August XXth:
I was brought here to the mine by my dad to assist him during the work. I saw numerous men of various shapes and sizes, some having marks on their bodies with numbers and strange symbols. They were curious about me, but my dad shooed them away, saying they shouldn't coddle me.
I don't understand, they just wanted to say hi to me...
He gave me a pickaxe and told me to start digging. It was very big and heavy though, so I couldn't swing it. For some reason dad didn't beat me right away for this. One of the older people here then gave me a smaller pickaxe and I began to participate in digging parties.
My dad beat me later and Sylvie was mocking me for not being able to swing a regular pickaxe. We then played soldiers that evening.
---
September XXth:
I've gotten along quite well with the mining crew.
They refer to me as Goldie due to my hair colour, and my father's obsession with the gold.
There is Johann, who told me he was convicted for forgery and he lets me have a piggyback ride when my dad isn't looking. He is a funny guy. He says he could give me a fake passport.
There is Quincy, who was convicted due to being a drug addict and he's a bit disturbed. He seems friendly enough though.
And then there's Mr. Galhen. He calls himself "De facto leader" as there are some higher ups that don't even show up here. He immediately took fondness to me and kept coddling me.
They're all friendly people
---
January XXth:
In the mines, despite how hot they usually are, they are quite chilly during winter. They apparently don't celebrate New Year's, as they're either not the followers of the Unknowable One or they're simply "too broke"
Unknowable One is a rather benevolent deity, so why are they not worshiping them?
Anyway, we mined quite a lot of material! My swings became much more sturdy, but my dad started to visit work less and less. At times I would work full days for him.
Johann told me that I have a talent for this and Quincy even made a small stone figurine I showed to Sylvie
---
April XXth:
My dad stopped coming to work altogether, which left me to fill in for him. They tried to reason with the "higher-ups", but they didn't budge one bit, so now I was forced to fill the full quotas
Of course, I would persevere. It's at least the escape I can have
And even if some are rude to me, there are also those who would protect me
I wish I could stay here, but my dad forces me and Sylvie to stay in our house by night; and one time Sylvie wasn't sleeping in the house, she got beat up pretty badly
Speaking of Sylvie, lately she started to stare at me scarily. Her voice would also feel rather dangerous every time I spoke my time in the mines, saying things like "of course they would coddle you like a baby"
I asked them if Sylvie could join, but they said they won't accept girls here, as this is an ungirly job and they think she would be just a dead weight
They didn't listen when I said that she was stronger than me
---
May XXth:
Some sort of explosion happened nearby when we were mining, and Mr. Galhen rushed to protect me. He says that I'm too young to be here, but says that unfortunately my dad is "important", so he can't just kick me out
I like money though, so I'm not complaining
Even if dad takes it all away
He told me that he used to work in another mine, but was moved here and it is unusual for him to see "unstable people"
--
"I don't trust any of them, scamper; but I trust you.
They seem to be on edge, must be new here.
And... To tell you the truth, this mine... Is haunted.
So maybe that's why.
Keep close to me, alright? You have so much to live for after all, and it's not like you committed a crime, yeah?"
--
He told me that his punishment got worse, but he tries to keep his spirits up
I asked him what he was being punished for and he said
--
"People will frame you. It's in their nature to find a scapegoat they can torture for their own amusement. And these bastards took away everything from me. My wife... My daughter... My home...
And it's all because I saw something I wasn't meant to see."
--
He didn't specify it though, so it's a mystery for me.
---
July XXth
"Hey... Can I have some water, please?"
"Sure, Mr. Johann..."
"Thanks, Goldie. I swear this mine will be the end of me..."
"What's wrong, Mr. Johann?"
"I can hear them... Screaming... Wailing... Scratching... I don't know where, but I hear them... I swear we need to go deeper..."
"You think there are people trapped inside? My sister likes to tell creepy stories to bully me. She says that there are people encased inside the walls..."
"Hah... I wonder... I mean, I've heard some sick in the mind bastards experiment on people like that, testing the limits of the human body and all that crap. I've heard they intentionally pick up the poor families as to them they already were at the death's door."
"Uuh... It's scary..."
"Don't worry bud, you live in the village, and those bastards live in the more well-off residences. I'm sure unless some scholarly guy shows up here being snooty and crap - you'll be fine. I mean I was also in a not financially stable family and sure as hell no one abducted my family members like that."
