◈ 211. [Side Story]
A small orphanage built in the middle of a semi-rural hillside.
Damien and Van grew up here.
The director, who lost his son in the war, took in war orphans.
The director was a wealthy man and occasionally sponsored. From the outside, the orphanage seemed to be in good shape.
slam!
Except for the fact that the director is a psycho psychopath.
“Damn you bastard! Damn it! I told you to act like a wheeler. Like a wheeler!”
Wheeler was the name of the director’s deceased son.
The only reason the director raised the orphans was because he couldn’t accept the fact that his son had died. So, I gathered a band and raised it.
The director called all the children in the orphanage Wheeler.
Both boys and girls had their hair cut short and made them copy Wheeler’s mannerisms and behavior.
If you stray even a little bit,
blow up! slam!
beaten to death
“My wheeler doesn’t! You must be scolded until you become a wheeler! It’s your fault! okay?! It’s all your fault, not Wheeler!”
All the children in the orphanage had scratches on their cheeks.
It was because the director slapped both cheeks alternately during ‘discipline’. The children had chapped lips, chipped teeth and bruised cheekbones.
“You know Daddy loves him, Wheeler… ?”
When the ‘discipline’ was over, the director gave the medicine directly to the children and whispered kindly.
Although the children trembled in fear, they also longed for the director’s love.
In this world of a small orphanage, the director was a god. Because if I didn’t get love from him, I got hate instead.
Of the children, Damian was the least hit.
It was the reason he resembled Wheeler the most.
The director cared for Damian, who behaved innocently or acted politely out of fear. Damian also tried to please the director.
And the child who got hit the most was half.
Because he didn’t even pretend to be like Wheeler. Ban openly rebelled against the director and was beaten up every day.
“Even if the director beats me up all day, I won’t be a wheeler. no you can’t.”
As if he wasn’t afraid of the director’s beating, Ban always screamed and screamed.
“I am half! Not your dead wheeler!”
Damian couldn’t understand Ban, who rebelled and was beaten to death.
It doesn’t have to fit if you bend it a little.
It wouldn’t hurt if I became a little wheeler.
One day, Damian approached Van who had been beaten up and left in a storage room and asked. as to why it persists.
Then half asked again.
“How can you live like that?”
“huh?”
“You are Damian, not Wheeler. Then shouldn’t I live as Damian?”
Damian half smiled at Damian, who was speechless and dazed.
“Even if I die from being beaten, I will live half as long. wait and see.”
… Although the girl’s words were nice.
The ideal is far away, but the beating of the director is close. Van was beaten every day.
Damian secretly treated such a class. The boy had the power to heal wounds. The two gradually became friends.
“Keuk… .”
During each treatment, Van always bluffed.
“Ku-k-k-k-k-k-k-k… This doesn’t hurt at all. Director? Or am I getting stronger?”
No wonder she was growing up much faster than most of her peers. But even so, it was a child.
Even after being beaten until bloody, half always bluffed that it didn’t hurt.
One day, Damian was curious and asked.
“Why are you bluffing?”
“It’s not a bluff.”
“It’s okay to pretend to be strong.”
“Because I’m not pretending to be strong.”
Half grumbled, plugging his bleeding nose with a cloth.
“I will become a really strong and strong person later. It’s just that I act in advance as such.”
“… ?”
I couldn’t quite understand what you meant. Half smiled at Damian, who tilted his head.
“When someday you too find it difficult and you can’t stand it… Play yourself as strong as me. Will it help?”
“Like you… Can I laugh while laughing?”
“Ku-ku, that’s right! That’s where you start!”
If you pretend to be strong like you and bluff.
Then can I be brave like you? Will I be able to stand up to this terrible world to the director like you?
Damian didn’t know. I didn’t even have the courage to follow.
***
Time has passed. Among the children who grow up day by day, half of them grew up especially quickly.
Ban grew the tallest among the children in the orphanage. Her breasts swelled and her body line changed.
In childhood, both boys and girls had their hair cut, so they were similar, but when the secondary sexual characteristics arrived, the differences could no longer be hidden.
The girl was steadily becoming an adult.
Because of his growing body and the hatred of the director, Ban took on all kinds of chores at the orphanage. While living in the warehouse, he took charge of the physical work.
Thanks to that, I was able to move outside the director’s eyes.
Just as Damian had a talent for healing, Van had a talent for swordsmanship.
Half carried a sloppy wooden sword and practiced every day without being noticed by the director.
“Leave it on and see. One day, with my swordsmanship, I’ll blow the director’s broad forehead! I will break you.”
Although the days were growing differently, the distinctive bravado did not diminish at all.
