I Made a Game Featuring Constellations - Chapter 11



Orpheus’s Mental World

The lavishly decorated party hall of the nobles

“Wow!”

“Catch me if you can! Hehehe!”

While the adults were chatting and building friendships, the children were gathered at the edges, playing.

“Look at this! It’s a doll my dad bought for me.”

A girl, holding a doll the size of an adult’s palm with both hands, showed it off to the other children as if boasting.

“Wow! It’s the latest magic doll!”

“I want one too!”

“Can I touch it just once?”

Many noble children gathered around the girl, but there was one boy who was reading a book, separated from them.

The boy’s clothes were neat, and his hairstyle was tidy, but no one approached him.

Some children tried to approach him, but their parents, noticing the emblem on the boy’s brooch, stopped them in a panic.

The boy tried to keep his eyes fixed on the book as if he had no interest in the other children, but every time their voices grew louder, his gaze also turned towards the girl.

Shake, shake, shake

Forcing himself to shake his head, muttering, “I’m not interested, I’m not interested, I’m the great Ian,” the boy buried his face back in the book.

“Hello? What’s your name?”

Suddenly, a girl’s face popped up beside him, startling the boy and causing him to drop his book.

As the book that had been covering the boy’s face disappeared, the scent of the girl’s long hair tickled his nose.

“Did I surprise you? I’m sorry.”

“…Huh? Oh, no? Not at all!”

Startled by the boy’s intense reaction, the girl offered an apology, but the boy shook his head vigorously.

“It’s not that the book is so lowly… it’s just boring, so I threw it away… haha…”

What on earth am I saying?

The boy regretted his words.

Saying he threw the book away because it was boring. How strange must that sound?

The boy worried that the girl might frown and leave.

“Pfft. You’re funny.”

“…!”

But surprisingly, the girl’s taste seemed to match, and she laughed brightly at the boy’s answer.

The boy thought the girl’s laugh was pretty.

“My name is Kate. What’s your name?”

“I- Ian…”

“Oh! Ian! That’s the name of a character I read in a fairy tale!”

“…Really?”

“Yes! It was a frog!”

“A f-frog…”

“But it’s okay! It was a big and cute frog!”

“Haha…”

What on earth is a big and cute frog?

The boy, who had always been strictly educated to make rational words and judgments, couldn’t understand the girl’s whimsical thinking.

But at the same time, he thought that he didn’t want the conversation with her to end.

If possible, he wanted to stay with her… he thought.

“Do you want to see this too?”

The girl, who had been having a frivolous conversation with the boy for a long time, took out a doll she had been keeping in her arms.

“My dad bought it for me.”

“…Wow.”

To the boy, the girl’s doll was nothing more than a crude toy with a very simple structure that could easily be made alone, but even so, the boy showed an expression of admiration.

Because he didn’t want to see the girl in front of him disappointed.

The girl proudly held out the doll and manipulated it, moving it here and there.

“If you do this, the hand goes back… huh?”

Zzzt

In the meantime, a bad sound came from the joint of the doll, which had reached the limit of its magical operation.

Crack

A tearing sound came from the internal joint of the doll, and with a snapping sound, the arm fell off.

“……”

“…Ah.”

The girl blankly looked down at the doll,

and the boy watched the girl’s reaction.

Drip… drip…

One drop, one drop.

A drop of water fell from the girl’s eyes and soaked into the doll.

The girl clenched her mouth tightly.

Her lips were forcibly pulled as she tried to hold back her tears.

The boy realized that the girl was trying to hold back her tears, just like he used to do alone in his room.

The doll that her father had newly bought for her.

And in the process of showing off that doll to her friends, she had carelessly broken it.

Even the boy, who had no friends, could understand that if this incident were to be known to her father, she wouldn’t be able to receive gifts or play as she wished.

“…….”

He wanted to help.

He wanted to help the girl who had come to him, talked to him, and played with him when he was lonely.

“……Can you give it to me for a moment?”

