The priceless silk gown — a masterpiece of haute couture — was soaked through in an instant by the filthy puddle on the ground, stained with filth that would never fully wash out. Like the sins of the mortal world, finally finding purchase on this untouchable saint.
"...Big sis?"
The blind girl froze on the spot.
Her little hand hung awkwardly in mid-air, fingers grasping at nothing in helpless confusion.
This wasn't right. Why...
Why was she the one receiving an apology?
By all the patterns she knew — shouldn't she be pushed away in disgust by now? Shouldn't she be hearing a few contemptuous words of condescension?
At the very least, she should be listening to the sound of hurried footsteps retreating after someone tossed a coin at her feet.
And besides — this big sis was actually trembling? While hugging her?
"Um... if I get your clothes dirty..." the blind girl said with careful, delicate hesitation, "...your mama is going to scold you, you know?"
"Sob... I'm sorry... I don't... I don't know anything... I truly... truly don't know anything..."
The Holy Emperor's voice had completely dissolved into tears, even wavering out of pitch from the violence of her emotions.
That composed, graceful, deeply resonant voice — the one that had moved audiences in countless televised addresses — had been reduced to nothing but broken, wretched sobs.
And so.
When the Holy Emperor's voice reached her ears like this — unfiltered by any microphone, at this impossibly close distance —
The blind girl's ever-alert ear twitched, unable to help itself.
This voice.
So familiar.
So impossibly familiar.
It was like the voice that drifted out from the neatly arranged televisions in the electronics shop windows she passed every day.
The big sis who always said things like "we will build a beautiful future" and "we want everyone to be able to live in happiness."
A voice that sounded warm when you heard it. But one that felt so distant it might as well have come from another world entirely.
"You're... the one from the TV..."
The blind girl's mouth opened, the name rising instinctively to her lips.
A name even a child living in a slum like her knew by heart.
But the words made it all the way to the tip of her tongue — and she swallowed them back down.
Because.
How could that possibly be right?
A person of that importance. A big sis who lived somewhere that felt like paradise. What reason could she possibly have to appear in a place that reeked of garbage and rot — and to sit here hugging a child like her, a child no better than a street rat, and cry?
This was probably a hallucination born of hunger.
After all, yesterday she'd only managed to gnaw through half a mold-covered bread crust.
The blind girl thought this, and let out a quiet little sigh.
Even without her eyes, she could feel it — the grief radiating off the big sis holding her was so intense it was almost overflowing.
And so.
The blind girl ended up becoming the little adult who had to take care of the grown-up.
She reached out with her small, dirty hand. It hovered in the air for a long moment of hesitation — until she'd confirmed, truly confirmed, that she wouldn't be struck — before finally coming to rest, ever so gently, on the Holy Emperor's silver hair. Hair so impossibly smooth it didn't feel real.
Pat. Pat.
"Don't be scared..."
"Even though I don't know what you did wrong, big sis..."
"But... as long as you can still feel the pain, that means you haven't broken past saving yet, right?"
"Like me... at first my eyes hurt so much. Hurt so much I couldn't sleep. Hurt so much I wanted to smash my head against the wall."
"But now they don't hurt anymore."
The blind girl offered a brilliant smile — a smile so full of warmth it shattered the heart.
"No."
The Holy Emperor's voice cut through like a blade.
"This is not something you get used to."
"This is absolutely not something you should ever have to get used to!"
"If children like you are the ones who have to grow accustomed to a life like this hellscape — then what right do the rest of us have to call ourselves human?!"
If the most basic right to survive could not be guaranteed. If a mother mutilating her own child could become something normal —
Then what exactly was the New Gastrea Law protecting?
Empty words on paper. Less useful, even, than the battered bowl sitting in front of this child.
The hammer of reality had, in this moment, completely shattered every illusion the Holy Emperor had ever held.
She had believed that if she only stood in a high place and cried out for love and peace, that light would somehow find its way down into the abyss.
But she understood now.
Light cannot reach the abyss on its own.
Not unless someone is willing to leap down into it and set themselves on fire.
Just as the Holy Emperor's inner world was in violent upheaval —
A figure drew near.
The blind girl, who had been awkwardly patting the Holy Emperor in comfort, also went still.
Because in the field of vision that had shown her nothing but endless black — a light had appeared.
Not ordinary light.
But an extraordinarily warm and gentle golden radiance. The kind that felt as though it could pierce through every barrier and shine directly into the depths of the soul.
Warm and soft.
Like the midday winter sun she sometimes managed to stand in on the coldest days of the year — except warmer than that by a thousandfold.
And that light moved as though it were alive, tracing a blurred human silhouette in the darkness of her world.
"Is it an angel?"
