“Hope is truly a magnificent concept, don’t you think so?”

A young man cackled voraciously as he slashed an older man’s eyes and delivered the finishing blow.

“Hope for something enough, and it will really happen, they say.”

He laughed most certainly like a maniac as he stepped over and over on the already-dead man’s head until it looked like grape juice.

He sighed heavily, like he had just run out of stamina.

“I’m so tired now, so bored-you make me so bored old man!”

After feeling content, the young man pressed upon a certain apparatus on his body and vanished.

While nearby, a bystander watched silently,

“How? How is this possible?”

He muttered as he frantically tried to get away with the use of only one leg

**

“Such beautiful eyes, he has.  He must be a gifted child, right dear?”

A woman sitting on a magically-imbued bed exclaimed.

The man, however, was horrified once he saw the child.

“T-Those eyes, they are cursed eyes, aren’t they? The ones that will guarantee our doom?”

In that same instant, he quickly grabbed the child and took him outside to the main lobby of their mansion.

The mansion had sculptures made of pure gold scattered everywhere around, perhaps to honor the family.

You see, the child’s family was born with the fate of leading.

As the child curiously looked into his mother’s eyes as she was opening her mouth with unintelligible sentences, he saw dazzling golden eyes.

Her eyes shined into his own, and as if it was instinct, he felt that he had to kneel down, despite being a mere baby with no knowledge of such things.

In the main lobby, people who had the same eyes as her mother were waiting happily outside…

“What-what is that thin-”

...those happy faces did not last.

Whispers filled with contempt flooded the child’s ears. As he felt more and more unsafe with strangers around him, something began to happen within his irises.

His eyes, they weren’t gold. That was why his father had taken him from his mother, and that was also why he was now being looked at as if he was a monster in the lobby.

They weren’t gold, yet they seemed gold? They were something dark, almost as if the gold within his eyes was tainted. Then, as if to confirm that, a young man adorned with various badges and wearing a business-like suit exclaimed,

“Dark gold? But- Isn’t that only supposed to be a myth? He is cursed, a cursed child!”

Then, this same young man had an idea. What if they were to slash both of his brother’s eyes?  That will fix everything right? There will be no more doom for our family! Yes, it will work, it will surely work.

The child’s eyes, according to myth, were associated with the power of anti-commandment, the polar opposite of golden eyes, which associated commandment.

**

A few hooded men walked on the rough ground of Mercury on their way somewhere.

They seemed to be carrying someone, a child, secretly.

As they approached their destination, they looked at the faraway Earth, which had ceased to be blue and green decades ago. 

Then, they gave their prayers to their gods and wished for the safety of their families.

A Mercurian deposit. They say that next to a deposit of pure mercury that a child will be completely purified and will be reborn as a better person in their next life.

And just like that, they dropped the struggling and blindfolded child into a pit next to the deposit. 

Despite not being able to see, the child kept his head facing the perpetrators, who were none other than his own family. He felt hopeless, empty. Why had he been born in such a cruel world?

He had completely given hope by the third day. Starving and thirsty, he lay on his back as the sun scorched his already dry body and further added to his suffering.

‘When will it stop? Please, please just make it quick.’

“Hurry up and die faster!”

He said to himself while being unable to feel the sensation of tears. He could only cry internally, for his eyes were not there. Then, his lifeless body felt like it was being picked up by something, or someone.

He was on the brink of losing his brain functions, so he didn’t really care that he felt a hand carrying him up and then tossing him somewhere. However, when he felt that same pair of hands pick up again, he was jolted to his senses.

“...”

Stolen story; please report.

He tried to speak, but no words came out. He was too mentally shocked from the past week of suffering to speak anymore.

However, his cold inner body felt warmth and kindness for the first time since he was held by his mother. 

So he let the unknown being carry him somewhere.

**

An older boy, who was almost an adult teen, carried a small and frail child who had a blindfold on.

He carried him through the Mercurian city while holding back tears and trying his hardest.

As onlookers saw his red, glowing eyes, they showed faces of surprise.

“He has red eyes, how lucky.”

“But it seems he was born into a poor family…”

An older woman with deep gray eyes said with a look of pity.

Everytime the older boy heard the remarks, he was hit with a pang in his heart. He had been carrying this blindfolded child all day long trying to find food-or shelter.

He wasn’t sad for himself, but he was on the brink of crying when he saw the blindfolded boy with his achilles tendon ripped when he himself was dropped in the pit.

He was known to have a strong will, he was known for being able to suppress his emotions, yet that sight enraged and saddened him deeply. How could someone have left a three year old child in such conditions?

In his mind, he cursed the noblemen for the cruelty of this world, and he wasn’t incorrect to think that.

Mercurian noblemen. They had created the Oculus System in order to extort profit from the hard work of commoners.

They would send an expedition team to Earth every now and then, but tricked the commoners.

Believing the rewards would be equally split, groups of commoners would sign a contract that had a secret clause in it.

The secret clause exploited a loophole and essentially gave the noblemen free authority to acquire 60:40 of the rewards, rather than 50:50.

When the commoners would get mad, the noblemen would just smirk and say that they should’ve read the contract.

The child that the older boy was walking with constantly looked at the ground, almost seeming like he was thinking about deep philosophies.

Clearly, he was dazed, for when the older boy told him to get a move on, he didn’t respond.

The older boy, who had introduced himself as Walther, could not let go of the short, young child’s hands. The entire time, he was scared of what would happen to the blind child if left alone.

Many streets and roads went past them. They must have walked around for nearly 3 hours before they found any kind of help.

