Remote Village

"You should have stayed in your hiding place," said a boy standing in front of me.

He just stood in front of me looking at me with a creepy grin on his face.

But I couldn't see the boy's face clearly, although I could see his smile but not his eyes.

It seemed like I had seen this child somewhere before, but I couldn't remember.

"I will always be there to replace you when you are no longer in shape," he continued.

Where am I by the way? Everything is black with many stars on it, and I can't see anything below me, am I outside now? Or am I still trapped in that place?

"So, just call out, okay?" the boy continued as he turned away.

"Wait!" I retorted.

After that suddenly everything became bright and I could no longer see anything.

"Hoi, he's awake!"

When I opened my eyes, I saw many people crowding around me.

"Calm down buddy," one of them said.

"What happened to me?" I asked.

"We found you in a coffin in the trunk of a car from the Anima company," he replied.

Then an old-looking man wearing a black priest's suit with a distinctive red pattern approached us, holding a book in his hand. He looked like a religious figurehead.

The moment the old man came, all the people near me immediately stood up and bowed simultaneously with their hands pressed against their chests, was this their way of paying respect? I've never seen this before, who are these people?

"Ah, you're awake, can you get up by yourself? Let's talk in my room," said the old man.

I nodded back and followed him into a room that looked like an office, but with a lot of strange and creepy furniture, though everything was neat and clean.

"Alright, first I'll introduce myself, my name is Eliphas Einzvil, I'm the head of this organization," he said.

Organization? I thought this was a company.

"Can you introduce yourself as well?" he continued.

"My name is-"

"Gaaaah!"

Suddenly when I wanted to remember my name, my head felt so hot it felt like it was going to explode, something felt like it was going to come out of my eyes, what happened?

"Young man! What happened to you?" the old man replied frantically.

"GYAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

After that my vision went dark and I lost consciousness.

Who am I?

I couldn't remember anything, about who I was, or why I was here, all I knew was that I couldn't die no matter what.

Then once again, I opened my eyes but this time there weren't as many people crowding around me as before.

Now there are only two little girls, they are twins looking at my face, who are they?

"Father! This guy is awake!" one of the little girls shouted.

"What happened?" I said.

My head still felt a bit hot, but not as hot as before.

"You just fainted, and your eyes are bleeding a lot, are you really okay?" said the old man sitting next to my bed.

"I'm sorry to trouble you, I'm fine, but I can't remember anything about myself."

"Alright, no problem, but it's a bit hard to call you if you don't have a name, hmmm what about..." said the old man while rubbing his chin.

"Modeus! Sounds cute, doesn't it?"

Suddenly, a little girl with dark red hair braided in two braids appeared from behind Lord Eliphas, presumably his daughter.

"That's right! Now your name is Modeus!" replied the other little girl.

"Modeus... now I'm Modeus," I muttered.

"I'm sorry, they're my children, are you okay with that name?" said the old man.

"It's fine, thank you very much."

"Let me introduce my name is Ophelia Einzvil!" said one of the girls.

"I'm Lilith Einzvil, hello Modeus!" said the other girl.

Modeus huh, well now my name is Modeus, although I don't remember who I was before, I will be a new me from now on, and I will repay the kindness of these people later.

"Well, then welcome, Modeus!" said the old man as he greeted me by shaking my hand.

"Thank you very much, Mr. Eliphas" I replied.

"Then can you show him around first Lia, Lith?"

"Yes," the twins replied in unison.

This place is more like a mansion in my eyes, with a very large garden surrounding this mansion, although Mr. Eliphas' office furniture is very creepy, but it turns out that the outside of this mansion is quite beautiful, it even looks like an old-era manor house.

It's just that this place is too big!

Does Lord Eliphas run a very big business to be this rich? I'm very curious about him.

Many flower beds are neatly arranged and it looks like the servants here take their cleaning duties very seriously, making this small street look very clean and tidy without any trash.

Anyone who set foot on this small path, would definitely think twice for someone would scold them for making a mess on the path that the servants had worked so hard to clean.

