Arthur tried to hold back the urge to vomit as he carefully walked pass the sea of corpses. Deep inside his heart, he regretted countless times for following them to this bloody place. He knew that not so far in the future, he would be struggling desperately to erase this image from his mind.
Suddenly, Arthur felt someone tugging on his sleeve. His heart was immediately filled with anxiety — wasn't all the people here supposed to be dead already? Surely, there was no such thing as — ghost — right? He felt another tug and his mind was already in chaos. Arthur unconsciously pulled back his hand, trying to get away when a loud childish voice dispersed all of his nonsensical thoughts.
"Oi, glasses!"
"Gaahh!" Arthur screamed in shock as the little boy's voice was startling his entire body like a sudden streak of lightning bolt in midday. "For Luna's sake! This brat —!"
"Hey! It's rude to call someone a brat when you clearly look like a brat too!" the boy exclaimed in irritation. "And I have a name! It's Chao Xiang!"
"'Cho — ki — ang'?" Arthur tried to pronounce the little boy's name, but it only made his tongue slipped.
"It's 'Cho — ou — Shi — yangg'!" Chao Xiang repeated his name slowly for Arthur to say it properly. Unfortunately, it only made his accent more weirder than before. Indeed, it seemed that no matter how great your memory was, it wouldn't have much effect on your skill if you didn't train properly.
"God! Why is it so hard to speak Zhuchen!" he growled in annoyance as the little boy in front of Arthur kept insisting him to say his name correctly.
Zhuchen, the mother tongue of the two allied republics of ChenLu and ZhuFu in the far west was indeed hard to learn and to speak in the correct manner — especially by the eastern nationalities, as there were a huge difference in their accent, words and way of speaking. Arthur himself was able to learn the language easily because of his photographic memory. But if it was speaking — forget it. Why should he care what those natives perceive? It didn't matter as long as they understood him, right? Still, you couldn't tell them to follow your rules, Arthur. Did you forget the basic called reciprocity?
""Chou Shiang'!" After countless repetition, Arthur had finally managed to say Chao Xiang's name correctly. A sense of accomplishment surged him as he muttered to himself, "I see — so this is how you pronounced 'xi'. Perhaps it's true that the best course when you want to study a new language is to learn directly from the natives —"
Arthur suddenly realized that he had started spacing out again. It always happened every time he was deep in thought. "Ah, sorry," he apologised to Chao Xiang. "I'm —"
"I know. It's Arthur Rolyn, right?" Chao Xiang said in a bright tone as he started walking in lighter but cheerier steps. "I overheard you talking with the granny. I think you're a reliable guy — even though you're very short. That's why I'm sticking to you now."
Arthur twitched upon hearing Chao Xiang's words. The 8 year old child was good at poking his sore spot. Arthur was about to counter the kid with obvious plain annoyance when a woman's voice stopped him from doing so.
"Whoa! You kids are hella weird," said the woman in surprise. "Normal kids would already be running away, right? — hell, even adults will be scared at this sight. Just look at him," she pointed at the old man who was desperately trying to look composed although his already pale face betrayed his effort. Not far from him was the young man about 18 or 19 in age. He was the first one to discover the gruesome scene and still petrified on the spot, trembling all over as he mumbled a few unrecognisable words. "See? Those are the average reactions of normal people. Well, as for me, I'm a journalist specialized in writing articles about crime. I've already seen something more terrible than this."
"Ehh? Really?" Chao Xiang's eyes sparkled as soon as he heard that she had seen something more terrifying than sea of blood and corpses. Was he — excited?? Just what kind of family he grew up in??
"It's true," the woman said with a hint of pride in her tone. It seemed that she was really proud of her job, huh? "Hmm — for example, do you know about the recent massacre that happened in ChenLu a few months ago?"
Chao Xiang flinched a little as he heard her words. "Whoa! It seems scary!" He tried to disguise the change in his posture, but it didn't go unnoticed by our bright fellow Arthur.
Arthur immediately took note of this change. He was sure that whatever made the kid unease would bound to help him in analyzing Chao Xiang's suspicious character and identity. But before that, he needed to know what kind of information the woman had.
The woman sighed deeply, "Haaa — it was really disgusting and hideous — at least these corpses are still intact. Indeed, family conflicts are the main source of disaster, especially in big families like the crazy Lu's," she said, glancing at Chao Xiang. "But, now that I think again, you seem to be familiar — are you somehow connected to the Lu's? You have their eyes and hair color — well, not my problem. I'm on vacation today anyway. Oh, I'm Sandra Kleinn, by the way. Nice to meet you, kid."
