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#088. The Lost Children (2)
“You dropped your book, little gentleman.”
A clear voice echoed through the space.
Philip accepted the book with a somewhat blank expression, unable to take his eyes off the lady’s neck.
“Ah… thank you….”
“Wow! You look so young, but you read such a difficult book.”
“Oh, yes.”
The lady smiled faintly and turned around to return to her original seat.
Philip’s lips twitched.
As if there was something I wanted to ask.
But hesitation kept a firm lock on the boy’s lips.
“Do you live in this sector?”
The question came from Ray.
The lady stopped.
She turned around and met Ray’s gaze, and soon answered with her usual gentle smile.
“Yes, I am. I used to live in a lower-numbered sector, but I have finished my work and am living here now. Curious little gentleman. Do you have any other questions?”
“No. Thank you for your answer.”
A light greeting followed.
The lady picked up a book from its original place and disappeared into the other shelf.
A few seconds later, Ray asked.
“Do you think it could be your mother?”
“… … .”
Philip’s mind was still in a daze.
I was six years old when I separated from my mother.
Ten years ago from now.
Much of the time has passed over my childhood memories, and many things about my mother have become obscured and invisible.
One of them is the face.
Philip couldn’t remember his mother’s face.
That is, that was the story.
Mid to late 30s. Brown hair.
The story that every woman who meets the criteria has the potential to become a mother.
Philip, who had been lost in thought for a while, shook his head and said.
“If it was my mother, she would have recognized me. Even if I hadn’t recognized her first. And it doesn’t make sense for her to be here like that right now.”
Taking all the variables into account, the chances of the noblewoman being the mother were extremely slim.
Of course, there’s no way I could meet my estranged mother so easily.
“… … .”
But it was also true that the anxiety that had been dormant deep in my heart was brought back to mind.
“Couldn’t it be that my departed mother started a completely new life?”
“Wouldn’t it be possible that even if we met, he would pretend not to know me, or that he really wouldn’t recognize me?”
It was such a fear.
“Yeah. I don’t think she’s your mother either. For one thing, she was a wizard.”
“uh?”
“2nd Circle Wizard. Your mother wasn’t a wizard.”
“… That’s right. I’m not sure, but I don’t remember using anything magical at all.”
Ray lowered his voice as he looked through the books Philip had brought.
“And, there’s a chance that he’s a member of Murkred’s organization. He was wearing a necklace with a red jewel.”
“A necklace? Ah!”
Philip makes a face as if he realized it too late.
He had been so focused on her brown hair and the scar on her neck that he had not given much thought to the lady’s adornment.
“That’s right. We need to look into it just in case. I’ll add it to the list of instructions I’ll give to my informants.”
“It won’t be hard to investigate. You said you live in this sector.”
As the conversation continued, Philip picked up the pile of books he had put down.
“Okay. I’ll bring these to the checkout counter first. Take your time looking around.”
Philip advances precariously towards the checkout counter.
Ray checked that there were no ladies around and reached out to cast a strengthening spell on Philip.
“Oh? Oh? Ohhh!”
A much more comfortable posture and faster pace.
Ray, who was watching Philip rushing to the counter, turned his head and looked at the place where the lady was standing.
‘The gaze that was looking at us earlier was definitely….’
What Ray felt from the lady’s gaze was a sense of discomfort.
If my intuition was not wrong, there was another layer of gaze hidden in her gentle smile.
A type I had seen among some of the residents of Sector 50 during the time I was engrossed in my exploration of humans.
So, that is to say.
‘When a blacksmith or carpenter examines materials before making a work.’
It was very similar to the look in his eyes back then.
Ray walked slowly and checked what kind of books were on the bookshelf the lady was looking at.
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“Positive Discipline”
“To become a respected mother”
“Empathy. A Guide to Proper Parenting”
All of them were books about raising children.
*
“There is no book on black rain. It seems that there has been little research done, just like my grandfather said.”
The group headed to the checkout counter, each carrying a few books of their choice.
Veronica has research books on soil.
Ray reads psychology books that deal with the principles of human behavior.
Philip chose books on finance and capital.
“Actually, I’ve never read a book before, but I think I should study it anyway.”
Philip said awkwardly.
It was the result of a combination of factors.
“I’ll be stopping by the bank soon, and I’ll be managing our money.”
It was also because of a sense of responsibility.
“I thought it was cool to see Ray constantly studying something.”
It was also due to motivation through appropriate stimulation.
When I calculated the books and put them in my bag.
“Guys. Over there.”
Veronica said, looking at the glass-fronted entrance wall of the bookstore.
Outside the wall, boys with shabby appearance were loitering around, glancing around the inside of the bookstore.
Philip said, snorting loudly.
“You’re so impatient. I even gave you the address and told you to come to the inn.”
“… … .”
Ray counted the number of enemies he could see.
‘One… two… three… . Only the seven that can be seen right in front of the glass.’
Besides that, there were quite a few guys who looked like the same group in the alleys and on the benches far away.
All together, the number is more than twenty.
Indeed, it seemed that the intention was to pressure them with numbers since the size of the gang was large.
‘I rather like it.’
With that number, there’s a high probability that the leader is involved.
The more you break things down in front of a large number of subordinates, the easier it will be to give instructions and give orders later.
The group left the bookstore and entered an alley.
