Chapter 7: The conspiracy

​After Smith heard her question, he was not surprised. He knew it was coming and he knew it was neither a joke nor just a casual inquiry; it was a critical question that could determine whether this woman would kill him or spare him. Smith didn’t get angry, as her suspicion was completely understandable. You couldn’t expect someone to appear out of nowhere and save a group of unrelated children especially when the savior was just a child himself.

​It was a parent’s natural instinct to suspect a conspiracy, assuming someone was using their children to gain an advantage. Judging from the short time he had observed this woman, this woman held a very high position, and people of her status usually assumed everything around them was a calculated scheme aganist them.

​Smith went silent for a moment, and the woman did not pressure him to speak. Silence settled between them. In reality, Smith didn’t even know the true answer himself. He could have claimed that he knew the children had extraordinary backgrounds and wanted to leverage that to survive and escape. That was the most reasonable answer he could give at the moment.

​Just as he was about to speak,a girl from the group of children walked up to the woman.

​"Auntie, why don’t you join us to play?" she asked with a cheerful smile. "We haven’t seen each other for a very long time!"

​She then turned to Smith with a concerned expression. "Brother, What about your injuries? The other children are worried about you too. Get better soon so we can play together like last time!"

​Smith smiled and replied, "Don’t worry, I’m doing better. Tell the others they don’t have to worry about me I’m just fine. After I rest a little longer, I’ll come play with you."

​Satisfied with his answer, the girl happily said goodbye and ran back to the others. After speaking to the group, the children all turned their heads to look at Smith. He waved at them to show he was okay, and they went back to playing.

​Smith turned back to face the woman. Their eyes met, and this time, Smith didn’t flinch or look away.

​"To answer your question," he said straightforwardly, "when I regained consciousness and opened my eyes, I found myself inside an arena where we were forced to fight a starving tiger to survive. After I survived, I was thrown into a cell. Before I could even catch my breath, a group of children was thrown into the same cell.

​At first, my plan was purely selfish. I didn’t know their names or backgrounds but it easily deducted from there appearance that they had extraordinary backgrounds. I thought I could use them to survive and wait for their families to rescue them. But the more time I spent with them, the more attached I became.

​We struggled together to survive—first against the arena challenges and then during the sudden earthquake in the arena when the debris started falling. I tried to save every single child. When the others wanted to abandon one of them, I didn’t think twice about bringing him along. Even during our desperate struggle in the armory, where I got badly injured trying to protect them, I didn’t fully understand my own motives.

​I thought it was just for survival that I wanted to use their influence. But if it were just about survival, I could have saved only one of them and abandoned the rest. Yet I didn’t.

​When I saw the children happily reuniting with their families, I finally realized why. I am an orphan who only had my aunt to rely on for survival, and she wasn’t always there for me. When I was abandoned, I was lonely. During my darkest moments, I cried for help. I begged the gods, and I even begged demons to save me. But when I was bullied and harassed, nobody came. I was left completely alone to fend for myself.

​When I was with these children, they saw me as their pillar. I couldn’t bear to disappoint them. That is why I fought so hard. As for your question about my background... to tell you the truth, I was just suddenly appeared just like the rest of the children. I don’t even know how far my home is from here. You can just call me Smith."

​The woman observed him silently for a moment after his explanation. "You really have experienced a lot," she said.

​Smith just smiled and offered no further response. Silence fell over them once more as they watched the children play in front of them.

​The peaceful moment was broken when the man who had been ordered to eliminate everyone inside the arena returned. He whispered something into the woman’s ear. She nodded, stood up, and began to walk away. 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

​Without turning back, she said, "My name is Scarlet. Thank you for everything you have done."

​With those words, she left.

​The group of children immediately rushed over to Smith, forcibly grabbed his hands, and dragged him over to play. Though Smith wanted to decline, he saw their happy smiles, endured the pain of his injuries, and played with them.

​After some time, soldiers guided Smith and the children out of the underground arena. Stepping into the light, Smith suddenly realized it was daytime. Because the arena had been pitch black illuminated only by torches although he had the interface’s cooldown to know the passing time but it doesn’t show the actual time.

​As they walked along the passage, they passed several heavily armed soldiers standing guard. Observing his surroundings, Smith noticed they were in a dilapidated, abandoned residential area that had long been neglected.

​After brief preparations, Smith and the children were loaded into different carriages. Smith was fortunate enough to board the same carriage as Scarlet. Observing how the people and soldiers treated her, Smith realized he had severely underestimated her true power. Their escort was a massive military detachment, led by armed cavalry.

​After traveling for about half an hour, they arrived at a magnificent, palace-like building. Smith realized with a shock that the underground arena had been located right beneath a massive city. The owners of the arena had real guts to kidnap the children and hide them directly under their noses relying on the principle that the darkest shadow lies right beneath the candlelight. Their gamble had almost paid off; it had taken three days of frantic searching to locate the children.

​Upon entering the magnificent palace, Smith was given a private room to properly recuperate. Time passed, and as the countdown to the end of the trial ticked down, he spent his days resting. The children visited him at the palace constantly to play, and he met with Scarlet several times.

​Despite Smith being a child, Scarlet always treated him like an adult. She shared updates about the outside world, revealing that they were in the Kingdom of the IronHeart, which was ruled by Queen Scarlet herself. He also learned that her daughter’s name was Velvet.

​Scarlet explained that she had long heard the existence of the underground organization, but hadn’t had the spare time to deal with them. When the children were kidnapped, she mobilized all her forces to take down them inorder to search for the children. They finally located the arena after a spy sent a message to them.

​It turned out the kidnapping was a political plot orchestrated by a neighboring kingdom. Their goal had been to humiliate the children of high ranking military officers, so as their parents can loss the will fight because how can you have the heart To protect the people who were watching and cheering while your child was humiliated in public by them for entertainment.

​The plan had almost succeeded, but Smith had been the sole anomaly. Not only had he kept the children alive.

and this actions had also ignited a fierce rage among the parents. Instead of being demoralized, the officers were now united, vowing not to rest until every conspirator was dead. Scarlet was using this surge in morale to declare an all out war.

​While the kingdom was preparing for war, none of it affected Smith. Sitting quietly in his palace room, he closed his eyes waiting for the countdown to reach zero.