"How are you feeling?" Maya asked Emily, who was lying on a hospital bed.
"I'm feeling better than ever," the little girl laughed as she raised her arm and flexed it despite having no muscle to show.
Gently running her hand through Emily's hair, Maya's eyes couldn't help but linger on the missing right arm. It was now a stub, and although it was healed and no longer a risk to her life, it still filled Maya with a mix of sadness and fury to know that this child would have to live like this for the rest of her life.
To say that Maya was grateful to Bell Agnus and his mother, Tiara Agnus, was an understatement.
All of the children under her wing were like her younger siblings, and the younger ones felt like her actual kids.
"Maya."
"Yes?"
"Could you help me write a letter? I tried to write it by myself, but…" Emily giggled, lifting her left hand awkwardly, "I'm not really that good at using my left hand yet hehehe."
Maya's hand paused, her fingers still in Emily's hair. "...Sure thing."
There was already a piece of paper and a pen on the counter beside Emily, as well as a few crumpled drafts that had been tossed into the trash can below.
Grabbing the pen, she asked, "Who would you like to write a letter to?"
"The big brother who helped rescue me!" Emily grinned, revealing the gaps in her smile.
'The big brother who rescued her?'
"Bell?"
"Yeah! Him! I want to thank him for saving me. And I want to thank him for believing and helping you when you asked for it."
Maya hesitated for a second before pointing the pen at the paper.
"In those exact words?"
"No no no. Hehehe," Emily shook her head with a laugh. "How do I start letters again? Uhm…"
"Dear?"
"Ah, yes. Dear Bell…"
* * *
Maya couldn't help but notice that there was a circular scar etched into Bell's hand that carved into both the palm and the back.
She stood there silently as he was reading the letter that Emily had written for him.
Looking away from his hand, she watched as his eyes bounced back and forth, line by line.
"!"
'Was that a smile on his face?' she blinked in shock. Was she imagining it? Because not even a split second later, the smile she saw had vanished, and he had that stoic, cold, and expressionless look again.
Then, she saw him carefully closing the letter, sliding it back into the envelope, and tucking it into his pocket.
He had treated it like a check for a billion dollars.
"Although I didn't do anything deserving of the letter," he said flatly, "tell Emily that I appreciate her words. It was a very beautiful letter."
"...Alright. I'll do that."
"Did you help her write the letter?" he asked, his gaze lifted. The handwriting was too clean for a child.
"Yeah. She was right-handed, so she isn't able to write with her left yet."
"..."
Bell's jaw tightened as he felt a sense of guilt gnaw at him. He had asked Jerman a while ago to keep him updated on any strange news in the city because he knew from the novel that a lot of tragic things occurred in the city before the start of the story.
He knew that many of these events would also affect the main characters.
For example, in Diana's case, her pre-story event was Bell Agnus.
In Maya's case, although he didn't know the exact details, he did remember that it had to do with losing someone close to her.
Was that someone, Emily?
Did Emily die in the original, as Maya was unable to get help from the Facold family to find and save her in time?
He should've felt happy that, at the very least, he saved a life, but he wasn't. If he had taken the news a little more seriously and had Jerman get someone to investigate the rumor about missing children a little more, maybe he could've prevented the poor child from losing her arm.
It wasn't just her.
All those children.
If he had been there sooner, he could've prevented more from being kidnapped, having their limbs and organs harvested.
And for some, he could've prevented their death.
These thoughts churned in his chest like acid.
That's why, after returning from the underground lab, he had informed Jerman to increase the efforts of investigating rumors in the city and reporting them back to him.
His face didn't change even as guilt was gnawing at him, but Maya could see in his eyes that something was off. She could see that there was turmoil, a small storm that was forming in his pupils.
The more she was with him, the more human he seemed.
He was still a monster in her eyes, and although his assistance didn't completely clean the slate of her impression of him, it did confirm to her that there was more to this man than what she initially thought. And maybe there was something more to the incident as well.
"If it makes you feel any better, she hasn't been crying or anything. She's in a good mood whenever I visit her. I… I don't know if she's just masking her true emotions, which she probably is, but… she's a fighter. And she's fighting every day as she learns how to do things with one hand. She's probably practicing writing with her left hand right now, hahaha," she softly laughed as she thought about the little kid in the hospital.
