Chapter 174- The City Of The Mindless (Part 3)
Looking around him, Rin could see that the house wasn't really the best place for a family to live. The wood was old and cracked and the smell of humidity was quite strong. However, even with that, the house was still neat and tidy if you put in mind that it probably hasn't been cleaned in a week.
"How did you stay alive alone?" He asked suddenly.
"T-There is a shop nearby that had some food. We also have a small amount of food stored in the kitchen that I could survive on." Cid replied timidly.
He did hear the boy say that he fetched some food from outside, however, for him to be able to do that was simply insane and impressive. Not only were the furniture and the utensils well cleaned, but there was also weirdly not even a speck of dust around.
Approaching one of the shelves in the kitchen, Rin ran his hand on it and then looked at it. There, his palm was as clean as it was before.
"This house is really well-kept, huh?" He said with a flat tone to the boy as he looked at him calmly.
"Y-Yes… My mother taught me how to clean ever since I was able to speak and it became a habit of mine even when she is… incapable of taking care of the house…" He said as he looked down, clearly sad.
Flashing a glance at Elise and Evelyn, he could see that they were pitying his current condition. Even Rin felt slight pity for him, but for some reason, he can't really try to put his guard down ever since he entered this house.
"Anyway, where is the room that your mother is inside?" Evelyn asked with a small smile. For someone as mischievous and as playful as Evelyn to show such a pure smile made Rin question whether what she shows him usually was actually her real personality.
"Mm, yes, she's… there." Nodding his head, Cid pointed at a particular closed door on the other side of the house.
Standing up, Evelyn walked toward the door followed by Elise to check on her. Even if she wasn't in her normal condition, staying without food for a week can easily deteriorate her health or even kill her.
*Tap* *Tap*
The only one who stood behind was Rin, he kept his eyes on the two women and the boy Cid who followed behind them.
His eyes were particularly focused on the small boy, there was simply no particular reason why he felt something weird coming from that boy. His guts were telling him that something was off yet he couldn't wrap his head around it.
"Mm, wait, let me open the door, I have the key…" Cid suddenly said and ran toward the door.
Passing beside Evelyn, his hand extended to the side as if he was trying to touch her.
"No!!!"
Suddenly, Rin yelled as his body vanished, his shadow quickly absorbed him as it extended toward the boy at an inhuman speed. Because of the nature of his element and also the power-up he got recently, closing a 10-meter distance in less than a second was an easy task for him now.
But, to make it even quicker, Rin's shadow extended in the blink of an eye, reaching Cid before anyone could even notice what happened.
The moment his shadow connected with Cid's shadow, the boy's body froze. His hand was barely one millimeter away from Evelyn.
"W-Wha…" Cid's eyes widened as he looked down with his eyes only as his face was frozen in his place too.
Both Evelyn and Elise were also quite shocked, especially Elise who was the first to realize what Rin has done and could only stare at the blob of darkness floating on the ground speechlessly.
*Swish*
Out of the shadow, Rin emerged with an extremely serious look. His eyebrows were knitted tightly as he glared at Cid.
"What… What happened?" Evelyn said as she looked at Rin. She couldn't understand what he did as her mind was still processing the situation.
"You… I'm truly amazed at your tricks, friend." Rin spoke as he looked at the frozen boy.
"Get away from him, Evelyn. It seems we aren't dealing with a normal child."
"Wait, what do you mean by this, Rin?" Elise approached him to ask.
However, he pointed his hand up in a sign to stop her.
"Stay away, we don't know what he can do."
Then, his eyes returned to Cid.
"At first, when I saw you, you didn't seem like something odd to me. However, for some reason, when we entered this house, I started having this hunch that you aren't really what you seem to be."
"H-Huh?" The boy tried to speak but could only say one word with great difficulty.
"A normal 10-year-old child, surviving alone in a place filled with hypnotized humans and was able to do so for a whole week. I mean, that's quite impressive, isn't it?" Rin asked.
Then, he sighed and added.
"It's as if this is almost meant to happen. Evelyn, didn't you say that all of this started a year ago?" He changed his questioning to Evelyn who visibly flinched when she saw his eyes.
"Ah, yes…"
"I don't know how someone can pull off something like hypnotizing and controlling a whole city in less than a year. But, I can guess that this was a graduate change and not a sudden one or people would've noticed that something odd had happened and would've alerted someone outside way before all of this could happen, but since it was a slow change, no one, including the kingdom itself noticed this weird behavior of the city folks. However, this is where I found it hard to comprehend."
Approaching the boy, he faced him directly with his ominous purple eyes. Rin now looked like a horrible monster that was ready to wreak havoc and destroy.
"Why is a young boy the only person that survived all of this?" He asked, in a slow, cold manner.
Cid's eyes widened as his breathing halted for a second. Rin could see the panic in his eyes.
"Rin… you…" Evelyn finally spoke.
"Yes, I mean what I'm saying… This little guy here is most likely the culprit for all of this." He said.
"He had noticed our presence in the city and used a simple yet almost perfect plan to trick us. All he needed to do was to touch one of us and he would've probably been able to control that person. Since you are the strongest one out of the three of us, he found you to be the perfect target since you can kill both of us if he was able to hypnotize you."
"But, how can a human be capable… of doing such a thing? It's impossible."
Shaking his head, Rin replied.
"Who said he's a human?" He asked.
At that exact moment, a weird laugh escaped Cid's mouth.
"Hehehehehe! Hahahahahahaha!"
His voice which was cute and adorable suddenly changed to something deeper, darker, and uglier.
Raising an eyebrow, Rin watched carefully as the boy's mouth opened wide and his teeth were starting to morph and change from normal human ones to sharp, animal-like teeth.
His eyes also lost all of their innocence and timidness.
"For you to be able to notice all of that this quickly… I'm impressed, Rin. You have truly exceeded my expectations." The boy said.
"You are losing track of your perfect acting, Cid," Rin replied calmly.
"Oh, no need for that anymore, is there? You have fully revealed my plan. I couldn't be more impressed by something." He replied.
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