Arc 1 Chapter 3: Adal Altmann

Kyosuke’s eyes flew open, screams escaped from his mouth as if they’ve been trapped there, imprisoned. His lungs expanded with a new supply of fresh air, well as fresh as it can get in a prison cell.

“YOUNG MAN, I ASK YOU TO QUIET DOWN!”

An older guard had run over to Kyosuke’s cell screaming at him to quiet down. Kyosuke put his hands over his mouth feeling as if his hands were the only thing keeping the vomit from his stomach inside.

“I’m sorry, I had a bad dream. Excuse me for asking, but, where are we? I know I’m in a prison, but where is this prison?”

The guard almost looked offended at this, his reply was like something you’d get from an automatic robot that businesses used when they couldn’t find a human.

“Why, you’re in the great kingdom of Delpa in the country of Operum. This kingdom was founded two hundred years ago after our amazing king took down one of the six elemental dragons, Volmar was the name of that amazing man.”

Kyosuke started laughing, ‘DELPA! I can’t believe I’m in a kingdom named Delpa!”

“The name Delpa came from his late wife, I suggest you choose your actions wisely before laughing at such a childish thing!”

Kyosuke apologized, the laughter dying out, the name Delpa was just so out there. The languages may have been the same but the culture in which they named their children was different.

“I feel very cooped up in this prison cell here, are we ever allowed out?”

“You’re allowed out three times a day, one time each for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You’ll eat with people who have the same level of crime committed”

They couldn’t have people with level one crimes eating with people who committed level five crimes. Kyosuke was confused about why they went by “level,” He didn’t even know what level he was on.

“As for me, what level am I on? I got sent here because I didn’t have some sort of permit.”

“For not having a permit to be in the kingdom during a time of great parish? That would send you straight to level five, I’m guessing you already know what punishment you’ll get.”

Kyosuke was reminded that he only had one-week to get out of this hell. With only seven days to live, he wanted to make a plan as soon as possible.

“One last question.” The guard looked at him with a questioning look on his face “When does breakfast start?”

“The time is currently 8:30 a.m, you have thirty minutes before breakfast. I would recommend getting ready.”

This guard wasn’t like the other guards Kyosuke met prior, he spoke way too formally to be an average run of the mill “Get back to sulking-” type of guard. Kyoukes didn’t have too much time to think about it though, he needed to start thinking up a plan.

-I’m in a pretty good-sized cube-shaped room, the walls and floor are both made out of this gray brick. There’s a window that looks out to the colorful landscape and I can see out into the hallway since my cell has a wall that’s just completely iron bars. This is good, I have two ways of getting out, I doubt I’ll be able to do it by myself though, I’m going to need an accomplice.

Kyosuke got up from the bed after checking his surroundings, he failed to notice the hanging lantern from the ceiling and bumped his head on it. ‘Dammit, why is this thing so low!’

Out of all the things that had happened to Kyosuke in the past few days, he found some sort of commercial relief in something like that. If he had to choose whether he was going to die or get bumped in the head, he’d choose getting bumped in the head.

“At least they give me my own toilet, too bad it’s out in the open so it’s not any better than a public one.”

He hadn’t even realized he was no longer wearing his clothes that he brought to this world, If he was going to break out he was going to need to find out where they were and take them back.

“Alright, so I need to find an accomplice and my clothes, great.”

Kyosuke waited thirty minutes before being allowed out of his cell into the dining hall, It wasn’t much of a dining hall, more like a school cafeteria. Rows of tables and a line of prisoners getting their food. He scouted the area looking for potential partners when he found an odd-looking kid.

Odd-looking kid was the only way to describe him, he looked to only be about five foot four, maybe a year or two younger than Kyosuke. The most intriguing part about him wasn’t his age or height, it was his ears. He wasn’t a human at all, he was an Elf.

The young boy had silver hair that was a tad bit longer than Kyosuke’s. He wasn’t just sitting there, he had people surrounding him. With him being so young-looking, people were bound to try to hustle him up. Kyosuke knew from the anime he watched that Elves usually had magic, if he got this kid on his side, he was sure to find his way out of the prison in no time!

“Hey buddy, it’s me!”

Kyosuke put his arm around the young elf as if he’s known him for years. His face had that usual charismatic smile that made it look like their friendship was authentic

“Uhh, hey, I haven’t seen you in years.”

The kid knew where this was going, he also knew that Kyosuke wanted something from him in return for this “kind” action, but anything would be better than dealing with these creeps.

Kyosuke managed to get him away from the filthy-looking prisoners, judging by the looks of the prisoners and the looks of the young boy, he knew that they weren't asking for him to do magic tricks.

“So, what brings you to a fine establishment like this?”

“I’m not quite sure what establishment means but I’m guessing you’re asking me about how I ended up in this hell hole.”

The boy's voice wasn’t quite deep, it also wasn’t squeaky either. It was the perfect pitch for his look.

“If you’re asking how I got here, I really don’t remember, I kind of just woke up here a few days ago, turns out I got a level 5 punishment, whatever that means, I don’t know what I did, but it must have been really bad.”

Kyosuke didn’t understand this kid, he doesn’t even have enough confidence in himself to know whether or not he did anything bad to end up here. It didn’t matter to Kyosuke because anyone here was either gonna be here for the same reason as him or worse.

“So, what’s your name kid?”

“Kid is kind of a broad statement, from my point of view you’re the kid here.”

Kyosuke remembered that Elves age a lot slower than humans, at least that’s how it was in most of the fantasy novels he read. Kyosuke took a deep breath and summoned a quick smile knowing that he was going to have to start the introduction.