"..." Bell only nodded.
The two of them were currently standing outside the Agnus manor. She had contacted him using the phone number that he had given her after that day.
Regardless of whether they liked it or not, the two of them were now forever interlinked — their paths meeting up at certain points.
Not out of the kindness of his heart for Maya, but rather, for Emily, whom he wanted to give some hope to, Bell would say something that would catch Maya's breath like a trap.
"There's currently a technology being developed, it's only in the early stages, an idea at most, but… there's a chance that in the future, Emily might be able to get her right arm back."
Maya's body froze.
"It won't be her actual arm, but it's a functioning prosthetic where she can move each finger, bend the elbow, basically do everything that she once could do with her old arm."
"...Don't mess with me."
"I'm not."
"If you're lying to me, I will tell everyone your secret. I… I will stab you in your sleep."
"I'm being one hundred percent serious," his eyes didn't waver as he said that. "It's only an idea at the moment, but I have confidence that it'll work," he stated.
Obviously, it would work. Plenty of characters in the future used the technology in the novel. But he couldn't exactly tell her that.
"H-how much would it be to buy one?" she asked, prepared to start saving up money right that moment.
When Bell gave the number, her jaw went slack.
"That's… I… How…"
Impossible.
It was a number too large for her to even comprehend. It would take decades to save up that much unless she resorted to crime. Was that her only option?
"I'll buy it for you."
Her head snapped up. "What?"
"I said, I'll buy Emily's arm."
"W-why?" Maya demanded. "Emily is just a stranger to you. We can't even be considered friends. So why would you buy it for me?"
"Because there's no reason why a child like that should have to live the rest of her life carrying the burden created by someone deranged. Their madness shouldn't rob her of the normal life that she deserves. And if you think this is a favor just for you and feel burdened, then don't worry about it. I plan on buying it for every child that we saved."
Maya was stunned. Her breath stuck in her throat.
She knew that Bell's mother was famed for being a humanitarian and was extremely generous when it came to her donations.
Did her son also inherit this trait? Why does it seem like everything about this man contradicts itself?
Maya wanted to desperately accept his offer because it was a favor that would change Emily's life for the better, but she wasn't one for handouts. She was raised with the mantra that nothing in life is truly free. You either steal it for yourself or you pay for it.
And sometimes the payment is more than you can give.
"I… I will have to decline your offer. I'll find a way to save up the money," she muttered.
Bell studied her for a second and could tell what she was thinking.
"If you're worried about it feeling like a handout and don't think you earned it, then you can just do something for me instead."
Maya's eyebrow arched. Her mind had been read. Yet, she didn't mind it because he had tossed her a rope to hold onto that wasn't potentially riddled with thorns, but just had a price tag attached to it if she wanted to grab it.
"What can I do for you?" she asked.
Bell had thought long and hard about the proper way to approach each character, considered their personality traits, and had formulated plans to get them on his side so that he could raise them properly into the strongest version of themselves they could be.
In Maya's case—
"Swear your loyalty to me."
"...Hahaha," she laughed in disbelief. Then, as she watched Bell's face not change an inch, her brows furrowed behind her blanket of hair covering them. "You're being serious."
"Yeah. Swear loyalty to me. Then it won't be me doing someone a favor, but instead, it would just be a master paying their subordinate."
"You're kidding. No, you're insane. What is this? The 7th century? Nobles and peasants? Just because you're nobility doesn't mean I have to bow down before you and kiss your boot," Maya scoffed. "Only an idiot would swear loyalty to a noble in these modern times."
Bell glanced over to his left, where Jerman had been standing, guarding him. Maya also did the same as she followed his line of sight.
Realizing the error of her words, she apologized, "Sorry for what I just said. I take it back."
"It's fine," Jerman responded, not affected whatsoever.
"Anyway," she turned back to Bell. "Why would I swear loyalty to you? You think you're so high and mighty just because you're willing to spend money on us poor people? Is that what it is?"
"No," he shook his head. "It's because you and I want the same thing."
Maya frowned. How could he even assume to know what she wants? "The same thing?"
