The 19th century was called the Age of Magic and Industry.
Humanity has developed by leaps and bounds.
The forests were cleared, railroads were laid, airships were in the sky, and cars were circulating in the streets.
Did it end here?
NO
The economy developed, the population exploded, and numerous colonies were established.
Some said —This was the golden age of mankind, and yet some places were alienated.
This was the case with the mining town right here.
This is a village, which doesn't even have a proper name.
It is a place where minerals come out, and it was a place where people at the bottom of the social pyramid gathered, and of course, at the bottom of them were the children.
Most of the children here were orphans who had similar backgrounds.
They didn't know who their father and mother were, and they were raised until the age of 14 by the government subsidies, after which they were sold to the mining village here in the name of employment and independence.
It was illegal, but no one cared. Because this was very common here.
Perhaps because of that, the appearance of the children all looked alike.
A face that has turned black from mining, lifeless eyes, and a skinny body.
It may be too much to say, but they were more like cogs or screws in human form rather than human beings.
It’s as if they were squeezed to the limit and were broken to the point, if they were to be squeezed a bit more then they'll get sick and die.
Like the saying ‘Nature provides an exception to every rule', even in this place there was a strange child.
This child's name was Oliver.
There was nothing special about him but still he was a little bizarre.
No, it was more than that.
Oliver, who was smaller and thinner than the other children, had pale skin.
He was reminiscent of a living corpse, and he was an ugly child that no one would think of as strange if he died right away tomorrow.
However, that was ironically the proof that Oliver was bizarre.
It was three years and four months from now when Oliver got sold to this mine, at that time he was hated by the manager, so he couldn’t get to eat properly, so he was much more miserable than he is now.
Seeing such a soggy child, all of them expected that he would die in less than three months, some even started betting on when he would die.
In fact, Oliver fell ill, less than a week after his arrival to the mine.
His condition was so serious that he couldn't even breathe properly and his body boiled like a kettle.
But to everyone’s surprise, Oliver miraculously recovered when they were preparing to dig a place to bury him.
Rather, the other children, who were fine until the day before, suddenly fell ill and died.
And that wasn't the end.
Oliver had many other oddities that cannot be properly explained.
It was difficult to avoid the angry supervisor, but Oliver was strangely quick to notice the change and was able to avoid being the supervisor's target.
Even if he was the target of harassment by bullying, he luckily escapes quickly, with the perpetrator dying of illness.
In addition, the fierce guard dog watching over the children was especially scared in front of Oliver, and the rats disappeared one by one in the places wherever Oliver worked or slept.
These strange phenomena overlapped, and resulted in Oliver being alienated, and treated as an ominous object by everyone.
But Oliver, the concerned party, did not care about these at all.
His interest wasn't to be friends with anyone or to be loved by anyone.
Currently, Oliver only wanted to survive as long as he could in this Mine.
There was no clear purpose.
It was just an obsession with life.
He was similar to ants and mites who are all struggling to live.
Oliver was raised in an orphanage and then was raised in a Mine, had nothing other than survival in his mind.
However, his survival was greeted with a change one day due to a sudden visitor.
⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩
PUANG PUANG PUANG PUANG
At the time of work, there was the sound of an alarm that shouldn’t have sounded.
The children, who worked in the stuffy coal mine without a trace of sunlight, looked up with difficulty, and only Oliver, who was mining in the corner, was working without paying any attention.
After a while, a fat man came down on the rusty ladder.
It was the supervisor who supervised the children.
"Attention! Attention, everyone! Gather outside right now!"
A black-faced child asked with a frightened look.
"Oh, supervisor? What's going on…?”
" A visitor came in after a long time. They say he’s looking for a sincere hard worker, so come out and greet him! Hurry, hurry, move! Come on!"
At the supervisor’s word a faint smile flashed across the faces of the children who had a dead expression.
Why?
It’s because if they got chosen, they could get out of this hell.
It was a kind of irregular event.
This was their only hope in this hopeless Mine.
The children stopped what they were doing and climbed up to the ground on a rusty ladder.
TANG TANG
The sound of the ladder rang, and there was a small commotion as everyone pushed each other in order to climb up first.
Only Oliver got away from the commotion as he was watching them from below.
He felt that there was no particular reason to rush like others.
Whether it is his emotions that are dead or his soul that is broken, Oliver has never felt any emotions such as joy, expectation, or hope ever since he was born.
That's why he was so calm, and he did know —maybe it was thanks to this that he still survived.
Because for him, false hope was poison.
The strong children were the first to climb above the ladder, and the rest of the weak children climbed the ladder following them.
And of course, it was Oliver who came in last, so he got the worst seat in the last corner.
"Oh, it's dazzling…"
"I think I'm going to live a little longer."
"Cough cough."
