to cover my ears from the laughter that was taking over the confines of my mind. It was infecting my brain like a disease. There was no other way, damn it! What else could I have done? How else could I keep my promise to Cordelia?

But the thought of Cordelia only further defined the guilt in my soul. I could only think that the children the noble had been taking care of were like Cordelia. What if I had done something just as cruel to Cordelia? I couldn’t forgive myself if I did that.

No! I can’t think about that. All that matters is that I did it. With this I can help Flint and Allirea run away. They’ll finally be safe from this whole ordeal and my promise with Cordelia will be kept in full. It didn’t matter who I hurt anymore, I needed to make sure I could follow through with this. If I didn’t, then all the pain I caused for others would have been for nothing.

As I shifted my head in my lap, the clanging of the coins in the bag reminded me of their presence. That’s right! I can do something, even after having lied to someone. If there was one way to atone for all this guilt, it would be to give back to those who have helped me.

As I thought over my plan and kept grappling with all this regret, the sun had begun its descent. Realizing this, I resolved myself to follow through with my plan and made my way over to the market. This was the path I needed to use to get to Flint’s, but there was also another reason I needed to go this way. Before the carts cleared out, I needed to make sure I paid back my debts.

I quickly made my way over to the market area, making sure I wouldn’t miss my opportunity. I saw the coal salesmen even thinner than he had been the last time I saw him. He looked as though he was almost a skeleton. The sight of it made me feel far more responsible for his state.

I dashed to him. Seeing me, he could only lifelessly stare in my direction. It seemed he wanted nothing to do with me after what I had done last time, but now I was going to make it right. I was going to make amends and help him right here and now.

“What do ya want?” He asked sharply.

“Please take this!” I told him, giving him five silver.

“What’s this?” His face started to light up.

“I only made money thanks to your coal, so please take this as payment for back then.”

“Th-thank ya. He’s just been so sick lately. All the money from last time went into trying to keep him strong enough. Thank ya again! With this, everything should be fine!”

“Take care!” I told him as I began sprinting off to my next destination.

I quickly ran through the night crowd. The bustling street was difficult to navigate through, but I needed to be quick or else the shop keeper would have packed up and left by the time I got there. Once I got to Flint’s, we would have to leave right away, so this was my only chance at doing this.

I saw the vegetable merchant packing up and beginning to make her way away from the cart. While it was embarrassing, I had no choice but to call out for her. It would be the only way to stop her from getting out of my sight.

“Please wait!” I called out to her, hoping she would hear it.

Recognizing my voice, she turned around to see where I was. I made my way through the crowd as fast as I could, finally getting clearly into her sight.

“Hibiki?” She questioned why I was there.

“Thank you for waiting.” I spoke, slightly out of breath.

“Listen, I really can’t give you more food.”

“No, it’s not that. Here, take this.” I gave her five silver.

“Huh? What’s this for?”

“My payment for your kindness.”

“Hibiki, you really didn’t have to do this.”

“No, I needed to.”

“I really can’t accept all this.”

“Just please take it. It’s the least I can do.”

“But…” She began arguing but quickly changed her tone. “Thank you Hibiki.”

“You don’t need to thank me, I should be thanking you, after all. Anyways, I’ve gotta go.”

“See you soon.”

“Yeah, bye.”

It was finally time. Every part of my plan was for this moment. I would finally be able to make up my large debt to Flint and his family. While this would not be nearly enough to make up for everything they’ve done for me, it was at least a start. Finally I would be able to do something for them.

I walked the pathway slowly. The setting sun had caused the light coming down on me to be red. The scarlet coloured light looked so beautiful it made me want to stop for a moment and admire it. But I knew to waste time on something as silly as that would be dumb when all this time I’ve been trying to save time.

But even then, the radiant light would not let me go without acknowledging it for a moment. I took a minute to turn around and looked down the path I had just walked up. The gorgeous light caused me to reflect on my time in the Capital. While not all my experiences here were happy, there were enough to make me truly come to love this place.

A sort of sadness fell upon me at the realization I would be leaving this place tonight. The children here were happy, the citizens here enjoyed their lives, and even the slaves could occasionally find some peace. While it wasn’t perfect, there was one thing I could definitely thank this place for. It was for meeting Flint.

There, are you happy now you greedy sun? This should have been more than enough acknowledgement for the beauty you were emitting. Now keep bathing me in your red light as I go save those I care for. I turned and continued making my way over to Flint’s store.

It was coming into sight. The light in the store was on. Maybe Flint was still working away. I guess with the massive list of orders he had, he must have wanted to keep working through them to make sure he finished on time. I wonder if he’ll be happy to see me or not. Well, if he’s still worried about my expression from last time, then I’ve got to make sure I apologize to him.

Or maybe I should thank him for worrying instead. After all, he did mention it the first day we met. On that point I’d also have to thank Allirea as well. At first she was pretty cold to me, but as we got to know each other more, she was very kind to me as well. Not to mention she was also worried about me when I left.

I really owed them both so much more than I could possibly hope to pay back. But for now, with this money and a thank you I should be able to give it a good start. Hopefully they won’t be too stubborn about running away as well.

As I got closer to the store I could make out the bright inside. There were no sounds of metal working inside the store. There was also no one inside the store as well. Flint and Allirea were probably fighting about something again.

That would explain why I didn’t hear a sound. The last time I had seen them arguing like that was about the ring Flint had bought on impulse. They had been sitting silently in the main room then, as well. I guess they were on pause from the argument then.

Entering the store, I saw the light of the main room had still been on, confirming my suspicions. Making my way through the shop, I could see a slight bit of crimson painted onto the forge I used to use. The mischievous sun must have been shining its light on the forge.

I made it to the doorway of the main room. I took a deep breath and exhaled to prepare myself to explain to them everything I had done to get this money. I was also preparing to convince them to leave the rebellion, which I had hoped would be easy, but I wasn’t quite sure if it would be.

The thought of Flint’s stubborn loyalty to something he already committed to caused me to let out a small chuckle. It was something he did with the weapons he would create, so he would probably do the same for something like this. I concealed my laugh to not alert them of my presence. I wanted it to be a surprise.

I entered through the walkway into the main room, ready to be greeted by my family. However, I saw Flint sleeping, his head resting softly on the table. Didn’t he know it wasn’t good to sleep like that? He would get sick. He should know since he always told Cordelia that. I guess he must have forgotten while we were both gone, but this works even better as a surprise.

I tip-toed my way over to him so as to not alert him. I couldn’t make out Allirea anywhere which meant my surprise would work without a hitch. She wouldn’t even be able to preemptively wake Flint up since she wasn’t around. Not to mention this slight dripping sound should perfectly mask my footsteps. Finally, after tip-toeing slowly enough to make sure I wouldn’t make a sound, I finally arrived beside Flint.

I resolved myself to poke him until he woke up instead of trying to shake him awake. While shaking him would be more fun, he would probably hit me thinking I was an intruder. In a way, I guess I was an intruder, except I was here to steal them away from what would have most likely been a gruesome fate.

I began poking Flint. I couldn’t help but hold back my excitement at the event. After a few pokes, he still didn’t respond. I quickened the pace of my poking. Flint had always been a heavy sleeper, so I guess it wouldn’t work unless I was poking him harder and faster than the light taps I was doing before.

With the increased speed and power of my poking, Flint fell out of his chair. Blood was streaming down from his neck and had begun covering the floor around him. His shirt had been entirely stained with crimson as though that had been its original colour.

I could only stare at the sight as my mind worked to process everything in front of me. Nothing was making sense. Flint was on the ground and there was blood everywhere. His neck was open, but I couldn’t see the inside of it as blood kept rushing out. His face looked as though it had been in so much pain and anguish.

