Afterward

The men exchanged another look and spoke quietly among themselves. Finally, after another glance at Freddy, the man in black at their head sighed and gave a stiff smile.

"He... can't come back for now."

Freddy froze. Only after a long while did he ask quietly.

"Is it because of his illness?"

The men before him nodded. Freddy felt almost knocked senseless by the blow. After so long that the men were nearly losing patience, Freddy continued asking.

"Then... can I still see him again?"

The man at their head nodded, then shook his head, and told Freddy.

"The young master... was taken abroad by the boss for treatment. He probably won't return for a very long time. Before he left, he hoped we could look after you."

That was all Freddy remembered from before. Just as those people had said, he was that sickly young master's final wish. Afterward, he was sent to a more perfect family-at least, the most perfect family in ordinary people's eyes. A father and mother who were both doctors, childless but very wealthy.

Freddy did not want to dwell on any of this-a husband who had received the best education, yet remained so feudal at heart that he believed he had no blood heir to inherit his career and fortune, and who, after certain events, beat his wife like a madman every day and subjected her to psychological abuse.

A wife who loved her husband madly, who, because she could not bear children herself, killed several illegitimate children still in the womb before simply robbing a certain someone of his ability to reproduce; who was beaten black and blue every day and hovered on the brink of a breakdown, yet still loved her husband.

Such a well-matched pair.

Freddy could not help marveling.

But Freddy moved away the year he was admitted to the best medical university at seventeen. It could hardly be said that the couple treated her badly. After all, there were no beatings, no abuse, just outright disregard, which meant little to Freddy.

This year, Freddy was already thirty-eight. He had worked as a doctor for a time, and now he was the president of a biomedical equipment company.

Now elegant and decisive, with handsome looks and high social standing, Freddy had become a full-fledged member of high society, completely different from the little boy who had fled into his neighbor's backyard to beg for food more than a decade ago.

Yet he was still not satisfied. He was still desperately climbing upward. He craved, he yearned...

At last, fate answered Freddy with an echo straight out of hell.

In the year Freddy turned forty, someone finally approached him.

Honestly, he was not surprised. People who had amassed excessive wealth were always like rebellious teenage girls, forming little cliques, some such... society. They gathered for many reasons, mostly shared perverse tastes? Or some collaboration that absolutely could not be brought into the open? Or else to win people over or find a somewhat reasonable excuse for their actions: a cult.

With a certain purpose in mind, Freddy readily agreed and followed the so-called introducer to a cluster of villas hidden in the wooded mountains. Honestly, the villas were not very large, but each was extravagantly decorated in its own style.

His introducer was an exceedingly elegant-looking gentleman in a well-fitted suit, seemingly refined and easygoing.

"Oh, you can choose a plot when the time comes, here or over there... Shall I introduce you to my team?"

Freddy shook his head.

"Thank you, but I have my own style."

The man seemed to be just as he presented himself, showing little concern over Freddy's refusal.

"I understand. I like people with their own style and taste."

The car stopped in front of a white house. It was a low, two-story building, seemingly with a basement whose semicircular window showed aboveground. It was hard for the building not to catch Freddy's attention. Compared with the small villas around it, with their private fountains and hanging gardens, this building was appallingly plain.

The entire building was made of white stone. Its exterior looked rather clean and smooth, without any extra ornamentation.

Another reason this little building caught Freddy's attention was that it was their destination.

The gentleman opened the door for Freddy, behaving with great humility. "Come, my dear Mr. Freddy. I won't let you regret joining us. You will witness the greatest sight in this world, and the truth of this world as well."

Freddy inclined his head slightly. "I look forward to it."

There was little on this floor, just as Freddy had said. Freddy followed him toward the long elevator, and they seemed to descend dozens of meters underground.

The gentleman stepped out ahead of Freddy. Freddy followed him as usual, only to be abruptly seized by two people covered in black cloth behind the door.

Freddy jerked his head up to look at him.

"Don't worry, don't worry."

Instead, the gentleman began making a fuss, his gestures somewhat exaggerated, like a ridiculous clown.

"We're just going to conduct a little test." His voice rose and fell dramatically, as though he were singing some opera. He even held up a finger comically as he spoke.

