"Mhh, now that I think about it, your name sounds kind of familiar. Is your family rich or famous by any chance?" She asked as she wrapped her arm around me, gently pulling me towards her.
"No, not at all, probably." I hesitantly answered as I tried to resist her.
Just give up! You're starting to get annoying.
"Ah! Why did you hesitate there? Come on, no need to be humble; I'm sure most of us come from rich houses." She said as she pulled me closer to her chest.
"Well, we're not exactly rich, and we aren't celebrities either, so technically we shouldn't be known outside of the dome." I tried to preface as I pulled myself away.
"Oh, you lived in the dome? So you are rich." Her eyes lit up with curiosity as she finally let go of me; this time they seemed genuine.
"What? No! Absolutely not! We lived in an underground district; we're not rich at all." I quickly clarified as I began to adjust my collar.
"Then why did you hesitate?" She grumpily complained to me as she landed a light punch to my arm.
"Well… My family is tied to the Jittermeist; we've been loyal followers even before the Great Demonic War," I answered.
After the revelation, she remained silent for a little while, repeating my family name while deep in thought as she tried to recall where she could've heard of our name.
She eventually gave up. "Mhhh, no, that doesn't ring a bell. Has your family done anything else of note?" Her excitement was quickly dying down.
"Anything else? I don't think so. I haven't heard much. What about your family?" I replied, I felt bad I didn't have anything noteworthy to share.
"My family isn't anything special; my mother's a cleaning lady, and my father's a plumber."
Ah, is that a sore spot? Should I ask more? Should I pretend to be interested in such a mundane family?
Suddenly I didn't feel as bad anymore.
"And where do you come from?" I asked her.
"Prelude," she answered.
Yeah, thanks, but…
"And where is that?" I asked her for a clarification.
Geography isn't my best subject.
"Ah, right, it's a small city in Lysara." She mentioned.
What?! What are you even doing here?
I was so surprised I let out my thoughts aloud. "No way."
"Yup." She seemed proud of my reaction.
"But why?" I quickly asked her.
"Huh?" She seemed taken aback by the sudden questions.
"Why would you leave your country to be here? How did you even get here?"
"Plenty of reasons; I no longer felt like I belonged in that place. It was quite easy; I don't want my fate to be tied to the echoes of a broken machine." She replied with a somber voice.
I never heard someone refer to the Golden Mother like that.
I was intrigued by the story but didn't know how to properly tackle the subject, so I simply remained quiet, waiting for her to reveal more on her own terms.
And they allowed you to just …run away? How would that even work? How did they even manage to scout you in such a remote country?
The mood had shifted so fast I didn't know how to even change the argument without making the situation feel even more awkward.
"You're not the first to react like that." She said in a teasing tone as she poked my stomach with her right hand.
Internally I breathed a sigh of relief, seeing how the situation had defused itself.
"I felt like I had more to gain here; I certainly wouldn't throw away the perfect chance to flee that shithole." She explained with a genuine smile on her face.
I wonder what happened for her to be so harsh on her own motherland. Must've been something ugly.
"Was it really that bad? I always heard good things about the people coming from that place." My curiosity took over my rationality, and I asked a tactless question.
"What? Ah, you meant the fanatics, a bunch of hypocrites; if they missed their homeland so much, they wouldn't have left. She bitterly commented as she began pinching my arm.
Ah, yikes… Better change the topic before it just turns into a full argument.
"You know? I never really understood that part." Before I could speak up, she had already begun her own little monologue.
Shit! I shouldn't have opened my mouth.
"Why do those people never bother to think for themselves? Why does their all-loving "mother" have to think for them? What's the point of following the whims of a machine, one that can barely write down a couple of sentences a year nowadays?" she complained.
Just like a broken dam, she simply kept letting all the bad thoughts out; I, on the other hand, didn't know how to react.
A part of me wanted to pat her back, although I feared that might be a bit out of line for a stranger to do, especially since we just met.
"It's so bullshit how they treat those words as gospel; if one day it tells you that if you marry your cousin you will magically experience great fortune for the next twenty years, they will stop at nothing to make it happen." She kept complaining as she tightened her grip over my arm.
"Is that what happened?" Someone else joined the conversation suddenly.
That someone was a particularly chubby individual with long curly hair covering his eyes, dressed in skin-tight clothes.
And who are you?
"No, no, that… that happened to a friend of mine; he ended up marrying her." She hesitantly revealed as she finally let go of me.
Was that your lover? Is that why you were so pissed? Or were you the cousin in that story?
The girl now looked much smaller than before, her gaze fixed toward the ground as she began to walk away. I followed her.
We quickly entered what looked to be a lunchroom, yet the girl didn't seem interested in eating; she looked back and seemed annoyed at the fact we were still following her.
"That's sad." He commented.
"It really is," I also commented.
It was then that I noticed everyone in the lunchroom had gone silent; everyone was silently listening to our conversation.
"Well hopefully you'll find your place here or within the dome if you fail to get the spot." He commented, extending his hand to greet her.
Then I saw the back of his hand getting closer to my face.
What the—
I leaned backwards to avoid the backhanded punch, and then I quickly got up and proceeded to put as much distance between myself and that kid as possible.
"The hell are you doing?" I asked him.
He then grabbed a small knife and threw it at me.
"Stop!" a sudden voice boomed.
The knife was stopped mid-air; one invisible soldier just appeared out of nowhere, knife in hand.
What the heck. mid-air;
"Kang Liam, you're disqualified." The voice announced.
"Wait, I could've still—"
As the lights of the lunchroom flickered, the two of them disappeared.
What happened?
I looked at the girl sitting right beside the boy, and she too was left speechless. I felt as if everyone in the room collectively took a shocked gasp.
Wait? So does that mean we can't attack each other? Then this is easy; I don't know why Father was freaking out so much about this place; maybe they changed the rules over time.
"What was that?" I asked the girl.
"I have no idea!" She answered, still in shock. "Why would someone from the invisible guard be stationed here?" She asked me.
"Obviously it's to surveil us," I angrily replied.
Don't ask me obvious questions!
"Why did that guy attack me?" I thought out loud.
"We'll never know." The girl replied.
That's right, they could've easily instigated him to attack me; it could be a test of my skills or the invisible guard… Either way it's probably best to stay on guard.
Then a bell rang, and I felt my body suddenly relaxing; a sense of peace filled my mind as my consciousness was rapidly fading away.
Fuck, what is going on? A demonic ability?
I looked around and saw the others having a similar reaction.
No, stay away; keep fighting that thing; don't close your eyes.
It was an impossible fight; the more I resisted, the more the bell rang, and the more the bell rang, the weaker I felt until I completely passed out.