(TW: Child abuse, child endangerment, murder)
TL;DR at the bottom of the chapter!
I tried to figure things out on my own, but my mind felt like it was going to burst so I decided to ask Yves. To be honest, it was a question looming over my mind from earlier, but I thought it might hurt his feelings so I couldn't get myself to ask it.
I wondered and pondered over the question, then shortened it as much as possible before asking Yves what I was most curious about.
"What exactly is happening in this villa?"
At my words, Yves kept quiet for a bit longer. It seemed like Yves had been expecting this question from me.
It looked like he didn't want to tell me so I tried to add on that he didn't have to tell me if he didn't want to, but Yves began speaking first.
"This is where I grew up when I was younger."
"What?"
"I was thrown in here when I was born, and I grew up like that boy you saw earlier."
Yves grew up like that child. What did that mean?
The story of Yves' past, the one that was never mentioned in the novel, came flowing out of his mouth. Yves stopped talking to take a deep breath, then began to speak again.
"If the guild's headquarters are in the capital, the organization's headquarters are here."
He looked at me as I frowned in confusion, then began explaining it in detail.
"There's a lot of uses for this particular building, but one of the biggest uses for it is for 'fostering geniuses'."
Yves and I headed down the stairs as we passed the hall. He spoke as he held his hand in mine. His hand gripped mine tightly.
"The way that the Lunaasha organization fosters geniuses is incredibly cruel. All the children who are brought here after catching the eye of the organization have to fight each other to become a member, whether they like it or not. To be honest, they're just fighting to live. They have to undergo a lot of different tests while they fight against each other, but basically, until there are only three children left, they have to keep betraying, lying, and killing each other.
In other words, the Lunaasha organization was making children fight death matches against each other. Fostering geniuses was one way of putting it, but it was obvious that the leader was very much enjoying his sadistic tendencies through this.
I thought of how the child had run towards Yves with the intent to kill. Even when he wasn't fully conscious, he had reflexively tried to kill him.
The boy from earlier had acted that way because of the bullshit 'genius fostering' plan they were using against the children. When I started to grind my teeth in anger, Yves just kept talking. Yves was always a quiet person, but his voice as he explained was calm and simple enough for me to catch on. His voice was quiet, but had an edge to it.
"Then, the children who are alive at the end are sent over from the organization to the guild. I'm one of those cases. We sign a contract that poisons us from the inside out if we betray them, and we live a life where we can't even imagine leaving the organization and the guild forever."
Yves pointed at the tattoo on his neck as he spoke.
"But you're the leader's son aren't you?"
Until now, I had assumed that Yves had risen to this position because he was the son of the leader. But that wasn't it. Yves had also gotten here after the same bullshit process that he had mentioned.
Then, why was the leader forcing such a horrible, cruel procedure to his son as well? Of course, the biggest question was why he was doing this against children at all, but I struggled to understand why he was doing this to his own children.
"Shushu, that child from earlier could also be one of his sons. The godforsaken leader doesn't have a single ounce of care for his children. He just spreads his seed here and there and treats his children like cattle once they're born. To him, his children are just mounds of flesh that just work for him."
Yves said that his silver eyes were like the leader's. He bitterly muttered that it wasn't the first, nor the last time he wanted to gouge them out of his skull. I felt like running down the hallway.
"….to add on, he's a sadistic pervert. When he's stressed he likes to take one of the children and hurt them. It's only worse if he catches one of his own sons."
As if he was stuck in a memory, Yves' eyes grew hazy. He couldn't speak for a while, but continued.
"That's why it's hard for me to eat as well. He relieved his stress by acting "fatherly" and shoved food and the spoon he was using down my throat, then fed me poisoned food by force."
He had shifted from explaining the house to his past.
"The other children had realized and had resigned themselves to their situations, but I kept holding on to survive. I lied and betrayed the kids I was friends with and killed them to be one of the three to survive in the shortest time span possible. The only reason I didn't go crazy and kept my head clear was because of my rage against the leader. That's what kept me going until now."
"..."
He and I shared the similarity of trying our best to survive, but that was where our similarities ended. I had people around me to help, but he had to deal with everything all alone. I had lived my life as best as I could to take responsibility for my family, but he had barely held on through sheer rage and a desperate need for revenge.
I remembered when I first met him. He was smiling but had an edge, and he looked absolutely exhausted. The dangerous feeling I got from him back then wasn't wrong at all. He had gotten softer towards me after he had relaxed around me, but at first he was surely thinking of how to use me then throw me away. Using someone was just something obvious in his life. He had no option to take responsibility for others and sacrifice for them. His life was just constantly filled with nerves.
Yves seemed slightly uncomfortable about sharing his story with me.
"The reason I'm telling you this is because I want you to be more aware. There are crazy bastards like this out there, so take better care of yourself. It's because of me that you're in so much danger right now."
Yves looked pained as he said this. Was he feeling guilty?