"Nice to meet you too, big sis! I'm Chao Xiang!" he said brightly. It was very brief, but with his observation skill, Arthur managed to saw Chao Xiang slowly pulling out the penknife they used to open the door before from his pocket when Sandra said her guess about him being related to the Lu's — although Chao Xiang immediately put back the penknife inside when Sandra said that she wouldn't pursue the matter any longer as she was not working now.
Arthur gulped hard. He was a little bit frightened by the kid in front of him. Well, who wouldn't after they encountered that kind of scene? Arthur, perhaps you should be a bit more cautious with the kid. Who knew if he suddenly ambushed you with the knife?
"Greetings, ma'am. I'm Arthur Rolyn, a post-graduate student from Virion," he introduced himself to Sandra.
"Ah! I've heard your name. The 'genius of the century'," Sandra gasped in surprise. "Dammit! Why should I meet you on my vacation time??" Her thoughts were shown on her face, as if every inch of her cell was screaming 'potential headline!'
"A — haha," Arthur laughed a little forcefully as he tried to avert his eyes from the excited Sandra. He caught the sight of a middle-aged man kneeling in front of a pile of corpses. His hands seemed to be — rummaging the corpses' pocket?? "Wait — sir! What are you doing??"
Arthur's voice was quite loud as it echoed in the silent restaurant. The middle-aged man was startled. An antique pocket watch, ruby necklace, sapphire earrings and other kind of jewelries fell to the floor as he stood up in haste.
"You —!" the man exclaimed at Arthur as he crouched down to pick up the jewelries. "These are priceless historical objects! What if they broke? You won't be able to replace them even if you trade your life to the devil!"
The 14 year old boy was bewildered at the man's sudden outburst. 'How can he — shamelessly blame me when he's the one who drop them!' Arthur thought in irritation. 'And in the first place, didn't he steal them from the corpses??'
Well done, Arthur. You met another weirdo.
"Oh, it's Tristan James," Sandra's voice was suddenly heard right behind Arthur. The boy was startled. He immediately stepped away from Sandra who was looking at him in amusement. "Heeeh~, you're the type who get agitated easily, huh? Cute~ so you do still have a teenager's innocence — well, that's it. Now then, you're curious about that guy, correct? He's Tristan James, an archaeologist. You may have read a few papers about his recent findings."
"That Tristan James??" Arthur gaped in disbelief as he recalled the papers he read in the library when he was still an undergraduate student. Well, it was no wonder that he didn't recognize him as the papers didn't have any of his picture. Although —
"Well, he's a little bit off on the head," Sandra added, as if knowing what was Arthur going to say. "There's a very thin line between madness an geniuses. Tristan James is someone who single-mindedly focused on finding new historical objects — no matter what way he used. Little kid, do you know the ancient figurine of the Sun God that was now exhibited in the Virion Museum? It was Tristan James who found it after digging under someone's private mansion. I think he was arrested a few times for sneaking and vandalizing both private and public property."
Arthur was getting more and more bewildered as he listened to Sandra's story about Tristan James. " — is he — an idiot?"
"No, he's just a little sick in his brain," Sandra said as she lit up the cigar pipe she had been holding. "I've also heard about a rumor that Tristan James sneaked into the third tower of Virion's Great Library while carrying a pickaxe. When the security caught and interrogated him, he claimed persistently that he was just following his instinct, that there were some kind of invaluable historical objects or ancient record lied underneath the tower."
"Crazy," Arthur spatted out. "Even I never step inside the third tower!"
"Oh, are you interested in whatever lies there too?"
"No way in hell!" Arthur said almost spontaneously. "I don't want to trade all the privileges I have now for a mere curiosity."
Wait, wait, Arthur. Hadn't you already done that sort of thing? You hadn't forget about what happened in the second chapter, right?
Sandra chuckled. The smoke that came from her cigar pipe started to fill the gap between the two, but Arthur wasn't bothered by the slightest bit. She suddenly rummaged through her coat's pocket, pulling out a box of cigarettes and put them on Arthur's hand. "Here, a meeting gift. You're a heavy smoker, right?"
Arthur was stupefied. His hand moved up and down to weigh the cigarette box, eyes staring at Sandra with a mixture of confusion and askance. 'How did she know?' his mind jumped, trying to recall all the places where he usually smoked. 'I was sure that I never smoke outside the campus —'
"Just take it," Sandra insisted. "Someone gave it to me a while ago. Unfortunately, I prefer pipes to cigarettes. And by the way, I didn't investigate about this. It's just my plain guess. You're always mingling with those old fogeys, so it won't be a surprise if you pick one or two of their habits."
