Knock knock knock.
The cheerful sound of hammering echoed in the air.
I am now tearing down the old wall and replacing it with new boards.
Although I thought the house looked fine on the outside, there were quite a few areas that weren’t.
It seems like I got scammed pretty badly by the real estate agent.
The noise of the hammering must have been too loud because a kid came out of her room and said:
“Why are you doing that yourself? Why not call someone?”
“Costs money.”
“I thought you had a lot of money.”
“Not for this. I have to do what I can myself.”
It’s not like I have unlimited money either.
After finishing the exterior repairs and painting, I headed to the kitchen for lunch.
The kid, having noticed that I was going to the kitchen, followed me.
“What’s for lunch today?”
“Leftover fried rice and stew from yesterday.”
“Again? We had fried rice yesterday too.”
“Then don’t eat. You’re just living off me anyway.”
“This is my house, you know?”
“The real estate contract has my name on it.”
Arguing about whose house this was, we ate lunch and then went back to our own tasks.
I finished the remodeling I couldn’t complete yesterday, and the kid took a nap.
Time passed, and soon it was time for dinner.
We sat across from each other at the dining table.
“Hey, kid. Come to think of it, what’s your name?”
“Epherna.”
The kid hesitated for a moment and then asked:
“But why are you asking now?”
“At my workplace, names often don’t matter.”
“…What a strange job.”
The kid started eating voraciously.
She ate three bowls, less than yesterday but still quite a lot by normal standards.
I wondered how all that food fit into her small stomach.
“Hey, mister.”
“What.”
“Aren’t you going out today?”
The kid, having put down her spoon, asked.
I countered.
“Why. Do you want to go out?”
“Not really.”
The kid paused for a moment.
“I was just wondering if there’s nothing else we need to buy.”
“Nope.”
I had bought a lot of groceries to prepare for the kid’s enormous appetite.
We had enough food for a while and a large refrigerator to store it all, so unless something came up, there was no need to go out.
*****
It was the first time I waited for someone.
Waiting with a new sense of purpose, unlike just sitting under the sun thinking about when to go inside…
Yeah. It was like adding seasoning to plain water.
Would adding seasoning to plain water make it tasty?
I didn’t say it was tasty. It just became a bit special.
Tonight, the girl couldn’t sleep.
Probably because she had replenished enough energy with food, unlike usual.
With nothing to do, the girl went outside to soak up some sunlight.
“…”
Phew.
The sunlight is nice. Even doing nothing, it feels like recharging energy.
Suddenly, she wondered.
What is the man she lives with doing?
He wasn’t home.
After a period of constant hammering and house repairs, he had suddenly disappeared.
Maybe he went out to buy something he needed.
Hmm. What should she do to pass the time now?
As she pondered, she felt a strange presence.
“……?”
What is it?
Turning around, she saw blue particles swirling around a piece of paper.
A wave of rapidly growing mana enveloped the girl.
However, nothing really happened.
The blue mana particles and the paper scroll disappeared without causing any harm to the girl.
On the contrary, she felt refreshed.
A sensation she hadn’t felt before.
“… What.”
The girl realized her body had become clean.
“…My clothes are clean too.”
The once grimy clothes now looked freshly laundered.
Her hair and body, which had been greasy, were now fluffy and clean, as if she had just showered.
“… What?”
What happened?
The girl fell deep into thought.
*****
In a café located in the Much-Sector, I was waiting for someone amidst the bustling crowd.
“What’s going on, Commander?”
“Oh, you’re here.”
Ray Salessin.
The young man who succeeded me as Commander of the Astrape Special Forces.
“I’m busy. Let’s wrap this up within ten minutes.”
“Busy with what? The war is over.”
“What does that make me if you say that? Just tell me why I’m here.”
“Alright, did you bring what I asked for?”
“Yes.”
Ray pulled out a magic scroll.
It’s a high-level scroll that allows even ordinary magicians to use Demon Language.
“You know how much one of these costs, right? I spent quite a bit getting this.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll transfer the money. How are the kids?”
“Do you think they’re doing well without you?”
“Wow, I’m touched. They miss me.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. We’re short-staffed.”
Our conversation was interrupted by the arrival of our coffee.
