An Explanation
"Luke still doesn't have formal status, correct?"
"That's right. She's still on temporary status."
Luke was a child who had never even been registered at birth. Whether the people claiming to be her parents had simply never filed the paperwork, or whether some outside pressure had scrubbed her identity clean, no one could say.
And that brought something else to mind that still bothered Yerna — when they had run identity checks on Luke's supposed parents, nothing had come up at all. Complete record erasure, right down to the parents. People with the surname Irushi were rare enough in the country to begin with, and among them, there were no deceased individuals named Leon or Vina. To be precise, names like those did appear in very old records, but the two people in question had lived in entirely different eras and had never even been a couple. Probably just coincidental namesakes.
What if… what if all of it really was just Lu's delusion…?
A terrible possibility flickered through Yerna's mind. If that were true, then what on earth had happened to Luke in the past? Why would a child need to invent imaginary parents?
"Ms. Yerna? Ms. Yerna?"
It was the nurse's voice that pulled her out of that dark line of reasoning. Yerna snapped back to the present.
"Ah — yes. Go ahead."
"Right, so… today's examination fees will be waived, but temporary status can still cause problems when she needs medical services later on. I think it would be best to register her properly."
"I figured as much."
"Yes. In this country, temporary status isn't covered by medical insurance."
"Hmm…"
Medical insurance. Come to think of it, that was critically important. No one went through life without ever getting sick, and without insurance the costs could be astronomical. But the truth was that Luke was not, legally speaking, a citizen of this country. Under Yerna's temporary guardianship she currently received benefits equivalent to a citizen's — but the fact remained that Luke had no formal identity of her own.
"Formal status, huh…"
For a child with no birth registration to obtain formal status, something special was required: four guarantors. The system had originally been designed to screen out illegal immigrants. But four people wouldn't be a problem. She could ask Dighton, Siena, and Daphne. And beyond them, she had plenty of fellow forest keepers — more than enough.
"All right, Ms. Yerna. Would you mind agreeing to these documents for now?"
Yerna took the papers and skimmed through them quickly. Broadly speaking, they asked her to consent to a personal-information entrustment agreement allowing government agencies to use Luke's data; to choose among a phone number, email address, or mailing address for receiving the examination results later; and assorted clauses about responsibilities and obligations. She filled everything out promptly, checked it over carefully, and submitted it.
"Perfect. You're free to go now."
"Thank you."
Still turning Luke's identity situation over in her mind, Yerna walked back toward where Luke had been sitting.
"Lu, once the exam's over we still have somewhere else to g—"
Yerna froze mid-sentence, still in the same posture.
"Lu?! What on earth are you doing right now?!"
"Yerna?"
At Luke's bewildered expression, Yerna grabbed her arm and yanked her off at once.
"Ow — that hurts, Yerna. Ease up a little."
Luke was hauled along by Yerna's grip and lifted clear off Shirud's body. Watching this, Shirud felt the strange sensation that had been steadying his heart simply vanish.
"Haa…"
The moment that stabilizing calm was torn away from his heart, an unfamiliar sensation took its place, and Shirud's face twisted.
"Ugh!"
Seeing that, Yerna rounded on Luke.
"Lu! What did you do to him?!"
"What did I do…?"
The boy was lying there with tears welling in his eyes, and Luke had been sitting on top of him. The scene Yerna had walked in on looked for all the world like Luke assaulting a boy her own age.
And he's frowning right now, isn't he?
She had no idea what the boy might have done wrong, but the fact that Luke had hit a child hit Yerna with a wave of disappointment and shock. Trouble every time she looked away for even a second — she was finally starting to understand why raising a child was so hard.
"Hey, kid, are you okay? Can you stand up? Lu! What are you doing? Apologize right now!"
"I didn't do anything that warrants an apology…"
"Luke!"
Luke flinched. But the reaction to Yerna's scolding came from an unexpected direction. A tangle of inexplicable guilt, embarrassment, and relief surged up all over again, stirring his emotions once more. The only reason those feelings didn't clamp down on his heart was that the residual mana Luke had left behind was still stabilizing his circle.
"Waaaaah—!"
And so Shirud cried.
"I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!"
