Chapter 566: Surroundings

Between the Old Continent and the New Continent.

There was a small spade-shaped island that was always shrouded in mist.

The location of the island was top secret. Except for two people, no one knew where this island was. One of them didn’t even know the exact location.

At the island’s tip, darkness gathered like dew before a massive swirling portal opened.

Whoosh.

With the refreshing sound of space splitting, four boys, a giant creature, and a woman captured by the creature came out through it.

It was Fen from the Black Hand and his underlings, along with Jane.

‘Where am I…?’

Jane, who was held by the bizarre creature, was frozen by the sudden situation but kept her wits and calmly observed her surroundings.

The air, the landscape, the atmosphere—all were unfamiliar. Nevertheless, Jane strained her eyes to gather as much information as possible.

‘An island. This is…an island covered in mist. The surroundings are just trees…and there are hanged dolls everywhere. A lot of them too.’

Jane scanned the area, collecting information by focusing her vision from wide to narrow.

She saw the coastline on all sides, along with a thick fog, various types of trees, and many cloth dolls hanging from them.

It wasn’t a pleasant sight at all.

‘Captain!’

While Jane was struggling to survive, a boy suddenly shouted.

Jane, who had grown up in the Sisterhood and had recently visited several orphanages, knew the boy wasn’t just yelling for no reason.

And her instinct was right.

‘I think we left something behind.’

A boy wearing a raccoon cloak said this in his characteristically jumbled way.

The only clear thing was that he was very flustered. As Jane observed the boy, she soon figured out what it was.

The boy in the raccoon cloak, one of the twins, was missing his other half.

They had left him in the forest.

‘Captain, I think we left him behind. We need to go get him now.’

The half-twin tugged on Fen’s clothes, pleading. But Fen didn’t react at all.

‘He doesn’t care.’

Despair clouded the raccoon boy’s face due to Fen’s indifference, and he soon broke into sobs.

‘Captainn…We need to go get him right now!’

The boy, having lost his twin, clung to Fen, his face flushed red.

He looked very much like a crying child, not like someone suspected to be a dark wizard who had just attacked them.

No, to say they were childlike would be misleading. The boys in front of her were indeed children.

Children who had learned dark magic.

Suddenly, Jane felt a wave of dizziness. She fully realized what a mad world this was.

Eventually, Fen responded to the raccoon boy’s pleading.

‘We left him on purpose.’

His voice was icy cold, especially for someone supposed to be a child.

It was so cold that even the raccoon boy, crying as if his face would burst, stopped in shock.

With a blank expression, the boy asked.

‘…Why? But… We’re t-twins, right…? We’re your underlings, so why?’

He seemed genuinely puzzled. Fen explained briefly.

‘I said he was impressive. But he was fake. He’s not really my underling.’

Jane couldn’t understand what he meant, but the other boys seemed to grasp something.

The chubby boy in the bear cloak shook with fear, averting his eyes, while the fox-cloak boy looked away in guilt.

Only the raccoon boy wore an aggrieved expression, voicing his objection.

‘That, that was…an accident… It was…just a mistake… A mistake!’

However, Fen only stared at him dispassionately.

The half-twin clung to Fen desperately.

‘Twins of the captain’s underlings should be twins, right? But if one’s missing, they’re not twins! So—’

‘—So we’ll need to find new twins to replace you…like them.’

‘…Huh?’

The half-twin asked dumbfounded, and right as he did, the creature holding Jane raised its giant foot and stomped the boy flat.

Squelch!

The sound of a giant balloon filled with meat bursting echoed. Jane could indirectly feel the sensation of a child being crushed alive.

It was a filthy, dirty feeling.

‘Ugh, this is such a mess. Hey, Corby.’

‘Y-Yes?!’

At the little tyrant’s call, Corby flinched and responded.

Jane began to understand why these boys were so terrified.

‘Go pick out new twins. Make sure to get proper ones this time.’

‘Yes, Captain. I’ll, I-I’ll get them!’

The chubby boy in the bear cloak stammered and disappeared with surprising speed despite his size.

‘Slightly. Go fetch that fake Wendy. She’s no longer any good.’

