Iris Engelard Erasmus. After what happened that day, the young genius of Erasmus regained his consciousness once more in another person's body.
Because of an unidentified reason, Engelard's consciousness started to work inside the head of a young boy who's been held inside a cell.
He can treat the body as his own, but at the same time, not his. That is because the owner, the boy who is now known as Kayne, has consciousness of his own.
"Shut up! Shut up!"
That's all he can hear the boy saying every time he says something. However, at some times, it is the boy who will talk to him.
"Are you there?"
And Engelard won't reply to tease the temperamental child he is.
The child would beg for him to say something and if he didn't, the child would start yelling in that cell while holding his head, banging it continuously on the hard walls of that cell.
He's crazy. Kayne is.
His situation drove him to become crazy.
In the morning and at night. They served him porridge that shines bright inside that dimly lit room. At first, he thought it was because they were too hungry that the food looked extra delectable. But as soon as the child finished the bowl, he understood that it was not a simple porridge.
Kayne would fall on his knees and hold his throat to stop the excruciating pain he's feeling.
"Stop.... Stop, please. Stop it now," he pleads.
But the people who serve him the food will only look at him with indifference in their eyes. For them, the thin boy that is yelling, crawling, and gasping for his own life is nothing but an animal that needs to be tamed.
Aside from that torture, he receives simply from eating that questionable porridge, there's also the man who will come to the poor boy once in a while.
With a whip that looks like the most dangerous weapon when it's in his hands, the man will beat up the boy's body from dusk to dawn or until his pent up anger is quelled.
Soon after, the boy found out from the guards' conversation that the man was no other than his father. Which made the boy throw a fit of rage by destroying his own skull again.
Engelard's role all this time is to continuously heal the boy.
He found it only one day that his talent in making runes and invoking large-scale rune magic was nowhere when he tried to set the two of them free from that place. But in exchange for that, he can control time at his will on both inanimate and living things. He theorized that since he's not on his body anymore, something that makes him use runes is not present anymore.
Since then, he's the one who heals Kayne automatically without his permission.
When the boy woke up, lying down flat on the cell's cold floor, he spoke to Engelard. "You're lying. How can you miss your father if fathers are like that?"
"Not all fathers are like that."
"What about my mother? You also said you have a brother. Do I have one?"
No response. Engelard doesn't know how to respond to his question. In the first place, he doesn't know what happened to his mother. And his brother, who he respects and loves dearly, fell down inside a dead well.
"What's that?"
"What?"
"Are you the one controlling my body right now? My chest feels tight, like it's been crushed. Is that your doing?"
"No, it's only because you're hungry."
"Well, I guess they are also not like your mother and brother," Kayne said, going back to the previous topic.
"Should we run away?" Engelard suggested.
"Run away?"
"Yes, away from this place. I already memorized the routines of the guards. It'll make slipping out much easier. Trust me, I am an expert in running... away." The last word was said only to complete his sentence. Guilt filled Engelard's mind as the memory from back then flashes. Yes he is good at running away, saving only himself.
"Can we really run away?"
"Yes, don't you want to see all the things I told you before?"
"But, you're a liar."
"I am not. Your family is just not normal."
Kayne paused and thought deeply before replying to Engelard. "Do you have a normal family?"
But no matter how long he tried to reach out to him, Engelard hasn't replied to that question. He only revealed himself after a few days.
While Kayne was sleeping soundly, groaning on the physical injuries he had, Engelard turned back the time for his body and healed him. He took over all the control of the body they shared and broke the chains that binding them to that place.
He's running away. He'll take both of them to a much better place, away from this kind of madness.
He stumbled a few times while on the run, but he did not dare to look back just like how his brother told him.
"Don't look back!"
Until he reached the edge of the land, they were in. Without a second thought, he crossed the boundary, and he fell.
The sudden impact of the child's limbs on the land broke all of it and brought him back to his original consciousness.
As Engelard tries to heal the body, Kayne is also dragging it into the shade where he felt at home the most.
"Thrilling, right?"
Kayne growled at the voice weakly. "Shut up," he said as he lose consciousness once more.