Halfway through the way home, the two boys walked into the intricate back alleys and dense paths that were called "mazes" by adults. The boy stopped and stared at a small alley, neither dodging nor ostentatious, he just watched.
"What is that?"
His friend asked, but the boy didn't need an answer.
"oh."
His friend said after a while:
"Go ahead, before they see us."
The boy stayed still, the narrow walls of the alley were filled with garbage, and among the waste, a couple hugged each other, at least the man hugged the woman, and the woman lay weakly on the dirty ground, her clothes were ragged.
Suddenly, she turned her head toward the boy, and as the man moved on her, she looked at the two children with pure black eyes.
"Go away..."
His friend whispered and pulled him away. The boy was silent for a long time, but his verbal friend made up for the silence.
"Just just watch that, you're lucky if we're not shot. Didn't your mother teach you what kind of politeness mean? You can't watch like that."
The boy still said stubbornly:
"She is crying."
His friend was a little impatient.
"You don't know, you just see it."
The boy looked at his friend.
"She's crying, Charles."
His friends remained silent after that, and they silently walked through the remaining maze, without even saying "goodbye" when they finally arrived at their residential spire.
The boy's mother arrived home earlier than him, and he smelled the noodles and heard her buzzing in the only room in the living room: it was a small kitchen with a plastic steel screen door.
She rolled her sleeves to her wrist as she walked into the main hall, a move that covered the tattoos on her arm, but the boy never commented on the way she had always hidden them, and the code symbols tattooed on her skin marked her master, and the boy knew at least that, although he often doubted whether they had any meaning.
"Your cram school has a call with me tonight."
His mother nodded at the lecturer-it was now blank, but the boy could easily imagine the mentor's face on the grainy screen that was floating on the plane.
"Is it because I'm too slow?"
"Why do you think so?"
"Because I did not make mistakes, I never made mistakes, so it must be because I was too slow."
His mother sat by the bed with her hands on her lap. Her hair that had just washed was wet and dark, usually with blond hair—a rare among the people in the city.
"Talos, can you tell me what's wrong?"
The boy sat beside her and put himself in her arms.
"I don't understand the meaning of tutoring, we have to learn, but I don't understand why we have to do it."
“To be smarter, more intelligent and powerful, then you can live on the edge of the city and go to work somewhere…better place than here.”
She slowly finished the last few words and casually grabbed the tattoo symbolizing ownership on her forearm.
"Is this really OK?"
The boy smiled for her, and her response was to embrace him, which would happen every time she was beaten.
In those nights, the blood on her face always splashed on the boy's hair, but tonight there was only one thing that splashed on it: her tears.
"Child, why do you say that?"
"I'll join a gang, like my father, and Shire will join a gang, like his father, like others, we both will die on the streets."
The boy seemed to be thinking rather than merely melancholy, and all the words that broke his mother's heart did not touch him at all.
In his opinion, facts are facts.
"The edge of the city is not necessarily better, isn't it? There's not much difference."
She cried, crying like the girls in the alley, and the things in their eyes were so similar, just as empty and numb.
"Yes."
She whispered:
“It’s no different there either.”
"So why do I have to go to cram school to study? Why do you have to pay for these books to read for me?"
She had not been able to give an answer for a long time, and the boy listened to her choking and felt her trembling.
"Mother?"
"You can do something else."
She began to shake him, like she swayed him when he was younger.
"If you stand out from other kids, if you become the best, dazzling, smartest kid, you will never have to see the world again."
The boy looked up at her. He was not sure if he heard it wrong, nor did he know whether he liked the idea.
"Leave this world? Then who will..."
He almost said "who will take care of you", but that would only make her cry again.
"Who will accompany you?"
"You never have to worry about me, I will be fine, but be sure to answer the tutor's questions. You have to be smarter, which is very important."
"But where should I go? What should I do?"
"It's up to you to decide where to go."
She smiled at him, smiling happily.
“Because the hero can act freely.”
"A hero?"
This thought made him giggle, his laughter relieved his mother's grief - a change he had been able to notice at this age, but it was too early to teach him why such pure things could resonate with a mother's heart.
"Yes, if you pass the trial, you will be taken away by the legion, you will become a hero, a knight, accompanying the stars, and wandering in the dark."
The boy looked at her for a long time and suddenly said:
"Mom, how old are you?"
“Twenty-six revolutions.”
“Can you not be able to take the trial when you are too old?”
She spoke after leaving a kiss on his forehead, then smiled, and the tension in the small room disappeared.
"I can't take the trial, I'm a girl, the Legion only accepts the best boys, but if you're like your father used to be, your qualifications will pass away."
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content behind! "But I heard that the Legion always takes the boys away from the gang."
“Not always.”
She carried him aside and continued to stir the noodles in the pan.
"Or it will take some boys away from the gang, but it's always looking for the best and shining stars, promise me you'll be one of them, okay?"
"Okay, mom."
“Will you stay silent in tutoring classes?”
"No, mom."
"Very good, then would you say this to your friends?"
"He is not actually my friend, he is always angry. And he wants to join a gang when he grows up."
The mother smiled at him again, but her smile became even more sad, like a silent lie.
"In this world, everyone will join a gang, my little bachelor, that's just one of the things that are destined, everyone will have a family, a gang, a job... but you can't do it, remember that the things that must be done are different from just satisfying desires."
She brought the dinner to the small table, wearing small gloves on her pale hands to avoid being scalded by the tin bowl.
Then she threw the gloves onto the bed. When he took the first bite, her mother smiled and touched his head and said gently:
"Remember, Talos, you're going to be a hero."
"Owner......."
Suddenly, Talos noticed something gently touching his face.
It was Otavia, who was gently wiping away the tears from his face with a scarf, and his face was filled with worry, like a mother waiting for him to come home.
Talos touched his cheek and he did cry, although he had never cried since Charles' death.
Makuchen also tiptoed and stretched out his hand, as if he wanted to touch the tears on Talos' chin, and then asked.
"Uncle Angel, why are you crying?"
Talos smiled.
"Because I saw you."
Otavia put away the scarf. Although she realized that Talos's emotions were very rich among his brothers, she did not expect that the other party would suddenly cry.
The sensitivity from her mother made her guess that this might be related to Talos's past family, so she asked softly:
"Did you recall your parents?"
Talos's face showed a bitter smile.
"Ha, my father is a murderer, my mother is a contracted prostitute. The painful years have wiped her out, and her face is always haggard...I didn't do what she wanted."
"I'm really sorry, I shouldn't have asked this."
The boy couldn't understand the conversation between the two. He just looked at Talos with his little head tilted, and his pure and pure pupils reflected the face full of tiredness and scars.
"Uncle Angel, can I become a hero like you?"
"Everything is possible. A child, as long as a person has determination, will and courage, he has the qualification to become an angel."
At this moment, the communication horn on the wall sounded, and Valer's voice came.
"The battle leader is here."
Talos straightened up and looked at Otavia.
"Otavia, Septims, thank you for bringing your children to see me, go back, return to your comfortable and peaceful life, don't come again, since you and your children are far away from the darkness and war, don't touch it again."
Otavia nodded silently, took Makuchen's little hand and left the medical cabin with Septims and two other children.