Lazy Salvation

‘Seven times eight.’

56.

‘Seven times nine.’

63.

‘Eight times nine.’

72.

‘Twelve times twelve.’

144.

The answers came faster now.

‘144 divided by twelve.’

12.

‘144 divided by eight.’

18.

‘If I can hold this much…’

He paused.

‘...then perhaps I can hold more.’

So he tried.

‘37. 84. 16. 52.’

He kept them in his head.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

None disappeared.

‘...Much better.’

But numbers weren't the only thing he wanted to train.

He began testing his memory once again.

He would close his eyes and reconstruct the room around him.

The bed, the rocks, the cabinet, the door… Then he’d try to remember where everyone had been standing.

What they had said, what they had done… he repeated it until he could replay an entire morning in his head.

‘Phew… let’s try again.’

And he started over.

…

By now, Ashen had gotten a good grasp of the language spoken in this era. It did not differ greatly from the English of modern people, aside from being more archaic, so mastering it did not take long.

With that, he was able to gather more information by listening to the people around him; of course, he had to constantly filter out his parents’ flirting every time, but anyhow, the new knowledge was a good harvest.

First, he discovered that his family wasn’t living in a cave, but underground. The reason for it wasn’t because they were too poor to afford a house, as he had guessed, but because they were fleeing from ‘Darkness’.

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The moment Ashen heard that word, deep terror gripped him, and his fragile emotional restraint snapped as he burst out crying.

It was an embarrassing affair, crying in such a pathetic manner, but he did not linger on it, since the revelation took precedence over any embarrassment.

After calming down, he was able to guess the era he had come to.

‘The Reign Of Terror.’

That meant he was stuck in a place where Outer Gods were rampaging across the earth in a baby’s body, without any concepts to speak of.

The only saving grace was that his father and older brothers were competent enough to keep this family alive, and even procure food by constantly venturing beyond their underground base.

“Dear wife, I’m back.”

Ashen’s thoughts halted as he saw his father enter the room. The moment he did, his big sisters greeted their father demurely before leaving the room with light laughs, likely knowing what the couple intended and giving them space.

Ashen’s mother also stood up and walked up to her husband with a happy smile.

“Dear! I’m glad you came back safe…” She reached out to remove his bloodied, muddied armor one piece at a time, before finally taking the sword from his hand and hanging it by the door.

After that, she guided him to sit on a chair beside the crib and started thoroughly wiping his body with a wet towel she procured from the basin beside the chair.

It was a frequent sight for Ashen, and one of the few times when the couple spoke of matters beyond their underground home, so he did his best to focus his hearing so he would not miss a word.

“So, how are things going outside?”

“They are relatively silent for now. Though… I don’t know if it’s the silence before the storm, or real, veritable peace…”

“With the existence of those beings, I don’t think we will ever have true peace, I’m afraid…” the wife sighed helplessly.

“Do not worry. You have birthed many great warriors for our tribe. Trust in us. We will keep this place safe, even at the cost of our lives.”

Despite his words, the wife’s worry did not seem to abate this time.

“But we already belonged to a much greater tribe before this, did we not? And with just a single one of those beings chancing upon us, everyone was killed as easily as cutting wheat.”

The husband shook his head. “Not everyone has been killed. Do we not still live?”

“But that was only because of chance!” Emotions seemed to take hold of the woman as she raised her voice in agitation. “If we weren’t away from the tribe at that time, our end would have been the same—”

She stopped speaking as she felt a hand gently caress her flowing black hair. The man looked into his wife’s almond eyes with as much reassurance as he could muster and spoke gently.

“Wife… please calm your emotions. You risk hurting the new life brewing inside…”

He slowly reached for her now-round stomach and caressed it in the same manner he had her hair, and that finally seemed to calm her down.

“I’m sorry, husband… It’s just that now, what we call a tribe is only my sons and daughters… if that were to happen again, if they were all to be murdered in the same manner… I wouldn’t know what to do with myself…”

He took the towel from her hands and pulled her into a gentle embrace. “I know. Aren’t they also my sons and daughters? But living in constant fear isn’t the answer. You have to stay strong. For me, and for the tribe. Just like I would never waver in protecting you.”

“Yes… I apologize…”

“Now… now… let me help you unwind…”

With that, he guided her to the bed by hand, and she followed him in a bashful manner, as if it were just her first night.

…which Ashen would have found absurd if he were not digesting the new wave of information.

‘So my parents are survivors of a now-destroyed tribe. And based on how they talked, it seems there’s not even a proper human civilization around…’

He let out a cute baby-sigh and gazed at the rocky ceiling in thought.

‘It seems I can’t take it easy anymore… I have to prepare if I want to at least protect this new family of mine.’

Aside from all of this, one other thing kept grating at Ashen’s mind.

‘Where are you, Lapis…?’

His sister was nowhere to be found. He knew for a fact that she had come with him to this era, since the Beholder only activated with the help of another, and she had been hugging him at that time, so it could only have been her.

But he was utterly helpless here. There was no way he could look for her as a baby who could not even leave his crib without his mother getting him out.

‘One thing after another… I’m still a baby, goddammit…! Give me a break.’

As the frustrations overwhelmed his young body, it quickly shut off, gently bringing him into the land of slumber and allowing him to momentarily forget his woes.

Only a single thought stayed with him until the end…

‘It seems about time I tried that…’

‘…Trinity Harmony.’

.

.

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‘Lapis… please be safe…’