“Ha...”
Air squeezed unconsciously from his lungs, carrying the warmth inside his body and spreading into a thin cloud of white mist beneath the cold night sky.
Beyond that faint mist, everything around him was clearly a scene he knew well, and yet Pero felt as though he had gone through a long sleep, only to be startled awake again by this rainless, freezing night.
Dazed and lost.
“What’s wrong with you?”
Beside him, Aviva looked at him strangely.
“Why did you suddenly space out?”
“No...”
Pero’s expression was still blank. Only when he heard his sister’s question did he finally come back to himself a little. “I just... feel like I suddenly had a dream.”
“A dream?”
Aviva found it even stranger. Could someone dream after spacing out for a few seconds?
Since when had Pero mastered such an incredible skill?
“What kind of dream?”
“I can’t remember the images. It’s just... I felt so hot... so scorching... and so cold...”
Pero hugged his arms.
“Everything hurt so much. But later, someone said something by my ear, and then it didn’t hurt anymore. I even felt really safe...”
“Huh?”
Aviva was completely confused, unable to understand what kind of madness had suddenly taken Pero.
“I don’t know why I would feel that way either, but that feeling was incredibly real...”
“Enough!”
The matron finally could not keep watching and cut him off.
“Don’t talk about such unreliable nonsense. Now is not the time to discuss dreams or whatever. You all saw what’s happening outside, didn’t you? Trouble is coming. Hurry and prepare!”
“Trouble...”
Rumble...
The tremor outside made Pero jolt, and he finally came fully back to his senses.
Right. The reason he was here was that he had originally wanted to take his sister out to play, only to be stopped here by the matron. Then outside... a large group of elite royal guards had passed by!
For the royal guards to be mobilized so suddenly on such an important day as the Saintess’s procession, something was definitely wrong!
“Something big is about to happen. At a time like this, we can’t let our guard down. Aviva, go call everyone. Gather everyone together and head to the prayer classroom. Something major may happen tonight. No one is allowed to sleep. Stay awake and be ready to adapt!”
“Yes!”
Faced with the matron’s brisk orders, Aviva did not hesitate at all and was just about to turn and leave...
“Wait!”
Pero suddenly stopped her.
“No, we can’t go to the prayer classroom.”
“Hm? Why?” Aviva turned back in confusion.
“Because...”
Pero froze.
Right. Why?
The situation outside was unclear. Gathering everyone together right now was obviously the best choice. They could look after one another, and the matron and the nuns could protect everyone.
But...
Why?
Why did he keep having such a terrible feeling in his heart?
It was as if doing this would lead to some irreversible consequence...
“Pero!”
Seeing that Pero could not explain himself after so long, the matron finally grew impatient. “At a time like this, stop acting on that inexplicable temper of yours. This concerns everyone’s safety. I will not allow you to fool around. Do you understand?”
“No, I really...”
“Aviva!”
The matron ignored Pero and directly gave Aviva the order.
Aviva glanced at Pero, then nodded. “I understand.”
With that, she quickly ran off to gather the others in the welfare home.
Watching Aviva’s back, Pero bit his lip, then suddenly started running as well.
“Pero!”
The matron was furious. “What are you doing now?”
“I’m going to get something!”
Pero shouted. “I’ll be right back!”
...
There was no candlelight, and the room was dim, but Pero still took in at a glance the place where he had lived for several years.
The old furniture, the floorboards that creaked when stepped on, the roof that made sounds like a woman crying on rainy days... and that newly repaired window.
He had once hated this place. Hated it so, so much.
He thought it was too shabby, too small, too old.
Compared to the place he had lived before ending up on the streets, this broken-down old place was practically like a rotting turtle shell.
Aside from the scorching heat that pierced through the window into the room in summer, or the cold that the thin walls could not block at all in winter, the room itself did not seem to have left much of a deep impression on him.
But at some point, he had started to stop hating this tiny place.
He no longer hated the old furniture, the floorboards that creaked when stepped on, or the roof that made sounds like a woman crying whenever it rained.
Even that broken window he had once hated most, after his sister got better, he did not hate it quite so much anymore.
He even...
“So... am I afraid?”
Pero lowered his head and looked at his trembling hands.
Ever since he woke from that dream he could not remember at all, a huge sense of fear had somehow shrouded his heart.
He did not know what he was afraid of, and he knew even less why he was afraid. It was just that... the more he stepped into these familiar places, the stronger that familiar fear became.
As if... he was about to lose even this last tiny place where he could stay...
“What am I thinking?”
Pero suddenly slapped himself.
The clear pain immediately pulled him back from his confusion and fear.
“Now isn’t the time to think about something so vague and pointless!”
That was right.
Being afraid of something he did not even know was not his style. He had to be strong. He had to straighten his back. He had to... protect the people and things important to him.
He absolutely could not... lose everything again like he had when he was little.
Forcefully suppressing the brutal images that had already been forgotten in his mind, Pero quickly walked into the room, then smoothly slipped under the bed and dragged out an iron box.
It was only an iron box that looked so battered it was full of dents. The paint outside had basically been scraped away too, and aside from selling it as scrap, it seemed to have no use whatsoever.
But inside was all of Pero’s property.
Pero opened the iron box, and what entered his eyes was a colorful assortment of small bills.
Beneath the small bills was a thick layer of coins. Every single one had been polished until it shone brightly, and when shaken, they made a very pleasant sound.
Pero’s favorite thing to do was, late at night when all was quiet and his sister had fallen asleep too, to lie alone under the blankets and gently shake the iron box... shake and shake. It worked better than any lullaby, and he could soon drift into dreams.
“But I can’t take all of this with me, can I?”
Pero bit his lip again out of habit. After hesitating again and again, he finally opened the hidden compartment of the iron box.
There, two brand-new bills of the largest denomination lay quietly.
On the bills was the holy face of the first Saintess. The gentle smile drawn at the corner of her mouth seemed as if it could sweep away all the unease in Pero’s heart.
“So stupid...”
Pero did not know why, at a time like this, he had suddenly run over to get these two paper bills. Faced with danger, this kind of thing was clearly of no use at all.
But... perhaps there really was some magical power in paper money. The moment Pero picked up the bills, he felt as though all that fear from just now instantly disappeared.
Pero carefully and neatly folded the two bills and placed them in the innermost layer of his clothes. The bills themselves had no warmth at all, yet for some reason, he could no longer feel even the slightest chill.
That person’s appearance also emerged along with the warmth of the bills, giving Pero even more courage.
“All right. I need to go find Sister and the others.”
Pero stood.
Dong—
Suddenly, a distant bell chime echoed through the city.
Pero tilted his head in confusion, not understanding why a bell would ring at this hour, when it clearly was not time for the hour to be announced.
“Maybe...”
As if encouraging himself, Pero broke into a smile and said,
“This means something good happened.”
