Chapter 4: chapter 4: arrival
The trip or transportation was long and boring, since we did nothing all day and we could do nothing but sit waiting for us to soon arrive at our destination.
They barely gave us food once a day and gave us little time to do our basic needs. Every time we passed a place that was with many people, one or sometimes several of the dark wizards would enter the carriages where they were holding us captive to make sure that we did not do anything funny like ask for help.
That had already happened once and it was not at all pleasant for the person, rather, for the child who asked for help at that time. All we saw was that the boy was taken out of the carriage and we never saw him again.
My body stayed in a sitting position the whole time, I'm already feeling stiff, I'm used to moving and I don't usually stay still in one place for long, and this being here is clearly making me nervous.
I already lost count of how many days we have been traveling, from time to time they changed our transport and sometimes we went on top of a carriage and other times in small boats.
Now we were on board a huge ship where most of the people on it were all slaves who had been kidnapped from different parts.
It was daytime when something was finally seen in the distance at the end of the sea, the ship got closer and closer until we sighted an island right in front of us, that was our destination. The place that was to be our home from now on, as well as our prison and perhaps the place where he has been locked up for months.
When we finally reached the island, the dark wizards made us go down in a row and orderly, at all times they were watching us closely.
We walked along the sands of the beach until we saw many people who, by the way they dressed, could see that they were the jailers of this great tower.
One of them stepped forward and just said to follow him.
When we walked, little by little, they separated us into small groups while they were locked up in small, dark cells.
I realized that when I passed through the cells that it was not only children who kept locked up in this place, there were old men and women, as well as children of different ages living in these small cages as if they were mice.
The air smelled terrible, the weak wind blowing through the narrow corridors brought with it a foul and disgusting smell that was the result of the poor care that people were here.
The guard who was in charge of taking our group went deeper into the depths where the conditions to live were the worst I have ever seen in my life, we crossed through some corridors and turned into others.
It was like a kind of rocky cave, drops of water dripped from the ceiling that at the end of the road we were all wet, the air was cold and the simple view I was seeing seemed to be taken from some horror movie.
The group was getting smaller and smaller because when we were going through the cells, the guard would lock up the people, telling them to enter their new home. After walking a little more, it was finally our turn that only Erza and I were left.
"Cell 426, this will be your new home for life children. I hope they survive longer than the other children, since every month we have many dead." Taking out a key, he proceeded to open the cell that was dimly lit.
We proceeded to enter and inside there was an old man who was with his eyes closed but he opened them when he heard the door close again, not far away and behind that old man there were 4 children, two of them hid on his back at the time of see the guard.
The old man stared at us for a while and did not speak until the guard who brought us to this place left. "Hello, you are new, right."
"Oh, but what a brilliant deduction you have made, you deserve a round of applause, the new clothes that welcomed us gave away." I wanted to tease the old man a bit for making such an obvious comment.
Ignoring my mockery, the old man spoke gently towards us. "Well, because they are not coming with us to introduce ourselves, we will be cellmates from now on so we should get to know each other better."
"Let's see, as I speak to you first and as I am the oldest I should be the first to introduce myself. I am an old man that you can find anywhere and I was unlucky enough to be captured and enslaved in this tower. My name is Rob. "
After introducing himself, the old man now known as Rob turned his head to see the children who were hiding behind and spoke to them with the same gentleness as to us. "Come on kids, you too, introduce yourself to our new companions."
With sweaty and somewhat nervous movements, the two smaller children who were hiding behind his back poked their heads out and introduced themselves with low voices almost barely audible.
"My name is Sho." Said a boy with tanned skin with yellow hair.
"Milliana." The little girl who seemed to have the appearance of a cat introduced herself and immediately hid behind the old man again.
Apart from the two children there were also two more who were a bit older, one introduced himself as Wally while the other boy who had blue hair with a tattoo under his eye introduced himself as Jeral.
I felt Erza grab me and lightly tug at my sleeve, she turned to look at me and was making a face as if to say what to do next, she has always been very shy with new people and always lets me speak for her.
I looked at her for a few seconds and held her hand so that she was calm, nervous and hesitant, she took a step forward and to my surprise she began to speak. "Hello, my name is Erza." She introduced herself and bowed slightly in respect.
