"What happened in the end?"
"Nothing. I spent my middle school years in isolation, and eventually went our separate ways from those people."
He recounted it calmly, as though he were telling someone else's story.
That was life. There was no humiliation of being looked down upon in his youth, no exhilaration of thirty years east of the river and thirty years west. Those matters were too distant, too trivial. Zhao Bai himself had nearly forgotten them.
It was just that... when he saw Bronya looking slightly dejected, he could not help recalling those days. That lonely boy, day after day, who had lived in the southernmost province yet resolutely applied to a university in the far north after the college entrance exam. Flying directly from Hainan to Heilongjiang. On that unremarkable day, the clouds beyond the window blazed like fire beneath the setting sun, while flowers bloomed brilliantly in the boy's heart, as if he were embarking on a grand escape.
Then, the plane crashed.
Then, Zhao Bai came to this world, and the admission notice in his hand changed from Harbin Institute of Technology to St. Freya Academy.
So people never knew, nor could they predict, what would happen...
"..."
Bronya took out a white glove and lightly patted Zhao Bai's face. "Weren't you trying to comfort me? Why are you getting sentimental too?"
Zhao Bai sighed.
"It's all your fault. You made me remember some distant things... Forget it. Does Sky City have somewhere like a Botanical Garden? I've seen this kind of monster before. It won't wander around committing crimes. There must be a place it uses as a base—the nest."
Without realizing it, Zhao Bai had taken over the detective's job and begun issuing orders.
Heavy Cannon Rabbit began searching the map.
Watching Bronya immerse