Last Gun Alchemist

”AHHHH!”

Slash!

”ARGHHH!”

”NO!”

Bam!

The peaceful night beneath the old stone bridge shattered in an instant.

The sound of steel slicing through flesh echoed beneath the bridge, followed by the heavy thuds of bodies crashing into wooden crates, broken barrels, and scattered boxes that made up the children’s small camp.

Lucy slowly frowned in her sleep.

”...Hmm...”

She rolled over beneath her thin blanket, rubbing one eye lazily.

She was still half asleep.

Another scream tore through the night.

”AHHHHH!”

Slash!

Bam!

”W-What’s going on...?”

Lucy’s vision remained blurry making everything before her looked like moving shadows.

She blinked repeatedly, trying to clear her eyes.

Little by little...

The chaotic scene became clearer.

Children were running in every direction.

Some cried while trying to escape.

Others struggled desperately against several mysterious men dressed completely in black.

The older members of the Creek desperately fought back using wooden sticks, broken pipes, and anything they could grab.

Unfortunately...

They stood no chance.

The men moved with frightening coordination.

Every child who struggled too much was violently thrown onto the frozen ground.

Others were lifted onto broad shoulders as though they weighed nothing.

The entire camp had become complete chaos.

”Don’t damage the goods, idiots!”

A rough voice roared across the camp.

The leader of the men in black tightly gripped the wrist of the teenage girl everyone affectionately called Big Sis.

She struggled with all her strength.

Even after being restrained, she still tried kicking one of the kidnappers standing beside her.

”Let me go!”

She shouted.

Several tears streamed down her face.

”You monsters!”

The leader merely frowned.

His expression showed annoyance rather than anger.

He twisted her arm behind her back.

Big Sis immediately bit her lip in pain.

”Behave.”

He coldly warned.

”Or I’ll kill one of these little brats in front of you.”

Big Sis immediately froze.

Her body trembled.

She lowered her head.

The leader smirked.

”That’s better.”

He looked toward the rest of his men.

”Hurry up! We’re already wasting enough time!”

”Yes, Boss!”

The kidnappers answered together before continuing to ravage the camp.

Only then...

Did Lucy fully understand what she was seeing.

Her pupils suddenly shrank.

”No...”

Her breathing stopped.

Her small body trembled violently.

”NO!”

Her terrified scream escaped before she could stop it.

She instinctively crawled backward across her sack bed.

Her body continued retreating until her back struck something behind her.

Thump.

Lucy froze.

Something wet touched her palm.

Confused...

She slowly lowered her eyes.

Her tiny hand rested inside a thick pool of fresh blood.

She stared blankly.

The bright red liquid slowly dripped between her fingers.

”...Ah...”

Her lips quivered.

”...Ah...”

Her breathing became uneven.

Her entire body refused to move.

Very slowly...

She turned her head.

A familiar face stared back at her.

One of the older boys from their Creek.

His eyes remained open.

Lifeless.

A deep wound stretched across his neck.

Fresh blood continued flowing onto the frozen ground beneath him.

Lucy completely froze.

For one endless moment...

Her little mind refused to accept what she was seeing.

Then...

”NO! NO! NO! NO! NOOOOOOOOO!”

She violently shoved herself away from the body.

It felt as though she had seen an evil spirit.

Her screams immediately mixed together with the cries echoing throughout the camp.

The peaceful night beneath the bridge had disappeared completely, with only terror remaining.

”Move!”

One of the kidnappers shouted while kicking another teenage boy across the stomach.

The boy rolled several times before crashing into one of the bridge pillars.

Another child tried running toward the stream.

A kidnapper grabbed him by the back of his shirt before slamming him onto the snowy ground.

The boy immediately stopped moving.

”Boss!”

One of the men shouted.

”What about the ugly ones?”

The leader casually turned his head.

His face showed not the slightest hesitation.

”As I already told you...”

He slowly lifted the long sword resting in his hand.

”Kill every ugly-looking child. And make it quick, we can’t afford alerting the State Alchemists stationed in the small city.”

