Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

He looked at the three children who were being escorted by these men in hazmat suits and wanted to follow when he realised that the barrier enveloping the room did not allow him to go out.

This was the first time that Simon had experienced the wonders of the time magic and he couldn't help but marvel at it with amazement when he realised that the flow of time around them started to flow faster.

In a few short moments that felt like a couple of minutes, two days had passed. The children that were kept inside this room, were restricted from stepping deeper inside the cavern. They passed their time mining, playing and eating before going to sleep.

At a glance, one could see that the children were being used as miners to dig up ores from the surrounding tunnels which were then transported to the surface through the rail track. But Simon had a suspicion that something else was going on over here.

That was because out of the three children that were taken in, only the tall guy came back and instead of looking healthy like before, his complexion was palely ill. It was not like his friends did not notice but they had enough faith in the white suit men that they believed that it was because of his illness and he would be cured soon.

The scene played on as if someone had pushed the fast forward button and before long it was the seventh day. The white group of men came back again to take three more children with them for treatment.

"Chloe I'm going inside to get treated, I'll come back soon. We can continue our game then, next time I'll win" A girl with curly brown hair and faint pockmarks on her nose, held the hands of her friends before being escorted inside.

"Un, I won't lose Risa," Chloe said waving her hand.

Clap..clap…

"Alright children you have been very obedient in the past few days as a reward, we are handing out new sets of clothes. Wear them when Cardinal Royce comes to visit you in a few days" one of the men clapped his hands to get their attention.

"What? Mister is coming to see us?" Bell asked, from his facial expression one could see that he was very excited to meet this person.

All of the children shouted in joy when they heard that the person who had saved their life and brought them here, would soon give them a visit.

Time flowed on and in the blink of an eye, three days had already passed. During these past few days, none of the children returned from the facility deep inside the tunnel and the only person who did, started showing peculiar behaviours.

Glenn would be in an irritated mood all the time and the slightest of argument with anybody, would erupt into a fistfight. One time he had beaten up a boy simply because the other person was concerned about his health a bit too much.

If not for Bell and Chloe who were kind of the tacit leaders of this group, the situation might have escalated. On the fourth day, Glenn started showing behaviours of not being able to sleep and his skin started to take on a unique shade of blue.

When all of the children started panicking that something was wrong with him, mysteriously the white suit men appeared at that exact moment and took him inside the facility once again.

"Will he be alright?" Chloe asked looking worried.

Bell followed the white-clothed men taking Glenn inside with his eyes before they were no longer visible to him.

"Don't worry, mister is a nice person. Glenn is simply ill, he will come back soon" he assured the girl beside him.

The next day, there was some movement from the surface, a man wearing ceremonial clothes, entered the room. The moment he stepped in, the children wearing their new sets of clothes crowded around him.

"It's the good mister, good mister is back" the children bustled.

The man who was referred to as good mister, was a middle-aged man with a kind smile. He had grey ageing hair, was wearing a pristine clergy robe and carried a staff that had a huge core stone embedded on top.

The way he carried himself and the aura he released, gave others a good impression of him.

When he was playing with the children, the white suit men (Hazmel suit) came out of the facility inside to greet him "Your Eminence, Cardinal Royce".

The good mister referred to as Cardinal Royce, nodded his head at their greetings.

"I hope they have been taking good care of all of you? Do you eat your meals everyday?" he asked looking at the starry eyes of the children.

The children nodded their heads like baby chicks at those words of the cardinal.

"Mister is kind, we have been living good, we have a place to call home and we even get meals two times a day" Bell said adding in from the side.

Cardinal Royce glanced at the children and noticed the boy with the bob haircut. "Ah you are that boy I saved from that alleyway… come here".

Bell complied after being beckoned by the good mister and felt his hands caress his hair. Immediately, the boy who was foreign to these affectionate touches, became happy and rub his nose.. 

The other children too huddled around the cardinal in hopes of receiving his affection.

Cardinal Royce caressed the hair of every child while having a comforting smile on his face. Seeing one of the girls acting nervous and uneasy in the distance, he called out to her.

"What happened, you don't seem too happy to see me?".

Chloe fidgeted around a little before gathering her courage to speak up.

"U-um mister… that is… my friends… they have gone inside to receive treatment and haven't come back yet".

Her voice was soft nonetheless it was audible for all the children and the good mister to hear it. Cardinal Royce made an expressionless face, his eyes deeply observed the little girl in front of him before a smile popped up on his face.

"Hehe, little girl, don't worry. Your friends have already received treatment and were taken to a different place. You will be able to meet them once your treatment is over".

"Really?!" hopes ignited in Chloe's eyes as she asked for confirmation.

Cardinal Royce smiled, waved his hands towards the children before walking towards the interior of the cavern with the men in hazmat suits.

This time, she clearly saw it. The barrier that was stopping them from going further inside the cavern was easily dispelled by a triangular badge these white suit men carried with them.

Days passed just like that, every few days the white suit men would come to take a few more children with them and before long, out of the initial fifteen children, only six remained.

During this time, the loud laughter and chatter that the children would make, have died down a lot with the decrease of their number. They would eat, work sleep and repeat the same thing over and over again until the appointed time arrived and the white suit men came once again to pick three more children.

This time, one of the numbers that was called out, happened to be the boy named Bell. He and two other boys were picked out amongst the remaining six children, one of which was Chloe.

Seeing her dejected and gloomy face, Bell couldn't help but poke fun at her saying that she was a cry baby and all. However, when even these methods which usually worked didn't help out, he patted her head and told her not to worry too much.

After they get treated, they would be able to see each other again. Chloe nodded her head, though she was not fully relieved yet.

She observed the white suit men, for some reason, there were only two of them this time who came to pick them up. She walked towards one of them before suddenly arching her body and assuming a fetal position.

"Wh-what's wrong? Are you sick?!" the white suit man freaked out not expecting a scene like to play in front of him.

"Hey Miles come over here, we have a big problem. One of the kids is sick".

The other man named Miles, immediately dropped what he was doing and came near "Dammit, if she is really sick then it will be us who will be blamed for this. Tch, I told you to be careful with their meals, now see what you have done".

Hearing Miles put the whole blame on him, the other guy couldn't help but defend himself in an aggrieved manner.

While the two were bickering back and forth, the other children also came near worried for their friend. Nobody saw a small hand surreptitiously going into the pocket of one of the white suit men and pickpocketing something.

Chloe clutched her stomach for a while and her complexion only relaxed and came to normal after she took a rest on her bed. Seeing this, the white suit men sighed in relief and left with the three children.

Ba-dump, ba-dump… when they reached the barrier leading further inside the facility, Chloe's heart pounded like a drum. She opened her eyes slightly only to see them passing through the barrier without suspecting anything.

She propped herself up and immediately got out o her bed evoking a squeal of surprise from the other two girls. When they asked her if she was alright, she told them that she was just pretending.

The two girls were shocked at her response; however, when they saw Chloe take out a triangular badge for her clothes, they immediately understood what she had done.