28. Help! There's Someone Alive Here!
28. Help! There's Someone Alive Here!
28. Help! There's Someone Alive Here!
Black Dawn.
Before I knew it, my time with them had slipped away, and only one day remained until the promised day.
During those days, my daily routine consisted of reading books to Ban Ha-na, teaching her words, and occasionally giving blood to Han Yu-wol.
One thing I learned during that routine was that she had a remarkable capacity for learning.
Maybe because her mind was a blank slate, she absorbed information more easily than I'd thought.
"By the... seashore... lived... a mermaid..."
That was the result of all that practice.
Slowly but surely, Ban Ha-na was approaching a level where she could read.
A stark contrast to the first day, when she had grinned brightly and announced she couldn't read a thing.
Still, Ban Ha-na often gave up midway through reading.
"...It's hard. Read it for me, Si-jun."
"You can read now. Do it yourself."
"I said it's hard! Read it!"
Contrary to my expectation that she'd read on her own once she learned her letters, Ban Ha-na still demanded I read to her.
But reading fairy tales was a hassle, so I wasn't exactly eager.
It was kind of annoying, honestly.
'I'll just palm this off.'
I decided to ask the other person sitting in the library chair to handle Ban Ha-na for me.
One of the library's regulars.
An Da-il.
Short, dark green hair.
A quiet voice.
Except for mealtimes, I'd never really seen her open her mouth.
"Hey, An Da-il. Could you read a book to Ha-na? I'm a little busy."
"...?"
An Da-il lifted her head from the book she'd been reading and stared at me blankly.
She was the villain who had pressed a blade to my throat on the first day.
The reason I could speak so fearlessly to someone so frightening was my absolute certainty that they couldn't kill me, and the fact that Han Yu-wol was protecting me.
'Is protection the right word...?'
I had some doubts on that point, but nothing else really came to mind besides protection.
An Da-il had glanced up at my voice.
She dropped her head again without a single word.
I tapped Ban Ha-na, who was sitting on my lap.
"Ha-na. Go ask that quiet big sister over there to read it for you. I'm tired."
"No! I don't like her, I can't hear her voice... You read it!"
No matter how much I talked with Ban Ha-na and fed her knowledge, the tantrums hadn't gone away.
Ban Ha-na insisted I read to her no matter what.
"Read it! Read it to me!"
Ban Ha-na started stomping her feet and making her displeasure known.
Did it really have to be like this on my last day with her?
Spending time with her like this would end today.
Fine. It was the last day. I could give her this much as a farewell.
"I'm only doing this because today is the last day..."
I was about to start reading The Little Mermaid that Ban Ha-na had opened in front of me.
If only Ban Ha-na hadn't stopped me from turning the page.
She looked up at me from my lap and spoke.
"Why is today the last day?"
"What do you even know?"
It seemed she didn't know that I was only living here for a short while.
I'd definitely told her on the first day.
By my guess, Ban Ha-na had probably been playing with her rabbit and hadn't heard.
I stroked Ban Ha-na's pink hair and decided to tell her that today was the last.
"Once the promise is done tomorrow, I'm going back to the academy."
"...!"
Ban Ha-na's expression turned startled at those words.
Then she immediately climbed off my lap and launched into a barrage of questions.
"Do you have to go to the academy? Why does it have to be tomorrow? Can't you just stay here? There's so much you can do here!"
Ban Ha-na must have grown attached to me too, because she showed genuine agitation at the word "last."
With every meeting comes a parting.
No matter what I said to Ban Ha-na right now, she wouldn't accept it.
"Just because. That's how it is."
The only action I could take was stroking Ban Ha-na's hair.
Ban Ha-na realized that no matter what she did, she couldn't change my actions.
She wore a gloomy expression and hung her head.
A bit of mischief stirred inside me.
"You crying? Are you crying?"
"I-I'm not crying...! It's just... dust got in my eye..."
About six days.
Over that stretch of time, Ban Ha-na had grown quite attached to me.
Every person she'd ever known was one abnormal villain after another.
I was a stranger, the first of my kind she'd ever met.
The memories she'd shared with that person—that must have been a novelty to Ban Ha-na, something I couldn't even imagine.
Just as Ban Ha-na had her time, I had my own time.
Time was fair to everyone, and now I had to return to the academy.
"Don't go kidnapping people like the ones here do, okay? The person it happens to really loses their mind."
"Kidnapping was in Rapunzel! Is that kidnapping?"
"No, that one's not really."
In Rapunzel's case, with her stupidly long hair, calling it kidnapping was ambiguous.
A prince rescues a princess imprisoned in a tower.
The two fall in love and flee the tall tower.
And that action isn't kidnapping...
"Hmm... that's a lovers' flight."
"What's a lovers' flight?"
"Running away and fleeing. For love."
"What's lo..."