The words left his mouth as though he were discussing broken furniture instead of human lives.

The teenage boy standing nearby suddenly widened his eyes.

”W-Wait...!”

Before he could finish...

Slash!

The sword flashed beneath the moonlight cleanly slicing across his neck.

The teenager instinctively grabbed his throat.

His mouth opened.

No words came out.

Only blood.

Fresh crimson blood sprayed across the snow.

His knees buckled.

A second later...

His body collapsed heavily onto the frozen ground.

The warm blood quickly melted the snow beneath him.

The leader calmly stepped forward.

His boots crushed the blood-soaked snow beneath every step.

Not once...

Did he even look back at the body.

Lucy remained frozen.

She couldn’t even hear herself crying anymore.

Everything around her had become one terrifying nightmare.

Suddenly...

Strong arms wrapped around her from behind.

”Got you!”

A rough laugh echoed beside her ear.

Lucy was effortlessly lifted into the air.

The large man holding her grinned from ear to ear.

”AHHHHH!”

Lucy kicked wildly.

”Let me go!”

She punched.

She scratched.

She bit.

Her tiny body fought with everything it had.

But...

She was only eight years old.

No matter how desperately she struggled...

Nothing happened.

Against the strength of a grown man...

She was completely powerless.

”LUCY!”

A familiar voice suddenly cried out.

Lucy immediately turned.

”Gwen!”

Several meters away...

Another man had Gwen pinned against the snowy ground.

She desperately struggled beneath him.

Nearby...

A little girl around their age was being lifted into the air.

Another kidnapper had both hands tightly wrapped around her neck.

The girl’s tiny legs kicked helplessly.

Her face gradually turned purple.

Lucy stared.

Her mind became completely blank.

Everywhere she looked...

Children cried.

Children screamed.

Children begged.

Some fought.

Some simply curled into balls while shaking in fear.

Some were coldly killed.

The peaceful Creek they called home...

Had become hell.

Lucy could no longer stop crying.

Tears poured endlessly from her eyes.

”Gwen...”

She whispered helplessly.

Gwen forced herself to look toward Lucy despite being pinned down.

Even with tears covering her own face...

She still forced out a smile.

”Lucy!”

She shouted with all the strength she had left.

”It’s okay! We’ll be fine!”

Those words had barely left her mouth...

The man restraining Gwen immediately stuffed a dirty cloth into her mouth.

”Mmph!”

She tried screaming again.

Nothing came out.

Rough ropes quickly tightened around both her wrists and ankles.

Without another word...

The kidnapper lifted Gwen over his shoulder before carrying her toward the growing pile of captured children.

Gwen cried helplessly as she was carried farther and farther away.

She twisted her body with all the strength she had left, desperately trying to free herself.

”Mmmm! Mmm!”

The cloth stuffed into her mouth muffled every cry she tried to make.

Tears streamed down her face without stopping.

Meanwhile...

The large man holding Lucy laughed quietly to himself.

With his free hand, he grabbed Lucy’s chin and forced her face upward.

He turned her head from side to side as though inspecting a piece of merchandise.

”Hmm...”

A crooked smile slowly spread across his face.

”Wow...This little gutter girl is actually cute.”

His eyes greedily examined her appearance.

”In a filthy place like this...”

He chuckled.

”Your luck must have been terrible. Or...”

He tilted his head.

”Maybe your parents simply didn’t want you.”

His loud laughter echoed beneath the bridge.

Lucy couldn’t even respond.

She only stared at him through tear-filled eyes.

The man casually dropped her onto the snowy ground.

Before she could crawl away...

He forcefully pinned her down.

Rough ropes tightly wrapped around both of her wrists.

Then her ankles.

The ropes bit into her small skin.

Lucy stopped struggling at that point.

She could only stare aimlessly at the ground, like a lifeless doll.

Once he finished tying her up...

The man effortlessly lifted her over his shoulder before carrying her toward the other captured children.

As Lucy was carried across the camp...

