“Karen!” Their conversation ended abruptly as Heather burst into the dining hall, shouting, “You’re eating cookies without me!”
“N-no, we’re not.”
Karen quickly denied it, stuffing the cookie into her mouth. The hard cookie was difficult to chew, causing her cheeks to bulge. When Heather poked Karen’s cheek, the other side puffed out, making her look ridiculous. Satin couldn’t help but chuckle, but Heather glared at him.
“Leaving me to get cookies by yourself!”
“S-sorry.”
“Hurry up! The others are waiting!” Despite her anger, Heather didn't leave Karen behind. She was sweating, possibly from some game that required more players.
Karen apologized repeatedly as she followed Heather out. Satin wondered what excuse Karen would make if Heather found the cookie in her pocket. The sound of the two girls bickering faded away. Satin also left the dining hall and headed to the library, where he expected to find Cain at this hour.
As he reached for the library door, Satin paused and glanced back. The straight hallway allowed him to see all the way to the other end. There was no door to the basement stairs, yet the children never went that way. And Satin thought he understood why.
Though the children said they liked the teacher, they didn’t take liberties. The idea that someone could show kindness without reason also could mean that they could withdraw it without reason too.
The children didn't want to leave this place, so they followed the teacher's rules. They stayed away from the penance room. The teacher rarely got angry, but when he did, that was where they were sent. It made sense for them to avoid it.
Three rooms, with the last one hiding a small space underneath. Satin wondered if Cain knew about it.
‘If he doesn’t know, I should tell him.’
When Satin entered the library, he saw no one. He didn't panic and went further inside. In a corner, Rogers was reading a book. Satin didn't interrupt his focused state and turned away.
He found Cain on the other side. Unlike Rogers, who was engrossed in his book, Cain was barely paying attention and quickly noticed Satin's presence. Before Cain could say anything, Satin put a finger to his lips. Understanding the signal to be quiet, Cain frowned but didn't speak. Satin gestured for him to follow and left the library first. Cain soon followed.
Without speaking, Satin walked quickly past the kitchen and dining hall. Looking for a place that would be empty at this time, he thought of the bathhouse. The children disliked bathing and usually only went to wash long after sunset, just right before bed.
“What?” Cain, puzzled by Satin's destination, tilted his head. Despite Cain's confused look, Satin didn't say anything until they entered the bathhouse and shut the door.
Only then did Satin ask, "Why do you dislike the teacher?"
"Did you seriously bring me all the way here just to ask me that?"Cain laughed incredulously. He seemed ready to leave, so Satin quickly grabbed his arm. Cain, startled, shook him off, "What are you doing?"
"What do you know?"
"...What are you talking about all of a sudden?"
Satin felt a heavy weight in his chest as he tried to speak about the previous night. He took a slow breath. Realizing the seriousness of the situation, Cain didn't rush him, “Tim disappeared. You know that, right?"
"I know. Everyone's whispering that he ran away."
Satin scrutinized Cain's indifferent expression. He didn't seem to believe the other children's gossip at all, "You don't think that's true, do you?"
"Of course. That guy, just yesterday..." Cain trailed off, then closed his mouth. He squinted at Satin with cat-like, narrowed eyes, "You know something too."
Suspicion was evident in his tone. Satin nodded readily, “I saw Tim last night."
“Last night?” It was just after Cain had fallen asleep, having stayed up late. If he had held out a little longer, he would have seen it too.
"I heard a door opening. I know you've been waiting for something at night recently..."
"Never mind that. Did you see where Tim went?"
"He went into the teacher's lab."
"And then?" Cain didn't seem surprised at all, as if he had already suspected Tim would head to the teacher's study at night.
"I eavesdropped on their conversation. They talked about magic, but I couldn't hear much. It wasn't very clear."
"The old man's room is well soundproofed. He probably made it that way on purpose."
"Yeah, it seems like it..."
"And then?"
"I think they were talking about me too, but anyway, I saw a light coming through."
Should he talk about being able to see magical power? The teacher seemed to find Satin's newfound ability fascinating and strange. How would Cain take it? After a moment of hesitation, Satin decided to share it. He was ignorant about this world. Knowing the story and understanding the world were two completely different things. Satin needed an ally.