Even on the day he was beaten to death by the director after lying that he had broken the cup that Damian had broken.
“Is my toughness normal? Even if I get hit all day, it doesn’t hurt anymore… … Aww! hey! Fix it gently!”
Even when the scratches on both cheeks from being beaten daily by the director were engraved as scars,
“Isn’t it cute like a cat’s whiskers? Hey, isn’t that bad? Are you attractive?”
In this orphanage where terrible days repeat every day.
Half bluffed.
He portrayed himself as strong.
So it got really strong. Unbent and firmly defended his name.
Damian wanted to be like that class.
I liked that half.
***
Slap!
The incident happened when Damian and Van turned fifteen.
“I told you to act like a wheeler, baal! Don’t my words sound like words?!”
A warehouse in the corner of the orphanage.
The director slapped his hand on Ban that day as well.
Ban shouted as he ran the back of his hand over his chapped lips.
“Please calm down, Director! I mean, look at me!”
Ban pointed his hand at his body, revealing the full curves of a woman.
“Look at my body! I am a woman! A different human being from the root of your dead son!”
“… .”
Then the director’s body stiffened.
Ban’s body illuminated by the moonlight had grown prematurely before he knew it.
“okay… It’s not my son Wheeler, it’s this… … .”
The director’s gaze turned dark.
“Then I wouldn’t have to treat you as a child.”
“yes… ?”
Van’s shoulders trembled.
The director strode towards the class without hiding his lustrous lust.
“You have to pay for feeding and sleeping, dear?”
“Don’t do that, Master.”
Ban hurriedly picked up a wooden sword from the shelf in the storage room and held it.
“Don’t come any closer.”
The director approached the class without pretending to listen. The shadow created by the director’s gigantic body covered the girl.
“One more step and I’ll hit you with this!”
Ban closed his eyes tightly and put strength into the hand holding the wooden sword.
“please… ! Don’t come any closer… … !”
With his training and innate talent, Ban’s swordsmanship has risen to a considerable level.
If she really made up her mind and took down the wooden sword, the director would never be safe.
But
“I want to be your daughter’s class, not Wheeler…” … .”
No matter how much she abused herself, even if she was a scumbag who couldn’t be rehabilitated,
the director was the one who took care of her and raised her. It was something like my father.
Ban could not bear to strike down the wooden sword. The director, who had just come forward, slowly reached out his hand toward the class.
It was then.
puck!
A young boy ran through the warehouse door, pushed the director hard, and stood in front of the class. It was Damien.
“Willer!”
The bewildered director yelled out loud.
“What are you doing, Wheeler! Can’t you get out of the way in front of your dad?”
“I… I am.”
Damian sighed in a trembling voice.
“I am not a wheeler.”
“what?”
“My name is Damian. Demi Ahn.”
Damian looked up at the director and uttered the next word.
“And you are the director of this orphanage, not my father.”
“… !”
The director’s eyes flashed with rage.
slam!
The director’s huge hand pressed against Damian’s cheek. Holding on to Demian, whose body was floating in the air, the director stretched out his hand.
“What kind of habit are you talking to Daddy, Wheeler! you are a wheeler! you are a wheeler I’ll fix the habit. Very straight! from scratch! again!”
slam! slam!
Damian was covered in blood in an instant. The director roared and raised his hands upwards.
“If you can’t be a wheeler, just die!” Back
then-
!
Ban’s wooden sword struck the back of the director’s head vigorously.
“Ouch… ?!”
The wooden sword was dented in the middle, and along with the splinters, the director’s large body fell to the floor unconscious.
Ban gasped heavily and looked down at the director.
“Ha ha ha, such a fucking inspiration… .”
Immediately after, Ban turned his attention to Damian.
“Is Damian alive?!”
Damian collapsed, covered in blood, not even moving. Van rushed to Damian in a hurry.
“Answer me, Damian. please! Damian!”
As Van muttered with tears in his eyes, a small voice leaked from Damian, who was still motionless.
“… Kkeuk… … .”
“… .”
“Don’t worry, I’m fine… Kkeuk… … .”
Damian was laughing with a bloody face. The class, who had lost their energy at the clumsy bluff-laden laughter, burst out laughing.
“Aha ahaha… . what! don’t laugh like that! It doesn’t suit you at all!”
“You too It didn’t always fit… … haha.”
“It’s ridiculous that it doesn’t really suit anyone, ahahaha!”
The bloodied boy and girl looked at each other and smiled like that for a while.
while holding each other’s hands.
On this day, the two regained the names of Damian and Van, not Wheeler.
And that also meant that I could no longer stay in this orphanage.
***
The two decided to escape the orphanage.
In fact, I had been preparing for it for a long time, but the opportunity was not good enough.