“I’M KYOSUKE MATSUDA, I’M 16 YEARS OLD AND A CONVICTED FELON!”

“You say that with such pleasure as if it doesn’t bother you that you’re going to die soon. Anyways I’m Adal, Adal Altmann!”

That wasn’t the fantasy name he was hoping for. Kyosuke looked at him with squinting eyes trying to figure something out in his head.

-Those are both German names, but from what I’ve uncovered so far, this world hasn’t anything to do with my world. I’ll ask him later, for now, it’s time I tell him my plan

“It’s your lucky day, I’m not ready to die, I’ve still got my whole life ahead of me, so I ask you-” and with a whisper to Adal’s ear he said “Do you want to escape with me”

Adal didn’t know the answer to this question, did he deserve to be set free, he doesn’t even know how he got there. Questions were flowing in his head, what would be the right answer for him to choose. Sensing the war going on his head, Kyosuke stepped in.

“Listen, if you don’t know what happened then it’s not your fault for whatever happened. You can’t blame yourself for something that ~you~ didn’t do!”

Adal wondered if Kyosuke was right in this situation, he doesn’t know the reason he’s here so why should he be forced to pay the consequences?

“Alright Kyosuke Matsuda, I’m in!”

The plan was already made in Kyosuke’s head, he knew how they were going to escape.

“Alright, so, we need our clothes, anyone who sees us running around in black and white prison jumpsuits will know that we’re up to no good, they’ll call the guards on us and we’ll be sent back to prison within an instant.”

Adal was captivated by the level of detail he had already put into the plan and on his first-day non-the-less. ‘How will we get our clothes back? We don’t even know where they’re held.`

“That’s not the full case, we ourselves don’t know where they are, but I know someone who might just have the answer.”

As soon as Kyosuke finished his sentence the guards walked in telling everyone to get back to their cells.

He needed to get that same guard he had before back to his cell, sitting down on his bed, he put all the air he could into his lungs, and screamed!

“HELP!”

Kyosuke cried out to the lone guard as if a live animal was chasing him around his cell.

“What are you screaming about this time?! I thought I told you to quiet down!”

“Well you see it just now dawned on me that I don’t have my clothes, my great ancestors passed those clothes down for generations! Do you happen to know where I can find them?”

He said it all with sad puppy dog eyes on his face, hoping the guard would pay no mind to the weird question.

“Generations you say? Well if they’re that important to you, you’ll be happy to know that they were put on a stand in the warden’s office, that’s where they keep all the clothes that the prisoners had on at the time of capture. You’ll be given them on the date of your death to wear before your final moments.”

Kyosuke wasn’t planning on dying so finally, he decided on the final plan. He had one day to pull this off and he knew that the closer he got to his death the more the guards would keep their eyes on him. The final day of his life in prison will end tomorrow night.

***

Once the Afternoon rolled around Kyosuke was finally able to tell Adal his plan. ‘You see, they have our clothes inside the warden’s office, all we need to do is break in there, get our clothes, and get the hell out of here!”

“You really think they’ll let us walk so freely over near the warden's office, you’re just asking for them to move your death date forward!”

“Are you stupid, you should know by now that I have an idea, look up above us.” Kyosuke points to the ceiling.

“All we have to do is find ~someone~ small enough to fit in the crawl space, shimmy into the warden's office, and receive our clothes. It just so happens that we know someone small enough”

Kyosuke’s face warped into a sort of cute malicious grin, he started staring directly into the soul of Adal.

“Oh, yea who- NO I CAN’T!”

He quickly went to convince Adal, not only is he the smallest person in the prison, but he’s also the only one that Kyosuke can trust.

“We need our clothes to escape and you’re the only one small enough to fit through the crawl space. Look I promise you that if you do this for us and we escape, I’ll find you a nice place to live… Eventually.”

Tears were forming at the side of Adal’s eyes, he knew he couldn’t talk his way out of being the subject of this heist. ‘DAMMIT KYOSUKE FINE!’

“That’s the spirit! With that being said, now starts operation “Get The Hell Out Of This Prison, or GTHOOTP for short.”

Kyosuke looked proud of the name he created, Adal on the other hand looked sick. Once Adal got their clothes, he was to hide them under his sheets until the final breakout.

The afternoon was over and the evening came, they both ate their dinner without saying a word, this plan had to work for them to get out. After dinner, they made their way back to their cells, it was all up to Adal to carry out this plan.

While Kyosuke was walking away he said to himself. 'I hope Adal can get away with this, if he does everything will be ready for tomorrow night.'

Sitting on his bed he remembered a flashback to when they were leaving the dining hall at lunch. ‘Okay, you’ll have to get to the prison infirmary, how you do that is up to you. Once you’re there, you’ll wait until the doctor leaves and make your way up into the crawlspace, You’ll have to open up holes in the ceiling to find the warden’s office. Once you find the office, wait for the warden to leave and sneak your way in there, Grab our clothes and get back into the infirmary.’

Kyosuke put a lot of information on Adal, he didn’t know if this plan would work, but out of all the people who were in the prison, he knew that only Adal could pull this off.

Rubbing his eyes, Kyosuke looked out his cell to check for anything unusual.

There were no signs of emergencies yet, in his head he didn't even think Adal would go through with it. All he could do was believe in the Elf, it was all up to someone he had only met that day to free them from this hell.

The night was approaching, it had been what felt like an eternity since he told Adal the plan, he was hoping that when he went to breakfast the next morning he’d find his new friend there, waiting to tell Kyosuke the good news. Sleep slowly took over his body and slowly he fell asleep.