"…"
Yerna kept bowing her head over and over. Luke, standing beside her, muttered under her breath.
"Yerna, why on earth are you doing this…"
Luke hadn't done anything wrong in the first place. Shirud knew perfectly well that she was innocent. Wasn't she the one who had saved him from a mana surge? If anything, she deserved praise — not that she had done it for praise, of course.
"Luke, what are you doing? You apologize too, right now!"
But Yerna just kept her head down.
"I—I was only administering first aid…"
It was galling for Luke, but having been caught in that particular moment left her with precious little ground to stand on for a defense.
"Yerna, listen to me for a moment. Shirud — we weren't fighting, were we? Right?"
Luke looked at Shirud with eyes that practically begged him to say something, and Shirud reluctantly spoke up as if to say it was fine.
"…Yeah. We weren't fighting."
"Shirud, is that true?"
Shirud's mother, Serena Tripind, asked as if confirming.
"It's true, Mom. You know I don't cry when I fight. Crying means you lost."
"And that's something to be proud of? Honestly."
Serena took Yerna by the shoulders and gently lifted her upright.
"He says they weren't fighting, so please stop. By the way, what's your name?"
"Y-Yerna Risphind."
"A pleasure. I'm Serena Tripind."
As Yerna stiffly straightened up, Serena continued with a look of genuine amusement.
"Ms. Yerna, to be honest, I was more surprised when you came out."
"I-Is that so?"
"Well, I certainly didn't expect to run into an elf here."
"That's true enough…"
Fair enough — the child had horns and animal ears on her head, so anyone would assume the parents were beastkin. Finding that the person who stepped forward as guardian was an elf of the same race as herself was bound to be a little startling. Yerna, for her part, had been equally surprised to see a High Elf.
"So everything's all right now? Shirud, you're going to make up with her, aren't you?"
"…Yeah."
"Whew. Thank you for clearing that up, Shirud."
Shirud felt the weight of Luke's relieved gaze on him and shyly hid a little behind Serena's back.
My, look at him getting bashful.
Serena found this new side of her son endlessly fascinating. And that unfamiliar reaction of his sparked a flicker of curiosity about Luke.
"Ms. Yerna, since fate brought us together like this, why don't we exchange contact information? We can grab a cup of coffee sometime and talk at leisure."
"Of course. Please do contact me if anything comes up, Ms. Serena."
After they exchanged contacts, Serena said, "Oh my, it's already our turn," and disappeared into the hospital. Shirud kept glancing back at Luke as he went, but Luke was far too unaware of her own actions to read the complicated emotions in that look.
"Lu, be more careful from now on, okay?"
"I understand, Yerna. I'm sorry for worrying you."
The detailed examination took quite a long time. The main focuses were the stabilization of the circle in her heart, Luke's current physical age, and any side effects from the beastification procedure.
The man approaching Yerna was a doctor she had met before — Hans Gerdam.
"We meet again, Ms. Yerna."
"Yes. Good to see you, Dr. Gerdam."
They exchanged a light greeting, shook hands briefly, and took their seats. Gerdam pointed out that Yerna was sitting rigidly from sheer tension. When he told her she could relax and put her mind at ease, she finally managed to loosen up a little. Judging that she was ready to listen, Gerdam began discussing the examination results.
"I can give you a general overview for now, but the detailed results will take about two weeks."
"Is that so?"
Then Hans proceeded to explain Luke's current condition to Yerna.
"For the moment, she's maintaining an extremely… stable circle. Cases like this are quite unusual. Rare, even."
"Rare?"
The doctor set down a transparent image of Luke's heart and pointed to the ring encircling it.
"See? It's clearly visible to the naked eye, isn't it? Ordinarily these are tiny hairline threads you can barely make out. The fact that a child can handle this much mana through sheer will is already bordering on miraculous."
Yerna's expression hardened at that.
"Then isn't that serious?"
"Well, the unusual part isn't the volume of mana. Look here."
He pointed to the inner side of the surrounding ring.
"This isn't a single circle. It's a dual circle. Dual circles are one of the rarest traits that can manifest. Luke is very fortunate."
At the word "fortunate," Yerna tilted her head slightly.