However, since they did not know what the director would do again after beating the director, the two had no choice but to escape immediately.
In the meantime, I tried to encourage other children to escape, but all of them refused.
All the other children had already become ‘wheelers’. Only the two of them resisted until the end and found their names.
Early in the morning when everyone is still asleep.
Damian and Van stomped under their breath through the old, creaky hallways of the orphanage.
I saw other servants hired by the director from time to time, but I was able to circumvent them without difficulty.
It was an escape that he had practiced dozens of times, so the process was easy. It just got stuck in the last step.
Front Door.
The only way to connect this orphanage with the outside world.
The main door of the orphanage had a huge old lock on it, and it wouldn’t open except when the director unlocked it.
Half drew a broken wooden sword and stood in front of the lock.
“I’ve been waiting for this day.”
After breathing in, inhale.
Poo-!
He slammed it down and broke the lock.
Ban muttered, looking down at the shattered old lock.
“… I should have had that old man’s hair cut like this yesterday.”
“Let’s go half.”
Damian dragged half off.
“You must have heard it. Maybe the director will come to his senses soon.”
It was as it was said.
“Willer!”
As soon as the two of them kicked in the front door and started running, they heard heavy thumping footsteps behind them.
was the manager I tied it up and locked it in the warehouse, but when I heard the sound of breaking the lock, I came to my senses and got out of the warehouse.
“Where are you going when you leave the house, Wheeler! It’s dangerous outside!”
The director shouted as he chased after the two who ran to the back mountain and ran away.
“You are my children! You can’t get out of here! Wheeler! Wheeler-!”
Covering their ears, the two frantically ran up the hill behind the orphanage.
Occasionally, once every few months, the director took the children on a picnic to this back mountain.
But each time, the picnic always ended halfway up the mountain.
A high fence was installed on the mountainside. Like the bars of a prison double-barred to keep children from escaping.
The director did not show the children the scenery beyond. The director always used to say to the children who wanted to go to the top.
‘Above that mountain lives terrible monsters. It’s a hell where it’s hard to even make a living out there.’
‘Let’s go back to my safe house, Wheeler.’
Fuck!
Ban’s wooden sword also broke the lock on the fence.
The boy and girl ran in one month, broke the director’s prohibition, and reached the top of the back mountain at once.
“… .”
“… .”
They both held their breath.
All I could do was stand on the top of a small mountain and look down.
The world at dawn was insanely beautiful. The vast land stretched out endlessly under the infinitely stretched sky.
It was the moment when the small and narrow world of the orphanage was shattered.
“wide… .”
Ban said while holding Damian’s hand as he was muttering blankly.
“Promise me Damian.”
“huh? promise? what promise?”
“To venture out into the whole world.”
Half smiled brightly.
“Let’s put the whole wide world in our eyes.”
“… .”
I swear to God, Damian had never seen such a beautiful smile in his life.
His tanned skin from doing chores, his short hair like a boy’s, and his cheeks with scars from being beaten by the director every day.
She looked more beautiful than anything else in the world, dyed white by the dazzling sunlight and even more dazzling smiles.
“promise!”
“… Uh yes promise.”
So, without even thinking about the content of the promise, I nodded my head.
Ban grinned, and grabbed Damian’s face with his hand
.
I pursed my lips.
“… ?!”
Damian stiffened with his reddened face and his eyes wide open. After a while, Ban lifted his lips and shouted triumphantly.
“This is a proof of promise!”
“No, I don’t usually cross my fingers… ?”
“Kuh-kuh, that’s something only kids do!”
Ban, who said that even though he was a child himself, grabbed Damian’s hand and led him forward.
“Let’s go, Damian!”
The way down to the other side of the mountain beyond the summit was rough. I didn’t even know where this road would lead.
“Together to the end of the world!”
Nonetheless, the boy and girl willingly ventured into the outside world.
It was one morning when the sun was shining brightly.
***
“I don’t know why you have such a good dream that you are splitting the threads, but wake up soon. Student Damian.”
Suddenly, a blunt voice flew in.
Damian’s eyes fluttered open with a gasp.
“Did you sleep well, trigger?”
I saw Ash’s face, sitting beside the bed and looking down. Damian muttered blankly.
“Prince? here is… .”
“Four rooms in the temple.”
Damian panicked and hurriedly stood up. As Ash said, it was his familiar room.
and
ironclad.
Unfamiliar chains and handcuffs were installed on the walls.
The handcuffs were restraining Damian’s wrists. Damian blinked as he looked at it in bewilderment. What is this?
Seeing Damian like that, Ash let out a small sigh.
“Do you remember what you did yesterday?”
