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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: The Mind's Eye
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A moment later, the commotion died down.
"Ah, that feels good..."
At the sound of the supervisor's voice, Loan opened his eyes as well.
The supervisor, having beaten the bald man to a pulp, rose to his feet with a look of relief.
Then, he looked over the children.
Balder, too, slowly got up, clutching his face and trembling. Blood streamed from his nose, dripping through his fingers.
Stomping on the bald man's face, the supervisor asked.
"Was it this bastard?"
Balder couldn't answer.
To tell the truth, he would have to admit he'd come into the alley to steal Loan's begging bowl.
That would only earn him another beating.
As Balder hesitated, Loan answered for him.
"Yes. He dragged us here and suddenly..."
The ones surprised by his answer were the other children.
He could have easily snitched, but he didn't.
From Loan's perspective, there seemed to be no real benefit in the supervisor knowing the truth.
Balder wasn't scary anymore. Neither were the other children.
It seemed better to avoid any blame than to give the truly terrifying supervisor a reason to pick on him.
As expected, the supervisor seemed to accept it easily.
After staring at Loan for a moment, the supervisor asked everyone.
"Did he take anything?"
Instead of answering, the children pushed forward the begging bowls they had set down in the corner.
As he inspected them, the supervisor was startled to see Loan's.
"What's this? You earned all this in one morning?"
"Yes, sir."
Impressed, the supervisor suddenly ruffled Loan's hair.
"Good job. For this much, you should have held out even if it killed you. You've got some grit, kid."
Since the supervisor had only seen Loan standing before the other children and confronting the gang, it was a reasonable misunderstanding.
With the situation sorted, the supervisor sent the children back to their spots.
To him, the bloody incident from moments ago was nothing more than a trivial event.
Clink-!
In the afternoon, Loan once again filled his begging bowl with his exceptional charm, and only boarded the carriage home as the sun began to set.
For some reason, the children all seemed to want to sit far away from Loan, a starkly different scene from the morning.
Balder, his face wrapped in bandages, even avoided Loan's gaze.
The supervisor, watching this unfold with great interest, spoke to the children.
"Alright, alright, let's report today's earnings."
Inside the rattling carriage, the children held out their begging bowls.
The supervisor drove his fist into the stomachs of the children whose earnings were low. They crumpled over in extreme pain.
Now, it was Loan's turn.
The supervisor was astonished by the amount of money Loan had brought in.
"How in the world did you manage this?"
"I just sat still."
"Well, you did seem to be doing just that..."
He had checked on Loan from time to time, just in case Manson's gang showed up again, and it was just as the boy said.
In truth, sitting still is an incredibly difficult thing to do, especially for young children.
But Loan remained rooted to his spot, not moving a muscle. It was the same every time the supervisor passed by.
His tranquil appearance was enough to bring to mind a meditating swordsman or mage.
In any case, it was baffling that he had earned so much without actively begging.
"I guess even begging works better if you're good-looking."
The supervisor let out a pointless sigh, checked the rest of the earnings, and then leaned back and began to doze off.
Watching the supervisor sway naturally with the movement of the carriage, Loan closed his eyes as well.
Thanks to this, Loan was able to observe the supervisor up close from his seat across from him.
'Ah… why is he like that?'
His eyes weren't mistaken.
There was something different about him compared to the other people he had seen passing by.
It was murky.
If black light existed, this would be it. The supervisor's aura of light was closer to darkness than brightness.
And the aura's concentration seemed thicker around his lower abdomen.
It was as if the light had been artificially gathered there.
Loan was incredibly curious if this was somehow related to the movement of the aura he had seen earlier, but.
He didn't have the courage to wake the supervisor and ask.
* * *
The events of Loan's day became the talk of the town, both inside and out.
First off, the director's mouth was split in a wide grin.
"See? I have a good eye for these things."
Separating him from Pauline turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
The income Loan brought in had far exceeded expectations.
Seeing the director's unusual delight, his wife chided him.