"What's good about having a dual circle?"
"For one thing, it's far more stable. Even if one circle surges out of control, the other holds it in check. It's possible Luke is still alive precisely because of that."
"I see…"
In that case, it really could be called good fortune. Luke's body couldn't have the circle removed, after all. So for now, at least, she could set aside her worries about the circle. Yerna let out a long, deep breath.
"We'll go into more detail about the dual circle once the results come back in two weeks. Ah — shall we also talk about Luke's body?"
"Yes, please, Dr. Gerdam."
This time Gerdam spoke in a slightly puzzled tone.
"Regarding the beastification… the skeleton and nerves have already been reshaped and integrated, so surgical reversal would be difficult. Even if we attempted it, there would certainly be lasting aftereffects."
"I thought so…"
She had vaguely known, but it was still unbearably harsh.
"How long have those been attached? Can you tell?"
"For them to assimilate into the body this thoroughly, you'd need to estimate at least five years. Children do assimilate faster, but even so, perfect integration like this would take that long at minimum."
"Good heavens…"
So she had been living like that for at least five years?
"How awful."
"Indeed. Reality has been far too cruel to such a small child."
Gerdam raised his voice a little, as if trying to lighten the mood.
"The detailed findings will be ready in two weeks! If anything unusual turns up, I'll contact you right away."
The nurse found it rather remarkable that Luke's expression didn't change in the slightest during the injection. Children Luke's age all hated needles; even if they didn't cry, it was common enough for them to grimace or tear up. But Luke had already lived more than a hundred years. That life had included injuries severe enough to put her life in danger — so of course a mere injection wasn't going to hurt at this point. The Luke of today possessed the willpower and mental fortitude to endure just about any stimulus without flinching. A simple shot was nothing.
"Luke is so well-behaved! Here, you did such a good job with the shot — have a candy."
"Haha… thank you. I'll enjoy it."
Being called well-behaved was just awkward, really. Well, she took the candy anyway.
Luke…
"…Pai, I don't understand why you're the one fretting more."
Apparently Pai was genuinely worried about the blood drawn from Luke's body. The little spirit kept making anxious whimpering sounds while staring at the puncture site — which Luke found more than a little excessive.
At any rate, once Luke had the mint candy in her mouth and finished wiping her arm with the disinfectant cotton, she stepped out of the blood-draw room, where Yerna was waiting for her.
"When are you supposed to take that cotton off?"
"They said to hold it for thirty seconds. I should be able to remove it now."
"That so?"
After Luke tossed the cotton into the medical waste bin and came back, Yerna suddenly asked her something.
"Lu. That little kid earlier."
"You mean Shirud."
"So his name is Shirud. You really weren't fighting, right?"
"Of course not. He said so himself, didn't he?"
Hearing Luke's firm confirmation, Yerna was able to relax a little. If there hadn't been any hitting involved, there shouldn't be a problem.
"Then how did it end up like that?"
"How did it end up like that, you ask…"
Sensitive to the surrounding mana, Luke and Pai had been drawn by the traces of a first-circle they sensed nearby — that had been the start of the whole affair. As they talked, Shirud's emotions had erupted for reasons neither of them fully understood, and that had created the situation. So if one had to define "how it ended up like that" in a single word, it would be "curiosity."
"Well, I suppose you could say curiosity got the better of him."
"Curiosity?"
Curiosity. Even for a child, being curious about the opposite sex was perfectly natural, wasn't it?
The opposite sex?
Wait — how had Luke thought about the opposite sex all this time? As Yerna well knew, Luke's past had not been a normal process of growing up.
Don't tell me…
Had Luke ever received proper sex education? Maybe, from Luke's perspective, "climbing on top of someone" was simply the obvious way to get the opposite sex's attention…
This might be even more serious than if she had hit him.
"Lu. Absolutely, absolutely never climb on top of another b— boy again, do you understand?!"
"…? Understood. I shall take care from now on."
"That's a promise!"
"Yes. I promise."
Maybe sex education was needed too. Yerna's vision went dark at the thought — while Luke, looking at her, thought something else entirely.
Well, I have no intention of using violence on anyone… Yerna frets over the strangest things.