The blind girl stared upward in a daze, her bandaged eyes turning toward the source of the light.
"Am I... already dead?"
She murmured quietly.
Because — if she hadn't died and gone to heaven, how could she possibly be seeing something like this?
Other than the angels said to come and guide departed souls, what else could it be?
Hearing that utterly childlike guess, a helpless expression crossed Haimer's face.
"An angel?"
"Why is it that children in this world always insist on comparing me to an angel?"
Of course.
Complaint duly noted and filed away.
Haimer didn't dwell on it.
His fingertip lightly tapped the empty air.
A thread of pale golden Divine Power seeped from his fingertip, drifting like a tendril of spun gold into the depths of the blind girl's eye sockets — still wrapped in their old, grimy bandages.
The next second.
Hum——
A ripple passed through the air.
The solidified, deformed mass of metal that had been packed into the girl's eye sockets — under the wash of that thread of Divine Power — dissolved in an instant.
Dead nerves began to regenerate. Shriveled tissue swelled back to fullness.
Whoosh.
A gentle breeze passed through.
The bandages coiled around the blind girl unraveled on their own, drifting slowly away into the distance.
The blind girl blinked — a little dazed.
Long lashes trembled. Then, slowly, her eyes opened.
"I... I can see..."
She held out both hands, staring at her own dirty palms in disbelief.
She could actually see.
Then she raised her head.
The very first thing her eyes fell upon was the big sis holding her tight — dressed in that gorgeous gown, face streaked with tears.
That short silver hair shimmered with a radiance so beautiful it didn't seem like it could belong to a real person.
"The... the Holy Emperor?!"
The words spilled from the newly-sighted girl's lips in a whisper, her eyes wide as saucers.
That a blind girl, the very moment her sight was restored, had recognized her at a single glance —
The Holy Emperor felt a shock of genuine surprise that, just for a moment, made her forget to cry.
After all. She was the ruler of this region. But for a blind girl who had been living at rock bottom — one who might never have even been able to watch a television — this was nothing short of astounding.
"You... you know who I am?"
"Mm."
"I don't quite understand why I can suddenly see... but before, whenever I came here to beg, I could always hear Holy Emperor's voice coming from the big screens on the street."
"I asked my friends who could see what Holy Emperor looked like..."
"They said Holy Emperor had hair the color of snow, and wore a white dress, and was the most beautiful person in the whole world..."
"And... everyone said Holy Emperor was a truly great person. That she was always protecting us..."
"But now that I can see you for myself... Holy Emperor is even more beautiful than I imagined..."
The girl's sudden, point-blank compliment made the Holy Emperor — who had only just been weeping inconsolably — flush a faint red.
But.
The next second. When the girl turned her head and her gaze landed on Haimer, standing to one side —
Instantly.
Her eyes went even wider. Her little mouth fell open. As though she were looking at something even more impossible than what had come before.
"The... the Angel-sama... is even more beautiful than I imagined too..."
Haimer: "..."
So it's still angel, then?
That title isn't going away, is it?
Haimer let out a wry, helpless laugh.
But then again.
What was the point of arguing over a form of address with a child a few years old?
What an endearing little creature, after all.
Despite everything she had been made to suffer. Despite being treated with such unthinkable cruelty. She still managed to hold onto this much innocence. Still managed to let out genuine, heartfelt wonder at the simple miracle of seeing the world again.
A child like this had no business being left to rot forgotten in some corner. No business being made into a sacrifice for this broken world.
And her utterly childlike reaction stirred something even deeper in the Holy Emperor standing beside him.
"Starting today, I will take care of you."
With that said.
The Holy Emperor pulled the blind girl's frail body back into her arms, heedless of the grime covering her.
And this time, her arms did not tremble. Her voice was steady and unbreakable.
Like a vow that could only be kept at the cost of one's life.
"Really?"
"Holy Emperor... is going to adopt me?"
The girl's body went stiff. She asked in careful, tentative words, a flicker of desperate hope flashing through her newly-opened eyes — only to dim again almost immediately, as though she were afraid this was nothing but a beautiful dream.
"But... it's not just me..."
"I still have a little sister."
"She's really small and really scared and she doesn't dare let strangers see her. Right now she's waiting for me in the drainage pipes in the Outer District... If I don't go back for her, she'll definitely starve to death all alone..."
"I have to bring food back to my sister..."
And besides.
The girl touched her own hollow, aching stomach.
Even if her eyes had been restored.
The hunger was still there.
She knew this, with a particular, bone-deep clarity.
Out in the Outer District.
Food was more precious than almost anything.
Every scrap they ate was brought back by her and the others who dared to leave the Outer District each day.
