#328. Side Story 2. The Girl in the Marble (4)
—
The holiday in Sector 49 passed in a relaxed, peaceful atmosphere.
“The hotel’s at full capacity… This is the perfect opportunity to expand the business. Instead of a defunct factory, I should purchase a building deeper inside the sector and put it to use. Hm? Do I have enough funds for that? Don’t worry. I’ve got plenty of money.”
Philip, leveraging the financial power he’d built up in Sector 37, reviewed the business he had briefly stepped away from.
“Why did you put the same book on every shelf? Too lazy to bother? That’s completely ineffective! The purpose of a display is to attract attention by offering a variety of items!”
Veronica busied herself refining the bookstore’s rough appearance—inevitable up until now since it had been run only by boys.
As for Ray…
‘It’s true. Residents who read books tend to display a broader range of emotions compared to those who don’t.’
While moving between the hotel and the bookstore, he observed the emotional states of people nearby.
And one of the more important daily routines was visiting the old orphanage site with Curiosa.
“How is it?”
“…Nothing. I don’t remember a thing.”
Curiosa spoke in a bitter tone as she looked around the old site.
She came every day with determination, exploring every nook and staying for hours, yet not a single memory of the past surfaced.
Only one thing stood out—a single clue she could grasp.
The flash of an image that appeared when she held the snow globe.
‘Children were playing in the yard, and in a corner, a girl was sitting under a tree, staring at the snow globe.’
At first, she was certain the girl in that memory was her younger self.
But when days passed with no progress, her conviction wavered, and doubt crept in.
Was the girl in the memory really me?
Or had I forced the image to fit, driven by a desperate desire to know my past self?
She felt anxious and unsettled.
If she couldn’t find clues in her former home, where else could she go to discover who she was?
“…….”
Ray quietly watched over Curiosa from behind, offering her his patience.
He didn’t pressure her.
He waited for her to make a decision solely by her own will, once she’d sorted through her thoughts.
Tap, tatatat!
At that moment, hurried footsteps echoed, and they turned toward the entrance.
A boy from the hotel caught his breath before delivering a message.
“Ah, I knew it! You’re here! I’ve got news! The snow globe you left—it’s been fully repaired! They asked if they should send it to the bookstore, but if the final cleaning is done, they can deliver it right away!”
“Curiosa, sounds like good news. Maybe it’s better to go in person rather than wai—”
As he turned to speak, Ray realized Curiosa had already vanished.
She had already stepped through a gap in space and was speaking from the other side.
“Kid, what’re you doing? If you don’t come now, I’m leaving you behind.”
“…….”
That was the fastest Curiosa had ever moved.
*
*
*
With trembling hands, Curiosa received the snow globe.
A boy wearing a monocle lens on one eye closed the flap of a bag filled with tiny mechanical parts and said,
“I thought about replacing the glass entirely, but just in case, I kept the original. As for the inner model, I removed the base and replaced all the components.”
The glass orb, once covered in black grime, and the rusty wind-up spring had both been polished clean and now sparkled.
Even the wooden stand seemed coated in something, now gleaming with a glossy sheen.
It was less a repair and more of a complete recreation.
“Looks like you know how to wield the element of creation, too.”
“Huh? What do you mean by that?”
“Our Camille is the best, really. From clocks to engines—if it’s got mechanical parts, he can fix anything.”
As Ray and the boys chatted nearby, Curiosa peered into the glass.
Though scratches still covered the surface, they didn’t hinder her from making out the figures inside.
There were two miniatures.
A hut standing in the middle of a wasteland.
And a girl dressed in an explorer’s outfit.
The figures weren’t very polished, suggesting they were hand-crafted, like something made from clay, rather than mass-produced.
Sssshhh──
When she shook the globe side to side, the sand inside scattered like stardust, creating a dreamlike scene.
“Oh.”
“Wow, it’s beautiful.”
Ray and Philip admired it.
“Miss Curiosa, does it bring back any memories? It doesn’t look like something from a store. Maybe you made it yourself when you were younger, or someone gave it to you as a gift?”
“…….”
She stared intensely at the snow globe, but no particular memory came back.
Curiosa quickly wound the spring.
