About Talula Picking Me Up and Adopting Me: Chapter 47

"But—I've already done those things, haven't I...? Sasha's illness, those people who died... I can't pretend none of it ever happened anymore... Huh?! O-Orson, sir??"

Halfway through speaking, Ino was suddenly lifted by Orson, who grabbed him by the arms. Then Orson forcibly pulled him into his embrace.

Orson sat cross-legged in the snow, holding the somewhat flustered Ino in his arms.

"There's no fixing what has already happened. Everyone knows that. The people of the Guerrilla Force all have someone else's blood on their hands, more or less. But even so, we have never stopped hoping for the future."

Orson gently stroked Ino's hair, recalling the infected girl he had once held in his arms—the one he had been unable to save.

That girl, whose name he did not even know, was already gone. That was an unchangeable fact.

Now that he possessed Originium Arts, he would never allow such a tragedy to happen again.

"Try helping others, Ino. You have this power. Perhaps in the process of saving others, your heart can find peace as well."

"The power to save people? I don't know... And what if, even after doing that, I still feel like I don't belong here...? What am I supposed to do then?"

Ino raised his head to look at Orson, his eyes as fragile as those of a stray kitten about to be abandoned.

"Sasha and I will stay with you until you can break free from the shackles of the past and decide which path you want to take. Until then, I'll keep all the darkness away from you."

Orson ruffled the Liberi boy's hair and gave him an utterly unreserved smile.

"—"

At that moment, the fear that had long gripped Ino's heart vanished.

"So try moving forward, Ino. And while you're at it, think about what you want to do when we infected can finally hold our heads high."

"Then... actually, I want to stand on a stage and sing..."

Ino stopped struggling and buried his face in Orson's arm, speaking softly and shyly.

After that day, Ino began learning medical first aid techniques.

At first, Ino worried that he would be able to handle such an important role. But when he pulled an infected warrior back from the brink of death and realized he had unconsciously smiled, Ino threw himself into Orson's arms and, for the first time, burst into tears.

He was not some abnormal person who took pleasure in "taking lives." He was an utterly ordinary person who felt genuine excitement from the bottom of his heart when he saved someone.

Orson said nothing. He knew the Liberi boy had found the path he needed to walk.

Like the other members of the Guerrilla Force, Ino had suffered persecution unknown to ordinary people, and his hands were stained with blood that could never be washed clean. Yet in the end, he did not choose to take revenge on this world. Instead, he used what strength he had to try to change this land.

—You no longer need me to deliberately stay by your side. You've grown up, Ino.

Orson watched the white-haired boy with a fatherly gaze. He could finally let go with peace of mind and allow the fledgling to fly on his own.

Then, even in his wildest dreams, Orson never imagined that fledgling would fly straight to the Big Bird Spin Spin Spin Bar.

Lumen and Orson's Promise

"Thank you all so much for your support, for allowing me to stand here and fulfill my wish."

"Angel! Angel! Angel! Encore! Encore! Encore!"

On a temporary stage set up in the commercial district, Ino was somehow singing, dancing, and rapping like an idol. Every now and then, he leaned forward slightly, struck an extremely suggestive pose, and used Originium Arts to blow pure white feathers toward the crowd to stir up the atmosphere.

"They don't have any weird extra effects. They're purely decorative... What's going on?"

Orson caught a feather, confirmed that Ino was not pulling any strange tricks, then scratched his head curiously.

Although Orson believed that Ino would no longer become "performance artist Mephistopheles," he was still a little uneasy about the boy who climbed into his bed every day.

"I don't know either... Isn't Ino closer to you, Orson?"

Lumen and Orson stared wide-eyed at each other.

"I've been helping Sister Talu deal with the Reunion Movement's identity issues these past few days, so I didn't pay much attention to Ino. Uncle, what's going on? What's with that boy?"

Orson asked an Ursus uncle beside him, who was waving his hands along with the beat.

"Huh? You don't know Angel? Did you just crawl out of an air-raid shelter like some primitive man? It's been spreading like crazy these past two days!"

The uncle looked at Orson as though he had just seen a caveman, then took out his phone and opened a video app called "Shake Vodka."

Orson took the phone. The number one trending video showed Ino kneeling amid rubble, administering first aid to several injured Chernobyl civilians.

With flames blazing in the background and rubble occasionally erupting in secondary explosions, Ino's pure white appearance stood out with an almost angelic holiness.

When the person recording the video went over and asked Ino who he was and why he was saving people, Ino gave an innocent smile.

"I'm just an ordinary person you can find anywhere. Why save people? Saving people doesn't need a reason, does it?"

With his innocent expression, words that struck straight at the heart, and the wounds on his clothes from rescuing people at the disaster site, Ino instantly gained ten thousand mother fans and a hundred thousand male mother fans.

—Come to think of it, Ino did mention this to me a few days ago, didn't he? He said that because the backup plan for Baikal's miscarriage hadn't been lifted, a factory caught fire and exploded.

In any case, after the video went viral, someone later asked Ino whether there was anything he wanted. Ino first shook his head and said no, then thought for a moment before shyly saying that he wanted to sing.

Orson glanced at the video's comments section, where nearly ten thousand comments read, "Let him sing!"

Then people discovered that this "Angel" was unexpectedly a pretty good singer. Within just a few days, he had been promoted to the heavens and shot straight to the top as Chernobyl's leading idol.

"This feels like a dream..."

After learning the whole story, Orson rubbed his eyes. While it was genuinely hard not to become an Ino-only fan after watching that video, this was still a little too ridiculous.

