Once upon a time there lived a young wolf cub. Far away from the rest of the world he resided with his pack in a massive cave.
The young wolf cub was brave and strong but his parents never took him to hunt.
Whenever he fought with his siblings in a mock play, he always emerged victorious, he never fell ill nor did he ever felt weak.
The brave cub was obedient yet curious of the wild hunt, along with the limits of his mortal life and the infinite world outside his home.
One day during an usual evening, the pack returned home empty handed. The failure at hunts was not rare but his mother never returned back.
The young cub was dissatisfied and furious, he raged to the elders of the pack.
"If he had gone to hunt with others, his mother would have lived." The thought clouded his youthful mind.
His members of the pack never batted an eye to his behaviour and left him alone. Angry but sad, the young cub whimpered and finally fell asleep.
The place had darkened and the silence had taken over, no souls made any sound as if to allow the world to rest but the young cub could not silently slumber.
Throughout his life his mother hugged him and his siblings to sleep but the gentle warmth of his mother was absent tonight.
His siblings cuddled to his father and the other wolves rested to numb the pain of their injuries.
The unaware wolf pack peacefully slept at the dead of the night, that's when the young cub growled and bravely marched to the outside world.
Unaware of the wonders of the wild, he expected herds of huge prey racing the grassy fields while being chased by the wolves of other packs as he stepped outside but contrary to his imagination, the world was silent.
The unending land was covered with a carpet made out of thick snow and only the old withered trees stood alone under the dark sky illuminated by the thousands of stars.
The outside world was mystical for the young cub, a view he had never seen before.
He craved more of this emotion and before he knew it, his paws left small prints along the snow.
Young and inexperienced he walked in the uncharted world alone and soon without his awareness, he was dyed with the colour of red.
The long sharp talons of a bird of prey quickly etched into his neck. Young cub couldn't move or even struggle as the beak of the bird tore through his flesh and slowly gouged out his life.
There was no chance to grief nor an opportunity to resist, left with just a single emotion - regret, the regret of caressing the beauty of the world all by himself, alone.
"What do you think about that, Shade?
"Wynorrific."
"No, what I want to ask is- would you have died the same way knowing the unknowns or would have lived without any awareness of its existence?"
"I probably won't choose something that is an instant death because of emotions so probably the latter, same as you."
"...I would have chosen to know the unknown every time though."
"Liar."
…
Guess he was not lying about it.
"Failure is not the end of a journey but only a small hurdle in the path of it."
A set of optimistic words spoken to the people who have failed to reach their goal once. I never encountered such failures, maybe I just didn't try enough things for my age but whatever I tried I succeeded and mastered it.
Driven by prideful determination, I have always enjoyed the taste of success and victories.
Perhaps that strong flavour of success was so deeply mixed into my taste buds that I never prepared enough for the bitterness of failure that had made its way to my mouth.
More than two weeks have already gone by since the last meeting of Freedom, or should I say since the murder of the previous Leader and the three executives?
A person who even fails to keep up with his own friends and family was now dealing with matters of a powerful world affecting secrets.
Murders, powers and a hidden society… I still couldn't believe what I had been witnessing for these past few days.
I was turning more weird than I initially was.
The weird dreams of the world ending were also bothering me for a while now and I don't seem to be in shock for someone who just watched three people die in front of my eyes.
Was it weird that I was more concerned about not being concerned about the concerning things?
The Relics, Chandler's death and all of these magic-supernatural related things had completely flipped my normal life upside down.
Yet here I was casually sitting at my seat in the classroom leisurely trying to fall asleep.
My regular school days were back again before I could even adjust to my situation.
I want to say I was good at hiding things but I won't say that this had not been bothering me. It feels like living two different lives when one slip up about the other side can cost me my life.
"You seriously slept during the classes and nobody noticed you."
The person who said this was Kevin, he sat at the seat next to mine, I knew him for four days now. He was too good at getting close to others and that somehow included me.
"I think I have a talent for that."
"You're like a real life assassin class then." Saying that he got up from his seat and began to leave.
Looks like recess break had started, I opened my mouth and gave out a small yawn while I stretched my hands ahead.
Assassin build, a role playing game's class specialising in stealth and tactics.
The unique class indeed fit my current position, as I silently sat down on my desk and my presence drew absolutely no attention.
Teachers don't notice me in classes, the rest of my classmates ignore me and after a week of attending school normally, I have only made one friend.
Did I do something wrong? Do you all hate me for something? No answers for that.
Of course I thought about changing my position many times but my classmates were also quite annoying so I had tried to not associate with them as much as I could.
I lowered my head again and tried to sleep but soon I was disturbed by a small crowd gathered near the door.
I looked towards the sudden commotion from my seat and few of my classmates seemed to have arched around a single person.
"Yeah that guy." The centre of attention was a senior year student, it looked like my classmates knew him but I didn't really know many people in my current school.
"The gloomy guy? Not much, he doesn't talk with anyone."
