Unlike the ancient, cloud-covered skies of the past, the current sky allowed the sun to shine through. Yujin shielded his eyes from the blinding glare of the afternoon sun.
It wasn't that he was in a bad mood. In the backalleys, he had seen only a dark, ash-filled world devoid of common sunlight. This was just... unfamiliar.
Having lived so long in the gutter, Yujin had forgotten what the sun felt like, making this new sensation strange to his skin. People told him his once-sharp features had softened since meeting Theresia, but Yujin couldn't see the difference.
He stood in a square where people bustled back and forth. He had been forced to come out today.
"Staying cooped up in the library is well and good, but how about an excursion outdoors?"
It had been the advice—or rather, the recommendation—of his master, Netsalem.
Seeing people who, despite being Sarkaz, wandered the streets with smiles on their faces while tending to their children, filled Yujin with an odd feeling. This was a sight he might have seen in his past life, but never here.
Sitting on a bench in front of a fountain, staring blankly at the passersby, Yujin let out a long sigh. He felt strange, realizing how poorly he adjusted to peace. Perhaps it was because he had lived with blood on his hands for so long.
As he lowered his head and exhaled, a strand of snow-white hair brushed against him, tickling his skin. The tips were tinged with a soft pink.
"You look like you're in a bad mood."
"Ah..."
Theresia was there, cupping his chin and lifting his head to look at her.
"You're here?"
"Yes."
He had invited everyone for an outing, but only one person had actually joined him. Buldrokk had refused, claiming people were frightened by his presence. Kalaisha had ignored the request, saying it was too much of a hassle. Theresis had noted that Yujin was the only one who stayed shut in the library anyway, and that he had already seen enough of the outside world.
In the end, only Theresia had come along for Yujin's walk.
"…Are you going to move your hand?"
"No. I like the way it feels," Theresia said with a giggle, continuing to touch his cheek.
"It's a bit hot today."
"I suppose it is..."
Unlike the perpetually chilly backalleys, the sun-drenched square was quite warm. It wasn't unpleasant, but there was a certain humidity—a sticky heat.
Theresia smoothed down her light sundress and sat beside him. Her striking white hair and autumn-colored eyes were fixed on him. In a world full of unique appearances, Theresia's beauty was still the kind that drew every eye in the square.
"Hmm... I saw a bakery on the way here. It smelled wonderful."
"You should have bought something if you wanted it."
"I decided I wanted to go with you."
Seeing her smile like that made Yujin's heart feel heavy with a complex mix of emotions. Compared to him, she seemed to belong in this peaceful sunlight, a realization that felt both new and jarring.
"Why the long face?"
"The heat."
"Heat? It's perfect weather for an outing. Master chose well."
For a moment, Yujin could almost picture his master giving a ghostly 'thumbs up' from the library.
"So, where do you want to go?"
Still unfamiliar with the streets, Yujin decided to follow her lead.
"We'll go to the bakery, then a clothing store... and then we can get something to eat."
"Sounds like quite a schedule."
"It is, so let's hurry."
Theresia grabbed Yujin's wrist and pulled him up from the bench. Yujin let himself be dragged along, rising into the bright, persistent sunlight. He still wasn't used to it.
Yujin sat in his room within the vast mansion, lost in thought. On his desk sat a framed photo of him and Theresia, taken earlier that day. While Yujin looked stiff and expressionless, Theresia was captured in a bright, radiant laugh.
"…Maybe I should have smiled."
Wearing her white dress and a straw hat adorned with a red ribbon, Theresia looked like the heroine of a fairy tale, possessing a brilliance that felt almost magical.
Yujin chuckled softly at the photo, but then leaned back in his chair, staring at the ceiling.
"You try to carry too much, and you think too much. Why not try to live a little more lightly?"
It was advice from his teacher, but "lightness" was a concept Yujin couldn't quite grasp.
Lightly.
He had always kept his senses honed like a sharpened blade. A scowling face and a cold gaze were his default settings. Even Theresis had told him once to drop the "venom" from his expression. The memory was almost funny, considering Theresis now spent his time with glasses perched on his nose and a book tucked under his arm.
No one dared touch this mansion. Netsalem, the King of Rot, was an Arts user of a caliber beyond comprehension; few wanted to risk a miserable end being torn apart by his undead servants. It was a place of absolute peace.
Even the room Yujin occupied now was well-appointed, a far cry from the ruined factory he used to call home. It looked like a cross between a classic film study and a private suite. Though the fact that the servants were literal undead was still a bit startling. Sometimes Theresia would scream when she ran into a skeleton mopping the hallway. Even Yujin had found the sight of a pile of bones neatly making a bed to be… surreal.
Thinking about the creaking, cleaning skeletons made him smile. Looking in the mirror, his face actually did look a little more relaxed.
"Sigh..."
In his "previous life"—or whatever he should call his existence before this—he had been an ordinary person. But his memories of the backalleys were like shards of glass embedded deep in his mind, impossible to remove. Digging through trash, exploiting children, betraying others—those were the everyday realities.
Because of that, he was always suspicious. He could never take kindness at face face; he had always viewed every action through the lens of malice.
Until he met her.
The girl who had smiled at him like a fool despite everything. The girl who shared food even when she had none, who wept for the sorrows of others as if they were her own—the girl who was stupidly, impossibly kind.
Meeting her had changed him. He had struggled to maintain his own sense of justice because of her. Looking back, it had become almost an obsession.
Yujin closed his eyes. Outside, the mansion was silent under the cover of night.
"…Yujin looks like he's in a bad mood."
"He always looks like that."
"No, lately, it seems worse."
Theresia, holding her Arts staff for basic training, spoke to Kalaisha. Kalaisha gave her a bored, dismissive look.
"True, I haven't seen his face brighten up much lately."
Kalaisha actually remembered Yujin smiling more often back in the slums than he did here.
"Do you think he's not adjusting?"
"…It takes time to get used to peace."
Kalaisha laughed to herself, remembering her own arrival. I remember being such a brat back then. She chose to forget the memory of her younger self pulling Buldrokk's hair and fighting him.
"Don't worry too much. In my opinion, Yujin isn't naturally mean or sharp. He's just out of his element right now," Kalaisha said, stretching while holding her game console. Theresia, however, kept her head down, looking dejected.
"…I think it's because of us."
"Oh, for heaven's sake."
It was always Yujin who got blood on his hands. Whenever something happened in the backalleys, Theresia had chosen to lean on him, eventually coming to see it as natural. That illusion was shattered the moment they met Tarkan—the moment Yujin was driven to the brink of death.
Theresia realized then that the boy she thought was an invincible hero was just a child, no different from her, who could bleed and die. The thought felt like a heavy weight in her chest.
"We went on an outing today, but he hardly smiled at all."
"That's just—"
"But Yujin always tried to smile when he was with me before."
Kalaisha swallowed the remark, 'Aren't you just full of yourself?' and instead thought about the way Yujin treated Theresia. Yujin was a man of very clear boundaries. He would protect those he considered "his" by any means necessary, while appearing almost indifferent to those outside his circle. Yet, he still understood and strove for "Justice."
Kalaisha had heard many things about him while snooping in the backalleys. He was a complex person, not easily understood. For one, he was known for hunting down human traffickers—descending on them alone and methodically severing their limbs. Was that because he was righteous? Or was there another reason?
"He's a difficult person to read, that Yujin," Kalaisha muttered, turning back to her game.
She privately thought that Yujin's erratic sense of justice and his lingering kindness probably existed solely because of the girl standing in front of her.