—Click. Clack… Scratch.
The sound of a craftsman smoothening the surface of a rough slab of bound reached my ears. Ringing clearly, uncharacteristically fine for the festive surroundings.
My eyes easily found the source. A middle-aged man with a scruffy blonde beard, with eyes sharper than the bone harpoon he had hung on the wall. Currently, the man was carving out a shield… or at least, that's what I thought.
"This ain't no shield, lad."
A gruff voice erupted from the man. Somehow, he had read my thoughts just from the way I watched him work.
Perhaps others had asked the question a few times before me.
"…So what is it, mister?"
I took on the appropriate tone for Eve's age, speaking to someone much older than me.
"It's for a game." He answered with a scoff.
Huh. That was a surprise. I was fully expecting the craftsman to be making weapons or tools, like everything else on his walls.
"What kind of game?" I asked.
A smirk played on the craftsman's lips.
"You'll see tonight."
****
After that short encounter with the Bone Craftsman, I met a few others in a similar field.
Upon asking them what they were making, all their replies bore a similarity.
"It's for a game."
They all answered in the same way, seemingly crafting different parts for the eventual whole.
Upon seeing how busy they all were, I continued my tour, walking forward through the carved bone streets. Eventually, the sound of shaving and brittle hammering disappeared.
It was replaced by heavier thuds and saws.
A team of builders were working on a building nearby, intriguing me in the process. In my memories, construction sounds were nothing like what I was hearing now.
The sound of steel and welding was replaced by the hollow strikes of bone against bone.
It was a rather terrifying hall, crafted out of a long, serpentine ribcage. I wasn't sure if it was indeed a hallway or some form of tunnel, but the thought of whatever beast left this skeleton behind gave me chills.
It was a macabre sight.
But the builders didn't seem too interested in pondering the evolutionary bias humans have against serpents.
—Tap. Tap. Tap.
Walking closer, the sound of my footsteps drew the attention of the foreman. Suddenly, a beautiful woman with long black hair and pitch black eyes turned her gaze towards me.
"Oh… A child? Are you the one whose house will be near the business district?"
A soft-spoken tone reached my ears, like the wind's caress. For a moment, I was mesmerized.
"Uh…"
For that same moment, I couldn't figure out what to answer. Not only because of the mesmerization… but also because I was not informed as to where my home would be.
Seriously.
As a Vengeful Spirit, I have just now realized that my mind can have a certain separation from my physical brain. The part that was mesmerized was Eve's cognition, and because my true thoughts were isolated, coming up with an answer was somehow difficult.
There was some kind of… lag.
The lady foreman looked at me in silence, seemingly waiting for something.
When she did not receive the reaction she thought she would, she tilted her head in thought. Her black hair cascaded down her shoulder as she pursed her lips.
"Child, are you not a Lesser Human?"
My mind was still separated from my mesmerized body, preventing me from answering. Even now, the commands I gave to this body I possessed had barely gone through.
In a sense, the lady foreman was speaking to a living corpse.
'A natural aura of interrogation…'
That's what I surmised based on the available information and the lady foreman's reaction.
She's asking me questions and awaiting answers, all while some kind of aura enveloped my body.
Unfortunately, that brought about this stalemate. I couldn't command my body to do anything, and the lady foreman couldn't get her answers.
"Sigh,"
A lonely light flashed in the lady foreman's eyes as she turned her abyssal gaze away. Suddenly, I was able to move my body again.
"Go, child. Your home will be ready in a while. We're working on making one suited for Lesser Humans like you… Or whatever you are."
****
As I continued my stroll, I was still reeling from that unique interaction. My horizons were widened once more.
It seemed like some races could exert pressure just by their gaze alone.
I could still vividly recall those completely-black eyes that seemed to pull everything in. A chill coursed through my spine at that thought.
Were some races therefore completely subservient to another? Were some races incapable of their own freedom simply due to their birth?
The shackles of such an existence might be worse than mine.
I wasn't sure.
But, whenever I imagined such a situation, dread would consume me in its entirety.
So, I continued to walk, soothing my mind from the terror.
Eventually, I discovered a few humanoid figures with four arms, covered in scales. Their movements were gentle and thoughtful, seemingly have done these movements a thousand times before.
Sowing seeds.
Pulling weeds.
Tilling the soil.
….The soil?
I looked over, and indeed, I could see them tilling a field of soil. Different from the grotesque gardens that each house bore, this place was clearly something of a larger scale.
A farm.
One that spanned all the way until the domed walls of the giant's skull. In the distance, writhing vines grew across the ivory barrier. On the ground, blood-red harvests had been piled into stacks, ready to be processed.
New, bleeding seeds were being planted in the ground or fed to some bizarre species of poultry.
In fact, the poultry seemed… reptilian. Suspiciously similar to the appearance of the farmers going about.
—Squelch.
That's when I heard a sickening sound.
Nearby, a scale-clad farmer had chopped off all of his arms. However, with a flash of light on its forehead, a third eye appeared.
Then, new limbs burst out of the emptiness, still of green skin and bone. No scales covered it yet.
But the farmer's previous arms were now writing, turning into living vines, elongating like snakes.
Their arms swiftly took root, then under the farmer's care, turned into four different products.
Scaled poultry.
Fruit-bearing saplings.
Vegetable sprouts and seeds.
And a giant, sentient snake.
The farmer then swallowed the snake in an instant, smacking his lips in satisfaction. Following which, he planted the fruits and vegetation and stored the scaled poultry.
He then began to care for the surrounding ecosystem, seemingly bearing great joy in the process.
As if…
Everything that lived here was a part of him, desperately pouring out survival, and the process of their lives bearing fruit was satisfying.
What an eerie life.
For both the farmer and his produce.
[]=[]=[]=[]
I've released a few Grey Polls for the public to participate in.
If anyone wishes to support the novel, Common Polls and above will now begin appearing.
Become a Supporter to influence the story at [ Ko-fi . com/ubemantou ] and [ discord . gg/SnNg5G9qrt ]
[]=[]=[]=[]