** 

A young woman, slightly older than Walther, was taking a smoke outside of a coffee shop in the busiest part of the city.

The coffee shop, from the outside, was dainty and run-down. One of the letters in its neon sign lay tilted and another did not glow at all.

The sign seemed to say, Element 2005 Coffee.

Walther, who knew what the name meant was surprised.

“I would’ve never thought that one could make coffee imbued with that element. How interesting…”

The child next to him tilted his head, as if signaling his confusion.

“Ah, element 2005! You see, kid, it's a weird thing that’s only found on this planet. “

He tried to explain carefully, making sure that the kid understood properly.

However, he didn’t know the child’s age nor his background, so he spoke as if he was talking to a teenager. 

“It glows radiantly in its natural state-I heard it is a product of divine craftsmanship.”

Suddenly, the woman in front of the dainty coffee shop gazed in their direction. Her expression didn’t change.

Her purple eyes glowed mystically, and her eyes were clearly deep in thought.

Then, another surprise. She suddenly asked, with her hands, for the duo to come closer.

Walther looked down to his right to see the boy and then all around him. He was making sure that the woman wasn’t actually looking at another person-that would be embarrassing. 

He was nervous to approach her. He was informed very clearly, when he was still a normal kid, that individuals with purple eyes were to be respected and distinguished.

“What are they called again? Stellar wizard--no magicians.”

The woman suddenly uttered out a sentence,

“That’s right I am an all-powerful stellar magician!”

She did an impression of a villain as passerbys glanced at her and then averted their gazes.

At that same moment, her colleague warned her to come back to work, and she held up one finger to the man’s face.

“Hold on a sec, will you?”

The man’s face didn’t change, he had expected this, as if he was a mother who knew the habits of their sons.

The woman stood up and dashed toward the dazed duo. Her purple wavy hair frantically jumped around.

Since she was now closer, Walther could see that she was much younger than he had thought, so he relaxed his body and face.

It wasn’t unusual for men to converse with women, but it wasn’t everyday that it happened either.

Men and women differed in what eye colors they were blessed with. Although it wasn’t impossible for one to get the other’s eye color, it was very rare.

Coincidentally, the divine beings that once harbored Mercury in peace only consisted of women, so it was only fair that they would support women more than men.

This disparity created an obvious barrier in skill between the two genders.

Certain eye colors were also universal, such as the golden eyes that both the boy’s mother and father shared.

Universal eye colors were looked down upon, but that didn’t mean they were bad.

Walther talked politely as he looked into the woman’s purple eyes.

“Miss, why, may I ask were you telling us to come to you back then?”

He twirled his long red hair with his index and middle fingers.

With no reply, an odd silence settled in between Walther and the woman.

Out of nowhere, she grabbed both pairs of hands and took them into the coffee shop. Her strength was unsurprisingly immense.

The blind child almost tripped on something because he was shocked. This hand wasn’t the same hand which had been leading him this entire time.

“Wha-”

He whispered with a flustered face.

Soon, a blast of cold air hit his scorched face and soothed him to the point where he would fall asleep.

For the first time in 7 Earth days, he had felt cool. The reason for him being hot before was not because of the temperature.

It was because of his rage…

...And an empty stomach.

His cheeks became red as his stomach let out a rather loud noise.

Walther tried not to laugh, but his attempt failed when the woman started laughing so loud that it seemed she would fall over at any moment.

They knew, however, that this was no laughing matter.

The young child looked emaciated and his bones were poking out from his skin, almost asking to be let out of its cage.

His dark black hair had grown almost down to his waist, making him look like a young girl rather than a young boy.

The woman did not question their circumstances, and by the time they had entered, the colleague from before had prepared a hearty chicken dish.

The chicken, glistening with juices, was truly a sight to behold. The dream became real when the woman nodded so as to allow him to start eating.

The blindfolded child sat on his chair blankly. He had no idea what was happening, but he did have a clue.

He could smell the zesty yet spicy scent stinging his nose. His stomach growled louder than ever, and then as if he had grown impatient, he slammed on the table with a clenched fist.

The woman chuckled as she saw the sight, but her eyes were full of pity. 

To get rid of this pity, she used her knife skills to cut the chicken up into bite-sized pieces.

“Say ah, kid”

The kid was rather sharp for his age, so he knew what she meant. He opened his mouth with great difficulty. It was clenched shut for a long time and had grown sore.

However, he soon chewed with his cheeks puffed out, looking just like a squirrel.

In the next moment, Walther observed an event so repulsive of reality that he almost lost control of himself.

The child had suddenly stopped chewing, and had moved one of his hands on Walther’s shoulder without him having noticed.

When Walther looked around, his mind collapsed. 

“Everything is still?”

“You should wake up, kind stranger…”

**

Walther opened his eyes slowly. It made no sense. He didn’t want to know if what he was thinking was true.

Before even opening his eyes completely, he could hear the busy rattling of the city and automobiles driving past.

He also heard the snoring of an extremely sleepy child.

As he opened his eyes, the scenery of a neon-lit alleyway flooded his vision. Was it really true? He pinched himself, only for nothing to happen.

“It can’t be…”

He whispered to himself, as if he was reassuring what had just happened.

“Then… Does that mean…”

It didn’t take him long to figure out what had happened. They had passed out in the middle of an alleyway, lying on makeshift beds.

And as if to confirm this, his stomach growled, meaning that he hadn’t actually eaten.

“What a dream…”

“It wasn’t a dream.”

Walther opened his mouth, for he had not realized the boy had woken up.

“It wasn’t a dream.”

The boy said it again because Walther didn’t respond the first time.

“Then…”

“What was it?”