Creak. Creeeak.
“Oh!”
“It’s moving!”
The platform where the girl figure stood moved along a groove cut into the base.
Exclamations rose around her, but Curiosa remained silent.
‘Nothing’s coming back.’
Maybe she had made it herself.
Judging by its shape, it was highly likely.
But that was all.
No connected memories followed.
‘What was I expecting?’
Curiosa felt her heart, once fluttering with anticipation, gradually settle.
*
*
Several days later.
Inside Veronica’s bookstore, temporarily closed for renovation.
The place was quiet now that the workers had finished a round of construction and left.
Veronica cautiously stepped between the torn-up wooden floorboards that were being replaced with marble.
Creak—creak—
“Ugh, this is kind of scary. Feels like the floor could cave in. Yulfin, Malta, could you move this bookshelf? I think we need to shift it to replace the floor beneath.”
“Leave it to me, sis.”
“I’m confident when it comes to heavy lifting.”
Before the workers returned, they planned to tidy up a bit.
Veronica, along with Malta and Yulfin, pushed the bookshelves and carefully lifted books that looked too fragile to damage using telekinesis, stacking them on the upper level’s skybridge.
“Where should I put this?”
A listless voice rang out.
Turning her head, she saw Curiosa standing blankly with a stack of books in her arms.
“Ah, Miss Curie! Those go over there!”
“Alright.”
“Uh, um, uh….”
“What is it?”
“It’s nothing!”
As Curiosa trudged off, Veronica watched her back with uneasy eyes.
The reason was clear.
She had unintentionally overheard the conversation between Curiosa and Ray the day before.
> “Kid, I’m not going to undo the binding.”
>
> “Honestly, I’m afraid.”
>
> “I can’t imagine what I’ll be like once I’m freed from the shackles of emotion.”
Curiosa’s voice had been heavy with emotion.
> “I thought if I learned about my past self, I might gain the courage to try. But it was a foolish hope. In the end, I didn’t discover a single thing.”
Curiosa had chosen not to take that courageous step and instead locked the door to her heart.
It wasn’t something one could hastily push her toward.
No advice or encouragement would help.
Her life, lived entirely under the restraints of emotional suppression, wasn’t something anyone could judge lightly.
And surely, that decision had come after long deliberation.
“…….”
That’s why Veronica could only part her lips in hesitation, unable to offer even simple comfort.
And so the work continued.
“These books should probably be sorted over there.”
“Oh, thank you, Miss Curie.”
As Veronica reached out to receive the books, she suddenly caught a glimpse.
A flicker of mana around Curiosa’s hand.
And through it, she saw it—
Severely burned, scarred skin, twisted grotesquely.
It seemed her usually well-maintained illusion magic had wavered due to her absentminded state.
“……!”
Realizing too late, Curiosa hastily pulled her arm back.
The books fell with a thud, and her arm disappeared into the folds of her black cloak, rippling like water.
A silence followed.
Veronica bent to pick up the fallen books.
Her heart pounded.
She couldn’t deny she was startled.
Despite growing much closer to Curiosa, she had never known what lay beneath the black cloth.
Was it just her hand?
Or were there other parts as well?
‘Bringing it up first would be terribly rude.’
There had to be a reason Curiosa kept her appearance hidden and never spoke of it.
…However.
After collecting all the books, Veronica looked up at her.
Then, gathering her courage, she spoke.
“If it’s not an imposition, I… I could heal you.”
A soft white light shimmered in Veronica’s hand.
It was the miraculous glow of the saintess revered in the upper sectors.
“I can restore your skin to its original form.”
“…….”
After a long silence, Curiosa replied.
“Red kid, I’ve already heard the rumors about your power.”
“Yes. So if you’d just—”
“But to receive treatment, I’d have to remove this cloth and mask, wouldn’t I?”
Curiosa continued slowly.
That fear was no different than the fear of releasing her emotional bindings.
“I can’t remove this cloth or mask. I’m scared. Ever since I found them in some ruin and put them on, I’ve never once taken them off.”
She was afraid to face her current self.
Whether that was externally or internally.
That was the essence of Curiosa’s emotions.
