I and that mysterious man were the only ones outside in that area.

Hidden by the carts, I looked at him, taken aback.

“What do you mean, you’ve been expecting me?”

“Wait first, who are you?”

“Hmmm.. you have multiple questions and none of them unwarranted, but we don’t have time for that.”

“Uh? Wait, you came to fetch me?”

“Fetch—!” he threw his head back as if to avoid a punch, before clearing his throat with a cough.

“… Well, I suppose this is one way to put it.”

“Oh then, good. Let’s get in! You’ll fill me in on the details later.”

“Wa-what? Shouldn’t you be scared right now?”

“Stop blabbering.”

I approached the car and passed him. “We don’t have time for that.”

After saying that, I tried to open the door, but it was locked.

I looked at him, appalled by his lack of manners.

“Do you mind?” I said.

I wasn’t invincible to fear, it’s just I didn’t quite have the time for it right now. I had chosen this cart, and I needed to leave.

“Uh-ah yes.. give me a—“

“Wait a damned minute, aren’t you way too quick to adapt?”

“Sir, can we hurry, please? I am trying to leave this place. I don’t care who you are, just take me out of here.”

“Hah... well I’ll be damned...”

“So anticlimactic,” he muttered as he opened the door and stepped in.

“Hurry, brat”

“You got it!”

Not a second later, the man signaled the coacher, and there we went. We were alone in the cart, but this cart was connected to another one, that if I were to believe my eyes, was packed to the brim with odd characters.

We would stop to pick up his colleagues.

In the meantime, he spoke.

“Tch.. if I had known you’d react that way, I wouldn’t have bothered.”

“Do you even know who I am?” He asked, clearly annoyed.

“Should I know you?” I asked and, as I did, I thought.

“Wait..”

“Half-mask..”

I tensed.

‘That day... half-mask… the Galvrungs!’

I looked at the door, calculating whether I could still escape, and when I decided to risk it, his voice placated me to the ground.

“Don’t even try it. You’ll die.” He said, his voice cold and assured, not carrying a single hint of threat. As if he was just stating a fact.

“Uh?”

‘Now that I looked at him better, something felt off’

“I mean go at it. I guess this will make this more entertaining. Seeing your body splatter on the ground would be quite an interesting sight, after all.”

“W-what do you want from me?” I asked, now curious, ignoring what he had just said. Something was clearly off.

I’d wait this out and see at least until we stopped to pick up his partners.

“I’ve been working on something, and I need a fresh selection of lab rats, and it just so happens that you were selected.”

“Selected? For what?”

“Tch tch tch.. I am the one in charge here,” he said, his tone unconvincing.

“I’ll answer that question in due time.”

“What if I told you I could solve your problem?” He continued.

“My problem?” I gripped the leather of the seats hard enough to tear it.

‘Well, that makes sense. There’s no way anyone would try to steal the property of the Balmungs so brashly’

“So father arranged something with you guys?”

“Hahahaha sharp boy, yes, yes. Your father asked me for a favor.”

“Something about our two families being linked by fate,” he said, as if the words weren’t his.

“I already don’t like you,” I inadvertently spat.

“Water off my back. I don’t need you — you need me.”

“So you’re claiming there’s a way to fix my core?”

“Ehh— not quite.”

“Exactly, so stop the hogwash.”

“How old are you?”

“11 almost 12,”

My tone dry as a desert.

“Exactly.”

“Who are you?” he asked.

“Uh? What do you mean?”

“Who do you think you are?”

“Even by generous estimates, even if I postulated you were one of us… you’ve but skimmed the surface of the knowledge available. You’re a thousand years too young to talk that way to your elders, especially about things you don’t understand.”

“Then, who are you?”

“Rack that brain of yours and maybe you’ll find an answer, smartass. Now zip it.”

He coughed.

And then continued on his earlier tirade.

‘Wasn’t that weird just now..?’’

[…]

“I am working on developing the next generation of humans.”

“What?”

“Zip it.”

“Humans among the 3 races are the weakest.”

“The only reason we can rule in masters on this continent is that they let us.”

“The only reason we could expand as we did is because of the Ogre’s policy of non-aggression and the Dwarves’ general disinterest in conquest…”

He continued long and long about this and that, but I didn’t listen; the first part of his pitch, much more intriguing.