Eliphas's children were so cute, it looked like they were about 7 years old or so, and moreover they were twins.

Their hair also looked beautiful with a dark red color and then tied in two braids, making them look childish but that was the cute point.

"Nee, big brother, why do you have two colors in you?" said one of the children.

"Two colors? What does that mean?" I retorted.

"Everyone else has only one color in them, but you have two!"

"Right, why do you have two colors?"

"I still don't understand what you mean, is it about the color of my clothes?"

"Not thaaaaaattt."

"Eeeh? Stop yelling like that," I replied.

"Never mind, stupid brother!" they said in unison.

"Hey, don't run around like that, you might trip!"

Haaah, these kids are so excited, after all, what does it mean that I have two colors in me?

Does it mean the color of my clothes? Or the color of my skin? I don't understand at all.

I think I've wandered around this mansion enough, even though I also can't go around it because it's too big, as expected of a rich man's residence? Hehe, will I be like Mr. Eliphas too in the future?

After that, I continued walking outside the mansion gate, and there were several houses and wheat fields surrounding the houses.

The house was not too small but also not as big as Mr. Eliphas' mansion, there were many people who seemed to be farmers working in the wheat fields.

This scene, like I had seen it somewhere, but it felt very familiar to my eyes.

If I look around again, it seems like this is a small village with the center of the village being Lord Eliphas's mansion, around the village are many houses equipped with several fields of wheat, carrots or even other crops.

But I don't see a single farm animal barn here, don't they all eat meat? Like vegetarians or something, well maybe I guess there are some livestock somewhere in this village.

Do they sell it to the city or is it for consumption by all the villagers? After all, is this village connected to the big cities?

Then I saw that in front of the gate of Mr. Eliphas's mansion there was an iron board with the words 'Residence of the Chief of Greyfield Village, Republic of Cestisia.'

So the name of this village is Greyfield Village and it is located in the Republic of Cestisia?

But isn't the Republic of Cestisia quite large? Exactly which side was this village on?

"Yo, are you new here? I've never seen your face before."

While I was still lost in my daydream, someone who seemed to be a farmer in this village greeted me, he was even still carrying a hoe on his shoulder.

"Ah, yes I was just being treated by Lord Eliphas a few days ago," I retorted.

"Is that so? I hope you feel at home in a village without advanced technology like this, hahaha."

"He hehe, I'll get used to it."

"By the way, what were you doing just now, sir?" I continued.

"Ah, this? I've been planting some potatoes for next season, but I haven't planted many yet, I just finished taking a break."

"Then I'll help, is that okay?"

"Of course! By the way, what's your name, son?"

"I'm Modeus."

"I'm Eddie, one of the farmers in the village, nice to meet you Modeus!" he replied, shaking my hand.

He was quite friendly and welcoming, is everyone in this village as warm as Mr. Eddie? If so, this is truly amazing.

After that I decided to help Mr. Eddie plant a lot of potatoes that he planned to harvest for next season, although I had never planted potatoes, but I felt like I had, my hands reflexively did what was needed to hoe and plant the seeds.

Have I ever done this before? I couldn't remember anything, as I tried to remember my head suddenly felt hot, so I just stopped before I caused Mr. Eddie any trouble if I passed out again.

Not long after

It didn't feel like the sky was getting dark, I guess I was too excited about planting these potatoes to count the time that had passed.

"Fuuh," I sighed.

"I think we're done for today, how about it?" he said.

"That's fine too."

"Alright, let's go to my house first, you must be hungry right? My wife will cook something for us."

"Uh, is that okay?"

"Of course! You helped me plant these potatoes."

"Okay."

Then we continued walking to Mr. Eddie's house after putting away the garden tools and cleaning up his field.

It was tiring but I liked it, after all I could consider it a bit of exercise.

"I'm home," said Mr. Eddie as he opened his door.

"Ah, Daddy welcome!" said a little girl who ran up to us.

"Hee, your daughter is quite big, isn't she?" I said.

"Ha ha, she's still young and still needs to be pampered by her parents."

"Haha is that so?"

"Dad, who is this guy?"

