Intruder

“Have some water,” said Xax as he offered some refreshments.

I immediately questioned the source of this water.

Was it part of the reservoir I had sullied earlier?

But I was severely dehydrated, so I accepted it regardless.

“City of criminals, huh…” I mumbled to myself.

Truly unrivaled luck.

First, I am sentenced to death, and then I fall down into an underground hideout for the criminals.

“Oh? You don’t sound too surprised. Were you perhaps aware of its existence, then?” said Xax, his eyes looking a lot more confrontational now.

I could feel that I just accidentally stirred the hornet’s nest.

“No, this is my first time ever hearing about it,” I replied truthfully.

“Can’t say I am exactly sold on the idea.”

This guy was starting to be a pain in the ass.

I don’t know how I was going to convince him any other way, so I did what any sane person would do, and started summarizing my journey.

“It was my first time travelling to Neveria. I’ve lived in the Saples village, which is located northeast of the city, my entire life. It is a week’s journey away. I have no reason to lie to you.” I said, fatigued at this absence of trust.

I no longer hid my annoyance.

Instead of lying around here and explaining myself, I could’ve been looking for grandpa.

But Xax’s line of questioning made it painfully obvious.

I was currently held under the ridiculous pretense that I have some preexisting knowledge of this city. That I presumably ‘broke in’ and plan to ‘expose’ its location to the royal guards.

Absolutely absurd.

“Zenzo, my boy. I can tolerate a lot of things. But lying, especially in the position of indebtedness you are currently in, isn’t one of them,” he said coldly.

Why wasn’t he listening?

“I turned 12 years old, three weeks ago! I also wield magic! I had an audience with the Oracle! This isn’t a story I could come up with, even if I wanted to!” I said, trying to reason with him to the best of my ability.

“So plea—"

I was cut short.

Gyorn was already back from his urgent mission. It didn’t even take him 10 minutes.

“Welcome back, Gyorn. What is our situation?” Xax asked.

“I have checked the entirety of the cave above the water reservoir, sire…” he said. “There isn’t a single hole in the ceiling, much less one of the proportions this child was mentioning.”

At that moment, I choked on the water I was drinking.

“What?!” I suddenly croaked, springing up from my sitting position and using my impaired voice.

My drumming heart was beating faster than it ever had before.

I couldn’t believe my ears anymore.

Everyone and everything was steadily turning against me.

“That’s impossible! I am telling the truth! There should be a big hole leading right up to the mar—”

“Gyorn, escort the young man to the prison cell.”

“No! Please! Bring me with you! Check it one more time!” I pleaded.

“Please… believe me!”

But no one did.

It seemed Xax was out of patience for my supposed lies.

I couldn’t begin to understand.

Why did this keep happening to me? Only to me…

I was starting to lose my mind.

I had to be cursed.

Wherever I went, misfortune followed.

I was thrown into a filthy, miserable chamber that looked like it had housed thousands before me.

There were stains of blood, puke, urine, excrement, everything...

Anything and everything a man could do, was in here.

As I settled down, the dust and dirt that was lying on the floor, now filled the air.

I could no longer hold it in.

Tears were flowing down my face, and I sat there, quietly sobbing at my fate.

Grandpa…

Around four days have passed by now since we parted.

Are you safe right now?

I hope you managed to evade those guards.

I, on the other hand, am stuck in some underground prison.

It doesn’t look like my living conditions will improve any time soon.

But don’t worry about me, please take care of yourself.

If I could ask just one thing…

Please tell me…

What should I do next…

Grandpa…

Should I hope for a miracle that someone will come rescue me?

Should I beg for their forgiveness?

Pretend that I admit to doing everything they thought I did?

What should I do…

I sat there in silence, contemplating my miserable week.

How long was this going to keep on happening for?

Has the world’s misfortune accumulated onto me and me only?

I couldn’t bear it any longer.

He should’ve believed me when I told him.

My patience expired and my impulsiveness took over.

I blasted the wooden door apart with my wind element. I was aiming to open it, but it seems my nervous breakdown had an indirect effect on the potence of my magic.

The only downside was that my little scheme was audible to absolutely everyone.

I started running.

To say that the underground city was built like a maze would be an understatement.

The dark, stretching hallways led to dead ends more often than they did to something useful.

Obviously, it was intentional.

I wouldn’t get anywhere by foolishly running around.

I decided to throw weakened fireballs in every hallway I encountered, the ones that lost their light would do so after a collision with dead ends. The ones that didn’t, would be my hope.

I’ve been running for a couple of minutes now.

If I wasn’t going deeper underground, I would think that I was successfully escaping.

But the city maze was terrifyingly effective…

I was severely constrained by time.

Before I knew it, my spontaneous escape was no longer spontaneous.

The time I had in my favor at the beginning no longer existed.

With my exhausted physical and mental condition, I was now at a disadvantage.

Scrambling footsteps were approaching fast.

I sent the next set of fireballs and stood there, awaiting their response.

Unfortunately, it would never come.

Suddenly, without so much as a hint of sound, a blunt object hit my neck.

