Past Arc ⑱

"Let's play!"

A lively girl charged into the shade beneath the trees where Ariel and another boy with green skin were reading a book together.

The youngest child in the orphanage, a girl with slightly pointed ears.

Behind her, a boy who appeared to be the oldest in the orphanage ran after her.

Ariel felt more tension watching the approaching boy than the green-skinned boy who was knocked hard to the ground by the girl's tackle.

The reason was clear upon seeing the boy's eyes.

His eyes were dark and clouded, lacking focus.

The boy had lost all vision completely due to Potimas's human experiments.

"Hey, Natalie! You can't run so fast like that—it's dangerous!"

The blind boy pulled the pointed-eared girl, Natalie, away from the green-skinned boy.

"Clara would be in danger too, if she ran like that?"

Ariel gently reminded the blind boy, Clu, who was ignoring his own behavior.

"I'm fine. I can see things even without eyes."

Ariel did not fully understand the meaning of Clu's words, but Clu consistently acted as though he could see, despite being blind.

"Still, be careful."

"Yeah. But this one here is worse."

Clu grabbed Natalie by the back of her neck, forced her upright, then struck her head with a fist.

"Ow!"

"Of course it hurts. Now apologize to Gob."

"Uuu!"

"Stop whining. When you do something wrong, you apologize. Didn't Salir teach you that? Just like how you felt pain when I hit you, Gob felt pain when you suddenly jumped on him. Do you understand?"

"Uuu"

I—It's fine. You don't have to apologize. I was just startled. It didn't hurt at all.

Gob, the green-skinned boy who was the victim, stepped in to defend Natalie, seeing her reprimanded.

Natalie’s face lit up at the support, but Clarr would not relent.

“No. You will not be forgiven until you properly apologize.”

Pressed by Clarr’s unyielding resolve, Natalie reluctantly muttered, “I’m sorry.”

But Clarr showed no mercy.

“You’re not looking at me when you say it. Apologize to Gob. And not like that. That wasn’t sincere. Now, say it again. Sorry.”

Prompted by Clarr, Natalie turned to face Gob.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s—fine.”

Gob immediately pardoned Natalie, meek as she was.

Clarr watched, and smiled.

Good work. Sorry I hit you.

Clarr ran a hand over Natalie’s head.

That spot was exactly where Clarr had landed a punch.

“It’s fine!”

As if the meek demeanor from earlier had been a lie, Natalie’s face lit up instantly.

“Gob, Gob, let’s go!”

She tugged on Gob’s hand and pulled him away.

As they left, Gob glanced back, concerned about Ariel. Ariel responded with a gesture: “Handle it.”

Ariel and Clarr watched Natalie and Gob run off energetically.

“Don’t run— it’s dangerous!”

Immediately after Clarr shouted, Natalie tripped— dragging Gob down with her.

“Ah, I should’ve known.”

“Shouldn’t we go help?”

“Gob’s there. He’ll be fine.”

That said, Ariel did not look convinced.

Natalie, fallen and wailing. Gob, flustered, staring at her.

Yet if one considers this routine, it may not be so dire. Not entirely safe—but perhaps acceptable.

As if to confirm, Gob begins desperately consoling the crying Natalie.

Under Ariel and Clau’s watch, Gob stumbles through安抚, eventually succeeding in quieting her.

Then, without running, he enters the circle where other children play.

“Clau, you don’t have to stay?”

“I’m past the age for playing.”

Clau shrugs. To the outside world, he is still clearly a child.

The eldest in the orphanage, yet undeniably a child in the prime of wanting to play.

Ariel realizes, without being told, that Clau is beside her.

Ariel is especially frail among the orphans.

Compared to when she could not rise from the bed at all, her condition had improved significantly—she could now walk about, albeit only slightly—but running remained impossible.

Reading books beneath the shade of a tree was about her limit.

Thus, Ariel was almost always watched over by an orphanage staff member or Syrilis.

Syrilis, at that moment, was being thoroughly surrounded and tugged at by a group of boys and girls.

Clau served as a substitute for Syrilis, whose hands were otherwise occupied.

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"Just as one must apologize for wrongdoing, one must also express gratitude in words."

Ariel offered no further explanation, merely repeating what she had been taught.

"You were a little like Syrilis just now."

Clau scratched his head, self-conscious at the remark.

Ariel did not know that the words she had used to reprimand Natalie were merely borrowed from Syrilis.

Syrilis showed little change in expression, yet was popular among the orphans.

He served as a substitute parent for children without families, attending to them with genuine care—this was expected.

Through contact with Syrilis’s warmth, Ariel slowly regained faint traces of human emotion.

The teenage boys and girls, treated like experimental subjects, laughed and played like ordinary children within their confined garden.

"What did you just say?"

Gyurie’s trembling voice.

The response came with eyes devoid of warmth, as if observing something tedious.

"Eliminate people. That is what I said."

On this day, the dragon race turned its fangs toward humanity.