"Where's Sasha? He should have been more levelheaded and tried to stop Ino."

Orson looked around.

"Uh, over there. He's the one collecting ticket money."

Lumen spotted a familiar face and pointed him out to Orson.

"...Sasha, what are you doing, Sasha?!"

Orson watched the Fedia boy he had assumed was dependable standing by the venue with a blank expression, collecting ticket money with his left hand and handing out glow sticks with his right. A crushing sense of disillusionment rose within him.

Just then, Ino finished a song onstage. After bowing to the audience, he prepared to leave, only to be stopped by someone who seemed to be the host.

"Angel—wait a moment. Can you tell us why you chose to become a medical worker at such a young age?"

"Um... It started when Teacher Orson once told me to try saving lives. But now, it's simply a tiny effort I've made because I want to change this world."

After pondering for a few seconds, Ino answered with a smile. Hearing that response, Orson suddenly felt a warm feeling in his heart.

His efforts had not all been in vain. Ino had truly become an amazing man, someone capable of standing on his own.

"Teacher Orson? Who is this Teacher Orson?"

The moment the host heard that name, his face darkened considerably. The audience below also put away their glow sticks in unison. Fans one second earlier, they instantly became soldiers preparing for a beach landing.

"Um... It might be a little embarrassing to say, but Teacher Orson is the person I've decided to follow forever—the person I love most!"

Ino said, blushing shyly.

"I see—brothers, you know what to do, right?"

The host nodded with a smile, then looked toward the audience.

"Those who know, know!"

The audience raised their hands in unison. Every one of them held weapons such as machetes, spiked clubs, fake dicks, golf clubs, and signal axes.

"...Something feels seriously wrong. Should we get out of here first?"

A certain young man named Orson swallowed and prepared to secretly flee with Lumen.

But just then—

"Ah, Teacher Orson! You came too!"

Ino's Orson radar activated, accurately picking Orson out from the crowd. He happily waved in greeting.

"—" "—" "—"

Orson felt like he had been thrown into a witch group chat and accidentally farted.

"Ino, you set me up—!"

Orson grabbed Lumen and ran for it.

"Fans are terrifying..."

The two hid in a park, and the sky was gradually being covered by dusk.

Lumen gasped for breath as she spoke in awe, while Orson pulled the entire arsenal of weapons embedded in his body out and tossed them into a trash can.

"This is way worse than the 'Herd'..."

Orson sighed, then exchanged a look with Lumen. The two smiled at the same time.

"We only visited a few places, but it feels like time passed so quickly."

Lumen leaned against the bench, raised her head to look at the distant sunset, and spoke softly.

"Everything that happened was too absurd, so our sense of time probably got muddled."

"There's also that saying: happy times always feel short, right?"

Lumen looked at Orson, asking whether such an old saying existed.

"Yeah. Happy, peaceful days always seem to pass in the blink of an eye."

Come to think of it, only a little over a year and a half had passed, yet he had already experienced so much.

Had this world changed because of his existence? Probably not.

But the Reunion Movement, Chernobyl, FrostNova, Patriot, Alina, Ino and Sasha, Talula—their fates had surely taken different paths.

Lumen, sitting beside Orson, looked at his profile and suddenly opened her mouth.

"Orson—can you stay by my side? There are still many vacancies in the security staff, and..."

Lumen looked at Orson, hoping he could remain in Chernobyl, but she could not bring herself to say the rest.

"Well... I'm sorry, Natalia. The Reunion Movement won't stay in Chernobyl forever. At the end of the day, our current status is merely that of an organization that will not be pursued. We can't remain in one place forever. Later, we may head to other city-states."

Orson answered Lumen with an apologetic smile.

"...Mm, that's true."

Lumen frowned, then gave a smile and gave up on the idea.

In fact, she had known the answer from the start. She also knew that asking this question would only make the boy feel guilty.

Yet Lumen still asked.

"Let's go. The sun is about to set."

"Watch your step, Lady Natalia."

Although he could not remain in Chernobyl, he would at least fulfill his duty as a "knight" to the very end.

Orson stood up, took Lumen's hand, and prepared to leave the park.

When the two reached the park entrance, Lumen suddenly stopped. She realized that she did not want to leave the park just like that.

Leaving the park meant that today would end. It meant that her little act of selfishness was about to reach its end.

She felt as though there was still something she had not done. As though there was still something she needed to say to that boy.

What she wanted to say, what she wanted to convey to the boy who looked even younger than she did—

"Orson—I'll work hard too! Even if my battlefield is different from yours, I'll give it everything I have!"

Lumen shouted it aloud.

"Whether it's Chernobyl, the infected, or those abandoned people... I won't give up on any of them—of course, that includes you too, Orson. I have no intention of giving up just like that!"

Lumen pointed at Orson, expressing the small flutter she had long hidden in her heart as though declaring war.

"When this land can make everyone smile, when Chernobyl can continue operating without threats, I'll resign from this position and come find you. So don't you dare forget. This is a promise from the new head of the Rostov family. You have to remember it!"

"...I never will, Lady Natalia. In the name of the Reunion Movement, I swear that I look forward to the day we each achieve our goals."

Orson was stunned by Lumen's declaration, then bowed to the high school girl.

"Then, let's go back."

Lumen grasped Orson's hand and left the park just as the setting sun completely disappeared beyond the horizon.

From then on, she would no longer be an "ordinary high school girl you could find anywhere," but "the youngest City Lord in Chernobyl's history."