The place the man pointed to was filled with about twenty people huddled together, all visibly terrified.

 

Their worn-out clothes were covered in thick black soot and torn in various places. 

 

Ash clung heavily to them, and here and there were patches of dried blood.

 

Simon approached them, offering gentle words of comfort and promising compensation for their losses. He also carefully noted down their names, ages, and brief physical descriptions.

 

No one raised any objections to the compensation plan. 

 

It was a sufficient amount—not only to relocate to District 3 but also to settle there properly. With that money, there was absolutely no reason left to remain in District 4.

 

Even though their hearts felt like they were being torn apart from the grief of losing family and colleagues, this was a golden, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to escape their miserable and destitute lives.

 

Ivan watched the scene from a few steps away. He quietly observed Simon making arrangements to meet them again at the entrance of District 4.

 

After receiving Simon’s business card, the people quickly scattered. 

 

Snatches of their conversation drifted farther away—talk of checking what usable daily necessities they still had left and hurriedly packing their belongings.

 

Suddenly, Ivan’s gaze landed on a small, lonely shadow left behind in the spot where the people had been standing.

 

Even Simon, who usually maintained his composure under almost any circumstance, looked visibly rattled by the presence of that shadow.

 

It seemed he already knew exactly who the tiny figure was.

 

“Simon?”

 

“That’s…”

 

The small shadow lifted its head and looked up at Ivan.

 

Jet-black hair. Large eyes of the same deep black color.

 

The scrawny, ash-covered child didn’t cry. Neither fear nor sadness seemed to show on their face. Far from crying, they looked so eerily calm that it made one wonder if the shock had broken something inside their mind.

 

Simon walked over to Ivan and whispered in his ear.

 

“Both parents died in this accident. No other siblings either.”

 

In other words—the child had become an orphan.

 

Sufficient compensation would be paid to the child in the future as well, but it was obvious—even without looking—what would happen to money belonging to a child with no guardian.

 

“…”

 

Ivan had lost his older brother, but this child had lost both parents. 

 

And because of Ivan’s brother, no less.

 

Responsibility could be settled with money. If money alone couldn’t wash away the guilt, then helping with identity registration and connecting the child to any orphanage in District 3 would be enough.

 

If he wanted to be a little more generous, an orphanage in District 1—one of the top-tier facilities—would also be fine.

 

And if he went further and acted as the child’s legal guardian until they reached adulthood, that would also keep the hyenas who might approach for the compensation money at bay.

 

So all he had to do was give the order to proceed that way.

 

But Ivan saw something else overlapping with the small, dirty, insignificant little kid in front of him.

 

Gloria, Sergei’s Guide.

 

The one person from his childhood who had been the only one to ever gently soothe his heart.

 

They had almost nothing in common except that both were Eastern, yet Ivan couldn’t tear his eyes away from the child.

 

His heart stirred restlessly, and in a move very unlike himself, Ivan made an uncharacteristic decision.

 

Thud. Thud—

 

The child’s tiny shadow was completely swallowed up inside Ivan’s enormous one.

 

The moment the surroundings darkened all at once, the child finally lifted their head.

 

Only after craning their neck back so far that it must have hurt did the child manage to see the face of the giant man standing in front of them like a shield.

 

The man’s intense red left eye bored straight into the child’s gaze.

 

“Do you have any relatives or any adult you’re close to?”

 

At Ivan’s question, the child flinched, small shoulders trembling, before shaking their head.

 

“Is there really no one you can ask for help?”

 

“…No.”

 

The child answered in a small, uncertain voice, yet still didn’t look away from Ivan’s eyes.

 

“Do you want to keep living here? If that’s the case, I’ll find you a new house right here.”

 

Of course, it was an utterly ridiculous suggestion.

 

Even if the child said they wanted to keep living here, how on earth could a kid who didn’t even look ten years old survive alone in this dumpster of a place?

 

And yet, Ivan couldn’t help but ask for the child’s opinion anyway.

 

It was because, in those jet-black eyes that perfectly reflected his own image, he thought he saw a tiny spark flickering to life.

 

A spark so fascinating that he wanted it—wanted it desperately.

 

“No. That… I don’t want that.”

 

The child instinctively knew they had to seize this chance to leave this horrible place.

 

They also knew that this frightening, enormous man with the beautiful eyes was the one who could give them that chance.

 

“Then how about coming with me?”

 

He had no plan at all—no idea what he would actually do once he took the child.

 

Even so, Ivan ended up blurting out the impulsive words.

 

“R-Representative!”

 

While the shocked Simon stammered in confusion, the child walked straight up to Ivan without hesitation and boldly took his hand.

 

The small hand gripped two of Ivan’s fingers with all its strength.

 

Despite the child’s expressionless face, the tightly clenched little fist was trembling finely.

 

Ivan flinched instinctively, a wave of rejection surging through him.

