Stigma Effect

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It’s not a privately owned mansion, it’s the Alchemy Tower, so at best they’ll be slaves.

Baraha, who was thinking that way, saw the equipment in the room they were facing and felt his whole body cool down.

Sharp equipment, large needles, and white beds filled the room.

The number of beds was six, the same number as the number of children who had just arrived.

The children with restraints on their wrists looked around the room with the beds and closed their eyes. There was even a child looking at the bed and smiling. He didn’t seem to have found the ugly things in the corner of the room yet.

The alchemists who brought the children into the room spoke in small voices.

“We have to keep it in top condition, right?”

“For the time being, I think they need to eat well and get some exercise. These are the ones we barely got, so we have to use them for as long as possible.”

“That’s right. Even if they are in good shape, they can’t hold on for long once the experiment starts…. In that state, they will die in a few hours.”

“Especially that kid. It doesn’t make sense. If the experiment was conducted in that state, it would be difficult to tell whether he was going to die of the experiment or if it was his original condition.”

“And we have to wash all of them first. It smells so bad.”

The alchemists stopped murmuring and turned to the children. There was a foul smell in the room with no windows and no ventilation.

He pretended he didn’t hear what they said, and looked into the room with the bed like other children.

Hearing what the alchemists were saying made his mind wander, but in order to escape, he had to hold on to his mind. Once the restraints that bound both wrists are released, he must run away from this Alchemy Tower immediately.

He had a gut feeling that something worse awaited him than he had experienced when he became a privately owned slave.

Unfortunately, for the current situation, Baraha’s intuition has never been as sensitive and precise as wild animals.

It wasn’t the first time he sensed danger. However, the problem was that Baraha did not have the power to avoid it even if he sensed danger.

Even though he knew that danger was coming to him, he could not avoid it.

While Baraha was distracted by his thoughts, the alchemists called their servants and instructed them to take the children.

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“Wash all of them clean.”

“The injured child, please heal the wound after washing it.”

The alchemist, who blocked his nose, said in a stern voice. After the alchemists finished their orders, the children were dragged out of the room.

“We, we, are staying here, are, aren’t we?”

One of the children leaving the room asked a question. He turned to the alchemist and asked when he was afraid of being dragged away by the servant’s hand.

“Hurry up and take them.”

“They should have been washed before being brought into the room.”

“Did you know it could smell like this?”

“It is clear that they took the clean children to the Temple.”

The alchemist said with a frown in his eyes. There was no sign of answering the child’s words.

The alchemists looked at the children and talked.

When the child who asked the question started crying because he didn’t receive an answer, the children who had been quietly looking around the room became noisy. It was troublesome to see him crying and holding out so as not to be dragged out by the servants.

Seeing the children being dragged by the servants’ arms, he quietly followed the servant. A struggling child was seen being hit in the head by a servant.

The servant who was in charge of Baraha was not overly harsh with Baraha, who quietly followed him.

As he left the room, he looked intently into the hallway that was visible through his piercing eyes. Unlike a room without a single window, there was a window large enough for a person to enter and exit in the hallway.

Adults wouldn’t fit, but if it was a small person, it was big enough to pass through. He looked through the window and remembered that he had entered the tower and followed the alchemists up the stairs.

At most, it was about three stories high. If he made a line with the blankets in the room and ran away, he would be able to escape without injury.

Baraha’s eyes, which were covered with his hair, moved busily.

The next important thing to look at was the presence or absence of guards.

There seemed to be no guards now, but they might stand guard later.

The servants arrived at the bathroom while Baraha was thinking of a way to escape. It was a clean and spacious bathroom.

The servants grabbed the children they were in charge of and washed their bodies clean. The servant in charge of Baraha murmured over and over, offended to get the dirtiest child, and poured water on Baraha’s body.

The hand rubbing the wounded body was relentless.

His whole body was throbbing, but it was much better than a festering wound because he was dirty, so he bit his lip and endured the pain.

