Chapter 113 - Escaping from Arcanum Train (VI)
Thank you so much, Soapy & Kofi-Supporter for the Kofis—Bonus Chapter (2/2)
Editor: Kitty
The whole carriage No.11 was in a mess: all kinds of things were smashed to pieces with broken glass bottles, broken suitcases, ragged clothes, and pieces of cloth all over the place. From this scene alone, they could guess what kind of war had happened here.
The two men were at each other’s throats, with one exaggeratingly stepping on a table with one foot and the other one squatting on the sofa opposite to him. They were armed with random weapons; one was armed with a broken broom while the other with steel rods that were neither too long nor short, and they seemed to have been pried off the toilet hose.
Both of them were injured to varying degrees. There were wounds of different depths on their faces, hands, and legs. Both of them seemed to want to kill each other. The expressions on their faces were extremely fierce; even when Owl and Crow opened the door, they seemed to be unaware of them and focused their attention on each other.
The situation was pressing, and it demanded immediate action.
Crow and Owl looked at the scene and exchanged a look with one other. In fact, naturally, it was normal to want to kill each other. After all, not long ago, Crow and Owl were hostile toward each other, and they had almost started to fight each other. But the duo kept their sense of reason. Although in their hearts, they felt overflowing doubt and suspicion, no one actually took action.
After all, they did not have much time left.
“Are we going to stop this?” Crow began to consult Owl.
“I don’t really want to. What do you think?” Owl frowned. He thought the two men’s killing intent was too strong.
As he spoke, the man with the half-broken broom suddenly swung it and dealt another heavy blow toward one of the steel poles. His movements seemed to be disorganized, but the momentum behind it was astonishing, as if he was holding a long knife instead of a broken stick.
Owl cocked his head and looked at the man with the broken broom. The other party moved very fast, and his hair lay on his shoulders. Owl could not see his face clearly, but somehow, Owl felt that the man gave him a familiar feeling.
Who is this man? Owl thought, but soon, he was not able to wonder any longer because he suddenly felt a sharp dull pain in his head, as if suddenly someone had used an iron bar to hit him, and the pain made him gasp.
After the pain, Owl felt that there seemed to be more memories in his mind. It was like a person who had lost his memory suddenly recalling some memories of the past&#k2014;only these memories seemed to be covered with a veil, and the mere recollection of the memories caused Owl to be in so much pain that his face paled.
Crow, of course, took notice of his reaction. Subconsciously, he reached for one of Owl’s wrists, but very quickly, he shivered and withdrew his hands.
Owl’s hands were as cold as ice. Such a temperature was really abnormal. Crow could not help but keep his attention out on Owl’s pale face. Underneath the other’s eyes, one could even see a tinge of green.
“Are you ill?” Crow felt the worry in his heart grow. He couldn’t help but ask, “You don’t look well. Are you feeling unwell somewhere?”
“Crow, what was on that note?” Owl, however, did not answer Crow’s concern at the moment and instead suddenly threw a puzzling question at Crow. He asked, “That note that we all have. On it, did it say under which circumstances we would recover our memories?”
“‘You have the chance to recover your memory, but most of it can only be recalled before you die. Kindly be reminded that only the murderer is special. He may recover his memory at any point in time.'” Crow took the note out of his pocket and read out the above sentence. After a pause, Crow looked at Owl: “Could it be that you recovered it?”
“No, I did not. I just felt I recalled something, but when I think about it carefully, I can’t remember it again,” Owl stated. Following that, he took a deep breath and marched into carriage No.11. He swaggered into it, grabbed the water bottle on the table, and threw it directly at the two men who were fighting.
Both of them had acute senses and nimbly dodged it. As a result, they stopped trying to kill each other and both turned around to give fiendish stares to Owl and Crow.
Owl interrupted the fight but silently stood on the spot. Crow sighed and said to the two men, “Don’t fight. Shouldn’t we think about how to get out of this place and situation instead?”
Crow advised them, and although the two men did not continue to fight, they still seemed hostile toward each other. They put on shows of force toward each other for a while and squatted down in the corners that were farthest from each other.
Both Crow and Owl felt that this was a thorny issue. They discussed and decided to each deal with one of them. So Owl went to the long-haired man with a broken broom in the corner, and Crow went to the other man.
“What happened?” Actually, Crow felt his heart slightly tremble because he felt that the two men were not to be trifled with. The man sitting in front of him was a handsome man with messy, short black hair. He was very tall, and even sitting there, one would feel oppressed by his presence.
