Chương 32: Past The Playground

Since I learned my first words in this world, everyone warned me about something. If in my previous life, the scary stories were about monsters, or a boogeyman, anything mutant and unnatural to scare the children and make them obey their parents. Well, in this world, I didn't heard much of any horror tales. The closest thing I've heard being treated like a monster wasn't a human, or well, a monster, mythical or not. No.

What's being treated like a monster by some, and like a future to others, is what's in front of me. It's a building.... weird huh? I take a bite of the soft rice cake in my hands, a sweet strawberry taste follow just after, and I need to lick the bottom of my lips before the soft filling drop on my shiny new cloak. Well, shiny. I've been wearing it for a full day already.

I look up at the sky above me, the rain calmed down but it's still there, the sky, already pretty grim and dark drops down in color too, the evening starting. Yeah. Lots of things happened after I left the library. Well, not a lot lot of things, I just understood why most people don't want their childrens. If they're still with them, to pass the threshold behind the playground. It's because this part of the city isn't controlled by the usual people I know. I look around.

My cloak saving my butt from the wet grass around me, with a look behind my shoulder, I see the city. My little village. Who looks... bigger than I thought from up here. It's not city cized for sure. But it could easily hold two thousands people or so, so yeah, maybe it's kind of city sized? My eyes focus on the middle of the city, which looks brown and grim from up there, with no lights, or almost anyone in the street. The rain hitting it doesn't help too. This is the city I know.

This is the city I mapped building by building, this is the city of people that doesn't appreciate children being seen in public, this is where the library is, and this where my home is. The center of the city. The richest part of the city. And I always thought we were poor. Hah. I take another bite of my treat. If only I looked further. The center of the city, is definetly, the smallest part of the city.

If you do what I did and go past the playground, you'll be able to see the difference directly, it's so obvious it's like looking at a tumor, and if you look at the city from above with a bird eye. On a hill beside said city, just like me, you'll be able to see how big this tumor really is. Most of my city, apart from the center where I live, is a mess. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. It's an abandoned mess.

It just smells like poverty. Most of the houses are broken and fixed with trash, the roads are... inexistent, or made from packed dirt that rises into mud when it rains, so always, some of the roofs are caved in, I saw a hole in one of the ceilings, where a dirty and tired looking guy was digging a hole under said caved roof to make some sort of well directly in their house. Lots of creativity going on when you're poor, that's for sure. Well, doesn't means that he'll keep that well for long.

After all, no matter how dirty, sad, pathetic, disgusting, and prone to disease this part of this city is, that's far from the worse I've seen. It's not. No, the worse is who are in this poor city. Most of the people in this area are... well, starving homeless guys, or.... students. Yeah. Students. Those students are kind of tyrants from what I saw, they fight homeless people. Why?

Don't even ask me, I don't know why, most are teenagers, pretty much every single one of them are older than me, and most of them carry weapons. From pipes, to big sticks, and I even saw someone with a honest to god sword. And he seemed to know how to use it. That's actually why the night is almost falling. I'm two years old. Do you really think I'll manage to pass through this hellhole with my new fancy cloak without being killed on the spot? Well, maybe I won't get killed on the spot.

From what I've heard, and from what I've seen. Childrens aren't killed by the students. But when they can't be protected by their weak starving parents... well, they become students too. That's a kind way to say they're kidnapped. In any case, Okari's warning was a sound one, I SHOULDN'T go past the playground. But I did. How did I survived you ask? Well, that's pretty simple. You see, I was kind of lying when I said I lived in the middle of the city, I kind of do, yes, but to be honest.

It's not like it's a small island of paradise in a sea of shit. No, no, from my bird view, and my previous experiences. I can see it clearly. The middle of the city. Where I live. Doesn't just exist in the middle of the city. My village, city, whatever. Has four gates. There are walls around my city, small walls, but walls nonetheless. I don't remember the city having walls when I observed it through the window when I was younger, but, now there is.

And the answer to that is pretty simple, they're being built, right now. If I was wondering why I never saw adults, male adults, in the streets, apart from shop owners and old people. Well, that's probably because most are busy... building walls. Why are they building wooden walls when there's apparently an economic crisis around and wood must be costly as fuck? Why are they building like a fire is under their ass?

So much in fact that the raid on the poorer districts of the city to steal wood from their homes is more or less common from what I've seen? I don't know. And I would love to know, but I probably won't have an answer yet. In any case. There's four big entrances, the walls are small for now but they're getting bigger by the hour. Still, they need to be able to let people in. I saw a lot of people just leaping over the small walls, because... really they're small. Like, they're slightly taller than me.

Still, there's clearly big places where they let people enter, or leave. There are four of them, usually they aren't being watched by anyone, any guards I mean, there's no guards in the village after all. But from what I've seen during my ressearch, there's a lot of... normal... looking people staying around those entrances and looking around at anyone that leaves or enter. Nobody is stopped. But those guys are weird Really weird. Like bad cops hiding. In any case, I live in the middle of the city.

But, one of my first memory, was the day I finally managed to look outside. I remember the sight perfectly. It was when I realized I was in a medieval world, the village didn't have walls yet, but I clearly remember fields. And the reason for this is simple.... I live really close to one of those entrances, those future gates. The north one. Yes, the middle and richest part of the city starts at the north, and climbs down till the middle of the village. And then? Well, then there's the poor city everywhere. SO!

How did I managed to go past the playground when there's a bunch of angry teenagers kidnapping every child that passes in front of them? Well, the answer to this is pretty simple. I went back at the area surrounding my home, searched around till I found the fields. Climbed over the small baby wall, and walked in the field. I waved at all the farmers and they seemed not to care much, most were confused but pretty happy to see me.

Then I did a biiiiiiiiiiig turn around the city, from the outside, -we're surrounded by a plain- until I finally found a big hill, I climbed it. Took out the snacks I bought, and now I'm eating, completly exhausted, but safe and enjoying my food while relaxing in the bliss that comes from working out. 40% pain right now. Pure bliss. The reason I choose this hill was because of the boogeyman of my village, the building that inspires fear in all parents that ever lived. I have a really good view of it.

And I understand what the word is now. It's Academy.