"It's still just pocket change, isn't it? With so many expenses, you're happy over that little amount?"
A few years ago, after the monarchy was reformed, their funding from the royal family was completely cut off.
Faced with a bleak future, the director had found various ways to survive—sponsorships, auctions, merchandise production, and bazaars—but he never let go of begging, the shelter's foundation.
His wife continued to press him.
"Why not send him to the recitals instead? With a face like that, I'm sure he'd be quite popular."
"He's just an uneducated commoner, no matter how good-looking. When would we have the time to teach him to read and send him out?"
"It's an investment. If we manage him like a valuable asset from an early age, it could bear greater fruit later on."
"Nonsense. So we just feed and house him for nothing in the meantime? We have to collect every penny. No matter how young he is, he needs to be worked hard until he comes of age. Our supervisor will manage him just fine."
Dismissing his wife's words, the director turned to the supervisor of District 1.
"Keep a special eye on our Loan. That boy's face is his talent, his money."
"As a matter of fact, Manson's gang was sniffing around today, so I taught them a lesson."
"Hmm... is that so? Well, I'm sure you handled it. You're in a different league from those vagrants, after all."
"It'll increase my profits too, so don't you worry."
"Hmm. Then perhaps I should change Loan's living quarters?"
The director tilted his head, muttering to himself.
He was already aware that Loan was being bullied by the other children, but he hadn't paid it much mind when he was with Pauline.
Back then, the harmony between mother and son, or Pauline's performance, was what mattered.
If Loan had a scar on his face, that would simply be used as another tool to evoke sympathy.
But now that the value of his face alone was paramount, he had to think differently.
The supervisor helped him decide.
"I don't think that will be necessary. From what I saw today, it looks like the pecking order has been established."
"Ah, is that so?"
"Yes. He's more likely to be the one doing the hitting than getting hit, I'd say."
Just as the supervisor said, the atmosphere in Dormitory Room 1 was markedly different from usual.
The children who worked in other districts had heard the news from the District 1 kids.
"Balder's nose was completely flattened, you know?"
"They say he slammed him to the ground with his eyes closed."
"But that guy's a whole head taller than him, isn't he?"
"For whatever reason, he must have been hiding his strength all this time. They say he even stood up to Manson's gang."
"That's insane."
"But the really amazing thing is..."
He hadn't snitched to the supervisor, and had even covered for Balder.
Even after subtracting the embellishments, it was mostly a tall tale.
But the children couldn't help but believe it.
Because even though the gossip was clearly audible, the notoriously foul-tempered Balder didn't say a word in protest, and Loan was openly displaying his abilities.
"Look at Loan. He's got his eyes closed even now!"
"Maybe it's a warning not to mess with him?"
Amidst the murmuring, Loan was deeply focused.
He had been this way ever since returning to the dormitory.
After confirming that the other children saw him differently, he had completely let his guard down.
He wanted to understand everything he had seen from the supervisor as quickly as possible.
'The murky color was one thing. What was more fascinating was how the aura of light rippled like a wave when the supervisor fought. It also looked thick, as if he had deliberately stored the light in his lower abdomen.'
How did he do it? Why did it move? How did he make the aura's concentration so dense?
He was full of questions, but it was difficult to just go and ask.
For one, the supervisor was as terrifying as his face suggested, and there seemed to be no need to let anyone else know that he could see these auras of light.
In a pinch, Loan thought of another way.
He slowly opened his eyes and looked around.
The children who met his gaze flinched and trembled. Loan spoke.
"Um... I have a favor to ask. Could you all line up in a single, wide row in front of me?"
His tone was remarkably calm and polite.
The children just blinked, unable to move. A whirlwind of thoughts spun in their minds.
This time, Loan singled out one person and stared intently at him.
"You don't want to?"
Hearing the same words he had said to Loan thrown back at him.
Balder rose to his feet without thinking. He was hurt and afraid.
As Balder moved, the other children followed suit.
When nearly twenty children stood in a long line in the dormitory.
