Hour Empty Child

Vol.10 Prologue: 'Gehenna'

A week passed since the horrific winter incident. The snow ceased falling and the air began to warm. The memory of the attack was still fresh on everyone's minds.

Ever since the existence of Dark Players came to light, the atmosphere around Triun changed for the grim. People started to get anxious. If it weren't for the powerful Alpha Heart to come and save them, many lives would've been taken away in a single night.

Citizens walk about, their hoodies on as the cold weather still pierces their skin. In the midst of the still-freezing weather, one of the skyscraper's television screens turned one, revealing a young attractive woman and an old gentleman sitting behind a wooden counter.

"Good morning and welcome to our special morning program-- 'Triun, wake up!'." The young woman in the blazer introduced herself. ".I am your host, Yukio Hans. I'll be presenting you with an interview with none other than Mr. Guchi Takia--one of the representatives of the social group 'Adventurer Local'. Mr. Takia, it is very wonderful to see you here!"

"It's a pleasure," The older gentleman nodded his head. He adjusted his glasses before continuing.

"Now, Mr. Takia, it's been a week since the horrible incident occurred. Thankfully, the people of Triun have recovered well from it. In fact, I would say that the memory of such a thing is long past now," The announcer said.

"Yes, but thankfully our famous guild, Alpha Heart, came through for us. Now there's a reason for upping their quest rewards, eh?" The man chuckled.

The announcer giggled in turn. "You better not say that to the authorities. The knights are having enough trouble as it is!"

"Hah!" Takia scoffed. "They couldn't do a thing! In fact, two teens--both fifteen years old, mind you! They were the ones who did most of the work by taking down one of our most infamous criminals of this current age, Shinezu himself!"

"Yes, I heard about it!" Yukio answered, clasping her hands together. "And one of those teens is none other than the son of Hikari Valkyria herself! The other is actually a younger sister of the vice-master of the Alpha Heart, Kasara Flamver! The two worked together and took down the killer all by themselves!"

Yukio clearly looked excited. Her shoulders jumped as she mentioned the two, imagining something that came out of a movie for her.

"God, I would've loved to see those knights' faces when they heard a couple of kids did their hardest job for them--for free!"

"Oh dear, Mr. Takia, it's mean of you to say that in front of live television!"

"Still is the truth, though!"

The old man continued to laugh out loud. Whether Yukio knew that this would go down or not, it would make an interesting show either way.

As for the Alpha Heart...

"Hahaha," One of the members guffawed. "They're on TV again!"

The Alpha Heart within the guild headquarters watched the ongoing channel from one of their multiple hanging television screens. The show was on every television, so everyone was hearing and watching it with glee.

The Alpha Heart would always go to this channel and get a few laughs at the expense of the knight's shame. They would, of course, shout out any inaccuracies they would spout out in turn.

"They're talking about the incident again."

Mizuri said while rolling her eyes. She had already listened to this story more than she could've wanted. She glanced back at her party that sat around their table at the center of the guild.

As it was a while ago, they had only just recovered their wounds after the harsh fight. Kuki and Raika held their cups to drink while Tsuchi laid on his chair, his arms spread about with a gleeful smile.

"Yeah, but thanks to that, we got bumped up to A-rank!" Tsuchi smirked. "But I figured that it was Kudo-chii and Hinota-chii that would get the rank, not us."

"Hey, I'm not complaining," Kuki pointed out. "All we had to do was stall Arnold enough to get back Saka. I say we should keep quiet since apparently, Arnold is pretty high up there on the wanted list."

"For good reason..." Raika said quietly. "I honestly thought he was gonna kill us all. He's pretty dangerous too."

"And he's still out there," Mizuri landed her chin on top of her open palm. "Probably doing more nasty things. The bastard..."

"Well, what can we do? Not our fault he ran at top speed from Kudo-chii, haha!"

A series of laughter echoed at the table. Kuki pounded the table, wiping off the tear in his eye.

"I'll never forget that... hey, where is the A-rank couple anyways?"

Tsuchi looked around his field of view, trying to spot out the couple which he never hesitated on calling that out.

"Oh, Master Hikari took them somewhere," Mizuri replied. "Least that's what Hino texted me."

"Where to?"

"Who knows..." Mizuri shrugged.

"So, where do you think the authorities would put Shinezu and the rest of the criminals? Surely, they would be punished severely for all their crimes, right?"

Yukio asked, turning to her guest with a gleam in her eyes. Though nobody would admit it, hidden inside, people want to see these perilous villains punished. Especially since they were so horrendous as to murder everyone in pure delight.

"Well, Miss Hans," Guchi adjusted his glasses, his tone turning deep. "My sources tell me that the authorities are planning to take him and the rest to the most secured prison ever in existence."

"Ooh...!" Yukio let out an awed breath. "What kind of place is it?"

"Well, it's severely secured--our government makes sure that, since we're constantly dealing with criminals that have adventurer blessings, they needed a prison that can withstand their powers. Of course, their blessings are removed forcefully, but their bodies are still more than that of ordinary humans like us."

"So that means that no ordinary prison can deal with them," Yukio followed up.

"Exactly, which is why they needed a prison that's far away from any form of civilization," Guchi turned his head down. "A place so removed from life that there's no possible way that they could even see sunlight again, much less any light of life."

"Is that... true?" Somewhere inside, Yukio sensed a pang of guilt from hearing the story.

"Yes," Guchi nodded. "The location is classified, but I have heard from my sources the rumors of where it is. It is none other than..."

In order to make it entertaining for everyone to see, Guchi was advised to deliver the line as ominous as possible. But what the production team didn't realize is that the very air he showed made it impossible for anyone, including the recording staff, to not be nervous when he delivers it.

His air changed, the mood around him darkened, and his eyes glistened with a gleam.

"...Gehenna, nicknamed 'The Hold for the Wicked'."

*Author's Notes*
It's been a while, but I'll make this brief:
I went through a couple of phases throughout this process, so this made publishing Vol 10 a little difficult. This time I won't be able to promise you when the next one will be out. I'll try to make it as soon as possible, but I don't want to make promises that I'm not sure I can make it through. I hope you'll enjoy this little prologue as the HEC project isn't done yet.