Well, that was the one I did not expect from her.
I began to look inside the dark cell in which we were under the watchful eye of everyone, apparently they were waiting for me to introduce myself but I ignored them, since I did not care about them, I have always been alone and without company .
Mm, in this shit there is no bathroom, wait until we do it in a corner like a dog, it is for that reason that this place sucks, maybe one had to put up with it at night and then when they let us go to work there is a place where We can do the basics, although I doubt it.
The interior is quite small, it only had a few meters to be able to move and stretch its legs, dark and smelly, there are no beds and only some old dirty rags that I think are used to cover up at night.
We will have to sleep on the hard and frozen stone floor, this is going to be very uncomfortable.
Turning around to see the entrance I could see that the bars of the cell were rusty and weak and unstable, perhaps with a strong blow the bars would break but I don't think anyone in this place has the strength and the desire to do that, I think that more than some have already realized that and broke them to escape, but seeing that the bars have not been changed, the slaves will have already understood that trying to escape from this place is impossible.
There are some parts of the cell where the pointy rocks protrude and the walls are smooth on some sides.
Well, now what am I going to do ... I suppose I will first meet these people ... no, better not, besides I don't want to do it. If I start talking to them as if I want to be their friend, then they won't stop asking me about my life and that's something I don't want to do.
If I approach them in a friendly way, maybe they will treat me the same way too.
But I will not, seeing the little children who are hiding behind the old man I realize that they see me with fear, rather they are looking at my eyes that are unusual and striking ... but hey, they are just children and not me. I will bother with them.
I give Erza a slight push to go with them and get to know them, she looks at me in a confused way but I need only one look from me for her to understand me, that's something weird, since I realized that we only need to look at us each other to know the thought or the intentions that we have ... mm, it will be a matter of brothers, maybe all the twin brothers in the world can do it.
Erza looks at me closely for a while as she hesitantly lets go of my arm and looks in the direction of the other children, I give her another push on her back and she starts walking to go with them.
I walked to a corner to try to get some rest, the journey was long and exhausting.
.....
"Well little Erza, come sit next to us." Elder Rob said with a kind smile, the feeling he gave was as if a caring grandfather was speaking to his beloved grandson.
Erza hesitantly approached them while occasionally glancing at her brother who had lain on the ground not far from her.
'If my brother did nothing and told me to sit with them, it must be because he didn't feel bad about these people.' Erza thought nervously but soon calmed down.
She knew very well that his brother Yuujiro had a strange power that could tell with just a glance if a person was mean towards them or not, therefore, if his brother let her approach the grandfather with the children, it means that they had no intentions to hurt them.
When Erza was already next to them the cell door was opened suddenly and with a bang that made everyone jump with a fright because it was so sudden.
"Get in there boy, hurry up." The guard exclaimed loudly and threw a child inside, the child stumbled and fell to the ground. On the verge of tears, the new child they had brought turned and looked at the guard with some hatred but then realized that he was not alone and looked to the side where he met everyone's gaze.
The boy, seeing that everyone was looking at him, turned his head so that they would not see that he was about to cry.
"Oh look, we have a new kid, this is a day of surprises hohoho… Kid come here and join us to talk and get to know each other." Grandpa Rob said stroking her beard.
.....
Everyone was chatting with each other while they got to know each other better, I decided to close my eyes to rest better and think about what to do next, but at the same time I was attentive to their conversation to get some information about this place.
I heard that the boy introduced himself as Simon and said that he had recently been brought from a village that happened to be close to ours, he also talked about looking for his sister who had disappeared when it was time for the attack.
For a while they talked about them but then they changed their conversation that was centered on me.
"Hey it's true that he's your brother." I could hear how the girl who resembled a cat asked Erza dubiously.
"That man scares me," the brown-skinned Sho boy commented.
Hey, hey, why he is calling me sir, it is clear that I am older but on the outside I only see a child a little older than him. Is that perhaps my appearance is so old, I have always been a little older than children who are this age.
"Well, to tell the truth I am also a little scared when I look at myself with those strange eyes." The Milliana girl muttered under her breath as I felt like she was looking in my direction.