Her eyes instinctively wandered lifeless toward the members of her Creek.

One after another...

She saw familiar faces lying motionless upon the snow.

Some still had their eyes open.

Some remained frozen exactly where they had fallen.

None of them moved anymore.

Lucy slowly shut her eyes.

Fresh tears poured endlessly down her cheeks.

Her tiny body trembled without stopping.

The man carrying her didn’t seem to care.

He calmly walked across the bloodstained snow before gently dropping her beside the other tied children.

By then...

The chaos had already begun settling down.

Lucy...

Had become the last child to be captured.

Just then...

HOOONK!

A loud steam horn echoed from the nearby road.

Then another.

HOOONK!

The kidnappers immediately looked toward the sound.

”Our ride is here.”

The leader calmly spoke.

He slowly sheathed his sword before glancing toward the remaining men.

”Alright.”

His voice remained cold.

”Dispose of the bodies. Then let’s get the hell out of here with the goods.”

There wasn’t the slightest emotion in his eyes.

Only business.

”Yes, Boss!”

The men immediately spread out.

Without hesitation...

They began dragging the lifeless bodies scattered throughout the camp.

One after another...

The children who had died trying to protect their friends were pulled across the snow.

Their bodies left long trails of blood behind them.

When they reached the flowing stream beneath the bridge...

The kidnappers simply threw them inside.

Splash.

Another body disappeared beneath the icy current.

Splash.

Another followed.

The stream quietly carried them away into the darkness.

No graves.

No names.

No farewells.

Only the sound of flowing water.

As all of this unfolded...

Lucy slowly forced herself to move.

Her tied body rolled little by little across the frozen ground.

She searched desperately for the people closest to her.

Her eyes finally found Gwen.

Gwen lay on the ground only a short distance away.

Her hands and feet remained tightly bound.

Tears continued flowing from her swollen eyes.

Seeing Gwen alive...

Lucy almost smiled.

Then...

Her eyes found Big Sis.

For a brief second...

Hope appeared inside her heart.

But the moment their eyes met...

That hope immediately disappeared.

Big Sis wasn’t looking at Lucy.

Her tear-filled eyes remained fixed upon the stream.

Inside those eyes...

Lucy saw something she had never seen before.

Rage.

Fear.

Despair.

And...

A lifeless emptiness.

Confused...

Lucy slowly turned toward the direction Big Sis had been staring.

There...

Several kidnappers dragged another body toward the water.

The seventeen-year-old leader of their Creek.

The one who had shared every piece of bread equally.

The one who always made sure the younger children ate first.

The one who had protected them countless times.

His body was casually thrown into the stream.

Splash.

The current immediately carried him away.

Lucy’s pupils trembled.

...Why?

The question quietly appeared inside her small mind.

Why is this happening to us?

She couldn’t understand.

They hadn’t stolen anything big from anyone to warrant this.

They hadn’t hurt anyone.

They only wanted somewhere warm enough to sleep.

They only wanted to eat food for the day in order to survive the next day.

Why us?

The thought repeated itself.

Again.

And again.

Why us?

Why us?

Why us?

Her breathing became shaky.

The world around her slowly faded.

The kidnappers continued loading the captured children one after another into the back of the waiting steam truck.

Each child disappeared behind the large iron doors.

Lucy watched helplessly.

Why...?

Why...?

Why...?

Why...?

Why us...?

The question echoed endlessly inside her mind.

It refused to disappear.

Soon...

It became the only thing she could think about.

Why?

Why?

Why?

Why us?

Finally...

She was lifted from the ground.

The kidnapper threw her into the truck together with the others.

Small frightened bodies crashed into one another inside the cramped cargo compartment.

Nobody cried anymore.

Everyone simply shook.

Then...

THUD!

The heavy iron doors slammed shut.

Metal struck metal with a deafening sound.

The echo lingered inside the cargo compartment.

The last trace of moonlight disappeared.

Darkness swallowed every child inside.

***

Back to reality...

Inside Ezra’s guest room at Baron Wellston’s estate...

