Twisted Wonderland Book 6: The Watchman of the Underworld

Chapter 75: A Lifelong Regret

Briar soon opens her eyes to find herself in the abyss again.

Knowing who's memories she has ended up, Briar calls out, "Idia! Idia, where are you?! Idia!"

Right on cue, she hears Idia's voice, "My life's been set in stone... since before I was born... The Watchman of the Island of Woe.... That's what I'm gonna be... People born into the Shroud family... possess a blood curse that burns blot.... And they have a signature spell... that opens and closes the gate to the Underworld."

Soon, a memory of the Styx hallway appears. Soon, she sees different people talking.

One researcher says, "Young Idia is truly exceptional. He excels both in magic and his studies. He's even impressed experts with his technomantic engineering work. That boy's a bona fide genius."

"It's true. Styx's future is in good hands," The female researcher says.

Soon, the memory disappears.

Briar begins walking as she continues to hear Idia's voice, ";What do you want to be when you grow up?' If I were a normal kid, I bet someone would've asked me that... Would it kill someone... to ask me that just once?"

Soon, a memory scene appears before her. She then finds herself in a large room that has comic books, posters, a computer, and essentials. Some of the posters look very familiar.

Suddenly, she hears two voices, "'Shoot for glory among the stars and soar like a comet!'"

Briar turns to see two children playing a game. One of them she recognized to be Idia as a child. There is another child next to him, and he seems very familiar. He has the familiar blue hair rising up, and yellow eyes.

Briar is shocked to see, "Ortho?!"

Briar is shocked to see the boy is actually Ortho as a little boy. An organic boy for that matter. Idia is playing a video game as Ortho watch.

The young boy, Ortho happily says, "You can do it, Idy! Get those Chronos Force losers!

Idia cheers, "WOO! Cleared hard mode without taking any damage!"

"You rock, Idy!" Ortho happily says, "Take that, Chronos Force!"

Idia sighs, "Maaan... I wish I could go on an adventure in the outside world like the hero in Star Rogue."

"Me too! I wanna go adventuring with you!" Ortho says. "Then we'd take down the bad guys and become heroes."

"Heroes, huh..." Idia replies, "Maybe you could be one, but I doubt I could."

"Why's that? I want us both to be," Ortho asks.

"'Cuz when I grow up, I'm gonna have to take over running things for the family," Idia says.

"Okay, but what if you do it before you grow up?" Ortho says.

"Before I grow up, huh..." Idia replies.

"Yeah!" Ortho happily says, "It's okay to go on adventures as long as you're not grown up yet, right?"

Idia thinks for a second and says, "Y know, maybe it IS okay for me to go outside as long as I do it before I take over. If I could just bypass HQ's security, it'd be easy to slip through the Oceanus Gate and get off the island. So..." And think some more.

He then turns to Ortho and asks, "...You wanna go on an adventure?"

Ortho happily gasps and says, "Yeah! Let's do it!"

"Okay. Just leave it to your big bro," Idia happily says.

Soon, the memory fades away.

Briar is shocked to see this, the little boy, who's with Idia was his real little brother. It has her thinking that if the little boy is Ortho, then who is the Ortho now. Then, who exactly is the Ortho she's been seeing at school... She wonder if something might have happened.