One year later.

"Argo~" Reia called out, her arms entwined in my right arm, dropping the book I held, "let's go~"

"Ah!.....um, yeah." I mumble out as I caught the falling book with my left hand, only for it to disappear into my ring.

Together, we walked out to the field where our Mother and other siblings waited, a playful voice sounding, "Argo, you couldn't have forgot, have you?"

I can't remember anything ever since that day, many people came and left, under the orders of Mother and Father, but it proved to be fruitless.

I had asked them once about the scary monster beneath the floors of the mansion, but with only a twitch in his facial expression, Father dismissed me.

Nevertheless, I became friends with a lot of children my age,who were my sisters and brothers. And erm, I guess I have another Friend, a girly voice that came from no where.

She didn't want me to tell anyone, so I didn't, but in return when the dark scares me, she provides me delusions of another world.

I think it's alright here, I'm not scared anymore, but even with so many people, I still feel lonely.

Today, all eight of us headed to an academy, the rarely opened stone gate was lifted for us. With Mother holding mine and Alice's hands tight, we took our first step outside of the walled area we knew as home.

It was connected to a city, as Mother had explained, the king here were a old Friend of theirs kind enough to cordon off an entire area for them to build their home.

Suddenly, we caught sight of civilisation, men and woman roamed the streets, shouts of bargaining sounded, echoing in our ears.

"Mom, Mom!" Dominan called out, his index finger pointed out at the different races present before us.

There were beastmen, fairies,  dwarfs, all sorts of races. Mother had explained them to us, Eropagnis was a place of diversity.

Of course, discrimination was still present, just in small amounts, something pretty evident to me as passerbys started to point and stare.

"Human?"

"Oh dear, shouldn't it be leashed? Wont it attack?"

I was a 'human'.

In this world, humans roamed the continent, without cities to call home. Those that weren't adventurers were slaves, it was a harsh world for them who brought on the "Raoik war".

Most cities and villages were unaccepting of them, tales only told of their greed and intelligence, a scary combination. The ones that did never allowed them to stay permanently.

My hand dropped from mother's grasp, instead finding its way to my other hand as I looked downwards.

Wordlessly, my feet dragged and I walked a pace slower then them.

The academy we were going to attend was not too far away, only a quick walk.

Similarly to our home, it was walled off from the rest of the city, guarded and secured. Perhaps the only difference was that the stone gate was open.

Countless children were streaming in, incoherent cacophonous chatter were heard as parents excitedly enrolled their children.

Instead of waiting in line like the others, Mother led us into the building without obstruction, upon seeing us, Guards had tilted their body to give way, nodding as a sign of respect.

Without giving them another glance, Mother walked into the beautifully furnished building, with marble floors and mahogany walls.

Doors lined the sides of the hallway, with a single room occupying at the end, on the door was a plate that wrote, "Mr Earis."

After placing her hand onto the handle of the door, she turned around and spoke, "Everyone, I want you to sit tight and wait, don't run around, okay?" Her hand pointed at the seats along the hallway.

After speaking, she turned and pushed down on the handle, opening the door to enter.

With a small "Thud" the door closed, leaving the seven of us seated outside on the velvet chairs lined orderly along the walls.

In my hands appeared a sweet, taken from my ring. As I was about to eat it, Reia's hand shot out and grabbed it.

Ah, it hurts. How irritating.

"?" I turned my head towards her, not knowing what to say other than malicious word, but I refrained from doing so.

"Let's go play!" She shouted a bit too loudly, grabbing my hand as she turned to the other children, a mischievous glint present in her eye.

"We can't, Mommy said so." Kevin replied simply, crossing his arms.

Instant rejection.

"Wha- Oi! Kevin!" She shouted, one of her fists clenching into a little ball, releasing my hand.

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….thank goodness.

Inching closer, she covered the side of her mouth as she whispered, "She'll never know if we come back faster! Aren't you interested! It's so cool to come out!" As she continued speaking, her voice increased in proportion to her excitement.

"Argo doesn't want to go." Alice spoke with a dismissive tone before pulling me back onto my seat.

"Plus," she said as she picked my candy off the floor, "he needs to eat that."

Dusting the dirt off, she placed it in my hands with a smile, her gaze intently fixed on me, as if anticipating for me to eat the sweet.

Instead of eating it, I widened the gap between my fingers and let it fall to the ground as annoyance enveloped me.

"I don't want it anymore." I spoke, unwilling to listen to her. 

As I said so, Alice turned her way to glare at me, but before she could speak, Reia's voice sounded in the hallway.

"Oi oi! What's this! Let's go!" Reia complained with her fists clenched, waving in the air.

Annoying. I thought as I turned away.

But instead of a reply, everyone turned their heads away in a similar fashion from mine, except for Christopher.

"Tsk…Chris," she called out as she grabbed his hand, "let's go."

Without turning back once, she left with her hand still locked in Christopher's. The two of them were together a lot, since it seemed that both of them were fanatics of the sword.

Christopher was my twin, as Alice had explained, but he never seemed to like me a lot, his gaze were mostly cold, with another emotion in the middle of his indifference, but I never knew what it was.

I don't like him much, I suppose, we've never really spoken either.

'Who likes that smug bastard.' A small voice muttered, perhaps a bit too faintly. It had a different tone to it compared to Iris's, it was a guy's voice.

I wonder who it is? I dunno.

He didn't sound friendly, and was a bit too mean, at night is when his voice becomes really really clear, or when I don't eat my sweets.

There's others too but I don't like them, they scream and shout, it's really noisy and annoying.

They shout really loudly, 'Let me out!' 'Let me out!' non stop.

As I slowly thought more about the voices, a sudden warmth enveloped my hand. Woken from my stupor, I stupidly looked down to the hand whose fingers intertwined with mine.

"….Argo." Alice mumbled, her hand clenching tighter.

Without looking up, I could already imagine the bitter smile on her face.

She explained to me once, that she could sense the hearts of others, and how it influenced her. Extreme rage from another near her, would also throw her into a fit of anger, or so she explained.

Perhaps she had sensed some sort of emotion from me, and knew instinctively what I was about to do.

I must not do that. She had reminded quite a bit. I must not find out who is, no…. The people, the origin of the voices.

I must eat my sweets.

"…..okay." I muttered halfheartedly as another sweet appeared in my hand. No matter how much I disliked being told what to do, I must listen to Alice, she's right.

After I ate my sweet, the world slowed down back to what it used to be, the colors became more vibrant and my previous defiant attitude disappeared, myself wondering how childish it was.

The feeling the sweets gave was weird, hard to explain too, when I ate my sweets I would always feel….umm…slow?

Regardless, a book appeared I my hands and I started reading, it was about the technology of this world.

As I started reading, Alice tilted her body and leaned on my shoulder, resting with her eyes closed.

I like her warmth. My brain dully registered.

Just like that, we waited for Mother to come.