Lucy slowly lowered her head.

A complicated smile rested upon her face.

It wasn’t a happy smile.

Nor was it completely sad.

It was simply the smile of someone recalling a past they wished had never happened.

”...That’s how we were taken to the largest Red House in Metallica.”

Her voice remained calm.

Although...

It carried an exhaustion that couldn’t be hidden.

”I also remember hearing someone say...it is the biggest Red House in all of Britannia.”

She slowly looked toward Ezra.

”The House of Melody.”

Ezra quietly listened, his expression never changing.

He simply waited for Lucy to continue.

”When we arrived...”

Lucy gently folded both hands together.

”I discovered... we weren’t the only children who had been kidnapped.”

She stared absentmindedly toward the bed where Ezra sat.

Her thoughts had already returned to those painful memories.

”There were hundreds of children. Some even younger than me. Some were older. They had all been taken from different places.”

She slowly exhaled.

”Then...They separated us.”

Her voice became quieter.

”They arranged every child into different tiers.”

She paused.

”Starting from those considered handsome or beautiful...all the way to those they believed were the most beautiful.”

Lucy clearly remembered that day.

Every child had first been forced to bathe.

The servants of the House of Melody scrubbed away every trace of dirt and blood from their bodies.

Afterward...

They dressed each child in clean clothing.

The girls had their hair carefully combed and braided.

The boys had their hair neatly trimmed.

Nobody was allowed to look like a child from the streets anymore.

Once everyone had been cleaned...

They were brought into a massive hall.

Rows upon rows of important members from the House of Melody quietly observed them.

No one smiled.

No one spoke.

At the very center of the hall...

A large silk curtain concealed another room.

Behind that curtain...

Only a faint shadow could be seen sitting upon an elevated platform.

Everyone respectfully lowered their heads toward that figure.

The overall ruler of the House of Melody.

The person every servant feared.

The one they called...

The Melodious Scholar.

One by one...

The children were evaluated.

Then ranked.

The process continued without stopping.

Until...

It finally became Lucy’s turn...

”The House of Melody...”

Lucy quietly repeated the name.

Her eyes gradually lost focus as memories she had tried to bury resurfaced one after another.

”The building itself...”

She spoke softly.

”...is so tall that it almost looks like a skyscraper.”

She slowly looked toward Ezra.

”The first time I saw it...I couldn’t believe a place like that existed.”

Her voice carried a complicated emotion.

The enormous building towered over everything around it.

Its exterior was covered with beautiful glass windows that reflected the sunlight during the day and the moonlight at night.

From the outside...

It looked more like the mansion of royalty than a place where stolen children were imprisoned.

Anyone passing by would admire its beauty.

Very few would ever imagine the nightmare hidden behind those elegant walls.

”The entire building was divided into different floors.”

Lucy continued.

”Each Floor represents a person’s value inside the House.”

She slowly listed them.

”The Bronze Floor.”

”The Silver Floor.”

”The Gold Floor.”

”The Pearl Floor.”

”The Ruby Floor.”

”The Emerald Floor.”

”The Diamond Floor.”

”And...”

She paused briefly.

”The Nebula Rose Floor.”

Her voice unconsciously became quieter when mentioning the final name.

”During the ranking ceremony... Gwen and Big Sis were both assigned to the Gold Floor.”

A faint smile appeared on her face before quickly disappearing.

”They were going to stay together, and I was really happy for them.”

Then...

Her smile faded completely.

”As for me...”

Lucy lowered her head.

”I was personally selected by the Melodious Scholar herself.”

Her fingers slowly tightened.

”I was placed into the Nebula Rose Floor.”

Even now...

She still remembered the silence that had filled the enormous hall that day.

The high-ranking members of the House of Melody had all looked at her in disbelief.

Some frowned.

Others whispered among themselves.

A dirty little girl from the streets...

Being personally chosen by the Melodious Scholar.

It had shocked almost everyone present.

”But...”

Lucy quietly smiled bitterly.

”The longer they looked at me...the quicker they understood.”

