"You know, Iota, the ability you have could be considered a superpower." A middle-aged man spoke while his hands curled over the shoulders of a boy barely four years old, an Iota from young.
"I…d-don't know anything about that." Iota trembled in fear as his childish voice resounded with fragile naivety.
"You needn't be afraid," The middle-aged man smiled as he gently brought Iota before the sleeping figure of Spring, "This is my daughter, Spring."
"She has four personalities inside her; Spring, Summer, Rain, and Winter. But they are very unstable. So," He grinned when the image of a Devil-shaped skull manifested behind him, sucking something out of Iota to pour into Spring, "The majority of your emotional state will be consumed to help stabilise her."
"I'm scared!" Iota trembled in fear, intending to run away when a formless force kept him rooted to the spot. "Sir, what is happening?"
"Just endure, it's nothing." The middle-aged man smirked as he pointed his index finger at Iota's forehead, imprinting the skull image, "Many creatures will try to aim for my daughter in the future. So, by relying on your photographic memory, work towards her benefit."
"Henceforth, you'll subconsciously be her slave." The skull image on his forehead subsided as Iota fainted. The middle-aged man stared at him as if gazing at a treasure, "Very few people possess a photographic memory. And among them, yours is very potent."
"I'm expecting much from you, Iota."
…
'What a shitty dream. At times like these, I would love to forget some things.' Iota woke up, feeling a tad exhausted as he observed he was tied up to a chair and placed in an underground room of sorts.
He looked around, observing the figure of Dullip Garobu seated nearby, accompanied by two of his underlings. Iota didn't bother with him for the time being and observed the absence of Spring, 'Did she use me as a scapegoat to escape?'
'That dumbass.' All he did was sigh in response, unable to even feel anger at the other party. It was a messed-up situation where despite being betrayed or used as a ragdoll, he would subconsciously move for the benefit of Spring.
Iota was aware of his current state but didn't concern himself with it, intending to find a way to break the status quo in the future. That was why he brought Spring to this world two years in advance of the scheduled date.
'Sir, I will stop dancing to your tunes one day.' Iota began to take in deep breaths, eventually closing his eyes to sleep. He was still tired. And being tied up to a chair didn't make things better.
"You've woken up now." Dullip Garobu spoke upon seeing Iota regain consciousness.
"I want to sleep…" Iota spoke with a tone of lethargy as he closed his eyes.
"You'll talk if you wish to be alive." Dullip pulled a chair and seated himself before Iota, staring at the latter to speak, "I can put you to sleep permanently, if that's what you wish."
"That will be uncomfortable." Iota tilted his head in annoyance before saying, "First of all, if you wish to talk, teach me your language."
"I'm not good at that."
"I could make that out already." Dullip snapped his finger, prompting his underling to head out and return soon with a scroll.
"I'll return in the morning. You'll do well to reach basic proficiency by then." Saying so, Dullip exited the room, confident that Iota wouldn't be able to escape. After all, he was fully tied up.
"So, this is the alphabet." Iota stared at the scroll as he asked the underling, "Pronounce it once for me, will you?"
The underling glared at him and remained silent. A second later, he threw a straight right, slamming a punch on Iota's face, causing blood to drip out of his nose, "Bastard, my friend lost his sight because of you!"
"So that's how you pronounce a bastard in your language." Iota didn't even flinch at the punch. Or rather, it was due to his sense of pain being abnormally weak as compared to others.
Whether it was his emotions, feelings, sense of touch, etc. a good majority of them had been forcefully transmitted to Spring by her father.
Among her four personalities, the one called Spring was the dumb, bubbly one. There was just one in the four that could employ her braincells very well. 'Winter should have been the one that made me a scapegoat.'
'She's aware I'll meet her in the future and hence prioritised her escape.' Iota closed his eyes, hearing the shouts of the underlings as punches rained down on him. He related their actions to what he had witnessed in the past, able to get a better grip on the language they used.
A glance at the scroll was all he needed to recall the entirety of the alphabet.
"What the heck is this bastard?" The underlings panted in exhaustion as they stared at the bloody figure of Iota that hadn't fainted. One of them tugged his hair and spoke, "Since sir Dullip told us, we'll teach you our language better."
"You can forget getting any rest."
…
"Indeed, the magic circle has disappeared." Dullip arrived at the basement where he summoned Iota and Spring, calmly observing the place now to see a layer of the floor had vanished. The layer had the same thickness as the depth of the groove forming the magic circle.
Dullip recalled the scene where Iota swallowed the mysterious sphere that formed when the spatial crack closed, 'My summoning circle should have directly teleported them here, irrespective of the distance. Then, why did such a phenomenon happen?'
He looked around, inspecting the room completely, unable to notice anything else of importance. After spending a few hours, he left the room upon seeing that it was dawn, 'I hope my subordinates had vented enough.'
He soon reached their hideout, entering it to see a bloody figure of Iota, 'They indeed pummelled him mercilessly.'
Swollen bluish-black bruises covered his body, some of his nails had been ripped out and the skin tissue had been peeled away on the face, hands, and legs. A normal human would have fainted from sheer agony, but forming a sharp contrast, almost to a terrifying level was the nonchalant figure of Iota, one that was casually chatting with the underlings that had subjected him to such horror.
"Oh, so that's how you form this sentence. I see, that makes sense." Iota nodded in surprise, "How did you even understand what I spoke before this then?"
"Well, it was broken, but we could get the gist." One of the underlings spoke, seemingly having resigned at trying to make the other party repent.