The Gamer's POV-Chapter 226: Find Your Brother

Home of the Hollow Ones...

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Exactly one week had passed since Cedric brought four hundred and five fallen cadets back to life and retrieved those alive from the barren plainlands.

They were all now residing and uneasily coexisting in the home of the hollow ones.

Of course, it wasn’t easy at first to get the cadets to follow Cedric back to this place.

After he reached the plainlands a week ago, both Cedric and Leon first broke the news about the blue bridge to Princess Aurora and their party. The news was so devastating that the members of Cedric’s party descended into a state of absolute resignation, and even someone like Aurora had to clutch her knees and struggle to breathe.

It felt as if the entire universe was hellbent on completely wiping them all out. They began to frustratingly question why this ordeal was being forced upon them, unaware that this misfortune was actually because of Leon and Cedric.

And, of course, Cedric had no intention of telling them that.

It finally made sense to the team why Cedric had sought the help of the hollow ones. But what made absolutely no sense was how he actually managed to get such terrifying monsters, who were slaughtering them without mercy just days ago, to work with him.

When they asked him, Cedric didn’t exactly reveal the whole truth. He did tell them that the hollow ones were not mindless monsters but were sentient beings who could be reasoned with. Using the ability of his eye, he managed to discover that they had a deep enmity with the lords of the first ring, and by offering something they had been seeking for ages, he was able to get them to strike a deal with him. So rather than being hunted by these metallic terrors, they were instead now going to help them raid the King’s Paradise.

Cedric’s party trusted him, of course, and didn’t press more, but Alicia had to help him convince Aurora that the hollow ones were no longer a threat and that many cadets whom Cedric had raised to life were already residing with them in their city.

Once Aurora was convinced, she then persuaded the five hundred and eighty cadets in the plainlands to follow them back to the city and that everything would be explained to all of them properly upon getting to the city.

It took a bit of cajoling and a great deal of reassurance, but eventually, the cadets all tentatively agreed to follow Aurora.

...Upon returning to the ruined city, the cadets met up with the others who had been raised from the dead. It was harrowing and surreal to see those who had died standing before them as if the slaughter had been nothing more than a fever dream.

This made the cadets revere and fear Cedric even more. Someone capable of not only doing something as unprecedented as raising the dead to life, but also capable of getting monsters as powerful as the hollow ones to be less hostile toward them, was beyond their comprehension.

That aside, since they were now all gathered with many dying to know what exactly was happening, Leon and Aurora finally broke the harrowing news to everyone. When they heard the news, a wave of palpable terror, despair and hopelessness swept through the crowd.

Seeing the light fade from their eyes, Aurora and Leon took it upon themselves to be a pillar and provide a sense of direction to the hopeless cadets. They tried to speak words of comfort and courage to help them process the news.

Also, the hollow ones declared their intent to train and prepare the cadets for their raid of the King’s Paradise. Of course, this was strange and frightening, but it gave the group hope.

At the end, a bit of light returned to the cadets, as they realized they still had a chance to fight back.

Maybe, just maybe, they could make it home.

Later that evening after everything had been settled, and a new direction had been established, the hollow ones showed the cadets a part of the city on the outer wards where they could all reside. In contrast, because of Cedric’s standing, those in his immediate party, including Aurora and a few from her own circle, were taken to the grander section. There, they were given secluded chambers in the castle that loomed over the city below.

...As for Cedric, right from the moment the cadets had all returned to the sunken city, he had left them and had gone to his chambers to rest. Apparently, after bringing that many souls back to life, it felt like every ounce of his energy had been drained from his body, so much so that even standing felt like an impossible task.

Once in his chamber, he collapsed onto his bed and fell into a deep, death-like slumber. Cedric didn’t wake up until even after the one week had passed.

***

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..

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The empty, dim-lighted hallway was quiet tonight except for the soft sound of footsteps and the distant sound of several hollow ones who were talking in their foreign language somewhere in their chambers.

The person walking through this empty hallway was Leon, who was dressed in a loose shirt and trousers that hung off his frame. He looked like a man who had no time for appearances, wearing his clothes in a rugged way with his shirt untucked and his sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

His expression was lackluster and did not have its usual jovial spark, and his eyes showed that he was lost deep in his thoughts. He was also repeatedly murmuring something to himself in a really low voice over and over again like someone who was trying to memorize a difficult lesson. In his hands, an elegant white cat rested comfortably, and he kept absentmindedly stroking its fur as he walked.

There were several doors leading to several chambers to his left and right. When he reached a certain point in the hallway, he halted and stopped murmuring. Then he slowly turned to look at the door to his left.

This door led to Cedric’s room, and from what he had heard, Cedric was still unconscious at the moment. A slight frown creased his brows as he grew deeper in thought, then he turned and continued walking on, continuing his murmurings.

Eventually, he got to the stone archway that opened onto the wide battlement of the castle. The cool night air hit his face as he stepped out onto the high walkway, which stretched along the outer walls and overlooked the city below.

As he walked along the stone path, he couldn’t hear the sound of metal hitting like blacksmiths working, nor could he see or hear that someone who was also walking on this battlement was standing only a few meters away. Due to how engrossed in his thoughts he was, he remained completely unaware of his surroundings.

Then after a few seconds, a hand reached out and gently tapped his shoulder. This caused him to quickly snap into the defensive and he cast a deathly stare at the person who had startled him.

The boy who had touched him stumbled back a step and raised his hands in the air, his face turning pale.

"I am sorry," the boy stammered. "I didn’t mean to startle you. It’s just that I saw you muttering to yourself with such a dark look on your face, so I kept calling your name as you walked past. You didn’t seem to hear me at all, and I just wanted to check if you were okay."

Leon exhaled and closed his eyes. Then, when he opened them again, a bright smile returned to his face and his posture relaxed completely.

"Forgive me, Roben," Leon said with a light chuckle. "I was miles away. Goodness... I didn’t even see you there, heh heh. But I promise I am perfectly fine. I guess... I just need some air."

"Oh." Roben bobbed his head back a bit. "I suppose that makes sense. I guess even someone like you could be on edge with everything going on lately. Heh heh."

Leon forced another light laugh and nodded his head sheepishly a few times, then spoke with a playful shrug. "We all have our moments, don’t we?"

Roben nodded in a slow, understanding motion.

It was quiet for a moment, until the silence began to grow awkward.

"Anyway, glad to see you are okay. I’ll leave you to it then." Roben offered a bright smile and a quick wave, then he turned to head back toward the warmer parts of the castle.

As Leon watched him leave, his smile began to slowly fade until the dark look returned to his face.

He sighed and looked lost in his head again. Then, he turned around and continued walking slowly. After a few seconds, he resumed murmuring the same thing he had been saying to himself over and over again.

"Find your brother. Find your brother. Find your brother."

A few more steps, and then he suddenly halted. A brief moment passed, and then he raised his hand into a fist and began to hit his temple.

"What is this? Why... why can’t I just grasp it already? Why is there a huge void in my memory? Why is there a huge part of me missing? Why can’t I remember it? Why don’t I know? Aren’t I supposed to know what I want to know? Isn’t that my power? Why can’t I even know about myself then?!"

His voice grew frustrated and he began to hit the side of his head even more violently, like someone trying to fix a broken machine that refused to start.