In Fluere, inside a cell in a cellar… A man could be heard shouting in anger.
“Hey, let me go, assholes!”
A young man’s voice echoed through the empty stone corridors of the jail.
“Damn it. Once I get out, I know what I’ll do to them.” The poor man was helplessly shouting threats in the empty cell. Then he lost his temper again and started banging his handcuffed arms against the metal bars.
“Clang Clang”
“HEYYY! ANYBODY HERE?” But the man didn’t get any response despite the cacophony of voices.
“I don’t understand…What did I do wrong to end up here? I didn’t even had any evil intentions.”
The man who claimed to be innocent didn’t understand. He had been stuck alone in this huge cell for days, with no one to talk to, of course. He was slowly getting hungry, as he could tell by the strange noises his stomach was making, but there was a bigger problem. He was bored.
“What, they put people in such boring places to make them realize their crimes? People would go crazy here!”
While he was talking to himself out of boredom, a cute little mouse jumped out of a hole in the corner of the cell, and the man, realizing this, jumped on it, perhaps to prevent his ‘only friend,’ who would accompany him in the future, from escaping.
“Gotcha!”
He had succeeded. He was holding the brown-haired, black-eyed mouse, about the size of his palm, carefully in his handcuffed hands, and the mouse was looking at him in surprise.
“Hehe, You’re my friend now,” he said with a smiling face.
“Vik?” The little mouse was still looking at him in fear, trying to understand what had happened.
“Come on, don’t look so scared. I’m not crazy.”
‘At least not yet,’ he thought.
“And you’re not even my first mouse friend, so don’t go wiggling around so surprised,” he continued, trying to prove his sincerity.
The little mouse looked at the man with an expression of incomprehension. The ‘not yet crazy’ man must have noticed this strangeness because he wondered why he couldn’t communicate with confusion.
“Oh, right, those stupid handcuffs.” It was all the fault of the handcuffs on the hands holding the mouse. Because of the unique alloy metal it was made of, it could not transfer its essence to the outside, so it could not use its ability.
“Oh, what bad luck,” said the young man and left the mouse, his only entertainment in the giant cell. How could they going to get along if the poor animal couldn’t understand him?
But something happened that he didn’t expect. After the man who had caught the little mouse let him go, the little mouse began to wander around and examine him, obviously curious, too. After all, when was the last time anyone had been in this lonely private cell?
The young man was confused. “Oh, you, aren’t you running away?But If you don’t understand me, aren’t you afraid to stand beside me?”
“Vik,” the mouse squawked at him to show he was not afraid.
“Haha, I knew it. Fate has brought us together! From now on, we will be comrades. Well-?” He thought for a moment before finishing his sentence.
“Frederick. Of course, Frederick. That’s your name from now on. Oh, what? You want to know why I named you like that? Well,There was someone like a rat in the Temple who smuggled information, and I was assigned to catch and kill him. His name was also Frederick! And since you both have similarities, I think having the same name is okay.”
Then he picked Frederick up with his cuffed hands, put him on his shoulder, and began to speak pompously.
“Even if we don’t understand each other, even if we don’t look alike, you and I, the Great Dharma and the Noble Frederick, are comrades from now on until death do us part. May the Buddha bless us.”
Then Dharma put his hands together and prepared to recite a few sutras, but a sound interrupted him.
“Tak!”
“…”
“Tak”
Becoming serious, Dharma quietly opened one of his closed eyes and looked in the direction of the voice.
“Someone’s coming. No, two?
Dharma turned towards the stairs and saw, by the reflected light from the lamp they were holding in their hands, that someone was slowly approaching. Without wasting any time, he quickly led Frederick to the first hole he came out of. ‘See you later, my little friend,’ he said, and after saying goodbye to the mouse, tidied herself up and waited quietly for his guests coming down the stairs.
The first one looked like a high-ranking Officer, but the one next to him was more interesting to Dharma because he was the bastard who had turned him in.
‘That asshole.’
Nevertheless, Dharma kept silent lest the situation become even more troubling because he knew he was innocent.
Going down the stairs, the two stopped in front of the cell where Dharma was.
The man who looked like an Officer asked the man next to him. “Is that him?”
The man beside the Officer, who looked like a wall guard, took a few steps closer to the cell. Then he held a gas lamp and pointed it at the man in the dark cell opposite him, trying to confirm if this was the step that had used the monsters to attack the walls.
“Y-yes, no doubt, he’s the one who used the monster he used to attack the walls and did a lot of damage.”
Dharma couldn’t stand the unfounded accusations any longer and denied it. “Hey, what do you mean he attacked? It’s just that I was exhausted and couldn’t control the water monster, so I accidentally landed and did some damage to the ramparts. So what? I didn’t destroy the ramparts or attack others after I got off the monster, even though I could have done so if I wanted to! Or do you think you can imprison me here?”
“Silence!”Officer shouted. Then he turned to the guard next to him and spoke in an orderly tone.
“Your mission is over; you may leave.”