"I don't think they should judge a person by how they look." The boy Wally criticized the two little ones for expressing their thoughts.
"That's true, it's not good to go around judging people just for being different, maybe if they know him better he might be a good person." Jeral said in a kind voice.
Old Rob who was listening to the children's exchange laughed heartily, then said. "Very true, but maybe he doesn't care about any of that, since he's not even looking and fell completely asleep."
When they all heard old Rob they turned to see me and seeing how he was supposedly asleep and not paying attention to them, they sighed for sure.
Erza who had been silent all this time spoke attracting everyone's attention. "It's true, I don't think my brother cares what others think of him, and it's better if you don't get too close to him and less if you go with the intention of annoying you, since he can hit you."
"It's better to leave him alone and calm, of course if they don't want to be seriously hurt."
Very good sister, tell them how I am so that no one approaches me and I can be calm! I don't want to have to answer silly and annoying questions to start a conversation with me. I encouraged her a bit, although internally without saying it out loud
After Erza's warning they talked a little more until old Rob began to explain the rules that this place had, such as what time we woke up, when we went to work until what time, the place of the little food we received , and above all, he told them that we should obey the rules at all times if they did not want to be punished.
***
I woke up the next morning when I felt a person approaching our cell. It was a guard who stood outside with a malicious grin from ear to ear.
Pulling out an iron cane I knew what I was going to do and proceeded to cover Erza's ears with my hand that was sleeping comfortably on my chest.
Pam pam pam
The guard repeatedly struck his staff with the iron bars causing a heartbreaking and loud sound that forced all the slaves in the vicinity to jump with fright and wake up quickly.
Fortunately I had Erza's ears covered and she did not suffer the same as the others.
"Quick slave, it's time to get up, hurry up I don't have all day." Shouting loudly, the guard proceeded to open everyone's cells and the oldest ones were leaving their confinement one by one, the new ones, those of us who did not know anything, only followed them from behind, since they still did not explain to us what our work here was.
We were guided through the same corridors we passed yesterday, we walked in circles going down the spiral stairs because we had to get to the ground floor, we all walked in an orderly fashion until we crossed a dark tunnel until we reached the patio where at the exit of the In the tunnel there were armed guards who were passing tools to the slaves when it was their turn to pass.
With picks and shovels in hand, the slaves had to dig into the earth to build the tower little by little.
When they gave us the tools they told us that we are free to choose the section in which we could work, as we did not know the place, old Rob said that we could go with him so that we could learn and adapt and since he has spent more time here, we did not find no problem with following it.
We walked and crossed the patio in which there was a huge hole in the middle where there were people inside who were digging and doing their work.
I could see that most of the people had dead and almost lifeless eyes. They must have been in this place a long time to have those kinds of eyes. People who have already given up life and their chance for freedom, are now just puppets who follow orders.
In one corner there were piles of rocks, both large and small stacked in piles forming a small hill, those huge rocks were being unearthed from the inside of the ground, one had to chop them into small ones and then transport them to another place where they were used to build. tower.
With a few steps we reached the place where old Rob led us.
Looking around I could see that the vigilance of the guards was lazy, some were lazily standing watching us, others were eating in front of the slaves who looked at them with envy and greed, others were just sleeping but more than one was attentive and doing their job by watching over us being attentive to everything.
They all had weapons on their hips or in their hands with which they threatened others to speed up their pace and not be lazy.
Taking the pillory I had in my hand I began to dig the earth, I looked at the old Rob who was next to me and asked him. "Old Rob, how is the food delivered in this place." I was curious since he did not say that yesterday when he was talking with the children, he looked at me askance and answered.
"Well, that will depend on how much work you do, the more you advance with what you are doing the more leftovers they will give you."
Leftovers.? I asked raising my eyebrow at what I heard, but hey, what else did I expect from this place, after all we are now slaves.
Jeral who was behind us answered for old Rob. "They only give us the food that is left over to the guards, they only give the leftovers of their meals, sometimes there is even nothing and that is why when they distribute food you have to make sure to save some to eat at night."
His voice held hatred as it stung the ground harder.
"Hmm and can you tell when the time will be?" Ask one more time.
"It's still a few hours to noon." Rob replied as he looked at the sky calculating the time.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone