Lord of the Truth

Chapter 2358 Injustice-3

”Hmm hmm hmm~~”

The little human child made his way through the narrow back alleys, his tiny figure barely visible among the scattered garbage and the sickly stray animals wandering aimlessly between the walls. He himself looked like nothing more than a small kitten stubbornly struggling to carve out a place for itself in a world that seemed determined to crush it.

Yet that little kitten was dragging something enormous behind his back.

It was a large tablecloth tied into a heavy bundle overflowing with various items. He pulled it behind him with obvious difficulty, breathing heavily as the bundle scraped noisily across the filthy ground, yet the smile never faded from his face, no matter how exhausted he became.

Especially after he caught sight of a certain scene waiting around the next corner.

”Hehe.”

Not far away, a number of humans lay slumped against the walls without the strength even to shift their positions. Their bodies were little more than skin stretched over bone, while their gaunt faces had become so painfully thin that the outlines of their skulls were plainly visible beneath the skin. None of them moved, and their dull eyes appeared almost entirely devoid of life... yet despite their horrifying appearance, they did not carry the scent of corpses.

”....”

One of them, judging from her long hair and the manner in which she was dressed, was a young woman. Even though her weary eyes had become dim and exhausted from hardship, they still suggested that she was barely in her early twenties.

She slowly turned her head toward the approaching child.

Then her eyes gradually widened, little by little.

”Q... Qarun...”

”Qarun?”

”QARUN!!!”

Movement suddenly spread throughout the group as though life itself had been injected back into their dying bodies. Every single one of them gathered whatever tiny fragment of strength still remained within them and struggled to rise to their feet, while those too weak to stand simply dragged themselves desperately across the ground toward the child.

”Take it easy!” the little boy, Qarun, hurried his steps toward them.

Bang!

He threw the bundled tablecloth onto the ground before them, causing everything inside it to spill out in every direction.

”Ahh... heavens...”

Sniff Sniff

”Ahhh...”

Men and women, elders and children alike felt their eyes fill with tears as they stared in disbelief at the enormous pile of food scattered before them, their noses instinctively drawing in its aroma again and again as though they feared it might disappear if they looked away.

Of course, that enormous amount of food was merely as much as a five-year-old child could carry upon his back with considerable effort. But to them...

It was enough to keep every one of them alive for another month.

”Qarun...” The young woman paid no attention whatsoever to the food lying before her. Instead, she slowly reached out toward the child with trembling fingers. ”Are... are you alright? Were you… hurt?”

”Iʼm fine.” Qarun lightly struck his own frail chest with a confident smile that did not match his thin body. ”Iʼm sorry I canʼt come every week. There are other groups that need help too, as you all know.”

”.....”

The young woman slowly stepped closer.

Muah.

She gently placed a kiss upon Qarunʼs forehead before looking at him with tired but affectionate eyes.

”If I were just a little prettier, Iʼd have given myself to you when you grew up... but you deserve someone better, little Qarun.”

”What are you saying?!” The childʼs face instantly flushed bright red with embarrassment, and he hurriedly pointed toward the scattered food in an obvious attempt to change the subject. ”Come on, hurry and take your share before they finish everything.”

”....”

The young woman forced a faint smile before quietly returning to sit beside the others, finally reaching toward the food along with everyone else.

”Hmm.”

Qarun quietly remained where he stood until he had confirmed that every mouth had finally begun eating and that no one had been left behind.

Only then did he give a small nod to himself before silently disappearing once again into the maze of narrow alleys, this time deliberately choosing an entirely different route from the one he had taken before.

”Hmm?”

Eventually, Qarun passed beside a shattered mirror leaning against one of the walls and suddenly came to a stop.

He looked at his own reflection with a gentle smile.

Although he was painfully thin and his body lacked proper nourishment, he was not like those people.

He still looked like a living human being...

Not a walking corpse.

Especially with his long, silky hair framing his youthful face and his eyes, which carried an unusual blend of innocent childish purity and piercing intelligence that seemed far beyond his years.

Click.

The next moment, Qarun slowly pulled the knife from his pocket.

He tightly grabbed a fistful of his own hair...

...and began scraping it away directly from the roots.

Scrape... Scrape...

Using a dull, unsharpened knife to shave his head without anything whatsoever to soften the skin transformed the scalp that had once been covered with soft, silky hair into a fountain of fresh blood, as strands of hair and crimson droplets fell together one after another.