The underground space was eerily empty. Overhead, incandescent lights flickered, and the crackling buzz of electricity echoed continuously. The surrounding walls were not made of that white masonry but were somewhat more lavishly decorated. Only the lighting seemed rather dim. It was frighteningly quiet here, with almost no sound apart from their own.

Suddenly, did something emerge from the far end of the dim corridor?

Freddy's pupils abruptly contracted. Before she could make it out, his head suddenly grew heavy, as though he were about to fall asleep, yet his body remained frighteningly alert.

The gentleman's voice sounded alternately near and far beside his ear, carrying neurotic murmurs and crazed laughter:

"The great lord we serve... Chaugnar Faugn."

Freddy watched his face, which had become utterly distorted. His features gradually converged into three points, like a hideous tadpole.

"He governs all dreams and gathers all the fear in the world. His three emissaries-Som, Morphe, and Ino-are watching you."

As the words fell, that dark mass slowly wriggled forward.

Three nearly transparent, tadpole-like phantoms floated in midair, drifting and circling weightlessly, with no fixed shape, their outlines constantly twisting and changing.

They sneered, mocked, and frolicked tirelessly, constantly studying Freddy as they circled him, as though looking at something amusing.

Then Freddy was taken away and locked in a room. The cramped space was filled with people in the same black clothes.

"We are great, governing all dreams and gathering all the fear in the world. We also worship His incarnations, His three emissaries-Som, Morphe, Ino... We offer you a sacrifice..."

They were uniformly dressed in black. Most had bloodshot eyes and deranged expressions. Some giggled vacantly, some convulsed all over, and some had ceaselessly trembling lips, murmuring confused prayers over and over.

Freddy was bound to a platform, his eyes trembling wildly and his body convulsing, saliva even spilling from his mouth. Finally, after one violent convulsion, Freddy slammed back onto the bed.

It seemed as though a saw had cut open his skull, then an eggbeater had been thrust into his brains, churning everything together. Amid this excessive, extreme dizziness, even the pain seemed to amount to little.

At last, within a flash of white light, his consciousness seemed to return to more than a decade ago. His mother's weakness and disregard, his father's beatings and insults, hunger, cold, and pain haunted his past self. There seemed to be nothing sadder than this.

But suddenly, Freddy's violent convulsions paused. Some clarity returned to his eyes. That was a part of his life he would never have again. Even in such surroundings, he clung to those memories of a time when every minute and every second had been spent in heaven.

As Freddy's struggles weakened, the three things resembling giant tadpoles instead retreated a few steps. They were no longer as lively as before and seemed to make an evil sound, no longer circling quite so busily.

But they did not seem to have given up entirely. Instead, they circled tentatively, one occasionally moving closer. Suddenly, as though infected by something, they actually let out shrill laughter resembling that of humans and animals.

Finally, the three things abruptly burrowed into Freddy's body.

The people below seemed extraordinarily shocked. Those inexplicable murmurs stopped, and the surroundings became exceptionally quiet. Only the sound of Freddy's violently shaking limbs striking the platform remained.

Freddy, too, began trembling violently. His whole body shook, already beyond what a human body could endure.

Freddy's consciousness was churned into a tangled mass. All sorts of emotions mixed together, love or hate, protection or destruction, but what followed and seized dominance was hatred, overwhelming hatred. Why did you abandon me? Why did you leave me? Why? Why? Why? Why... why did you treat me like this? You gave me heaven, only to cast me into hell. Even if you died, you should have died together with me.

Ever since parting with Klein, Freddy had kept trying to contact him. But whether in that disgusting adoptive father's home, whether through letters or emails, even when he tried to find those people from back then in the hope that he could help deliver a message, all of it vanished without a trace. He dared not imagine the worst outcome. He could only frantically reassure himself that Klein was simply too ill, that once he got a little better he would come to find him, even if only to say a single word to him.

Only when Freddy truly had the ability, the power and wealth, the things that could truly control his own fate and others', did he begin investigating in secret. Klein had not died. He merely stayed year-round at a laboratory that doubled as a sanatorium in Germany, recuperating. He could not describe the joy he felt upon learning this. He no longer cared. Even if I had ignored him for more than a decade, he no longer cared.