Reaching out his hand, Ravian picked the black book off the shelf. He noticed that his hands were slightly trembling as he held the book.

He needed to open it to see the memory captured inside, but... it was hard.

Although he could only truly remember his memories through these books, he still had a vague idea of what those memories were about. Otherwise, he wouldn’t even be able to function as a person properly.

And this was the reason why he found it so hard to open the book. His vague memories were already messing with his emotions. He wasn’t sure he would be able to handle it.

Suddenly, he banged his head on the hard surface of the bookshelf.

’I have to do things properly! I can’t let my fear stop me!’

Suddenly feeling a rush of adrenaline, he finally opened the half-torn black book. And...

The emotions accompanying those memories hit him instantly, almost making him drop both books from his hands. A wave of sorrow washed over him as he felt a piercing pain in his chest. It was as though there were a needle inside his heart, stabbing him constantly.

His mind was too drowned and overwhelmed to think properly, so holding the two books in his two hands, he simply chose to mix the words from the white book and the emotions from the black book together and release them as an outlet.

In the real world, Ravian, who was still pressing both his hands against his forehead and letting out a pained cry, finally moved.

***

The crowd remained silent, with all of their eyes fixed on the boy as he cried in pain while clutching his forehead tightly.

Seeing him in so much agony, a young woman standing somewhere in the middle of the crowd felt a tightness in her chest. And she wasn’t alone, almost everyone watching the boy must’ve felt the same way.

’Why would someone... do this?’

Sure, like everyone else, she had also felt anger towards him after he spoke those hateful words, but she would never have gone so far as throwing a stone at him. He was only a child, after all.

Just then, the boy suddenly seemed to lose his balance and fell from the pile of wooden crates.

The people at the front of the crowd instinctively reached out their hands to catch him, but they were a little too late. The sound of impact rang clear as the boy fell to the ground.

The crowd became still, watching the boy silently as the woman slowly put her hands on her chest.

’Is he okay? That must’ve hurt badly...’

But under the crowd’s collective gaze, the boy slowly stood up with difficulty and dragged his body towards the shop’s entrance. Now standing in front of the shop’s door, the boy finally raised his head, causing several gasps from within the crowd.

There was a small wound on his forehead, most likely caused by that pebble, as two streams of blood flowed down his cheeks.

The boy’s eyes were red, and tears were rolling down his cheeks, mixing with the two streams of blood. All of it combined gave the illusion that the boy was crying tears of blood.

Everyone in the crowd could see the boy gritting his teeth hard.

Then, he spoke in a low voice.

"...You’re all evil."

There was complete silence for a moment or two, then he voiced those words again. But this time, it was a scream.

"You’re all EVIL!!!"

Nobody reacted to his words, nobody moved at all. They could all feel the deep, seething anger embedded in his scream. Nobody could find the courage to face that anger.

"I had... nobody to turn to, no one to ask for help... I could only sit in front of my sick older sister, unable to help her in any way. We never had parents; we only had each other. We were the only family the two of us had. But... I could only watch helplessly as colour slowly drained from her face each day."

They could all feel his sadness, his misery. They could somewhat feel the pain he would’ve gone through while watching his sister’s health deteriorate.

"None of you... Not a single one of you people came to help us! No one! The only one who... reached out his hand was Lord Velmar..."

The boy paused, trying to control his sobs.

"I was able to talk to my sister again, and I was able to see her smile. It was all thanks to Lord Velmar."

Then, the sorrow on his face disappeared. What took its place was... hatred.

"You are trying to destroy what he’s built with his blood and sweat?! You’d do that to the only person who ever showed me kindness?! I won’t let you!! You’ll all drag him away?! Over my dead body!!!"

The boy raised both his hands and spread them wide as he stood defensively in front of the shop’s entrance. His gaze, filled with hatred, remained locked on the crowd in front of him.

Clutching her chest tightly, a question emerged from the woman’s heart. A question she hadn’t thought she would ask herself.

’Am I... the bad person here? Were we the ones in the wrong?’

Several justifications and reasonings came to her mind, as if trying to clear away the emerging doubt. But the moment she looked at the boy, all those justifications crumbled inside her.

And as she looked around, she found that she wasn’t the only one feeling that doubt; everyone around her had a sour expression on their face as their eyes remained lowered.

A suffocating silence settled over the crowd. And that silence continued for quite a long time.

But then...

"I... can’t, I don’t think this is right."

Someone broke that suffocating silence; it was a middle-aged man. After saying that, he slowly turned and... parted from the crowd. After a while, he disappeared into the distance.

The people in the crowd looked at each other. And then...

"The kid spoke the truth. Velmar never wronged us in any way."

"He is just setting up a shop; we can simply choose not to buy his goods. It’s not right to destroy his shop."

"Velmar’s is known to be among the principled merchants. Maybe... we really were the criminals here."

One after another, people began breaking away from the crowd, making it slowly shrink in size. Some walked away after giving their justification, some simply moved away quietly, while some turned away after giving a look of apology to the one who had led them.

By the time the sun’s golden glow began to turn orange, the only ones still standing in front of the shop were the five muscular men who had stood at the front of the crowd.

All of them had a conflicted expression on their faces, as though they were unsure how to feel about the situation.

In the end, the man with the braided beard–the leader–let out a tired sigh.

"Looks like we failed."

The others didn’t respond to his words; they simply put their hands on his shoulder and flashed a small smile. Then they too walked away after one last glance at the boy still standing defensively in front of the door.

The boy was the only one now present in front of the shop, standing in silence.

Just then, someone emerged from behind a nearby wall. It was a boy with deep, jet-black hair and piercing grey eyes.

The boy walked forward, stopping right in front of the boy guarding the door. Then he opened his mouth and spoke in a flat tone.

"Ravian, you did well. No, you surpassed my expectations."

***

Not long after, Ravian once again stood in the office-like room within the shop. But this time, the atmosphere was significantly different from before.

All the people present in the room, besides Adrian and Velmar, had their eyes fixed on him. They were all giving him strange looks.

Just then, the young man came from the side and offered him a towel as well as something that looked like medicine.

As he saw the things he was being offered, he tilted his head. But soon, he came to realise...

’Oh, I forgot I am still bleeding from my forehead.’

Ravian took the towel and carefully wiped his face. When he looked at the towel after finishing, there were several patches of red on its surface. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

He applied the medicine to his forehead and then returned everything to the young man.

He then turned to Adrian, who was conversing with Velmar.

"Here, take this," Velmar handed something to Adrian. "Eleven silver for a thousand and a hundred lux. I have also added copper coins to make up for the difference in value caused by depreciation. You can count them if you wish."

Adrian didn’t even hesitate and began counting the coins in his hands. After finishing, he turned to Velmar and offered a light nod of acknowledgement.

"It was a pleasure doing business with you, sir. Now that everything is over, it is time we take our leave"

Then he turned to Ravian.

"Our work here is done, let’s go."

Ravian stood up from his chair, and the two of them walked towards the exit.

But just when they were about to open the door, Velmar’s heavy voice called out to them from behind.

"Wait just a moment."

The two of them paused and turned around. Velmar’s gaze was directed at Ravian.

"Boy, the sister you talked about... Is she okay? If not..."

For a brief moment, Ravian was unsure how to answer, but he simply offered a bright smile as he replied.

"Sir, I’ve always been an only child."