"Never mind. What would you know. Just study hard."
There was no way this kid knew what love was.
I stroked Ban Ha-na's pink hair as she blinked her pink eyes, silently asking, 'What's that?'
How many times had I stroked it today?
But Ban Ha-na liked this repetitive action, so it had become a habit for me too.
I gave her my parting words.
"We'll meet again later. Probably. Try studying hard and filling your head with all sorts of things by then. Not rabbit encyclopedias, but things useful for living."
"No! If Si-jun leaves, I won't study!"
And here it started again.
The moment rebellion was about to erupt because she didn't like what she heard.
Then, as if a thought struck her, Ban Ha-na's eyes went round, and she tugged at my clothes.
"Th-then that works! I'll go to the academy too! We'll study together there! I will!"
"Oh..."
A sound of genuine admiration slipped from my mouth at the tantrum-throwing Ban Ha-na.
Did this kid have no awareness that she was a villain?
Since she never watched the news on TV, she apparently didn't know what kind of reputation the group she belonged to, Black Dawn, had in society.
The number of people who had lost their lives to Black Dawn alone probably exceeded sixty thousand.
That was just the direct count. If you added those indirectly hurt and injured, the number would be much higher.
But for something Ban Ha-na had blurted out, it wasn't a bad idea.
"Then, do you want to come to the academy with me?"
"...!"
A question meant to prod her lightly.
Ban Ha-na's face bloomed with a smile at my suggestion.
A sign of affirmation.
'...Should I actually take her?'
But that expression immediately wilted.
"I can't. I... I can't go outside."
"...Why?"
"I've never been out except for missions, and Grandpa Hae-il won't let me..."
This was confinement.
Ban Ha-na already seemed to have given up on going outside.
She made a point of mentioning Black Dawn's advantages.
"B-but, still, s-sometimes he lets me go up to the rooftop!"
Ban Ha-na was a being who had lived on the high floors of this tall building since the moment of her birth.
She had never been outside, so she couldn't even conceive of running away.
Even though she possessed the ability most suited for escape.
Ban Ha-na wanted to wander outside, but Black Dawn prevented her from doing so.
If I further encouraged Ban Ha-na's feelings here, I might actually pull her out of this villain's den.
'...If not for that woman, that is.'
An Da-il.
If I made a sound here trying to persuade Ban Ha-na, that woman would hear it.
Even if I spoke in the quietest voice.
Her senses were sharper than anyone else's, so I couldn't say anything more to Ban Ha-na about coming along.
"It's a joke. You dummy. There's no way you could go to the academy."
"I-I can go! Ha-na is smart...!"
"Whatever, just go to sleep. You won't grow tall."
"I-I'll grow later...! I'm saving it up to get bigger all at once...!"
Ban Ha-na shouted something back at me.
I left that voice filled with indignation behind and got up from the sofa.
"..."
As the sound of me rising from the sofa echoed, An Da-il's gaze shifted.
No Unique Ability, but explosive mana and physical ability.
Possessing five senses more sensitive than anyone else's.
I passed by her and headed toward my room.
It was the last night before the promised day.
A quiet hideout.
Black Dawn was making preparations for that day.
***
"...Last?"
Ban Ha-na lay in bed under a pink blanket patterned with flowers and murmured.
She didn't properly know the meaning of the word last.
But a faint, lingering memory had taught her what it meant.
'...I'm sorry, little one. I'm sorry... I have no choice but to do this... I'm sorry...'
A rainy summer night.
It was impossible to tell if it was tears, blood, or rain that streamed down the cheeks of a pink-haired woman who cried out her apologies.
That woman opened only a small umbrella, left the tiny baby, and vanished into the rain.
"That must be what 'last' means...?"
Vanishing, unable to be seen again.
Remaining in faint memory, yet bringing a longing to meet again.
That was the meaning of last for Ban Ha-na.
"Si-jun. Si-jun. Si-jun."
Ban Ha-na lay in bed and tried calling Han Si-jun's name.
The first person from the outside world she had ever met.
Unlike her comrades here, he taught her new things and breathed life into her lonely existence.
But.
Han Si-jun had to go back, and Ban Ha-na had to keep living here.
Her chest ached at that fact, so Ban Ha-na hugged her rabbit doll and curled up like a baby.
"What's the outside like...?"
If Han Si-jun left, Ban Ha-na would be alone once more.
Her comrades were like family, but they were people who could abandon Ban Ha-na at any time.
Ban Ha-na felt that in her bones as well.
"I don't want to be left alone..."
Ban Ha-na rose from the bed, hugged her rabbit doll, and gazed out the window.
It was the top floor of a towering building.
Asphalt sidewalks she couldn't remember ever setting foot on.
Far below, people bustled across the pavement.
"...I'm jealous."
Only a young child who had lost her freedom stood in the distance, watching them.