—Present—
"Do you think this is the right place, Master?" Lust said as he looked at the white rabbit standing on his neck while holding his head with those small hands.
"Yeah, that's it." Karma said as he jumped off his shoulder towards what looked like a tea table.
Once again, Karma turned himself into an amoebic form followed by his human kid form. He wore the same dress as usual.
"What do you think of this place…Ms. Ruchell?" Karma pointed his eyes at Ruchell, who stood behind Lust, with a serious expression.
"It's alright but…" She paused for a bit as she looked down the railings, "aren't we a little too high?" and turned her eyes back as if her brain couldn't take anymore.
They were at a height of around two-hundred meters above ground, sitting inside the brim point of the clock tower, just above the massive clock, tickling beneath them. Wherever the eyes went, they were all small houses and smaller people as seen from above, like cattle.
Lust came forward and took the kettle into his hands while smiling gracefully.
"Is that so? I thought, there couldn't be a place anymore befitting and exquisite for a reunion, you see." He replied while observing the tea being poured into the cup, by Lust, through the kettle.
"Reunion?" She exclaimed, "Is Kibo here?!" while looking for him in all directions.
"Of course not, if he was here, you wouldn't need to look around like that, Ms. Ruchell. Even though this may seem a bit confusing, this is the only premise worth spending, time, in this small building. " He said as he swigged down the entire cup of tea in one shot, while holding the cup with two of his fingers, of the right hand, from the above.
"I mean, there's only two way out of this place…" He stood up from his chair and looked at the sky from the wall-barrier, "Either you exit as you entered, through those stairs…or," He turned his face towards her, spreading his right hand to the other side of the building, "You jump from here and die a gruesome death, getting crushed by the screws and wheels of the clock beneath.", and dropped the cup off the sky.
Ruchell was nervous and a little scared too, due to the unnecessarily created tense atmosphere.
"Welcome again, Ms. Ruchell, have you finally come to some conclusion about our yesterday's conversation?" He asked her while Lust kept looking at both of them with an austere expression.
"Yeah, I thought a lot about it yesterday…actually,…I have been thinking about it every single second." She replied to him while looking downward.
"So?" Karma asked with the same expressionless face.
"…I will accept your trade. What do you want to know from me?" She said while looking into his eyes with a firm determination.
"I really appreciate that." He replied and moved back to his seat, "Please have a seat." while looking into the sky.
Ruchell silently pulled the chair outward and sat on it. She was not wearing anything too tangled, it was a moss green colored, tunic top dress with earthly shadow like backgrounds transitioning to the bottom wear.
"Please tell me about the relationship between Mr. Kibo and you." Karma asked.
"I will start from the beginning then, the first time we met…" She said as she showed an unnatural but cute smile.
*
"Am I at the right place?" Shimi asked himself as he looked at the entry gate to the clock tower.
"Why would she go to the clock tower and that too with a tall, good-looking, smart guy, who doesn't even compare to me…"
He said softly while trying to hide his inferiority complex…"No I can't let this happen! If I can't even get her, what does all that sacrifice that I treasured more dearly than my life mean? I broke all my convictions for her. I can't back off now."
Since it was a public attraction, there were no specific restrictions to enter the building, stated by the king himself.
Shimi walked through the giant gate in search of her love at first sight, Ruchell.
—
"Fwee…I keep going round and round these stairs but why do they never seem to end?" He said as his pace slowed down gradually.
"Well, they had a lift but I don't have the cash in my hands right now…why didn't they make that service free of cost, cheesy diggers?!" He thought while trying his hard to climb as higher as he could.
After around half an hour of grinding, he finally reached the main attraction of the entire building, the clock tower.
His jaws touched the ground and his muscle joints were all dislocated as he fell down on the floor, all rugged up from the fatigue.
"I swear, I never walked this much in my entire life." He said as he pulled his cheeks up and sat down on the floor.
"Whoaa!! Such a wonderful creation this is!" He shouted as he suddenly stood up and ran towards the screws and clogs of the large clock, looking at the internal mechanism of the clock.
His body retrieved it's healthy posture again as he touched the slowly rotating clog with his bare hands and sparkling eyes.
"Such effective length prediction, accurately placed clogs around the pendulum to maintain the center of mass, this thing is amazing!!" He said as his brain kept analyzing all he could comprehend.
"What are you doing there, young brat?!!" A vibrating and weak voice called Shimi out from behind to which he reacted in surprise since he was about to enter into an abysmal concentration point.
He was a weak, thin shaped old man with a long beard and a wooden stick to support him while walking…He had those dull eyes as if those senses were already above it's functional duration of time.
"U-Uh, nothing, hehe…I was just praising the beauty of this clock." He said while scratching the back of his head as he looked at the old man coming towards him.