"Yes," he answered with no hesitation. "You want to protect children like Emily. Isn't that why you've taken on the burden of being their boss? Because you know, without you, they'd be lost and could head down the wrong path. Death is around the corner for many of the kids in their shoes."
She was stunned by his words. How could he know this? Even if he investigated her, these were things that she's never told anyone, so how could he possibly know?
"But there's a difference between me and you."
"...What?" Maya asked.
"The most you can do is save the ones in front of you. I'm aiming higher than just that. I am Bell Agnus, the 4th son of the Agnus family. Just my last name alone puts me at an advantage. And once you include the influence of my father and grandfather, the vast wealth that my family has… I can and will change the lives of many kids that you could never reach in your lifetime."
Heart pounding, Maya squinted at him, still a little unconvinced. "That's a nice speech, but words are cheap. Your mother alone has donated a ton of money; she's the Duchess, and yet, she's barely made a dent."
Sharpening his gaze, Bell replied, "That's exactly where I differ from my mother. She thinks that just donating money and being a good person is enough. Does she even know where her funds are being allocated? Does she understand that a lot of the charities are just money-laundering fronts? Does she dare do the dirty things needed to get things done? My mother has never gotten her nails dirty before."
Maya was stunned to hear that Bell was questioning and criticizing his mother. Jerman was also stunned but couldn't say anything as he continued doing his job.
"I don't believe in talk either. I don't believe in promises. I only believe in action and results. That's why I need people who can act on my behalf as if they were my own limbs. Swearing loyalty to me doesn't mean kneeling at my feet and acting like a servant who washes my back or scrubs my clothes. I have plenty of those in my manor. It means committing yourself to the same cause I am."
Ba-dum! Ba-dum!
Her heart was pounding even harder.
"I can give you resources, protection, and power. Not just for you. For all those kids under your umbrella. I can take them all. In return, I expect you to stand with me. When I move, you move. If I fight, you fight. If I declare war, you raise the flag."
Maya's lips curled into a half-smirk, half-scoff. "You sound like you're building an army."
Without a blink, he responded, "I am."
Everything he had just promised, although saving children wasn't the primary goal, would most definitely be a byproduct of the actions that he was going to take in the future.
After all, what else could save the largest number of children than stopping the end of the world itself?
The silence that followed was heavy.
Jerman, standing off to the side, didn't so much as shift his weight. This was the first time hearing his Young Master mention anything going on inside his mind since he reappeared from his self-imposed imprisonment.
Maya's mind was racing; if it were anyone else trying to buy her loyalty, she might've spat in their face. But something was terrifying and reassuring about how calm and certain that he sounded.
It wasn't arrogance — it was inevitability.
"What if I refused?" she asked, narrowing her eyes.
Shrugging lightly, almost too casually, he answered, "Then you refuse. I'll still buy the prosthetics for all the children. I'll still make sure Emily has her future regardless of how you feel about it. I don't coerce loyalty. Loyalty is meaningless if it's forced. Nothing is more dangerous than being backstabbed by someone you're meant to trust."
Maya bit her lips. She could see that he truly wouldn't lose sleep if she refused. That just made his words and promise even more convincing.
Finally, she muttered, "I don't like nobles. I don't like people with power in general. They're all so snobby and take advantage of those less fortunate to stack coins in their pockets. They have enough wealth to last a lifetime and yet refuse to help out anyone in need."
Bell looked at her stand in silence as her mind was racing, calculations running about in her head.
She hated that part of her had already believed him. She was still disgusted by him for what he did to Diana. Yet, she was also starting to admire him and his beliefs. This boy in front of her was the exact kind of person she disliked. A noble.
"...If I say yes," she asked slowly, "what does swearing loyalty mean to you, exactly? What would you have me do?"
Bell's lips curled ever so slightly — something between a smirk and the ghost of a smile. This sent chills up Maya's spine, and it made her almost yell out immediately that she didn't want to swear loyalty.
"It means you'll fight with me, not against me. It means when I tell you to act, you'll act. But to be more specific, I really just want you to spy on some people and eavesdrop on a few conversations, report them back to me."
Maya's heart fluttered for a moment. That was something she already liked doing. And now, she would have an excuse to do it as it would be for the better of children like Emily.
She gulped.
"Do you want me to get down on my knee and kiss your hand?" she asked.