Vol. 14 Ch. 11: The Pawn Outside the Board

Two years had passed since Isaac advanced to the high school division.

Over those two years, Isaac had slipped out of the dormitory whenever he had the chance and wandered the streets at night, but he still had not found anything he could become especially absorbed in.

He had tried music, plays, and stories, touching on each in turn, but he could only worry about things like whether the work was well made or whether such ideas were popular among the citizens... He couldn't simply enjoy the works.

He had even made appearances at brothels and the like to build connections for the day he would eventually cut ties with Duke Clockford, but he couldn't shake the feeling that both the glittering banquets and the time spent with beautiful prostitutes were merely tracing the surface of something.

He had been overly conscious of being "Felix" for so long that lately, his sensibilities as "Isaac" had grown completely dull.

Surely, from the day the real Felix died, Isaac's heart had been numb. That was why he could only trace the surface of things, never feel his heart tremble, and never become absorbed in anything.

Whatever he encountered, he could only think about how Felix would react.

* * *

One day, Isaac heard that his hometown had completed a memorial cenotaph to commemorate its reconstruction and would be holding an unveiling ceremony. He used his long vacation to travel incognito to the eastern region.

More than ten years had passed since the Dragon Knight Order took him in, yet Isaac had never once visited his hometown. If nothing else, while he was still free to move about, he wanted to lay flowers for his dead family...