The Orphan's Resolve
Long ago, my story begins.
The place where I first met that child was an orphanage.
My parents had died in the war, and I had barely survived by wandering from place to place.
Then I arrived at one of the Federation's orphanages.
While fleeing to survive, I was captured by soldiers and brought here.
They surely believed they were doing the right thing.
But the orphanage director was a worthless scum who drank with donations, drank like a pig, and when something bad happened, he vented his anger on the children. In the end, I had no choice but to look for a chance to escape.
When I turned fifteen, I mixed sleeping pills into the director's liquor and tried to leave with enough money to survive on my own.
Everyone else was already asleep, so there were no witnesses.
I thought the plan was perfect and was about to slip out of the orphanage, heart racing with excitement.
Suddenly, a child grabbed me as I tried to leave.
Perhaps there really was a child who hadn't fallen asleep.
Or maybe the director had made them stand in the freezing hallway all night to punish them so they couldn't sleep.
"Take me with you too!"
It sounded like he said that.
The girl was ten years younger than me.
She was so thin she barely ate, and bruises covered her body everywhere. It was pitiful.
Moreover, she had been abused so badly—beaten, deprived of food, and even knocked out from exhaustion—that I pitied her. But I couldn't even take care of myself, let alone an extra child.
So I tried to ignore her and brush her off.
"Please... just let me go. Don't leave me here."
The girl clung to me, crying, eyes full of desperate pleading.
There, I saw my own past self.
The child who had lost her parents and wandered the battlefield, surviving only because she had no choice—running forward just to stay alive, no matter how foolish it was.
Even though I knew it was the stupidest thing, I couldn't shake off the girl's hand.
And if the director found out I had run off with money, he would surely vent even more rage on that girl.
In the end, I grabbed the girl's hand and walked out of the orphanage.
"Thanks to that, I had to earn twice as much living money as before."
The director spent all the money that came in on alcohol, so the amount I could bring was small. I worked every odd job I could find to survive.
Shoe-shining, milk delivery, newspaper delivery...
Anything a fifteen-year-old could do, I did.
It was brutally hard, but the girl who always waited for me in the tiny rundown room gave me something to hold on to.
She had become my one and only family.
"Oppa, you're back?"
While I was out, I taught her studies during my free time, and I myself borrowed books from the library and accumulated knowledge.
Later, when I tried to send this girl to school, the money from my odd jobs would be far too insufficient, so I needed to learn more.
I never intended to spend my whole life doing these menial tasks.
I had a dream.
It was to do the work I wanted and live happily with my one and only sister.
Then, around the time I became a janitor at some university, I would secretly listen to lectures while cleaning and got caught by a professor.
I received many questions from him.
At first I thought I would be kicked out and worried about living expenses, but the professor looked at me like I was some kind of treasure.
In that way, I became a graduate student.
The professor offered me the condition of being his assistant, supporting me to attend university, while I helped with research and odd jobs.
I couldn't turn down the offer.
If I missed this chance, there would never be another thread of hope for me.
Just that thought filled my head.
Fortunately, the professor even gave me living expenses, and thanks to that, my sister could attend school without any problems.
Moreover, he helped my sister with her studies, and to me he was like a father.
Thanks to that, we were all right for now.
Until the professor who watched over us was framed as a spy and executed.
I could escape the Federation's pursuit with my sister somehow, but on top of that, I received a Mana Incompatible diagnosis and collapsed.
"Get up, Oppa...! Please, don't leave me behind!"
"...Why am I in a hospital?"
I didn't even have enough money for surgery fees. If this continued, I wouldn't last a month and would die helpless.
After struggling and surviving, this was the result. I thought my breathing would finally be freed, but it was utterly miserable.
"I will do anything to keep you alive, so please, don't die."
"Dumbass, find a way to live on your own."
I cursed the rotten world and waited only for the day I would die.
If my body could move, I would have tried somehow, but now even drinking water was a burden.
My young sister went out every day trying to earn money, but I stopped her.
The person who might give money to a middle-school girl like her was clearly the kind of men I didn't want to meet.