"The one who always ranks first ever since he came here?"
"His name's Shade if I remember correctly, he usually ignores us when we try to ask for his help or for anything else related to the world."
The person in question was… me?
And I misunderstood that my classmates won't even remember me, rather than being forgotten I was quite popular.
"Heyo." The student now personally confronted me.
I was sitting on my seat so I could not attempt to escape like normal.
"Do you need me for something?" I asked in a somewhat polite tone.
He gave a wide smile and bent slightly down to my level and whispered something.
"I just want to talk to you about something Relic related."
My life was doomed.
"We should talk outside." I replied looking at the group of my classmates staring at us.
This was odd, according to what Irina had told me, there should have been no one able to track Relic Users down because of the special masks we wore but that does not seem to be the case now.
After walking for a few minutes, we stopped near the chemistry lab. It was nearly isolated in the corner of the building with only two paths connecting to it, one of which being an emergency exit and the other being a flight of stairs.
"About Relics, what did you want to talk about?"
"Damn, it's refreshing hearing you like this."
"What does that mean?"
"At the Con, I met you when I accidentally bumped into you, remember?"
"At the Confluence?... Wait, you're the one who said something about weird dreams."
"Yeah exactly! I'm Dan, a member of Sir Controller's faction, can I still call it that though? He's dead now after all."
"And what would you want from me? No, more importantly how did you even recognise me?"
Hearing my words he looked at me with a smug face.
"My Relic gives me the power of peeking into a person's dream or something close to their subconscious mind, it activates when I make a physical contact with them." He proudly spoke.
No matter how I look at it, it just seems so suspicious. What would a Relic User want from me? Why would he contact me while showing his face?
I could only assume he wanted me to do something for him and showing faces was his way of earning trust.
I let out a heavy sigh and I soon stared at him with a sharp look.
"So you saw a weird dream from me and then coincidentally found me again? I don't believe that." I changed my tone of talking.
"You got me… Actually this is a little private but I can keep on seeing a person's dream appear like a smoke around them until I switch it with someone else. Also the reason it is yours is because I accidentally activated it when I bumped into you, I tried to tell you but you screamed at me back there."
"And why are you contacting me? Not to mention so openly and with the help of normal students."
"The truth is I was trying to do it privately for two days but I ended up failing. Our classes are on different floors and you seem to run back home as soon as the time comes."
"And?"
He looks at me and his expression stiffens up.
The way I was talking was far from polite and gentle but I could not afford him to lead the conversation. In any case I had to act like a person of higher authority than him.
"The main reason I wanted to talk to you was because I feel like someone is after me these days."
"You didn't cheat on a girl or something right?"
"Of course not! I'm pretty sure somebody found out about my identity during the last time I took a job."
"What job?"
"Th-that is a bit personal, it's also embarrassing especially to tell someone who is higher in status than me in Freedom."
It was too risky to blindly believe him, he could be making it all up while having ulterior motives.
"Dan, don't involve me in this."
"What?!"
"Why did you think I would help you in the first place? Cleaning the mess you created should be obvious."
"But aren't you involved or rather a part of the upper echelon?! It's your job to take care of us new members!"
"Why do you know that?" I quickly replied.
I don't think he knows about me being the Assistant or he would have referred to me as Mr. Assistant like others. Also his request, it sounds like a hassle to deal with.
"I saw you talking with Ms. Ice Demon later on. I am not tricking you or anything, please just help me this one time! Sir is dead and the rest of the people from my faction are fighting or hiding, you're the only hope I am left with now."
He grabbed both of my shoulders and pleaded desperately.
I wanted to punch him and walk away but I could not think of a single excuse to justify my actions without making the issue bigger.
Even an animal could see that this scenario was dangerous, complicated and had no benefits attached to it.
Another thing to remember was that Freedom had been in chaos for more than a week now, the three Executives and the almighty previous Leader have fallen.
According to what I heard from Sera after the incident, the other factions were thinking of preferring power and wits over anything else as their main criteria for choosing the next Executive.
Of course in power - their relic, authority and connection should have been the part to judge but this just led to a huge disguised war to start among people who wanted to be the next Executive.
Before this they surely just chose based on their leadership and decision making. This new criteria was the result of Enchanting Healer and Ice Demon coming to power while being the strongest as both, Relic Users and Mental Strategists.
Of course it would have been the best if all the three factions dissolved like Pig Guy's but that was definitely not a coincidence. Now with that being said, the only options for them was to hide, fight or support.
"Dan, this-" I stopped mid sentence.
Something in my brain started to connect the dots which should have perhaps never been connected.
"What?"
I looked down towards him and brushed his hands off my shoulders.
"Tell me about your stalker suspicion since you started feeling it."
"So you'll help me?"
"Yes."
"Really?! Wait, why so suddenly?"
I just thought it would risk my life as well. Anyway, just tell me about what you noticed."
"Though my observation may be a bit rough." Saying that he slowly started talking.
