A servant of a Tiger and a Crow
Phiên bản tiếng anh (English) của "Kẻ đầy tớ của Hổ và Quạ".
“Ahhhhh!” - An old and ancient battleship moored off the coast of a remote island resounds with painful screams at the moment. Those sounds come from a skinny, austere man lying curled up on the floor of the battleship, clutching his head in pain. In this excruciating pain, he knows what he could try to do now is to supplicate the salvation of his owners.
Nearby, his two masters with strange appearances are watching their humble servant writhing in the mournful and curious way. The first one is a muscular man wearing an elegant red suit with black outlines. He is sitting neatly on an iron throne with high-tech shaping. All that majesty, hegemony, and menace are enhanced even more when he has a Tiger head instead of a normal human head. Contrary to that majesty is the playful attitude of the second master. This one is a young man dressed as a slovenly traveler with jade green as the main color. He is now squatting on his own stylized wooden throne. If his head weren't in the shape of a crow's head, he might have been mistaken for a malefactor with little luck achieving this throne.
The Crow starts whispering to the Tiger:
It is so incomprehensible, each outbreak of side effects is not at a certain time!
The Tiger continues:
It seems this outbreak occurs much faster than before. I wonder if he still had 24 hours like the other times?
The Crow says:
From an emotionless person with no memory, now he has become a lowly person who has full kinds of emotions. Now, he is begging us for help in panic. What an interesting process!
The Tiger blames the Crow:
Huh, if it weren’t you who turned a blind eye to his act of eating sneakily our Life fruits, he wouldn't have blindly ended up like this so soon.
The Crow objects:
Oh man, I just want our game to start a little bit faster. But I really didn't expect him to be so greedy this time.
Tacitly understanding each other, the Tiger and Crow turn to look at the wretched man below with dignified eyes, their voices are just like coming from everywhere in the air at a very high tone. The Tiger starts asking and does not forget to prompt the Crow to cast a spell to help ease the man’s pain:
Huh, now you come to beg us? I remember clearly telling you what doesn't belong to you, don't be greedy! If you have the courage to do it, you must also have the courage to endure the consequences!
His pain has just been eased. Before he could regain his senses, he heard Tiger's question. Immediately, he starts trembling and tries to roll over to his knees, then bows his head incessantly to plead for forgiveness.
The Crow looks amused and says:
Haha, this time is really interesting! What fruit of the lowly man did you eat? Haha.
The Tiger continues:
Hey! Stop wasting words! Head to the main topic! This time you bring your stuff out! Then let's see he decides who wins this bet!
The Crow says:
Ehem! Here we go!
Saying that the Crow snaps his fingers to cast a spell. Suddenly, two objects wrapped in separate lighted orbs appeared out of nowhere. They fly in front of the man and then float there. The Crow continues:
This may be the first time for you, but it's already happened to us. To your left is a green orb containing a pill that will cure the side effects of consuming too many Life fruits by erasing everything that exists in your mind, you will be reborn as an inanimate being. And this red one, I think when it’s nearby, you might feel some familiarity. Come on, my lowly servant, make your choice.
As soon as the Crow mentions the effect of the green orb, he quickly tries to reach it. But, when he is close to those orbs, all his instincts tell him to get an elaborate ring inside of the red orb instead of the cure. He wonders why this ring was here. This ring had appeared so many times in his mess-up memories. He thought that every scene relating to this ring in his mind was just pieces of memories or desires of a man who created a Life fruit that he consumed. Now, his only desire is to learn about this thing, Although this desire will push him away from the cure and pull him to a painful disappearance of himself. He decides to choose the red orb.
Seeing that, the Crow snaps his fingers, the blue orb disappears and says:
Well, now get your thing out of here! Don’t turn to an ugly tree on this ship! Anyway, we’re grateful for your well served years, this would be a little reminder as our last gift to you. If you don’t wear that ring, you still have 24 hours left before the transformation starts. And, if you wear that weird little ring right away, you won't even have a second and the thing waiting for you at that moment is only the extreme pain that my spell delayed for you before.
