Name, Tell Me
Yesterday's training result was zero.
I hadn't felt the mana inside my body at all; I had just slept. The kids' noisy voices sounded like a lullaby, and the breeze was gentle.
I had overslept until sunset, so I ran frantically to make it to dinner on time and somehow made it safely.
It was the morning after something like that had happened.
“Hey, kid. If you have no friends at mealtime, you have to go find them, right?”
“Huh…?”
“I hope nothing like yesterday happens again. I'll gratefully eat today's share!”
It was Sugar, who had snatched away the breakfast with a booming voice. Since she wasn't tall, she acted as if she were big. She imagined herself at 180 centimeters.
Tomi was stunned.
In an instant, Sugar finished her breakfast and dashed straight to the place from yesterday.
The plan she had written on the floor was still there. Even if it got erased, it was fine, but since it was still there, there was no harm.
“So…”
With the skill to make even monkeys cry, she climbed the tree, got into position, and closed her eyes.
The fresh scent of the trees covered the stuffy air of the slums.
The gentle breeze of the autumn season. It felt good.
Since her stomach was full and her condition was fine, she felt like something good would happen today.
“Kuul…”
What was that?
It was swallowed up.
She lost to the usual habit of eating too much.
When she opened her eyes again, it was around lunchtime. Not because she had woken up herself, but because someone had woken her.
“Hey… hey!”
“Hm… it's noisy…”
“You’re not waking up? Hey!”
Only then did she rub her eyes and look down. Tomi was standing there with his arms crossed, looking displeased.
She fell down with a plop.
“…Why? What's wrong?”
“You told me to find you…!”
Her speech was slurred from sleep. She yawned and looked up at the sky. Sure enough, the sun was right in the middle. It was already lunchtime.
Eating, sleeping, eating, sleeping. What a wonderful life for a beast.
“You came to pick me up. Hm… good. Let's go eat quickly.”
She would have loved to skip lunch, but that would risk her dinner being snatched. So, Tomi, who had come to pick her up, followed behind.
While staring at his pale back and fidgeting, he stopped when memories of yesterday and earlier came to mind.
“…Hey.”
“Why?”
“That thing. The things you wrote on the floor. Did you write those?”
“Ah… yeah, something like that.”
“…Is there a meaning? Is it graffiti or text?”
Sugar turned around with a grin.
“Are you interested?”
“If it's text… a little.”
“It is text.”
For some reason, her tone was lively, and with her overflowing energy and the corners of her mouth lifting, Tomi tensed up a lot.
“It is text. Then what are you going to do now?”
“What, what to do? Just that. Let's go on our way.”
“You said you were interested a moment ago.”
“You said ‘a little’ even before. It's gone now. Okay.”
She strode past Tomi. Even without saying much, she felt her energy rising. Out of a desire to win, it was pointless.
“Really? You lost interest?”
“Yeah.”
This was correct. Casually. Coolly. You couldn't get heated up in conversations with her.
“If you were interested, I was going to tell you a little.”
“…What?”
“Too bad. Let's go eat quickly.”
“… ”
Sugar deliberately walked slowly past Tomi's side. Even like this? Even like this? The intent was clear.
That caught Tomi.
Tomi had blocked her way.
With his gaze on the floor, in a reluctant voice.
“…Interest. It came back.”
Sugar let out a light laugh.
After eating lunch, they gathered again under the tree.
She had prepared to refuse immediately if asked to give lunch as compensation.
Surprisingly, Tomi, who was drawing letters without hesitation, looked even scarier.
“If I keep doing this, won't he later charge me later…?”
“See, I finished.”
She had jumped in anyway. She couldn't help her knowledge hunger. She just wanted to enjoy this moment, so she stood in front.
“What is this?”
“It’s read as ‘Tomi.’ Your name.”
“What?”
It was quite sharp. The impression upon seeing it.
“Ask again. It's not graffiti, right?”
“No, it's not. It's a letter made by a king of some old country.”
“Ancient letters?”
“It’s not ancient… let’s just say it’s roughly that.”
“But how did you… …No. Let’s pretend you didn’t hear this.”
She didn't want to touch on anything that might have a past, not knowing what it was.
In reality, she had just lived in the country where that letter was used and then reincarnated here.
The original story was naturally in Korean, but in the game setting, there were various languages. Usually, the standard was ‘Continental Common Language’, which resembled Latin.
That setting was maintained, so the language Sugar was currently using in this world was also Continental Common Language. Since she had already read all the letters as ‘Sugar’ before her memories returned, it was fortunate. If she asked the current Sugar to learn new letters, she would have been in a panic.
Anyway, in this situation, Korean was a good character to use for keeping secrets. Like yesterday, she wrote things that others wouldn't want to know in Korean.
Tomi, who didn't know the circumstances, carefully observed the letters Sugar had written.
The Grimoire's owner didn't know the letters.
With no sacrifice to burn—precisely, she had decided on Sugar, but was giving her a break because it wasn't the time— the Grimoire research was stagnant, and a new language to stimulate knowledge hunger was a good pastime.
“So, this is how you write it?”