“One of the reasons I wanted to find my childhood memories at the orphanage site was because of that. If I knew who I truly was, even if my whole body was scarred, I thought I wouldn’t mentally break down.”
There was a layer of complexity in her voice.
“Do you remember Allager?”
“Yes.”
A former executive of Murcred, defeated by Ray in Sector 46.
Also Curiosa’s biological younger brother.
Currently in a permanent slumber within Curiosa’s subspace.
“I haven’t woken Allager or broken his bindings either. Because he’d likely face the same identity crisis I do.”
She wanted to first establish her own identity.
So that she could stand firm and be a guiding light when her brother awakened.
That was Curiosa’s goal.
“Maybe that’s why I’m so obsessed with my childhood memories. The sister Allager remembers isn’t a curiosity-riddled monster—she’s his sister from childhood.”
“…….”
Veronica felt conflicting emotions.
She both understood and didn’t understand Curiosa’s obsession.
Humans are beings who live in the present.
If one is bound by the past, they cannot move toward the future.
Veronica fidgeted with her lips before—
“I’m sure your brother will recognize you, Curie!”
—declaring boldly.
“No matter how much your appearance, thoughts, or behavior have changed! I think the Curie from the past is still you, and the Curie now is also you. And family is the kind of thing that can recognize and accept you instantly, no matter how much you’ve changed on the outside!”
Having poured out her words in a single breath, Veronica panted heavily.
Still, she seemed satisfied, having said everything she wanted to say.
“……”
“……”
A brief exchange of glances.
The eyes behind Curiosa’s mask narrowed faintly.
“For someone who just said all that, you didn’t recognize your own siblings.”
“Ah, ah, ah… th-that’s….”
Veronica’s pupils trembled as if an earthquake had struck, hit right where it hurt.
Just then—
*Crack.*
“?”
With the sound of something solid breaking, Curiosa’s body suddenly dropped down.
*Thud—!*
Curiosa twisted her body violently as she was subjected, completely unguarded, to the energy of falling into the collapsed space beneath the floor.
“Ugh! My back! I’m dying! The world’s greatest ruins explorer is dying! Just because I attacked you with logic, you pull a cheap move like this!”
“N-no! I didn’t do anything! The floor just gave out on its own…?”
Veronica, hurriedly trying to defend herself, trailed off mid-sentence.
Because the space that revealed itself about two meters below was anything but ordinary.
A space that looked carved out like a cave.
Bookshelves filled with old magic tomes.
Walls densely inscribed with formulas.
No matter how you looked at it, this place was—
“A secret lab…?”
In that moment, a deep thrill and excitement bloomed in Veronica’s chest.
Malta and Yulfin, who had come running at the sound, also gaped in astonishment.
“There was a place like this under our bookstore…?”
“Was this a space Grandpa used? No, that handwriting definitely doesn’t look like his.”
While differing opinions echoed from above—
Curiosa, pushing through the pain in her backside, stood up and looked around.
“Tsk, what kind of weirdo mage builds a lab in a place like this…?”
A lab. It wasn’t a rare thing.
Any mage who had reached a certain level typically had one.
But due to the inherently reclusive nature of mages, they usually built them away from populated sectors.
Inside junk heaps.
Within caves in the wilderness.
Or under oases.
*‘That’s why, while exploring ruins, I’ve accidentally broken into people’s homes more than a few times.’*
She recalled how startled she’d been upon encountering mages in their sleepwear, totally unprepared.
「Who are you! Reveal yourself!」
「Wh-who are *you*, for that matter?」
Of course, the ones who were more startled were always the mages themselves.
In any case, this particular lab was clearly located far closer to a populated area than usual.
Even if one were to build a lab underground within a sector, it would normally be at a much deeper level than this.
*‘Did they have some particular reason to build it this close to the surface?’*
Judging by the thick layer of dust coating the furnishings—thick enough to die of tuberculosis—it seemed the owner hadn’t visited in quite some time.
*Tap.*
It was at that moment, as Curiosa walked around inspecting the lab, that she came to a halt.
Before a desk cluttered with all sorts of research material like a battlefield.
Her eyes locked onto the title written on one of the documents.
—*On Restoration-Type Magic to Recover Forgotten Memories of the Past.*
—