“So, what are you going to use the Demon Language Scroll for?”
“I have my reasons.”
“Can’t you even tell me?”
“It’s not that I can’t, it’s just a bit complicated, so I’m keeping quiet.”
I don’t know why that kid is bound by magic metal.
“Just be careful with it. If you mess up, the money you spent on that scroll goes down the drain.”
“I know.”
The Demon Language Scroll makes the impossible possible, but it has restrictions.
Not major ones, but given what I’m about to do, they are significant.
But there’s no choice.
This is the only way for the kid.
“By the way, Commander, you look good.”
“Why my face all of a sudden?”
“I didn’t think you’d be doing well. I thought you wouldn’t change for a while.”
“Are you cursing me?”
“No, I’m serious. We’ve been living disconnected from society. Retirement doesn’t change that. I thought you’d be the same.”
“…”
He’s right.
After retirement, I planned to get married or start an orphanage.
If I hadn’t met the kid, I might have lived as Ray said.
Both marriage and running an orphanage take time.
“I met a child to take care of sooner than I expected.”
Though I plan to do something really bad to that kid.
But it can’t be helped.
*****
“Hey kid, I’m coming in.”
I knocked and entered.
For some reason, the kid was sitting on the bed waiting for me.
“Oh, you look better now.”
The scroll had worked, and she was much cleaner.
The kid asked.
“Did you do this?”
“If you mean the cleanliness scroll, yes. You were filthy.”
“Why did you do something unnecessary?”
“I did it because I wanted to. Why?”
“I don’t need your help.”
“Got it. What do you want for dinner?”
“…”
She was embarrassed. This Little One.
This kid thought she could win an argument with me.
I gave her some advice.
“Kid, if you want to fight, do it properly. Don’t just show your claws halfway. Go all out.”
I used magic to create wind and levitate the her in the air.
‘She’s light.’
The kid’s body was so thin that it was almost just bones.
As a temporary measure, I cast Heal on her.
Heal is usually used to heal wounds. So, it’s not exactly the right magic for this situation.
However, with a little extra effort, it can be used to infuse a living being with energy and vitality.
When the Heal was finished and I set her down, the kid asked,
“Why are you helping me?”
Her eyes held a mix of fear and hope.
It was the same look I once had when I looked at my elders.
My expectations were betrayed, but the kid doesn’t need to go through that.
“Kids grow up with help. Don’t try to act tough.”
But regardless, I had to do what needed to be done.
I’m sorry, kid.
I’d apologize in advance if it wouldn’t defeat the purpose.
“Stay still.”
*****
When the man opened his mouth.
“Stay still.”
“…!!”
My body began to move against my will.
I could guess he used something, but it didn’t feel good.
He restrained my entire body as if my opinion didn’t matter, and his hands, glowing blue, started to write something.
Soon, a sharp pain began in my ankle.
“Ugh…!!”
No, it was more than just a twinge.
It felt like my ankle was being seared with a hot iron.
“AAAAHHHHHHH-!!”
I screamed in agony.
“It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! Stop!”
I yelled, overwhelmed by the pain, but his work didn’t stop.
The pain kept changing.
It felt like searing my flesh with a hot iron, then hundreds of needles stabbing my muscles, then being hammered continuously, and finally, a sharp jolt like being struck by lightning tortured my ankle.
After thirty excruciating minutes…
“Ah….”
The pain stopped.
When he let go, my body was free, but the burning pain in my ankle lingered vividly.
I sobbed and rubbed my painful ankle.
The man responsible for this lifted me in his arms.
I wanted to push him away, but after screaming for thirty minutes, my body was drained of energy.
Fortunately, I still had enough strength to speak.
“…B*stard.”
“…”
“…You’re just like them. Those people.”
“…”
“…What does it matter now? I can’t live like a person anymore. I was stupid to hope, even for a moment.”
I let out a hollow laugh.
I read in a book once.
Life is about oscillating between optimism and pessimism, despair and hope, inflating and bursting, laughing and crying, and wandering aimlessly.
That’s life.
But my life had always been pessimistic, always despairing, and eventually, it burst.
But I won’t cry.
No matter the hardship and adversity.
