Surely Everything Will Be Fine.

On the night of a full moon, just drawing the curtains makes everything in the infirmary brightly illuminated.

Using that light as illumination is enough to even brew tea.

“Be careful, it’s hot when you drink it.”

After boiling water like that, I poured it into a cup filled with cocoa and presented it to the boy in front of me.

The boy still had his head bowed.

To the extent that I missed his characteristic bright smile.

“…It would be better to drink after it cools down a bit.”

Still, it’s not good to push him. Thinking this, I waited quietly, and as if unable to endure the long silence, Dale took a sip of the cocoa.

The remaining warmth would have accentuated the sweetness.

Nevertheless, the gloominess drawn on Dale’s face showed no sign of disappearing.

As if to show how much of a wound the events that occurred then had become.

“…I’m sorry.”

What came back at the end of that silence was a single apology.

The boy was still looking down at the cocoa cup presented in front of him, tightly gripping only the hand placed on his knee.

“I’m sorry, because of me…”

“Tell me.”

I too, for that moment, withdrew my gaze from Dale.

To look back at the envelope placed in front of me, which Dale had handed over.

“Could you tell me the story?”

Withdrawal form.

It hasn’t been processed yet, and since it’s not under my jurisdiction in the first place, receiving this doesn’t constitute this child’s withdrawal.

But if this child wishes for it, I must pass this on to the relevant department.

I’m a teacher, not a parent.

As he entered this school without parents, this child must decide for himself whether to attend school or not.

“Story?”

“Yes, you can say anything, whatever you want to talk about.”

Yes, even if I can persuade, I can’t force him.

So I hope that even if it’s just a little, he can resolve any lingering attachment he has to this school.

“Anything, it doesn’t matter?”

“Yes, anything doesn’t matter.”

It’s something I don’t want…

But if this child truly desires it.

“Just say whatever you want to say, anything.”

“……”

Dale remains silent at my words.

It was when the moon outside the window felt slightly tilted that his mouth opened again.

By the time even the warmth of the cocoa in front of him had cooled.

“Teacher, do you know about my hometown?”

If it’s his hometown, would that be Leninslieve?

Well, if you don’t know where to start the story, it’s also a method to tell from the beginning.

“…I’ve been there just once.”

I didn’t go that deep inside, but that alone was enough to know what kind of place it was.

And knowing that, anyone would be curious.

How could such a gentle child exist in a place where the human trash of the continent gather?

“The person who took me in always said this. Originally, they were going to sell me, but since I unexpectedly did work well, they just kept me around.”

“Did that person make you work?”

“Yes, I learned to work at a tavern. Clearing tables, serving, washing dishes… I even learned to read to take orders.”

Serving, that’s quite a modest job for a lawless area.

Well, even there, it’s still a place where people live, so they’d need people to do miscellaneous tasks.

“Wasn’t there any dangerous work?”

Still, isn’t it a place where people who live without laws gather?

Even if it’s a tavern, surely they didn’t just serve alcohol.

“Not particularly.”

“…There wasn’t?”

“At least where I was, no one fought.”

No one fought? How could that be possible in a lawless area…

No, it’s not entirely impossible.

Even human trash would know the value of their own lives.

“…Well, I suppose even the people there need a place to rest.”

They would immediately cause trouble if given the opportunity, but in a place full of such opportunists, they would have to be careful about harming each other.

It’s the same principle as arms dealers who do rough and dirty work being infinitely honest and kind to customers who buy weapons.

In a stability zone formed unstably by such wariness and intertwined interests, this child miraculously had the opportunity to grow enough to have a sense of self.

In a place where even notable trash couldn’t assert their evil.

In an environment where those closest to evil could learn evil.

“While I was indebted there, the people I met always taught me many things.”

“What did they teach you?”

“Things I shouldn’t do.”

“…Things you shouldn’t do?”

“If you don’t have the power or qualification, you shouldn’t covet others’ things carelessly, and you shouldn’t harm or act arrogantly towards others… They said that if you have to do such things, you should always be prepared. They said that until the very end, it’s not the law or people who take responsibility for what you’ve done, but yourself.”

Dale explained their teachings in detail, albeit in a small voice.

“I didn’t understand at the time… So I just decided not to do such things. In fact, what those people explained was also described as bad deeds in books.”

He didn’t learn the good side from good people, but learned evil from evil people.

Nevertheless, because their malice didn’t extend, this boy was able to grow up maintaining kindness in a lawless area.