"..."
"Don't sweat it. It's probably just a horror story...
Yeah... Definitely..."
---
September XXth
"Oh, for lord's sake, stop crying Quincy, you good-for-nothing druggie!!! You didn't even fill your quota, damnit!!!"
"He's here... I swear he's here... I can hear his voice... HE'S HERE--!!!"
"SHUT UP!!!"
"Calm down, Chez! Quincy, what the hell is going on?!"
"He's here... He's beckoning us... We must dig deeper... We must dig deeper..."
"The hell? What he's talking about?"
"Um... Mister... Johann also told me something about digging deeper..."
"Me?
I don't remember
What are you saying kid?"
"I-I can show you my diary! I swear Johann was talking about digging deeper!"
"No need for that, scamper. We need to find out who is "he" Quincy's talking about. Hell, Quincy doesn't even have any sort of access to whatever could be used as a drug and he's been here for 3 years. Quincy, willing to talk now?"
"I don't know... I genuinely don't know!
I feel like a daemon is talking to me.
...
Where's the knife?
Give me a knife!!"
"Whoa-whoa-whoa! Shit, Quincy!! Stay the hell away from me!!!"
"Please... I need to...
I need to cut out my heart...
PLEASE!!!
I BEG OF YOU!!!
I WON'T EVEN HURT A FLY!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!"
"Scamper, to me!"
"Y-Yes!..."
"There we go, stay behind me... Men! Restrain him!"
"Alright, you're not getting away with this!!"
...
"No... I have to... I have to be set free from this madness... Of course...
I just need to peel the walls off...
Haha...
The walls...
Are now showing their colour...
Haha...
The pain... Is finally over..."
...
"W-What's going on...?"
"Goldie... Please go home now."
"W-What's wrong?"
"You don't have to see it. You don't have to see any of it..."
"Please at least tell me what's wrong!..."
"... He's dead. Hopefully that's enough for you."
---
October XXth:
"Alright! That should be enough! Now, we just retain those who hear the voices and it'll be alright."
"Are you sure this'll keep them at bay? I swear, even I feel like I'm going insane..."
"Don't worry, Johann! If they can't hurt anyone, including themselves, I'm sure they'll calm down and be back to normal!"
"Yeah sure thing... Oi! What the hell happened to you, Goldie?!"
"I'm fine... T-Truly!... Ow..."
"Oh dear, it seems you've got ambushed by monsters, c'mere scamp."
"... Are you not mad at me...?"
"*I* will be mad if we have a dead child on our site, come here, Goldie. I will be holding you, it'll hurt a lot."
"Okay..."
"... Yeah that's a nasty wound, alright. Can you describe the monster that did this to you, scamper?"
"It was big, like almost as big as me and I think it looked like a spider. It had a rock body with purple crystals."
"Yeah, that one is actually a pretty cunning critter. Always escapes before we land an explosive towards it. It doesn't seem to be interested in killing anyone, so you're safe... Maybe. That would is quite big, how did you manage to get back here?"
"... I just walked back..."
"Reckless cretin! We told you to not go out by yourself! Now look at you!"
"H-Hey...! I was walking with Maxwell, but um... He fell..."
"Oh... Dear..."
"Still, you should've stopped here. You ventured deeper anyway, didn't you?"
"... I was just curious! I wanted to see where Maxwell was dragged to!"
"You would've been dragged here along with him, idiot! Urgh, you don't have any self-protection instinct!"
"Alright-alright--! YEOWCH! Ahh-ahh!... Waah...!"
"Shh, calm down, it will disinfect the wound. Soon your abdomen will be just as new!"
"S-Sylvie didn't need that..."
"Sylvie? Oh, your sister. Well, she should've been using those if any of you got hurt. Believe me, you don't want to deal with infections. I have seen rather gruesome stuff at my previous job."
"..."
"Calm down, Goldie. Deep breaths. It will get better - you'll get used to it. For now, let me just hold you."
"And now for the worst part... You're NOT going to like this Goldie... I suggest you close your eyes and don't open them at any cost..."
"Oh god, no, even I can't watch this. Let me cover your eyes and mouth for this. Dear god..."
...
...
"I'm back! Check this out!"
