The man buckled forward, his legs giving in. With a loud shout that had likely been a curse, he tried to steady himself so he wouldn’t fall on his daughter. The cup dropped to the floor and shattered as the mother shrieked in surprise.
She scooped up her daughter from the floor and carried her to a corner to check whether a shard had hurt her somehow.
The father’s cursing died down. He exchanged some words with his wife, clearly annoyed. Only when his daughter started wordlessly crying did he give up and concentrated on the broken cup with a sigh.
“Well, she started crying.” Aspen pulled a face. Not a bad reaction, but not the one they needed.
“What are you two doing?” At some point, Rhythm had appeared behind them.
The two young men turned around and stared at him.
Rhythm felt the hair on his arms rise. These two people… were like mechanical dolls. They gave him the creeps. “Why are you causing a mess? What if the shadows attack you?”
River lowered his head at the angry tone. Aspen took a large step forward, blocking River from Rhythm while giving a toothy grin that made him look not a tiny bit friendlier. “Why does it matter to you? Don’t meddle with us.”
“You might be endangering us, too! Why don’t you just search along with us? Listen to the adults.” Rhythm sighed and straightened his back. He looked quite imposing, but his aura was lost on Aspen.
“No, you’re idiots. I don’t wanna.” The youth snickered. “Look, if we die, then it’s our fault. We won’t interfere with you, and you shouldn’t interfere with us.”
When Aspen’s smile faded, Rhythm’s brows began to scrunch up. He was beginning to wonder if he hadn’t walked into a pair of psychopaths. “Suit yourself.”
The man decisively left the two alone again, but neither of the two younger men doubted that Rhythm would resort to violence if anything they did would mess with the other group’s plans. Farther away, Crisis stepped out of the hallway, looking towards them and returning his attention to Rhythm once the other reached him.
The very moment Rhythm had stepped away, River was already staring at the broken cup with hanging shoulders.
Of course the father cleaned up the shards, but the girl did nothing but cry. She didn’t talk, and the broken cup was far from easily recognizable. The parents wouldn’t notice any connection.
“What’s the next try?”
The endlessness of possibilities was both a blessing and a curse.
River attempted to exchange more cups later – not for her to drink from, simply for her to see. When faced with several of the “scary” cups, the girl returned to shrieking. Her visibly annoyed parents merely soothed her.
He tried putting it next to her bed, where the old man’s had been.
Crying.
He tried letting the aunt carry one, letting random servants carry one-
After two hours, the girl had cried herself into a serious fit. She was thrashing around, unwilling to relax. Everything turned into a huge mess – the hysterical girl behaved like possessed, making various people run over.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
It was clear that none of the tries after the first one were worth anything. Her reactions were the result of her fear stacking up. He couldn’t tell how she’d react if only a single one of the events happened.
Elnfg abbx boo tlr uijrrfr jcv geyyfv tlr fsfr.
Qtlif tf kjr jkjgf atja atlr kjr j ujwf lcnbinlcu jmaeji tewjcr, tf tjv ralii reymbcrmlberis agfjafv la ilxf rbwfatlcu firf. Lf xcfk jybea atf yeaafgois foofma jcv sfa vlvc’a mbcrlvfg pera tbk wemt alwf j ilaaif ulgi kbeiv cffv ab mjiw vbkc.
For the test to be worth anything.
But it was acceptable.
It had given him another idea. He could-
Someone pulled him to the side. River’s breath hitched at the hand holding his wrist – not even holding him too tightly, but constricting nonetheless.
He immediately felt like he was in a cage.
“What in the world are you up to?” It was Honey this time. River honestly didn’t know why all three of the adults had such a strong desire to mess with everything he did. All of a sudden, the people from previous games who didn’t care about your life or death appeared so much better.
“Testing things out”, the easterner replied robotically. He kept his body all stiff and motionless.
Don’t give them a reason to be mad.
Don’t give them a reason to scold you.
