Everything was blurry before his eyes and a familiar ringing sounded in his ears, but Elion didn't care. The only thing he could think about was...
Breathe. Breathe. Breathe... It felt as if his chest were being squeezed so tightly that his lungs were compressed into small balls that couldn't fill with air.
All Elion could do was take tiny breaths just to stay alive.
"Huh... Huh... Huh... Huh..."
"Hahahaha!"
"Huh... Huh... Huh... Huh..."
"Hahahaha!"
Accompanied by insane laughter, the boy tried to breathe. In those moments, it seemed that he realized how precious ordinary air was.
"Haha...! T-tell me...! H-how...hahahaha! How do you like my joke?!!!"
"Huh... Huh... Huh... Huh..."
"Tell me... Hehe!" With a mad laugh, the hero approached and grabbed the boy by the collar.
"How do you like my joke?!" The hero asked, a crazy look on his face as he stood a few inches from the boy.
"Gha... Gha...!" Without answering, Elion coughed up a thick piece of blood right into the hero's face.
"Hehe..."
*Lick* With an even bigger smile, the hero licked the blood off his face and asked again,
"Come on! Tell me how you like my joke! Isn't it funny?"
"Ha... Ha... Ha..." Elion still didn't answer, but finally, having recovered a little, he gasped for air.
Since there was still no reaction to the joke, the local joker decided to explain it.
"All right, I'll tell you what's so funny about it!" With a crazy smile, Gardemarine spoke loudly, only a few inches from the boy's face. He looked into his yellow eyes.
"You... You asked me for help, right? Hehe... Isn't it funny to ask for help from the one who arranged all this? Isn't that a wonderful joke?! Hahaha!" The hero was almost crying with laughter.
Finally, Elion woke up from his daze and said in shock,
"H-how? W-why?"
"Hahaha! The hero sent someone to kill your whole family, including you? Doesn't that sound like a great joke?! Hahaha!" The hero tugged at the boy's collar and laughed.
"W-why...?"
"Hahaha!"
"W-why?"
"Oh, why are you going on about this? Why, why, why? Does everything have to have a reason? Can't I just do it because I want to, and I can?"
"W-what..." The boy didn't have time to finish his sentence before the hero interrupted him with laughter and slammed his broken skull against the wall.
"You... Hehe. You thought I would say something like that, like a typical villain, didn't you?! Hahaha! Joke!!!"
"W-what...?" The boy didn't understand anything.
"You probably thought that I wanted your sister like those idiots... Haha! God, how funny... Do you remember the day we met? He-he... You probably thought I wanted your sister because I liked her. But then..."
"Hahaha! Then, I only had eyes for you! Hahahaha!!!" The hero laughed loudly.
"W-what?" The boy repeated over and over.
"Hehehe! You're the first kid who's this good. I just couldn't help myself! Hahaha!" The hero laughed madly, spitting saliva in the boy's face and driving away the last of his sanity.
"W-why?"
"Hahahaha!"
"Why?"
"Hey, you're going to start again, aren't you? Well, I'll have to tell you..."
Elion listened silently to the hero.
"The thing is... Hehe, my damn mother loved me so much... You can't imagine... Although, you can imagine, can't you? Haha...! Anyway, I loved her too, and we lived together until... Haha! Until I asked where our father was. Then she brought him to meet us."
Elion didn't understand what he meant. He just desperately wanted to know what he had done to deserve this.
Elion didn't understand what he meant. All he wanted was to know what he had done to deserve this.
"Hehe... You know, he turned out to be a very nice man. He even gave me some toys. Can you imagine how surprised I was when I woke up in my mother's arms that morning and she... Hahaha! Without a head! Isn't that a wonderful joke? Hahaha!!! Without a head!!!" He kept shouting in his face nonstop.
Elion silently looked at the madman. He didn't feel sorry for him; he just wanted to know why.
"Haha! You know, when I wanted to see the author of this joke... Hehe... How funny is that... Imagine! He hanged himself in the bathroom! He came to meet me, so to speak!!! Hahaha!!!"
"B-but... W-why... Why me?" The boy managed to say.
"Well, how could I not... You love them all so much, and they love you so much... How could I not want to play a joke like that?! Hahaha!!!" The famous hero laughed loudly.
Elion just stared at him in shock.
"Hehe... You know... Of all the children I've killed, you're the most like me. Even more so! You love even more than I did! How nice is that, huh?!"
"W-why are you doing this...? You're a hero..." He said, in shock.
"A hero! How nice it is to be a hero! Hehe... How nice it is to be one and not a Gardemarine! What if I kill all the lovable children? Would I finally become a hero instead of a Gardemarine?"
Elion was shocked and silent.
"What if I kill all the mini me's? Would I stop being them? What a wonderful joke! Hahaha! Kill me!!!"
Elion couldn't say anything. He had learned the truth, but it didn't make him feel any better—quite the opposite, in fact.
"Hehe... Now that you know everything, it's time for one last joke."
"Kill you!!! Hahahaha!!! Kill me!!!"