The Tiger stops the Crow:
Stop! That's more than enough! You, get out!
The man continuously bows down to them to give thanks, then hurriedly leaves. He is afraid that if he still stays there, these powerful people would change their minds for no reason as the way they do with their "customers". And that would be the scary ending he doesn’t want to happen. But, being human, when all sufferings or dangers have been repelled, people will always be easily lost in their own wandering thoughts. Can there be a person who could calmly accept the bad news that he only has 24 hours left after whatever he’s done? Inside of his head right now is running as crazy as the way his body quickly gets out of the ship in fear.
He starts to recall every scene of his life, from the very first moment that he opened his eyes in this form until he had to make an important choice like the previous one. A servant like him, without serving those powerful beings. He really doesn't know what to do. He has no such a dream or ambition, just knows to obey their orders. However, by an accident, he has absorbed the Life fruit that was not to their taste. A series of strange memories of a poor guy who created the fruit rushed to him, he seemed to experience another life accompanied by a slight headache.
Since then, that feeling has stimulated him to absorb more and more fruits. There was a time that he thought he might become almighty like his owners if he absorbs enough. Contrary to that illusion, it all just led to such terrible pains that made him have no choice but to beg for their salvation. Thinking about this, he suddenly reflects carefully on every single word of them. He discovers this is the first time he ended up like that, but to them, it’s not. Another thing, why does he have to be respawned as an inanimate person to escape the side effects of the fruit of life? Maybe he now was the result of choosing that green orb.
Many questions arise incessantly in his mind, but he realizes this would be the way he wastes the remaining 24 hours to fool himself with those damn questions. Unless he dares to come back and ask for clarification from them, everything will be clear. And that's what he doesn't want to do the most right now. So he asks himself whether he needs that 24 hours after all. Moreover, he also wonders why his body is constantly screaming out for wearing the ring immediately. However, the obsession with tormenting pain is still there. Maybe at the moment he wears the ring, he would be enlightened about everything but at the same time, he could be gone in extreme torment.
Until now, he has a bit of regret for letting his instincts drive him to make a choice. Maybe he will lose every memory that made him like a person today, but at least he could survive if he chose the green orb. He wonders if this ring was worth it for which he exchanged a rebirth. He really doesn’t know, and the only way to clear is to dare to put the ring on his finger. At this point, even if he overthinks about it, the result is still that he’s not able to exist anymore. So what’s the difference between having 24 hours left to live and not having even a second with an abandoned guy like him?
No more hesitation, he decides to wear the ring despite all the things, just let the instincts drive him. His heart starts pounding strongly and quickly while he makes a final choice. Everything is uncertain, he doesn’t know anything, his head seems to be tensed with fear that the worst thing will happen to him. He holds the ring in his hand and slowly puts it on. As soon as the ring is fixed on his finger, the headache that has just been previously repelled comes rushing in again, he falls to his knees, writhes, and starts holding his head. But unlike previous headaches, this time his original memories relating to the ring take over. The mixed, messy memories of Life fruits are slowly being overwhelmed. A strong aura is also gradually forming in his body. Hour after hour, the pain shows no signs of stopping, he keeps screaming to ease the pain somehow.
Just like that, those 24 hours of suffering in hell pass, he slowly gets up, turns toward the battleship, now his eyes are full of complicated emotions. His face turns from confusion, enlightenment, then affection, finally anger. Those emotions continuously frame on his dry and thin face. At the end of each of those cycles, he takes a step toward the ship.
On the ship, the Tiger and the Crow don’t overlook any single detail from their servant. Then the Tiger suddenly says:
It has begun, this time he was more decisive than before. Every time like this, my emotions explode. Haha, refreshing, very refreshing!
The Crow laughs with the Tiger, and then says nothing more. They raise their hands to prepare magic and wait for the monster they have just created.
Sáng tác
/sang-tac
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