Children who saw the sun after a long time chattered with excitement.
Even the sunlight was a luxury in the coal mine.
Meanwhile, a muscular man appeared in front of the children.
He was the tyrant who was in charge of the mines in these fields.
He had a cigarette in his mouth and was accompanied by his fierce guard dog, and he spoke in an arrogant manner.
"Shut Up, everybody, be quiet. Don't make a fuss in front of the customer."
The dog barked furiously.
The children were frightened and united among themselves, only Oliver stood calmly.
Then a man appeared quietly.
"Attention, everyone! This is the customer who came to visit us today. He needs sincere and talented workers. So everyone, be silent."
The children closed their mouths as if they had made a promise not to open them and rolled their eyes to look at the man called a customer.
The man was middle-aged, with a benevolent expression and a well-groomed mustache, and he seemed quite rich in his neat coat and heavy hat.
This could be a good sign – A nice-looking, wealthy man who could take them anywhere better than here.
But he looked a little different in Oliver's eyes.
The supervisor spoke to the customer.
"Do you want me to recommend some children?"
The workers who usually behaved nicely to the supervisor smiled faintly.
But the customer shook his head.
"No, I would like to pick one by myself."
The customer then pulled something out of his coat.
Surprisingly, it was chocolate.
‘Chocolate!’
The children, who had been watching only chocolate wrappers all their lives, were excited.
“What is this?”
The customer spoke first.
All the children tilted their heads.
‘What is that? Does he think we don't even know what chocolate is because we work in the mines?’
‘I wondered what his intention was to ask such a question.’
Meanwhile, the boy who was a little faster raised his hand and said.
"It's chocolate!"
The child smiled slyly at the same time he gave the answer.
He was sure to himself – That this was a test to find an enterprising child who acts first, but his prediction went awry.
"Does anyone have any other opinions?"
The child who answered first the cold customer's question looked disappointed.
But there was no sympathy from anyone.
Rather, they raised their hand like animals, in order to not miss this opportunity.
“Me!”
“I know!”
“Me! Me!”
“I'll answer! Sir!”
“Please me…”
Children shouted and raised their hands like a flock of pigeons gathering around the crumbs, except Oliver.
Oliver instead of raising his hands, fell into deep thought.
‘Is that really chocolate?’
Oliver looked at the customer's hand that was holding the chocolate.
Obviously, he had the chocolate in his hand, but there was something more noticeable than that.
It was a black light.
It was a round black light that was formed at his fingertips.
The customer was drawing black light from his body towards the fingertips and making a circle.
This was quite a shock to Oliver.
Each person had a black light in their bodies, but he has never seen any of them handle it like this before.
So while Oliver was shocked by the new discovery, the other children answered the questions, being pointed out by the customer.
“Okay, you answer.”
“Yes! That's an opportunity.”
“Wrong!”
The customer pointed to the other child.
"It's the future. A future where I can live a better life!"
“Wrong!”
The guest pointed to another child again.
"It is a hope."
“Wrong!”
The customer pointed towards another child again.
Then he pointed to another child.
Each and every child he pointed out gave a novel answer, but nothing satisfied the customer.
Before they knew it, all the hands were down, and the children whose hopes were trampled were only crying.
They even shed tears because they felt it was so unfair, but fair or not, the customer only murmured in disappointment.
"Um… is there no one here either?"
It was at this moment, that someone quietly raised his hand.
Everyone's eyes focused on him.
"Huh? Uh, yeah… What does this look like to you?"
An unexpected question.
Oliver, who was least visible, replied.
“A circle.”
“…huh? what?”
“A circle. Sir.”
“…a circle? Not a square?”
“Yes. How did you do that, sir?”
The customer smiled in silence.
⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩
The deal was done quickly.
The customer handed over a lump of money that seemed heavy to the person in charge of the site, and the person in charge of the site handed Oliver over to the customer, skipping even the questions he had to ask as a guardian.
All the children went back to the mine with a look of injustice, and Oliver followed the guest, no……the new Master, and left the Mine.
Ordinary children would have greeted him as politely and servilely as possible in order to make a good impression at this time, but Oliver did not do that, rather, he asked a bold question.
"Excuse me… Master? How did you do that?'
“What?”
“This. Is this how you do it?”
With those words, Oliver raised his finger.
It was invincible to ordinary people but was visible to the customer.
A lump of black light formed at the tip of Oliver’s finger.
Oliver imitated the customer's tricks just by looking at them once.
It wasn’t that hard either.
The corners of the customer's mouth slowly lifted.
"Since when were you able to do that?"
"…Just now. I've seen it since I was a kid,"
Oliver replied, and the customer suddenly stopped and looked at Oliver.
"My name is Joseph. A great Warlock, I will be your teacher. From now on, serve me."
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