Even if I’m sold into sl*very and have to live in endless, hopeless torture.
Someday, this hateful world…
It was then.
“I’m sorry. I have my reasons.”
More than ten meters away from the mansion.
Her body took a step outside.
*****
Step.
Walking.
Step.
He’s walking.
Carrying me, walking outside the mansion.
Step.
It’s been long since we passed ten meters.
Step.
Twenty meters.
Step.
Thirty meters.
Step.
Forty… meters…
In the midst of my bewilderment, someone whispered.
“Do you want to try walking on your own?”
My vision dipped downward, and my feet touched the ground with a soft thud.
“How does it feel to step outside the mansion for the first time?”
Step.
Step.
…Step.
“It’s… warm…”
It’s the same sunlight I could feel inside the mansion.
It’s definitely the same sunlight.
But different.
“There are a lot of people.”
“The more we walk, the more you’ll see.”
“There are a lot of shops.”
“There are bigger and more amazing buildings too.”
“There’s so much I don’t know.”
“What you see now isn’t all there is.”
There are many things she doesn’t know.
“… Is that really true?”
I had wanted to die because I felt my existence was meaningless.
I felt like a corpse, devoid of purpose or desire.
So, I wanted to die.
“I thought knowing things I didn’t know would be pointless.”
I thought I’d swim in hope only to drown in despair.
I believed I’d become a meaningless corpse no matter what I did.
“Do you still think that way?”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“I don’t think that way anymore.”
I had a dream now.
A small but significant dream.
A dream to see and remember many things.
*****
Night fell.
We lay side by side on the lawn outside the mansion.
Originally, I lay alone, but the kid lay next to me, seemingly wanting to talk.
“Mister. Why didn’t you tell me you were going to lift the seal?”
“I wanted to see your true feelings. I thought if I created a desperate atmosphere, you’d give up and spill your guts. It worked, didn’t it?”
A look of disgust crossed the kid’s face.
I laughed.
“Just kidding. There are adult circumstances.”
At first, I planned to knock the kid out before starting the procedure.
But dealing with a living being using a Demon Language Scroll required them to be conscious.
Moreover, to handle the Demon Language Scroll, I couldn’t use human language.
I could have warned her beforehand, but that would have reduced the spell’s effectiveness.
The ‘Power of Language’ is so delicate that it doesn’t allow interference from another language.
“You can only go outside for an hour a day.”
“Didn’t you fix everything?”
“Yesterday, I said I couldn’t break the seal. I just added another seal to create a loophole.”
I explained a bit more, but naturally, the kid didn’t fully understand.
Still, she seemed to grasp the conclusion.
“You can’t break it either?”
“Right. Unless there’s a genius greater than me.”
The kid exhaled a long breath, looking disgruntled.
After staring at the stars for a few minutes with her head on the grass, she suddenly turned to me with a determined expression.
“Mister. If I study magic, can I break it?”
“…What?”
“If a genius greater than you can break it, then I can study and break it myself, right?”
“Oh, come on. You think you’re a bigger genius than me?”
“Yes.”
Oh… What kind of confidence does this Little One have?
“Kid, I held a pretty important position. There probably aren’t many people in the world who can match my intellect.”
I added, “Probably.”
“I don’t care. I’m going to break it somehow.”
“Do what you want if you think you can.”
“You’ll help me, right?”
“Why would I help? You have to do it yourself.”
The kid’s face turned sullen again.
“…I’ve never taught anyone before. I’m not sure I’d be good at it. I’ll buy you some scholarly books, but the rest is up to you.”
“You’re so cheap.”
“Feeding and housing you isn’t enough? You’d better not ignore me once you succeed.”
“I’ll think about it if you teach me.”
“Why are you so fixated on me teaching you?”
“Because you’re basically unemployed. I’m giving you something to do.”
“…Ugh. Do whatever you want. You’re so stubborn.”
I placed my hand on the kid’s head and ruffled her hair.
“Tomorrow, let’s go buy some clothes. Why does a girl like you have such shabby clothes?”
“Okay. I’ll pick the best ones.”
“Do as you please.”
I gazed into the sky.
A star from the dark blue sky was falling toward the green earth.
