the Pain of Truth [Ray X Reader] (the Promised Neverland)

58

Time skip: the next day

(Y/N) Pov:

"Well then. We've secured a safe place for now. Time to figure out what to do next. How to go about the rescue, and the escape. That is, how do we get Phil's group out of that place... And then, how do we cross over to the human world." said Ray, basically voicing a summary of everything we had up until now.

I nodded lightly as Emma said: "We gotta think of something..." "I don't have the slightest idea." noted Natt, sighing lightly. Gilda looked down, saying: "I was hoping we'd get some guidance from Minerva..." Changing the topic, Natt asked: "So? What did you find?" "What sort of data have they got in that archive room?" asked Anna, looking at us expectantly.

"A lot." I admitted, smiling at them. Ray said: "We've barely even scratched the surface of everything there so far, but we found out, for example, the overall classification and general location of the plantations." I added: "Wh-What kinds of farms exist and their identification marks." "Yes. Two days ago, that guy showed it to us all of a sudden, right?" asked Ray, making the children nod.

"Grace Field uses digits on the necks. Glory Bell, a character string on the belly. The kind of writing, the order of characters... The location of the mark. The details vary from plantation to plantation." continued Ray. Natt said: "Meaning one can identify them at a glance..." Ray nodded, saying: "Incidentally, it seems like only the four premium plantations bother with unique identifiers for every specimen. The factory farms simply use brands."

He showed them the pictured of the book he was holding, adding: "Each farm has a certain symbol, and they just engrave it at some fixed location." Gilda asked: "So... If someone knows about these marks, then... Just by seeing them on human cattle like us, they'll also know which farm we came?" "Right. At the very least, the intelligent Demons know about them for sure." said Emma, nodding.

"A-And we found information about the human world and the promise. Oh, and something about the location of Demon settlements in this world. E-Even though that's still unclear." I said, looking down at the book I was holding. I finished it just a few minutes prior to this conversation. It was about the promise, even though the information it holds is really, really vague, it was somewhat helpful.

Emma showed two other books, saying: "There's an encyclopedia of Demon world plants with hand drawings. There's also normal things, like novels and children's books, and we found some material about Demons, but..." "But?" asked Anna, Lanni and Thoma looking curiously at all of us.

I answered her question by showing them the book. It was the one Ray held. "Th-They're all very old." "The books here all seem to have been published before 2015. Just like in the Grace Field library. We can't be sure with the non-book materials, but when it comes to books that deal with Demons and the promise, they're all ancient enough to be considered historical." said Ray.

Right. 2015. There's no book past that year. I can't help but to think that maybe something really did happen to Minerva-san. It's been 30 years. He never once came back to this shelter. At least not the past 13 years. Maybe he's just stuck in the human world? Maybe his way of crossing the worlds got blocked? Maybe he got discovered and has to stay hidden? It could be anything, for all that we know. But that's not helping me at all.

A hand made its way onto mine, snapping me out of my thoughts. I looked up, meeting a pair of dark green eyes. He had a look on his face, as to ask me if I was okay. I smiled reassuringly, nodding my head. He accepted my answer, but kept his grip on my hand as he said: "That man knew how many of us had escaped. And also the date when we broke out. There has to be a method of getting real time information about the world. Most likely those monitors."

Lanni gasped, turning to look at Thoma, who had the same expression he did. Anna asked: "What about a method of crossing to the other world?" Emma leaned back in her chair, sighing, answering: "We've found nothing about it so far. I guess we'll have to locate Minerva first, after all." "What, did you find out anything about Minerva?" asked Gilda, looking at us with hopeful eyes. I nodded, humming as to say yes, showing them the letter that I had found.

"A letter?" asked Gilda, reaching for it. I gave to to her, saying: "It was inside one of those old books." Gilda took a look at it, then read it out loud.

"Congratulations on your success in making it so far. I apologize for not being able to celebrate it with you personally. This shelter was made for you. However, should you aim for more, should you want to go beyond merely living in peace, then use your pen and head here. William Minerva, A08-63."

"This is..." said Natt, trailing off. Emma nodded, saying: "Do you recall the message from the pen? The handwriting is the same." "Could it be... When he says 'beyond living living here in peace', does he mean reaching the human world?" asked Gilda. Ray answered: "Probably." Don stood up, asking: "So Minerva is in A08-63?" "I'm not sure of that. After all, this letter must be several years old. But after we finish giving a look through all the archived materials, Emma, (Y/N), and I will go find A08-63." announced Ray, making everyone else besides us gasp.

"Um, but what about us?" asked Lanni, speechless. Emma answered: "We'd like you to stay here and take care of the kids." "And that's not the only thing we need from you guys." added Ray. "But, Ray-" started Don, just to be cut off. "In the current situation, we don't need everyone on this mission. You get it, right?" "The poachers?" asked Anna, making me nod.

"Exactly. We're safe as long as we're in this shelter. T-The Demon's probably don't know about it, since Mister has stayed here for 13 years. But..." I looked down as I said: "His friends were k-killed..." Ray tightened his grip on my hand, as to calm me down, which worked perfectly fine. I gave him a quick smile, just to let him know that I appreciate it.

Emma then continued: "'They', 'the poachers'... Perhaps they had some sort of in-fighting, but if not, the ones who did that may be outside." Ray said: "That man said that he himself tried searching for Minerva, remember? Therefore, this trip will be fairly risky. If we don't want to lose anyone, I think it's better to split up this time."

"But...! Ray, Emma, (Y/N)! You... If something..." tried Don, not being able to form normal sentences. We stood up, too, with Ray saying: "Of course, even going alone, we'll be taking a risk. But I'm not planning on dying or to let anyone else die." Thoma and Lanni looked at him with expressions that screamed 'Are you really sure? Really?'. I had to giggle, as Ray said: "Come on, I'm serious!"

I let go of Ray's hand, kneeling down in front of the two. I put a hand on each of their heads, saying: "Don't worry. I'll make sure that he doesn't try to die. I'll do everything to bring both him, and Emma back alive. So don't worry, okay?" I smiled at the end, trying my best to be a good sister to them. They both nodded, their cheeks slightly pink. "(Y/N)... you can..." "...you can talk without stuttering..." they said, making me chuckle before going back to Ray's side.

Ray took my hand back in his, saying: "Besides, it's not like the three of us want to risk it alone. After all, we're just 'naive chumps who know nothing'. We gotta get help from a tutor with experience." "What?" asked Don, guessing what we were on about. "No way..." muttered Anna, covering her mouth with her hand. "You can't be..." trailed Don of. Just then, as if he knew we were talking about him, Mister opened the door, stepping in.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Picture from:

https://animegeeksjp.com/the-promised-neverland/why-do-demons-eat-humans-children/