After washing their bodies, the children all changed into clean clothes. It was a shirt with a number written on the chest.

When he returned to the room, he saw that the bed had a number on it as well. Children who were assigned a bed with their number on them had their wrists tied to the shackles attached to the bed.

＊＊＊

This week’s time since arriving at the Alchemy Tower was the most peaceful moment in Baraha’s life.

No one kicked him in anger because they were offended, no one giggled and urinated and told him to drink, and he didn’t write strange words in a crazy state.

Everything was perfect.

A balanced diet and snacks that came out at mealtime, and the warm room even though they were entering winter reassured Baraha, who was thinking of escaping.

Yes, everything was perfect. If it wasn’t for the wrists tied to the bed.

Baraha looked at the heavy chains binding his wrists. Without these, he might have thought of staying here longer.

But looking at the shackles reminded him of a conversation the alchemists had.

The reason for providing food and treating wounds was to proceed with the experiment.

For an experiment where they won’t last long even if the body is good.

The strange instruments and syringes they saw on the first day were not seen in the room, but when they were all asleep, he noticed that people came in, rolled up the children’s sleeves and drew blood.

And…. For number one, no blood was drawn. Baraha watched the child with sunken eyes.

Baraha’s eyes turned to the child sitting on the bed closest to the door. Unlike the children who had gained weight in the meantime, this child’s face was pale and tired.

The child, who could not even eat all the food and snacks from the meal, was leaning on the bed and breathing heavily.

He clearly saw with both eyes that they were not drawing blood, but injecting something to the child who sat on the first bed.

It was only the second day today that an unknown liquid was injected. But the child who was fine has already become like that.

Even if the child collapsed right away, it would not be surprising.

“It’s exercise time.”

Baraha, who was observing the child’s condition, nodded his head as he heard the servant loosening the shackles. As he went down the bed, the end of the shackles was held in the servant’s hand.

The situation with other children was similar. The servants in charge were loosening the children’s shackles and encouraging them to exercise.

“Oh, I don’t want to exercise….”

“Can’t I sleep more?”

“I don’t want to go out because it’s cold!”

“I want more snacks.”

Baraha was relieved that he knew everything, so unlike other children, he had nothing to say. The children began to whimper in front of the servants who wanted them to exercise.

A thin moan could be heard in the midst of the loud whining.

“I’m dizzy….”

It was the voice of the child sitting on the first bed. All the other children were talking so loudly that they did not notice the child’s abnormality.

“Can’t you get up?”

“Yes…. I’m so dizzy….”

“This won’t do. I should report to the researcher. Get out first.”

The child’s servant frowned and said. The annoyed look was evident.

As if the other servants found it troubling, they tapped the servant on the shoulder and left through the door. The kids going out to exercise were still whining.

Baraha followed the servant and left the door one last time, looking back for a moment.

The child who had been with him this week but he had never called his name once shook his lips and waved his hand slightly and told Baraha to see him later. (not literally come see me later, but when you part and say see you later!)

When he returned from exercise, the first bed had been cleaned up as if there had been nothing.

“There is more space.”

“Uh, where did the kid here go?”

“Did he go somewhere else?”

“He must have gone somewhere else.”

The faces of the servants, who were full of annoyance, were in contrast to the children who liked that the space was wider as before they had trouble clearing the beds.

No one cared about the missing child. Unlike Baraha, even the four children who were close with the child.

On that day, Baraha decided to make an immediate escape. At night, he will run away immediately after the alchemists have finished drawing their blood.

Baraha, who stole the key to the shackles from the servant’s arms, put the key under the pillow and waited for the time.

All preparations were perfect, but there was a peculiarity that Baraha didn’t even expect.

“Wh, what?”

“What’s wrong?”

“Tie it up… No, don’t tie it up for a second and wait. He is trying to write something.”

After taking the syringe from the alchemist who came in the middle of the night and stabbing the alchemist in the arm, Baraha lost his mind and started writing on his bed.

It was the goddamn prophecy that had never been helpful.