#104. The Place He Rose Against (6)
—
Colin hastily tried to put out his cigarette when he spotted Ray coming up to the rooftop.
“Oh, Ray-nim.”
“It’s fine.”
Ray approached Colin.
──.
As he inhaled the bitter cigarette smoke, memories of being with Niles resurfaced, bringing him an odd sense of calm.
Colin, unsure of what to do with the cigarette in his hand, awkwardly continued the conversation. His attitude toward Ray remained as respectful as ever.
“Have you eaten?”
“Yes, I have.”
Ray’s gaze drifted toward the railing’s base, where he noticed familiar names carved into the surface with a blade.
“Oh, those are graffiti we made when we were kids. Niles, Brook, and I. We carved them into the rooftop of every building we climbed. You know, like boys our age marking our presence.”
Colin smiled sheepishly, and Ray looked at him briefly before turning his gaze forward again.
The sky was darkening.
From this height, much of the sector was visible at a glance.
“I came up here because I had something to ask.”
“Yes. What are you curious about?”
“What was Niles’ reason for founding Nisoha?”
Ray and Niles knew little about each other’s pasts.
The boy didn’t even know his own past.
The man, weighed down by the fatigue of life, never looked back.
‘Not that we ever asked each other in the first place.’
For both the boy and the man, the present had always been what mattered most.
Thus, the past Niles had left in Ray’s hands was merely fragments.
Remnants the man had occasionally let slip, lost in rare moments of sentimentality, carried away with cigarette smoke over the river.
Colin, lost in thought for a moment, stared off into the distance before finally speaking.
“It was when my brother had just become an adult. He decided to form an organization. He had a book in his hand.”
“A book?”
“Yes. He found it in a scrap heap. It was a novel. Nothing unusual about that—he often dug through scrap heaps looking for books. When he had extra money, he’d buy them from bookstores too.”
Ray nodded.
“Yes, Niles once told me he read a lot to cultivate literary refinement.”
Ray remembered hearing something like that before.
At the time, he hadn’t known what books were.
“No, that’s not it.”
“Then what?”
“He memorized cool lines from books to use when seducing women.”
“…Literary refinement…”
“No.”
“…Literary—”
“Absolutely not.”
“……”
Now that he thought about it, Niles hadn’t been smoking when he said that.
“Well, we were all at that age back then. Anyway, my brother was deeply moved by that novel. It was about a boy from the slums who didn’t give up on his dreams and made his way into high society.”
The book’s title was *Nisoha (泥咲華)*—A Flower Blooming in the Mud.
After that, Niles gave every one of his gang brothers a flower name.
He told them they were all seeds with the potential to bloom brilliantly, given the right opportunity.
Naturally, the teenage boys, who saw proving their masculinity as their life’s mission, reacted with a collective rebellion.
But they didn’t succeed.
After all, the strongest fighter in the group was Niles, and every dissenter who challenged his decision ended up with a broken nose, reduced to nothing more than a single crushed petal.
Laws were distant—or rather, laws didn’t exist in the lower sectors. But fists were always close.
“For reference, I was *Honeyflower*.”
“……”
The *Honeyflower* Ray had seen in books was adorably tiny and cute.
The *Honeyflower* continued speaking.
“My brother’s goal was to create an environment in the sector where children’s potential wouldn’t be trampled. He said he was already an adult, too late to bloom himself, so he wanted to help younger ones sprout their potential.”
To do that, the first priority was eliminating violence from the sector.
Gangs generally saw street orphans as either merchandise for human trafficking or disposable foot soldiers.
Sometimes they scouted them, but that was rare.
If anyone asked who posed the greatest threat to street orphans, the answer was undoubtedly the gangs.
“My brother was a smart man. He knew that indiscriminately terrorizing the gangs wouldn’t accomplish anything.”
Violence couldn’t be eradicated.
Even if blocked in one place, it would resurface elsewhere, like sewage water backing up through a drain.
