I couldn’t say anything to Damian. “Even if I heal these wounds, they’ll just give me new ones.” That short remark was enough to show how harsh his life had been.

Resistance just brought more violence. The easiest path to avoid being hurt was to give up. It was a cruel lesson for such a young child to have learned already. I felt like there was a tight knot in my throat. “Still, it’ll be better than nothing.” I forced the ointment into his hand. “At least put it on later. It’ll make it hurt less.” Maybe I could have said something kinder, but that was all I could think of.

I left the room before he could say anything. Was he looking at me as I left? I wondered, but I couldn’t bear to look at his face. It resembled my own too much.

* * *

It was time to eat. We kids carried the stale bread, wilted salad, and tasteless soup that was mostly water into the dining hall. I looked around as I moved the cart, but Damian was nowhere to be seen. Was he still in that room? But dinner was about to start…

“What are you doing just standing there? Set the table!” an impatient teacher yelled at me as I quickly averted my eyes. “Sit down and eat in silence. You’re not allowed to talk while eating.”

We did as we were told and started to eat. As funny as it was, the kids at this orphanage were trained in the manners and speech of high society, so that the nobles who might adopt us one day wouldn’t have to go through the trouble of teaching us. That was how the orphanage came to be held in high regard by the aristocracy, a fact the director took great pride in.

The hall was silent except for the clinking of forks and spoons. I couldn’t eat much, and soon put down my spoon. No matter how I scanned my surroundings, I still couldn’t find Damian.

Is he going to skip this meal? But it was dinnertime. If he didn’t eat now, he’d go hungry until tomorrow. Or is it that...

“Ellie, aren’t you going to eat that?” asked Tommy from his seat next to mine, pointing to my uneaten piece of bread. “If you aren’t, can I have it?”

I glanced at it and whispered back, “No, you can’t.”

“Huh? But you’re not eating it!”

“I will, so hands off.”

He pouted at me. Any other day I would have let him have it, but this bread already belonged to someone. Though I didn’t know if he would take it…

* * *

After dinner, it was time to clean up. The kids hurried to take away the plates and cutlery they and the teachers had used. I was on kitchen duty today, but that wasn’t where I was going. Instead, I went back to the dormitory and carefully opened the door.

No one was inside the dark room. If he’s not here, where can he possibly be?

“What are you doing here?”

I turned to the familiar voice and found Carsen looking down at me.

“Why are you peeking at an empty room? Looking for a ghost?” he said, cracking an unfunny joke.

“No. I’m not afraid of ghosts.”

After all, the living were far scarier than the dead.

“Well, you’re not really afraid of anything,” he said with a nod. “But maybe that brat will be more scared than you are.”

“Who?”

“The new kid,” one of Carsen’s cronies replied from behind him. “I was listening in on the director. She said he used to be a slave before he came here.”

“They said he hunted monsters in the dark.”

“No way. How could that runt kill a monster?”

They all snickered as if they’d just told a great joke. I had a sinking feeling about this new development.

“Why? You interested in him, too?” Carsen frowned, unhappy about my attention toward Damian. He was always like that, endlessly tormenting the kids who were nice to me. A few kids were exceptions to that rule, but not even they could stay unharmed on days he was in a particularly foul mood.

“No.” I had no choice but to deny it. “I just came to see if Betty was here.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Besides, I think that boy’s in the warehouse now. I saw him on my way here,” I added with a smile.

Carsen looked at me doubtfully. “But the warehouse is off-limits to us kids. And it’s locked, too. How could he get in?”

“I saw the assistant teachers take him there.”

“What?”

“That place is full of good food. Maybe they’re sneaking him something tasty.” Carsen scowled at this. I went on innocently, “He wasn’t at dinner, remember? He must be getting special treatment. Look how he didn’t even have to work as soon as he arrived.”

Carsen stayed silent.

“Maybe the director likes him a lot?”

The real reason Damian wasn’t given work was his owner. The director was only keeping him temporarily, and she couldn’t work someone else’s slave without his master’s permission. But Carsen doesn’t know that. He also didn’t know that the only people in the warehouse right now were a couple of teachers enjoying a secret love affair.

Faking enthusiasm to provoke Carsen, I said, “You said he hunted monsters? He must be really strong. That’s so cool!”

