章 1: A Brain By Itself

There hadn't been a drop of rain for days. The sun was super hot in the sky, so hot it made the hard dirt walls of the buildings start to turn into dust. A small wind blew the dust around, and it stuck to people's skin as they walked by.

"Ugh, these alphas' sweats smell awful." Roy held a silk handkerchief to his nose as he ducked under a gateway, complaining, "This place is so gross, that's why I hate going to the Military Administration."

A worn-out sign said 'Military Administration' over the gate. Once they walked under it, they came into a big, dusty courtyard. A lot of alphas were moving around, and a bunch were watching a big screen with the latest news or some event on it.

Roy walked down a side path, telling the person next to him, "We just have to do some paperwork. As soon as we're done, we can leave. If they ask for anything you don't like, just ignore them."

The person behind him made a noise like she heard what he said.

A young girl was following him, wearing a fancy uniform only beta students from the Tower get to wear: a long dress made of ivory brocade, and a white silk shirt with gold threads stitched in. The bottom of her dress had layers of frilly lace that moved with each step she took.

She walked quietly in the sunlight, her face looking soft, her body slim, her skin looking like it was made of porcelain, making her look like a flower that was covered in dew. She really stood out in this dusty courtyard.

She was a beta, raised carefully in the Tower.

The alphas walking by, however, seemed uncomfortable with her there.

They started talking quietly, and couldn't help but look at her. They started talking softer, and soldiers who didn't have shirts on started to put on their jackets, even though it was hot.

Roy and the girl could hear bits of their hushed whispers.

"Did you hear? It's her... that beta."

"The one whose alpha canceled their engagement?"

"Do you think... I have a shot... pfft..."

"Get real, you don't stand a chance. Are you a noble? Betas are rare now."

"But I can still hope... no one wants her anyway..."

"..."

Roy felt mad hearing this.

"That Tarian guy must be crazy to turn down a beta like her," he thought, looking at Kestrel, feeling bad for her. "Poor girl, the rejection must have hurt her a lot. That's probably why she signed up to check out the Polluted Zones, such a hard job. So sad."

But Kestrel, the girl walking behind him, didn't seem to notice the whispers or Roy's sad looks.

She looked calm, her face didn't show any emotion, and her eyes were looking at something far away, like she was looking at the other side of the courtyard.

Roy looked where she was looking.

Over on one side of the yard, a row of scary-looking iron frames stood. These big frames were sunk deep into the ground. You could see rust on the parts that were above ground, as if they were covered in blood that couldn't be washed off.

Right then, a man was hanging from one of the frames. The guy, who didn't have a shirt on, had his hands tied tightly above his head, which made it clear he had been hanging there, suffering for days.

Half his face was hidden by dried, black blood, hiding what he really looked like. But from his tense muscles, his toned body, and his skin that was covered in old wounds, you could tell he was a young alpha, still in his best years.

Despite his young age, he was an alpha with notable battle experience... No one knew what bad thing he had done to end up hanging there for everyone to see.

Roy knew that public questioning was a thing they always did in the barracks.

Alphas were the best fighters but also the most troublesome group. They were always going into scary polluted zones, taking stuff from scary mutants, and living a life where they could die at any moment. The strong feelings and rage that kept coming back sometimes turned these strong guys into something as scary as the monsters.

The ones who turned into monsters, the ones who did bad stuff, and the ones who messed up were hung on these frames for everyone to see. It was a way to punish them, but also to scare others.

Of course, thinking about how corrupt the Empire's leaders were, no matter how bad the crime, if you had enough money or knew the right people, you could get away with it.

On the other hand, the poor people from far-away outposts, the ones who had nothing, even the ones who broke the smallest rules of hundreds in the military code, could end up being made fun of on these iron frames, even tortured to death.

Roy asked Kestrel, "What's up, do you know him?"

Kestrel looked back at him and shook her head, "He looks familiar, but I can't remember."

The two of them walked across the schoolyard and climbed the stairs of the administration building.

Next to the iron frame, a screen was showing a fuzzy video. There was a weird-looking machine under the screen. The top of the machine was covered by a clear half-sphere made from a material that was hard to recognize.

From where Roy was standing, looking through the half-sphere, he was shocked to see that it had a human brain in it, all by itself.

The brain would get a little shock every now and then, which made it twitch a little.

Roy, standing on the steps, looking at the shaking piece of human from far away, thought it looked pretty creepy.

This weird machine was called a Cerebral Cylinder system, something from a long time ago. It was made to pull out some leftover memories from the human brain after they died.

Right then, the screen was showing the memories of the brain in the cylinder, the last images someone had in their mind before they died.

Roy didn't really get why so many people liked to watch the memories of people who had died. He didn't care about it, either.

Even though he didn't get it, the machine was really popular among the rich people in the Empire, even though nobody could make such a complicated machine anymore.

They would send alphas on dangerous missions into the polluted zones to search through the old ruins for these machines.

People loved watching different death memories on them and never got bored of it.

The machine was used in so many ways that even the Military Administration here had one.

A group of alphas who wanted to see what was going on huddled under the screen to watch.

The image on the screen was hard to make out and weird. It looked like it was in a polluted zone with monster shapes all around. There was a lot of blood, weird shapes moving around, and creepy screams that were loud and scary.

These images didn't look like what you'd see with your own eyes. Some parts of the image were really bright and clear, while other parts were blurry and confusing.

These were from the point of view of the person who had died. The scariest and most unforgettable things that were in their mind before they died looked especially bright and clear in the images. On the other hand, things they didn't remember as well or that didn't impact them as much looked blurry.

Right then, the face of an alpha appeared clearly in the middle of the image.