“Flint?” I called, hoping he would respond.

Instead of the warm response I was hoping for, I was met with a chilling silence. The world itself began shattering around me as though it was kept in a glass frame. My mind was running blank, and nothing I tried to fill it with would stay. It was like my mind was just a cup with a hole at the bottom.

I slowly looked over to the table he fell from and saw blood dripping down from where he had been covering. It was making a dripping noise consistently in a rhythmic pattern. It was like a metronome with how precise the noise came from it.

“A-Allirea.” I cried out, still in a daze.

I needed to tell her about Flint. She would be able to fix it. She had to be here. I needed to find her quickly. I began walking around the kitchen searching for her. My mind was working off rhythm, making my slow steps feel far faster than they were.

“Allirea.” I cried out again.

I looked all over the main floor and she wasn’t there. Was she still out working? But what about Flint? She has to be here. She’s the only one that can help him. I’m too weak. She needs to be here!

“Allirea!” I yelled as I made my way upstairs.

As I reached the top of the stairs, I forced open the door to their room, hoping I would see her in there. I looked at the bed and around the corner, but there was nothing. Where was she? This was an emergency.

“Allirea!” I cried out again, hoping for anything.

As I left the room, I could see that the door to the room which was once mine had been opened. I could slightly make out a figure on the ground past the doorway, but it was being mostly blocked by the railing. Ignoring what I had seen, I went to Cordelia's room.

Maybe Allirea had gone into it to reminisce about the time when Cordelia was there. She had to be there. I was running out of rooms after all. I didn’t want her to be out—she couldn’t be out. She needed to help Flint.

“Allirea!” I hollered while entering Cordelia’s room.

Looking around the vacant room, I could make out almost nothing there since it was so dark. I grabbed the candle from outside the room so that I could light the one inside. Brightening the room up, I could see it had been slightly redecorated. The walls had been painted in a scarlet colour.

This new look to the room was far less preferable to the last look the walls had. The paint job wasn’t even well done, you could still see a lot of the pink behind the red. Whoever the painter was needed to be fired. Would Cordelia even like this change? Once I find Allirea I’ll have to talk to her about it.

Oh that’s right. I was looking for Allirea. Flint needed help and only she could help him right now. I needed to find her quickly. Maybe she was in the bathroom? If she was, it would suck to find her in there, but at least that way I could get help for Flint.

Making my way out of Cordelia’s room, I made sure to extinguish the light inside so that it would be left the way I found it. Closing the door behind me, I was now able to see the prone figure a bit more clearly on the ground of my room. The figure seemed familiar to me, but I chose to ignore it to check the bathroom.

“I’m sorry if you’re in here, Allirea.” I spoke as I opened the door.

Opening the door, all I was met with was the same unusual paint job I had found in Cordelia’s room. Seriously, it just didn’t look good at all. It looked so terrible it made me want to vomit at the sight of it. But with Allirea not being in here, it could only mean she was out of the home then. But who was going to help Flint? Maybe the person on the floor in my room could help him.

I made my way out of the bathroom to go to the person on the floor in my old room. As I stepped inside the room, I accidentally stepped onto the person. The weird paint around them covered my shoes as I tried to walk around. Maybe this was the painter? Were they sleeping on the job?

I got in front of them and took a seat. I brought them into my lap and turned them around to check on them to see if they could help Flint. Turning them around, I saw it was the person I was looking for this whole time: Allirea. There was a knife plunged into her chest.

“Allirea?” I hoped for a reply.

“Please, Allirea, it’s about Flint. There’s something wrong with him.”

“Allirea, you have to help him!”

“Please, Allirea!”

“Allirea?”

I had been shaking her a little while speaking to her, causing more blood to come from the knife in her chest. If I remove this knife will you wake up Allirea? I removed the knife embedded in her body.