“Sniff…huh?”

The boy received the doll and its arm from the girl.

“……Sniff. Wh-what are you going to do?”

“From now on, everything I do is a secret. Got it?”

“……?”

The boy roughly aligned the broken parts of the doll.

“Perbenite Certum.”

And as he whispered softly, the magic flowed from his touch.

The broken parts of the golem, reacting to the magic, gradually expanded and reconnected, restoring their previous form.

From noble mtl dot com

“Here.”

“…Wow.”

The girl was astonished as she received the perfectly repaired doll.

“How, how did you do it? Even old Hans can’t do something like this!”

In response to the girl’s question, the boy extended his index finger and brought it to his lips.

“Shh. Don’t tell anyone about this… Got it?”

The girl, with an exaggerated expression typical of children, rolled her lips inward, widened her eyes, and nodded.

Then she leaned towards the boy and whispered.

“Our little secret… Right?”

The boy’s cheeks turned red as he faced the girl’s smile directly.

“Kate!”

At that moment, a noblewoman’s hand, elegantly dressed, reached out and grabbed the girl’s arm.

“…?”

“Kate. Didn’t I tell you? You can’t play with just anyone!”

The woman looked down at the boy with contemptuous eyes.

“Hmph. You mustn’t play with the filthy blood of the Carlyle family.”

“But mom…”

“Shush! Are you talking back again? …This won’t do. Let’s have a little talk.”

The woman began to drag the girl away by her arm.

“….”

Is this really the end?

The boy left alone let out a hollow laugh.

Born into this cursed family, it was an inevitable fate.

Even knowing that, he thought he could fit in. And with such a bright girl, no less.

The boy picked up the book that had fallen.

It was time to return to the other side of solitude.

Forgetting today’s events completely was… the right thing to do.

For her sake and for his own, it was the most correct thing to do.

The boy, who had lifted his head to see the girl one last time, couldn’t help but be surprised.

Even as she was being taken away by the noblewoman, the girl was secretly mouthing something to the boy.

Th. an. k. y. ou.

Ch. eck. yo. ur. po. ck. et.

The boy, reading what she was trying to convey through her lip movements, tilted his head in confusion.

Pocket?

The boy instinctively put his hand into his pocket.

Squish

Inside, there was a round candy wrapped in pretty packaging.

As the boy looked at the girl with a puzzled expression, the girl mouthed again.

It’s. my. re. tur. n. gi. ft.

En. joy. it.

Da. Um. Eh. Do. Oh. Neul. Cheo. Reom. Tto. Nol. Ja.

The girl’s face, laughing at the bewildered boy, gradually faded away and disappeared into the party crowd.

“……Was it not completely meaningless?”

Even while being dragged away by his mother, he secretly slipped a candy into his pocket.

Quite an impressive move.

The round candy the boy was holding still retained the warmth of the girl.

The boy absentmindedly unwrapped the candy and put it in his mouth.

The sweetness felt as he rolled the candy with his tongue.

The sweetness of the boy’s first love spread with a sharp fragrance.

“She said her name was Kate. ……Kate. Kate. Kate.”

A name as sweet and fresh as candy.

The boy neatly folded the wrapper and put it in his jacket pocket.

[That was my first meeting with her]

[The reason for my existence and the driving force that allowed me to survive in that hellish family]

[But… if it weren’t for this meeting, she wouldn’t have suffered so much, nor would she have met such a tragic end]

[If it weren’t for this meeting, she would have married a clean nobleman like any other noble girl, had children, and lived a happy life]

[If it weren’t for this meeting…]

[If it weren’t for me]

[If the Ian Carlyle family had never existed in this world]

Orpheus’s thoughts echoed throughout the entire mental world.

With the power of the director, the prince entered the inner world of Orpheus and, seeing fragments of Ian Kalliu’s imagery, moved forward.

To the deepest part of this dark world of imagery,

Towards the place where the core of Orpheus exists.