The Ghost In The Well

6

A/N: After a few days of hellish training, I passed my driving test today. Can you imagine what I would do to you readers if I failed the test? :)

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"Twenty... thirty... forty..."

Cale was floating above the two dead bodies. He was counting the number of ants and insects that were moving bits and parts of the bodies. While attempting to keep himself occupied, he occasionally discovered interesting insects.

 It usually requires three weeks to several years for a body to completely decompose into a skeleton, but in their case, the rain and sunshine had made them into a disgusting bloated mess. Cale's body was left with his skeleton and that bloodred hair.

"... ninety... a hundred...", Cale continued counting.

The mage's body still needed more time to decompose. Cale could see a centipede crawling into the mage's right eye, nudging it out of the body. The eye then rolled down and dropped to the ground. Cale scooted to his left to avoid touching these sickening things.

The space in the well was already very small, it was smaller than a room in the Henituses' underground prison. He sat on the cleaner area that does not have any ants.

Was this the kind of slacker life he desired? He was continually reminded of his insignificance. He does not need to deal with the war and he can spend his days staring at the wall. Life is exhausting without his children, the same wall he's staring at became boring.

Just when he thought that things couldn't get any worse, his ancient powers stopped working too.

"Guys, are you there?"

-....!

-..., ....!!!

They were still with him but not being able to hear them is making him worry. He was able to hear them just fine yesterday, but now he was left with statics and statics only.

'It must have had something to do with Lily.', she was the only clue Cale had.

He did not know why Lily was looking for him, he thought Lily was always scared of getting close to Cale because he used to swear and throw things around.

"I'm looking for my orabuni!"

"Why are you looking for him?"

"Umm, um because I couldn't find him! Basen oppa also dispatched the knights but we couldn't find him."

"But what if he doesn't want to go back?"

Cale was afraid, afraid that Lily will be the one the find out. She was just a lovable seven-year-old child.

"Then Lily will drag orabuni back!", declared the little girl.

Bold words coming from a young noble that grew up within the castle walls. Cale could not understand why she was so determined.

Thinking back now, he shouldn't have told the young girl to go home and wait. They were bound to know anyway but he felt guilty for giving his sister false hope.

And there the little girl was, in the dining room with her second older brother having dinner together. Her lips were curled up and she was swinging her legs back and forth. Basen glanced at her sister and put down his fork.

"Lily, do you not know how worried we were? The knights had to stop their activities just to find  you in the slums and we were already preoccupied with the search of hyung.", seeing Lily pout, he continued what he came here to say. "You should know why father is being a bit paranoid these days."