I felt something warm touch my neck, and slightly grope my body. I could feel someone check my robes pockets and my shoes.
"Hum?" It touches my neck again, surprise in its voice
"The boy is alive? what a resilient lil' fella" A rustic voice of a man woke me up, like someone that smoked for life or lived beside a volcano, drier than sand.
I'm feeling fearful, what is he going to do with me?
"Fuck, I'm better than this, I won't! I won't!" He grabbed me by the waist and lifted me over, My vision was hasy, but I could see pieces of my clothing falling in the ground and my shoes being left behind, mangled beyond recognition.
What once was a beautiful royal present mom gave me, now was becoming rags falling and breaking apart into dust.
"Why?" Tears fall from my eyes, I slowly lose my consciousness again
Time seems to stop, I was in a black space, no ground, no walls, no sky. Nothing but a Gigantic Claymore in front of me.
It was floating in the air, A third of it broken, very dull, with dust and rust over it...but I could only feel absolute dread and respect looking at it.
It was like a pair of eyes, serene and calm eyes.
"I pay my respect to you, Grand Divine" I got on my knees and bowed heavily. Mother taught me above about the Divine. That they could change reality itself just for the sake of amusement.
I remembered a certain class with mom.
"Respect, Reverence, Sincerity. Never, ever, think that you are relevant in the face of a god boi. We are no different than ants to them" She looked deep into my eyes, almost screaming at me while telling these words.
"Mother!" I kneel on the ground, Scared.
"Oh, sorry son, I just-" She breaches in, her eyes filled with regret.
"Just remember what I say." She went away, with tears in her eyes.
"Wake up" The same voice from yesterday echoed in my mind. It spoke softly, but it shook my mind like a scream.
"AHH-" I lifted my body, screaming while looking around. I was in a room, built from wood, clay and mud, with some stones glued in the walls. It was smelly, like some rotten fruits and meat left alone for days.
"Fucking Hell" I saw a man looking at me, he jumped and almost feel with his butt towards a near wood stove.
"Lil' fucker, almost scared me to death." He screamed, but after breaching heavily a bit, he calmed down.
I was in a comfy bed made from beast skin and some bird feathers from what I could feel, I looked scared towards the man in front of me.
My royal robe was gone, and it's place a rustic jacket made of beast skin and fur and some pants made of black leather, the jacket also had a hood to cover my face. It had a displeasing smell of dry weeds, but it wasn't stinky.
"What's your name?" He looked at me seriously. sitting in a wood chair near the stove.
"OH, sorry sir, my name is--" I tried to say my name, but I couldn't remember
Until now, be it in my memories or at the moment, I didn't think about my name, neither my mother's name or my kingdom's...but thinking now, I can't remember it.
[Memories Sealed]
Why? I suddenly felt all my past memories locked in chains, besides waking up in the snow, I couldn't remember anything.
"Child, it seems you don't remember or don't want to say. No problem tho, names don't matter here, try to make your own..." His ashen voice snapped me back to reality. Confusion, sadness and fear grew in me in the moment.
"Wha- What should I do now?" I whispered towards the man.
He had a long gray beard, one of his eyes was covered with some bandages, his clothing being rustic animal leather and skin patched together, giving him a savage image, he was around 1.89 meters tall, considering his crooked and tired posture made him a bit smaller.
"You? Sorry Kid but i'm no father to take care of you, you can sleep in this bed but you can't keep eating my food or drinking my water, you need to clean your own clothes and after one month I want you out. Go find a job, or hunt in the forest, your life is your own business." He told me, looking coldy.
Live on my own, I never did that. I was always being taken care of by Mother and Servants, but to live by my own now...how?
"Tsk,your parents surely created a lazy child. Well, I will recommend you to work for a friend, he won't pay you decently, but at least food and water you will have." He immediately started to write a letter, sealing it rusticly with a lick and giving me. "Turn to the right and walk forward 6 blocks,go past the gate and walk a bit more you will find yourself in the Eliseu Market, right outside the Slums. There's a black and red store, selling books and shit. If you are smart enough you will be able to stay." He gave it to me and caught his Axe, immediately opening the door of his house and looking at me.
"Go, I need to get some wood and I can't wait for you little fucker to lock the door." He told me, waiting impatiently as I lifted myself from the fluffy bed, and got out of the house together with him.
"What's your name Sir?" I ask as I get out
"Kids around call me Husky, see ya kid, good luck." He took his axe and went away towards the left, I could see in the distance the rest of the slums, getting more and more disgusting the closer they were from the florest. Most of the houses with the color of mud, rotten wood and grass, some even stained with blood from both beasts and people, everyone walking with their head lowered and hands in their pockets.