Because he learned in advance what should not be done, he had no hesitation in learning, but because he didn’t learn what should be done, he couldn’t exert a proactive tendency…

That consideration stemming from such cautiousness.

“And everyone said so. That they were in this place inevitably.”

And even the most irreconcilable trash would have one plausible story.

Those pushed to the bottom would have had lingering attachments and aspirations, and such feelings would have been reflected in their teachings towards the boy.

“They always told me stories about the ground while drinking. And they emphasized repeatedly. That there’s a difference between what’s in books and what you actually see. That if you really see it with your own eyes, it would be different from what you saw in books.”

A boy who lived his whole life in a well.

The moment he gradually developed longing through things that fell from the ground.

“How was it when you first came up to the ground?”

“…I saw light.”

“Light?”

“For the first time, I saw something called the sun.”

On the boy’s face recalling that time.

A faint smile began to appear on that gloomy face.

“The books didn’t emit light. So when I first saw the sun, it was just so pretty and warm… I remember staring at it intently for a while.”

After that, Dale told me many things.

He stared at the sunlight for a while and before he knew it, night had fallen.

Then, because the moonlight and starlight spread across the sky were so beautiful, he spent the whole day just looking at the lake reflecting that light and stayed up all night…

For the boy who thought the underground garbage dump was everything, the world illuminated by light must have looked incomparably beautiful.

“I thought school life from the books would be… as bright as the sunlight I saw then.”

The fact that even that light could exist in countless forms, not just one, must have broadened his view of the world.

Not knowing how much disappointment the expectation nurtured from that would bring.

“Is that why you want to leave?”

That what he saw was different from what he read in books.

Because he realized that not everything is always positive.

“Because this place isn’t as good as you thought…”

“No.”

The boy immediately denied my words.

Though with a trembling voice, he tried to express his true feelings.

“I think Maris is a good place.”

Even though countless people criticized him and he wasn’t welcomed anywhere.

The boy didn’t show resentment towards any of them.

“It’s incredibly big, and diverse people gather. The classes are interesting, and even though there are still many places I haven’t been to, just looking around the neighborhood, I could see many things I couldn’t see in my hometown. I could experience many things…”

For the boy who had always nurtured longing towards the world.

The world should always be beautiful.

“…But, I don’t think I fit in such an amazing place.”

So it’s not the environment that’s misaligned, but himself…

He realized that even one’s birth can be a criterion for evaluation for someone.

“Just… If I’m here, I think such things will happen again.”

“…Dale.”

“If I’m here, I think fights will break out again in this good place.”

That conflicts can start from differences.

Because he learned that.

Because he was a boy who had understood the world through what someone called sin until now, he’s trying to step back thinking that this too is something he shouldn’t have done.

“I realized only after coming here that liking someone can be a wound for someone else.”

A child who loves people so much.

The moment even liking people is considered a sin.

“…Because of me, you might be in danger again, Teacher.”

And the most ironic thing was that the one who drove home that point was none other than me.

Because I became the reason.

That’s why I couldn’t reach out recklessly to this child like when we first met.

Because I know that even forcing while ignoring true feelings can be a wound to people.

“…What will you do when you go back?”

“I don’t know.”

Of course, other children have families or clans that can care for such wounds, things that can substitute for school.

But this child has nothing.

Because the reason this boy was able to grow up underground was only due to a miraculously created safety zone.

Since peace treaties made between those with power can’t last forever, someday, groundless malice might cover this boy again.

What will happen to this child when that time comes?

“But, I feel like I shouldn’t be here…”

If expectations are betrayed and even non-eternal peace is shattered… Can this child truly see this world as beautiful as before?

Can it be said that it’s right to send this child back like this, facing such a future?

“…Dale.”

Coincidentally, I was in a position where I couldn’t force him.

I’m this child’s teacher, not his parent.

For this child who can’t depend on anyone, whether to stay in school or not is up to his own choice.

But even so.

If I could at least give this child a chance.

“…Do you know about attending school in the infirmary?”

Even the malice of the world he saw.

If I could give him time to realize for himself that it’s just one aspect, not the entirety of this vast world.

“…What?”

“It’s a system where you attend and leave school from the infirmary, just marking attendance without going into the classroom.”

In fact, even in my previous life, not all students could adapt to school.

Stress from studies, bullying by groups, innate depression or emotional instability, and so on…

For children who couldn’t adapt for various reasons like these, there were cases where students were temporarily protected in places like the teachers’ office, student guidance room, or infirmary.

Of course, Maris doesn’t have such a system, but if it doesn’t exist, can’t we just create it?