In the end, when I was thrown out of the hospital room because I had run out of the saved money, the doctor suddenly took me to the operating room.
Without money, why was I going to surgery? Did they want to harvest organs on the operating table? I had many thoughts.
"I... I have something I haven't told you, Oppa."
"You... no way."
After the surgery, my sister returned.
She didn't go to school but wandered around somewhere, and behind that stupid girl stood Federation soldiers.
"I am an Awakener. That's why the director hit me so hard. I was born with this body, so I hate being an Awakener, but now... I'm glad I was."
"What stupid thing did you do?! Why are the Federation dogs here?!"
"I wanted to save you!"
I had known from the very beginning.
Since childhood, her body had been sturdy; she never got sick with anything like a cold; and when we were hungry and had no money, she never complained and drank water with me, smiling together.
It wasn't easy for a ten-year-old child.
I knew she wasn't a normal child, so I had even thought she might be an Awakener...
"If I join the army, they'll give me the surgery money every time. And they'll give me extra money too!"
She planned to sell herself to the Federation just to save me. I had never imagined that.
There was no time to scold her now.
The one and only precious sister I had—blood or not—was already in the hands of the Federation.
"Thanks to you so far... I was happy for a little while. So please live happily without me..."
The soldiers took my one remaining family and vanished forever.
The Federation kept its promise and supported my surgery fees and research funds. Thanks to that, I managed to suppress my mana to some degree.
Of course, no one remained beside me.
To soothe the empty, unfillable feeling in my heart, I threw myself into research.
I did the research I had always wanted to do, gained a famous name, received awards, and spent my days.
Through cooperation, I gained some influence even in the Federation government.
But even so, I could never see my sister again.
Every time I went to the Federation base, they told me there was no such person, and as I spent time wondering if there was another way, strange people came.
They all wore crow masks, and they handled the university security guards with ease.
They introduced themselves as the Corvo Family.
The reason they had come to me was because their boss was interested in me and my research. They offered to let me conduct research under them.
But I knew.
That was a pure, crimson lie.
It was the eyes of a beast staring at prey, completely different from the pure professor who had made the original offer.
They certainly wouldn't assign me normal research, and above all, I had heard that the Corvo Family kidnapped famous scientists wherever they could.
However, I had no choice.
I couldn't call the Federation soldiers on time, and I didn't even have the time to call.
Finally, in the moment I had no choice but to accept their offer.
"...That filthy hand, remove it from Oppa right now."
A beloved voice rang out.
Red arrows shot down the crows.
On that day, I was able to meet that girl for the first and last time.
"Yeah, why are you here..."
Her name was Lilac.
It was a name I had roughly given the girl whose hair was like a violet flower, right after we left the orphanage without knowing her name.
Even when I gave her that stupid name, she was so happy, and it still flashes whenever I close my eyes.
The events that followed, I couldn't recall clearly.
When I regained consciousness in the collapsed building, no one was around.
†††
"Ah, as I thought... your body is healthy, so your mind doesn't suffer much..."
A voice mixed with alcohol was fading.
Ethylene had pushed me aside in an instant and taken Lilac's attack in my place.
Thanks to that, I survived, but the one he pushed aside did not.
A hole the size of the opposite side was blown through his chest.
Ethylene staggered and finally collapsed.
"Doctor, what in the world did you do just now?"
Thanks to that, Lilac couldn't pay attention to me anymore.
No matter how thoroughly her mind and memories were brainwashed, would she recognize the one family she loved?
In the original story, I knew she had cherished a photo of Ethylene and carried it with her everywhere.
Even when she betrayed the Corvo Family and was killed by Capella's hand, that man had stubbornly kept the photo until the end.
"What... what did you do..."
No, it was not the time to think about such things.
If her mind had been brainwashed by that man, Lilac had already crossed the river from which there was no return.
This was the chance.
I had to exploit the moment when Ethylene was distracted.
*Crash!*
I quickly jammed my foot into the man's chin.
Because it was a kick with all my strength, Lilac was knocked out of the train and her mask shattered.