Crow approached him and noticed that the man was wearing the same greyish-blue prison uniform as he was. There was a name card on his chest, and the words on the name card were very simple—BLACKCAT—meaning black cat.
Black cat.
Crow could not help but think of the poor kitten who had died in the puddle of water in the toilet of carriage No.12. It was also a black cat.
Probably after hearing Crow’s voice, the man named ‘Black cat’ raised his head and looked at him. Crow noticed that the man was indeed handsome and had beautiful facial features. At first glance, he was the type that would attract attention everywhere. His eyes were extremely beautiful. Perhaps the only thing that was not beautiful was the dark grey colour of his pupils, which reminded him of people who had lost their sight.
There were also several wounds on the handsome boy’s face. The skin on his forehead was injured, and blood was trickling down his face, making him look like he was in a sorry plight.
“Who are you?” The handsome man opened his mouth. His voice was deep and hoarse, as if he had not spoken for a long time.
Maybe even the handsome man himself was frightened by his voice because he frowned and bowed down his head in silence.
Crow suddenly felt that the man might be easy to get along with, so he put down his worries and asked, “Have you also lost your memories?”
“Lost my memories?” After a short pause, Black cat began to think. After a short moment, he answered, “Maybe. It is true that I cannot recall anything.”
The man’s voice was very low, and Crow could not help but get closer to be able to hear it. Before he moved closer, Black cat suddenly swung the steel pole in his hand, pointed it at Crow, and coldly declared, “Stay away from me.”
Crow’s feet trembled, and he had to retreat half a step back. His face couldn’t help but stiffen. He tried to raise the corners of his mouth and forced a smile: “Don’t worry. I won’t hurt you or anyone else.”
Black cat looked at him and suddenly sneered, “With your weak appearance, how can you hurt others?”
Crow was speechless, and as if a stick were stuck in his throat, he was unable to speak. He originally wanted to calm the man down. Now it seemed that the other party was trying to make him feel better. Of course, inwardly, he did not feel comfortable. However, he wanted to escape from this inexplicable enclosed train. There were other puzzles ahead that remained unforeseen ahead of them. If they did not get along well now, they may experience more troubles ahead.
What should be done?
Crow hesitated for a moment, and the other party’s weapon still remained pointed at Crow, but Crow suddenly acted boldly. He reached out to block Black cat’s steel pole, took the initiative to approach the other party, and sat down beside him without taking any other actions.
On the contrary, this time, Black cat stopped being at odds with Crow and turned to stare at him thoughtfully.
Crow turned his head, reluctantly gave a smile to the handsome man in front of him, and said softly, “In this world, there are too many ways to hurt others. Merely having power will not let someone take up a leading role.”
Crow did not know whether the other party listened to his words. In fact, it did not matter if he did not listen. He just wanted to find a way to lower the other party’s defenses, but he did not know why Black cat was interested in him for some reason. His entire face was so close to him, and Crow felt that the tip of the other party’s nose was almost touching his nose.
This sudden move scared Crow, and he retreated entirely. However, Black cat squinted and placed a hand on his shoulder. His strength was great. The weight on Crow’s shoulder felt extremely heavy, and it was as if his whole body could not move.
“Have we met before?” Black cat asked him suddenly. He approached Crow and sniffed, as if he was smelling him.
“Is… is that so? Maybe…” Crow stiffened. Black cat was quite tall and carried a strong masculine smell as well as the smell of blood. Because they were relatively close, Crow could also feel the other party’s breath spraying on his neck.
Crow suddenly felt that maybe Black cat was right. They probably knew each other previously.
But soon, Black cat released Crow and went back to squat on the sofa. Such distance inwardly caused Crow to feel a sense of loss that was inexplicable. However, the good news was that because of this, Black cat seemed to somewhat lower his defenses, at least enough that Crow did not feel his obvious hostility.
Following that, the communication between them went well. He soon learned from Black cat that he had also woken up in this carriage not long ago, and he did not have any memories at all. In addition, there was a man in the same situation as him in this carriage, the one who fought with him…
“Why did you start fighting?” Crow voiced his doubts.
Black cat licked his dry lips and replied, “I don’t know. Both of us felt that we were eyesores to each other. That was why we fought.”
“That’s why?” Crow felt helpless.
“That’s why.” On the contrary, Black cat felt it was a justifiable reason.