Children of God (4)
"If you need help, come find me again."
With Isaac’s warm farewell ringing in their ears, the children left the guild. Yet none of their faces looked bright. The single law they had believed in their entire lives had just been shattered beyond repair.
All adults are the enemy. That was the rule Diego had declared. Children abandoned by their parents the moment they drew their first breath had every right to believe it. But today, for the first time, they had felt real warmth.
In truth, Diego and the others had stormed the guild fully expecting to die. They weren’t fools. They knew a pack of children had no chance against a hero. Of course, the final spark had been Diego snapping when he saw them burning the clothes Sasha wore. Still, attacking a guild usually ended in death.
“……Can we really trust that man?” one of the children asked cautiously.
Heres, the brown-haired boy covered in freckles, was timid but quick-witted. His insight was exceptional, and to him Isaac’s words had felt like genuine sincerity rather than a mask. That only made the situation more bewildering. Every adult in this world was supposed to be their enemy. Something like this should have been impossible.
Go back to the gods already.
Get lost. You’re bad luck.
Tsk, I saw something I shouldn’t have.
Not a single adult had ever looked at the Children of God with kindness. Of course they hadn’t. Who would ever look favorably on their own shame?
“Don’t trust adults!” Diego suddenly roared. “In the end they’re all the same rotten bastards!”
“But… he really looked like he meant it……”
“Please. Have you already forgotten every humiliation we’ve suffered until now?”
“……”
Heres couldn’t find a single word to answer. The children had been driven out without mercy. Direct murder was strictly forbidden, of course. Which meant everything short of killing was permitted. Kidnapping a girl like Sasha and forcing her into prostitution was fine. Grabbing them by the collar and beating them when drunk and irritated was fine. After all, it wasn’t murder.
Countless children had suffered under that vague rule and eventually lost their lives. Yet no adult ever took responsibility. Because no one had directly killed them.
“Dozens of kids have already died after being treated like toys. Across all of Gideon the number is probably far higher.”
“……”
“And you want us to believe him just because of a few nice words? What if we get betrayed? What then?”
No one could refute Diego when he laid out the cruel truth. After everything they had seen and endured, trusting someone over a handful of sentences was impossible. That was why Diego, the one who led the children, had no choice but to stay suspicious and guarded.
Of course, some things were beyond even his control. Like right now.
Diego blinked. What the hell just happened? He had been comforting his friends and heading home, but the moment he opened his eyes again, everyone—including himself—was pinned to the ground, completely overpowered.
“I came to collect my lost merchandise. You’ve been doing something rather adorable, haven’t you?”
“You…!!”
A woman dressed in gaudy ornaments stood before them, smiling. Diego recognized her instantly. He could never forget. She was the bitch who had kidnapped his friend Sasha.
“Sasha, you troublesome little thing. Did you actually think you could slip out of my hands?”
“Mmph!!”
What Madam held up was a copper ring. The moment she touched it with her index finger, still smiling, Sasha—who lay farthest back—screamed in agony.
“What the hell did you do to Sasha?!” Diego shouted.
“What else? I put a collar on her so she couldn’t run away.”
“A collar?!”
“Indeed. Surprisingly, quite a few children try to escape.”
It was only natural. How many women would willingly walk into a brothel? So the establishment took direct measures to keep their merchandise from fleeing. Like the pattern now engraved on Sasha. A tracking spell that revealed her location anywhere within range.
Madam smiled and stroked the subdued Sasha’s hair.
“Of course, I also engraved it to give her a vulgar tattoo that matches customer tastes. But in moments like this, it proves its worth perfectly.”
“You piece-of-shit woman…!!”
“Watch that filthy mouth, trash.”
“Ghk?!”
Madam drove her foot straight into Diego’s jaw while he was pinned by her men. The blow left him unable to speak. She smiled again and ground her heel into his head.
“We provide heroes with drink and women so they can shake off their fatigue and face a brighter tomorrow.”
“Ugh……”
“Compared to that, what possible use are you? You’re nothing but worthless garbage.”
“…You people……”
Being treated like trash was familiar. This kind of contempt should have meant nothing. Yet perhaps because he had tasted real warmth for the first time, Diego—who had held everything in all day—finally forced the words out.
“You’re the ones who threw us away on a whim… so what the hell do you want from us now…!!”
They had learned nothing. They had never been loved. They had simply gritted their teeth, endured endless scorn and humiliation, and fought to survive. What more could these people possibly demand from them?
“Are you asking because you truly don’t know?” Madam sneered down at Diego. “Just die already.”
In a place where no one will ever know. Bite your tongue and disappear.
Diego couldn’t speak. Watching him lie there motionless, Madam lost interest and turned away. The game was over. It was time to get back to work.
“Retrieve only Sasha. Throw the rest away.”
“You don’t want us to dispose of them properly?”
“The Hades Guild forbids murder, remember? The cleanup is annoying, and we’d get caught eventually anyway.”
No matter how thoroughly you covered your tracks, the Hades Guild always found those who broke their laws. The same applied to Tears of the Moonlight, which was backed by both Nox and the Hades Guild.
“Still, to avoid unnecessary trouble, breaking at least one bone should be enough.”
If they severed an arm or leg and the child died, the Hades Guild would intervene directly. But a single broken limb wouldn’t trigger their attention. Madam didn’t know why the standard existed, but if that was the rule, she had to follow it. After all, the Hades Guild was the unchallenged ruler of Gideon right now.
Savoring the children’s pained screams, Madam dragged Sasha back toward Tears of the Moonlight. Yet Diego, who had refused to scream until the very end, staggered to his feet.
“Wait, Diego.”
“Out of my way, Heres.”
“What can you even do in that condition?!”
“It’s obvious. I’m getting Sasha back.”
Both of Diego’s arms were broken. Even so, he forced himself forward, swallowing the pain. Rage and hatred burned in his eyes.
“You can’t save her like this! We have to ask for help!”
“Help? Who the hell would help us?”
“……The Iron Shield… if it’s them……”
“Shut the hell up.”
Diego brushed off Heres’s relatively rational plea without a second thought. He shoved the other boy aside and kept walking.
It had been stupid of me to think, even for a second, that we could trust them. Adults can never be trusted.
Heres racked his brain desperately. He wanted to chase after Diego, but doing so would only doom everyone. Still, what else could he do? If this had been the original story, Heres would have followed Diego straight into Tears of the Moonlight. He would have realized there was nowhere left to turn for help. The children had no chance of victory, and everyone except Diego would die. From that point on, Diego would live only for revenge. The story in volume three of the original work began with Diego’s assault on Gideon. The protagonist Zeek would try to persuade him, but Diego—now consumed by hatred for the city—would fall and become a demonic beast. In the end, the protagonist would have to kill him.
But this time was different. There was one tiny possibility.
It’s an insane long shot. But… but…!!
The clever Heres already knew the truth. He knew that both the Hades Guild and the king of the night, Nox, stood behind Tears of the Moonlight. It wasn’t simply because he was intelligent; the knowledge was tied to his own past. In any case, very few guilds could openly challenge an establishment protected by those two powers. Especially not one as small as the Iron Shield.
Still, if even the slightest chance existed, Heres had no choice but to bet everything on it. Forcing down the pain radiating from his broken arm, he somehow reached the guild.
“Wait, aren’t you…?”
“Please help! My friend! My friend was taken by Tears of the Moonlight!!”
“Hey! You can’t just barge in here!”
Dig tried to stop him, but Heres shook the man off with all his strength and charged inside, shouting. At the sound of a child’s desperate cry that no one in the guild had ever truly faced before—
“Understood.”
Isaac answered without hesitation.