The Boy, The Girl, The Cannon

"Bored..."

Syllian adjusted himself back up on the chair, that was the fiftieth time he had almost slipped off it.

Grumble-

Rubbing his stomach, Syllian salivated at the thought of eating that meal again, then felt a sickening feeling sink to the bottom of his stomach as he remembered the corpse.

'What's going on out there?'

He couldn't hear anything with how soundproofed this room was, maybe someone else had died by now while he was here sitting like a sack of grumpy potatoes.

"I'm hungry."

Thud!

The door flew open, and behind it was a girl with dark hair and eyes standing with a tray of food.

"It's the idiot."

"It's the ugly girl."

All the emotions that flew through his mind when he saw the door swing open retreated back into his world of fantasy and dreams.

Tactlessly walking in, she shut the door and dropped the tray on the floor...

"Don't!"

...And kicked it over, spilling half the content of one of the plates into the tray itself.

Fortunately for Syllian, the food was still safe.

"Phew..." Leaning down to pick it up, the smile that wanted to appear on his face was cut off by a soft sensation on his head.

"..."

"What?"

Controlling every urge to rip the girl's head off, he pointed at the thing that was on his head and stated with a tone that contained every intent to beat the girl in it:

"Get your foot off my head."

A look of shock appeared on her face as she covered her mouth, "Oh my! How did that happen!"

Then, the dastardly child rubbed her dirty shoes on his head a few excruciatingly exaggerated times.

'Blacklist!'

He was truly pissed off, not just blacklist, he had to deathlist the ugly idiot!

But, something at the back of his mind suddenly pulsated.

Some odd sensation that he couldn't exactly put his finger on rippled through his brain.

Perhaps warning him?

It told him:

[Don't]

"Thank you, Miss Captain's daughter." His quivering hands picked up the tray, letting out an ugly smile as he thanked the bitch.

"I have a name, Helen, but please, never call me by my name. And also, get that ugly smile off your face." The sassy little girl walked to her father's chair and sat down as though it was her throne.

"A-alright." Resisting the urge to jump over the desk and punch the girl, he focused his mind on the food instead.

Forgetting all other issues, he stuffed his face with the food; drool dripped down his face.

"So ugly."

'Let her say what she wants.'

He had food, nothing else mattered right now.

---

Towards the end of his meal, Syllian wandered through his mind, aiming to pinpoint the uncomfortable feeling he felt a few minutes ago.

'An item like the Twin Sister Revolver's or Creeping Horror?'

Sifting through all the possibilities, that was the only thing he could land on.

'Probably, he wouldn't leave his daughter here undefended with someone who was a prior suspect.'

"You're staring into space again, wipe that dumb look off your face already, idiot."

Throwing a middle finger in her direction, Syllian finished off the last few bites.

Looking at the finger, the girl looked down at her fingers.

"What does this mean?"

"What does what mean?"

"This."

Turning his head to her, he was greeted by twin middle fingers.

'This little...'

"Don't think I'm dumb, this is clearly something bad, so eat two of them, idiot."

Syllian cursed his action, why did he have to teach her another way to assault him?

'Damn it all, how am I losing to a little girl?!'

'Am I actually turning into an idiot?'

-----

Clyde was tasked with maintenance duty today.

Situated in the deepest section of the deck, he walked around the darkest part of The Adler where the cannons were situated.

According to the head of the Gunnery, they wouldn't need to use these cannons for a while, so it wasn't worth it to throw many people at the job when they could be used elsewhere.

But Clyde wasn't convinced.

He sensed something fishy.

Everyone else seemed reluctant to come down here today, and he didn't know why.

"I'll gut those weasels one of these days."

Picking up a bucket of water with a sponge inside it, he walked up to the first cannon on the starboard side and began cleaning the barrel of filth and dirt.

Then, up next, was using a rod with a cork-screw-shaped end to scrape out the solidified residue that may remain.

The job was quite intensive, cleaning one cannon would be a cinch, but looking at the rest of the cannons that remained...

'I have a long day ahead of me, ey-!'

Positivity is longevity!

Humming to himself, Clyde spent around a good hour before he reached the end of the line of cannons on the starboard side.

"Almost halfway finished!"

Stretching his limbs, the euphoria that came with popping his joints was almost orgasmic.

Cylde then squeezed off the excess liquid from the sponge in the bucket and climbed up slightly to reach the interior of a raised cannon.

'Which dumbass left it in this position?'

The other cannons were positioned horizontally, but this one was still vertical.

'What if we suddenly got attacked, what, are we going to spend a minute just lowering the damn thing?'

Kissing his teeth, he lowered the sponge into the barrel.

Squelch.

'Odd?'

He rubbed the sponge a few more times, and...

