Life Hunter 80 ''Ahriman, Huh?''

If you looked closely, you would be able to see some red dots on the upper half of the walls. These small red lights kept moving from a side to the other. And some of them pointed at the small baby like they were eyes staring at a prey.

The cold wind of the night blew and the baby shivered unconsciously, at the same time, one of the ramparts suddenly moved and opened like a sliding door. A woman wearing a gray outfit approached the basket and looked at the baby in it.

There was a single nameplate with the infant, it said 'Arimane'. Nothing else. The woman pondered. She looked around and sighed "Seriously, leaving a baby like this is way outdated" She muttered and grabbed the basket with the baby inside.

"Hey, little guy, I'm sorry but you'll live here now" The woman murmured gently, when she saw the baby sleeping peacefully, she smiled softly and brought him with her inside the ramparts.

When she pa.s.sed through the wall, it closed once again and she ended in a pretty garden. She followed a stone paver and arrived in front of a sort of modern mansion.

When she entered inside, she directly went toward a reception in the hall. She carefully put down the basked on it.

"It was this child who was detected by the guardians" The woman in gray told a man behind the reception. He had a really sharp and cold expression, his eyes showed that he had seen a lot in his life.

He stood up and looked at the baby "Who would abandon a child in this way nowadays?" He frowned and said "And just in front of our establishment" He shook his head and took the nameplate in his hand.

"Should I consider this as his first name then?" He asked.

"I think so" The woman smiled and answered "Well, I have matters to attend, please take care of this child" She bowed and started to leave.

The man shrugged and took out the baby from the basket, he then put him down on a blanket he spread out on the reception. He took a small square device and placed it above the infant.

A small circle opened on the device, like the lens of a camera. A blue laser scanned the baby and the lens instantly shut down. After a few seconds, the other side of the device opened like a screen and the man looked at it. He read all the information that appeared on it.

"Oh" He was quite surprised "He's really a tough kid. It's rare to see a baby having this kind of body resilience. It's like his body is ahead of a few years" He turned around and connected the device to a computer just beside.

The man started to type on a very thin keyboard that seemed to be tactile. On the thin screen, a record appeared, with the information about the baby's scan and a picture of him "Fifteen months, huh?" He muttered.

When he arrived at the name case, he looked at the nameplate one more time and typed what was on it. When he registered the file, a message appeared on his screen. It looked like a sort of plate.

The man tapped on the same screen once and a machine not far started working, it looked like a printer, and what got out was a something like a small identification plate with something engraved on it.

The man took it and hanged it around a small chain. He then put it around the child's neck. After that, he sighed and put back the baby into the basket and carried the latter out of the mansion.

While he was carrying him, the plate moved around and was illuminated by the moon's shine.

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It was a dog tag.

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"A soldier, huh?" Lilis muttered after looking at the scene unfold "Well, it isn't that surprising. That establishment, is that some sort of orphanage or some kind of military inst.i.tution?" She wondered "Did his parents leave him there in purpose?"

She kept thinking while she continued to watch.

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The man brought Arima to another building in the same propriety, it was a very big stone edifice, if the precedent was a modern mansion, this one looked like a really big old mansion.

When the man arrived at the doors, he knocked twice. Then, an intercom appeared on the wall beside the doors. The man placed his hand on it "It's me, Moria" He said and the doors opened, the man directly entered, and the entrance closed.

Surprisingly, there was no one behind. The interior of the mansion was a lot cleaner in contrast to what the façade could let think. After just a few seconds, an old woman arrived at the hall and smiled "Sir Moria, what is it?"

Moria raised the basked he had in his hand "We found him during my shift so I came here myself to give it. I already tagged him" He said while handing Arimane to the old woman.

The latter took him with widened eyes "That's intriguing, why would someone do this?"

Moria shrugged "I don't know" He said and prepared to leave "Ah, right. He had a nameplate on him, it was written 'Arimane' on it. Don't know what kind of parents would give the name of a demon to a child" He said and left the mansion.

"Arimane…" The old woman muttered while looking at the baby "Ahriman, huh?" At that moment, the infant opened his eyes and looked at the old woman.

The latter was a bit shocked by the look in those eyes. It's not like it was sharp or cold. It was too calm; those silver eyes were not looking at her in fear of the unknown, but more like they were trying to probe into her ident.i.ty.