Just accept whatever is coming.
Aspen returned from checking out the situation. His expression was twisting into an irritable snarl at the sight of Honey.
It was an ugly expression, not one you’d want to see on a human’s face. Too feral, too violent. Far too ready to destroy everything in single-minded anger.
River met Aspen’s eyes.
He didn’t gesture to him or anything – he was still keeping quiet, letting Honey ramble on and hold his wrist.
Whatever it was about that glance, Aspen settled down.
Somewhere in his subconscious, River recognized Aspen’s now scrutinizing gaze as the look of someone deliberating a purchase. River was on a trial period – so far, Aspen was going along with him, but he was constantly checking if the partnership was worth its price.
How far was Aspen willing to go for a peace of mind?
How much pain was he in?
River turned back to Honey. He kept his head low as he spoke. “We won’t mess around anymore.”
“Good.” Honey hadn’t even noticed he had barely been listening. Treating him like a messy teenager, she finally let go off his wrist and pat his shoulder. “Leave this to us. We will tell you when we find anything.”
The easterner hummed.
He walked towards the safe-room with his head held low.
Behind him, Aspen joined into his pace. There was unhidden impatience audible in his voice. “You’re just giving up?”
“I’m calculating”, River said calmly. “We only have one more run and this one is useless.”
People were still running around to deal with the hysterical girl. He had wasted the whole run. His fault.
The safe-room was oddly comfortable to enter. River first sat on the ground, then slid down lower until he was lying down.
He slipped his hands under his glasses, ignoring he’d smudge them, and covered his eyes.
“So what-”
“Shhh.”
The soft sound was enough to shut Aspen up.
Whether he left the room again after that, River didn’t know. He wasn’t listening.
He was busy.
If the letter was found-
If the package was found-
If he’d place the package on a table-
Ground-
The kid would-
The mother could-
If he started-
Scenarios were running through his head.
Too much wasn’t clear. Too much had to be adjusted on the spot. This was unavoidable, he’d have to deal with it. Just like he had to deal with Honey, Crisis and Rhythm running around and potentially messing with him.
No matter.
River spent hour after hour motionless, just lying on his back and trying to judge how which Actor would react to which scene. How to best manipulate it to get to his goal.
There was one thing he shouldn’t forget.
This wasn’t a detective case.
He wasn’t trying to lay out all the pieces beautifully like Sherlock Holmes had done – he was a hidden person trying to stop the aunt from leaving.
A suspicion.
He had to sow enough suspicion that they could investigate the case cleanly and solve it themselves.
The half hour at the end, the one where the aunt lost her package, it was too tight.
Right. There were other ways.
He couldn’t think too static in a game with humans.
When the bell started chiming, River almost jumped up. He swiftly pulled the door open, blinking into the sunlight.
“Last run”, Aspen whispered. The words were almost lost in the wind.
River took off his glasses, rubbing his eyes and taking a deep breath. He knew how most of it worked, he just hadn’t tested it together. There was a chance that one thing might set off changes in another, but he was sure he could adjust on the spot.
“Let’s go”, he declared, voice even. Behind his glasses, his eyes flickered with determination.
“Awaiting your orders!”
Aspen saluted as a joke. River ignored him and made his way over to the grandfather’s room.
“Prepare everything for the staged burglary”, he demanded, taking out some of the remnant medicine. He had thought about it, and felt that it would be necessary to draw people’s eyes to it. It was, after all, a vital connection to the evidence the aunt carried.
He rummaged through it, opening one up and letting the powder fall. It didn’t look perfect, but it was close enough to having someone check what was inside.
He made sure that the prescription was visible enough if someone looked at the substance. That way, they’d be reminded of what it was. Even back then, people were well aware of what an overdose was and what it would do.
Hopefully they’ll be successful this time
Thank you for the chapter!! ❤️❤️
Reading their thoughts about adults made me remember what I thought about adults.
Thank you! So nice to read this after homework….