Forgive || The Promised Neverland

➴ Chapter One: Father ➴

[Name] stalled for a moment. Was she really seeing this- hearing this, even? A human, a cattle child, just like her, and yet... Was this even possible? Perhaps, then, was she... How?

"...Ayshe, where did you grow up?" [Name] asked tentatively. Ayshe froze, not understanding the entire question.

"I grew up here, like anyone else," she answered, her confidence slowly loosing itself. "Wait. You said 'we' earlier."

[Name]'s shoulders lost their tension. "I see."

"You're a cattle child?" Ayshe asked, her voice hushed. "There are others?"

The girl stepped back. "We're all cattle children, Ayshe."

"We," Ayshe said. "So there are more of us."

[Name] sighed, turning her back and walking back to the bookshelf. "Quiet down. Do you want them to hear us?"

Ayshe followed her, the girl's previous aggression having dissolved. "I thought I was the only one. Could I meet them?"

"I was planning to bring you to them in the first place," [Name] answered, meeting Ayshe's gaze. "But only on one condition.

"Spill," Ayshe said, certainty in her voice.

"You'll leave Faarih. Forever." [Name]'s voice was as cold as the tundra. Ayshe's stance faltered upon hearing [Name]'s conditions. "If I take you to meet the others, you will live with me and them. You will become an enemy to the demons. Eventually, you may have to kill your own father."

"Kill my own..." Ayshe crossed her arms. "I can't leave him."

"Unfortunate," [Name] sighed. "It'd be better for you."

"I'll see what's better for me for myself," Ayshe said defiantly. "Do they all hate people too?"

"The demons aren't people," [Name] corrected. "They're an entirely different species."

"But they live exactly like us," Ayshe insisted. "What's so different about them?"

"How would you know what a human lives like?" [Name] inquired. "I'm the first one you've ever seen."

"He taught me," Ayshe said. It was clear that she was starting to become angry, exasperated with her fellow human being. "My father taught me language, history, everything I knew."

"That doesn't sound like any father I've ever heard," [Name] said, flipping through a book. Her delicate fingers traced every page, searching for any information. Ayshe's face softened behind her mask.

"Why would you say that?" she asked. "This-"

"Girls," Gorian opened the door of the library, cutting Ayshe off. "How are things doing back here?"

[Name]'s voice had already changed by the time she responded, shocking Ayshe by how quickly she managed to play her role. It was definitely unnatural how the other girl, who was so cold and hateful before, turned into this loving, innocent persona known as Daina.

"We're getting along just fine," [Name] assured, waving her hands. "Did you get the book I requested?"

Not like it matters all that much. The books are only so that I can understand what the demons believe in.