“Where have you been all this time?!”

*Gulp*-.

Rem shouted and grabbed me by the collar.

I stared blankly at Rem, baffled by the situation.

She looked at least five years older.

Perhaps, at a guess, she was now old enough to enter middle school.

Not that the concept of middle school would exist here.

I opened my mouth to speak.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Rem snarled at me in a shrill voice, replacing the innocent look I had seen before.

Was this Rem's true personality?

No.

Rem was calm for her age, but she was an introverted child with the playfulness and shyness of her peers.

Then what had happened during the five years that I was gone?

“Perhaps you could tell me what happened in the last five years?”

“……You really don’t remember anything?”

“Yes, that day, when I broke through the ceiling and tried to get outside, I lost consciousness. When I woke up, this was the situation I found myself in.”

“That’s impossible… I thought you escaped.”

“That’s impossible.”

Still, Rem stared into my narrow eyes, as if she couldn’t believe me.

Then, as if realizing that I wasn’t lying, Rem sighed deeply.

“Ha… I can’t believe everything you say, but you don’t seem to be lying.”

Even so, Rem didn’t erase her suspicious gaze.

On the contrary, it was a look of hatred directed at me.

Why was Rem treating me this way?

What happened while I was gone?

“Have I done something wrong?”

“What?”

“It’s just that you seem angry with me right now, Rem.”

“……Oh, dear.”

Rem sighed deeply.

Then she looked at me and spoke.

“Yes, I’m angry with you right now, Adel. No, maybe everyone here is angry with you.”

“What do you mean?”

I couldn’t understand what Rem was saying.

From what I’d gathered so far, it wasn’t hard to guess that I had reappeared after five years, but I couldn’t understand why Rem was angry with me.

Rem continued.

“When you called the other kids and broke through the ceiling, you suddenly disappeared. Whether you sank into the ground or disappeared into the sky, I don’t know. But the problem was that you broke through the ceiling.”

“The ceiling?”

“Yes, how are we supposed to escape now that you’ve broken through the ceiling?”

“……That’s…”

Well, maybe if I were there.

But could these kids, whose physical abilities were below that of ordinary people, reach the ceiling?

It was highly likely that the children thought I had escaped on my own.

And that wasn't the only reason.

“That’s when it happened, the food started to dwindle.”

“……?”

Rem continued her explanation with a stiff face.

Right after I broke through the ceiling and disappeared.

The ceiling was suddenly restored, and the food that had been coming down was significantly reduced.

Without a strong person like me around, the children often went hungry and were beaten by the kids from the next cell, Rem said in a hoarse voice.

“Do you understand? It’s as good as you killing everyone.”

“What do you mean, killed?”

“Six of us have already died in the past five years. Starved to death or beaten to death by the kids next door.”

“…….”

I couldn’t open my mouth.

I couldn’t say it was because I broke through the ceiling and left.

If I hadn’t been there, history would have unfolded as it was supposed to.

Since my absence would have been the original course of history, the children’s deaths were a foregone conclusion.

So it wouldn’t be right to blame me, but since there was no one else to blame but me, Rem was so angry.

“……I won’t apologize. It’s not my fault.”

“What?”

At my words, Rem glared at me with angry eyes.

I let out a sigh.

Yes, I understood why Rem was angry.

So I had to see her.

To resolve this situation, I needed to see Fron.

And if I was right, maybe….

That’s when it happened.

*Rumble*-.

Just before the central wall closed, the children returned to this room.

The child at the front was Fron, who looked haggard as if she had been badly injured.

“Rem, Fron’s hurt!”

“We need to treat her quickly.”

At that, Rem glanced at me and then walked towards Fron.

I stood there speechless, unable to say anything.

Fron was hurt.

It weighed heavily on my shoulders.

I hadn’t come here to save Fron.

So what was I doing here.

My head was spinning with these thoughts.

I finally started to walk.

Fron, who had collapsed and was breathing heavily, looked up at me.

“You… ”

“Don’t speak.”

The children murmured, seemingly bewildered by my confrontation with Fron.

“Isn’t that Adel?”

“I thought he escaped alone after breaking through the ceiling, but he’s back?”

The children voiced many questions, but I didn’t have time to answer them.

I quickly scanned Fron’s body.

At a glance, it was clear that Fron’s body wasn’t normal.

It was also a testament to how much she had been pushing herself.

“…Did you want to make Fron suffer like this?”

I asked the children.

“…..”

The children didn’t answer.

They just sniffed and looked at Fron with worried eyes.

