This chapter is brought to you by Megalomaniac by aeseaes.

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The village was on fire and Nine was left with eight children and a baby.

He felt a tug on his shirt.

"Toby?"

Otto was staring at him, eyes wide with confusion.

"Are we there yet?"

Nine looked back at the burning village in the distance.

He couldn't hear the screams or see the blood, but he knew there was no use going back.

"We're almost there," he told the children.

They continued toward the river.

"Listen to me, love. Whatever happens, always know Mama loves you."

"Take the children to the river tonight... As the oldest, you must take care of them, alright?"

There was no backstory for Toby Calypto.

He was a stupid man who made poor life choices. His aunt and uncle took pity on him when he lost his parents and brought him back to Vesna, but the ungrateful thing caused trouble left and right.

"Mama loves you."

Was this the part where the boy would flee, leaving the children behind?

Nine wondered how Toby managed to escape.

Whatever business those men in black had with the village, he could do nothing for the place this body called home.

The woman who was now his mother was dead. Eru was dead, Ula was dead, Aur was dead, Ren was dead, Ala was dead...

"..."

What was he going to do now?

They reached the river by the time the moon was low in the sky.

It was almost sunrise, and they were meant to stay there until dawn.

Nine made a fire and had the children sit around it.

The river had fish, and he caught them.

He fed the children and then fed the baby in his arms with the bottle of milk he was given by Ula.

They sat there in silence.

"When are we going home?" Trei, one of the little boys, asked after a while.

Nine stared at the fire where more fish were being roasted.

A moment later, he handed each of the children another fish.

"We will not go home."

---

The children cried themselves to sleep.

Nine looked out in the distance and saw the sun peeking out from the horizon.

The children needed to rest for a little while more, but they needed to leave the mountains as soon as possible.

Whoever the men in black were, they might have already noticed there were no children in the village, and would soon catch up to them.

The youngest child besides the baby was Duri, a three-year-old girl. The other girl, Tess, was four. The younger mousers--Quin, Juno, Sept, and Otto--were about six, and the other two boys, Trei and Lief were five.

He was screwed.

Was that why Toby fled?

The children were so young. They were liabilities and if he was smarter, he would have cut his losses.

Nine held the baby closer.

Ula hadn't even named her, yet. The naming ceremony was supposed to be during the midsummer festival.

She was much bigger and more human-ish since winter.

"Ten."

She giggled.

Nine closed his eyes.

---

The men in black were waiting for them at the foot of the mountain.

They all rode horses.

Nine had never seen real horses before.

The village didn't have any, and horses were extinct in the interstellar era.

The children hid behind him.

"Toby Arcadia."

Nine stared at the man who approached him.

"Your mother has sold you in exchange for the lives of your friends. Please come with us. You may see your friends later."

He continued to stare at the man.

Words couldn't convey how he felt at that moment, but it wasn't sadness, anger, or betrayal.

Rather, he was relieved.

"Mama?" Nine found himself asking, despite knowing the answer.

"Gone. Get on. We will be late."

Another man took Ten out of his arms and another pulled him onto the horse.

The children started to cry as they were ushered into a wagon.

"Be kind to them," Nine said to the man, "They're little."

The man silently assessed him before making a gesture to the ones guarding the wagon.

They started to move away from the mountain.

---

The men in black brought him to a place known as the Arena.

"Put this on."

A necklace with a black medallion was placed over his neck.

They stripped him of his shirt and replaced it with a black one.

The man he rode the horse with looked him in the eyes solemnly and put both hands on his shoulder.

"You will fight. Whether or not you live or die doesn't matter."

Nine blinked. His head turned to the wagon.

"They will be fine," the man assured him.

---

Nine stood in front of an iron gate.

Beyond it was the center of the Arena, where hundreds of spectators watched brutal battles between children and criminals.

The Arena was a criminal execution site. Men with power who had been put on death row were given the chance to save their lives if they managed to win ten battles against their executioners.

It was unprecedented for a child to serve as an executioner of the Arena, but the criminal he was about to face was a wealthy merchant with influence in the aristocracy.

Nine wasn't even given a knife when he stepped in front of the gate.

Kill or be killed.

Emerald eyes flashed, lingering on the man standing in the Arena in prison garbs.

The crowd cheered the child he was fighting fell with a thump.

Blood covered the ground, turning it red.

The child didn't move.

Nine tilted his head, and then he slowly looked the man up and down.

The gate opened.

---

The man was large.

A wealthy merchant who spent his days eating well could easily beat a malnourished child.

Nine was not malnourished. He had not had a proper meal in the last twenty-four hours, but he was not starved.

Those poor children who had gone before him--there were eight, to be exact--were children sold by their parents due to poverty.

Nine was sold in exchange for the lives of nine others.

He pitied those children who have lost their lives.

The crowd was cheering and the man was smiling at him.

