Chapter 35 - 2nd Building

-- Aaris - POV --

"Can you stand up?" Greta asked gently, holding my hand.

"I think I am."

I got out from my bed, looked around, and stood up

strangely there wasn't any injury on my body but I felt quite exhausted and lethargic like I would collapse on the floor but somehow I tried to not show it to her.

"Well then follow me." She moved to the door and I followed her, we got down to the ground floor and reached the nursing room, but Greta walked past it.

"Um- Miss. Greta"

" Yes?" She answered while marching toward the wing where only a few of the staff were allowed and, for every child, it was prohibited to enter the 2nd wing of the orphanage, for the children suffering from curses and physical or mana anomalies..

We crossed the corridor and reached a green door and she stopped there,

" I still don't have permission to go there, but you can just push the gate, you can enter then," She said.

"How come I am allowed then?" I asked and pushed the door, it opened effortlessly to a small lawn filled with flowers and kids, playing a little away from the entrance. With a fountain in the middle and a circular hallway surrounding the hard ground, it was quite a beautiful structure.

"Because somebody here wanted to meet you," she walked away while the door closed on its own.

"Well, then where am I supposed to go now?" I thought and walked close to the little playground for the children, but when I got close to it, the sight in front of me made me stand still, disturbed.

A boy running around kicking a football with his arms tied with a straight jacket,

A kid with his whole body masked in clothes with Spell-marks on it, leaving only his eyes open,

A girl giggling while reading a book sitting on the basin on the fountain with another girl who had weird bark growing from half of her body,

Somebody bumped into me from behind, when I turned around I saw a boy with five eyes with each different pupil staring at me…

I didn't know how to react. These children were not like the normal children you see in the human kingdom.

I took a deep breath and calmed myself,

"Can you get up?" I picked up the boy who fell after bumping into me,

"I am fine" he answered in a low voice, averting all his eyes from me.

Maybe he was a shy kid, so the kids playing football kicked the ball close to me.

"Kale! It's your turn! What are you doing?" The kid with the straight jacket shouted at him,

A few moments before. I may have thought these children were odd, but looking at them like this I realized they are no different from the other kids.

**

For Aaris seeing children like these was uneasy, but for some reason, he could feel their isolation and the rift they had with the world outside.

"Are you guys playing? Mind if I join?" He asked,

The kids looked at each other and one said,

"Do we not look disgusting and creepy to you?" The kid spoke in the bandages.

"Hmm… Not just long ago I was just the same as you all," Aaris picked up the football, and spun the football on his finger.

"Like us? Did you get cured?" Boy in the straight jacket looked with eyes filled with hope and ran close to Aaris,

"Not cured but I found something to let my shortcomings and flaws turn into my resolve and strength." Aaris started playing football and doing tricks to show off a bit.

"Flaws into strength? But how?" The girls on the fountain came closer to Aaris too, most of the children were not used to talk to someone like this, it was rare for a stranger to visit the second building, and no stranger who came didn't even bother to look at them, talking to Aaris was new to them they were hesitant but couldn't help themselves after watching him doing tricks with a ball.

"Hehe Cool tricks aren't they!" Aaris balanced the ball on his head, he was looking funny but he wanted to kids to be closer to him,

"How? you ask, well by just not abandoning your dream!" He said.

"Dream? What kind of dream?" Kale asked and They all earnestly looked at Aaris,

(I can't tell them I want to slaughter certain people and change the world for good. I don't want to be a bad influence on them.) Aaris thought,

"To become the Strongest Mage." He said.

Afraid and hesitant they all retreated away from him, some of them were loathing at him, but Kale who still stood close to him, Aaris was dumbfounded with their bizarre turn of attitude when he answered their question.