Gun of Ashes

”Where should I begin with all of this?”

In the slightly cramped back kitchen, Heracles sat next to the cabinet, feeling even more restrained than before, as he was now tied to a chair with rope. Across from him was Lorenzo, holding the chinchilla named Polo, with several spoons and forks not far from his hand.

”No worries, I have plenty of time to hear you out, Rat King, Heracles... Forget it, whatever you are.”

By now, everything was transparently clear, leaving Heracles no room to play tricks before Lorenzo.

The large rat in his arms lay comfortably, watching Heracles, who didn’t know where to start, as Lorenzo curiously asked,

”How about I ask you? Why do you call it the Rat King?”

As Lorenzo spoke, he petted the large rat in his arms, its fur overwhelmingly smooth, making it appear as nothing more than a furball. According to the history known to Lorenzo, this little creature was once hunted to near extinction due to its fur. In Ingwig, it is considered a rare item, sometimes referred to by an alternate name, something like a ’dragon cat.’

”Because this large rat saved my life, to be specific, the first generation Polo saved my life.”

Heracles responded to Lorenzo’s question by slowly recounting his past.

”I’m not from Ingwig, I’m from Lish and worked as a police officer for a time, but later I encountered a sea accident and ended up stranded on Ingwig.”

”A sea accident?”

”Yes, encountered those damned Viking pirates. I escaped in a small boat during the chaos, and they didn’t pursue. After all, in the vast sea, with no food, no fresh water, in such conditions, I was doomed.”

Heracles spoke as he glanced at Polo.

”But they didn’t expect that the small boat had me and a chinchilla. This little thing was kept as a pet in wealthy households and was highly expensive due to its rarity. As a merchant on the ship, someone had brought a few, intending to sell them in Ingwig. Perhaps in the chaos, the cage opened, and it escaped onto the small boat with me.”

”Did you... eat it?”

Lorenzo, perhaps having always been surrounded by sinister and gruesome things, thought the subsequent events would be equally bloody.

”How could I? This little creature is so adorable, could you bear to eat it? Besides, it barely has any meat on it... The hardest part then was the mental anguish. In that hopeless situation, I talked to Polo every day,” Heracles raised an eyebrow, ”Human will is fragile. Initially, I was talking to myself, but one day Polo responded.”

Upon hearing this, Lorenzo was taken aback.

”Wait! The rat spoke?”

”Exactly! It talked and we chat about all sorts of topics.”

In an attempt to convince Lorenzo, Heracles quickened his pace.

”Polo talked with me… we were so bored in dire straits, so I reviewed my entire life. From that moment, I had a peculiar feeling, I could remember every detail of my life. Even the hazy stories became clear before death.”

Heracles laughed like a lunatic, ”Polo said it remembered too. It had three siblings, but it was the unlucky one caught by humans while its fellows were still happily living in the woods.”

”Your mental state deteriorated,” Lorenzo remarked.

”Indeed, how can a rat talk?”

Heracles nodded, his expression somewhat desolate.

”Just as I was about to die, I was rescued by another merchant ship. I said I wanted to take Polo with me, after all, it was a life-saving bond, but when I looked at Polo, I found that the chinchilla had died long ago, its body already rotting.”

Heracles said, ”That figures, this little thing is precious, the sun’s exposure easily killed it.”

”What happened next?”

”Afterward, I was taken by the merchant ship to Ingwig, which was their destination. I had no money or proof of identity at that time, and my mental state was terrible. I heard phantom squeaks of a large rat near my ear every day, and in such a daze, I ended up in the Lower City District.”

”And became the Rat King?”

Lorenzo felt Heracles’s experiences, when viewed from an ordinary person’s perspective, had a few shades of a legendary tale.

”Of course not, you should know how difficult it is for an outsider to survive in the Lower City District, especially someone who seems to have mental illness.”

”Did you recover from your ailment?”

”If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t be here.”

Heracles gazed around, his eyes seeming to penetrate the walls and looked toward the Lower City District, where he hid.

”I became a homeless wanderer, passing time aimlessly. Yet life was fair, at least for me, it was. I suffered hardships and thus gained strength. I could remember the people and events around me, and even the odd conversations as well.”

He looked at Lorenzo intently, detailing how he became the Rat King or perhaps the man behind the Rat King.

”At first, I didn’t know how to use such a power, after all, in essence, I was just a person with a somewhat better memory. But by coincidence, I pieced together the fragments of idle talk into a story’s rudimentary form and even foresaw its course...”

The strange part came now, and Lorenzo listened attentively. This was Heracles’s greatest mystery to him; in a way, he reached a limited form of omniscience with mere mortal power.