The sound of metal cshing against metal rang loudly, waking everybody up.

  Not me though. I didn’t sleep. I couldn’t.

  “Dinner time, ya chums!”, One hoarse voice announced. Moments ter, the tarp that covered the cage was pulled and I was met with a strange scene.

  Well, not really strange. Just unfortunate. Multiple cages of sizes simir to this one were all around us. I could count about ten or so, but I figured there were at least ten more I hadn’t seen.

  In all of those cages, I saw all manner of different creatures. Men, women, children, strange pnts and animals, all chained up in a simir fashion. Much like the kids, they appeared starved and exhausted.

  Dozens of men marched through the cages, pushing massive trolleys of food.

  The announcer’s voice was constantly ringing out loud, as he hit each and every single cage with his sword.

  When he finally reached our cage, he paused. He took a look at me with his bck beady eyes, then somehow grinned even wider than he already was.

  “Oh good. I was told you were dead, but gd to see that wasn’t true. Although…”, He said, then swung his cane with all of his might at the cage, sending sparks flying. The cage trembled under the force of his swing and rang so loudly all the children – including me, had to cover our ears.

  It felt like turbines going off directly in our ears.

  “Don’t gre at me next time, punk.”, the round man scoffed, as he carelessly pced seven bowls of brown gruel into the cage.

  “Make sure he’s ready for the stage, Raffles.”, he ordered, before walking off, grinning like an idiot.

  I winced as I sat back up, leaning against the uncomfortable bars of the cage.

  The other kids scrambled to get their meal, leaving only one bowl. While eating, one of the kids finished his meal, then stared at the st bowl, then at me. I could tell he was begging me for the bowl.

  It was comical. When I woke up, the kids were so terrified of me that they avoided my gaze and didn’t even respond when I introduced myself, but now, when food was involved, he could stare into my eyes without a hint of hesitation.

  I looked away and he snatched it. But just before he could eat it, the older boy stopped him then took the bowl away from him.

  He then walked over to me and handed me the bowl of the sloppy gruel. I didn’t take it, forcing him to drop it to the ground. In the bowl, there was a single piece of meat.

  “You should eat, he said.”

  “I’m good.”

  “Seriously. Meat is rarely given to us, so if you got it, eat it.”

  “I’m not hungry.”

  I meant it. I don’t know how or why, but after resurrecting, my body was in tip top condition. I was fully rested and filled with so much power I couldn’t even force myself to sleep for the six hours I’d been here.

  “You said your name’s Belfry, right?”, He asked.

  “I’m guessing you’re Raffles.”, I said.

  His eyes widened for a moment, then he stared at me with a quizzical expression. Before he could even ask how I knew his name, I decided to answer.

  “The fat guy who can’t stop smiling mentioned your name. And you seem like the one in charge in this cage.”

  “Right…”, He whispered. He looked at the kids, who were all fearfully looking at us – by us, I meant me. “I can tell you’re pretty smart. That’s good.”

  “Keep your head low, obey orders to the best of your abilities and don’t cause any trouble for others.”

  With his warning delivered, his chains rattled as he walked away.

  I almost felt bad for the kid. I had no clue where I was and I also had no intention of staying. There was no chance of escape by just listening to the svers. I needed to get out as soon as possible and there was definitely going to be a lot of trouble for others.

  ***

  “Damn it.”, I silently cursed, as I looked at the shackles on my wrist. I’d studied the inscriptions on them for quite a white since I now had a proper light source, but there was nothing there that I could understand.

  Belfry, for all his genius, never liked to learn from books. He much preferred practical lessons, hence, he never really read up much about magic or magic spells. Best he had were vague, poorly taught lectures from Rosine who couldn’t even demonstrate it to him.

  Because of that, there was absolutely nothing I knew about magic. The only reason I could use it as effortlessly as I did was pure intuition.

  One thing I’d learned was that mana was quite simir to Aether from the other world. Unfortunately, I never really needed to learn how to use Aether since I had the system that automatically handled those kinds of things for me.

  All I needed to do was think of the attack and the processes would follow without me having to will.

  In this body, sure, I willed the effect, but I could feel what was happening in my body. How the mana would spread from the core, through my body and then out whatever body part I wanted.

  I looked at the inscriptions on the chains, thinking furiously for a moment. I thought back to ways to seal a person’s aether and render them useless. There weren’t a lot. The only method I could think off was exerting your own aether to block another’s aether, but doing that meant you also couldn’t use your aether for other purposes, unless you had the ability to keep track of that, while doing something else.

  Something not even I could do without the system’s help.

  But in this situation, no one was using their mana to block mine. It was being blocked by the chains on my wrist. Or, at least that’s the only thing I could think off that would be blocking my magic.

  While the other kids slept, I took a peek at their shackles, feeling for simir inscriptions, but I was the only one, leading me to believe that my theory was true.

  I growled, then sighed in resignation. This was hopeless. I’d have to find another way.

  Just as I gave up, Raffles appeared before me.

  “Come on, Belfry. It’s time to begin practice.”

  “Practice?”, I furrowed my brows.

  “Well yeah. We’ll be performing in a few days. I know it’s probably not enough for you to really learn the move set, but it’ll be better than nothing.”

  Behind him, the other kids had gotten up and in formation, waiting for him.

  “What do you mean performing? Aren’t we sves?”

  “Sves? What’s that?”, He asked with sincere confusion behind his dark eyes. “We are the Fantastic Lost Children of the Hollow Theatre Troupe.”