Chapter 10
Chapter 10: Orpheus's Mental World
In an ornately decorated noble's party hall
"Waaah!"
"Try to catch me! Ehehe!"
While the adults engaged in conversation and built connections, the children gathered at the edges to play.
"Look at this! The doll my father bought me!"
A young girl proudly showed off a doll about the size of an adult's palm, holding it preciously with both hands.
"Wow! That's the latest magic doll!"
"I want one too!"
"Can I touch it just once? Please?"
While many noble children gathered around the girl, there was one boy who sat apart from them, reading a book.
Though the boy's clothes were neat and his hairstyle tidy, no one approached him.
Some children tried to go near him, but their parents frantically stopped them after noticing the emblem brooch on the boy's clothes.
The boy tried to keep his gaze fixed on his book as if completely uninterested in the other children, but his eyes kept drifting toward the girl whenever the children's voices grew louder.
*Shake- Shake- Shake-*
After forcefully shaking his head while muttering "I'm not interested, I'm not interested, I'm the great Ian after all," just as the boy was about to bury his face back in the book—.
"Hello? What's your name?"
The boy was so startled by the girl's face suddenly popping up beside him that he dropped his book.
As the book that had been hiding the boy's face disappeared, the scent of the girl's long hair tickled his nose.
"Did I startle you? I'm sorry."
"Huh? Ah, no! Not at all!"
When the girl apologized, surprised by the boy's intense reaction, the boy shook his head vigorously.
"The book was just too infer—I mean, boring so I threw it...haha..."
What am I even saying?
The boy berated himself.
Throwing a book because it was boring? How strange must that sound.
The boy anxiously worried that the girl would frown and leave.
"Pfft. You're funny."
"...!"
But contrary to expectations, the girl seemed to like his response as she laughed brightly.
The boy thought her laugh was pretty.
"I'm Kate. What's your name?"
"I-Ian..."
"Oh! Ian! That's the name of a protagonist I saw in a storybook!"
"...Really?"
"Yes! He was a frog!"
"A-A frog..."
"But it's okay! He was a big and cute frog!"
"Ahaha..."
What in the world is a big and cute frog?
The boy, who had been strictly educated to only make rational statements and judgments, couldn't understand the girl's whimsical thinking.
But at the same time, he hoped their conversation wouldn't end.
If possible, he wanted to keep being with her...
"Do you want to see this too?"
After chatting idly with the boy for quite a while, the girl took out the doll she had been keeping close.
"My father bought it for me!"
"...Wow."
To the boy, the girl's doll seemed like a crudely made toy with an overly simple structure that he could easily make himself, but nevertheless, the boy put on an impressed expression.
Because he didn't want to see the girl before him look disappointed.
The girl proudly held out the doll and manipulated it this way and that.
"When you do this, the hand turns around like... oh?"
*Zzzzt-*
An unpleasant sound came from the doll's joints as the magic power reached its limit.
*Crack-*
With a snapping sound, the arm broke off after a cracking noise from the doll's internal joints.
"..."
"...Ah."
The girl stared blankly at the doll
While the boy watched her carefully.
Drip... drip...
One drop, then another.
Tears from the girl's eyes soaked into the doll.
The girl bit down hard on her lips.
The sight of her pulling at her lips, trying to hold back tears.
The boy realized that the girl's current state was like his own when he would silently swallow his tears alone in a corner.
A new doll from her father.
And she had broken it through carelessness while showing it off to her friends.
Even the friendless boy could understand that if this incident became known to her father, she wouldn't be able to receive gifts or play as she wished anymore.
"..."
He wanted to help.
He wanted to help the girl who had approached and talked to him, played with him when he was lonely on the outside.
"...Can I see it for a moment?"
"Sniff...Huh?"
The boy took the doll and its detached arm from the girl.
"Sniff... Wh-What are you going to do?"
"Everything I'm about to do is a secret. Okay?"
"...?"
The boy roughly aligned the two broken parts of the doll.
"Perbenit Certum."
And as he whispered softly, magic power flowed through his touch and seeped in.
The damaged parts of the golem responded to the magic power, gradually expanding until they joined together, restoring it to its previous state.
"Here."
"...Wow."
The girl was amazed as she took back the perfectly repaired doll.
"H-How did you do that? Even Old Man Hans can't do something like this!"
In response to the girl's question, the boy put his index finger to his lips.
"Shh. Don't tell anyone about this. ...Okay?"
The girl nodded with exaggerated childish expression, pursing her lips and opening her eyes wide.
Then she leaned in close to whisper to him.
"Our secret just between us. ...Right?"
The boy's cheeks turned red as he faced the girl's smile directly.
"Kate!"
Just then, an elegantly dressed noblewoman's hand shot out and grabbed the girl's arm.
"...?"
"Kate. Didn't Mother tell you! You mustn't play with just anyone!"
The woman looked down at the boy with contempt.
"Hmph. You must not play with this filthy Kali-Yuga bloodline."
"But Mother..."
"Tsk! Are you talking back again? ...This won't do. Come have a word with your mother."
The woman began dragging the girl away by her arm.
"..."
So this is how it ends after all.
Left alone, the boy gave a hollow laugh.
An inevitable fate, being born into this cursed family.
Even knowing that, he thought he could get along with others. And with such a bright girl at that.
The boy gathered up his fallen book.
It was time to return to the other side of solitude.
It would be best to forget everything that happened today completely.
That would be the right thing to do, both for her and for himself.
When the boy looked up one last time, thinking to see the girl one final time, he was startled.
Even as she was being dragged away by the noblewoman, the girl was secretly mouthing something to him.
Thank. You. For. To. day.
Make. Sure. To. Check. Your. Pocket.
The boy tilted his head as he read what she was trying to say through her lip movements.
Pocket?
The boy reflexively put his hand in his pocket.
*Squish-*
Inside was a round candy wrapped in pretty paper.
When the boy looked at the retreating girl with a questioning expression, she mouthed more words.
It's. My. Thank. You. Gift.
En. joy. It.
Let's. Play. Like. To. day. Next. Time. Too.
The boy stood dumbfounded as the girl's giggling face gradually disappeared, swallowed up by the party crowd.
"...Perhaps it wasn't completely meaningless after all."
To secretly slip in candy even while being dragged away by her mother.
Quite impressive dexterity.
The round candy in the boy's hand still held the girl's warmth.
The boy absently unwrapped the candy and put it in his mouth.
The sweetness that spread as he rolled the candy on his tongue.
The sweetness of the boy's first love spread with a tangy fragrance.
"Kate, she said. ...Kate. Kate. Kate."
It was a name as sweet and fresh as candy.
The boy neatly folded the wrapper and tucked it into his jacket's inner pocket.
[That was my first meeting with her]
[My reason for existing and what gave me the strength to survive in that hellish family]
[But...if this meeting had never happened, would she have suffered so much, would she have met such a tragic end?]
[If only this meeting hadn't occurred, wouldn't she have married a proper nobleman like other noble girls, had children, and lived happily?]
[If only this meeting hadn't happened...]
[If only I hadn't existed]
[If Ian Kali-Yuga had never existed in this world]
Orpheus's thoughts echoed throughout the mental world.
The Crown Prince, who had entered Orpheus's inner world using the Supervisor's power, saw this fragment of Ian Kali-Yuga's mental imagery and moved forward.
Toward the deepest part of this dark mental world,
Toward where Orpheus's core existed.