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Naib has a lot of scars on his body.
Before he got into the army, he got a collection of small scars and most of it comes from playing outside with his friends.
When he got into the army, he got a whole new collection of scars and this time, it’s heavier than the past. Knives, bullets, and nature. Everything has tried to hurt him at least once.
When he work as a mercenary, his collection increases a little. Maybe because he is being extra careful now and he had learned from his experience when he was at war.
Now, he got into this crazy game and it only makes his collection of scars bigger than before. Swords and blades, rockets and umbrella. Even with his experience, he still got a lot to learn in this game.
But the scars on his body are nothing compare to what he felt inside.
The nightmare.
The past that keeps coming back to him, the one that made him wake up at night and gasping for breath. Only for him to realize that he’s not in the past anymore.
That he is now on a manor with a crazy game for money and Naib can’t decide if this is better than before.
And then, new survivors for the game began to come.
One of them is the Seer, Eli Clark.
Eli came here with a pure body, no scars can be found on his body. His hands are smooth and his legs have no scars from working on the field. That guy always has this soft smile on his face and he didn’t seem to have any problem in this world. Naib didn’t understand how can someone as pure as Eli can get into a game like this... and he didn’t care, at least, he didn’t at first.
But Eli keeps trying to get close to him. To know him more. To listen to his story and it’s hard. It’s hard to ignore someone like Eli, especially when his companion, the owl he called Poppo, is staring at Naib. Judging him in silence every time Naib tries to ignore and left Eli alone. After everything that he experienced, he didn’t know he would lose to an owl glare.
Do they even have the ability to glare at anyone?
And then, they got closer. Naib still won’t tell his whole life story to Eli, even though, Eli seems curious about all the scars, but sometimes, Naib will tell him a little about that one time in the war when he did this and that one time when he got a job to do that. It’s different with Eli who wore his heart on his sleeve, Eli tell him about anything and everything, the game match that he got today, the food that he ate while Naib was away on a game, things that Poppo got from his hunt that is not his food, his hometown, his past, and his fiancee.
Naib notices that sometimes Eli will have this hopeless expression, a sad and lonely expression that Naib knows very well.
Lots of his comrades wear the same expression in the past when they talk about their hometown. They used to speak about it, what will they do once they got home, got a pretty wife, have kids and live the rest of their life in peace.
And then Naib realizes two things.
First, those memories are Eli’s scars. Just like his past, that keeps haunting and maybe that’s why Eli is so persistent to be close to him because he knows that Naib will understand.
And second, Eli never talks about the future. Eli never talk about what he is going to do after the game is over. Eli never talks about going home and marry his fiancee.
Eli always talks about his story like he was remembering the past and maybe...
Maybe, it is.
And maybe that’s why Naib is brave enough to kiss him and comfort him when he found Eli crying that day and maybe that is also why Eli didn’t reject him.
Both of them have a lot of scars.
They don’t bleed anymore but sometimes, it still hurt and it requires time to heal.
Maybe with both of them supporting each other, they can heal faster.