The fox-cloak boy nodded and rushed off to carry out Fen’s orders.

Now, Fen and Jane were left alone.

As silence hung between them, they stared at each other.

Fen was the first to speak.

‘Wendy, are you curious where we are?’

‘Yes… Where is this?’

Instead of challenging or questioning Fen for calling her Wendy, Jane played along.

This was the survival tactic she had learned in the Sisterhood.

Luckily, Fen seemed pleased with her attitude, grinning with his wrinkled face.

‘Oh…so I don’t creep you out?’

‘It’s not right to judge people by their looks.’

Jane replied without hesitation. She really didn’t like discriminating based on appearance.

‘It’s a terrible thing to do.’

‘Haha! I like that! That’s the spirit, Wendy! Not like those fakes.’

Fen pointed to a girl being dragged this way by the hands of some children.

She was younger than Jane, with honey-colored hair and a sky-blue dress, a pretty little girl.

‘W-Wait, where are we going? Tell me, guys! Didn’t we have fun together? Right? Aren’t we friends?’

Her beautiful appearance had somewhat faded due to fatigue, fear, and stress.

The girl, forcibly dragged by the children, soon spotted Fen.

‘Fen?’

‘Hello, fake Wendy.’

Fen grinned with his wrinkled face as he greeted her, and the girl grimaced in disgust at the sight.

It wasn’t surprising. Fen’s current face was unnervingly grotesque, an unsettling mix of child and old man. Her reaction was natural, even if it might seem rude.

Of course, Fen had no intention of giving her any leeway for that.

‘Oops, mistake. Lemme do it again… Hello, fake Wendy.’

The girl flinched at the word ‘fake’ as if it were a trigger, and she frantically began to plead.

‘P-Please, Fen! Don’t do this! I can do better! I’m better than her! So—’

‘—Bye-bye.’

Fen waved her off casually. At the same time, a sack hanging from a crooked tree swooped down and swallowed the girl whole.

The sack instantly shrank tight around her body, turning her into something resembling a cloth doll. Then, a rope dropped from the tree, wrapped around her neck, and yanked her up.

Snap!

With the sound of a taut rope, the girl’s feet left the ground, and another doll was hung in the forest.

‘Wendy. From now on, take care of the kids… Like their mom would.’

‘Yes, sure.’

Jane, who seemed to grasp what being Wendy meant, answered. Apparently, it was a role that could be replaced at any time, but couldn’t be done without either.

Luckily, it didn’t seem dangerous for now.

Fen let out his characteristic laugh at Jane’s calm demeanor.

‘Hehehe! You’re really fun? Well, Wendy has to be fun after all. Or are you expecting that fake to come and save you?’

Jane, having grown used to this self-centered conversation, simply played along.

‘…I doubt it?’

‘If you do, you better give up quick. I’ll gobble them up the moment they get here.’

‘Don’t worry, that’s not something I’m concerned about.’

‘Really?’

‘Yes.’

Jane responded, recalling Oliver’s face the last time she saw him—his face brimming with the potential for immediate violence.

***

Oliver was standing in the dusty chaos, frozen like a broken marionette.

The reason was that Jane had just been kidnapped before his eyes.

It was his second friend, after all.

Oliver felt an emotion that was both unfamiliar yet all too familiar.

That emotion was none other than helplessness. The feeling of being powerless to do anything.

It was an emotion very recognized from his time at the orphanage and the mines, yet very foreign to him as a dark wizard now.

Oliver didn’t know how to react to this contradictory feeling.

Dozens of thoughts flooded his mind all at once.

Where had Jane gone, why had they taken her, had they been targeting her all along, what was their goal, was Jane safe, and why did it come to this?

He couldn’t get a clear answer to any of these questions when he suddenly noticed the lone raccoon cloak boy left behind.

It was because of those boys.

It was those boys that stopped Oliver’s movement and eventually allowed this situation to happen.

If they had stayed on the wolf-creature and kept moving, Jane wouldn’t have been taken.

As these thoughts settled in, Oliver felt an indescribable emotion.

It was a feeling similar to what he had experienced before.

When he confessed at the Martell or when he faced Kent whose arm had been cut off by Seamus’s underling.

