"It's coming from here!" Liora called out.
The four of them found themselves in front of a small door from which a faint light was seeping through. With no other option than to continue forwards, Marielle pushed it open.
RUUUUUMMMBBLLLEEEEE!
There was no large monster like the group had been expecting. Instead, what greeted them was a large hall—cave, really—filled with golden coins and a worn-down wooden dresser. At the far end of the cave was a massive and sprawling skeleton of a dragon.
That would've grabbed anyone's full attention in usual circumstances. How often do you see the corpse of a legendary beast like a dragon!? But these weren't normal circumstances.
Because, sitting atop the dresser was a grotesque figure. An emaciated, pale, dirty man, with long, greasy green hair and unnaturally wide eyes.
He wore nothing but rags, and rocked back and forth in his strange sitting posture. His skin was pale, sure, but his face was actually painted a pure white. His nose and lips were painted, too—red.
Linnie realized the man was supposed to be a clown. A really bizarre clown. He looked to the other three.
Liora was covering her mouth in amusing disgust. It would be the appropriate reaction to seeing something as revolting and ridiculous as the man—if he wasn't so scary! Her not being too scared was a good thing, though.
On the other end, Marielle's face was pale, and her body was tense. She was definitely frightened, but it wasn't too bad.
Prince, however... Linnie was afraid he was about to pass out.
"Hello? Are you, like, a clown?" Linnie asked, scratching his temple.
He wasn't really scared at all. It was just a gross, scrawny man.
"Get back!" Marielle screamed.
The sound of her high-pitched yelling got a reaction out of the man, who finally acknowledged their presence by turning his head away from his toes and to them.
"Why? It's just a—"
"I said get back!" Marielle yanked Linnie by his scarf. "That man... he isn't part of the attraction! That's Old Smiles!"
"...Huh?"
"Old Smiles... he's a real monster! A spirit from the old days of Corvailles! Everyone knows him... that rumbling wasn't some big monster—it was his stomach! He ate that dragon, and he's going to eat us, too!"
"Whoa, what a scary story," Liora said, impressed.
Linnie's face fell. Not into fright or disbelief... he just couldn't take her seriously.
"Marielle, you're too old to believe fairy tales. Just stand back if you're too scared," he said, smugly approaching the man.
"Hey, Mr. Old Smiles? Is that your name?"
"UUuuuuugghh," the man groaned quietly.
"What was that? I couldn't hear you."
"Fuuuuuud."
"Fud? The hell's that supposed to mean?"
"Lin, don't let him touch you!"
"Marielle, seriously, he's just—"
Old Smiles lifted his hand, moving to touch Linnie's face. In an act of instinctual self-preservation, the boy dashed backwards.
'Gross! Is his skin falling off!? Did I just catch a disease?'
Perhaps he did.
The story of Old Smiles goes as this:
A long time ago, in the earlier days of Corvailles, a clown named Smiles was popular among the kids. Clowns... if you don't get how anyone could ever truly find clowns entertaining, then you haven't experienced real struggle.
The young city was in serious danger of collapse—crops were dying, and humans were, too. A plague was ravaging the population, and dead bodies littered the streets left and right.
This was long before the continental merger, and so there was no such thing as royal support, either.
Corvailles's future at this time looked incredibly bleak. In times like these, when the sky is gray and the air smells of rot, a clown is exactly the type of thing you need to keep the children's eyes off such things.
But... dark times don't only spawn things like clowns. No, dark times spawn dark things. Criminals, murderers, cannibals, all sorts of depraved individuals broken by the harsh world around them.
Old Smiles was one of these such individuals. His profession as a clown wasn't very lucrative. Many children came to see him, but... children don't pay, do they? So, this poor clown was starving.
One day, though, he realized, as a couple of kids continued to follow him even near the dark and dangerous sectors were his home was located, that... there was free food right in front of him!
What could've made the man's mind so twisted isn't known for sure, but that very day he kidnapped and consumed a child. The legend goes that he continued this for nearly a year, abducting and eating children without ever getting caught.
The policing force was very unstable at this time, and almost anyone could commit a crime and get away with it. There just weren't enough investigators to determine what was happening to these children—nor were there enough parents to report their missing kids.
It seemed like Old Smiles was committing the perfect crime, over and over... until he was struck with the very plague consuming the city.
He had eaten a child afflicted with the illness, and, in a scene of divine retribution, was served justice as a side along his cannibalistic platter.
The plague was a fitting punishment, too. Soon, his skin started to peel. Blisters started to form. His teeth were falling out. He quickly became too disgusting to be around—stinking of rotting flesh.
Now, he couldn't even lure the children, who were now terrified of his appearance. And so, he died. Whether it was of starvation, or if he succumbed to the illness, it isn't known.
It's said that he became a ghost that now haunts the streets of Corvailles, taking bad children. It's funny how a story about a terrible man was reduced to a measure used to prevent children from acting bad... because, a man like Old Smiles didn't care what his dinner acted like.
Good or bad, what did it matter as long as they tasted good?
"Aw, fuck this!" Linnie cursed, raising his hand in front of him. "FIREBALL!"
Old Smiles burst into flames.