Although Arthur was still unconvinced, he finally chose to shove the box inside his pocket.
"Oooiii~, minors can't smoke, you know?" Chao Xiang suddenly popped out from Arthur's left side. "No wonder you look like a ghost. Well, if you want to smoke, don't do it in front of me, 'kay? I don't really like the smell of tobacco."
Arthur glared at the little boy before turning his attention back to Sandra. Oh, my. Arthur, did you hate being scolded by a kid younger than you? Well, it was your own fault in the first place. You knew that smoking was unhealthy, yet you still did it regardless. Idiotic fool.
"Then, who are the other two?" Arthur asked Sandra as he pointed at them with his thumb. "Are they famous too?"
"That guy, huh?" Sandra winced a little as her sight turned to the young man who was now finally recovered from his initial shock. He quickly ran to the corner of the restaurant, avoiding the corpses around him. "How should I put it — he's a fourth generation conglomerate. His name should be Ivan, third son of the Grigotto's. He has quite an anger issue, so it's best if you don't get on his bad side."
"I see."
Indeed, Arthur. Don't get on his bad side. With your similar tempers, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that a war would start.
"As for that old geezer, he's Gregory Walter, a retired police superintendent — although he may not look or even act like one," Sandra chuckled. "He's hungry for praises — and a bit of drunkard as well. It's a fortunate thing that he's quite good in his job. Still, I don't really like him too much."
"Oh? Why?" Arthur asked while his mind started to wander, trying to distinguish the flinching familiarity he felt upon seeing Walter's face.
"Just think of it as a journalist's sixth sense," Sandra shrugged. "Although he was famous and respected before his retirement 3 years ago, I always have the feeling that he holds some kind of dark secret. Still, I'll be sure to uncover it someday! This kind of secret is what always entices a journalist to pursue the truth."
"Ha-ha. Good luck with that," Arthur laughed wryly. Indeed, it seemed that he should keep a little distance from this gossiping woman. He already got goosebumps thinking what would happened if she was able to discover his haunting dark past.
Arthur then took another glance at the gruesome scene in front of him. He sighed deeply, it seemed that another series of nightmare would visit him for the next few nights. In times like this, he wished that he never had a photographic memory which were able to record everything he had seen perfectly. Arthur started planning a few things to do to bury the scene under another memory. It should be better if it was a good one —
"Oi! Glassess — glassess!" Arthur felt another tug on his coat from Chao Xiang. Even after introducing themselves, the kid still called Arthur with that nickname.
Arthur twitched. He stared at Chao Xiang for a few seconds before asking, "What?" His tone was irritated, as the little boy was interrupting his contemplation.
"I think I hear someone crying. Do you hear it? It's coming from that direction," Chao Xiang pointed at the spot which had the most pile of corpses. Near the pile was a table that still stood in its place, although the dishes on it were already scattered on the table and the floor — as if someone was pulling the tablecloth before, regardless whether something was on the table or not.
"A crying voice —?"
Arthur became silent. Indeed, it was very soft, but there was definitely a crying voice coming from the direction Chao Xiang was pointing at. It was hard to recognize to the point of unhearable. In that regard, Chao Xiang was a more amazing kid than Arthur thought. But it also added another suspicion to his identity — although currently it was not the time for Arthur to think about it.
He followed Chao Xiang as they made way across the room, approaching the direction where the table was. As they got closer, the voice became more clearer. 'A kid's voice?' Arthur thought. 'Is it a girl —?'
Chao Xiang lift the tablecloth up. The figure of a little girl came to their view. She seemed to be slightly younger than Chao Xiang, about 6 or 7 years old. She looked like a doll, with round face and big, round blue eyes. Her long blonde hair was tied in a ponytail. She also had a slightly tan skin.
'Judging from the characteristic of her face, she seemed to be from the far west region, but her skin was a little tanned like people from the middle region — a mixed blood?' thought Arthur as he observed the little girl. She was still crying, even when Chao Xiang tried to comfort her.
"For now, how about we return to the casino?" Arthur suggested. "We also need to inform them about the situation." The 'them' he was referring to were the people who stayed in the casino.
"Okay," Chao Xiang talked softly to the little girl beside him. She finally stopped crying, staring at Arthur before nodding. She stood up with Chao Xiang's help, holding back her fright as she noticed the corpses around her.
Arthur sighed again. It seemed that his already numerous troubles would only increase more.