Akuto decided to stop the girl from crying. After dropping his things off at his new home, he needed to return the orphanage’s suitcase. He left it in the entrance way, and walked to the market area in the center of town, where he entered the only accessory shop that sold jewelry. Emptying his wallet of all his money — a few months’ worth of adult living expenses — he purchased a jewel-encrusted hair ornament and returned to the orphanage. The young girl was still crying, and the teachers were wondering what to do.
Akuto slipped past the teachers, and as he stood in front of the crouched girl he tugged on her hair, pulling her head up. The teachers were shocked and scolded Akuto for his behavior, but Akuto remained silent and thrust the hair ornament out in front of the girl’s face.
It took quite some time for her to notice what was happening, but despite the unusual situation, her crying stopped. She returned Akuto’s gaze with swollen, red eyes, and a dumbfounded expression.
Round eyes and a round face. She had several clumps of frizzy hair that stood up on end, which swayed back and forth every time she rubbed the side of her eyes with her balled-up hands. Her hair was a bright, fiery red, so those clumps of hair gave off the impression of a flame flickering in the wind. Anyone would think she was cute for a girl her age, though with her features it seemed that she’d always keep that child-like quality no matter how old she was.
Akuto averted his eyes from the girl’s face and forcibly thrust the hair ornament into her hand. The girl didn’t resist, but when she noticed that there were jewels embedded in the eyes of the bird-shaped ornament, she looked at Akuto with a frightened expression. Even children understand what the real thing looks like. Of course, it was far too extravagant a thing for a child to have. Without giving the girl as much as a glance, Akuto faced the teachers and declared that while this ornament was expensive, it was still hers, and that no one was to steal it, nor should the teachers try to hold onto it for her.
“Th-Thank you...”
The girl said with astonishment, looking back and forth between Akuto and the ornament. She acted like an explosive had been placed in her hands.
“I intend to work from now on, so I don’t need anyone else’s money. You can sell this when you leave the orphanage, or you can keep it. It is yours. But I want you to remember that, in the end, simply receiving something is usually enough to stop a person’s tears. Even so, it took something very expensive to make you stop crying, so that might mean that you’re quite an incredible child. You could even be a match for the Demon King.”
As he spoke these words, Akuto returned to where he dropped off his suitcase, and once again donned the long coat he was finally able to wear without it dragging on the ground.
“Where are you going?” the girl asked.
“I’m leaving.”
“Wait. We could have been friends.”
“That is unfortunate. But I believe that your time in this orphanage will be over in a few years. I’ll remember you if you keep that ornament, and one day we’ll be able to meet again, right? See you later.”
Then, without listening to the girl’s reply, Akuto left the orphanage.
After this, another five years passed.
The house that took Akuto in was a typical knight’s household. Taking care of an orphan was normal for a knight, so the knight’s interactions with Akuto were very businesslike. For Akuto, this kind of relationship made it easy to live there, but at the same time he realized that this dynamic made it difficult to form a relationship with his foster parents. Due to this environment and Akuto’s personality, the five years he spent living there was a difficult part of his life. His daily schedule began with waking up before dawn to deliver milk, after school he would work at a café, and at night he would study to prepare for his entrance exams.
During this period, Akuto grew into a handsome young man that would catch the eyes of any girl his age. But with his personality and daily life as they were, nothing ever came of it. Even as he advanced to middle school, he never had a single close friend, let alone any romantic relationships.
If any girl was charmed enough by his features to approach him, he’d say in a distressed voice, “As humans, we should associate with people free of discrimination and favoritism, and forming a special bond with someone naturally results in some kind of discrimination. I’ll concede that no one can get along well with everyone, and seeing a beautiful girl getting along well with someone else is somehow particularly vexing. However I still believe that getting close to a beautiful girl just to ease that vexation is wrong. What do you think?” This attitude made it difficult for his female classmates to become interested in him, and the boys didn’t want to befriend another boy with that kind of attitude towards girls.
Personality aside, there was a reason that Akuto led such a life. Akuto intended to go to a high school that granted scholarships — the prestigious national high school, Constant Magical Academy — and become a qualified magician. Even if living through this dark time in his life without any friends only worsened his odd disposition, it was all worth it to become a nationally qualified magician.
The top-ranking state magicians — without a doubt, these individuals were the ones who ran this country of Japan. In this society that had just past the year 3000 of the Gregorian calendar, these magicians bore the core responsibilities of the government. Because they worked to serve society, they were the only people that had no limits placed on the use of their magic, and were active participants in a number of different fields.
Akuto genuinely wanted to help people, so in order to become a productive member of society, his goal was to become a state magician. He had an argumentative side, but he was a fundamentally good-natured person. Furthermore, his life as an orphan had convinced him that his purpose in life was to support others.
At long last, the day he was accepted into the Academy had come. Akuto was so happy that he jumped for joy. Now that he had been accepted, he would be able to live in the campus dormitory, and because he had also received a scholarship, he was able to completely escape from being under someone else’s care.
Akuto had hoped that this would be his chance to start his life anew, and now it was really happening.
However, his brand new life unfolded in a way he never could have imagined.