This meant that the children already saw Fron as their leader.

Without a word, I unleashed black flames towards Fron.

It was something I could only use through the Orb of the Flame Emperor, but now I could use it on my own.

*Fwoosh*-.

The flames cauterized Fron’s wounds, stopping the bleeding.

With this, Fron was able to overcome one hurdle, but I couldn’t heal the remaining wounds.

Fron groaned in pain.

“Ugh….”

“Bear with it. You have to if you want to live.”

I was right.

There were no medical supplies or anyone with medical knowledge here.

For the remaining wounds, we had no choice but to rely on Fron’s self-healing ability.

“Fron, are you alright?”

“…Yes, I can move.”

Time passed, and eventually, Fron sat up.

Then, looking at me, Fron asked.

“Why have you returned to this place?”

“There were circumstances.”

“…Circumstances, you say? So even someone as monstrously strong as you couldn’t escape this place.”

Haha.

Fron began to laugh madly.

“Then why are we fighting? Why did I have to kill the children from the next cell? Why is my body…!”

Fron, who had been pouring out her words in anger, suddenly burst into tears.

She looked like ashes left behind after everything had been burned.

The eyes of a living corpse waiting to die.

The children were bewildered by Fron’s change and reacted as if they couldn’t understand.

Except for one person.

“…..”

Only Rem was trembling, her shoulders shaking as she listened to Fron.

As if she wanted to believe that my words were lies, as if she was pleading.

With such eyes, Rem looked at me.

What had happened?

And what was the truth of this prison that Rem and Fron knew?

I was curious, and Rem, looking at me, opened her mouth.

“Follow me, you seem to have a lot of questions.”

“…Alright.”

*Swoosh*-.

I followed Rem, glancing at Fron, who was bursting into tears.

Perhaps those tears were something I could neither heal nor comfort.

So it was better to hear Rem’s explanation.

And so, Rem and I walked until we reached a place where the children couldn’t hear us.

***

Rem looked at me and spoke.

“You might already know, since you came from the outside and have been outside.”

“…”

That wasn’t actually true, but I decided to listen to Rem quietly.

There was no reason for Rem to believe me even if I said anything.

Rem continued her story.

“We’ve been trapped in this prison from the moment we gained consciousness. The water and food provided, as you’ve seen, fall from the sky. It’s as if we’re being raised like livestock. And then Fron came.”

“You mean Fron?”

“Yes, Fron also came from the outside, just like you.”

“…!”

I couldn’t help but be surprised.

Fron wasn’t like the other children who had always been imprisoned here; she came from the outside.

Rem began to speak with a complicated expression.

“Fron knew what this place was for. Or rather, someone must have instructed her to come here.”

“Then you know what this place is?”

“Yes, this place is designed to make children kill each other, to leave only one survivor.”

“…”

“I don’t have to say it, but Fron was the chosen one.”

I see.

So that’s why Fron wanted to die out of guilt for surviving alone.

That made sense.

And it was terrifying.

This place was truly frightening.

Food falling from the sky.

Dividing the space with walls, creating groups, and making them fight each other.

It was a perfectly designed space.

As I nodded, Rem continued.

“But Fron didn’t try to kill the other children. She wanted to coexist. She’s just a soft-hearted kid, feeling sorry for the children she couldn’t save, for the children she killed. That’s the kind of kid Fron is.”

So, this is your fault.

“Because of you, Fron found hope. You broke out of this place and didn’t return for five years, so she thought, if she could gain enough strength to break through the ceiling, she could take the children with her and escape.”

“…..”

I closed my mouth.

If Fron had become that strong, the original history wouldn’t repeat itself.

This meant that Fron’s plan would fail.

Rem began to sob sorrowfully.

“…Fron saw you and gained hope, so she killed those children. She killed the children from the next cell, thinking that if she did, she could save us. That she could get us out of here. That we wouldn’t have to fight anymore. That’s what she thought as she killed them, again and again.”

*Swoosh*-.

I gently hugged Rem, who was trembling and patted her back.

It was all I could do for her.

Now I understood.

Why Fron made that choice?

Why she wanted to die.

If she had really gone through all that, she wouldn’t have been able to bear it.

And I was sorry.

What kind of setting had I written to bring about this outcome?

I couldn't recall, and that made me feel even more apologetic.

As I was hugging Rem, I suddenly froze.

*Twitch*-.

My body stiffened.

Not just frozen, but completely immobilized, unable to do anything.

*Click*-.

*Click*-.

The sound of rewinding gears echoed around us.

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