Twice a month the elevator would drop down like a fishing line, with an abundance of murderers, rapists, and banished noblemen. The more Kagami thought about it, the stranger yesterday had been. It was the third time this month that the elevator and delivered new prisoners to them, but no one was made aware of it. They would have a couple of people down here to escort the prisoners to the Sanctuary.

Kagami came to the conclusion that for some reason, the Council hadn’t told them about the elevator because the Warden wanted someone killed?

“Hey!” The boy next to him caught his attention while he was deep in thought.

“Huh? What is it?” Kagami asked.

The orange haired kid huffed a sigh in frustration.

“So you didn’t listen to me at all.”

“Nope.”

“Well, at least you’re honest. I asked if it was true you were a prince?”

Just by being asked that, Kagami’s throat rattled in disgust. “Do I look like a prince to you?”

“Not with that face. You look like more of a thug than anything else.” The kid kicked a stone and almost lost balance. Kagami caught him by the pack of ores he carried over his shoulder.

“A squirt like you shouldn’t carry something bigger than you.” Kagami closed one of his eyes. “There’s a lot of holes on the way to the elevator, you could easily trip and fall into one of them.”

“Don’t call me a squirt! I know that but, the more I bring the more money I get!” The kid huffed, then eyed him like he was some special exhibit in a zoo. “How are you able to carry that much?”

Kagami’s pack was at least twice as big as him. He couldn’t make it bigger because of the narrower tunnels to the elevator. Something he wished he could do.

“This. Can you believe that this makes me tired from carrying it?” A tear dropped from Kagami’s eye.

“Ar-are you crying? Does it hurt that much?”

“The pain of being weak is enough to hurt my soul.” Kagami clutched his fist against his chest. Tears dripped from his down his chin. The boy took a step back, weirded out by Kagami’s behavior. “Did you know that I used to be able to carry something like this without breaking a sweat?”

“Uhhh…” The boy looked around, most of the other carrier immediately quickened their pace.

“I’ve told almost everyone this, but I used to be super strong.” Kagami jabbed his thumb against his chest. “Back when I was super strong, I was indestructible. I could punch holes in this puny wall if I wanted to. I could easily batter the Warden up and down if he was a puppet himself.”

“Uh-huh.” The boy was started to drift away, but Kagami matched his pace. Because like everyone else, they didn’t believe a lick of word he was saying.

“I’m not lying,” Kagami said. “I’m not crazy.”

“My uncle told me that that’s what crazy people would say…”

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“Shut up!” One of the men ahead finally screamed at him. “You couldn’t beat the Warden if you wanted to! You’ve been saying that for a year!”

“You’re right! I can’t beat that skinny bastard!” Kagami slammed his fist against the wall. A small crater formed with the import of the side of his fist. The man’s eyes popped out. “If only I was strong!”

“Mister.” The boy tugged at his shirt. “Aren’t you already strong?”

He pointed at the wall that Kagami cracked. Kagami shook his head in deep sadness.

“You see, I used to be stronger. If I had hit that when back in my old body, it would have made a tunnel.”

“Fake prince, I also have dreams like that but you have to know the difference between reality and fantasy.”

Kagami threw back his neck laughing. He was being reprimanded by a child. No one would believe him. He knew that, but he still held resentment for no one believing him.

They continued through the tunnel, eventually the tunnel opened up to an open area. The area where Kagami had found the bear and the wolf yesterday. The blue pool glowed mysteriously, the kid stared at it with interest. There were a couple of men that had stopped at the giant leg that Kagami had broken off yesterday.

“What happened here?” One of the men asked another.

“No clue, but we’re planning on taking it back with us. It can make us a pretty penny. We’ll open a tab at the Wretched Hazel.”

“Isn’t your sister’s name Hazel?” The boy had come back from looking at the pond.

“I don’t have a sister named Hazel. Well…I had a sister. She died when I was young though.” Then Kagami realized he wasn’t talking about him. “Oh, did the prince have a sister?”

“Yeah. She’s supposed to be super scary. They call her the Ice Witch,” the boy said.

“Ice Witch.” Kagami rubbed his chin.

“Yeah! I heard that she skewered a dragon with a giant ice spear!”

“Dragons.” Kagami turned to the boy.

There was something that all men wanted to do as boys and that was to slay a dragon.

“There are dragons in this world?”

“Ye-yeah, but there pretty rare.”

“How rare?” Kagami asked.

The boy wilted under Kagami’s intensity. “I heard that there are about a hundred in the world.”

Kagami punched the wall again, a much bigger crater formed.

“Dammit!” People around turned towards him, but realizing it was him they went back to their business. “I can’t hunt something that’s almost extinct.”

They continued their trek towards the elevator, going through the next tunnel but were stopped when they ran into several men coming back this way.

“There’s a spider web there. It’s not safe.”

Kagami pressed himself against the wall to make enough room for them to pass. Then, he continued pressing forward.

“You’re not going back?” The boy asked him.

Kagami turned to look at the kid over his shoulder. “This way is faster. I want to get this over with. If I kill the spider, then we can all finish this soon. You don’t need to follow me though. It’s safer to go with them.”

The boy still followed Kagami. His eyes sparkled. “The faster way means I get paid faster.”

Kagami snorted at that. He looked at his open palm, missing the star shaped scar that he had on his old body. It reminded him of how strong he was. Strong enough to block a glowing sword from killing him.

He turned to the boy. “No, you should go bac-”

The boy was being dragged away. He saw his feet dangling in the corner before disappearing from view. Kagami shrugged the bag off his shoulder and dashed right after him.

He could see the boy being dragged away. His mouth covered in web, his eyes terrified, and the giant spider that hung over the scared boy that screeched as it spotted Kagami.

Kagami took a breath and treaded forward. The spider was about his size. It was probably young, newly hatched and hungry from the looks of the saliva dribbling from its open fangs. All he had to do was grab the boy and it would take one punch to break its shell.

He felt movement above him. Kagami leapt back and someone dropped down stabbing the ground where he had been. The figure stood up, wrenching the sword free from the stone ground. She was a woman with silver hair tied up in an intricate hive. The robe that cloaked her reminded Kagami of a kimono. There was pattern of bright flowers that adorned it.

But the thing that caught his attention were her pointed ears.

“An elf?”

The elf pointed her white sword at him.

“Ariel. Commencing operation.”