"In all of history, there were 5 major events that caused great changes to the world. These events were dubbed the name 'The 5 Casualties'.
Each of them left their own mark on the world, a mark that can never leave; the works of our ancestors and the effects of our sins; that both which is known and unknown.
The 1st: 'The First Evil'
The 2nd: 'Death Of The Mother'
The 3rd: 'The great beasts'
The 4th: 'Fallen Order'
The 5th: 'Father Time'
Solomon slammed the book close on his palm. "And that's all we know about Father Time!" He said cheerfully.
I stared at him, dumbfounded. "That's all?"
"Mhm, to be honest, until I saw that 'picture' I never believed in him. In fact, most people don't."
"Is seeing a picture enough to believe in him?"
"I have my reasons."
"What about the boy next to him?"
"Who knows?"
"Mhhmhh!" A voice grunted sternly.
Reina, who was seated at the other end from me on the round table, held her head up with her hand as the other tapped its index finger soundly as it rested on the table.
A woman stood behind her. She had red crimson hair and wild eyes of the same colour. She wore a peach coloured mini top and blue mini jeans.
One of her hands was at her back, and the other fisted against her mouth. She opened her closed eyes as she put her arm down, staring down at nothing in particular.
"Is something wrong?" Solomon asked with his usual smile.
The woman behind Reina glared at him. The girls who stood by the door giggled.
Reina banged the table. "What's wrong?" She said calmly, slight anger in her voice. The twins stopped.
"You want to know what's wrong? Why don't we start from all the messed up shit that's happened today?"
"Or maybe we can talk about why Miya looks completely fine."
She banged the table again. Or maybe we can talk about why you guys walked in here, completely ignoring me and talking about crap?"
She banged the table continuously. "Or maybe you can tell me why you haven't, at least, given me a fucking apology!!"
The girls held each other at the last bang which was the loudest.
It was still for a moment. I finally noticed that aside from the chalkboard behind Solomon and the seats of the round table, there was nothing in the room. It had to be a conference room.
"Ehehe,"Solomon laughed with a smile. I think I saw a vein bulge on Reina's forehead; the woman sighed.
"Relax. I promised you an explanation, didn't I? Why don't you start with your side of the story, Reina?"
Reina faced me, annoyed. She sighed, then began to tell us her side of the story.
"A few days ago, I met up with Miya's mother. She wanted to get a way to get Miya to attend school, so she thought it would be a good idea if I started going to school with him, just so that he wouldn't feel lonely." She looked down, playing around with her fingers.
"But I tried to convince her that me following him wouldn't make him feel like going to school; so that's when she told me about how there would also be a private tutoring lesson with a teacher that taught his sister, Servia. I don't know why she was so confident in the private tutoring, but that's when you came in, Solomon." She glared at him, he smiled.
She turned her head back down, slowly raising her head to look at me. "Later, I went to Miya's house...." She explained the rest of her story, from the Miya's house to how she got to the castle.
"It was supposed to be a normal meet-up, a normal tutoring, so what did you guys do?" She turned to Solomon, her eyes reddened, her brows furrowed, her hands fisted tight. "Not just you, Solomon." She stood up and turned to the woman and the twins, glaring at them. "What did all of you do?"
The woman continued to stare down to the ground, and the twins looked sad. Solomon-
"Nothing." Solomon said.
"Heh?" Reina retorted.
"What you should be asking is what went wrong?" Reina looked at him curiously as he took a seat.
"Sit'" he said. Reina sat down.
"I sent a simple instruction to Erenea behind you; which, as you know, was the squirrel you were with in the forest. The instruction was to bring you both here to the castle, for whatever reason you both didn't make it here is entirely something only Erenea can explain."
"What forest was it?" I asked Solomon.
"The Deronier's forest," he replied, nodding to the twins as they opened the door and left the room.
"You went to Deronier's forest?" I asked Reina.
"...Yeah...I mean from the way it looked like, probably."