As he went on with his story, the thing I noticed first was how detailed his explanation was.
Despite my demeanour earlier I quietly heard his side of the story without interrupting him.
After learning all about these stalkers I finally returned back to my classroom.
Coincidentally or maybe not, I got what he was saying. The feeling of being stalked was really creepy.
The incidents started five days ago, at first it wasn't bothering, acts of object misplacement and small changes in things like bags was almost unnoticeable.
Dan, who according to himself was a great observer noticed even these changes as they increased day by day. While he was still concerned over the minor things he had already realised he was being thoroughly searched by someone, and started searching for help in a panic.
Of course this just ended in school and as 16th of May was Sunday no such occurrence happened so there was still a small chance it was just a set of very coordinated sick jokes by his classmates or this man became so popular that he actually got himself a lovestruck maiden or perhaps a man attached to his back.
This situation may be getting in my head but even I felt something like his description back when we were talking together.
There were no other ways to peek at us except for stairs near the hallway of the chemistry lab so I'm sure that there was no one watching us.
My eyes were fixated on the staircase when we were talking so it should have been safe but my intuition made me uneasy as I was trying to deny or back it up with logic.
"Hey, so what were you talking about with Dan?"
As soon as I sat down on my desk Kevin disrupted my train of thoughts with his sudden question.
How does he know that?
"Nothing, he was just asking for help because of his part time job or something."
"Really? But wasn't he asking people about you."
This guy was too sharp to believe a sudden made up lie.
"He had seen me before but never talked to me, one of my acquaintances is his boss at the place he works at so he knew me."
"Hmm? Really?"
"Yeah."
Kevin was really good at social interactions, he was on friendly terms with everyone from our class.
I still wonder why he talks to me but either way he was not a bad person.
"Hey, can you help me a bit?"
"About what?"
"You're pretty good at knowing lies and truth right?"
"Then what you said earlier was a lie?"
"Partly but how?"
"I would just doubt every word that Dan says and then reason it to why it could be true or false and just debate in your mind whether you would do it or not and why."
"It's not about Dan."
"Ok I'll ask him."
"You're unnecessarily sly."
He continued to stare at me as if he thought I would ask him something more.
"Hmm… Are you acquainted with Dan?" So I asked him another question.
I was curious as to whether he was serious about asking him directly or that was a mere threat?
"Somewhat, we're at different years so we're not close but better than just an acquaintance. He's a nice person, he doesn't have any parents and only a sister and he is super close with a lot of people in our school."
"I see."
So he also knew about him, no matter how stupid Kevin acted, he wouldn't unnecessarily be involved with a suspicious person.
"So, will you be free after school?"
"I will-"
"You're probably gonna lie so I'll call you later."
This persistent fox.
As the school ended, I came in contact with Dan once more, it was for a short while about his experience for the rest of the day.
After that report I finally returned from school.
Now all my choices left here were using traps to lure the stalkers in or use the clues to track them.
To slowly corner them by their own flaws held the risk of being caught off-guard while aggressively striking them down during their movements was not just inefficient, it was simply impossible to do with just the two of us.
There was also a lingering excitement with a hint of fear in my mind, this was completely different from the life I was living. This thought made the corners of my lips curve upward.
In the middle of this ecstasy, a very interesting idea appeared in my mind. It was interesting but the chances of it failing were huge but not absolute.
I recalled the place where Dan told me his story, and a very obvious answer came to my mind. Now for my plan I needed a safety net.
I picked up my phone and started calling Irina.
Of course the more I asked her for something, the more indebted I became to her. I especially didn't want a scenario when I was forced to do something I didn't like because she owed me a lot.
["Hello!"] A sweet and also startled voice came from the other side.
That's probably not Irina… right?
"Hello, is Irina there?"
["Yes, but who are you?"]
A question came in return.
"Am I obligated to tell you?"
["You are! Irina moved houses a few days ago and was looking a little stressed too... And now a contact is saved on her phone with a name Irina would never set!"]
Her voice was low but I could feel her getting angry.
I'm now wondering what Irina saved my contact number as. Also why was she acting like that one small angry pet dog, I just wanted Irina to lend me a few numbers from her phone.
["You, are you her stalker?!"]
"Yeah I am, bye."
["Huh?! Wait-"] She was trying to stop me but I hung up the call before she said something else.
Talking to new people is meddlesome but add that in a phone call and it becomes a literal torture.
I was already busy dealing with one stalker incident don't add another to it.
…
Two weeks ago I had realised that I was a puppet to the ghost of a dead man. Slowly I felt growing paranoid about everything I did in my life, all of it felt like being part of an elaborate plan.
This felt like dancing involuntarily on his palm but then Dan showed up.
Dan bumped into me unintentionally, I scolded him when I was drunk. All of these acts were not inspired by someone like Irina or Pig Guy. A scenario formed by the free will of two people.
And thus I may have found my way to freedom.