The Enduring Name

Looking at his own reflection in the glass, Tom looked away. Aside from the deceased Old Headmaster, would anyone ever like his face again?

Didn't people all love beautiful things? Why did his face bring him so much trouble?

"A demon... maybe I really am a demon, not the angel the Old Headmaster talked about..."

The incident between Noma and Tom spread through the entire orphanage quickly. The children who already disliked Tom became even more brazen in their exclusion and isolation.

"Run~ Demon Riddle is coming!"

"How terrifying! I heard that demon talking to a snake, hissing and hissing, that guy must be crazy!"

"Stop talking, careful the demon remembers you~ Stay away from us, you freak should be burned alive!"

As if he couldn't hear these malicious remarks, Tom, who thought he had grown up a bit, kept telling himself that these words meant nothing to him. After all these years, he was tired of hearing this kind of talk and shouldn't feel sad or angry about it.

Walking to the place where Nagini was buried, Tom sat down on the grass. Soon a group of small snakes gathered around his hand. He casually picked up one little snake and poked its head. 'Anything interesting happen today?'

The little snake crawled back down Tom's arm to the ground, slipped into the grass, and used its tail to roll a pencil over to Tom's feet. 'This belongs to that annoying kid, I brought it for you...'

Seeing their companion showing off, some other little snakes brought their own finds over to Tom. This human child was special—they couldn't disobey him. The feeling was strange; submission was like an instinct carved into their souls.

'Someone named Billy is planning to kill his pet to make you get punished~'

'Is that so...' Tom listened to the little snake's report and shrugged indifferently. After all these years, they never gave up trying to frame him—one moment saying he stole someone's toy, the next saying he took someone's doll. He wouldn't like those dirty things anyway.

Everyone knew that, but nobody cared about the truth. He rarely participated in meetings with Adopters anymore. Hadn't those useless people still failed to get chosen?

Thinking about his abilities, Tom felt a little worried. At eight years old, he understood many things he hadn't known before. He heard there was a kind of hospital outside that would tie up strange people and use electric shocks to treat them, turning them into so-called normal people.

And his abilities were clearly far from normal. If others discovered him, he might be sent to that place—which was much scarier than being framed by children.

'Ah...' Tom sighed, picked up the smartest little snake by his feet, stared at its yellow snake eyes with some envy, and said, 'Nagini, I wish I were a snake.'

'But I envy you instead. Humans can do so many things. If we were discovered, we'd definitely have our heads chopped off...'

Nodding without speaking further, Tom put the little snake back on the ground. He was just saying that anyway. Over the years, the Nagini by his side had kept changing. Although these little snakes could communicate with him and many were clever, they were still too weak.

The only thing that continued was the name 'Nagini'...

'If only I could become strong one day. When that time comes, I definitely won't let anyone bully us...'