Chapter 3: The First Sacrifice

Ŕėа​ԁ​ өɴ ​КатȒ​ėαđίɴǵḈɑғė

Research on the Grimoire had hit a wall.

Experiments with rats and other animals had reached their limits.

It seemed that now, human subjects were necessary. The boy knew that harming or killing innocent people was something he shouldn’t do.

A broken teacup is just trash, and water mixed with filth is just sewage. Once something like that happens, it can’t be undone, and that thought terrified him.

Surely, he would stray from the path and never be able to return.

The boy, more astute than his peers, agonized over this.

So, was he to spend his life clinging to some misguided sense of morality in a den of beggars, never recognized by anyone, rotting away? That wasn’t an option either.

Hadn’t he decided on that miserable day that no matter what, he would rise above this place and succeed?

The day he hid his name and dyed his hair out of shame.

Had he already forgotten?

The boy gritted his teeth.

His heart, teetering on the edge, began to lean more and more to one side.

It felt like if someone gave him a slight push, he would be flung out of the path entirely.

.

.

.

Several days passed.

It was just another lunchtime, filled with the unpleasant smell of mediocre food.

“You’re so small. You probably aren’t even hungry.”

“I’m not asking for all of it. Just share a little.”

He was surrounded.

He remembered that these kids had been picking on others for the past few days.

The kind of slum dwellers the boy despised. Beggars to the bone. With hollow eyes, they extorted and stole, thinking it was their right.

As he listened to their nonsense, his mind went numb. He just stood there, feeling something simmering inside him.

Maybe he had needed this kind of push. Maybe he had been waiting for someone to give him that final shove.

As he watched the drooling idiots gleefully reach for his soup bowl, scraping the bottom and laughing as they took just a little, he vaguely thought:

If he had to use a human life, why not use someone like this—

-Crack!

He snapped back to reality.

Was that sound from his head? It was so loud that he was momentarily stunned.

Looking toward the source of the noise, he saw a white-haired girl picking a fight with the bullies. She had thrown a soup bowl and was making a face that was infuriating, wiggling her fingers in a perfect taunt.

The ensuing 1 vs. 3 fight was nothing short of impressive.

She stood her ground against opponents who were bigger and more numerous, never backing down, her head held high. Watching her, he felt something strange in his chest.

It was hard to understand why she would go so far to help a stranger. It seemed foolish to exert so much effort over something she could have easily ignored.

But still.

It didn’t feel entirely bad.

He sat quietly and watched the scene unfold.

.

.

.

The girl returned from the fight, her hair pulled out, lips split, and eyelids swollen. She was a mess.

Yet, for some reason, she was smiling. The sight of her overlapped with his earlier thoughts, and he couldn’t help but keep glancing at her.

Feeling that he should say something since she had helped him, he opened his mouth to speak.

At that moment.

“Hey. I’m better than them, right?”

Watching her brazenly take half of his soup, his words caught in his throat.

‘Is she not right in the head?’

After helping him, she steals from him?

With that kind of guts, why not go after the others? Why take what they stole from him?

When she followed up with, “I’ll protect you from now on, so give me half your meals every morning,” his mind went blank, and he couldn’t respond. Unintentionally, things ended up going that way.

Three days passed.

Indeed, no one approached him anymore. The girl, who had made such a bold move, was with him during every meal. The bullies who had bothered him that day had retreated to a corner.

Just when he had made up his mind. Just when he was about to take that first step. Somehow, his plans for human experimentation and his stalled research on magical texts left him feeling frustrated.

“Life is hard…”

This feeling was partly due to the girl sitting next to him, sighing heavily and then when he glared at her all she replied with was,

“Is it because of the soup? It’s not like I take it every time. I only take it in the morning. How humane is that?”

Wasn’t she the real problem from the start?

Annoyed, he quickly finished his meal and left.

Growl—

His stomach was actually growling. Despite having eaten breakfast, he felt strangely hungry, which only made him angrier.

…Maybe he should make her the first sacrifice?

His hand, reaching for the newspaper, suddenly stopped.

“…”

Still, the image of her standing up to the bullies that day was etched in his mind, and he couldn’t deny feeling grateful.

