Chapter 7: Say Your Name

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The result of yesterday’s training was zero.

Instead of feeling the mana within her body, she had just slept soundly. The chatter of the children had been like a lullaby, and the breeze was cool.

She had slept until sunset and had to run like crazy to make it to dinner on time, narrowly avoiding disaster.

The next morning, after that ordeal…

“This kid. If you don’t have a friend during mealtime, shouldn’t you go find one?”

“What are you talking about…”

“Let’s hope what happened yesterday doesn’t happen again. I’ll gratefully take your portion today!”

With a hearty laugh, Sugar had snatched away Tommy’s breakfast. Since she wasn’t growing taller, she decided to act “as if” she were tall. She imagined herself as 180 cm.

Tommy could only sigh in disbelief.

…

After quickly finishing breakfast, Sugar immediately ran back to the spot from yesterday.

The plans she had written on the ground were still there. It didn’t matter if they got erased, but it was fine that they were still there.

“Alright…”

With the skill of a monkey, she climbed the tree, settled into position, and closed her eyes.

The fresh scent of the tree masked the stale air of the slum.

The cool breeze of early autumn. It felt good.

Her stomach was full, and her condition was fine, so she had a feeling today would go well.

“Cool…”

What was that?

She had completely failed.

She had succumbed to drowsiness and lost again.

The next time she opened her eyes, it was around noon. And it wasn’t because she woke up on her own—someone had woken her.

“Hey… hey!”

“Hmm… noisy…”

“Not waking up? Hey!”

Finally rubbing her eyes and looking down, she saw Tommy standing there with his arms crossed, looking annoyed.

She quickly climbed down.

“…What? What’s up?”

“You told me to come find you…!”

His tone was sluggish, as if he had just woken up. Yawning, she looked up at the sky. Sure enough, the sun was right in the middle. It was already lunchtime.

Eat, sleep, eat, sleep. It was the life of a perfect slacker.

“You came to get me. Hmm… good. Let’s go eat quickly.”

She would have liked to make him skip lunch, but then she risked having her own dinner stolen. So, reluctantly, she let Tommy, who had come to fetch her, follow behind.

She glared at the back of his white head, grumbling, but then remembered what had happened yesterday and earlier, and stopped.

“…Hey.”

“What?”

“That stuff. What you wrote on the ground. Did you write that?”

“Ah… yeah, I did.”

“…Does it mean something? Is it scribbles, or is it writing?”

Sugar turned around with a grin.

“Interested?”

“If it’s writing… a little.”

“It is writing.”

Her tone was oddly lively, and the way her lips curled up made Tommy tense up.

“It is writing. So, what are you going to do about it?”

“What, what do you mean? It’s just that. Let’s just keep going.”

“You said you were interested earlier.”

“I said ‘a little’ earlier. Now I’m not. It’s fine.”

He briskly walked past her. Even though they hadn’t exchanged many words, he felt like he was being drained. His desire to win made him feel that way.

“Really? You’re not interested anymore?”

“Yeah.”

This was the right way. Indifferently. Coolly. He shouldn’t get worked up in conversations with her.

“I was going to tell you a little if you said you were interested.”

“…What?”

“Too bad. Let’s just go eat.”

“…”

Sugar deliberately walked slowly past Tommy. Was this it? Was this it? She was clearly testing him.

And he took the bait.

Tommy blocked her path.

His gaze fixed on the ground, he muttered.

“…I’m interested again.”

Sugar burst out laughing.

 

After lunch, they gathered under the tree again.

She had been ready to refuse if he asked her to pay for lunch as a fee, but surprisingly, Tommy obediently started scribbling the characters, which somehow made him even scarier.

‘Is he going to bill me later or something…?’

“Alright, I’m done.”

Anyway, she had jumped in. The thirst for knowledge was irresistible. She decided to just enjoy the moment and stood in front of him.

“What’s this?”

“It reads ‘Tommy.’ Your name.”

“This?”

It looked very angular. That was his first impression.

“Let me ask again. It’s not scribbles, right?”

“I told you it’s not. It’s a writing system created by a king from some ancient country.”

“An ancient script?”

“Not exactly ancient… but let’s just say it is.”

“But how do you know… …Never mind. Let’s pretend I didn’t ask.”

He didn’t want to pry into what might be a painful past.

In reality, she had just lived in a country that used this script before being reincarnated here.

The original game was, of course, in Korean, but in the game’s setting, various languages existed. The standard language, resembling Latin, was called the “Common Continental Language.”

That setting was maintained, so the language Sugar currently used in this world was the Common Continental Language. Fortunately, she had already learned to read and write before her memories returned, so she didn’t have to go through the trouble of learning it again. If she had to learn a new language now, she would have thrown a fit.

Anyway, in this situation, Korean was a good script to use for secrecy. So, she wrote things she didn’t want others to understand in Korean, like yesterday.

Unaware of this, Tommy carefully observed the characters Sugar had written.

A script that even he, the owner of the grimoire, didn’t know.

With no offerings to make—or rather, Sugar had been chosen, but it wasn’t time yet—his research on the grimoire had stalled. A new language to stimulate his thirst for knowledge was a good distraction.

“Is this how you write it?”

“No, usually you write it stroke by stroke from top to bottom. Like this.”