She gently touched her own cheek.

”Even though I came from the streets...My appearance was enough. So, they immediately understood why their leader had chosen me.”

Like that...

The eight-year-old Lucy...

Became one of the rare numbered Nebula Roses within the House of Melody.

The highest rank among every Floor inside the organization.

A position countless others dreamed of obtaining.

Yet...

To Lucy...

It never felt like a reward.

”It didn’t change anything.”

She spoke calmly.

”My life wasn’t any better than before.”

She slowly shook her head.

”Just like everyone else...I still had to struggle every day to survive. Just harder”

Ezra quietly continued to listen, not interrupting her.

Lucy continued.

”Everyone inside the House had to learn skills.”

She looked toward the floor.

”Although, the children on the lower Floors...Were allowed to choose what they wanted to specialize in. Some focused on music. Some learnt dancing. Others learnt cooking...Or etiquette. They only needed to master a few things.”

Lucy slowly raised her eyes.

”But...The Nebula Roses were different.”

Her voice became noticeably heavier.

”We weren’t allowed to choose. We had to master everything as the main stars of the House of Melody.”

She calmly listed each lesson.

”Reading.”

”Writing.”

”Cooking.”

”Dancing.”

”Playing the piano.”

”The violin.”

”Knitting.”

”Singing.”

She paused briefly.

Then quietly spoke the final word.

”...Seduction.”

The room fell silent.

Lucy lowered her head.

”They trained us...to become perfect. Perfect enough to satisfy every VIP guest who entered the House of Melody.”

Her fingers unconsciously clenched into fists.

”No matter what kind of guest they were... We had to smile. We had to obey. We had to perform flawlessly.”

Her breathing gradually became slower.

”And if...”

She swallowed.

”...you failed to master even one of those skills...It didn’t matter how beautiful...Or handsome...Or talented you were. They would declare you...a failed Nebula.”

She slowly closed her eyes.

”And failed Nebulas...Were executed.”

Her voice barely remained steady.

”They were killed right in front of everyone else. So...The rest of us would work harder.”

The room became completely silent once again.

Only the ticking of the clock echoed faintly through Baron Wellston’s guest room.

Lucy remained motionless.

Her eyes stayed lowered.

”This...”

She quietly whispered.

”...was how the new Melodious Scholar ruled the House of Melody.”

Her expression turned distant.

”She turned it into one of the most feared places in Britannia.”

She slowly looked toward Ezra again.

”People know rumors about the Black Market and they fear it to the level of not crossing the rules guiding the place. But... to me, the House of Melody was far worse. It simply operated in silence, while it existed openly enough for powerful people to find it... yet quietly enough that ordinary citizens could pretend it didn’t exist.”

She smiled bitterly.

”Years passed like that. I grew older.”

Her hands slowly rested upon her lap.

”The little girl everyone beneath the bridge used to tease...grew into exactly what they said she would become.”

Her smile carried no happiness.

”They always joked...that I would become beautiful one day, and they were right.”

She quietly laughed at herself.

”But...I wish they had been wrong.”

She slowly raised both hands.

Her eyes silently stared at them.

As though they were stained by something no amount of washing could ever remove.

”By the time I turned fifteen...”

Her voice became almost emotionless.

”...I finally entertained my first guest.”

Silence.

Lucy continued staring at her hands.

The countless things she had been forced to do inside the House of Melody...

The smiles she had to fake.

The seductive dances.

The performances.

The conversations.

And especially the bedchamber duties demanded of her.

All of them... things she desperately wanted to forget...

All resurfaced at once.

A wave of nausea slowly rose inside her chest.

”...Ahhh...”

She slowly let out a trembling breath.

Trying to calm herself.

Trying to push those memories back down.

Across from her...

Ezra remained exactly the same since the beginning of the conversation.

He didn’t interrupt.

Nor did he offer empty comfort.

He didn’t even tell her to stop remembering.

He simply listened.

His calm black eyes remained fixed on Lucy.

Quietly and patiently.

In the same silent manner, he always had.