CHAPTER ELEVEN

A Devil’s Bargain

You’re wondering if I had just gone over to the dark side, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. I wasn’t on my way to becoming an edge-lord. No. This was clear enough in the time I spent in isolation immediately after this second incident which the adults would later call the Bloody Forest Event.

See, I wasn’t just feeling remorseful, I was downright terrified of my actions. And as I reflected on what I’d done — the entire horrific scene flashbacking across my mindscape over and over again — I couldn’t help but shudder at how frightening it felt to lose control like that.

The sight of adults falling to the ground, their bodies peppered with bullet-sized holes marked in bloody splats, had caused my smile to quickly turn upside down.

I had also been worried for Number Three who’d been caught in the crossfire, but seeing Captain Wolf covering her with his own body to protect Number Three from the worst of it brought little comfort to me. Because even my master had been hurt by my enchantment.

He must have rushed into my attack’s AOE to get to her…

Captain Wolf surrounded their bodies with a bubble of water, which was smart as that would have diluted the blood’s solidity and weaken its forward momentum. But his back still bled from the few blood bullets that managed to break through his defense.

As for Number Three, she’d been mostly unharmed, but her wide-eyed stare at her surroundings seemed anything but calm. It probably didn’t help that the screams had reached a crescendo so that covering one’s ears wouldn’t have blocked out the sound at all.

Fuck, I’ve frightened her again…

I wasn’t privy to how many people had been hurt by my ‘Blood Bath’ but I knew I’d broken Lieutenant Sauer enough that Major Heinrich would need another replacement for his adjutant. As for the major, believe it or not, this villain had been mostly unharmed by my attack. He’d just stood there in the middle of all the chaos with an expression that was part-fear and part-awe.

However, once Major Heinrich’s senses returned to him, he’d ordered the guards who hadn’t been too injured to arrest me.

I didn’t fight them off because I’d gone catatonic myself, and by the time my mind had rebooted, I discovered that I’d been locked in the isolation chamber that Number’s Five and Seven were frequent guests in.

It was no bigger than a closet with stone walls surrounding me from all sides and only a dirty waste bucket for furniture. The bit of moonlight leaking in from the gap between the trapdoor and ceiling ten feet above me was my only source of light. And the smell — God, the smell — it was like breathing in week-old tuna left to dry in the sun.

I didn’t mind it at first. Because I felt like I deserved to be punished. I’d hurt too many people this time. Although it didn’t seem like I killed anyone, which was one of the few blessings of the whole ordeal.

Number Three was alive, and that was the other blessing. From what I’d seen before they blindfolded me, Captain Wolf was already carrying her away in his arms and no one had stopped them from leaving. I could only hope they were safe from the major’s ire now that I’d been locked up.

So, there I was hours later, struggling with my conscience while my mind slowly gave way to panic and fear. The walls seemed to be closing in on me, and what little air I could gulp down was stale and hardly helping my growing anxiety. The darkness wasn’t helping either. I kept imagining evil things lurking in the corners waiting for me to shut my eyes so they could pounce on me. Not like I could sleep while my heart kept beating like a fucking drum solo at a rock concert.

Yes, I was claustrophobic in this second life, which was hilarious considering I preferred the solitude of my bedroom in my previous one. Well, I did have my laptop, my PS-Switch 6, and my TV keeping me company… Oh, man, that sounded really sad for a twenty-something guy who didn’t yet know my lifespan would be cut short.

Soon enough, I was scratching words at the walls, hoping that my scribbles would distract me from all the anxious thoughts racing around in my brain. And it would be a while before I noticed that I hadn’t been writing in Armes but in the alchemical symbols of sorcery.

Not that I understood what a circle inside a square inside a triangle inside a larger circle meant, although I could sense that this seemingly random array held some significance to me. I just wasn’t certain where I’d seen it before.

Hours later, and running out of scratching space on my wall, I shifted my focus to poetry — yeah, that’s how bored I was.

“Out of the night that covers me, black as the pit from pole to pole,” I recited, “I thank whatever gods may be, for my unconquerable soul…”

It was Invictus by Henley, a pretty accurate poem from my old world that reflected my current predicament, and remembering it almost perfectly helped calm me a little. It was as if the past me had come forward to wrap me in his arms and tell new me things were going to be okay.

Still, despite that comforting thought, anxiety would rally once more and take me over quickly.

It wasn’t just because I hurt the soldiers. That part I could get past, I imagine. What depressed me most was remembering Number Fifteen’s body on the ground. The way his lifeless eyes stared back at me, and the knowledge that I could have saved him if I had just figured out the trick to enchantments five minutes earlier.

“It’s… It’s my fault he’s dead,” I sighed. “It’ll be my fault if anything happens to Wolf and Number Three, too.”

Great, my first words in so many hours and they’re moody as fuck. Seven years old, and I already need therapy.

I wasn’t sure how long I sat there in the dark because it honestly felt like I’d been there for days. But the trapdoor eventually opened up. Sunshine filtered in through the opening, and I was forced to cover my eyes from its light so that I didn’t see who it was that came for me.

“Get up here now!”

A ladder was dropped for me to climb, and I did so with shaky hands. Yeah, my time in isolation hadn’t done my nerves any good, and I can’t believe how Number Five had kept coming back from here like the experience had been nothing to him.

As I reached topside, I was reintroduced to my new archnemesis, Major Heinrich.

“Have you reflected on your actions, Number One?” he asked in a surprisingly jovial tone.

