Chapter 16 – Children of the Street (Six)

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Creak─ Thud.

Ray gently closed the door.

He followed the girl between the shelves.

As he stepped further inside, he slowly took in the scenery of the Bookstore’s interior.

The serene sunlight filtering through the glass.

The dust drifting leisurely within it.

The bookshelves lining the walls and the various large and small storage cabinets placed here and there.

Sniff sniff.

…And a smell he had never encountered before.

Musty? Damp?

He couldn’t figure out how to describe the smell.

The only thing clear was that it wasn’t an unpleasant smell; in fact, it felt strangely addictive.

It would be a little later.

That he would learn the identity of the scent was ‘the smell of books’ and that quite a few people enjoyed it.

Thud.

The girl stopped walking.

She spun around and looked at Ray.

The trembling and shock of her Vessel had mostly subsided.

Curiosity surfaced in the girl’s red eyes.

“I’m Veronica.”

Veronica.

The name written on the Bookstore sign.

“Ray.”

“Ray. I see.”

Veronica repeated Ray’s name aloud a few times, as if trying to commit it to memory.

“Sorry for yelling when I first saw you. I thought you were one of the kids who throw stones every day.”

Ray answered impassively.

“I think it was a perfectly understandable situation to be misunderstood.”

“Thanks again for helping earlier. If it weren’t for you, something really bad would have happened.”

That was true.

In the lower Sectors, not only police but even things like security patrols didn’t exist.

People were indifferent to each other, so when trouble arose, you had to solve it with your own strength.

“Thank you so much.”

A slight bow.

Her abundant red bob-cut hair hid its owner’s face and then returned to its place.

“…….”

Ray watched the scene expressionlessly.

He didn’t quite understand Veronica, who kept thanking him.

Strictly speaking, he was already receiving his reward for the help: ‘meeting a Wizard.’

Help and reward.

It was akin to a kind of transaction.

“You don’t need to be so grateful. I just wanted to come in and see this Bookstore.”

“Huh? But still…”

“I just thought it would be hard to come in here if you got hurt.”

“…….”

Veronica was taken aback.

Usually, in such situations, people tend to show off, don’t they?

It seemed the other party didn’t think thanks were necessary, not out of simple modesty, but genuinely.

A strange feeling.

For a brief moment, Veronica sensed that Ray was somehow different from the other kids she had seen so far.

‘…Well, he did break other kids’ arms without changing his expression.’

He probably wasn’t an ordinary child.

Who knows where he learned it, but he even used high-level Magic, didn’t he?

“Okay. But you─. Oh, wait a moment.”

Veronica suddenly stopped speaking.

She cautiously reached her hand toward Ray’s cheek.

Thanks to their similar height, the girl’s hand could easily reach the boy’s cheek.

“You have a wound.”

“…….”

The girl’s slender fingers gently traced the wound on his cheek.

It was a light scratch.

From his cheek to below his ear, the blood had dried.

It was a wound from the usual daily fights that Ray himself hadn’t even noticed.

“Must have gotten scratched somewhere. It’s fine.”

“Wait a moment. If left alone, it’ll scar.”

Veronica placed her open palm against Ray’s cheek.

Ray silently watched Veronica’s actions.

What on earth was she trying to do?

A wound like this will heal if you just leave it alone.

It would be better if she just guided me to the Wizard quickly instead of wasting time like this.

But the next moment, something completely unexpected happened.

Huum─

The white Mana floating in the air gathered into Veronica’s palm and began to transform into light.

There were no other colors mixed in.

Only white Mana.

A few seconds passed like that.

All the Mana transformed into light, brightly covering Ray’s cheek before disappearing.

The palm slid away.

The boy touched his cheek.

“……!”

Ray’s eyes widened as he confirmed that he couldn’t feel the wound at all with his fingertips.

“How did you do that?”

“Huh? Do what?”

Ray took a large step forward.

“You moved white Mana just now. You made light with it and erased the wound.”

Veronica flinched and stepped back, startled, but Ray paid no attention to that.

Ray could manipulate Mana of all colors existing in the air.

But there were always a few exceptions.

That was precisely the white Mana Veronica had just used.

No matter how much he concentrated, the white Mana wouldn’t move.

Like hardened cement, it wouldn’t budge from its spot in the air.

At first, he thought this.

If he felt the associated emotion, he would be able to move the white Mana.

But he soon realized it was a meaningless assumption.

Because he couldn’t feel the emotion associated with white Mana.

It was different from other emotions that he could faintly sense by concentrating and tracing the remnants in his heart.

‘I think I roughly know what kind of emotion I need to feel.’

Helping others.

Caring for others.

Devotion, or sacrifice.

White Mana seeped into the Vessels of people when they performed such kinds of actions.

Just like the girl had done now.

White Mana was seeping into her Vessel.

The fundamental emotion was probably ‘worry for others,’ he thought.

A conclusion reached after deep contemplation.

Simultaneously, he felt a sense of despair.

Because he was someone who could never truly worry about others in the genuine sense.

For instance, when the Golem headed toward the underpass.

The scene of Pale and the younger kids getting seriously injured by the Golem definitely flashed in his mind.

His heart sank for a moment, so it seemed like he was worried.

But that wasn’t worry for the kids.

It was worry about the situation where the kids might die before repaying all their ‘life-debt.’

