Page 24 of Light Leech

Nichley had escaped. He–or at least his company–hadn’t capitulated to past allegations. There was no reason why he wouldn’t target children again. That was the aim of his company. Entertainment was a lie.

Children are the future. Control them, control the world.

Entertainment had its occasional poor connotation, but education was requisite. Twist the truth of what should be taught and you own the world.

With the Correction choosing what truth should be taught in schools, they owned knowledge.

The weight of our responsibility doubled.

Naoma tapped my shoulder. “You good?”

She was holding Kuni’s hand. He looked upset, probably due to some refusal to act out the brainwashing. I was sure she could console him somehow. If we couldn’t save an entire generation, I prayed we could at least save one.

I nodded. “Yeah, just a bit hungry, I think.”

“Dinner or teeth?” Kuni asked. His innocence had expired.

“Food.” Boyband said. “We’ll bring you some back. You like meat? I only ate nuggets when I was your age.”

“Still do,” scoffed Akna.

I was surprised he didn’t bite back, despite his scowl.

“You told me the meat out there isn’t real,” Kuni said.

“If you know where to look it is.”

“Don’t go wasting your lumens,” Ralia said. “I eat beef2 all the time, even after you showed it to us, and I’m fine.”

“Do I need to comment on that? Only half of you is human.”

“What is beef2?” Kuni asked.

“The fake meat I told you we raised,” Boyband said.

“It’s not really that fake,“ said Denji.

Boyband glared at him. “The zeg do you know?”

Denji laughed. “Bit of a story, I–”

“Nah, don’t have time.”

“It actually pertains to your parent’s farm. Have time now? Great. Like I said, I didn’t always plan on becoming a Luxist monk. I went to a prestigious school, probably nothing as expensive as Water Hills despite mine being a university, where I got my degree to become a neo-cognitive ethnologist.”

“The zeg does that mean?”

“I worked on the sentience of nonhuman organisms from a modern standpoint.”

“You worked with sea-mechs?” Akna asked.

“Exactly.” He snapped and pointed at her. “But that field has kind of plateaued from my point of interest. I may be a monk, but that doesn’t mean that I abandoned my past interests. While on your parents farm, I saw an… opportunity. A chance to work with something that hadn’t been used before. Noting that it technically wasn’t an animal, I wondered if it had a greater chance at excelling where most animals that aren’t dolphins and cephalopods failed.”

“You’re zegging me,” Boyband said.

I thought he was frightened, but by the look on his face, I knew it was excitement.

Denji held up a finger then walked back down a hallway, opening a door, and I thought I heard him walk up or down a set of stairs.