Genius Wizard who sees Rainbows- Chapter 326

Side Story 2. The Girl in the orb (2)

**#326. Side Story 2. The Girl in the orb (2)**

—

Philip and Veronica couldn’t hide their excitement as they walked through the streets.

“Wow… it’s really been a long time.”

“Everything’s the same! Samson’s general store! Even Uncle Hutton’s restaurant!”

Every scene that entered their eyes triggered vivid memories.

In a way, it was only natural.

This was none other than Sector 49.

Although the last two years had been dense enough to call a lifetime—and perhaps for some, they truly were—there was no way their memories of a place they had lived in for most of their lives would have faded.

As they strolled around taking in the surroundings, the group stopped at an intersection.

“I’m heading this way! I have to check if the kids at the hotel are doing well!”

“I’m going that way! I definitely remember how to get to the bookstore! See you later, Ray! You too, Curie!”

Philip and Veronica walked off in different directions.

Left behind, Curiosa muttered in confusion.

“Hotel…? Bookstore…?”

“They’re like home to the two of them,” Ray explained simply.

On the outskirts of the sector stood the hotel Philip had run, converted from an abandoned factory.
On 8th Street was the bookstore where Veronica had stayed with her grandfather.

“If nothing has changed, there should be people waiting for them at each place.”

Children who had been living at the hotel.
And Veronica’s two younger siblings at the bookstore.

In other words, Philip and Veronica had places to return to.

“……”

To Curiosa, this was all new information.

Over the past two years, while they’d gotten closer and shared many stories, such details had never come up.

Then came a sudden realization.

No matter how close you become, you’re still strangers in the end.

And… she was envious.

They had places to return to, unlike her.

“Jealous?”

“You damn brat… I told you not to read my emotions.”

“I feel the same.”

“What do you mean?”

“That feeling of envy.”

Ray started walking.

Curiosa quickly caught up.

“Envy? You?”

“I think that sometimes. How nice it would be to have a place to return to—a place of peace after a long journey.”

Curiosa tilted her head.

“But didn’t you say you came from Sector 50? Can’t you just go back there?”

“It doesn’t really mean anything anymore.”

“Why not?”

“Because the people who would welcome me no longer exist there.”

Niles and the members of his group.
Pale and the kids under the bridge.
People who now only existed in memory.

“They… all died?”

“Yeah. That’s also why I left Sector 50 in search of the rainbow.”

What the hell? Dropping something this heavy all of a sudden should be against the rules.

He didn’t look fazed, but Curiosa felt a pang of guilt.

She flailed her arms in the air.

“Still! Still! Every time you come back from somewhere now, you’ve got two kids who welcome you! They’re just off doing other things for the moment!”

“That’s true,” Ray said with a faint smile.

As he explained how they had all met in Sector 49, the numbers on the street signs changed a few times.

Before they knew it, they had entered an alley.

While walking along the graffiti-covered wall, Curiosa suddenly noticed her heart pounding strangely.

“……?”

What the? Arrhythmia?

Too much coffee this morning?

Unable to figure out the cause, Curiosa turned the corner and saw an old telephone pole—and finally understood.

“Ah.”

The pounding in her chest, now louder, was from a surge of déjà vu.

She felt like she’d seen it before.

The gouge on the right side of the telephone pole.

The long graffiti streaking across the wall.

The alignment of the makeshift houses.

All of it.

*Tap tap tap tap—*

The farther she went into the alley, the stronger the sense of déjà vu grew, and her pace quickened.

She felt queasy.

Her head spun.

Though the memories of the scenery were hazy, like mist, one thing was certain.

This was not the first time she had walked through this alley.

And after her hurried steps—

“……”

Curiosa came to a stop.

Beyond the alley lay an empty lot on the sector’s outskirts, where a weathered, rusted fence formed a circular enclosure.

Her heart thudded harder.

Her gaze moved to the inside of the fence.