…Frankly, he wasn’t sure about the emotion he felt at the time.

But he thought it was highly likely to be that.

Because he was emotionally numb.

Veronica, flustered by Ray’s sudden show of excitement, spoke.

“I just used Healing Magic. But white Mana?”

“The one you pulled from the air… Oh.”

Ray stopped mid-sentence.

Because of the words that surfaced in his mind.

「Wasn’t there any talk about color? That Mana has colors.」

「Color? No such thing was mentioned. They said Mana isn’t visible to the eye.」

Niles’s words seemed to be true.

Judging by the other’s reaction.

“I’m not sure about white Mana. Do you mean the Element of Regeneration?”

Veronica spoke hesitantly.

She seemed eager to help in any way possible.

“Element of Regeneration?”

“Yeah. The element used in the Magic just now was of a single type. Healing-type Magic is usually like that. It uses only the Element of Regeneration, or adds a few auxiliary elements to it.”

“…….”

Niles’s words came to mind again.

「Mana is composed of multiple elements. About 100, I think? They also said the number and types of elements one can handle are determined by one’s constitution.」

Niles had also talked about elements.

“Those elements, how many types are there?”

“Uh, um. There are a lot. Just the basic Natural Elements are over 20 types. If you add auxiliary elements like amplification, interference, manipulation, regeneration…”

Veronica tried counting with her fingers but soon gave up.

“It’s definitely way over 100. My grandfather told me the exact number, but I can’t remember.”

It matched Niles’s words.

After a moment of thought, Ray could conclude that his past speculation was correct.

The Mana divided into various colors in the air.

The fact that those were precisely what were called elements.

However, it seemed others couldn’t see the Mana’s Color.

As he realized one unknown fact after another, a small excitement rose in Ray’s chest.

He wanted to meet the person called grandfather as soon as possible.

He would surely know even more about Magic than this.

“Is your grandfather on the second floor?”

“Yeah. He’s in very poor health. He can hardly leave his bed.”

Veronica turned and continued guiding Ray.

Thud― Thud―

“How did you learn Magic?”

Veronica asked.

Without turning her head.

“My grandfather said. That unless you learn from someone, you can never use Magic.”

It wasn’t that he learned; he just somehow ended up using it on his own.

“…….”

No answer came back.

Veronica moved on to the next question on her own.

“You don’t have a separate home? Where do you sleep?”

“Just here and there outside.”

“I see. That must be very hard. I also lived outside before entering the orphanage.”

Various conversations went back and forth.

Mostly the girl asking and the boy answering.

Meanwhile, they arrived before the stairs leading to the second floor.

“Can you wait here sitting at the table for a moment? I need to check if grandfather is awake. Because of his illness, he’s often asleep.”

Ray nodded.

Veronica scurried up the stairs.

The sound of footsteps gradually fading.

The air on the first floor settled into silence again.

Instead of sitting in a chair to wait, Ray slowly walked around the Bookstore.

Countless characters poured into his field of vision.

“On the Ontological… Significance of Human… Existence. Kaildric’s… Travelogue. Interpretation of… the Unconscious…”

Ray stumbled through reading the titles.

Reading itself wasn’t a problem, but there were many words whose meanings he didn’t know, so there weren’t many books whose content he could infer.

He absentmindedly reached for a book and then stopped.

“…….”

His palm was filthy.

Dust and black grime with dried bloodstains on top.

He had heard books were very expensive items.

If he touched them with hands like these, their value as goods would surely drop.

Ray withdrew his hand.

Proper baths didn’t exist for Slum kids.

Only very rarely.

When rain that wasn’t Black Rain, but relatively clean rain, fell.

Then going outside and letting the rain soak your whole body was the entirety of the shower you could enjoy.

And in Ray’s memory, the last time clear rain fell was at least half a year ago.

Sniff sniff.

He smelled the back of his hand.

A pungent, acrid stench clung to the mucous membranes inside his nose.

Strictly speaking, it couldn’t be called a stench.

For the emotionally dull boy, pleasure or displeasure based on smell was an extremely rare occurrence.

But he clearly recognized it was the kind of smell people disliked.

‘Is her nose not good? Or did she just endure it?’

From the moment she entered the Bookstore from outside until now, Veronica hadn’t shown any particular sign of displeasure.

She hadn’t wrinkled her face or shown signs of nausea.

“…….”

Veronica didn’t return from upstairs for a surprisingly long time.

Ray continued to wander the Bookstore.

Very disappointingly, he couldn’t find any books that seemed related to Magic.

Still, his eyes didn’t lose their inquisitiveness.

He thought that even if it wasn’t Magic, he could learn all sorts of knowledge necessary for his future journey through the books here.

“…….”

Walking, he arrived at the counter.

Inside the spacious area, there was a large desk facing the wall, with a reading stand, lamp, notebook, open book, and such scattered about.

Creak─

He opened the counter door and carefully went inside.

He examined the contents of the open notebook.

Tiny handwriting densely filled the page.

A dozen or so notebooks that seemed used up were piled up beside it.

Ray read the contents aloud.

“Research on… Element Distribution by Sector… On the Cause of… Black Rain Diffusion…?”

Thud. Thud. Thud.

That’s when he heard the sound.

Someone was coming down the stairs.