'Is there a cannonball in there?'

Getting off the cannon, he dropped the sponge back into the bucket and walked toward the stairs where the only candle sat.

Picking the thing up with his dry hand, he turned around and returned to the cannon.

He had to double-check what was actually in there.

'I swear if those bastards...'

Climbing up, he gently lowered raised the candle and lit the interior of the barrel.

Clatter!

His body smashed down onto the floor, spilling the contents of the bucket.

The liquid leaking from the bucket flickered under the dim candlelight.

It was red.

Blood red.

"H-h-h-HEAD!"

-----

Back at the Captain's cabin.

"Why are you here too?"

"Why do you think, idiot."

Once again, Syllian couldn't retort.

That was a dumb question, but boredom demanded him to ask questions, even if they were dumb.

This was a habit born from a year of living alone.

Not the part of asking other people questions, but asking himself questions.

Boredom was one of his worst enemies, still not worse than the darkness of his shabby shack.

Memories always flooded out the gates guarding his mind in that rotten shit hole.

"That's what I thought, idiot."

"Idiot this, idiot that, is that the only word in your vocabulary, ugly?"

"And is ugly the only word in your vocabulary, idiot?"

Sylliand and Helen scoffed at the same time, turning their heads away from each other.

BANG!

The door abruptly crashed open; the hinges of the thing barely hung on for dear life.

He was back, the Quartermaster too.

Their faces were dark though, angry, stifled, and confused.

'It happened again.'

It didn't require a genius to know what happened.

The second victim appeared within hours of the first one, and they still had no answers.

"You can leave."

Syllian shot up from his seat, bowed toward them, and rushed out as fast as humanly possible.

Information was useful, sure, but they definitely didn't want him around.

If he forced it, then it would be very, very bad.

He glanced at Helen right before leaving and saw that she was still sitting on the Captain's chair.

'Understandable.'

---

Syllian paced through the corridors as quick as lightning, roaming alone with an injury while a murderer was roaming around was dangerous.

A few corners, and a set of stairs later, he found everyone from the food hall leaving the place with strained eyes.

Planting himself on the wall, he waited for the majority to pass by and ran up to Allen and the other boy who were leaving at the end.

"Hey, what happened, why are you only leaving now?" Syllian had his suspicions, but it was better to ask.

The boy gave him a weary glance and beckoned Allen to answer.

"They kept us in just in case one of us was the murderer, but now that they found another fresh body stuffed in a cannon..."

"Oh."

His suspicions were confirmed, and stuffed into a cannon?

'How grim.'

'I thought that guy said the hardest it could get was surviving a night in the streets of the city, how is this even fair?'

"What about you, what happened?" Allen still gave him a warm gaze, but even his eyes had a tinge of apprehension inside them.

"The Captain and Quartermaster used some item to interrogate me, I'm all clean."

Allen was finally relieved, the apprehension gone from his eyes.

The other guy though-

"How do we know you're not lying?"

Syllian frowned, pointed towards the general direction of the Captain's Cabin, then said:

"Go ask him then."

Allen also spoke up, "Lanner, I told you, Finch wouldn't do something like that."

Lanner shook his head dejectedly but didn't leave, he was clearly too afraid to venture in the unknown all alone.

It wasn't just them, everyone else walked around in groups of two or three, making sure to remain by each other's side.

Less than 3 hours had passed since the first murder, and tensions were already this high.

'This will get bad real quick.'

Syllian had to worry for himself too, he wasn't an almighty warrior.

In fact, this Trial was meant for him.

He was the one in the most danger.

"Lanner, Finch, let's get the work done together, don't leave each other's sides unless absolutely necessary."

Walking up the stairs, they walked through the corridor leading to the main entrance to the upper deck.

"I agree."

"Me too." Even Lanner wholeheartedly agreed.

He feared Syllian, but he feared the unknown a dozen times more.

After agreeing, Syllian looked to his right and noticed the door to the hospital room was slightly ajar.

The surgeon with the monocle could be seen there holding a syringe in his right hand and aiming for a vein on the bandaged man's left arm.

He had moved a few of the bandages to create some space.

Syllian looked into the surgeon's eyes.

And noticed it.

The madness.

"What's wrong Finch?"

"Nothin' much." Turning away, Syllian continued up with his newfound friends.

Friends, what a new word.

A strangely refreshing word.

It felt nice on his tongue.

Passing through the door that the group in front of them had opened, they were greeted by the usual storm.

"Finally, some fresh air."

"Yeah man, the food hall stunk of rotten fish."

"Really? It smelt good!"

Allen and Lanner gave him a disgusted look.

Syllian smirked inwardly, then grimly thought in his mind.

'Friends.'

'How nice.'