"Y-You guys really are alive... B-But then..."

"Now, Den. Don’t believe your captors’ words. They’re playing with us." Aldrus said.

Aiden listened quietly, still sitting against the opposite wall. "Uhg... You’re really here... You’re alive."

Aldrus smiled softly, watching the sobbing boy calm down. Somewhere in his heart, he felt a deep sense of relief; one of the many worries weighing on him was now no more.

I’m glad... I really am.

Aldrus hadn’t met Aiden for long. In fact, the silver-haired boy could be pretty much considered a stranger, or an acquaintance. However, he felt deeply worried about him all this time. Not only because of the obvious, life-threatening situation he was in, but also because the sobbing boy had grown on him in a matter of days.

Aldrus had always been a sensible person when it came to human relationships. It wasn’t like he couldn’t make friends or enjoy other people’s company. It was just that he somehow always felt which connections would matter most.

The first day he met Alice, he didn’t think much of her, but as the days went by, something deep inside him had told him she would become someone irreplaceable. The same thing happened with Sir Ludwig, and Aiden too.

He thought a handful of people might have been similar to him in that respect, but the years had proven his gut to be oddly accurate. Still, he had grown accustomed to it, so even though he had gone back to that thought every now and then, it had slowly become but a natural part of his persona.

As he was turning the matter over in his mind, a loud, explosive metal noise made him shudder.

"What are you doing, frozen in place like that?" Cedric asked, shoving shattered iron out of the way.

Aldrus shook his head and focused; they weren’t safe just yet.

As a cloud of dust rose from the scattered debris, Alice squeezed inside the cell and slid one of Aiden’s arms around her neck.

Whew... Aldrus sighed in relief once more. They were very lucky; the artifact’s power didn’t work on the blonde girl, it seemed like it only affected those who lay inside.

"D-Damn it! Aiden!" Suddenly, Alice’s voice cut the air.

Aldrus’s eyes widened in surprise; he’d never heard her curse before.

"Y-You look terrible! What happened to you?!" she exclaimed again.

Immediately, Aldrus and Cedric approached them; both equally startled by the sudden shift in her composure.

They hadn’t been able to see it from outside the cell, but now, up close, both boys went stiff at the sight of their friend.

Aiden was severely injured, the upper half of his uniform was barely there anymore. His once pale torso was now mostly blue and dark purple; bruises, cuts and coagulated blood from multiple internal bleedings occupied its surface.

His face was paler than usual; the ghostly white interrupted mid-way by a terrible wound in his head. Dry crimson covered one eye, the nose, and reached all the way down to his chin.

Aldrus stared at his friend for a whole minute, in complete and utter silence. He had never been a spiteful person, nor was the jailer someone deserving of his vengeance. Or at least, he hadn’t been.

Until now.

He recalled the short, mundane times of his previous week. How he met Alice, how he met Aiden, how he met his team.

Needless to say, he wasn’t the type to rank people by how much he liked them. However, out of all his friends, the one with the purest smile and the most innocent soul...

The one who reminded him of his little brother...

He was the one they hurt the most.

"Take care of him, will you~? He gets avoided quite easily by others."

"..."

I’m sorry, Seris. It won’t happen again.

Aldrus bit his lip. He bit it hard enough he tasted the rust for the first time in three days. "Let’s go. Now."

Alice nodded, her expression somber. Supporting Aiden, she stepped out of the shattered cell, shifted her gaze to the right, and stopped in place.

"...Aiden. How long has this been here?" she asked, staring at the source of blue light they had seen earlier.

"...Ughh... S-Since they got us..." The silver-haired boy muttered.

Cedric, who had just come out of the cell, stopped as well and said with a dry tone, "...That’s a third-rank artifact."

What?!

Alice and the others didn’t seem surprised. However, Aldrus couldn’t help but gasp upon those words.

"W-What are you saying?! Do you know how rare these things are? Why would they have something like this, nevermind keep it here?!" he snapped.

Aiden painfully turned his head to him, then, his dry lips parted. "...It-It’s inoperative... They were using m-me to recharge it... cough! cough! aghh..."

Using you?! What does that mea—

Wait.

Using... you?

Suddenly, everything clicked.

Why had they captured Aiden too? Why had they kept him isolated? What was the VIP treatment? How did they plan a kidnap with a third-ranked Holder keeping watch over the students? Why had his [Visione] been blocked earlier?

It all made sense.

With such a powerful object, only a pinch of care was enough to let them pass through any vigilance the academy could provide. At the same time, if that artifact was somewhat similar to their cell, the amount of Perspective required to fill a single use was enormous.

They’d look for the fastest way to provide it, and a remarkable student such as Aiden, with his abnormal prowess, would be a very tempting option. Besides, to ensure he’d fill the thing as soon as possible, they had been mercilessly inflicting stress on him, on a far larger scale than what they’d done to the rest.

Given, if it was Perspective what they needed, then Aldrus would’ve been the better pick, but almost no one knew about it, and unlike physical control or skills such as [Motion], Perspective alone could not be measured at a glance.

T-Those fuckers! A cold shiver ran down his spine. If they were in trouble before, now they knew for certain—whoever planned the whole thing was way, way more dangerous than they had thought.

Yet, there were still questions left to be asked. If they intended to recharge the artifact, why capture the rest instead of Aiden on his own? No. Why had they bothered to use the damn thing at all if they knew they’d need to recharge it later?

The main purpose of the kidnap could not be explained with just the current information.

And most importantly, why was the room leading down there sealed?

Aldrus was about to ask, but it looked like Alice had already done so.

"...Eh? You guys c-came from the stairs...?" Aiden asked.

"We did, why? Didn’t the jailer use that as well?" Alice replied.

The sobbing boy shook his head. "N-No, he always avoided getting near there... I asked him once wh-why would he bother taking a longer route, he just said it was... dangerous?"

Cedric looked at him with concern. "Dangerous...? What do you mea—

*CRASH*

The blond boy was cut off by a loud noise coming from upstairs. "What the hell was that?!"

It sounded like... Splintering wood?

"S-Shit!"

*CRASH*

*CRASH*

*CRASH!*

Not a single second passed before the ceiling collapsed under the strike of a tall, cloaked man.

"You... Do you have any idea what you’ve done?" the figure said.

No... He-He’s here!

The jailer.