Chapter 22: 3 Years (5)

Perseus POV

For the past couple of days, I've just been getting back into somewhat of a decent shape, this old man... fed me actual food with no ulterior motive around it. it's weird, a slave like me should be given slightly less food so that I'll have no energy to fight back, but he seems to not follow that custom.

We were by no means close, we barely talked after that day, when he told me how his fiancee had seen his brother behind his back and left with him when the old man went to serve his nation.

In a way, I was sort of scared of being close to anyone, and my relationship with this guy was probably the hardest for me to deal with since he's technically my master, I even got a slave crest that can be activated at any time, which can force me into doing anything, though my healing powers can apparently cure me from it, though it's more like super slow laser surgery.

I can't risk this being the end of me, based on A-san's calculation, it should take about 20 hours worth of healing time with the eye of Horus. Even if this old man doesn't plan to use it, I can't risk knowing that any proper official from that empire can.

Not that it helped since the closest people to me back at the whale team weren't even that close to me, it was more one-sided, I knew nothing about Zenis and Harold, and yet they've given up their lives for me and the others without a thought. 

*****

As I accompanied the old man on his rounds, delivering ales to the pubs and taverns scattered throughout the town, I couldn't help but notice the faces of the townsfolk. Each one seemed to carry the weight of their existence like a heavy burden, their eyes devoid of hope, their movements mechanical and listless.

It was as if they were simply going through the motions of life, their spirits crushed beneath the weight of their own despair. There was no joy in their laughter, no light in their eyes, just a hollow emptiness that seemed to permeate every corner of the town.

I couldn't help but wonder what had brought them to this point, I do get strange looks every now and then, but I didn't mind it as I'm used to it by now.

In a world that had long since abandoned them, they were left to wander aimlessly, adrift in a sea of indifference and neglect. As I bore witness to their silent suffering, I couldn't help but wonder if I, too, would soon succumb to the same fate, lost and forgotten in a world that had no use for the likes of us.

*****

"Hey Reese, hey assistant." a pub owner greeted us, "Just leave em in the storage and we're good to go."

After setting it down, the pub owner gave us free lunch over the payment, it was just some mushroom cream soup with some toasted cheesy bread. 

'By the way, kid." the pub owner called

"Yeah."

"I don't know if you heard, but the prince seems to be advocating for you and the other surviving kid to be allowed to have the rights to education, specifically, he wants you 2 to be able to enroll in the magic academies after your 3 years is over."

That's a bit stereotypical of his character, a nice and empathetic guy, not just that, even the whole plot, it's almost like I'm in some fictional story. Magic academies and the like.

But this seems to be good news, with me being able to enroll in the same school as him should mean that I can assist him better since I'm going to be really close to him. Though the treatment should be worse since I'll probably be surrounded by noble children.

*****

"May I ask how you got here?"

"Curious one, aren't cha?" the pub owner chuckled, "Well, what do you want to know?"

The pub owner was a guy named Faust, looks to be in his early 70s, about 165 cm tall, with a bald head and blue eyes.

"Best I can about this town. Everything seems...lifeless."

"Lifeless...are you talking metaphorically or literally?" he asked, "Because we have a lot of suicides and murders."

"Metaphorically."

"Fair enough." he said while scratching his chin, "This town is just...not a happy place, it's not a place for a vacation nor any other purpose than wanting to be left alone, everyone here is the most understanding of your situation, whatever they may be...

"Though I'm sure Reese told you about what streets or parts of town you shouldn't visit or even try to approach, since they either really love little boys like you, or they just want something to use their sadistic pleasure on.

"For me...well, there's a reason why me and Reese understand each other somewhat, wanna guess what that is?"

"You were both cheated on by your spouses?"

"Correct." he nodded with a weak smile, "I had a happily married life with 2...children, one 16-year-old son, and a daughter who was about recently born, along with a woman who I've been with for 25 years at the time.

"Through a private health check-up, the healer asked me a curious question...with magic, he found out that I was infertile...and it seemed that I was for a very long time...so he brought it up when I talked about who my daughter will take after, and asking if I knew..."

"Oh..."

"Yup." he nodded, "I confronted my wife over this and she confessed about how she was so sad seeing me being down after our attempts at having kids, so she sought one of my friend's help with that, and said about how it was only physical.

"I obviously am not pleased now or not pleased then, it's even worse when my son intervened and I realized that son knew after all this time and defended his mother...he chose to keep it from me.

"Most of his friends and my wife's friends defended her, saying how it was no different than adoption, and I should accept it...I couldn't, if it was actual adoption, I would have, but it wasn't, she cheated on me, so I divorced her...though the judge ordered me to pay for child support."

"What about the actual father?"

"Doesn't matter." he shrugged, "My name was on both their birth certificates, and I've shown acts of fatherhood and guardianship over the past years, so I had to...and I took the cowardly way out...I ran away."