NOVEL NEXT Chapter 3
**Chapter 3.**
Belia.
Ah, a creation cursed by the times.
What is contained in those ash-gray hair and ash-gray eyes is nothing but emptiness.
You will never be loved by anyone throughout your life and will perish amid the scorn and persecution of many.
A cursed child, conceived from the blood of a demon and abandoned even by your mother.
The path before you, stained with ash, will be filled only with thorny roads.
Thus.
Not even a handful of light has been granted to you.
Do not even hope for trivial hope.
Only death will be your salvation.
– Excerpt from 【Episode□□. The Cursed Child】 –
********
No.
“…, you foolish child.”
The girl lying sprawled in the alley, looking even more of an extra than I was.
The faded ash-gray hair and the murky ash-gray eyes. Only now did I remember to whom those characteristics belonged.
The ash-gray Witch.
You could accurately say she is the calamity of the Empire.
That frail and powerless little orphan girl, in such a wretched and shabby appearance.
She would one day become a witch, bringing danger to the Empire.
I thought she was just a typical orphan when I saw her disheveled appearance.
But that small girl was not merely an extra like me, assigned no role, but rather a calamity that would become a trial for the Hero and the Holy Girl.
In this world, in this novel, it was clearly written that only two individuals in the current era bore ash-gray roles.
And I was the fool who remembered this fact only after returning home.
“Son, it’s good to feel remorse, but where did you learn such bad words?”
Ah.
“…, I’m sorry.”
Moreover, I was currently bearing the wrath of my mother, who believed she would never see me again, as tears streamed down her face.
“Keep your hand up straight. I’m still angry, you know.”
“….”
Yes.
I clamped my mouth shut and, following my mother’s firm words, pressed my trembling hand closer to my ear.
I teased her for being childish, but this time it was truly my fault.
To be honest, I never imagined she would come running to the Missing Child Center and embrace me while sobbing.
As I pondered how to avoid getting scolded too much, that sight painfully pricked at my conscience.
“Son, your hand is slowly coming down.”
“Ah, no, it’s not….”
So.
As a son, I had to endure it, even if it felt like I was dying.
No, but.
Honestly, it wasn’t entirely my fault for losing hold of my hand.
“You look like you have a complaint, son.”
“…, how could that be?”
Yeah, it was undoubtedly my fault.
My mother cried so much her eyes swelled, and if I said otherwise, that wouldn’t be human.
But then.
“What.”
“…, I didn’t say anything.”
What could a sinner say?
I should just be quiet and keep my hand up.
Unjust, so unjust.
********
What should I do?
I was mulling over the ash-gray girl for a long time.
When she was still young and weak.
When she was just a vulnerable figure sprawled in an alley, barely clinging to life.
Even when she wasn’t yet a calamity, I wondered if there was anything I could do.
It wasn’t that I felt pity or sympathy for the ash-gray girl.
While I couldn’t completely say I had no such feelings, the truth was I was worried about my parents, who remained here while I traveled away when she became the Empire’s calamity.
Even if this world was a novel, I didn’t wish for those who raised me to die.
Therefore.
This was a matter of me, with no role, finding a new part for myself.
Before I obtained the role of a traveler after growing a bit more, perhaps another role that would give meaning to my life until then.
That was.
My free choice, as I was in a blank state, pondering since I recognized the existence of the ash-gray girl.
I knew a bit about the ash-gray Witch’s life from a side story.
If left alone, the Witch would not see light until the moment she welcomed her death.
That was the role and enforced mission assigned to her in this world.
Despite her pitiful appearance, she received no help from adults.
She was left to endure in a corner with nothing, yet bullied by children.
Once she gained power like a miracle after enduring the world’s hatred, she would be treated as a calamity and hunted down by the Hero and the Holy Girl.
She would become a lunatic who smiles brightly while actually killing the Empire’s citizens, so it wasn’t wrong to call her a calamity.
That was what being ash-gray meant in this world.
The ash-gray Witch’s role was to suffer pain from the moment of birth to the moment of death, weeping, and then fading away.
As a character in the novel, she would shine light on the main characters and then gloriously die, simply ending her life as villain number one.