Even when everyone looked out for each other, when none of them had enough to fill their own stomachs — the amount that could be spared for her little sister was pitiful beyond words.
Maybe half a rotten apple.
Maybe nothing at all.
Her little sister in particular was always hiding in dark corners, too shy to come out. Without someone specifically watching over her, she truly would starve to death.
Just imagining her sister curled up in a cold, wet drainage pipe, shaking with hunger —
The joy of having her sight restored was washed away in an instant.
If she were going to go live well somewhere while leaving her sister behind.
She would rather go back to that dark, damp, foul-smelling drainage pipe and go hungry there with her instead.
As long as they were together. That was enough.
"Don't worry."
"The food — I'll handle it."
"No matter how many children there are. No matter how much everyone needs..."
"I will find a way."
"I will bring everyone out of there."
"You don't need to worry about your sister starving. You don't need to worry about anyone going hungry."
"I promise!"
The Holy Emperor seemed to understand everything the girl had left unspoken.
Something seized her heart, tight and fierce.
She pulled the girl into her arms again — even tighter than before, as though she were trying to pour every last scrap of warmth from her own body into this child.
If the Holy Residence couldn't hold them all, she would convert the grand banquet halls — built for extravagant parties — into dormitories.
If the budget fell short, she would sell every last piece of couture clothing and fine jewelry she owned — the ones she could never wear through in a lifetime — and convert them into funds.
In any case.
As the ruler of this land —
If she could not even fulfill the most humble of wishes — the wish that her people could eat their fill — then what face did she have to sit in this seat?
What right did she have to call herself the Holy Emperor?!
At the same moment.
Haimer could clearly feel it — the Holy Emperor's soul was changing.
However.
Just as the Holy Emperor had finished making her vow —
"Got you! Don't run! You little wretch!"
A rough, furious shout exploded from nearby.
Tearing apart the fragile, precious atmosphere that had only just begun to form.
Slap-slap-slap-slap...
Rapid footsteps.
The wet, percussive sound of bare feet striking filthy pavement.
Heavy, ragged breathing. Growing louder. Coming from a side alley not far away.
Haimer had already seen what was ahead.
The Holy Emperor looked in the same direction.
And saw —
In the shadowed mouth of a nearby alley.
A tiny figure — wearing a battered cap, even dirtier than the blind girl had been — came stumbling and careening out of the darkness.
She was another Cursed Child.
Long hair hanging loose. Wearing a tattered short-sleeved shirt and cutoff jeans she'd clearly fished from some garbage bin, both covered in smears of grime and dried mud.
The worn cap was pulled down low, as though she were trying to hide her eyes from the world.
But —
Even so.
The faint crimson glimmer peeking from beneath that battered cap gave her away.
Right now.
This tiny figure was pumping her thin legs with everything she had, sprinting toward them in a desperate, headlong dash.
Clutched to her chest, with both arms locked around it like it was the most important thing in existence — was a dented can of meat. The label was worn to the point of illegibility.
Some variety of cheap luncheon meat, by the looks of it.
But in her eyes, it might as well have been the most precious treasure in the world.
For that can of meat.
She had clearly pushed herself to her absolute limit. One of her too-big, already-falling-apart shoes had been lost somewhere along the way, and her bare foot was hitting the rough ground with every stride, already scored with dozens of small cuts from broken pavement.
Every step left a faint, smeared blood print on the ground behind her.
But it didn't slow her down even a fraction.
In fact, with the pursuers right behind her, she was running even harder.
Because behind her —
Two uniformed patrol officers, batons raised, were giving chase with furious, breathless curses.
"Stop right there! You stole from us and you have the nerve to run?!"
"You little monster-spawn! Don't let me catch you!"
"When I get my hands on you I'm going to break both your legs!"
The officers' shouts scraped through the vibrant commercial street like nails on metal.
The bystanders who had been enjoying the nightlife turned their heads at the commotion.
Some surprised. Some disgusted. Some indifferent.
But not a single one sympathetic.
Most of them caught a glimpse of those red eyes, wrinkled their noses in revulsion, and parted like a tide to clear the path — moving away from her the way you'd move away from walking garbage.
A rat crossing the street. Everyone calls for its death.
Even stealing a single can of food to survive was apparently an unforgivable capital crime.
The cap girl was already beyond all rational planning.
She hadn't expected that simply prying open a locked garbage bin to rummage for food inside could get her chased down like this.
She had no time to read the terrain ahead. There was only one thought hammering over and over inside her skull:
Run.
Run faster.
Do not get caught.
Because if she got caught —
She would be beaten to death.
And even if they didn't beat her to death — she'd be thrown into one of those horrible detention centers, and she'd never see everyone again.
____
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