'It would be better if the ally were an adult, but there are only children here.'
Rufus was an adult, but Satin wasn't sure of his relationship with the teacher, so he couldn't trust him easily. Cain, on the other hand, was sixteen, making him the oldest among the children here. In this world, he might even be considered an adult. Moreover, he was the protagonist.
‘My sister has written quite the protagonist.’
Satin finished his thoughts and confessed, "I gained my ability when I lost my memory."
"What are you talking about all of a sudden?"
"It's the ability to see magical power, and according to the teacher, it's not a common one."
.
"Seeing magical power?" Cain interrupted, widening his eyes. Satin sighed and nudged Cain's shoulder. Cain was holding his head too stiffly.
"Let's put the truth of my words aside for now and talk about last night."
"The teacher seemed to have cast a huge spell, that I could see the magical power leaking outside."
A few steps away, Cain listened to Satin's story with his arms crossed, a skeptical expression on his face. Satin continued telling his story, “After waiting a moment, the teacher came out carrying Tim on his shoulder.”
"TIm lost consciousness?"
“I’m not sure.” Whether he had lost consciousness or was already dead at that point. Satin found himself involuntarily pressing on his temple. It felt like his insides were slowly burning up.
“Things didn’t go as planned, I think. I heard the teacher getting angry and yelled before coming out.”
“And then?”
"He carried Tim and went to the basement."
"The basement? You mean the penance room?"
Satin nodded. His chest pounded. It felt like he was back to last night, and his body tensed, making his mouth dry. He wet his lips with his tongue. Last night, Satin hid here, waiting for the teacher to come out, “"I hid here and waited for the teacher to come out. I couldn't keep track of time, but it felt like quite a while."
Was it ten minutes? Thirty minutes? An hour? It felt longer than that. Perhaps due to the tension, time seemed stretched. He couldn't remember well.
"The teacher came out alone."
"Alone? What about Tim?"
"I thought he'd be in the basement."
"You thought…?"
"When I went down, there was no one. The smell of burnt flesh was in the air, and there was a handle on the floor."
They say 70% of the human body is water. How light would a body be when all that water is gone? Satin clenched and unclenched his hands. It reminded him of the feeling of sifting through dry soil. Fragments of something neither earth nor stone crumbled between his fingers.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Cain suddenly grabbed and shook Satin's shoulders. Satin realized he had stopped breathing for a moment and took a deep breath. OO used to think that in his sister’s novel, there would be no hardships or adversities. He believed her words firmly. She said it was a story of defying fate, going through adventures with comrades, overcoming evil, and ultimately finding happiness.
Even after knowing that what his sister's writing was an old fantasy novel, he didn't worry. In the world of Dark Age, the protagonist would adventure with companions, defeat evil, and eventually find happiness. Just as his sister had said.
No, it wasn't just his sister's words; he simply trusted her.
His sister was a good person. She knew right from wrong. If there was one person OO had to believe in his life, it would be his sister. However, Dark Age is a novel and the person who writes the novel is the author, but the story isn't created by the author alone. Even the author has parts they can't control.
There were parts that his sister didn't explicitly describe, leaving them to the reader's imagination. One of those parts revealed itself last night, in a form Satin had never anticipated.
"The teacher killed Tim."
There was no need to consider other possibilities. Satin wasn't that naive. The circumstances spoke for themselves, and to cling to hopeful possibilities about the teacher would be foolish.
"Now it's your turn to speak. Why did you hate the teacher? What do you know?"
Cain, who had been silently observing Satin, licked his lips and opened his mouth, “"I heard rumors about that old man before coming here."
"Rumors?"
"There were rumors about some philanthropist wizard taking in orphaned kids and taking care of them."
“You’re from Cloverland, right?”
“You know that already.”
Satin knew about it even before hearing it from Rogers. It was part of the Dark Age storyline.
Satin reflected on how he had been thinking wrongly all this time. Satin had been arrogantly assuming that he knew everything about Cain's past and future life. He easily dismissed Cain's past brush with being captured by a sinister wizard and almost becoming an experimental subject as mere fiction.
Credits:
TL: Sajin
TL comments:
TL: So tim really is dead NOOOO. But ngl this is the most Cain had shown care to satin in all of these chapters. I’m so addicted.
