“Zerod, Kairas, make sure you don’t do anything disrespectful to the other nobles. As for you Nova, just greet them. Nothing more.”
My father had never expected anything from me.
“Good for you, Nova. You get to take it easy. But when we get back, you’d better train with me. I’ve been looking for a good way to blow off some steam.”
My eldest brother hated me because I was weak.
“…………”
My second brother didn’t even bother speaking to someone as worthless as me.
I had been born into one of the kingdom’s most prestigious noble families, yet I possessed not a single talent worth mentioning.
There’s no place where that fact was made more painfully clear than when I am with my family.
Even now, we had come all the way to the Royal Capital. But unlike my brothers, who were constantly showered with expectations by Father and the other adults, no one expected anything from me.
And being there, surrounded by all of them, was unbearable.
So, I ran away.
Just like I always did when I locked myself away in my room at the estate. Just like I did whenever I claimed I was going out to clear my head and wandered into town.
I ran away from it all.
It was the season when snow fell lightly from the sky. The Royal Capital is chilly at night, cold enough to make both my body and my heart tremble. I had run as though I were trying to escape from my family, but after a moment, I realized that there is no reason to run at all and slowed my pace.
There is no way my family would come after me.
Well, I hadn’t expected them to…
But realizing that expectation had become reality still hurt.
With my heart weighed down, I wandered into a back alley. I wasn’t sure what kind of shop it belonged to, but various things had been haphazardly piled up around the place.
And there, in the middle of it all, a tiny snowman trembled as though it might collapse at any moment. The moment I stepped into the deserted alley, the snowman seemed to greet me. Leaning against the wall, it looked almost as if it were burying its face, crying.
“What are you doing out here?”
Perhaps it was because there was no one else around—just me and the snowman—those words left my mouth before I even had time to think.
Then—
The snowman moved. It twitched at the sound of my voice and it slowly raised its head.
A girl around my age, her eyes swollen from crying. She looked up at me through tear-filled eyes. Her gray eyes gleamed beautifully beneath the falling snow. Along with the snow that had settled on her hood, strands of black hair fell softly down, dark as the night.
“.……..”
Something about the way the snowman—no, the girl—looked made me feel that something was seriously wrong.
Without asking permission, I sat down beside her.
I don’t have anywhere else to go. And there was no family waiting to come after me either. So I suppose this place was exactly where I needed to be. Even after I sat down beside her, she said nothing, just like the silent snowman she had appeared to be.
“Do you not want to go home?”
“…………”
She gave a single, quiet nod.
“I don’t want to go home either. Everyone keeps calling me a failure.”
“…A failure?”
Her voice sounded as delicate as a bell.
“Yeah… My family is pretty strict. But I’m terrible at everything, so they all gave up on me.”
“…I’m the same.”
When I turned my head, she was looking at me.
Her gray eyes were fixed directly on mine, and I could even see my own reflection in them.
A boy who didn’t want to go home, his face filled with pain, was reflected in the eyes of a girl who looked just as miserable.
“I can’t control my magic at all… I either can’t use it whatsoever, or, if I can, it runs wild. So my family told me to just… stop doing anything.”
“I see… So that’s what happened.”
It felt the same. I was the only one in my family who couldn’t use Haki—the power passed down through our bloodline—even in the slightest. Because of that, they had decided I had no future.
As for her, she had been abandoned by her family because she couldn’t control her magic.
“We’re… the same, aren’t we?”
“…Yeah… We are.”
I had thought I was carrying a burden that no one could ever understand. But meeting someone who was suffering through the same thing made me happy. I think she must have felt the same way, because she answered me with a smile.
It was a weak, awkward little smile, as though she barely had the strength for it.
But it was still a smile.
“H-hey… Are you okay?”
“I-I’m fine… It’s… it happens all the time…”
I realized that this was the magical outburst she had been talking about.
But back then, I had no idea what I was supposed to do.
Even so, I couldn’t just stand there and watch. I moved around in front of her and took both of her hands in mine.
I hadn’t thought it through at all. I simply acted on impulse, shouting out the first words that came to mind. Words my kind mother, who was no longer with us, had said to me only a handful of times when I was little.
“You can’t do that!”
Looking back, I really was just a child.
I didn’t do anything to stop the magic rampaging inside her. All I could do was scold her, relying on nothing but my words.
As if yelling at magic would actually accomplish anything.
But this time, a miracle happened.
The pained expression on her face gradually softened. The cold sweat that had gathered on her forehead disappeared, and her tightly shut eyelids slowly opened.
For the first time, we looked directly into each other’s eyes from such a close distance. Those gray eyes that, only moments ago, had reflected the pathetic boy who felt unrecognized and unable to connect with anyone…
To me, they looked like they were shining.
—Beautiful.
I remember thinking that very clearly.
The look of surprise on her face was something I would remember just as vividly.
“Th-thank you…”
“Are you really okay? Does anything still hurt?”
“Y-Yeah. I’m really okay… I feel fine now. It’s almost like nothing happened.”
I let go of her hands and breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed like we’d managed to avoid the worst.
“I’m glad. It sounds like it wasn’t too serious of an outburst after all.”
“Mmm… I guess so…”
She smiled as she said it, but there was something about her expression that suggested she wasn’t entirely convinced.
Just as I was about to ask her what was wrong—
“Nova-sama!”
I heard the call signaling that my time was up.
“Oh no! It’s Tanya! Sorry, I have to go!”
If she caught me, she’d drag me right back to my family. I didn’t want that. I wanted to keep running away, even if it was only for a little longer, so I hurriedly got to my feet.
I think part of me also realized that if I stayed here any longer, I’d only end up causing trouble for the girl.
I turned to run—
But she suddenly grabbed my hand.
“Wait!”
She yanked my arm so hard I thought my shoulder was about to pop out of its socket.
“Gueh!”
I let out a pathetic noise as I turned around.
I was about to complain, but when I saw her looking up at me, the words died in my throat.
“Your name… is Nova?”
“Ah? Oh, yes, that’s right. And you?”
“I’m Shia.”
“I see… Well, I’m glad we managed to calm down your magical outburst somehow. Anyway, I’m in a hurry, so I’ve gotta go! Sorry!”
“Ah!”
The moment her grip loosened, I pulled my arm free and started running toward the back alleys.
By then, all I could think about was getting away from Tanya.
“Nova-kun! Thank you!”
The girl stood up and called out her thanks.
I wasn’t entirely sure what she was thanking me so much for, but I turned around anyway.
“Yeah! See you again!”
I waved as I said it.
We had only met by chance in a city I happened to visit.
I didn’t even know if there would ever be a next time.
And yet, I said it anyway.
× × ×
Even now, I remember that boy running away as though his life depended on it. I can recall every detail of his retreating figure as clearly as if it had happened yesterday.
That snowy day in the Royal Capital, I watched a boy named Nova disappear into the distance.
After I could no longer see him, I looked down at the palm of my hand.
That was when I noticed something strange.
No…
At the time, I didn’t know it was something strange. It simply felt strange. A strange sensation I couldn’t explain.
“Nova… kun…”
In the years that followed, as I grew into adulthood, I would eventually come to understand what had happened to me that day.
And as I did, the feelings I had for him only grew stronger.
But everything began at this very moment.
From that time on, his presence was carved into my heart—a heart that had previously been empty.
It was etched there—so vast, so immense, that there was no room left for anything else.
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeneijiworks.com
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