an unfortunate change in genre

Part 52

'Hoho, the young master really doesn't change.'

Ron Molan had known about the unique nature of his young charges longer than anyone else, perhaps longer than even they themselves did.

After all, Ron had been with them since birth. He recognized the oddities in the pair in a way that only a parent might and he wasn't all that taken aback to learn their true natures.

The knowledge that Roksu Henituse was an existence that was never meant to be and yet somehow came into being did leave him with certain unanswered questions. Ron had his own ways of finding answers though and he had yet to press the young master for answers.

But he was instantly able to recognize the huddled figure of his young master, even when the appearance was wrong and the world was wrong, there was no question in his mind who he was looking at.

Roksu didn't have any particularly strange quirks while he slept but Ron recognized him. He'd been serving the Henituse family for over two decades now, it would be stranger if he didn't know him.

But one couldn't help but marvel at how very little Roksu changed.

Whether it was this life or the last one, he was the most consistent thing through it all.

HA, THIS TIME YOU'LL GIVE INTO THE DESPAIR. AND I'LL BE HERE FOR YOU WHEN YOU DO– JOIN ME. JOIN ME AND WE'LL BE TOGETHER. I'LL GIVE YOU EVERYTHING YOU LACK.

"Eh, I'll pass."

What a consistent child he was.

Ron felt a bit proud. And maybe a bit frustrated.

THEN YOU'LL WATCH THEM ALL DIE. IT WILL BE YOUR FAULT ALONE THIS TIME. THEY'LL SUFFER AND DIE ALL BECAUSE OF YOUR PRIDE.

Really, that was a unique tactic. To threaten people Roksu cares about in order to force his hand.

The outcome would surely be amusing.

Ron didn't quite have the patience to listen to the entire spiel though. As they say, places to go, people to see. From his position stealthily behind the crippled man who had been possessed, Ron neatly knocked him unconscious.

Normally he would have slit his throat but he had some concept that Kim Rok Soo wouldn't respond terribly well to that sight. With shaking pupils, the young master looked at Ron with the familiar unnerved unease he usually looked at Ron with. Unfortunately it lacked some of the warmth.

"Young master." Ron said while politely stepping over the prone body, mindful of all the other sleepers who were rising up around them. Doubtlessly also under the influence of that rather annoying entity. "If you would like to save these people, you must come with me."

Distrust and skepticism battled for dominance in familiar brown eyes and Ron's benign smile twitched with amusement. Really. The young master simply never changed.

"If you would like, I could dispatch them all similarly instead. But I fear the situation may escalate somewhat after I do so."

Ron could recognize an obsessive personality without any effort at all and the entity possessing these people had the stench of it soaking through him and into the ground like a sickening black ink.

"What happened to them?" Roksu's voice was so young. It struck Ron that despite his literal age being similar, he'd never heard the young master sound so young. He didn't sound as sure of himself or as well thought out. There was the unmistakable stench of youthful obstinance as well.

Ron considered carefully how to answer that question. In truth he had no good idea what was happening to these people. It could be a memory. It could be the sealed god. The fact was that they only existed in Roksu's mind and therefore there was no real way to 'save' them from their fate, whatever that would be. He could only save his young master from being trapped in this place.