I collapsed and everything went dark.

Absolutely rotten luck…

When I regained consciousness, I was once again enveloped by darkness.

I had a new chamber.

This one was a wider copy of the previous one, but it wasn’t going to make my stay any more comfortable.

I didn’t have enough energy to move around or cast magic to take a closer look at my surroundings.

All I could do was lie on the floor.

Mother, Father, God, if any of you are watching over me right now…

Please give me courage to live on…

I had just given the criminals even more reason to keep me hostage…

I don’t know if I will ever make it out of here by myself.

My escape was halted by some skillful soldier.

I could tell from my sword fighting training in the village. I never even heard him or felt his presence.

Out of every person I’ve met here, one immediately fit the description.

It was probably Gyorn.

As I was trying to come to terms with my situation and my failed breakout, another disturbance was brewing.

Clanking footsteps were carried down to the chamber as someone was descending what seemed like a tall spiraling staircase.

When they reached the bottom, they paused and didn’t say anything for a moment.

Then suddenly…

“Oi! Your foods here…” said a girl I haven’t met yet, as she threw the tray on the ground.

“Who are you?” I asked, squinting my eyes towards the darkness.

“I don’t talk to lying scum,” she replied with disdain, “after everything we did for you, you couldn’t even admit that you broke in here, could you? And then you even tried to escape. Disgusting pig.”

It was a girl, around my age, maybe a little older, with long bronze-colored hair.

Her wrathful, hazel eyes glowed in the darkness, busy looking down at me in contempt.

“Are you going to say anything or what?!” she followed up angrily.

“Thank you for the food...”

I didn’t know what else to say, my tired mind was drawing blanks and all I wanted was a little peace to myself. “Also, I never did the things you guys think I did. It was a misunderstanding.”

“Tell that to someone else,” she said, as she turned around and stormed off, “what a waste of time… would be better for everyone if you just —”

Died.

That’s probably what she meant to say before the thick walls cut off her voice.

Would anyone be sad if I died?

Mom and dad are dead.

Grandpa might be sad, but I always cause him trouble so there’s no guarantee.

The people back in the village aren’t directly related to me by blood, so probably not…

Maybe she was right.

Maybe it would be better for everyone if I just died…

I once again dove head-first into despair and kept thinking about the meaning of my pitiful existence.

The food she had brought me looked like the remains of tonight’s dinner, thoroughly chewed and spit out onto a plate.

The only thing that looked harmless was a thin slice of bread laying on the side.

I was ready to repeat the previous prison cell’s tradition, and color the ground in my own puke too.

Then, I felt myself losing consciousness again…

When I woke up from my deep sleep, the all-too-familiar darkness was back.

I had terrible soreness and my hunger amplified a hundredfold.

I was back to my shitty existence.

It seems like my body had forcefully shut down earlier.

I am a lot calmer now than I was a couple hours ago, but the invisible scars kept on piling up...

At the end, I couldn’t bring myself to eat anything apart from the small slice of bread.

The malnourishment was starting to get to me, so I needed to distract myself fast.

With some sleep, I finally had enough power to cast magic again.

I cast a small fire on my finger, imitating a torch, and as expected, it was now a lot brighter inside the confinement.

Apparently, my previous cellmates spent quite a while stuck in here.

The very wall I was lying next to was covered in scratches which I presumed to be tally marks.

Made with fingernails...

The worn-out walls throughout the cell told a story worth a thousand words – people were desperate to break out of here.

No matter where I tried to look, my gaze kept stumbling upon hints of blood.

Not exactly the distraction I was looking for.

There were footsteps again.

Was someone just passing by chambers or were they visiting?

I seemed to recognize the arrogant clacking of those boots, but I couldn't remember where I heard them before.

They were coming here after all.

As the person emerged, it all made sense.

She was here again, tray in hand.

“You dared to waste the food I brought you yesterday,” said the girl, “from now on, you’re going to be getting half your usual rations. Without the bread.”

“No! Please… I’ll eat all of it, so please… not the bread…” I begged.

The bread was the only thing that kept me sane. If it was removed, I might just starve to death.

“She jests,” said another approaching voice calmly. “I see my daughter has taken a liking to you, Zenzo. Stop taunting him, Annavanmorenelia.”

It was Xax.

That’s his daughter?

And what was up with that name?

Regardless, he managed to get the wrong grasp of the situation yet another time.

“Shut up father! And don’t call me by my full name! Why are you so considerate of him?! He’s a worthless, snotty, lying brat!” She said coldly, leaving the place, embarrassed.

At least one problematic person was gone.

“Good morning, lord Xax,” I said peacefully as I greeted him, “or evening.”

I didn’t know what he wanted from me, but it didn’t look like anything good.

“It is indeed morning. A good one to you too, Zenzo,” he replied, “yesterday, I might have been a little rash in treating you the way I did.”

“I realize that your last night’s actions might have stemmed from my indiscretion,” he said earnestly.

“To handle this matter with utmost delicacy, we will proceed in treating your case from this point onwards using forbidden magic...”