The little boy with smooth, obedient blond hair looked at the Gear Book in Derrick's hand, his brows tightly furrowed and his eyes filled with deep confusion. After quite a while, he said as if recalling something:
"I picked it up in some ruins... They were the remains of a mountain that seemed to have fallen from the sky...
"And I found this book in a half-collapsed tower on that mountain—we spent the night there.
"Father said it was the creation of a group of sinners who had defied the Lord...
"A fallen star...
"I remember always keeping it with me... How did it end up in your hands?"
Derrick did not answer his question and instead continued asking, "Why did you keep this book with you?"
"Because carrying it kept me awake..." As little Jack spoke, a blank look suddenly appeared on his face. "Right, it also made those ugly things quiet... Made me less hungry..."
"What ugly things?" Derrick asked carefully.
Little Jack did not answer. Instead, he pulled open his clothes, revealing his bare chest and abdomen.
There, embedded in his body, were two eyes, a nose, and a mouth!
They were not painted on, nor were they assembled from gemstones. They consisted entirely of real eyes, a real nose, and a real mouth. Moreover, they did not seem to belong together, as though they had come from three different people.
In an instant, Derrick imagined a scene: after little Jack had eaten his companions, he had used their remaining eyes, nose, and mouth to form a strange human face on his chest and abdomen.
That face was gentle and indifferent, and it gave Derrick an inexplicable sense of familiarity.
In just a second or two, Derrick figured out why it seemed familiar:
That face looked very