Jiji no. 8

Black Slime

“Hey! Quick, young man! Give me my booze!” A muscular, bearded man had been telling this for three times already. His cheeks were already red and his eyes shot the look of dizziness and being weary.

“Huh? Ah, yes! Please wait, Mr. Sandler!” Holder quickly ran and went inside the liquor room. He quickly grabbed two wooden mug filled with booze. Wait, was it three? He remembered he ordered just two, but now he was being confused for at some point, maybe that drunken Mr. Sandler ordered three mug.

“Ah! Whatever!” he decided to went outside the kitchen room, and head towards the table were Mr. Sandler and his friends were having a good time.

“Here, Mr. Sandler, enjoy your drinks,” Holder said with a big smile.

“Eh? I said three mugs, isn’t it? I said three!” Mr. Sandler stood up. He grabbed Holder at the collar of his tattered clothes. “Are you deaf, young man?!”

Holder shook from fear as soon as Mr. Sandler grabbed him. With a weak voice, he said, “I—I am sorry, Mr. Sandler. I’ll immediately get you another one.”

He can feel the stares of other people—large, muscular, bearded, and with look of bloodlust—piercing through his back. From that, his body shook heavier than usual.

“Eh, sorry? How many times have you asked sorry for me? You’re sounding irritating already!”

“I-I am sorry,” Holder said, and as soon as he realized that he said another sorry, he covered his mouth with his shaking hands.

Mr. Sandler looked extremely furious after that. He gritted his teeth, and his beard-covered jaw clenched tighter. Without realizing it, Mr. Sandler jerked his hand, making Holder to be lifted upwards, and then another jerk, downwards, making Holder meet the wooden ground with painful clash and bone-breaking force.

Holder grunted and writhed from the pain of Mr. Sandler’s heavy assault.

“That’s what you get for being stupid. Now, get my booze!”

Holder secretly sighed. He stood up, and despite his body being burned with unexplainable pain, he walked, and started to work. He heard different mocks and insults and laughs from other people when he was in the middle of his walk—his leg felt broken, and ribs too, for he was having a hard time to breath.

“Another booze for Mr. Sandler, coming up,” Holder muttered under his breath. When he was already on the kitchen, he saw another man, perhaps same age of him, who was busy filling liquor on different wooden mugs that stood on the table.

“Hey, Sorry about that,” the man said.

“It’s alright, Jude. Guess I’m still new to this,” Holder said.

“You’ve been like that for a week. You still not used to the rush of this place?”

“Engk, not yet.” Holder made an X form with the use of his hands.

“And you’re just letting all those beatings come to you.”

“Eh, that’s fine. Dreams matter,” Holder said.

Jude then shook his head with a smile. “You’re incredible, you know that?”

“Am I?” Holder laughed as he held his head while being embarrassed.

“Right, get that bastard-Sandler’s booze and try not to get beaten by other reservist, aight?”

“Aight,” Holder replied. Jude went outside with Mugs all stacked up on a tray, balanced by just his thin yet strong arms. By the look of it, he was already used and professional in this field of work.

He quickly went to the table, and filled a wooden mug with booze from stacks of barrels. Then, as he looked above, a mirror hanging in the wall had gifted him his over-all look while working in this place—face still him, yet with the look of tiredness, and stress, and weariness. His eyes are deep and covered with black circles. Sweat dripping from his forehead down to his jaw, and neck and nape. Smudges of dirt and dust made his face dirty and out of youth.

gods, is this his new-found life? A life he never imagined he would have when he was still dreaming to be a soldier back at Hem?

He looked at the surrounding. At the opened doorway, there he saw different huge-bodied, and muscular men who is having and enjoying their life with different liquors and food. Just like him, those men were also army reservists. But what could be the difference of them to him, that he have to do this job, and receive those unforgivable beatings he acquired?

Turns out, a newly-recruited army reservist, as a ‘tradition’ by the other reservists, would give their first impression to the newly-recruited one—which is Holder, at that time. And if by impression an army would fail, he would be on the verdict of being oppressed. And that is what happened to Holder. He had failed the impression test of most of the reservist just because he is thin and not as bulky as them. And so, he had him slunk to work in this Leisure house of the reservists. Turns out, he was clumsy and dumb. And he have to admit it.

A Leisure House is a huge building which is gifted by the king to the reservists. Here, every supply of food and liquor is free for them. Eat and drink all you can, until you pass out from either too many food, or being drowned from booze or beer or rice wine. The problem is, no worker would serve them. And so, they appointed those ‘weak-looking’ in the kitchen and serving area. And Holder was part of it.

It was okay for him, however. There is salary and the food is free at all. He just wish some portion of these food would be given to the farmers of Hem so that there will be no shortage of food to the region.

With a sigh, he lifted the mug to Mr. Bastard-Sandler, and then forced a big smile.

“Booze for Mr. Sandler coming up!”

He have to do this. Dreams matter. It is.

****

For a week, he has been here inside the training camp of the army reservists. It was a separated portion of the Central Kingdom that is remote from the actual inside of the Central Kingdom. In fact, they could be treated as not inside the walls of the Kingdom. This camp is located at the northern-most, outside the borders of the wall. Only that, there is another quadrangular-shaped wall—same height—that was attached to the main wall of the kingdom. In short, they were secluded. According to the King, this set-up would make the army reservists to focus on their tasks and their trainings, knowing that a half of them are just bunch of dumbs and war skilled-pretends. After every end of the month, however, they would be given three days of free walk inside the central kingdom.