The boys on the street followed behind openly, without hiding or showing any sign of caution.
The place the group arrived at was a large open space that they had checked out in advance.
Philip and Veronica sat on a pile of concrete cylinders on one side of the vacant lot.
As if sitting in the audience.
As if I’m used to it now.
Ray looked back as he saw a guard surrounding it.
“Hey, hey. Don’t push.”
“Those fools came to their own graves.”
The crowd poured into the narrow entrance to the vacant lot.
A total of 25 people appeared like that.
One of the dogs stepped forward and said,
“I heard that you were pampering our kids a bit. You were taunting them by telling them to come to you if they wanted money.”
“Are you the leader of the pack?”
“Yes. I am the famous Dnain-nim─.”
“It’s strange.”
“what?”
“You look too old for a general.”
Dnine. 16 years old.
The leader of the Dnaine gang that divides Sector 47.
This boy, who boasts development far beyond that of his peers, had already reached physical maturity several years ago.
He was over one hundred and eighty years tall and had strength that could overwhelm most adult males.
Unfortunately, such rapid development was not limited to simple height or muscle growth.
That also meant that Denaine looked a little, no, a lot more mature than her peers.
By the way.
“Above, it’s empty.”
It was also said that hair loss was occurring at a faster rate than other people.
From Ray’s perspective, it was a remark made out of pure skepticism.
In sector 50, the so-called stripped down ones were all at least in their 30s.
But the repercussions those words created were enormous.
“… We’re in big trouble. That guy touched Denaine’s complex.”
“This is something that should never be mentioned.”
“That guy’s spine would be folded seven times and he’d fit in a drum.”
A group of people gossiping behind the scenes.
Denaine’s face was so red that it looked like it would burst at any moment.
“Hey! Hey! Hey! You rip-off!”
Boooo …
A fist the size of a bear’s paw sliced through the air, aiming for Ray’s face.
Exclamations erupted from all over at the fierceness that did not match his physique, but Ray dodged the attack by simply twisting his body to the side.
Denaine’s body swayed violently.
“This kid!”
Thinking that Ray had luckily dodged, Denain immediately corrected his posture and tried to throw another punch.
But at that moment.
“What? It’s really Denain.”
The movement was stopped by another force that appeared at the opposite entrance of the vacant lot.
Boys pouring in through the narrow entrance.
The group was of similar size to the Dnaine group, and the two factions recognized each other’s presence and looked startled.
It was Denaine who spoke first.
“Melom, get lost. I don’t know why you’re here, but I have important business to attend to with you right now.”
Melom. Another leader of the gang that Ray had been running around the streets destroying.
Melom, who was among the crowd, answered with a laugh.
“Sorry, I have some business to attend to, too. You’re the one who should be out of the way, aren’t you?”
There was a tense war of nerves.
The two captains glared at each other like mortal enemies, and neither showed any sign of backing down.
Also, perhaps because they thought he was already a caught prey, neither of them seemed to care about Ray.
“Melom, if you don’t want to die, just cower there. You’ve lost your sense of shame. You tremble at the mere sight of me, you idiot.”
“When are you talking about the enemy? Since I have no confidence, I can only talk about the past. And you are the one who is lacking. Oh, sorry. It’s not that I am lacking. It’s that I have lost everything, let alone grown.”
The air is suffocating.
Tense tension.
A tense situation where a fight could break out at any moment.
But Ray could be sure that the two captains would never rush at each other.
‘Less anger.’
The two captains were angry and resentful towards each other.
Objectively speaking, it was not a small size, but it was not a very large volume either.
Rather, what currently takes up the most space in the bowl are feelings of confusion and hesitation.
“Say that one more time or I’ll tear your jaw apart.”
“If you’re confident, then do it. You cowardly little punk. You’re a worthless punk.”
So, what I meant was that the two of them had no intention of actually fighting.
They are just watching each other and hoping that the other person will back off first.
‘They said that you have to let go of your pent-up emotions so that you can live a mentally healthy life.’
Ray looked at the two people with anger and displeasure, and thought about what he had read in the book.
“Unresolved, pent-up emotions make a person’s heart sick.”
It wasn’t something I fully understood, but I thought I knew what emotional release meant.
‘Emotions accumulate in a person’s vessel.’
The feeling was one of two things.
Or evaporate.
Or pile up.
In the latter case, emotions that have accumulated beyond a certain level tend to upset the balance of the vessel.
A broken balance leads to instability in behavior.
Then, emotions that reach a critical point explode into action, and then dissipate all at once or over time.
‘The threshold is different for everyone. It also varies depending on the emotion.’
But there is one thing that does not change.
Once the emotional outburst is over, the balance of the broken vessel is restored.
The release of emotions probably refers to a series of such processes.
That’s what I thought.
I wonder if the expression and release of emotions is a kind of maintenance that the human body performs to remove bad blood from the body.
Ray stared at the red rage that sat on Melom and Denaine’s bowl.
‘That’s not enough to cause an explosion, though.’
Still, it would be right to remove the bad blood that has accumulated in the body.
Because it would be a problem if the guys you’re using as informants do something unexpected because of that.
After much thought, Ray made up his mind.
To take care of both of their mental health.
Woohoo──
The red mana that gushed out from the palm of his hand flew towards Melom and Dnain’s bowl.