Before his eyes were dozens of children he estimated to be the same age as him. Most were almost as skinny as Alexander, while others weren't as skinny. But they had one thing in common, which caused Alexander to frown—that they were alive.
Alexander endured the burning of his eyes and made a rough estimate of their number.
'There are almost a hundred of them.'
That number was too high.
That meant there were a hundred people in the same situation as him.
It was a cold, big hall. Dozens of torches hung on the wall lit up the hall, but for some reason, they could not prevent the cold.
At the other end of the place where the children rested was a stone platform one meter high.
The hall was huge even for a hundred people. So there was quite a lot of room to stop. Alexander moved to a place and began to sit there. He didn't want to communicate with others. Now, he wanted to gather his thoughts and assess the situation.
"If there are a hundred people other than the dead, things are different than I thought."
Less than ten minutes after Alexander arrived in the hall, a tall, masked figure appeared on the platform. After the masked figure moved his eyes over the children, he took a step forward and began to speak with his hands behind his back.
"I would like to offer my congratulations and condolences to all of you for successfully leaving the first test. My name is Jade Dragon, and I will be your supervisor during your time here. We end the introductory chapter here as you will have a lot of time to get to know us and me."
Jade Dragon's words were not understood by the children, but Alexander was enough to confirm some of the suspicions.
"I advise you to forget your past because here you will only have to remember three things: the first is absolute obedience, the second is absolute obedience, and the third is absolute obedience! Here the orders are given once, and you will obey! Now, everyone has their backs to the wall and gets one line! You will not do anything until new orders are given. You will not speak, you will not move!"
Finishing his words, the Jade Dragon suddenly disappeared from sight. No one had seen where it came from. There weren't many who understood what he was saying.
But their experiences must have spurred them into action, as the group of children lined up against each other on the wall. The Jade Dragon was gone, and they began to wait for the next command.
After ten minutes of being behind, some of the children couldn't stop where they were anymore and started moving.
The cute boy standing next to Alexander whispered to him, "Hey, I'm Jacob. My family is a mercenary who has become members of the great Crow Merchants Guild. They didn't finish praising me before they sent me here, but it doesn't seem as hard as I thought. What do you think?"
When Alexander heard the boy say, he couldn't help but let his eyes grow.
'Did your parents send you to this hell? Doesn't it seem as hard as you think?'
Just as he was about to pepper the child with questions, he remembered what the Jade Dragon had said.
He would not speak or move.
Until further notice.
"Hey, you know there's no one here! At least say your name! Oh, my God."
No matter how much Jacob called, he received no response from Alexander. Alexander continued to look blankly in front of him, taking care that none of his muscles moved.
Seeing this, Jacob turned around after mumbling something and started talking to the boy on the other side.
Half an hour passed, and the other children began to whisper with each other. Some were stretching their legs that were aching from waiting, while others were sitting down to recover their dwindling energy.
A part of the queue suddenly began to move.
The two children, who were eyebrows at each other, started arguing with each other. This small argument soon turned into a fight where punches and kicks flew away. Although the chaos was growing, Jade Dragon or anyone else had not come to stop them.
This made the children braver.
The children who fought one round were returning to their next places. Those who joked foolishly at each other multiplied.
Then the Jade Dragon appeared on the platform.
Next to him were a few other masked men like him.
Each of them had whips in their hands that stood as sharp as a sword.
The faces of the children who were fighting and joking suddenly faded when they saw them. All the laughter was cut off, the temperature of the room dropped by a few degrees.
"I see that there are those who have not grasped the seriousness of the situation."
The Jade Dragon pointed to the six children standing in line.
"You ignored orders and quarreled."
The faces of the children he pointed to were cut white as cheese, but the arrogance in his eyes never changed. The meaning of this place to them was no different from what it meant to Alexander. Like Jacob, they were sent here by his family.
The men behind the Jade Dragon slowly advanced and came in front of the children. The arrogance in the eyes of the children continued until the men drew their swords from the scabbards at their waists. At the moment they suffered, their arrogance gave way to despair and horror.
Because the swords had pierced their hearts exactly.
The arrogance on the other children's faces suddenly gave way to fear.
But the masked men didn't stop there.
"Let those who speak and move forward and undress and lie on the ground: you have three lashes of punishment. Don't dare lie to me, or you'll end up like other bastards. "
At the words of the Jade Dragon, three children came forward.
"That's it?"
Five more children came forward trembling and took off their tops.
"Five whips especially for five!"
The bodies of the five children trembled with fear, but it was too late to regret it.
The Jade Dragon moved his eyes over the four children standing on the wall. "You bastards really dared to lie! Go to hell!"
Masked men dragged the crying children to the front of the platform, where they pierced their bellies to death.
In this way, Alexander's first day here began. After the Jade Dragon removed the bodies, he assigned men to take them to their bedrooms. The assigned men dropped them off in a dormitory filled with double bunk beds.
One of the men started talking when the children entered the dormitory. "There will be two people lying down, one at the bottom and one at the top. Choose your bedmate well! After that, you will do the training with them and spend your life with them. Hehehe."
After saying these things, he left the room and disappeared.
After wiping away the sweat that had been divorced because of Alexander, he tried to endure the pain of the wound on his back. There was no one to care what the man said. What he had been through lately was so heavy for him that he immediately grabbed a place and tried to fall asleep, not caring about the others sobbing and crying.
A group of five who obeyed the order, including Alexander, had been whipped one time in private.