Husky figure seemed menacing in comparison, his back crooked but strong, his Axe shining with sharp light under the sun, but I felt a certain loneliness and sadness in this view.
I started to walk in the other direction, I put on my hood and tried to imitate the people around me so no to draw too much attention. "Mom always told me to beware of acting like a Noble in humble places, some people hate nobles." Even feeling a certain fear of looking around, I was curious.
Mother never let me go out, meet the world besides the Royal Castle.
And looking around I kinda understand why, there were people laying on the streets, extremely drunk or sick, often both, getting stolen by other slightly less drunk and sick people.
"Young Child, may you spare a coin for this old lady?" An old woman holding two crying children begged me, but I had no money in hand, I felt a certain sadness in my heart. There were people like this in my kingdom?. Why didn't mother tell me about this?
"Sorry, I have nothing for myself either." I stopped and smiled kindly towards her, trying to hide the sadness in my face.
"May the Divines bless you, Child." She looked at me and prayed, bowing slightly, the children besides her bowing too, trembling while doing so.
"Bitc*!" Looking to the side I saw a man throwing a woman in the streets, her fancy clothes and white face getting stained by the dirt in the ground. "I hope you get violated by the filthiest man in this Slum, so as to purify your disgusting existence a little." The man, Wearing a colorful tuxedo filled with medals and decorations, turned around, walking beside me towards the market.
"Please don't leave me!!" She screamed in desperation, "Pow!!" only to be given a kick in the face by the man, fainting on the spot.
"Hateful!" The man continued the walk, looking disgusted all the time.
I didn't look any further towards him, I suddenly felt some fear, are nobles like this towards the poor? I never saw a mother kick a woman in the face when she is down.
no wait, there was one time when a woman tried to take me away in the Royal gardens, she beated the woman until she could no longer move and called the guards.
"Even so, isn't it a bit too much?" I whisper, uncertain of what to feel about all this.
Poverty, brutality, hunger, sadness, loneliness, mean people, malicious people, cold people
There was a infinitute of new bad things that I needed to get used to. But I had no one to help me. Husky saved me and gave me some random letter, but that's all.
Why whom will I talk? I have no Servants here, No mom or anything at all.
"Oh? A crying child? Why do you cry little one?" The man looked at me, a slight smile on his face.
"I'm all alone Sir. No one to count with, no food, no water, no father or mother, that's why I cry." I answered sincerely, crying a bit further and trembling as I walked.
"For a kid of the Slums you surely talk and walk like a Noble rsrsrs, I almost feel that you're from a fallen House." He said subtly, Looking forward as he speaked.
"i --" I tried to tell him more, but I couldn't, my voice cut right as I started to talk.
[Danger: Disclosing information may be Fatal to User.]
"I don't remember who I am." Fear grew in my chest as soon as a voice echoed in my mind, so I explained myself vaguely.
"Huuum, and you are going towards where?" He smiled again, looking at the letter in my hands. "To a bookstore, Husky gave me this letter so I could get a job there." I said honestly, looking forward towards the city gates in front of me.
"Husky? OH, that old man...did he do something to you?" He asked, looking towards me intensively.
"No, he just let me sleep in a bed in his living room" We pass the city gates, for some reason the guards don't even question or stop us as they were doing with the other people.
"Seems he didn't lose his mind yet, good thing he is able to deal with 'It' " He whispers softly, looking to the distant slums with an indifferent face
"Well, looks like you're about to get to your stop Kid, I hope you're lucky with your job, I will be going from here." A carriage came towards us from a street on the left. "Please enter Count Maia" He got inside it, disappearing in direction of the market.
"Huuum, where is it?" I looked forward, many stores and passing buy my eyes, a bit further there was a huge round plaza, the streets forming a circle around it so the carriages and people could continue their ways, there was the sound of people screaming prices, beating up thieves and complaining.
"Oh, here it is" to the left side of the plaza was a small bookstore, Black and Red with a sign writen 'Cain Books'. Very few people coming and going, but further inside I could see some teenagers working.
"Cling cling." I open the door, and the teens instanteneously looked at me. "Oh, it seems Husky send us a Little Brother, how cute." One of the girls even smiled while saying this, but soon returned to working.
"Hey kid, come here, and bring the letter." A man wearing black and red called me, he was smaller than husk, with a silky voice and a calm attitute, he had fair white skin, with some scars in his neck, sitting on a chair and holding a book, he seemed almost like a calm librarian.
"Kid, do you know how to kill?" he smiled softly asking this question. A chill came upon my heart.
I paralized in the entrance, my eyes running around both him and the people, my stance ready to escape
"Relax, this isn't an assassin organization, just a normal job interview. I want to know your skills." He smiled again, but I could feel in his eyes it was a test of usefulness.
This was the moment it would be decided, if I would be discarted or not.