A bare steel frame stood there, a remnant of what had once been a two-story building.

Ray approached her and asked, “Does it look familiar?”

“……”

Curiosa slowly nodded, caught in an indescribable emotion.

A rusty sign clattered next to the iron gate.

Even without reading the faded letters, she knew what this place was.

“Shunlis… Orphanage…”

It was the place that held all her childhood memories.

Like someone possessed, Curiosa rushed inside.

Ray followed and explained.

“I asked the street kids to help me find it. Knowing the orphanage’s name—Shunlis—was a big help. It used to be funded by donations, but one day it disappeared after a mysterious fire.”

Just as he said, the steel frame still bore the black scorch marks from the flames.

Curiosa darted her gaze around the metal structure and muttered.

“…Yeah. I remember that clearly. Because of that terrible fire, everyone at the orphanage died. Only a few kids who were out at the time or barely escaped the flames survived.”

The next day, the Doctor came.

He adopted all the crying children sitting in front of the collapsed orphanage.

“We didn’t really question it. We couldn’t see his face because of the mask and hat, but he’d visited the orphanage before and spoken with the director a few times.”

They were just grateful.

Taking in six orphans with nowhere else to go was no small act of kindness.

But later, she learned that the Doctor had been the one who started the fire.

“My guess is, the director asked for a large sum to give us up, but the negotiation didn’t go well. Or maybe he just wanted to see how we’d react to such a tragedy.”

Whatever the case, it was clear the Doctor’s approach had been very deliberate.

Curiosa’s stomach churned.

She continued searching through the gaps in the steel frame.

“This was where Labo’s room used to be…”

Memories buried deep in her subconscious began to stir.

She walked on.

“I remember.”

*Tap.*

“The laundry room was here.”

*Tap, tap tap.*

“The director’s office was this way.”

Her emotions grew intense and excited.

Her breathing quickened.

The scenery from nearly twenty years ago layered itself over the skeletal remains of the orphanage and came back to life.

But then, a question rose in her mind.

‘Where was my room…?’

She couldn’t remember.

She recalled memories of her orphanage friends, but nothing about herself.

What kind of child had she been?

What was her personality like? Her habits?

What food did she like or dislike?

She couldn’t remember any of it.

Her heart sank.

She had thought coming here would help her grasp who she truly was.

‘The Doctor tried to transform me into someone completely different. Was it a side effect of the experiment? Did he erase my memories with some kind of drug?’

The violet hope that had filled Curiosa’s heart began to fade.

In its place rose a dark despair.

That’s when—

“I found this.”

“Ah! Geez, kid! At least make some noise when you come up to people.”

Trying to calm her startled heart, Curiosa looked at what Ray held out.

A glass marble, about the size of a palm.

Scratched and scorched all over.

Inside were miniature replicas of real-world items.

“A snow globe…?”

“It was buried in the debris. There were a few other toys too, but this was the only one that was still intact.”

It had a wind-up mechanism on its base that made the models inside move.

But due to the black soot stuck to the glass, she couldn’t make out what was inside.

*Click, click-click.*

“The winder doesn’t turn.”

“It’s over twenty years old. Of course it doesn’t.”

“Let’s see how long you can hold out.”

“W-what do you think you’re doing?”

Curiosa hurriedly snatched the snow globe from Ray’s hand.

“I was fixing it.”

“You mean breaking it. Get rid of that predator look in your eyes, will you?”

She growled.

This was a precious clue from her childhood.

She couldn’t let some careless predator destroy it.

“I’ll hold on to this for—”

And then, the moment her gaze dropped to the snow globe—

“……”

She was rendered speechless.

Frozen in place.

A memory from the past began replaying rapidly in her mind.

A dark sky covered in black clouds.

Children running about the yard, filled with noise and laughter.

Dust kicked up by small feet.

And then—

A young girl sitting against a tree in the corner, gazing into a snow globe.