Even when the Hero and the Holy Girl learned about the poor little girl’s story too late, it wouldn’t end well for the Witch, who would die split in half by the Hero’s sword.
Perhaps when read as text, it might just be a story to nod along to, but now that it had become reality, it evoked strange emotions.
It was akin to the laws of the world.
Thus, I was.
Contemplating whether I could handle such an important scene as an extra, I continued to ponder.
After much deliberation, I ultimately concluded that I should revisit the girl.
Finally, my mom’s anger had subsided, and with my numb arm dangling, I had somewhat reflected.
So, I assigned myself the important role of monitoring the sprout of calamity.
“…, Mom.”
“No.”
“I haven’t even said anything yet…?”
“I thought about it, and you’re grounded from going out for a while.”
What now.
Is this the role of the villain?
“Um, Mom. I just wanted to say I want to go out for a walk….”
“It’s okay. I think outside is dangerous until you grow a bit more, so I’ll hold off too.”
“….”
No, that seems excessive.
I never thought I’d hear my mother, who loves going on walks with me, say she would hold off on that as well.
Naturally, my plan was to naturally browse through the alley during the walk.
With that intention, I cautiously spoke to my mother.
“Then how much bigger do I need to be to go out…?”
“Hmm, I think it would be good for our son to go out after he turns one year older. That should be fine, right, Ain?”
“….”
“Does our son not want to answer?”
No, seriously.
I’m not sure if leaving that girl in the alley for a whole year is okay, you know?
Thus, I did my best to persuade to go outside, but I may have lost to something that could be considered a narrative device.
The roles assigned to you and me.
The compulsion of following a mother as a young child.
The interaction of this mother-child relationship truly.
Though I have constant doubts, I can’t bring myself to reject it.
Being pulled towards my mother’s embrace, where I had struggled hard, I would stop resisting the moment I felt her warmth and ultimately agree.
“Son.”
At the call infused with maternal love, I pouted my lips but eventually responded with affection as well.
“…, yes.”
“Mom is scared.”
“I’m sorry.”
Even as I tried to ignore the trembling hands that embraced me, reflecting on the past five years with this woman made it hard to overlook even the smallest of things.
“I know you’re more mature than other kids, but you’re still my first child, precious, and way too young.”
“…, I understand.”
How can a parent care for their child so deeply?
That had always been my question in my previous life, but even after becoming an extra in a novel with no established background, I still found myself pondering it.
“I truly won’t keep you from going out until you’re six. For now, let’s stay home with Mom, okay?”
“Okay.”
So ultimately, I nestled into that cozy embrace, nodded, and slowly drifted off to sleep.
Even as I closed my eyes and gradually became hazy, the hand stroking my back was gentle and warm.
And then.
I found myself reflecting once more.
This love.
This affection poured out towards me.
What is this emotion, given as much as my parents in my previous life?
Could this be another established setting in the novel?
Or is it the genuine feelings of that couple?
Over the past five years.
I continued to harbor such questions.
********
In the alley where even the air had darkened, there was a single writhing figure.
Clinging tightly to clothes that resembled rags, she moved to hold the rotten plank tightly to endure the cold.
Around that plank, small stone fragments lay scattered.
Although she was just a little girl who had done nothing wrong, the passing children would throw stones at her and torment her as if it were all natural.
Adults didn’t torment her as much, but if they happened to make eye contact, they would glare at her with disdain before walking away.
‘…, it hurts.’
If she happened to get hit on the head with a stone and received a wound, the pain would last for at least a fortnight, itching and becoming worse from scratching.
‘I’m hungry.’
There was no choice but to rummage through a garbage bin slightly outside the alley to find something to eat.
If lucky, she might find leftover pie or bread.
The girl looked up at the sky with her dull ash-gray eyes.
The light that poured down from the sky.
The intriguing song of the sky that echoed like a lullaby.
Her expression was vacant, as if she was reminiscing about it, but in reality, she recalled something else.
A boy whose name and age she did not know.
A small boy who appeared to be around her age.
‘He just passed by.’
There was someone who didn’t throw stones despite seeing her ash-gray hair and ash-gray eyes.
Someone who didn’t look upon her with contempt.
‘…, a curious person.’
It was only that he had merely ignored her and walked past.
The girl thought this and gave a slight nod for a moment.