 

He was wearing special gloves, so there was no way body heat could transmit through them—yet the two fingers the child clung to so desperately felt scorching hot, like they were burning.

 

A sharp, needle-like pain stabbed through them, as though multiple pins were piercing his skin, but he dismissed it as nothing more than his overly heightened nerves acting up.

 

🦋

 

“Jin Yu. The name is Jin. She’s of Eastern descent and says she’s fourteen this year.”

 

“Fourteen?! Are you sure?”

 

Ivan was genuinely shocked. He couldn’t believe that such a small, skinny child was actually not a child at all, but a teenager.

 

No matter how generously you looked at her, she absolutely did not look older than ten.

 

“I was a bit surprised too, but it didn’t seem like a lie. She even mentioned that she recently had a fourteenth birthday party with her parents.”

 

Ivan kept his eyes on the stack of documents in front of him while still listening attentively to Simon’s report.

 

“Her appearance is childlike, but when you look at her speech and the vocabulary she uses, she seems remarkably bright. You could say it’s obvious she received a proper education.”

 

Simon reported exactly what he felt, even though he knew full well that proper education for children wasn’t really a thing in District 4.

 

“But, sir.”

 

Ivan finally lifted his head when he sensed Simon’s hesitation.

 

“Go on.”

 

“Um… when I asked Jin about her parents…”

 

Ivan watched Simon struggle to speak with growing curiosity, until a sudden realization made his eyes widen.

 

“Wait a second. Some names just came to mind. But… It’s from way too long ago.”

 

“They’re probably exactly the people you’re thinking of, sir.”

 

“…!”

 

Only then did Ivan finally understand everything—Why Jin’s parents had lived in District 4,

 

Why did they choose grueling labor in a place where no one would notice them even though there were far easier ways to make much more money?

 

And why, even within the residential area, had they chosen such an isolated, out-of-the-way home?

 

“Of course, we can’t be completely certain just from the names and descriptions Jin gave.”

 

“Would they really use the names of criminals if they were trying to hide? If they wanted to conceal their identities, they would’ve just made up completely fake names. Besides, Eastern-descent guide couples aren’t exactly common.”

 

“That’s true.”

 

“Having a daughter must have made them hide even more carefully.”

 

That incident had happened when Ivan was still very young, so all he knew about it came from records.

 

The two were guides belonging to the same guiding house and had reportedly been a couple for a long time.

 

Since they had even set a wedding date, like most esper-guide couples who wanted children, they must have had the contraceptive device removed from their bodies in advance so they could conceive Jin.

 

If that accident had never happened, the two of them would have received blessings from many people, held their wedding as planned, and lived the life they had envisioned.

 

But something no one could have predicted occurred, and the two became fugitives.

 

After hiding themselves in District 4, they must have deeply regretted having the contraceptive device removed.

 

It was obvious that any child born and raised in that place would face an incredibly harsh and exhausting life.

 

Nevertheless, the blessing arrived, and the two did their absolute best to raise Jin.

 

“According to Jin, both of her parents had serious physical disabilities. Even with that, they really worked incredibly hard…”

 

A somber expression spread across Simon’s face.

 

He knew exactly who Jin’s parents had killed to end up as fugitives, and how they had ended up with those disabilities—that knowledge made it all the more painful.

 

“Does Jin know about that incident, too?”

 

“No. She seemed completely unaware of her parents’ past.”

 

Jin’s parents probably would have sent only their daughter out of District 4 even if they had managed to save enough money to obtain legitimate identities.

 

If they changed their personal information, registered new identities, and gained legal status, they would have been required to undergo regular Esper examinations—and in doing so, they wouldn’t have been able to hide the fact that they were A-grade guides.

 

It would have been far too easy to uncover where they had been affiliated, what kind of guiding they had given, which esper they had been guiding when it led to death, and why they had fled.

 

Regardless of how much of a human scum that esper had been, or how many victims he had harmed, the only dry conclusion left behind would have been “guides who killed an esper = murderers,” and that alone would have sent them straight to prison.

 

“Ah, and the thing I ordered?”

 

“We were only able to recover a portion of the remains.”

 

“That’s still fortunate. Did you place them in a suitable spot?”

 

“Yes, sir. I’ll report back once the work on this matter is complete.”

 

“…And my brother?”

 

“About Mr. Sergei… I’m sorry.”

 

Since he had been the epicenter of the rampage, Ivan hadn’t really been holding out hope anyway—but truly, not a single trace of Sergei remained.

 

Through witness statements and the wave pattern analysis left at the scene right after the incident, it was quickly confirmed that the one who had gone into overload was Sergei. That was all.

 

Sergei hadn’t left behind even a single worn scrap of cloth to remember him by.

 

Ivan thought to himself that even that was fitting for his indifferent older brother’s end.

 

“It’s not something for you to apologize for, Simon. You did well.”

 

Ivan let out a long sigh and gently pressed his throbbing, aching temples.