“So my brother made a decision.”
If violence couldn’t be erased…
Then he would become the biggest violence in the sector himself.
As long as he ruled with violence, no other violence would dare rise.
“At first, everyone in the group opposed the idea. Street orphans going up against gangs? Ridiculous—”
“That doesn’t sound so ridiculous to me.”
Colin paused, then let out a chuckle.
“You sound just like my brother did back then.”
Though the names were given half-seriously, Nisoha’s activities were anything but.
They were essentially a vigilante group.
Unlike other gangs, they did collect taxes from residents, but at a much lower rate.
Most of the collected funds were used for maintaining the organization.
“Honeyf—Colin. Did Niles have a flower name too?”
“My brother was *Lilac*. Though he liked— ahem. Anyway, we only used those nicknames jokingly when we were kids.”
Ray recalled what Lilac had said back in Sector 50.
*”Lower taxes? If we take too much at once, the shops will go under. We need to last together. We’re all just trying to survive.”*
Niles had never tried to justify himself.
*”In the end, we’re just a bunch of thugs.”*
He never called them vigilantes or neighbors.
If anything, he likened their relationship to roots entwining each other, strengthening their growth.
*”I just want you guys to grow up well. Not get shot and die, not starve to death. You remind me of Parosh, and it makes me feel bad.”*
He had said that too.
“Do you know who Parosh is?”
“The protagonist of *Nisoha*.”
Niles had said he was a real person.
Now that Ray thought about it, Niles hadn’t been smoking then either.
In any case, the Niles of the past had relentlessly pursued his ideals.
He wiped out every gang in Sector 46—except Nisoha.
And then, Brook betrayed him.
That was two years ago.
“…Can I ask what my brother said about Brook?”
Ray told him everything without reservation.
“…That’s just like him.”
Colin continued his story.
At first, he had thought the plan was absurd.
But as he was gradually influenced by Niles, and as their vision became more tangible, he had wanted it more than anyone else.
“I’m sure the others felt the same way.”
As he spoke, the emotions that had built up in Colin’s heart slowly unraveled.
The obscured parts became clear.
And Ray understood.
‘So that’s what it was.’
What Niles had left behind in Sector 46.
No wonder he couldn’t find it.
It had been hidden amidst such deep, vibrant emotions.
At the center of Colin’s being, a star shone.
A star that only those with a strong sense of conviction could possess.
The same star Niles had carried.
***
Ray descended to the first floor with Colin.
At the table, people were gathered.
Veronica sat among them, looking as though she had just witnessed the end of the world.
“If he ever awakens to romantic feelings, he’ll change completely. You know what they say—late bloomers are the scariest. Haha.”
“……!”
“With a face like that? There’s no way he’d be satisfied with just one woman. I’d sooner believe in a flying deer.”
“……!!”
“Come on, even as an example, that’s too much. How would a deer fly? It’s not a bird.”
Casual remarks were tossed from both sides.
Veronica’s pupils trembled violently, as if experiencing a full-blown earthquake.
The subtle emotions that used to flicker in a young girl’s gaze when she looked at a boy had long been detected by these battle-hardened, mischievous gangsters.
They didn’t mean any harm.
It was just that Veronica’s reactions were so transparent and vivid that they couldn’t help but tease her.
Ah, but they really should stop.
After all, their target was a magician.
“What’s going on?”
Ray approached Philip, who was standing nearby.
“Hmm… You’re asking what’s going on?”
“Why is Veronica so flustered?”
Philip thought Ray wasn’t all that different from the mischievous gangsters teasing Veronica.
‘Unbelievable. Even after hearing all that, he still doesn’t get it.’
Philip didn’t think Ray was generally oblivious.
His occasional bursts of remarkable wit and insight required a keen ability to read situations and understand the deeper meaning behind people’s words and actions.
However.
