William ②

The morning Granny died, a prison guard was the first one to find her. A doctor called to check on her body. After all, if she died of a virus or anything infectious, her body was to be burned.

Fortunately, there was nothing of sorts, Granny died peacefully of old age. As if to reward that, the prison gave her a place in the burial site inside the complex.

Most prisoners were close to her. That's why that morning, most took their time to watch the burial process. Some of those even cried, overwhelmed by the sadness of the passing of their benefactor. But of those, none cried harder than William.

Vincent was imprisoned for around six years after William and Uncle joined the prison guards a bit later. So for the earliest part of her life, Granny was the only one who supported her.

For the rest of that day, Wiliam lost all strength inside her body. Even when someone as influential as Granny died, there was no break for the prisoner. All was to labor as if nothing had happened.

But that was too hard for William who just experienced her first loss. No matter what the guards said, no matter if they were going to physically punish her, no matter if even Vincent and Uncle tried to cheer her up, there was no flame in her magic.

Seeing the situation, the guards assign another person to be William's and Vincent's caretaker. The caretaker was a lady who used to help Granny take care of them. So, the Lady. the way William called her, was not a new face to them.

But, in the end, it took around two weeks until William could be normal again. She started working and playing again, the difference was that now she was more attached to the Lady. Even more so compared to how she was with Granny.

---

That day was the same as many others. William who has finished her labor, was going to meet Vincent for another session of playing with the god's corpse.

Lately, her control over the corpse has become better. She was even able to move specific parts like the fingers and even toes. Although most of the time it only moves in response to William's impulse. But when she's focused, the corpse is practically a giant doll for her.

That was the plan, until one of the new prisoners called William and Vincent. He told them to gather inside the prisoners' area. Vincent thought it might be important, and asked William to follow them.

Inside the common area for the prisoners, most were already gathered. Vincent didn't know how, but he saw no guards around. In this situation, the prisoners are free to do anything.

The gathered prisoners were all waiting for whatever the new guys wanted to say. In the middle of the room, a table was placed. A young man in his late twenties, the 'leader' of the new guys, stood at the table.

"People chained by this damned prison! can I have your attention?" the young man's voice silenced the room.

"My name is Albert Smith. Many of you should know me as one of the new prisoners who just arrived. But outside of this wall, I'm known for being one of the leaders of the Magic Revolutionary Movement." Alber proclaimed.

He started telling his story. Albert told the prisoners that outside the prison walls, some mages live freely. There were two ways for a mage to not be imprisoned.

One was to be born into an influential or rich family. By either bribing or pressuring the nobles or their officials, these mages could be free. Or better yet, born a noble yourself, and no amount of mana could get you caught.

The other way was to fight against the imprisonment law. That was the choice left for people who were born less fortunate. And that was also the way that Albert and his friends the Magic Revolutionary Movement had chosen.

Even though it seems like he and his friends were caught in the end, that wasn't the entire story. The movement gained sympathy from some prison officials. Using that connection, Albert infiltrates the prison with the sole reason, of breaking the prisoners out.

That was his story on why he got caught and how he could stage that meeting where no guards were present.

Finishing his story, Albert heard an explosion of chatter amongst the crowds. He smiled, feeling that his speech had caught the prisoners' attention. If the plan succeeded and the prisoners followed them, it would have more force for the movement.

And finally, Albert, the person who executed the plan would get a big promotion, giving him more power in the revolutionary movement.

That's right, Albert Smith was not a saint who risked himself to save people wrongly imprisoned. In reality, his goal was position and power for himself. Those would let him control the movement for himself.

Not to mention, his connection to the prison, the nobles' official was also lied to as well. They gave Albert their support, thinking it would help end the injustice. The prisoners were to be set free, not to be made revolutionists, that's what they wanted...

After some time passed, Albert spoke once more. "I will give you a week's time! in one week we will escape this prison! if you want to be free, join us!"