“It’s just meeting the attendance requirement, but if you don’t fail regular classes, there shouldn’t be a problem until graduation.”

Of course, choosing this essentially means not belonging to any class.

Since you can’t attend classes, it will be difficult to approach not only students but also other teachers except me.

I too have work, so I can’t take care of just this one child.

I can answer questions, but it won’t be to the extent of ‘education’ that other teachers provide.

It means that from now on, this child will have to endure everything alone in this school life.

If grades aren’t guaranteed, he won’t receive scholarships, so this boy who has nothing might be expelled midway due to unpaid tuition.

“Even if it’s like that……”

These words I uttered out of a faint hope.

“If you could remain in this school even if it means not meeting others, what would you do?”

If he accepts these words now.

It would give me justification to take responsibility for this child.

That way, I could reach out to this child even like this.

“…Why.”

At the end of the silence, the boy asked back as if he couldn’t understand my words.

“Why are you… proposing such a thing?”

His body trembles finely, his voice choked.

His eyes, wet as if about to burst into tears at any moment, begin to reflect the moonlight.

“Everyone… hates me. They say I came from a dangerous place, that I have a strange power…”

Still clutching his aching chest.

“Even you, Teacher, were in danger because of me…”

Mentioning the most painful fact.

He asks why the very person who said that doesn’t express any resentment towards him.

“If I stay like this, such things might happen again, but Teacher, you…”

“Dale.”

It’s a simple reason.

A teacher’s main job is to guide students.

“The reason I’m doing this isn’t because you’re particularly special.”

If you came to this school to learn and wear the school uniform.

No matter who you are, you’re just one student in the end.

“Whoever you are. Whatever environment you lived in, whatever power you have… Such things are not important to me.”

Moreover, what this child did wasn’t even intentional, was it?

“Dale.”

If you’ve done something wrong, you can learn to apologize.

If even that mistake stems from ignorance, you can learn that you shouldn’t use the word sin for it.

This child had that right.

Even facing the malice of the world, this child still doesn’t hate anyone even at this moment.

“Do you think it’s wrong for a teacher to care for a student?”

So if this child truly has the heart to remain in this school.

I would have the duty to take him in.

‘I don’t want to die.’

It was also a struggle stemming from a simple wish to remember what I had seen from a bygone era.

And hoping that such things would never happen again.

“…Really.”

A reason that could be called selfish in a way.

“Can I… can I stay at school?”

Thus, to the desperate proposal, the boy who finally couldn’t exert his stubbornness carefully asked.

Just in case, to my current words.

Asking if he could do again what he was trying to give up.

“Can I… can I continue to stay here?”

That in itself would show that his attitude until now was unavoidable.

It’s just accepting the group’s malice more transparently because he knows nothing.

Of course, malice might cover him as much as they don’t want.

He might break down unable to withstand such malice.

“If you really, truly want to stay in this school, Teacher will help you.”

But I want to prevent that because such a time hasn’t come yet.

It might have been unavoidable until now, but now.

From now on, it shouldn’t be like that.

“Uh…”

A faint sniffling returned to those words.

It seemed as if the emotions he had been suppressing all along were welling up, but in the end, it didn’t lead to sorrowful crying.

“If you want to cry, it’s okay to cry.”

“I won’t…”

As if suppressing even the sorrow to the point of choking.

“I won’t cry. Because I’m a man.”

“…Hehe, that’s right. You were a man too.”

He’s so small yet he’s a man?

Well, children of this age grow fast.

As fast as they grow, their beginnings are small.

“Indeed, if you’re a man, you shouldn’t cry out loud.”

And someday, truly, there will come a day when you shouldn’t easily shed tears in front of others.

So at least while you’re small enough to hold in my arms, let me lend you my embrace.

Thinking this, under the moonlight, I quietly embraced the boy.

“But it’s okay, Dale.”

Deeply into my chest, lest sobs might be heard somewhere.

Wrapping even the hands that tried to resist that force with my arms, hiding the wet eyes from the moonlight.

“You’ve done nothing wrong. You’re just confused because you don’t know, so you can learn slowly over time.”

I comforted him while patting his back like that.

Though there’s no basis at all, hoping that even like this, the current sadness would be lessened a little.

Hoping that this child, unlike other children, who hasn’t been tainted by a tragic era, would adapt to the changing world even a little.

“So let’s wait with Teacher, surely everything will be fine.”

By all means, this child I took in out of my selfishness.

Unlike me who is stained with the filth of the world, I put in my heart the hope that he would grow into a more proper adult.