Paracosm

6: The Fair Maiden

for the extra feels:

(༎ຶ⌑༎ຶ)

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This chapter will be entirely written in Levi's POV

I held up the torn sketchbook paper under the lamp in several new angles; I could never get sufficient light down here, but it's okay. I admired the portrait that I had drawn, adding a few more strokes to touch it up before feeling fully satisfied. My fingers traced along the outline of her figure, then brushed along the shadings, showing off her demeanour.

Her gums were on display like china porcelain cups on shelves. Her nose hung softly, a button sewed on with wispy threads. It accentuated her rosy cheeks and her vivid emerald eyes - too bad I didn't have the luxury to afford colours.

Mayuka. Mayuka. Mayuka-

"Art?" Farlan taunted, "You've taken up on that too?"

Startled, I crumpled my work together and rolled it under the bed. I fixed my collared shirt and cleared my throat, attending to the boy who lived next door. His eyes were still glued onto the paper, blatant curiosity written all over his face.

"Oh, what a waste of paper. Let's see what masterpiece you've-"

"Stop! Stop it..."

"Ackerman." he stated, "what are you hiding?"

"Absolutely none of your business, Church."

I glared at him with furrowed eyebrows. He glared at me with steady hands. This was turning into a stare down.

"11."

"12."

"13."

"14."

"15."

"16."

"Fine," I gave in as tears started to swell in my eyes, "I'll show you."

Irksome, he did his mini victory dance and snatched away the drawing that was lounging on the bedroom floor before I could even pick it up. I pinched the bridge of my nose in instant regret.

"Ooh lá lá!" he sang the anticipated reply towards the unwrapped sheet, "Who is this fine lady?"

Farlan was smirking back towards the beaming illustration. He wiggled his eyebrows at it, as if it was alive.

"I wanna hear it - the entire story."

"Ugh," I grunted, "Grab me a cup of tea first."

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"Did you ask if she was single?" he pranced, excited to where this man-talk would lead to, although we both very well knew that it wouldn't lead anywhere.

"Tch, in your bloody dreams." I shunned at his distasteful remark.

"Well you should've. I mean, it's what kept you away from the party at the pub." Church sniggered.

"I wasn't planning on going anyways."

"Such a boring old man. Didn't I tell you to-"

"Live it up a little? Yea, yea."

His jaw dropped out of disbelief, pressed a single palm towards his chest, acting like I had crossed the line or was far too audacious with my response. Annoying, but that was what made Farlan, Farlan. He was interesting, and certainly too good-natured for a thug.

"I seriously wonder why the girl decided to follow you." he mocked, folding his arms, "She was right about your vocabulary, you have to improve that. Those words you picked out at the end probably ruined her."

I wanted to avoid my mistake terribly, so I did by pointing out Farlan's inaccuracies instead.

"It's not just 'the girl'. It's Mayuka Rogue."

"Mayuka Rogue," he echoed, "has a nice ring to it."

And prior to the next conversation, I made sure I changed the topic.

"Right, I'm hungry. We should steal."

"But I just brewed you tea!"

"Tea doesn't fill."

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"Here's your payment. Sorry I kept y'all waiting."

"This is for the last job, and the job before."

I busied myself with the knife, or at least pretended to as my gaze sits intently on the workers. Three were seated on the couch, delighted with their reward, whilst the other was glum, solemnly fidgeting in the spare armchair. Farlan was shuffling his pay, and unlike the usual, he didn't try to re-count the money or test if it was enough, his mind was simply somewhere else.

"Oh, thank-"

He received his badge, jaw bent a little, and Farlan nodded to reassure him that he deserved it.

"Now, don't go spending it all at once, you hear? People will get suspicious." Church advised, even so it wasn't like the workers were attentive enough to listen.

"We know!" they quickly dismissed, "Let's go!"

And so they trailed off into the great, big slums that we live in again.

"Work's been hell of a lot easier since we got our hands on these 3D Manoeuvre Gear. Now we can pay our guys more!"

I inspected the dagger, marvelling it's shine.

"Seems like one of them got a little too much. Any reason why?"

Farlan's smile was quick to falter, and his back relaxed into a hunched position. It was obvious that he wasn't about to divulge into good news.

"You've probably noticed that Jan's leg been getting worse. Meds are pretty expensive. They've gone up recently too." he explained.

"Those scumbag shysters," he continued to swear, "Did you hear the toll on the stairways went up?"

"Yeah."

"At this rate, paupers like us will never get to say daylight."

What he said hurt, but it was nothing more than the truth. Basking in the sun, something so normal for the citizens above, was something we haven't experienced once. It messed us up, of course, the lack of sunlight was the reason why those guys got weak legs.

He rambled on about how forlorn our people were, and how desperate they were to leave. None of them successfully fled to freedom, they would either get jailed back into the dark or struggle with the currency rates.

"It's not like you could do anything about it." he spills yet another truth.

"Nevertheless, you still gave him too much."

"That was his severance pay, he's basically done for. At the very least, he could find himself a good hospital."

"Is that so."

"How much more would we need in order to live up there?"

And there he goes, repeating the same unbearing question yet again. The question we all have no answer to.

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referenced a lot of the OVA in this one
because i wanted it to link
sorry if this chapter was shorter than usual!
hopefully the second chapter i uploaded today will make up for it :)