"Ah, he was helping me plant potatoes."

"Thanks for helping my dad, brother!"

Such a polite girl, her family must have raised her with warm affection every day to grow up this cute.

"It's okay, ehehe."

This family is quite friendly, with a child as cute as this, I might be able to feel at home if I live here, well I'm just kidding.

"Welcome, and who is he?"

A woman who looks like she is the wife of Mr. Eddie came from the back room to welcome him back, it's only natural that the child is this cute, if the mother is this beautiful.

But I'm not interested in married women, even if I'm just joking.

"I'm Modeus, I'm from Mr. Eliphas' residence, a few days ago he allowed me to stay there."

"Oh my, really? Then come on in, I've already prepared dinner," she replied.

"Thank you very much."

And we started dinner.

For a family whose livelihood came from selling the farmers' crops, the food was quite delicious, and they even had meat!

Did they eat such luxurious food every day? I didn't expect life in a remote village to be this good, I mean look at it! Mr. Eddie's wife is very talented in cooking, she cooks all kinds of meat and vegetable-based dishes, it's like a high-end restaurant!

But as I recall, I didn't see a single barn in this village, let alone a livestock, so where did they get this meat from?

Perhaps from other villages? Or did they buy it from a nearby town, well who knows.

The most important thing now is that I must enjoy this top-class dish right now, it's really delicious.

"Eat a lot, today I deliberately made this meal with more portions."

"Thank you very much ma'am, but why did you make the portions larger today? Is there anyone who wants to visit here?"

"No, I just wanted to make more portions," she replied smiling gently at me.

"Right, eat a lot Modeus! So that you grow big and strong!"

"Really? Thank you very much!"

"By the way Modeus, when did you get taken care of by Mr. Eliphas?" said Mr. Eddie's wife.

"Hmm, it seems like since yesterday, I don't quite remember, I'm sorry."

"It's okay..."

Huh? I feel so sleepy, what happened? Was I that tired after planting the potatoes earlier?

"Modeus? Are you alright?"

"Your face looks... pale."

My head started to hurt again, what exactly happened, why was my body so heavy, I was so sleepy.

If I think about it, they separated the food for me and for them, damn I'm trapped they have put something into my food.

My vision is starting to blur, it looks like I'm going to pass out here.

These people, I briefly saw them grinning until finally all my vision went dark.

***

"Once again, you're being careless, huh? You're such a clumsy person."

I remember this place, everything's black and there are so many stars above, then an endless step like a pit of darkness.

And, of course, there's a boy who looks just like me, always grinning with his unseen eyes standing right in front of me.

I never got a chance to talk to this kid before, but I'm going to make sure I do now.

"Who are you?"

"Me? Are you seriously asking that right now?"

"Just answer me!"

"Alright, chill out, I'm not looking to fight you, after all we are the same person."

"So let's just get along, okay?" he continues.

"What do you mean by 'the same person'?"

"As I said, I am you, and you are me."

"I don't understand!"

"That's fine, someday you'll definitely understand. The important thing right now is, do you want to know what's happening to your body at this moment?"

Ah, that's true! That family tricked me, they put something in my food and I should be unconscious by now.

"Haha, you're easy to read."

"What happened to our bodies?"

"Our bodies? Are you finally admitting you know me? I'm really happy about this, you know?"

"Whatever, just say what the situation is."

"They're all dead."

"Why?"

"They were a cannibal family that ate human flesh, and when they consumed your poisonous flesh, they died instantly in a horrible way. Isn't that just sad?"

"You didn't see any livestock while wandering around the village, right? So where did they get all that meat, if not from human flesh?" he continued.

"They could have bought it from the nearest town or village."

"In this remote village? It would cost a lot of money and time just to import meat from other towns or villages, the expenses are too high for a meal, don't you think that's inefficient?"

"But, they can't be eating human flesh!"

"Haahhh."

The boy sighed deeply after hearing my words, and then he continued speaking.

"You're just... too kind, Arc-." 

This again, suddenly everything around me became very bright, and slowly the boy faded away with a smile still lingering on his face.

***