Transmigrated As A Baby Villain-Chapter 56: King’s Court I

Soon, Jay found himself being smeared in red and his nose picked up the disgustingly metallic smell of blood. He was clinging on to his male caregiver’s shirt as the teenage boy was trying to talk to the teenage girl.

"Jay, can you hear me?" The Red King’s question was met with silence. His partner didn’t even blink. "We gotta go, Jay. Come on, now. I hate it when you stare like that."

"Mom?" Jay reached out to touch her upper arm.

His male caretaker let out a long sigh, "I don’t wanna carry both you and Kaon at the same time."

Finally, the teenage girl blinked and took a deep breath. She fell to her knees; her neck length hair covered her face as her breathing sped up.

With the toddler still in his hold, the Red King squatted down so that he could see her face to face.

"Don’t touch me..." JJ spit out, but her hand grabbed her partner’s forearm.

When she lifted her head, her eyes were no longer glassy, no longer lifeless. A wave of relief washed over the transmigrator.

"Mom..." He called out to her again.

Her blue eyes focused on the toddler she did her best to protect. JJ’s shaky hand gripped tighter on her partner’s forearm to steady herself as she stood up. That was the cue for the Red King to stand up, too.

"Eugene should have been dead." The teenage girl flatly stated.

"I know. I hate him too." Her partner’s voice softened in relief.

"No, I meant he shouldn’t be walking and talking right now. He should’ve been dead since yesterday." Her voice sent chills down Jay’s spine, yet something deep inside of him told him that she’s back to normal and he should be glad.

"What do you mean, Jay?"

"I had a vision." Her voice sounded smaller than a moment ago. "The date was yesterday. You and I buried Eugene in our backyard after we put Kaon to bed. I took his drug for you but you didn’t use it, so we kept it in the fridge."

Holy shit. System! What the hell did you do to my mom, ah?

A familiar blue interface screen came to life in front of his eyes.

[ YES, USER JAY? ]

What Did You Do To JJ? She knows about the original story!

[ NO, SHE DOES NOT. ]

What?!?!

The Red King raised his eyebrows in confusion, and he squinted his eyes a little bit. "No, we didn’t? He’s still annoyingly alive and well."

"It was just a vision." The girl threw her head back and rolled her eyes. "Ugh, never mind. I don’t think I wanna talk about it. Sorry for spacing out."

"No, wait, Jay, I thought you’re doing that thing when you stare at walls for hours after a battle." His dad didn’t seem to want to let the topic go, but when his companion took a hold of his sleeve and started pulling him to the direction of the yelling, he didn’t resist.

While his parents were walking towards the yelling, Jay couldn’t help but wonder what the hell was going on, and what JJ meant by visions?

He couldn’t just ask her outright, could he?

[ REMEMBER, USER JAY. OOC WILL— ]

Yes, I remember, you scummy System.

At the center of town, the new and improved well was still standing. It saddened Jay a bit when he saw that there’s a crack on the side from something hitting the well. Eugene’s shinny expensive motorbike was toppled over, but it didn’t look damaged. Not far from it, their family motorbike was still intact, but their helmets were on the ground.

A few people came out of their hiding spots and joined them on their journey to the other side of the junkyard. It’s hard to see anything when there’s tents and rubble in the way, so Jay was thankful that his dad was carrying him around. He didn’t want to think too much about the blood sticking to them either, and if he looked up at the sky, he could forget about the smell.

Once there, the people moved a bit so that the newcomers could join their circle and see what’s happening inside. Jay couldn’t help but chuckle to himself at the sight of Thor hiding behind Eugene while an old man was being yelled at by Pirate, her face was as red as a cherry. Even from a dozen feet away, the transmigrator could see veins popping on her neck and forehead even with black and brown mysterious substances sticking to her face.

"Give me a good reason to let you live!" She pushed the older man to the ground, and the bald man didn’t even get back up. "We clothed you, fed you, and you ungrateful bastard still let them in!"

"No one died in your community, so it doesn’t matter!" The bald man shouted back at her, but he didn’t get off the ground. "You need me! Don’t forget that, bitch. If you kill me, no one will trade with this hell hole shit post anymore!"

The sizable crowd forming around them kept getting bigger with every person joined to witness the fight, some residents were covered in blood, some had a few visible wounds on their arms, and some were still holding their weapon.

"What’s going on?" JJ turned to look at Thor.

The boy’s eyes moved to look at his mother once more before he glanced back at the teenagers.

"Luca is a mole." Thor whispered. "Mom and I saw him talking to the raiders. He’s one of them. He’s been giving them info and planning their raids... On us... None of the raiders, even Luca, could’ve predicted that a Wonder Soldier’s fighting on our side."

As the one-sided fight went on, whispers and murmurs got louder. Even behind the transmigrator, he could hear them talking about the traitor.

"See, I’m not crazy!" A deep female voice hissed at her companion. "I fucking told you Luca’s bad news. He tried to touch me on my first day here. You didn’t listen."

"Shut up..." Her male friend grumbled back. "Him selling us out to who knows how many raiders is the problem."

"Gaaaah!" Pirate pulled the man up by his collar, only to head butt him hard enough for him to fall back down. "You... I’ll kill you! Don’t get so high up your ass! Without bastards like you, I still got my sources—"

"How about we vote?" The Red King’s sharp baritone caught the attention of the entire crowd and even Pirate who stopped her punch midway just to look at the teenage boy. "Hands up if you want Luca dead right here?"

The teenage boy was the first one to lift up his hand while still holding the toddler. Next to him, JJ didn’t even blink when she did so. Jay eyed Thor, who looked hesitant, but he did eventually raise his hand, followed by his mother.

A few other people locked eyes with each other before they lifted their hands, some briefly talked to each other before they did, and some dropped their hand after a second. Eugene looked rather conflicted, and he didn’t raise his hand.

"Twenty three." JJ counted.

Upon hearing the number, Luca’s eyes widened. He stood up and scurried to the sidelines, only for two men to push him back into the circle.

"Twenty three voted for death." The Red King announced. "Now how many vote for exile? Throw him out into the world and never welcome him back again?"

Immediately, several people put their hands up. Thor looked at his mother, then at Luca, and then he slowly raised his hand.

"Kid, you can’t vote twice!" A woman in her early twenties called the boy out. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

"I changed my mind." The younger boy reasoned, "I don’t think he deserves to die. He helped us a lot with trading deals."

"Twenty two for death." JJ mumbled out. "For exile, sixteen, seventeen..."

Can Jay vote as well? He’s a toddler, but would his vote count?

Feeling particularly audacious, the transmigrator raised his arm to participate.

"Aye, look!" Pirate pointed at the boy. "King, your boy’s voting."

"KJ’s vote doesn’t count." The Red King deadpanned. "Not until he’s a bit older."

Welp, he tried. Jay slowly put his arm back down, only for him to realize that Eugene was watching him the entire time. The Wonder Soldier clenched his jaw as he raised his right hand, mirroring what Jay did a moment ago.