"Huh? Why is it your fault? Makes me feel bad. If you keep covering for my bad decisions, I'm going to start acting out. Also, I may be in danger but you're paying just as much so it's okay. It's an opportunity, I guess."
Yves smiled sadly at my words, but hung his head low.
"Also, do you have a pair of glasses on you?"
"….why glasses all of a sudden?"
"Or something similar to them."
"Wear this."
Yves took out a glasses case from his pocket. When I opened it, I saw a pair of glasses. I had asked just in case, but to think he had a pair on him. When I asked him why he was carrying a pair of glasses on him, he said that he used it for disguises sometimes.
I took the glasses and spelled them. Next to me, Yves stared at me in surprise.
"Now stop worrying about me and do what you need to do."
"What is it."
"I made it so that if there's anything that can scar me, it'll just look like cute teddy bears instead."
At my words, Yves seemed slightly taken aback. Then, he just put his hand over my head.
"Well, that's useful."
He laughed thinly and stroked my hair. I swatted his hand away.
Now, blood would look like hearts, and anything brutal enough that made me want to avoid it would look like cute teddy bears. I wanted to apply the spell on my actual eyes, but this magic circle would physically damage me so I went for glasses instead.
I couldn't become a nuisance just because of my fear. The revenge he had planned out years in advance had to go through perfectly.
Talking with Yves for a while seemed to have helped me with my feelings. What he was telling me was shocking, but I felt more revved up because of it. It gave me a motive to get rid of the leader once and for all.
"What's the first thing you want to do when you get out of the guild?"
I fiddled with my clothes as I asked, wary of the sullen feeling in the air.
"I'm going to play."
Yves responded, not even thinking for a moment. It felt like he had asked himself this question before. As I thought, he was meticulous in his plans. Wasn't he a bit too accurate at depicting his character?
"Alone?"
"No. With you."
I raised my brows at Yves' response. I thought about responding with, 'I never promised to play with you, though?' before letting it go. I didn't want to be mean or push him away at this moment.
"I've never played in my life before, so I want you to tell me how."
Yves smiled sweetly as he tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear. My nose felt itchy. He really had to make my heart hurt like this.
I thought that it would be okay to wander around once we were finished with this job. What Yves needed right now was time to heal. Playing around quietly fit Yves' personality more than running around and playing loudly. Maybe we could pack some sandwiches and go on a picnic.
"Eating is playing for me."
"I'm in trouble."
Yves muttered, suddenly gripping my hand tight.
Because of how big the villa was, it took some time to arrive at the basement.
The first floor still looked relatively lived-in, but the basement definitely felt more dangerous.
The air felt a bit damp. Whenever I took a step, an unknown liquid made each step sticky. It felt off, but I just frowned and kept walking.
On the walls of the hallway were unknown bones and leather on display. The leather was very pale, seemingly from a magical monster, and was specially treated to prevent rotting. To add onto this, the bones and leather on display felt familiar, like magic I had felt before.
There were also tons of art drawn by an unknown artist. Most of the drawings had the black dragon, Noirelle, and the white dragon, Blanchelle, depicted on them.
Yves and I quietly walked, then stopped when we reached the door of a room. This particular door was bigger than the others I had seen closely. Yves didn't enter right away, but instead stopped and looked at me.
"Then, Shushu. When you find the document when you go in, teleport it into the safe in my office. I'll try to get the attention of the leader as much as I can. You can observe the situation, then come in when I cause a distraction."
Yves tried to go into the room immediately after finishing his words. I grabbed the hem of his clothes and frowned. Seeing the handiwork of the leader until now, I thought that "causing a distraction" wasn't going to be completely verbal.
If I was as magically powerful as Cory, I would've just installed an exploding circle outside of the villa, or if there were a lot of people around I could've caused a disruption. Our situation was limited.
Yves seemed to figure out what I was worried out. He let out a huff of laughter and patted my back a few times.
Yves knocked a few times on the door, knowing the leader was behind it. The air felt like it was melting under the silence. It felt like the knocking sound was louder than usual because of it. After a few moments, a voice sounded, allowing us entry. Yves unconsciously scowled at the leader's voice before opening the door.
TL;DR: Shushu and Yves discuss what is happening in the villa: turns out, this is evil headquarters! Lunaasha is an underground/crime organization turned merchant guild, and it turns out that both of them co-exist. Yves explains that all the children (both blood-related children of the leader and any children grabbed off of the streets) have to fight each other to the death to survive, and only three out of all the children can survive at a single time. Yves also had to go through the same process, and only survived until now by holding on to the hatred and want for revenge towards the leader. He explains that he can't eat properly because of the physical damage he received to his throat, and tells Shushu that if he gets to do anything after this, he'd like to play and have fun for the first time in his life…with her. (Rejoice, Yves and Shushu fans)
To make sure that Yves won't be tied down from his revenge because of her, Shushu borrows a pair of glasses from Yves and spells it to prevent herself from seeing anything brutal. It'll make anything trauma-worthy look like teddy bears and hearts! They get to the door of the basement after a long walk. Yves knocks on the door. He opens the door.