"Thank you."
Across from them, Loan sat serenely on his bed and closed his eyes.
Then he slowly observed the children, one by one.
At a glance, they all looked more or less the same, but upon closer inspection, each one's aura of light was different in size, shape, feel, and density.
Still, none of them had an aura as murky as the supervisor's, nor was it concentrated in their lower abdomen.
Why was that?
Making sure he hadn't missed anything, Loan looked them over again and again.
He had to observe and constantly ponder, but Loan didn't mind the process. In fact, he found it immensely enjoyable.
Who knew that having something to be interested in could be this much fun!
'This feels good.'
A beautiful, radiant smile formed on his face without him even realizing it.
But with his eyes still closed, it looked incredibly frightening to the other children.
Each of them trembled violently.
One of them even wet himself, too afraid to raise a hand and ask to be excused.
And so, in a single day.
Contrary to his own intentions, Loan had become the most feared person in the dormitory.
* * *
Aside from life in the dormitory, Loan's daily routine was no different than before.
Waking up half-asleep, moving to his district, begging all day, and returning to the shelter.
But to Loan, every day felt new. It was a continuous stream of enjoyment.
Because the time he spent begging was a time for study, a process of enlightenment.
'Why is the supervisor different?'
He was a delightful toy that never got boring, a puzzle that remained unsolved even after days.
Loan studied the people coming and going, trying to find commonalities and differences.
Various hypotheses formed in his mind, and he continued his exploration by asking himself questions and finding the answers.
However.
"That damn kid is just sitting there again."
The supervisor, who had been watching the situation for several days, also found Loan to be very strange.
To have that much patience at such a young age was remarkable. The suspicion he had briefly laughed off refused to disappear.
If anything, it continued to grow.
"Has he learned something?"
The supervisor decided to see how Loan would react.
He bent down, scooped up a bit of mud from the street, and hid himself in the passing crowd.
Then, without using his shoulder, he flicked his forearm sideways, flinging the mud at Loan across the street.
Splat-!
The mud landed squarely on Loan's forehead. He flinched as if startled and opened his eyes.
Secretly watching Loan wipe the dirt with his hand.
'Hmm...'
The supervisor decided his suspicion had been excessive.
A while later, he appeared before Loan and said with a frown.
"You, what happened to your face?"
"I don't know. Maybe it splashed from a carriage..."
In truth, he had already seen the supervisor's uniquely murky aura moving through the crowd, and he had seen him throw something.
But Loan had found it difficult to guess his intention, so he had simply let the mud hit him.
He still didn't know the reason. Was it just a mean-spirited prank, or some kind of test?
But seeing the supervisor's reaction now, it seemed he had done the right thing.
"Tsk, tsk. Your face needs to be bright and clean for the money to come in. Go over there, look in the mirror, and wipe it off."
Normally, they would deliberately smudge the begging children's faces with soot, but Loan was a different case.
He was a strange beggar who earned more money when he was clean than when he was dirty.
Following the supervisor's instructions, Loan headed toward the shopping arcade and looked at the mirror on the wall of a boutique.
As he stared blankly at his own reflection and wiped his face.
A thought suddenly occurred to Loan.
'Could I see myself with my mind's eye?'
It didn't seem impossible.
The mind's eye isn't a physical eye, after all.
Shifting his perception, Loan slowly closed his eyes.
It was no different from what he always did, but this time, the focus was different.
From 'the world' to 'myself'.
His consciousness narrowed from a wide scope to a single point.
Like pulling a distant view up close.
Directing his mind's eye downward from the top of his head, Loan saw himself.
'It works...'
Now that I can see myself, I can compare myself to the supervisor and the others. I can even try to reproduce that rippling aura of light.
He didn't know how yet, but this was where he would start.
Loan was so happy he could have jumped for joy.
The emotion showed plainly on his face.
"Well, well. Look at you."
Startled, Loan opened his eyes to see the supervisor standing right behind him, smirking at his reflection in the mirror.