Mistake… that’s what you want to call me almost murdering your gang of cronies?

The bastard was even smiling at me as if he hadn’t thrown me in a dark hole for God knows how long.

Speaking of his cronies, I glanced left and then right, and found no sign of them. He and I were alone.

He’s either very brave or very stupid. Either way, I could kill him and throw him into the hole before anyone noticed.

Dark thoughts aside, I couldn’t actually pull that off. Besides the fact that I wasn’t sure of his combat ability or if he even had any fighting experience — the dude always struck me as desk bureaucrat — I was also not a murderer.

“Come along, Number One.” Major Heinrich turned his back to me as if trying to prove that he wasn’t afraid of the seven-year-old blood mage. “General Hauser is waiting for us at the gymnasium.”

“H-he’s still here?” I asked in a hoarse, weary voice that was just proof of how dehydrated I was.

“He just arrived.” Major Heinrich must have noticed my condition too because he turned around and tossed me his canteen. “Hurry it up. The general is eager to witness your achievement first-hand.”

No wonder he’s happy, I thought while I gulped down all his water. He gets to show me off, and take the credit for it, too.

In a show of belligerence that was more Number Three’s style, I dropped the canteen on the ground and didn’t thank him for the drink.

“There’s no need for a tantrum, Number One… Or have you forgotten that I hold the life of your friend and your master in my hands?”

I wanted to punch that smug face of his.

“Your compliance will go a long way into ensuring no further sanctions will be given to either of them.”

That deflated my rage somewhat.

“They’ll be safe? No retaliation?”

“None.”

Okay, Major Heinrich was now definitely a darksider, but I knew him well enough that I could believe he would keep his word as long as I played ball. And despite their insubordination, Major Heinrich cared more for my cooperation than punishing Captain Wolf and Number Three. He probably also realized that they were integral to my continued growth, and he was right.

Yeah, I could tell from his smug look that I was mostly right, too. And now that I knew his success was tied to my own, it gave me some room to negotiate.

Thanks for showing me your hand, you great, big, jackass.

Major Heinrich was already walking toward the gymnasium before he noticed that I hadn’t moved from my spot next to the hole he’d thrown me into the day before.

He turned his head and aimed an icy glare my way. “I gave you an order, Number One.”

Time to make a deal with the devil.

“If I do what you want and make you look good with your bosses, I’m going to want something in return, sir.”

Demanding concessions was a risk, I knew, and it was more likely to backfire, but life was full of gambles and I have heard that fortune favored the bold.

Major Heinrich’s glare intensified, although he didn’t say anything, and I took his silence as an assent to continue negotiations.

“Besides forgiving Captain Wolf and Number Three, I also want you to promise to ease the way you treat my other crib mates.”

His deepening frown made me feel like I might have overplayed my hand, but there was no turning back. I had to win some concessions if I was to be his willing stooge.

“Your… crib mates, as you call them, are treated with the right amount of—”

“I know you can’t stop training them,” I cut him off, “but I want you to promise me that you’ll stop your soldiers from bullying or abusing them.”

This was the bare minimum I could ask for, but it was also a concession I knew he wouldn’t begrudge me. And at least the beatings would stop. That had to count for something, right?

Come on, man… say yes!

Seconds ticked by while Major Heinrich’s face morphed from furious to contemplative.

“If you continue to deliver results, then I don’t mind easing the restrictions placed on your compatriots nor tightening the leashes of my subordinates.” He smiled an almost devilish smile. “However, we will not stop training them to become the future heroes of the state, and any who fail at the challenge will be discarded like the garbage they are.”

Yes, one point to me, bastard.

“I also want access to the Researcher’s Room.”

There was an area of the institute that we kids weren’t allowed in except for the times I’d accompanied my master there. It was like a library full of research in all things’ sorcery, including, as I found out in my last visit, data on the breeding program.

Now, it wasn’t like I was looking for my birth parents or anything. But data on the breeding program would have also included the method of how they managed to increase the probability of how I and my crib mates came to possess the spark of magic — and that was a knowledge that might prove useful to my growth.

“Would you even understand the research kept there?”

I wanted to say, “What do you think, asshole?” but I didn’t say that. Instead, I said, “The research could help me master enchantment faster, sir.”

I know, I know. I was being manipulative, but it worked. Because Major Heinrich was all about my growth. So, he agreed pretty quickly.

“And more chocolate… I want more chocolate in our rations.”

Yeah, that was a pretty lame request, but he nodded in agreement anyway. Besides, chocolate to us kids was the healing potion to our tired hearts and minds.

Major Heinrich gazed at me with consideration alight in his gray eyes. “Some might find it discomforting to manage a child with your obvious intelligence… almost as if you knew far more than the years displayed on your face.”

Shit, that’s hitting way too close to the mark… I feigned a laugh. “Um, yes, sir. But not you. You’re better than them.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere with me, Number One.”

That was an obvious lie as I’d seen him enjoy the flattery of his peers before.

“I’m not—”

But he cut me off with a gesture. “Now, if you are done with your demands,” he turned his back to me, “let us not keep the general waiting.”

Major Heinrich glanced over his shoulder to give me an imperious look.

“And, Number One, if you want me to follow through on this new arrangement, then I expect you to be nothing less than perfect today.”

I nodded. “I can be perfect. Just as long as you keep your promise.”

And without another word, I followed the devil I knew to a place where the other devils congregated.