"The wound's fully healed? Already? Usually those types of wounds heal for two or even more weeks - hell, even months!"
"Well, it did kinda hurt, but then I wished really hard and it healed!"
"Welp, all that matters is that you healed. Now let's get back to work, and you're staying close to ME this time. I at least feel confident that I won't die that easily."
"You won't be ditching me?"
"What's with that awfully smug suspicious look, of course not! I don't think I will be able to live peacefully knowing I let a kid die..."
"Also, Sylvie would've loved those threads! She likes making small dolls! Too bad she's not... Here..."
"O... Kay..."
(Come to think of it, his blood reacted rather poorly to the purifier. Usually, we use purifiers so that the daemonic magic won't totally screw over the blood of the victim; but it was boiling way too much, and the way the poor boy was reacting, it was extremely painful. I didn't want to give him too much pain during the procedure, but because he endured it way too much, he fainted - which while it did make it easy to patch his wounds now, still not a pretty sight.
Something is definitely off about this lad. The odd stamina, the fast recovery, and the blood boiling.
But he seemed so human... Even more human than actual humans. That is something I need to ask Matthew about.)
---
"Sorry to announce it, everyone, but Mr. Galhen will not be coming with us for a while, so I shall take the lead for now."
"What happened to our chief, Johann?"
"None of your damn business. Seriously he would rather refrain from talking about it."
"C-Can I tag along with you, Mr. Johann?"
"... Y-Yeah, Goldie. Stay close to me."
...
"Hey, you look rather... Off. Did something happen, Goldie?"
"... I can't..."
"Well, if you can't, then don't. The least I can offer is some comfort..."
"... What happened to Mr. Galhen?"
"... He got into some kerfuffle with your dad, so currently he is in a hospital. The injuries... Yikes."
"..."
"... If you feel like crying, do it. *I* won't judge at least, plus... You're still a kid, kids should be able to express their emotions while they still can."
"...
... My mom jumped off a cliff... With Mallow... I saw it..."
!!!
---
January XXth:
It was a normal day...
It was supposed to be a normal day...
--
"Alright crew, you go to this section, while we go to this section!"
"Yessir!"
--
Like always, Mr. Galhen was by my side. With him, I felt safe...
--
"For this trip, let's go deeper. There should be some high-quality material that we can fill out quota with! Scamp, stay closer to me."
"O-Okay!..."
--
But something... Terrible happened. A loud explosion happened in an instant and before I could even process what happened...
--
"FORTUNE!!!"
--
Mr. Galhen pushed me away from his and was crushed under debris. Awful stench soon became make itself clear... The same stench that I felt when I saw Quincy, Maxwell, Sylvie... I... I even saw blood trickling down under the rocks...
--
"SHIT!! GALHEN!!"
"Johann!!!"
"LET GO OFF ME, DAMN IT!!! WE GOT TO SAVE HIM!!! GALHEN!!!"
--
Why does misfortune keeps following me...
--
"I-It's all my fault... I-It's all my fault...!"
"SHUT UP!! HE IS STILL HERE!!! HELP ME, DAMN IT!!!"
"Hurk... Waah..."
--
And as we tried to rescue Galhen, we heard a voice.
--
GREED
IS A RATHER GNAWING SIN
REPEATEDLY CLAWING AND SEETHING
TAKING EVERYTHING TO ITSELF, NOT GIVING ANYONE OR ANYTHING
AND THUS, THIS IS TRULY AN ABHORRHENT SIN
*BOOM!!!*
"The mine!... It's on fire! Quick! We gotta leave, now!"
"NO! He's still here! He's still here!"
"Johann, leave it! He's dead!"
"No!... NO!!!..."
--
We had to evacuate, and due to failure to meet our quota – we were left without pay. And afterwards, I was fired.
--
"Why?! Is it because of Mr. Galhen?!"
"It's not about him, Fortune!... It's about your safety! I will not handle it if a child died in front of me! And he wouldn't have either!"
"I don't care! What if I want to die?! Everyone I had ever loved had died! And i-if I return back home without money my dad wil--!"
"You. Are. Fired. That is all. Whether you like it or not. Besides, if he really wanted that money, he should've come over himself and not letting his freaking son do the job!"
"...!"
"........ Why did I let myself get attached to anyone..."
--
That's the last I heard of Johann after that day.