That girl… was her.

*
*
*

Ray and Curiosa left the old orphanage grounds and arrived at the eastern outskirts of the sector.

Beyond the heaps of scrap metal, a massive abandoned factory came into view.

“That’s the hotel Philip mentioned earlier.”

“Oh, it looks more impressive than I expected…”

Aluminum drainpipes connected along the wall.

Multiple fans spinning to ventilate the place.

And even a massive chimney emitting smoke, likely connected to a heating system.

Curiosa, who had only expected a shabby abandoned factory, was amazed.

They moved quickly.

There were many children at the hotel entrance.

Some were polishing shoes.

Others hammered metal plates.

Some stuck labels on bottles.

They were probably working on jobs contracted from within the sector.

One boy spotted Ray.

His brow furrowed, and then he jumped up in surprise.

“H-h hunter!”

“ hunter?”

*Thud thud thud!*

In an instant, the children swarmed them.

They surrounded him so tightly there was no room to step.

“Oh my gosh! It really *is* the hunter!”

“Yeah! Philip came back, so of course the hunter would too! Hunter! Please look over here!”

“Don’t push! I said don’t push!”

“I’m going to the front! I saved up snacks just for the Hunter!”

“Mister Hunter! Did you miss us?”

“Can I give you chocolate, Mister Hunter?”

Emotions surged like a storm.

Ray felt a bit dizzy.

He was happy to see them, but this kind of noisy welcome still felt overwhelming.

*I only came to see Philip.*

*What am I supposed to do in a situation like this?*

And Ray wasn’t the only one flustered by the crowd of children.

“Who are *you*, mister?”

“Hmph, a strange mask and black cloth covering the body… *I’m* supposed to be the attention-seeker of this area, but now I feel threatened.”

“I vote for circus clown.”

“He’s tall. Looks like a guy, at least.”

Curiosa trembled with anger.

*A clown? An attention-seeker?*

*How dare they speak like that to this great spatial mage?*

*I’ll show them clearly who I am and how terrifying I can be—*

*Woom…*

“No, she’s a woman! Her voice was really pretty just now! I bet she’s super beautiful under that mask!”

*I’ll show them later.*

The boiling fury and mana within Curiosa fizzled out with a hiss.

“Are you staying here? For how long? Until when?”

“Can you do somersaults? I can do somersaults.”

The children’s chatter went on and on.

There was something strangely familiar about it.

*…I think I understand.*

*Back in the orphanage, I must’ve been surrounded by friends just like this.*

So many children had gathered that the surrounding air temperature seemed to rise.

A not-unpleasant warmth.

As Ray started to feel drowsy—

*Clatter! Creak!*

“There you are!”

Philip emerged from the hotel.

Behind him, a group of boys who looked like attendants followed in a rush.

As they approached, the children parted to make way.

“How was it? Did you check out the place you mentioned?”

“Yeah. I just finished looking around. More importantly, it seems the hotel was running well while I was gone.”

Philip grinned.

“Of course it was running well. I left it to a reliable deputy manager. From what I saw in the records and ledgers, it’s actually doing better than before.”

“Haha, Philip, you’re embarrassing me with all this praise. Anyway, Hunter! Long time no see! That time you took down a whole gang 500 to 1 was just incredible!”

*I don’t remember fighting against *that* many kids…*

In any case, the joyful conversation continued—

Then Philip looked at Curiosa and spoke.

“Ms. Curiosa, did you find anything of value?”

“Anything of value”—meaning, did anything come to mind when visiting the old orphanage grounds?

A ripple passed over the black cloth.

Curiosa extended her hand.

“Hm, a snow globe?”

“I didn’t recover any major memories, but I picked this up. It feels like something I treasured when I was a child.”

Philip took the snow globe and examined it.

“Hmm. The burn marks make it hard to see inside. The winding mechanism seems broken too.”

“Yes. Unfortunately.”