When Joey reached this point in his story, the four people around him had stopped eating and were entirely focused on him.
"I found that when I was still a child, my entire city had been attacked by a powerful enemy. However, he had not killed us but kidnapped us and taken us elsewhere."
"I remember that place was extraordinary. There were structures that I had never seen in my life. Even after all these years, I've lived, I haven't found anything like that. Other than that, the beings that interacted with us were all very different."
"I honestly can't think of what species those individuals were, but they had some similarities to some beings from the sea races. However, unlike having massive bodies, like marine spiritual beasts, they had shapes more similar to ours."
"Arms, legs, hands, etc., other characteristics present in humans, were all there. However, they had bluish skin, large, completely black eyes, and what looked like gills at the height of what should have been a nose."
Upon hearing this, the four people had surprised reactions, with their pupils completely contracted and their mouths slightly open.
And while the three women found Joey's story very interesting, Minos was already starting to think about the possibilities behind these beings. 'Are they related to the marine people?' He wondered as he analyzed what he knew on the subject.
The marine people were a race from the Spiritual World, who lived in the underwater regions, having many similarities with humans.
That is, while sea beasts were only a subclassification for spiritual beasts, as several peculiarities brought them closer to land beasts, something different happened to marine people.
Despite being similar to sea beasts in many ways, these beings had many characteristics present only in humans!
And because of that, they had their own species classification within the Spiritual World, distinguishing themselves from sea beasts and humans.
However, Minos only found it strange that some of the characteristics Joey cited were not present in the marine peoples Henricus Longus had known. 'Do races exist within the species of marine peoples?'
Anyway, he soon put that thought aside and returned to pay attention to the elderly figure who was telling that story.
"At the time when my countryman and I were kidnapped, we went through different types of experiences with those beings, as if we were guinea pigs in human tests. I remember some of us being used as 'samples' in dissections, participating in battles, for those who already cultivated, and cultivating strange techniques."
"In fact, I remember that most of my countrymen who were already start cultivation at that time died from the strange effects or disappeared without saying goodbye."
"Strange effects?" Minos asked curiously.
"Yes, for example, I remember two cases that happened with acquaintances of mine. In one case, that person had turned into a strange creature with disproportionately sized limbs. In another, that person had evaporated while cultivating." He honestly said while sighing inwardly.
Seeing it in his childhood had tormented then-young Joey. 'No wonder I was so afraid of cultivating powerful techniques in the past…' He thought inwardly, recalling the painful situation he'd seen back then.
It was not easy to see a person die evaporating!
Anyway, even if he didn't remember what had happened when he started to cultivate, he had already been affected to the point of developing a fearful personality. Hence the desire to follow a quiet life without even caring about the possibility of living longer.
And all that had only changed after decades of discovering what had happened. So, even though he found it more than 300-years-ago, it still took him a long time to 'digest' it.
It was not simple to overcome a trauma!
And in the end, after he overcame that, he was already old, at a low level, that is, in an unattractive condition for him to join noble organizations in the region. But that wasn't all. Joey had also gotten used to the idea of living in peace, even after overcoming the trauma.
"Our! But what a horrible thing!" Abby commented in a low voice. She knew there were sacrificial techniques, which could leave significant damage behind. Still, this young woman didn't know anything like what Joey had described.
At the same time, the other three people who were listening to the story were also impressed by this.
And finally, Joey kept talking. "The experiments that adults underwent were truly horrendous. To give you an idea, when we were released, only the children who still couldn't cultivate at that time had survived…" He paused for a moment and then corrected. "I mean, I didn't see any of the adults in my town with us. Many had died and left their bodies behind, but others we never knew of their fate."
"Cough, eh, as for the kids, counting me, we just go through a lot of activities, like attending classes, looking at certain artifacts, using certain items."
"It was nothing as drastic as it used to be with adults."
"However, after much reflection on what happened to us, I realized that these practices were aimed at evaluating our abilities, determining whether we were capable of cultivating before the age of ten, and so forth. They also forced us to see certain things, which seemed to be made to convince us to worship them, or something."
Hearing this, Barbara decided to say something for the first time. "I heard that some religions in ancient times were brainwashing children."
"Hm, I also thought about that after pondering those events. Maybe they were trying to indoctrinate us with their religion." Joey said as he nodded his head in agreement to Barbara.
"Anyway, I'm not sure how long we stayed in that place, but it certainly didn't reach one year. After that time, almost all the children who had in my old city were released, in another city in the Kingdom of the End, one different from ours." He then paused a moment longer as he remembered those events.
Joey was an orphan at the time, but he had been raised by an old friend of his parents, a neighbor of theirs. However, he never knew her fate. 'She must have died back then…' He thought about it for a second.
After a moment of silence, Abby questioned him. "And what happened after that?"
"Me and the other kids, we had lost all our memories of what had happened. But not only that, but they had also put us under the effect of a technique that made us believe in forged memories, which filled the void left."
"With this, we were welcomed as war orphans in that city, which we believed was ours. At that time, there had been a massive battle in that place, and so it was not difficult for this farce not to generate questions."
"Neither those who welcomed us doubted our origins, nor did we even think about this possibility." He finished telling his story while having a complex look on his face.
From then on, everything had happened as if none of that event had occurred. Joey didn't remember his old city, the people, nothing. He genuinely believed that he was a victim of war and that he had always lived in the place that he and the other children were left behind...
"I see..." Minos muttered in a low voice as he considered Joey's story. 'It seems that this old man has gone through many things... It's amazing that he hasn't broken up after finding out about all this. I can't imagine how terrible these memories are...'
Meanwhile, Abby and the other two women spoke again, commenting on the matter.
"This must have been hard for you, Joey. These marine creatures are truly too audacious to attack a human city and do all these things to you!" Robin complained unhappily.
"Truth!" Abby nodded when she looked at the old man in front of her and asked. "Do you still have contact with these other people who were with you?"
Joey then shook his head, indicating no. "No, in fact, most of them have already died. I was the only one who had a Black talent. Because of that, even with my poor quality cultivation technique, I was still able to reach a higher level than them."
"For this reason, most of them died even before reaching the 5th stage of cultivation. Even if most had reached the 4th stage and had 450 years of life expectancy, diseases and conflicts always appear in our lives..."