Looking at all the dirt on her clothes, what they were saying was probably true; but Deronier's forest is one of the largest forests in the world with tree's up to 30 to 50 feet tall, from the village it should be at the other side of the continent...
"Miya." Solomon called as the twins walked back into the room. "What did you see when you met Erenea?"
"Well -"
"Wait!" Reina screamed. "We're not done yet. Why were they Titans in the forest."
"...that's true. I don't remember ever reading anything about Titans in the forest." I thought to myself.
"It's because I put them there. For training of course." Solomon replied. "Moving on. Miya." He called again.
Reina was speechless.
I ignored it and decided to answer Solomon's question. "Well, I didn't really see anything, I just focused on catching up to the squirrel, I mean, Erenea." I turned to her, but she seemed to be lost in thought.
The twins set the teacup before me and poured me some brown tea that smelled really nice.
Solomon sipped he tea reigning in his pinky finger as he drank. Keeping an upright posture."So what happened after that?"
"I was underwater, I saw lights and heard voices."
"Have you ever drowned before?" Erenea looked up and asked me, her face puzzled.
"No."
"Who's voices? Did you hear?" Solomon asked.
"Don't know."
"Did you feel any pain?" Solomon continued.
"No."
He sipped his tea again as he stared at the table. "Go on."
"It felt like I woke up from a dream. Even though I knew I was already awake." I drank the tea. It tasted normal. Reina stared at me. Her cup set at a distance from her.
I told them all that happened, about the creature.About the man who everyone called Father Time and about the woman who had emerged from the tree.
When I mentioned the woman, Solomon spilt some tea on the table and looked at me wide-eyed. The twins dropped the trays they were holding, looking as if their hearts had stopped beating. Erenea looked at me normally. Reina and I seemed like the only ones who didn't know what was going on.
"Ehehehe, I see, I see. Is that so?" Solomon placed the placed the teacup on the saucer. His green eyes sparkled as his face wore a wide smile. He held his head up with his palm. "Interesting."
"Are you serious?" Neal asked weakly but eagerly.
"You're not lying, right?" Nael asked firmly as they both flew up to me.
"I'm not."
They looked as if they were about to cry. They turned to Solomon."That means! That means!" The twins said as tears flowed from their eyes. "Yeah, there's still a chance."
"But that doesn't tell us anything." Reina said. "Why did Miya and I go to different places. Was it Erenea again?"
"No..." Erenea started in a light voice, but Solomon's voice spoke over hers. "No, it was probably because of the creature or maybe another factor, but either way, you're right, there's not enough information."
"Oh well, I guess that's where we'll have to stop for today," Solomon said as he finished his tea.
"What do you mean that's where we'll stop?" Reina and I said.
"Why can Erenea turn into a dragon?!" Reina asked.
"What happened to Father Time?" I asked.
"What was that monster in the garden?"
"Why is this huge castle floating in the sky?" Reina asked again.
"The castle floats in the sky?" I asked Reina.
"Calm down, calm down." Solomon said. "For Reina, I can't really answer your questions. They're all confidential."
"But you said you'll tell me all that I wish to know." Reina replied.
"But if I told you the answers to these questions, you'd wish you never knew them. Trust me." Solomon said with his usual smile.
Reina glanced at Erenea. Erenea stood silent.
"Just tell me in a way I can understand."
"..."
"Please." Reina said.
"No." Solomon's eyes looked dark.
Reina shuddered, then clicked her tongue, looking in the other direction. "Fucking liar."
"And about Father Time?" I asked.
"What about him?"
"You have been researching on him right? Where is he now?"
There was an odd silence in the room. Everyone looked at each other. Solomon turned to Reina, "he really doesn't know?"
Reina turned her head to the table, then looked at me and sighed.
"Heh, no wonder Marina told me to take care of you." Solomon cracked up.
"Miya..." Reina said, trying to make her voice sound calm. "Father Time died over 200 years ago."