“It does—”

“What about the next generation of humans thing?” I asked, tired of waiting for him to come back to the plot.

He looked at me, his mouth agape, and then he closed it and crossed his arms, looking toward the window.

“These damned kids can’t even let their elders speak…” He sighed before stopping himself. "The project Azure... Its name is the project Azure”

I sat there, my curiosity piqued by the name. ‘The project? What now?’

“The goal is to compensate our inherent disadvantage by appending ourselves with artificial mana organs.”

‘As he said these words, my eyes lit up. Is it what I think it is?’

“No, it’s not that.”

“What?”

“No, it’s not what you think it is.”

“Brats like you always have the same wild fantasies..”

“As I was saying, appending artificial mana organs and vessels”

“How to explain that..?”

“The point is to give to fools like you bodies that are naturally comparable to those of our humanoid counterparts. Bones as strong as steel, skin as solid as leather, muscle as supple and vigorous as vulcanized rubber.”

“How will that work?” Still gripping the leather seats, this time less in anger but to prevent myself from jumping towards him.

“Think I’ll tell you that much? Kid, we don’t have that kind of relationship.”

“I know but…”

“Kid, as you stand, you will only rot here, as the son of a servant. Even your body double as now more potential than you, and nurtured by Nathanael he has good odds of becoming a strong element of the Balmungs, while your brother the most likely heir, has terrifying potential and will without a doubt at least reach the heights his father reached.”

“Don’t you feel some shame? You might think the world is unfair, or that your father is an evil man, but are you foolish enough to think that you have any chance in this world without genuine power to back you up? You lost your standing because you have no power to speak off. You are trash even among commoners. Do you really think you will ever be able to make them regret it on your own?”

‘What?’

‘Wait, make them regret it? How?’

‘What..? How does he know?’

“I don’t care what you want, and I don’t care about your pathetic life. I need a lab rat, and you need strength; accept to become my test subject and you shall get a power that will allow you to stick it up to them, reject my offer and I will kill you, your death would be convenient to use against the Zephyiria.”

“Wh—“

He continued.

“As you guessed, your father is already aware of this. If you reject this, your body double dies and the Zephyiria takes the fall for killing the heir of the Balmungs. Apparently, Nathanael had left some alive in the dungeons until now, just in case.”

I watched him, my eyes blank.

‘Power?’

‘Vengeance?’

‘Who are the Zephyirias?’

My choice now was obvious. He knew too much about me and I had to investigate that. I was planning to leave anyway — so really he was helping me — but the condescending way he had spoken to me had ticked me off.

Also, there was something else. Something clearly wrong.

I had a feeling he wouldn’t do anything, or at least not right now. If his mana reserves told me anything, it was that he was not much of a threat.

And while any mana was better than what I had, it told me he probably wasn’t the warrior type.

“Go ahead and kill me,” I said as I stared at him.

“Am I supposed to take this as a no?”

“Take this as whatever you want, but no way I am following such a cockalorum.”

The books on linguistic research I had read in parallel with my scriptural magic research had sharpened my tongue to a considerable extent.

“So go ahead.. kill me.”

“Well, aren’t you a feisty one,” he said, amused. “Cockalorum? That’s a new one.”

“But I think you’re misunderstanding something. You’ve been selected, but you’re not needed.”

“Well, goodbye now.” He said as he displayed killing intent.

Surprisingly enough, his killing intent was polished as if he had lived through a lot.

“I think you’re taking this too much as a game.”

As he said that, he opened the window.

And grabbed me, his twiggy arms containing a surprising amount of strength.

Then he dangled me outside.

[“Hey brat”] he said his voice piercing through my brain.

“W-what?”

‘Telepathy?’

[“Will you really reject my offer”]

I looked around me.

The people left my sight almost as soon as they entered. If I fell, I’d end up a vegetable, if not dead. My legs were getting weak.

But this move confirmed my thoughts. This was a bluff.

‘There’s no way, he’ll kill me here.’

“I ALREADY TOLD YOU”

“GO RIGHT AHEAD, YOU FECKLESS SLOB!” I yelled.

Both to convince myself and for him to hear me through the wind.

I looked at him.

He looked at me.

We traded glances like that for a while.

His eyes lit up with amusement.

[“Interesting.”] as he ‘said’ that, he pulled me inside again and threw me against the wall.

BANG.

“That’s for calling me feckless.”