Helplessness. And the anger derived from that helplessness.

‘Eek!’

A frightened voice snapped Oliver out of his thoughts to find the boy suddenly in front of him.

Oliver had unintentionally approached the boy.

The boy, who hadn’t understood what had happened just now and had cried out for Fen in fear, was now wailing in terror as he looked at Oliver.

‘Captain…’

The boy’s legs gave out, and he collapsed.

‘Captain…?’

The boy, still seated, began to crawl backward.

Oliver stepped forward.

‘Captain…! Captain! …ca- tain!!’

The boy, still sitting, kept crawling backward, crying out for Fen as he did, and Oliver continued to step forward.

So, the slowest game of tag in the world unfolded until at last, the boy was cornered at the base of a tree.

There was nowhere left to run.

Realizing this, the boy broke out in a cold sweat, tears, and snot streaming down his face.

Meanwhile, Oliver had drawn near, finally standing right in front of the boy.

Controlled by a feeling impossible to describe, Oliver slowly reached out toward the boy, who stared at him wide-eyed.

At that moment, Oliver caught a glimpse of his own reflection in the boy’s eyes.

To his surprise, the look in his eyes was eerily similar to that of the orphanage director and the mine overseer.

For they were the people Oliver feared the most.

This inexplicable harmony made Oliver hesitate as memories of past conversations echoed in his head.

‘I like that about you. So, please don’t let something like this fill you with vengeance, anger, or hate. Those feelings… are very addictive. I’d hate to see you go down that path.’

‘You’re my hero… No, our hero.’

‘Then, I’ll trust you. No matter what happens, I’ll believe in you, support you, and help you.’

‘I learned this from Dave… So, please, try not to act like you did at the party earlier.’

The words of Kent, Joe, Joanna, and Jane. The words that guided Oliver whenever he almost stepped over the line or wavered.

Those conversations came to mind, and Oliver managed to withdraw his hand just before it reached the boy.

It was a great relief. It meant Oliver could keep himself under control, even on his own. But even so…

‘—Lashing out at that kid won’t help.’

Armand spoke to Oliver.

As though he had found an outlet for his pent-up emotions, Oliver quickly turned his head, startling the two Holy Knights guarding Armand.

They understood. After all, the orphanage director and mine overseer were terrifying people to Oliver.

However, Armand seemed unaffected, showing no reaction as he actually dismissed the two Holy Knights by his side.

‘Go help the others.’

‘But, your grace…’

‘I’ll be fine. Go on.’

While his tone was soft, it carried an absolute firmness. The two Holy Knights saluted and withdrew, obeying Armand’s will.

Oliver watched them go with a blank expression before asking.

‘…How would it not help?’

‘It’s simple. The person who fired the gun is at fault, not the bullet.’

‘A bullet?’

Oliver understood what Armand meant, but he asked again anyway, hoping to distract himself.

‘Yes, a bullet. Do you see that kid as anything more than a bullet?’

Oliver was left speechless. He realized what Fen had been doing.

The boy was little more than a disposable tool to Fen.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Like a person in a trance, Oliver tapped the ground with his Quarterstaff as he approached Armand.

With each tap of the staff against the ground, the air seemed to grow heavier, but Armand showed no response.

‘…You seem to know a lot.’

‘I’m a Holy Knight. It comes with the territory. Anyway, I’m sure Miss Jane is alright for now.’

He was being sincere.

‘…Thank you for letting me know. But didn’t you say you would protect Jane?’

‘For that, I’m sorry.’

He meant it.

‘But you didn’t. You even said you would assign Holy Knights to guard her.’

‘I thought their eyesight was sharp. Seems I was wrong about that.’

Armand replied as he glanced back at something in response to Oliver’s accusation.

Oliver instinctively followed his gaze and saw five bodies with knife wounds.

They were the Holy Knights assigned to protect Jane.

‘No, that’s not right… Look further.’

As if seeing through Oliver, Armand urged, and he reflexively widened his view to see nobles and their guards crying out in anguish over lost spouses, friends, and comrades. Nearby, other Holy Knights tended to the wounded.

‘I’m sorry for you, and I understand your pain… but you aren’t the only one hurting right now.’