“No, usually you write one stroke at a time from top to bottom. Like this.”
She held out a branch and drew a one-stroke drawing, so Sugar showed an example from the side. So, he followed well.
“So, like this?”
“Oh. You started well.”
Considering the kids' outrageous writing skills, it was good. The lines were straight and beautiful.
“So, you read this as ‘Tomi’?”
“Yeah. The front is ‘To’, the back is ‘Mi’.”
“Other words?”
Tomi thought carefully and drew the next letter. But for some reason, she was smiling.
“See, done.”
“What is this… read as?”
“It’s your name.”
“Your name? Not the word ‘your name,’ but your real name?”
“Yeah. Try reading it.”
“My… how do I read these letters.”
“You said it’s your name. Say it out loud. Or do you not know my name?”
Tomi froze.
What was the intention? What was the purpose of asking such a question.
He knew the name. Unintentionally, he had followed her around and heard other kids calling it many times. It wasn't a hard name to remember.
If he answered honestly and straightforwardly?
“Heh. You know my name even though I never told you.”
She seemed like she would say something like that. It would be strangely stimulating and teasingly playful. She had seen the smile she was holding while writing the letters. She must have done it with that intention.
“This was just an excuse to show the letters…!”
Conversely, if he answered that he didn't know?
He could just happily tell his name and be done. At least, there would be no embarrassment.
She felt like she was being caught. It seemed like the outline of that action was visible, the unknown existence of Sugar.
“I am not someone who just gets caught.”
She prided herself on her learning ability, which was quite good. She could quickly figure out a girl with a somewhat damaged head.
Tomi put on a triumphant smile and opened his mouth.
“Yeah. I don't know your name.”
“Ah…”
But the reaction was strange.
“Hm… really? You don't know…”
“…Eh, eh?”
Her speech was hesitant. A shadow fell on the always-smiling merchant's face.
Her shoulders drooped, and her already small body looked even smaller.
Tomi blinked in confusion.
“No, you can not know… really…”
He said that, but his disappointed expression was clear.
Of course, he had expected reactions like ‘Do you really not know? Learn it now’ or ‘How arrogant to not know my name-’. He had thought he would cheerfully gloss over anything.
At least, he hadn't thought she would get hurt like this.
“Why, why are you like this…”
“I thought we were close… but it's fine. Thinking about it, I never told you… so not knowing is natural.”
“… ”
She wanted to see her expression twist. But she hadn't wanted that.
It wasn't fun at all.
The feeling of being pricked so much, she hadn't expected it.
“It's really fine. Don't worry. …Then, from now on, I'll tell you. Listen carefully!”
Sugar pretended to be bright, put her hand on her waist, and lifted the corners of her mouth proudly. The smile that teased, but to Tomi, it looked like a bitter smile no matter how he looked.
Perhaps that's why words came out of her mouth without her realizing.
Tomi realized after saying it.
“Ah, I know!”
“Yeah?”
“I know! Your name…!”
“… ”
“Just… I wanted to pretend I didn't know… I lied…”
And then she fell silent.
The silence was scary, with only the rustling of the wind and the trees.
Why was it so quiet. She wished someone would say something.
Her heart kept beating with tension, and she wanted to ask what nonsense to calm it.
The next thing that came out was Sugar's face.
The small Sugar bent her head slightly to match Tomi's eye level, who was even smaller than her. They faced each other.
“So, tell me.”
“… ”
“My name. You said you know it. Tell me.”
It was a pretty eye color she had never seen before.
It felt like she was being pierced through, so she couldn't look properly, but still, Tomi gathered a bit of courage and met her gaze.
If she avoided his eyes here, she would feel like she was losing.
She had no intention of seeing more or anything.
“S-Sugar.”
“Again.”
“… Sugar.”
“One more time.”
“Sugar.”
Only then did she feel satisfied. The owner of the name smiled faintly.
Her eyelids gently closed, and the corners of her mouth lifted shyly. Her white face was filled with a faint blush on her red cheeks.
It was a real, genuine smiling face, different from before.
It was a pure smile that she was happy because he knew her name.
Tomi just quietly looked at that face.
The wind blew.
Like the fragrance felt from the flying hair. The whisper reached his ear like a breeze.
“From now on, you read it that way.”
Knowing the name was the beginning of love.
Although one side was hiding her original name, it was true that she had clearly recognized the girl's name at this place today.
As if under some spell, she would never forget the name engraved in her mind.
A little bit of the future was shaking.
Originally, these people wouldn't be tied like this on this day.
Sugar was with the orphanage director in another city, and [Tomi] was worrying about how to handle the corpse of the first victim.
Throwing out a few study words and going to meditate on the tree, slipping or using magic unconsciously to save a girl like that, such a heartwarming epilogue wouldn't happen.
This was all because Sugar fought with delinquents, got her face injured, and couldn't go out.
It was tied together as if magic was cast on fate.
Just as a butterfly's wings cause a storm, today's events were an unknown factor in how it would change the children's futures.
She didn't know who was hiding in the shadow of the orphanage fence.
But there was no stopping storm and no ending rain.
Something like that.