Holder was okay with that set-up. He was after the training, he knew, not of the beauty of the Kingdom.

One morning, his body was in burning pain after that awful smashing of Mr. Sandler to him on the floor. So he stood up from his wooden bed early in the morning, and started stretching his body for another training session they would have for the day.

“This early morning?”

He jumped from shock when he heard someone talking behind him. He looked at it, and saw a man wearing a flashy Silver armor, and smiling at him.

“Balel!” he exclaimed.

“Hey man, how are you?”

“I am okay. Training session is cool. And I am doing very well,” Holder said, smiling, and half-lying.

“Really?”

Holder nodded. “Why are you here?” he asked, wondering about the reason why this man was in here, talking to him instead of attending to the gates of the Agnosbadtt.

“Ah, we are escorting a special person here, and, uh . . . a dangerous creature, they say.”

Holder’s forehead curled. “Dangerous creature?”

“Yeah, my Papa said it was a dangerous creature. And it will be a training-for-the-day of the reservists. I am not just pretty sure about what kind of creature that was, and how deadly was it.”

Upon hearing what Balel told, Holder felt scared. A bit. He don’t know. It felt like something is going to happen. Something bloody, perhaps. “What kind of creature is that, I wonder.”

“Papa is not telling me.”

“How about that special person? Do you know who it was?”

Balel nodded. “She was popular at the central kingdom. Professor Zen Maxxes.”

Holder gasped. His eyes grew wide from shock. “Professor Zen Maxxes? The head researcher of different magic researches that helped the Central Kingdom reach its modernity?!”

Holder’s voice echoed in the still-silent training site because of his loud, excited voice.

“Yes, she is.”

“Wow.” Holder cannot believe it. For him, Professor Zen Maxxes can be considered as celebrity of Agnosbadtt. She is beautiful and intelligent, and has strong presence, according to those people who have already seen her. “She’s a celebrity.”

Balel laughed from his expression. “Yes, she’s a big name.”

“But why is she going here?”

“Er, Papa said to monitor what would happen to the training session today. She was the one who created that beast, and it would be good for her if she was there to watch and witness what would happen. It’s an assessment.”

“I see. That excite me for a moment.”

“Yeah, I believe what would happen next would be exciting. Hey, if ever you have a chance, ace the training and defeat whatever that creature is. You’ll have a higher chance to be promoted.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I still wonder why you refused Papa’s offer.”

“I already told that, dude. I will rise from the bottom.”

Balel then sighed. “Alright, won’t argue anymore.”

Then, from a barracks next to him, a loud and whole voice echoed in the midst of the cold morning. “HOLDER! WHERE IS MY MEAL?!”

Holder realized to whose voice does it belong. “Oh shoot, I forgot to bring Mr. Sandler his breakfast.”

He panicked.

“Hey, you sure you’re okay here? There’s oppression and mistreatment here, according to some of the guards. Are you perhaps one of the victim of it?”

Holder shook his head. “No, I’m not. It’s just a request from one of my co-reservist.” He smiled and tapped Balel’s shoulder. “Need to go.”

“Aight. If there’s problem, you can contact General Balfor.”

Holder, before going leaving and attending to Mr. Sandler’s food, smiled at Balel, pretended that everything is falling smooth. Though yes, he was sailing roughly in this journey.

“Will make sure to do that.”

****

After some few stretches and few lapses of training (which even until the training, the weak-looking is still being treated terribly. They were the last one to do the obstacle courses, and even being mocked by other reservists—which bothers their training a lot) they were told to line in the open field.

According to their training officials, there will have a special announcement, special guest, and special kind of training that they have to attend. With that, the training session for the afternoon would be abandoned.

Holder knew that this was now about Professor Zen Maxxes, the magic specialist; and that dangerous creature whom Balel had told.

They filed in a line. Five hundred reserves. Five hundred huge people with scary looks and bad-assed muscle built. Well, seclude the count of twenty frail and thin-looking man, which Holder belongs to.

Now Holder anticipated what would happen.

And what he was excited about, is the fact that he would be able to see the professor up-close. Ugh . . . not really close, for they were at the last pile of the five hundred army reservists. The last in line.

And then, the sound of fantastic trumpet’s harmony had boomed the whole training camp. Two soldiers stood up at the Balcony above the wall. That balcony-looking podium, just like of a stage for princes and princesses, were designed to make their instructors to have a better view of all the trainings of the reservists. Now, it wouldn’t just be an instructor whom Holder would see, but a celebrity (he keeps on imposing to himself that Professor Zen Maxxes is a celebrity.) just like General Balfor.

The sound of the trumpet stopped. Another group of guards and soldiers marched. They stood at the edges of the Balcony, staring straight and Blankly. Balel, along with General Balfor had showed too.

And he gasped. He bit his lower lip from excitement.

There, in the middle of Balel and Balfor is a woman being escorted. A beautiful woman with small face and glassy complexion, a beautiful curve of the body, a violet-dyed hair, wearing an elegantly-designed eyeglass, white laboratory uniform, and a golden-chained Sen necklace—which after seeing, Holder touched his necklace too.

Professor Zen is undeniably beautiful. Every reservists sighed and felt excited soon as they saw the beautiful professor.

But wrapped around the professor’s arm, there is a weird creature peering over every army reservists down below. Holder felt that the creature looked and eyed at him—intently.

But what kind of creature is that? A black slime? It has red eyes, and black, rounded, jiggly body.

Is it, perhaps, the thing that Balel told as . . . the dangerous creature?