Nine stood there with a blank face, his gaze chilled with gloom.

The man started approaching him, slowly, believing himself some predator against a little animal.

Nine thought he was a foolish man.

A man who would die very soon.

The man took a swing at him, but his movements were so slow in Nine's perspective.

His body's reaction was slower by a few seconds, trying to catch up to his mind, but even that was enough against such a large man.

He climbed the man's arm, akin to the cats he saw climbing the butcher in the morning for leftover meat.

He was on his back in a mere moment.

The man started to run around.

A large hand grabbed his shirt, but Nine had already looped his arm around his neck.

He started to choke him.

It was a slow death he made the man endure. For the sake of the audience, he was willing to show them how he would break the man's body and tear him apart.

The man was getting more desperate. His face was turning purple. Nine expressionlessly held him tighter.

The audience was eerily quiet as they watched.

The fight was unfair, to begin with, for his opponent. Although the man was bigger and older, he lacked speed and stamina.

Nine was a child soldier who later joined the Special Forces. The body he inhabited may not have the same training, but his instinct remained.

Every moment was painful, and he felt himself shaking with the amount of strength it took to hold the man down, but it would be worth it.

The man was lying face down, choking as Nine tightened his grip.

Nine stood up and promptly stepped on his elbow.

There was a crack that echoed, a snap of bone that made many in the audience cringe.

The sound was crisp and clean.

The man screamed.

He was at his mercy and in tears, looking at him with resentment and fear.

Nine rammed his knee into his temple, where he knew a large artery was located.

The man was dead in seconds, light fading from his eyes.

The crowd was silent, and then one by one, they cheered.

Nine closed his eyes.

---

The men in black gave him a wide birth as he exited the Arena cell.

"Where are they?"

He was directed to the wagon.

The children were huddled together like potatoes.

Otto was holding Ten.

"Toby? Alright?" he asked.

Nine pursed his lips.

He tucked his hands against his side and sat at the opening of the wagon.

"It will be alright," he said.

He didn't ask to hold Ten.

---

Nine wondered what Toby would have done in his place. There were no mentions of the children from the village, and according to the man in black, he was sold by his mother in exchange for the lives of the children.

If Toby had been by himself, it was likely he ran off.

Nine didn't blame a child like him for being cowardly. Real children, children who have been loved, knew to value their lives.

Even if he abandoned the children, to put all the responsibilities of those children on the shoulders of a child who had only just turned eight was unfair.

Nine was not a child. He could care for them. Toby could not.

Did that mean one of the children would have served as an executioner in his place?

What a horrifying thing to do.

They were good children, kind and soft-hearted.

Nine wanted them away from the Arena as soon as possible.

---

The boy was slow and dull-witted.

Noa observed him as he came back covered in blood.

The traditional executioner knife was held loosely at the boy's side.

It was unfair of them to not give him a knife during his first fight in the arena, but his opponent was a man with power. Any request was an order to be carried out, and the children sent to the Arena were unarmed and helpless against a grown man.

If the boy had died, the baby in his arms would have gone next.

The tenth and final opponent before the criminal was free.

Who would have known the boy had a talent for murder?

The criminal died painfully, and Noa felt satisfaction curling in his chest as he watched the light fading from his eyes.

Executioners were given knives. Executions were often bloody, and many criminals have died under their blades.

Soon, no criminal would request their opponent to be the boy.

They would know he would play them like mice.

---

Knowing the future did no favors for him.

Nine wasn't concerned about the life of his book counterpart, not now when he had changed the trajectory of the story to... whatever this was.

He had no time to worry about Vesna or the novel when he was surviving day by day in the deadly Arena.

He had put many men to rest, their deaths slow or swift depending on their crimes.

Violence came to him easily, and he held Ten less and less as the months went by.

Nine wondered if he was turning into a monster.

At the very least, he was being paid.

The children have moved into a house a few blocks from the Arena.

He sent them to school when he wasn't home. There was a Church that offered reading, writing, and basic math classes.

The children seemed to like it, so Nine made sure to donate some coins to the Church once a week.

Nine wrapped his arms in bandages as he waited behind the iron gate for his next opponent.

Lately, he had gotten into the habit of getting injured during executions. It wasn't that he was careless, but he just wanted to check.

Fool, even monsters could bleed.

Then what was he, if not a monster?

Look at yourself. There was a difference between a monster and a beast.

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[....... In the fifty-ninth year of the Interstellar Calendar of ZEFRE-2B9, Day 64, there has been a major disturbance in the world where Soldier 9A1420H5 -ZT4's consciousness has been located. Extraction of his consciousness from <> has been stalled.......]

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The author has something to say:

I admit I'm late--I have never written so fast in my life. I was out of town today and came home in the evening (╥﹏╥). Look forward to the next update sometime again today. For me, it's midnight, so the next update will be sometime in the afternoon or evening.