‘The problem is that his perceptiveness only applies to battles or anything related to achieving our group’s objectives.’
Veronica had been dropping hints of her affection for a while.
Like staring at him longer than necessary.
Or awkwardly trying to ask if he had ever met anyone (a woman) before.
**“A woman? The person I’ve known the longest is Mrs. Molly from the general store. I’ve been delivering goods there since I was eight.”**
**“……”**
Of course, Ray never picked up on anything.
He unwittingly dodged every signal Veronica sent with perfect avoidance maneuvers.
Philip had a theory.
Maybe Ray was conserving his perceptiveness—saving it up to use only when absolutely necessary?
Or maybe… he actually understood but was deliberately pretending not to?
Either way, in everyday life, Ray’s social awareness seemed utterly extinct.
And the one suffering from it was Veronica.
Sure, Ray did **see** emotions.
But could he recognize Veronica’s feelings through his special sight?
Highly unlikely.
**“Even if I see someone’s vessel, that doesn’t mean I can fully understand all of their emotions. I’ve seen a lot, but there are still plenty of feelings I haven’t defined yet.”**
Ray could perceive the countless emotions filling Veronica’s vessel.
But recognizing **romantic affection**?
That was beyond him.
One day, he would understand.
If Ray ever experienced love himself and came to define it in his own way.
But when would that be?
In five years? Ten? Twenty?
Lately, his emotional range had seemed to expand a little.
But imagining Ray feeling love for someone and expressing it?
Philip found it impossible to picture.
**‘Poor Veronica, falling for someone like him.’**
Philip silently offered his condolences and shook his head.
“Why is Veronica so flustered?” Ray asked again.
“She likes it too much. That’s why.”
“…Likes what? If she likes it, why is she flustered?”
Ray, failing to comprehend, stood there buffering.
Leaving him behind, Philip walked toward the table.
“Good grief.”
He let out a long sigh.
Either way, he had to stop those clueless gangsters.
Before Veronica finally snapped and unleashed a gust of wind that swept through the entire room.
***
Ray informed Colin that he would help the Resistance.
“Thank you! Truly, thank you!”
Colin’s face lit up with gratitude, while Philip and Veronica nodded as if they had expected it.
“You said you didn’t have much information on the mercenary group Brook brought in, Murcred, correct?”
“Yes. Unfortunately, we barely have enough people to hold the front lines, so we haven’t been able to conduct proper reconnaissance.”
The group followed Colin to an interrogation room tucked into a corner of the hideout.
Two Murcred mages, who had been sealed inside a drum barrel, were tied to chairs.
—Splash!
“Urgh!”
“Ghhk?”
A gang member splashed water on their faces, jolting them awake.
As they took in their surroundings, their gazes landed on Ray.
A strangled whimper escaped them, their bodies trembling.
“Hiik! Hihihik!”
“Y-you! W-what are you?! How the hell?!”
The emotions in their vessels were highly unstable.
Rage, irritation, frustration.
And emotions that had no place in this situation—exhilaration and pleasure.
A swirling mass of red and black emotions churned like filth in a sewer.
But above all else, the strongest emotions etched into their minds were fear and terror.
—Tap.
“D-don’t come any closer! Stay back! Hiik!”
“G-get away! You demon!”
—Tap.
“I-I’ll kill you! If you come any closer—!”
Elemental energy radiated from their circles, attempting to manifest into magic.
But before it could form, Ray effortlessly dismantled it, breaking it apart midair.
—Clamp!
With a swift motion, Ray’s magic-covered hands seized the faces of both mages.
Before they could even react, his fingers forced their way into their mouths, grabbing their tongues.
“Mmmph!”
“Ghhhk!”
“The man leading you.”
His grip tightened.
“I’m very curious about him. What kind of person he is. You’d better use this tongue to give me the right answers.”
Ray took a breath and spoke.
“Otherwise…”
His voice dropped, cold and final.
“I’ll rip it out.”