‘Not… really feeling it.’

He quietly went up to the attic.

A few minutes after having that thought.

“Can I see too? Let me know when you’re done.”

She never gets tired of this, does she?

The attic, where he had sought a quiet space to be alone, had been invaded. The fact that she had come for the newspaper oddly made him even angrier.

Her mind might be strange, but she knows how to read a newspaper.

It also annoyed him that she had found him hiding. It felt like he had been reduced to her level.

No, no. He was reading the newspaper to practice reading and to understand society. She’s just going to end up folding paper or something.

—So the boy handed her a page.

But she read it quite well.

“…”

He decided to ignore her and kept reading.

Before long, he felt an intense gaze and sighed inwardly. There were only two people here, so who else could it be? When he slightly lowered the newspaper, their eyes met.

The sunlight streaming through the small window made her eyes appear pink and blue, a strange and fascinating sight.

The swelling and bruises from the fight three days ago were still visible, along with the scab on her lip.

“…What?”

He was almost done reading. If she had something to say, he’d listen.

What followed was a bizarre story about her nephew and the shocking declaration that if she had to, she could steal her nephew’s food too.

She’s not someone he should be around for long.

The boy immediately stood up.

“Leaving already?”

“…I’m done reading.”

“Are you really done? Wait, answer this first.”

He didn’t want to. How dare she try to test the master of magical texts? He had no intention of playing such trivial games.

“Hmm… What plant did the Vesper family promise to supply to the royal family this time?”

…What?

He had planned to just walk down the stairs. But he couldn’t.

Like a fish that had spotted bait, like a sparrow that had found a mill.

The boy’s lips twisted into a smirk.

“Blue Jasmine. And it’s not the Vesper family, it’s the Nesper family.”

How could she get the spelling wrong? How laughable!

Ignorance isn’t something to laugh at, but to pity, so he didn’t laugh outright.

Still, he looked at her, hoping she would realize her place after daring to act smart in front of him. He wanted to see her face flush with embarrassment after always following him around and annoying him.

“Oh.”

But, as usual, his expectations were off.

“Come here.”

The way she wiggled her finger was unsettling. Come to think of it, she had taunted like that in the cafeteria too.

Was she angry?

Turning shame into violence.

With a bad feeling, he stayed still, and the girl quickly approached.

The young boy, intimidated by her momentum, had no choice but to stay put.

A strange standoff.

Then the girl smiled. It was the kind of smug, infuriating smile that made you feel looked down upon.

She was clearly enjoying the height difference, compensating for her lack of knowledge with physical stature.

How absurd.

As the boy mentally cursed her for her barbaric behavior, his eyes widened.

Her hand suddenly reached up and began to pat his head, freezing his thoughts.

His hair, dusty and unkempt, made a rustling sound but the girl didn’t care and continued patting.

“Good job. Well done.”

What is this?

Shouldn’t she be embarrassed instead of praising him?

Yet, calmly, as if she were an adult.

“You’ve already learned to read. You can even read difficult newspapers. Impressive.”

What’s, impressive, of course, he should, why is she, saying that, so casually—

His head felt like it was going to explode.

It was the first proper compliment he had ever received, but that was beside the point.

Her infuriating smug smile had somehow turned into a gentle one, but that was also beside the point.

Huh?

Wait, what was the main point? What was important again?

The main point? The first? The first what?

His overloaded brain forced his body to move on instinct.

Emergency escape.

-Thud!

As he rushed down the stairs, many thoughts flashed through his mind.

Mostly replays of what had just happened, but he managed to think a little.

‘What he wanted to think about was, you know, the main point…’

-Good job. Well done.

‘The first… the first was…’

-You’ve already learned to read. You can even read difficult newspapers. Impressive.

“…”

The boy bit his lip.

Feeling the heat rise to his head, he took a deep breath and reached a conclusion.

“You… it’s you!”

What he had originally been thinking about no longer mattered.

His desire for revenge against the girl who had stolen his food, annoyed him and then her acting like she was stronger didn’t help.

So, this pounding in his chest must be anger toward her.

“You’ll be the first sacrifice…!”