"...Tch. It was too thin?"
But one of Lilac's abilities was instantaneous teleportation.
Falling from the train wasn't a big problem.
Purple particles appeared in front of her eyes.
Along with her arrows.
The man had already recovered his senses and returned.
"...Useless."
This is why I hate fans.
The attack I just made actually turned into poison.
"Doctor, please obediently swallow the medicine. And you too. If you surrender, I will spare your lives."
Surely the train had followed by repeatedly using her teleportation to the maximum distance.
It would cost a huge amount of mana, but was this man the top of the A-rank in mana reserves?
I had even tried to knock him out, but his body was so sturdy that the impact wasn't that great...
In this state, before I could try anything, it would be faster for that arrow to blow my head apart.
"Surrender and I will spare your lives..."
I had prepared enough methods against Lilac, but because the wind came faster than I expected, I didn't have time to use them.
Both methods required at least five seconds.
"Yeah, but you should stay still. You heard about it, right? There's a huge bomb here?"
At that moment, Ethylene barely opened his mouth from behind.
He showed the medicine in his bloodied hand and began to blackmail Lilac in return.
If she attacked, he would instantly take out the medicine without hesitation. That meant he would detonate the bomb.
"Your goal was to move me and the medicine safely, right? But what now... Both of us are helpless?"
"Doctor, cutting off your wrist before you take out the medicine isn't difficult at all. Do you think an ordinary person like you can react in time?"
"Well, I don't know until I try. I didn't react just now, did I...?"
Timing was everything.
While Ethylene was desperately buying time, I had to decide which of the two methods to execute first.
Also, how to set the appropriate timing.
I had to be careful how to create that timing.
*Beep!*
I secretly activated the signal I had hidden on my wrist.
Now all I had to do was time it right.
Although this was also quite dangerous, it was far better than dying for sure.
By now, the bare trees outside the window were beginning to appear.
"What in the world are you doing?"
I had barely moved my fingers, yet she noticed it.
"If I didn't do anything..."
"...I will assume you have no intention of surrendering."
Let's try.
Faster and more precise than just now. First, focus only on getting out of this disadvantageous situation.
*Boom!*
"Kyaa! You wasted...!"
Before the arrow was fired, I released mana to the floor to scatter the fragments.
Shattered glass shards and their contents, plus the broken pieces of the mask from earlier, blocked Lilac's view.
Of course, Lilac wasn't the kind who couldn't react to that, but thanks to blocking her view, she dodged the arrow.
The red arrow narrowly passed over my head.
If she wanted, she could predict my movements, but the man was too scared that Ethylene might get hit by the arrow to do so.
"Hold tight. If you fall away from me even a little, you die."
"But I'm about to die..."
Then I hugged Ethylene and immediately smashed the wall of the engine room and jumped off the train.
"...Before you die, you should meet your sister at least once."
"Eh, how did you...?"
It was a last resort, but it was the only way to escape this situation now.
I squeezed out my last remaining mana and wrapped it around my body.
I hoped I could block it with this as much as possible...
"Enough, close your eyes."
The rest was left to luck.
Beep. Beep. Beep—
Before I came here, I had made two requests to Van Helsing.
One was to give me a rail switch for the train.
This was to prevent the train from being delivered to the Corvo Family by the time it was too late.
The second was to plant bombs on the switched rail.
Since ordinary bombs might be a problem, I used a bomb that I had caught last time—the one from Dimer.
When the train passed over the bomb, I could give it a big explosion as a New Year's gift.
"Doctor!"
A voice calling Ethylene from behind reached me.
Lilac had jumped down from the train.
Sorry, but it was already too late.
No matter how tough she was, she wouldn't be able to withstand Dimer's bomb with her bare hands alone.
*Flash!*
Before the explosion, there was a brief flash.
"This is..."
Then the loud boom came belatedly.
It was powerful enough to blow up the entire northern express train. It was twice as strong as the bomb Dimer had tried to install in Hero City before.
Soon, a powerful explosion occurred and swallowed Lilac whole.