He picked up a branch and started writing in one continuous motion, so Sugar demonstrated again. He followed along well.

“Like this?”

“Wow. You’re pretty good for a first try.”

Considering children’s usually messy handwriting, he did well. The lines were straight and neat.

“So this reads ‘Tommy’?”

“Yeah. The first part is ‘To,’ and the second is ‘mi.’”

“What about other words?”

Sugar thought for a moment and then scribbled another character. But for some reason, she was holding back a laugh.

“Alright, done.”

“This… what does it say?”

“My name.”

“Your name? Not the word ‘my name,’ but your actual name?”

“Yeah. Try reading it.”

“How am I supposed to know how to read this?”

“I told you it’s my name. Just say it out loud. Do you… not know my name?”

Tommy froze.

What was her intention? What was the point of asking that?

Of course, he knew her name. He had unintentionally heard other kids calling her name many times while hanging around her. It wasn’t a hard name to remember.

But if he answered honestly…

“Huh. You know my name even though I never told you.”

She would probably say something like that. Teasing him in a way that was both embarrassing and ticklish. He had seen her holding back a laugh while writing the characters. She must have had this intention all along.

‘Teaching me the script was just an excuse…!’

On the other hand, if he said he didn’t know?

She would probably just excitedly tell him her name and that would be it. At least there wouldn’t be anything embarrassing about it.

Somehow, he felt like he had a handle on her. The mysterious Sugar, whose actions had always been unpredictable, now seemed a bit more understandable.

‘I’m not just going to be played with.’

He prided himself on his learning ability. He could easily figure out a girl who wasn’t all there in the head.

With a confident smile, Tommy opened his mouth.

“Yeah. I don’t know your name.”

“Ah…”

But her reaction was strange.

“Hmm… really? You don’t know…”

“…Huh?”

Her hesitant tone. The always smiling face now clouded with gloom.

Her shoulders slumped, making her already small frame look even smaller.

Tommy was flustered, his eyes wide.

“No, it’s okay if you don’t know… really…”

Her words said one thing, but her disappointment was clear.

He had expected her to say something like, “You really don’t know? You should remember it,” or “How dare you not know my name—how arrogant.” Something lively, at least.

At the very least, he hadn’t expected her to be this upset.

“Why… why are you like this…”

“I thought we were kind of close… but it’s fine. Thinking about it, I never actually told you… so it’s natural you wouldn’t know.”

“…”

He had wanted to see her make a funny face. But this wasn’t what he had hoped for.

Because it wasn’t the least bit enjoyable.

This guilty feeling—it definitely wasn’t what he had been aiming for.

“Really, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it. … …Alright, I’ll tell you now, so listen carefully!”

Sugar puffed out her chest, pretending to be cheerful, and placed her hands on her hips. She smiled confidently, her lips curling up, but to Tommy, it looked like a forced smile.

Was this why the words had slipped out without him realizing?

Tommy only realized it after he spoke.

“Ah, I know!”

“Huh?”

“I know! Your name…!”

“…”

“I just… wanted to pretend I didn’t… I lied…”

And then it went quiet.

The silence, broken only by the rustling of the trees in the wind, was unnerving.

Why was it so quiet? If only she would say something.

The tension made his heart race, and he wished she would say anything, even nonsense, to fill the void.

What came next was Sugar’s face.

Short as she was, Sugar tilted her head slightly to meet Tommy’s eye level. Their faces were now directly facing each other.

“Then say it.”

“…”

“My name. You said you know it. Say it.”

Her eye color was a shade of beauty he had never seen before.

It felt like she was piercing through him, so he couldn’t quite meet her gaze. Still, Tommy mustered a bit of courage and looked back.

If he avoided her eyes here, it would feel like losing.

It wasn’t that he wanted to keep looking at her or anything like that.

“Su…Sugar.”

“Again.”

“…Sugar.”

“One more time.”

“Sugar.”

Finally satisfied, the owner of the name smiled softly.

Her eyelids closed prettily, and her lips curled up shyly. Her pale cheeks flushed faintly red, radiating vitality.

This was a genuine smile, different from the one before.

A pure smile, happy that he knew her name.

Tommy simply watched that face quietly.

The wind blew.

Like the scent carried by her fluttering hair, a whisper reached his ear.

“From now on, you can call me that.”

.

.

.

Knowing a name is the beginning of a connection.

Although one of them is hiding their true name, it’s a fact that, in this moment, the boy clearly recognized the girl’s name.

As if under some spell, he would never forget the name etched into his mind.

The future begins to shift, little by little.

Originally, these two wouldn’t have crossed paths like this on this day.

Sugar would have been in another city with the orphanage director, and [Tommy] would have been agonizing over how to dispose of the first victim’s body.

Funny incidents, like slipping while trying to meditate on a tree after throwing out a few study words, or unconsciously using magic to save a girl in trouble, wouldn’t have happened.

All of this happened because Sugar got into a fight with some delinquents, got hurt, and was confined to the orphanage.

Like casting magic on fate, their paths intertwined.

Just as the flutter of a butterfly’s wings can cause a storm, it’s unclear how today’s events will change the children’s future.

Though it’s unclear who might be hiding in the shadows of the orphanage walls.

Still, no storm lasts forever, and no rain falls endlessly.