Upon removing it, more blood began flowing out of her faster and faster. No, no, no, no, no! Stop bleeding, please! Allirea! I began trying to block the area where the blood was coming from with my hands, but the blood kept flowing, even going through my hands.

Why? Why did this happen to you and Flint? Why? Why couldn’t you have held on longer? Why? Why couldn’t you have let me stay? Why? Why couldn’t you have stayed away from the rebellion? Why? Why does this always happen to me? Why? Why can’t anything ever go right? Why? Why can’t something just work? Why? Why couldn’t I protect you? Why? Why did this have to happen? Why? Why did I promise such a thing? Why? Why did you have to die? Why? Why does it always have to be me? Why? Why couldn’t this one thing be different? Why? Why me? WHY!?

In this questioning, Allirea slid out of my lap, hitting the ground with a loud thump. No, Allirea! I looked around the room, trying to find anything that I could use to save her, but something else caught my eye.

There was dripping coming from the sky. It mimicked the same colour as everything else in this house. Tracing where it was coming from, it originated from the stain I had seen before in the roof, only this time the stain had grown even bigger in size.

I looked around a bit more and saw a ladder connecting to an opening in the ceiling. Deciding to see the source of the dripping, I followed the ladder up. I was hoping to find anything alive in this house of slaughter. Anything at all to save me.

Reaching the top, I saw a pile of corpses stacked as high as they could go. In front of the pile was a man in silver armour bleeding out. He saw me enter and a hope began lighting up in his eyes.

“S-save me. Please save me.” He pleaded.

“W-w-w-w-w-hat?” I forced out the word.

“Those people are crazy! They’ve been taking us up here to murder us. Please save me!”

“Huh?”

“The people that live in this home are murderers!”

Further inspecting the pile of bodies, I realized they were all guardsmen.

“Okay, I’ll help you. Just give me a second.” I told him as I headed down the ladder.

“T-thank you!” He responded to me.

Reaching the bottom, I grabbed the knife I had taken out of Allirea’s chest and inspected it. The knife had a black handle and a sharp blade. Something like this could never compare to Flint’s work. Making my way up the ladder, I approached the man in shimmering armour.

“What did you need to grab?” He asked.

“This!” I told him as I plunged the knife into his eye, killing him for good.

I pulled it out and kept stabbing him over and over.

Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die!

“Never talk about those people like that again! You have no right to call them that after what you people do! You’re the enemy! It’s your fault they’re dead!” I screamed.

Finishing up releasing my rage and dropping to my knees, there was nothing left in my body. No emotion, no hopes, nothing. I decided there was only one more thing I could even do for Flint and Allirea now. I once again made my way down the ladder and to Allirea’s body. The sight of it made me want to look away, but I resisted the urge.

I grabbed her from under her shoulders and began carrying her to her room. After the painful time carrying her, I finally placed her in the shared bed they had. Next, I went downstairs to Flint. His wound was still letting out blood, but much less than it had been before. I began dragging him up the stairs to the same location I took Allirea.

While I assumed it would be harder, his corpse was painfully easy to bring with me. It must’ve been due to all the blood that was now on the floor. Reaching his room, I placed him in the bed next to Allirea.

Lastly, I joined their hands so that in the end at least they could be together. This was the final and only thing I could do for them now. The only way I could begin to pay back my debt.

But there was one last thing I could do to protect their honour and their daughter. I had to burn the place down. I didn’t want anyone finding out about the murders. Those stupid guards. This stupid Capital. All of it should just burn.

Taking a candle, I brought it to the wooden table to ignite it. After a couple minutes, it finally caught on, lighting it aflame. Like Flint and Allirea, all my memories of this place would burn alongside it. The pit in my stomach was wide open as though it would consume me from the inside.

I made my way out of the house which doubled as a store. I ran far, far away from it so that I couldn’t be found anywhere close to the burning home.

“I’m sorry Cordelia, but I don’t think I’ll be able to keep our promise.” I spoke to myself.