Qarun never paused, not even for a single moment.

Nor did he reveal the slightest expression of pain until every last strand had been torn out completely from its roots.

Only then did he wipe the blood from his small face with the back of his hand before quietly studying his reflection for another brief moment. After that, he slowly raised the knife once more and deliberately drew its edge across his own face, beginning above his eyebrow and dragging it all the way down toward the corner of his mouth.

”Ugh...”

This time, despite everything...

A small cry of pain escaped from his lips.

”Phew~”

After he had finished, Qarun slowly let out a long breath before crouching down and gathering handfuls of loose dirt from the ground, carefully pressing it against the fresh wounds in an attempt to slow the steady flow of blood that continued trickling down his face.

”Remarkable.”

”Huh?!” Qarun instantly jolted the moment the unfamiliar voice reached his ears. He hurriedly raised the knife before him and instinctively retreated two full steps, staring cautiously toward the source of the sound. ”Hmm?”

Before long, however, the tension in his expression eased slightly, and he lowered the tiny knife in his hand.

”You scared me, Mister.” Then he carefully looked the man up and down from head to toe before commenting with genuine surprise, ”You seem to be doing pretty well.”

Standing before the young Qarun was a human man who appeared to be somewhere in his fifties. His clothing looked no different from that worn by the other humans living throughout the city, yet his physique was healthy, powerful, and completely unlike the starving humans Qarun had grown accustomed to seeing. As for his facial features...

Qarun rubbed his eyes and tried to look again, believing he had somehow mistaken what he was seeing, but it proved completely useless.

His features remained entirely blurred.

”I am always doing well, my boy, no matter how hard my enemies try to meddle with me.” The old man slowly stepped closer to the child before leaning down slightly to meet his gaze. ”Would you mind telling me why youʼre hurting yourself, little one?”

”....”

Qarun quietly took another cautious step backward while subtly raising his guard against the suspicious stranger standing before him, instinctively widening the distance between them.

”I have something I need to do. Iʼll be going...”

”Why donʼt I answer for you instead?” the old man replied with a faint smile that never left his face. ”Youʼre trying to change your appearance so you can visit those restaurants, cafés, and shops all over again, arenʼt you? Thatʼs what you always do. You work one district of the city until everyone there recognizes you, then you move on to another district, and then another, until you become wanted. After that, you change something about your appearance, your way of speaking, and even the way you walk before starting the entire cycle over again. It helps that youʼre just a child, and youʼre growing quickly enough that those changes become even more convincing.”

Then he laughed softly.

”Haha, how old are you exactly? Five years and ten months… How many times have you swept through every corner of this city, succeeding every single time without exception? Youʼre truly remarkable, little one.” He continued looking directly at Qarun with a broad smile. ”Even though the average Energy Level in this city is five or six, and those levels are monopolized by the Green Pico race, youʼve somehow managed to reach Level Two entirely on your own without anyone teaching or guiding you?!”

”...Have you been watching me?!” Qarun cautiously took another step backward, tightening his grip around the knife. ”Iʼm not stealing. Iʼm taking back what rightfully belongs to us. All we want is to live!”

”Haha... what rightfully belongs to us? All we want?” The old man laughed once again, amused by the childʼs unwavering conviction. ”My child, you havenʼt even turned six years old yet. Have you already appointed yourself the official spokesman for all the humans on Planet Bont?”

”....”

Qarun knitted his brows tightly before taking yet another careful step backward, refusing to let his guard down for even a moment.

”Allow me to leave now. Iʼll go bring the leaders of the humans to meet you.”

”As if Iʼd believe that.” The old man slowly straightened his back before calmly clasping both hands behind him. ”Boy, this is not your stage, nor is this level worthy of someone with your talents... Would you like a real opportunity?”

”An opportunity?” Qarun instinctively retreated another step, his eyes never leaving the mysterious old man. ”To do what, exactly?”

”Since you care about humanity this much,” the old man replied with a warm smile that concealed his true intentions, ”Iʼll give you a mission that will allow you to serve humanity throughout the entire universe.”

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Present Day—

”...Why?!”

Qarun shouted at the top of his lungs, then—

Baaam!

He slammed the massive table with tremendous force, reducing it to nothing but rubble.