The crowd was silenced once again when he spoke. But after he finished his invitation, the crowds erupted even more. Most were debating each other, whether leaving is a good option or not. Some felt living inside the prison was too much, some were afraid that the escape attempt itself would necer succeed.

In the end, everyone has scattered opinions on the escape and still argues among themselves.

"SHUT UP! GO BACK TO YOUR CELLS!" the guard that just then arrived killed the commotion, urging the prisoners to disperse from the room.

---

The day after Albert's speech, William was playing with the god's corpse alone. Vincent, who finished earlier, told William to wait for him in their usual playing place. Wiliam didn't know where he went, but more importantly, he was late.

There were not a lot of things a little girl like William could play alone with the corpse. After running out of ideas to play, William spent the time waiting, running around the abandoned factory. Well, not running with her leg, she instead made the corpse do the run while she sat idly on it. If she could go outside, it would've been more fun. But it was too dangerous, Vincent warned her.

Speaking of the corpse, William found a hole inside its chest armor. The hole leads to an empty area the size of a small room. Looking at the corpse from the outside, that kind of space shouldn't exist. But the fact was, there was a room inside the corpse's chest. One room big enough for William, who was bored, to lay around waiting for Vincent.

"Will! I'm here!" Vincent shouted as soon as he arrived.

"VIN!" hearing Vincent's voice snapped William from her boredom.

Answering Vincent's calls wasn't William, but instead the god's corpse. It turned around to find Vincent at the building's entrance. After its head found him, the corpse dashed to where Vincent was.

If it was anybody else, seeing a giant skeleton rush them would be their worst nightmare come to life. But to Vincent, that view was not scary at all. He even felt joy seeing his little sister welcome him all energetically like that.

"Where were you? I waited so long!" exiting the corpse's chest, William who was lowered by its hand asked Vincent.

"I'm sorry! I was talking to Albert." Vincent helped William by holding her hand as she stepped down from the corpse's hands.

"Albert?"

"The man that stood on the table yesterday. He said he'll escape the prison and take some people with him."

"Escape? Do you mean they're going to leave?"

"Yes, but... they're not going to take us. We're too young he says." Vincent answered with disappointment.

What Albert said was right. William was around ten at that time. And her older brother, Vincent was only fourteen. Getting kids their age to fight alongside the revolutionary movement was not the best move.

But on the other hand, leaving those children to labor day in and day out was also a bad thing to do. If Albert was someone who he claimed himself to be, he could just take the two out of prison and give them back to their parents. Even if they didn't have any parents, simply leaving them in an orphanage or something should be done.

But alas, Albert's intention was not to save, but to recruit.

"Do you want to leave Vin?" feeling VIncent's disappointment, William asked with lonely stares.

"Yes. But if I leave, you will be coming with me!" understanding how prone William was to loneliness, Vincent answered, assuring William.

Hearing that, William's sadness went away. In its stead, her energy to play around with Vincent grew.

"You know, if that Albert man doesn't want us. We can just create our own escape! me and corpse here can help you Vin!" in the middle of playing, William expressed her idea.

"That's it! we can escape by ourselves!" After a bit of thinking, Vincent welcomed William's idea.

Vincent then started to create plans on how they should do it. With William and the corpse, escaping the wall itself would be trivial. There are so many ways they can escape, that choosing them was harder.

Vincent also told William that when they escaped, they would head west. Not far from the prison, there was a little town on the west. Vincent's parents moved there when he was captured.

With the help from Vincet's parents, they would be able to search for William's parts too.

Finally, after finding them, Vincent's and William's family could go further west to United Frontiers. There, unlike the Arcadian kingdom, people with magic could live with freedom. With that, they would not need to keep running and live happily.

The two kept talking, discussing how they wanted their future would be until the sun almost set. Both of them ended up exhausted, especially the younger William.

In the end, the tired William fell asleep then and there. Vincent, ever the kind brother, picked her up and brought her back. His mind was full of ideas of the escapes. Until the moment he closed his eyes, not any other thing occupied his mind.

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