Gaze

Chapter 3: ...The Kids Here Are Kind Of Weird, Though

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Here comes the boyyyyy (/derogatory and sarcastic, but affectionate)
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I stare at the ginger with a chronic case of bedhead in confusion.

"...Who are you???"

"Getting straight to business, huh? I like that." Kid with the bad bob smiles, in a way that seems polite enough, but still gives me the urges to punch his face somehow. Speaking of his face, he wore a heart mark on his right eye. "I'm Ace. Ace Trappola. A brand new sparkling first year!"

I nod in acknowledgment, picking up my bucket and walking to the next statue to clean it. "The name's Yuu. Y-U-U. It's a weird name, but you get used to it."

Ace nods, putting his hands behind his head and smiling. Gosh, it's like he's mocking me somehow... with that haircut? Seriously? But he's the one who went out the way to talk to me, so I'll entertain him a little.

<Tread with caution, Child of Trailblaze. You must learn about your enemies to gain the higher ground, and never let the enemies learn about you.> Don't know why you're treating this is like a tactical battle, but I'll take your words to heart, Nanook.

"Say, you mentioned that the woman over there..." I gesture to the statue I just clean. "...Is the Queen of Hearts. What kind of queen was she?"

"Well, in the past, she was the queen who lived in the Rose Maze." She lived in a maze? Now that's impressive. If it were me, I'd go mad navigating a complex area of twists and turns while trying to find my house so that I could rest after a long day of work.

"She was someone who valued rules and discipline above all. From the marching of her card soldiers to the color of her rose bushes, she was very strict about every single detail. It was a land of madness where all submit to her rule." Wow. Sounds real stubborn.

"Why?" "Why you ask? Because or else, it was off with your head!" Oh, not stubborn then. A real tyrant.

"Hm. It sounds like her presence was rather overwhelming." "Well, she is a ruler! She had to lead with an iron fist!" Ace thrusts his fist into the air casually. "Cause, nobody would listen to a queen who's just nice all the time, right?"

"Mm, depends... on a lot of things I guess." I reply, wiping the lion's statue clean and moving onto the next. "What about the lion with the scar? Is he a ruler as well?"

"Oh, that one? That's the King of Beasts! He rules the savannah. However, he wasn't born to be king." Aah, second-born, huh? That explains the look on his face- gives off inferiority complex vibes.

"But, he took the throne through effort and elaborate planning, and after he became king, he even allowed the loathed hyenas to live in his kingdom without discrimination." ...I don't know how to feel with what taking the throne through effort and planning implies.

"Pretty neat." I finish cleaning the octopus lady's statue, and head to the man with the cool hat's statue. "What about the miss with the octopus legs?"

"Ah, her? She is the Sea Witch, who lives in the cavern in the deep. Her purpose was to help all unfortunate merfolk." Ace nods towards the statue of the Sea Witch.

"So she was kind, is what you're saying." "She was! ...As long as you could pay the price, of course." Aaaand there's the catch!

"She could transform you, help you find love, anything- if it was within her power, there wasn't anything she wouldn't or couldn't do. But they do say that her prices were pretty high."

"Makes sense. That's what it costs for anything, after all." Having wiped down the statue of the man with the nice hat, I gesture to it. "What about this one?"