She took him in her arms and looked at him "You seem to be a really smart child, aren't you?" She said and Arimane tilted his head which made her laugh.

"Let's go then" She said and carried him, along with the basket, to a certain room of the mansion. On her way in the corridors, some women and men greeted her and asked about the child she was carrying. The latter was always looking at them like he was trying to see through everything.

At some point, the old woman entered a particular room, inside, there were a lot of small beds, with some of them already bearing babies between one year and four years old.

The old woman brought Arimane toward an empty bed and put him down there. The latter sat down and looked around on confusion.

The old woman smiled "This place is an orphanage, a military one, made to welcome children without parents and raise them into soldiers" Her smile became wry "We're living in this kind of world now. Don't worry, the life here is pretty good although it's strict"

She knew that the boy wouldn't be able to remember her words, but when she saw the child looking around with unnaturally smart eyes, she couldn't help but explain.

Arimane looked at her once before laying down and closing his eyes. The woman chuckled quietly and left the room. The seemingly intelligent kid fell asleep soon after.

The next day, a woman entered the room to wake up the children in the room. She also took care of each and every one of them. When she saw Arimane, she was a bit surprised and looked at the doc.u.ment she had with her "Ah, so it's you the new entry from this night" She exclaimed.

She then changed his clothes like the others. After that, the children who could walk were said to go to the usual place and they left. After that, the woman sighed "I have to carry the others, huh?" She complained then looked around and widened her eyes when she saw Arimane perfectly standing beside his bed.

"You, you're just one year old, right?" She muttered and Arimane tilted his head like he was oblivious of anything.

The woman smiled and shook her head "Follow me then" She said while carrying another kid. She then left the room. Arimane mused, then slowly followed her.

After a minute, they had arrived at a totally new room. Full of children, toys and kid books. There even was a TV. Of course, there were also some adults monitoring them.

The woman who brought Arimane here put down the kid she had in her arms in a certain zone with younger children "You can join them and play, the first lessons will begin soon" She said to Arimane and left to fetch the other kids.

Arimane looked around curiously and approached a bookshelf. He blinked and looked at it, he took a book and sat down. When he opened it, he saw letters and words but couldn't understand it.

But above each word, there was an image. He looked up and down between the word and the image numerous times. It was the word 'chair' with the corresponding image. Arimane raised his head and looked around, he then spotted a small chair like the one he saw on the book.

He stood up and touched it. He tilted his head and kept touching it with a confused expression. After a minute of contemplation, he finally decided to sit on it.

After that, he reopened the book and continued to read it. He was sure that the word corresponded to the image, but he had no idea as to how he should p.r.o.nounce it. He just started memorizing the letters.

Not that far from him, a woman who was working on some papers remarked the child's strange demeanor. When she observed him for a few minutes, she smiled gently.

"What are you looking at?" Another woman sat down at the same desk and asked her.

"That child there is pretty funny, he's trying to read although he never learned before"

"Mm, that's impressive, he must be around one year old. He must be quite smart"

"Yes, I think so too"

Meanwhile, Arimane kept memorizing each word and their meaning, as much as he could, for an hour, he did that on two different books before a middle-aged man arrived in the room and set up a sort of blackboard.

He then sat down and got the attention of every kid thanks to the staff looking after them. Every kid there was at least one year old, they weren't that smart but they still knew when to listen. Some would still wander and cry time to time of course.

"I'm going to teach you the phonetics, please listen" The man said, just as a simple announcement to say he was starting. The older kids understood what he was talking about, but the younger ones were a bit dazed.

Only when the man started writing letters on the board did they react. Particularly Arimane, his eyes sparkled when the man began to give sounds each time he pointed at a letter or a group of letters. He felt enlightened and listened attentively.

The woman who spotted him earlier also smiled when he glanced at him. Also did the old woman that brought him during the night, she was looking at him from one of the entrances of the room. She left after a few minutes though.

And so, Arimane's daily life began that day.

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Back with the present Arima. The latter took out something off his neck and raised it toward the starry sky. It was exactly the same dog tag, just that this one had his name, 'Blade', engraved on it. But there was something else, it was a dual tag, and on the second one, another person's information was engraved on it with the same family name.

Arima let it reflect the moonlight for a moment then put it back, it was strangely hidden by the fabric of his clothes. Night glanced at it for a moment before falling asleep.