“Excuse me?” Carsen glared with anger, just as I’d hoped. “No way! He’s too small to be strong! He didn’t even try to fight us back, he just froze!”

Others would call that “taking pity on you.” I swallowed that last comment and asked lightly, “Then you’re stronger than him?”

“O-of course!” He immediately perked up boastfully.

So easy. I took out the piece of bread I’d been hiding behind my back.

Carsen blinked stupidly at the unexpected gift. “What? Why, why are you…?”

“I just want to. I’m full, you see. You like bread, don’t you?” I said, leaning toward him.

Carsen blushed. “Well, yeah... Um, thanks...” he mumbled, clearing his throat. Then he and his goons went away, leaving me behind. They were definitely on his way to the warehouse.

I watched the idiots’ retreating backs for a moment, then turned. As I opened the window, a gush of cold wind hit my face. My feet felt the chill as I trudged through the thick snow, but I could handle it. I snuck behind a tree to keep watch.

“So he’s enjoying a decent meal alone, huh?”

Far away, I could see Carsen and his gang walk triumphantly into the warehouse. A few moments later, I heard the teachers bellow in rage. “You’re stealing again? You little devils!”

Children were not allowed in the warehouse. That was where all the food was kept, after all.

“No! We, We heard that kid was here, so...”

“Silence! Then how do you explain that bread in your hand?”

“Th-this is…” Carsen turned as pale as a ghost. Soon the teachers dragged him and his gang away.

Maybe you shouldn’t have lost your head over a piece of dry bread. “Idiot.” I laughed to my heart’s content, then got up.

The obstacles were gone, and now it was time to find the hero of the story. But he wasn’t in the room. I didn’t know what to do, but then I recalled what Carsen had said.

“He hunted monsters in the dark.”

Darkness. That was what the boy was most used to. So maybe...

I turned to look at the dark forest covered in snow.

* * *

My lantern shook and shuddered in the cold wind. Even grown-ups were reluctant to go into the forest at night. And then there was the heavy snow and the freezing wind.

I really hope he’s not there. I prayed, venturing forward. Sadly, my hunch was proven right. I soon found Damian leaning against a tree, hugging his knees and staring blankly into the dark without so much as a cloak or a blanket to cover him.

“Damian,” I said, moving closer. He still didn’t look at me. “You’ll freeze if you stay here. Get up.”

Damian made no reply.

“The teachers dragged off those bullies. You’ll be able to sleep in peace tonight.” He continued staring wordlessly into the dark. “Besides, you haven’t eaten anything.”

He just kept silent, as if he couldn’t hear me at all.

I bit my lip, then knelt down to look into his eyes. The soft light from my lantern cast a red glow on his black hair. “You’ll get sick if you stay.”

Still Damian remained silent and unmoving.

“You don’t want to go through catching a cold. You’ll feel awful.”

He finally looked up at me. His hair was slightly scattered in the wind, and I could see his eyes peer out from between unkempt locks. His gaze was steadfast. I flinched without knowing why.

His weak, tender voice left his blistered lips. “They’ll come back.”

“What?”

“They’re gone for now... but not for long. They’ll be back.”

Now I didn’t know what to say.

“I’m more comfortable here.” He stared into the darkness again.

I couldn’t say anything.

I remembered reading something similar in the story. His formal training had started after he was adopted by Duke Schuetz, but Damian was already exceptionally good with a sword. The duke asked him if he’d been taught before, to which he replied, “I had to learn in order to survive in the darkness.”

I’d thought that was a metaphor for his difficult childhood, but I was wrong. This was much more than a simple tragedy. This boy had locked himself away in the dark, claiming to be more comfortable there. He must’ve picked up a sword for the same reason. My grip on the lantern tightened.

But no one wants to be alone. I could feel something boiling inside me. I felt like screaming about the unfairness of it all, even though there was no one to blame in front of me. I stared at the darkness beyond the light of my lantern and shook my head. “No, they’re not coming back. Even if they do, they’ll be gone soon.”

Damian was silent again.

“I swear. I swear it on my life.”

Damian looked a little surprised to hear this, but I wasn’t lying. Carsen and his gang would be kicked out when Duke Schuetz came for Damian. And according to the original story I would’ve been one of them, fated to die on the streets. So I wasn’t lying when I said “on my life.”

But Damian was now looking at me with a strange look on his face.