The old castle guard didn’t want to spend any more time here, so he left. Now, only the Officer and Dharma were left in the underground jail.
“Now that it is confirmed that you were the one who attacked Fluere let me enumerate your crimes,” the Officer ordered.
“If you object, save it after I read you all the charges.” After seeing that there was no objection from the prisoner in front of him, he said, “Then I will begin.” He began to read the prisoner’s crimes from the paper in his hand.
“I’ll start with the charges you are known to have committed. Offense 1: The suspect attempted to launch an attack on the city of Fluere using sea monsters, which was confirmed by the Guardian. Offense 2: Putting the inhabitants of Fluere in fear and worrying them about their safety. Offense 3: Pretending to be a believer in one of the holy faiths and unsuccessfully attempting to imitate them. Offense 4: Although he claims to have surrendered and does not fight, he blasphemes the Holy Kingdom, the Divine religions, and all the values I have mentioned, even the families of the guards whose duty it is to bring him to the cell until he is brought to the holding cell where he is found. “
Then he lowered the paper on which he had read his crimes, turned to the criminal, and spoke. “Do you object?”
Dharma waited a moment and then spoke awkwardly. “Well, while most of the counts are true, I do object to one in particular…I am indeed an official sent by the Temple!.. And all the other counts I did not do willingly…I may have cursed a few people because they deserved it, but that is all.”
Dharma admitted that he had ‘accidentally’ committed some crimes this time. After all, as a Monk, it wouldn’t be right for him to lie. But one thing was for sure, although no one believed it, he was a monk of the Temple, just like all the other f****** monks!
The Officer looked him up and down. Yes, he looked like a monk, but the monks in the Temple who had chosen the simple life were known to be bald. Unfortunately, the criminal in front of him looked like a criminal who hadn’t done enough research.
“Alright, we have already called someone from the Temple to verify, but my friend, pray that you become a real monk. Otherwise, the Temple will not treat you as well as we treat you for imitating their religion.”
Dharma misfired. ‘Treat you well? My ass! Is this a good treatment? For two f****** long days, you haven’t even given me food!” he said quietly. Unfortunately, he couldn’t say it out loud to avoid worsening the situation.
“If you are finished with your objections, I will move on to the crimes you are presumed to have committed.” After a small cough, he lifted the paper again and began to read aloud.
“Offense 1. Wandering in the dark woods in no-entry zones. Offense 2: This offense is related to the previous one. The suspect sneaked through these forbidden parts of the dark forest, ambushed a pathway, and attacked a horse carriage that was supposed to have been passing by at the time; a body, presumed killed by the suspect, was found near the dismembered horse carriage.”
The Officer finished his words with a slight twang of hatred and looked at the man in front of him with sharp eyes, but he did not let his hatred get in the way of his professionalism. After a brief pause, he began to read the third and final offense.
“The suspect also destroyed part of the forest where he was presumed to have been before he came from the sea to attack the city, and several lifeless animal corpses were found lying around.” Then he lowered the paper he was reading and looked at the man in the cell.
“Will you plead guilty to these charges?” His voice was full of hatred.
“Of course, I will! Why should I admit to something I didn’t do?” Dharma was angry, too. The things he hadn’t done, the bastard with the cane he’d fought, had always been on him.
The Officer continued. “If you don’t accept the charges, then who caused the destruction and loss of life?”
Dharma had finally come to something he knew. After Laughing confidently, he continued. “Of course I know who caused the-“ He would have continued, but the darkness of the night and the pouring rain made it hard to remember the man he had fought.
“Yes?” The Officer waited for an answer.
“Well, well, well, that person-, that person sounded young, but no, not too young and not too old, I think? I don’t really remember his clothes; I think he was wearing a black suit? I’m not sure. But he had a cane! Yes, I remember it very well because of the noise he made, and he beat me with that cane and threw me into the sea, and then I dove for anything near me to avoid drowning in the sea, and luckily, it turned out to be a monster, and you know the rest…” Dharma told the man every detail he could remember.
The Officer touched his forehead with anger in his eyes before continuing in an exasperated tone.“What, all you remember about the man is that he beat you with a cane and the clothes you thought were black? You don’t remember his face, you’re not sure if he was young or old! And you expect me to believe that? B*******!” The Officer crumpled the paper in his hand in anger.
‘He’s making fun of me.
The Officer was about to say a few more words about the absurdity of the man in front of him when a glow started coming from his pocket.
The Officer reached into his pocket and pulled out the glowing thing – it was a sphere.
‘Oh,isnt thats one of those magical orbs used for communication?’ Dharma thought.
The Officer seemed happy that the orb was glowing. He looked at Dharma with a cold expression and spoke. “Good news, the summoned guest from the Temple has arrived. Now we will see if what you say is sophistry or the truth.” He said and unlocked the cell Dharma was in.
Then, the two of them walked up the stairs of the holding cell to where the guest from the Temple was.
The poor little mouse watched sadly from his distant hole as his friend Dharma left.
