With Klan, Ray found his way to the dumping site. Here the landscape truly depicted what happened to weak and worthless. But he did not have the intelligence and energy to see it as such. For him, it was just a stinking place where others would never want to come. And even if they did, they would not want to stay here any longer. Fortunately, they were quite close to the dumping site as they were running away from their attackers and after having defeated those three soldiers, they did not find any others, thus allowing them to have reached here.
Klan was covering his nose and Ray was breathing heavily, using the spear as a support for his body so that he does not fall. Apparently, the cost of using the skill was too high for his young body.
They kept moving and eventually, hid themselves behind a pile of trash. If one were to look at the pile, they would see some hands, blood and entrails of monsters. There also were feces scattered all over the area. All in all, it was a place one would never come to willingly. Klan himself had given Ray the work of dumping garbage here so that he does not have to come here. However, at this moment, he was grateful to the dumping site, as it could be considered one of the safest places to hide.
Ray laid down on the dirty ground, even glancing around him. "What the hell are you doing?! This place is even dirtier that the dirtiest places in the dirty slums! Even if you are a garbage man, that doesn't mean you should love it this much! Get up quickly!" said Klan to Ray with an expression of disgust on his face.
However, Ray did not seem to care. He kept lying down there. In a feeble voice that seemed like it would be extinguished at any moment, "I don't have even a bit of strength left. Please, just this once, let me rest here. Look the day will also come after some time. I say you should rest as well, no matter the place." he replied to Klan, closing his eyes.
Klan's face distorted in anger. "Have you gone insane?! I will not lie down here! Oi! Are you even listening?!" shouted Klan. However, it was all for naught, by the time he finished speaking, Ray had departed for the dreamland. Klan wanted to beat him awake, however, seeing how tired Ray was, he stopped himself. And this time, he seriously thought about what Ray had said and what would happen. And in his thoughts, he did not notice that he himself was lying beside Ray in the same garbage and slowly drifting off for the dreamland.
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When Klan woke up, the sun was already high up in the sky. He was still in a daze from having just woken up, but as he gradually got a hold of the situation, "U-UWAH!" he screamed jumping up from the ground. As he realised that he had been sleeping on the ground of dumping site, his expression was filled with panic. He checked his clothes. He looked to check whether something was sticking to him and smelled himself to check whether there was a stench or not. Fortunately, there was only dust on his clothes, and his body did not seem to stink of anything other than sweat.
As he looked around himself after having finally calmed down, he noticed that Ray was still sleeping on the ground. His breathing was peaceful and his expression was serene. However, there was some blood on his clothes and on the spear lying close to him as well, indicating that what they had experienced was not a dream they could have seen after having fallen asleep here. As this realisation hit him now that he had some time to think it over, he could not hold back his tears as they ran down his cheek. "B-Big brother..." he sobbed, hoping that someone would come to comfort him. Alas, reality was cruel, there was no one to comfort him here. After some time, he calmed down and stopped crying.
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"Hey, Ray. Wake up. How long are you planning on sleeping?" he asked to Ray who was still sleeping soundly without a care in the world. As there was no response, he kicked him in the gut.
"UH!"
Ray, having been kicked in the stomach while sleeping, opened his eyes. As he looked around while holding his stomach, he found Klan looking at him with eyes full of scorn. "W-What was that for?!" he asked Klan in a loud voice. As his response, Klan delivered another kick to his stomach. While Ray was groaning in pain from having been kicked again, Klan said to him, "Why the hell are you shouting? Don't you remember what happened last night?"
After Ray heard this, he looked around himself. He was at the garbage site, and there was a blood stained spear lying right beside him. This answered all his questions regarding what had happened last night. The pain of having been kicked left him. With a sorrowful expression on his face, he asked, "So, what is the condition of the town now? And what do you plan on doing?"
Now that they had rested a bit and understood the situation to some extent, they had to decide on what they would do. Klan said, "First, let's see what is the condition of town and big brother. We can decide what to do after that." Ray nodded at Klan's words. He got up, picked the spear and slowly they both started moving towards the town. When they reached the town, they moved cautiously from there. The houses made of wood and straw were still giving out black smoke. And when they looked on the ground, they could see that there were still dead bodies sprawled on the ground. The bereaved families were crying for their departed.
Seeing this scene, Ray stopped moving. Klan looked back at him and asked, "What's the matter?" However, Ray did not even look towards him. His gaze was focused on a little boy who was crying while holding onto a middle aged woman and shouting "MOTHEERRRR!" Seeing him, Ray remembered the tragedy that happened to him one year ago. The appearance of the dragon, the heat of his breath, the unbearable huger he felt. He had forgotten all of the pain and sorrow he felt after spending time with Klan, Klaude and others. However, the scene in front of him now was enough for him to remember it all again.
He clutched the spear in his hand and said to Klan, "Let's go." Seeing that people were out in the open like this, it seemed that the attackers had gone away. Therefore, they did not need to walk while being as cautious. They walked slowly towards the slums. As they reached there, they could not believe what was in front of them again. No, it would be better to say that they did not want to believe it. They had some suspicions that they would be met with this scene.
"U-Uuuu..."
Klan started sobbing again at the scene in front of him. While Ray silently shed tears. It was because, in front of them, they could see the corpses of Klaude and other children. There were two corpses of soldiers as well. So it was likely that Klaude fought while trying to protect others and managed to take two of them down. However, that much was still not enough to stop the soldiers from killing him. There were wounds on the bodies similar to what you would expect when someone was stabbed by a sword. Especially Klaude. He had many wounds like this. Most likely, he was repeatedly stabbed by the soldiers. It was horrible to look at. However, they could do nothing about this other than crying, and so they cried, without trying to hide the sorrow and grief in their hearts.