"Kid, you're pretty well-behaved."
Warm yellow candlelight illuminated the dim room. The white-haired boy rested his elbows casually on his knees.
Clear moonlight mingled with the candlelight, stretching his shadow across the screen behind him, painted with pines, cranes, and flowers of the four seasons.
Alluka had been taken by this person to a mansion somewhere unfamiliar.
With the howling wind and snow of the wilderness behind her, maids now brought warm food at regular hours each day, carrying lanterns.
It was a life Alluka had never experienced, but she did not particularly like the feeling.
"Big brother with the white hair, where did Little Ume go?"
The black-haired girl tilted her head up slightly, her eyes curving as a faint smile appeared on her face.
"No idea. Maybe she's dead."
The white-haired boy waved a hand without a care, making no attempt to conceal anything. Propping his chin on his hand, he watched the girl before him with interest.
"Oh."
Unlike what he had expected, the girl merely nodded obediently, showing no inclination to pursue the matter, as though the "Little Ume" she had just mentioned was someone of no importance.
"What's going on with the cursed spirit attached to you? Were you the one who made Sugawara Kazukazu turn into that?"
He had spent the past few days dealing with that matter, which was why he had not come to see her.
They had also found the owner of that suit of armor: a member of a branch of the clan.
According to reports from his subordinates, the monster had recently been roaming the mountains throughout Mutsu along the Tōsandō, killing any cursed spirits or ordinary people who passed by.
For now, they had no means of destroying the monster. After hearing about the incident, the Northern House of Fujiwara had even lodged a complaint against the Sugawara Clan with the emperor, giving him a terrible headache.
The Northern House of Fujiwara already held political power, making it difficult enough for the Sugawara Clan to break free of their stranglehold. Now this had happened, too.
The nobles themselves cared little about whether commoners lived or died, but the Northern House of Fujiwara had used this incident as leverage, leaving the Sugawara Clan badly humiliated.
He was absolutely certain that the culprit was this seemingly harmless child before him.
Yet he had left her alone for several days, and she had happily eaten and slept without showing the slightest concern for her companion.
Unable to sit still any longer, he had come to demand answers.
"Big brother, what's your name?"
Alluka's long black hair took on a faint raven-blue sheen in the candlelight. She lifted her head slightly, her eyes full of docility and obedience.
"Normally, it's only a name, so there's no harm in you knowing it. But my instincts tell me that's something I shouldn't tell you, so... you'll just have to guess, kid!"
The white-haired boy raised his eyebrows. In the candlelight, his ice-blue eyes resembled a clear, pure sky, so lofty and distant that they were impossible to fathom.
"Oh."
Alluka answered without asking anything else, lowering her head to play with the Temari Ball in her hands instead.
It was a small toy made by winding colored embroidery thread into a ball, adorned with tassels that made it especially pretty.
This kind of toy had been brought back by envoys to Tang China some years earlier. Generally, only nobles could afford to amuse themselves with them, and Temari Balls were particularly popular among young noblewomen. A maid at the Sugawara residence had brought Alluka the one she held, and she loved it too much to put it down.
"The old men in the clan have already found out about you. If you don't tell the truth, I'll have to hand you over to them~"
The white-haired boy's lips curved slightly as he voiced the threat.
He thought the child would surely react this time, but even after he waited a long while, Alluka kept her head down, happily playing on her own, with no intention of acknowledging him.
Bored, he stood and shook out his slightly creased, moon-white Kariginu.
"I don't understand what you're hiding..."
He concealed his expression behind a folding fan and shook his head, his figure gradually disappearing behind the hanging curtain.
The white-haired boy had not been making things up that day.
Over the next few days, warriors of the Sugawara Clan drove Alluka in an ox carriage to their ancestral residence in Kyoto.
At first, no one paid attention to such a seemingly harmless child, until an old man stepped into the dim tatami room one day.
"Are you the murderer who killed Kazukazu?"
He was a stooped old man with deep furrows across his pallid face. He reached out with withered fingers, trying to seize the girl's loose sleeve.
"Grandpa, what's your name?"
Alluka blinked, resting a hand against her cheek as she tilted her head and looked at the old man before her.
"Sugawara Kentarō."
His eyes were utterly clouded. With a savage expression, he reached out to close his hand around Alluka's fragile neck.
Sugawara Kazukazu had not been anyone particularly important in the Sugawara household, but he had been their branch's hope of climbing higher.
If Sugawara Kazukazu had performed well in the tasks assigned by the clan, their branch would have received advancement from those above them. But this brat before him had ruined everything.
Sugawara Kentarō wanted to twist Alluka's neck until it folded over.
No one would care much about an insignificant brat like her anyway.
Just as he began tightening his grip, the child laughed happily.
The child in white robes and scarlet hakama tilted her head up slightly, ripples spreading through her blue eyes in the candlelight.
"Sugawara Kentarō, could you give me your rib cage?"
Alluka smiled and held out both hands. Her voice was dreamily coaxing, but the words she spoke were utterly chilling.
"Huh? Do you want to die even faster?"
Hearing such an outrageous request, Sugawara Kentarō's pupils contracted. His face livid, he hurled the child he had lifted onto the floor.
A few snowflakes drifted through the open doorway, and cold air flowed slowly between them.
He had not answered Alluka's request directly, but his meaning was clear.
Alluka did not mind Sugawara Kentarō's rough treatment in the slightest. She stood, held out her dusty palms, and continued asking in a gentle voice:
"Sugawara Kentarō, could you give me your backbone?"
"I don't want to."
Without even thinking, Sugawara Kentarō flatly rejected Alluka's unreasonable request. He thought there must be something wrong with the child's head; otherwise, why would she make such baffling demands?
The rib cage and spine were among the most vital parts of the human body. He would die if he lost them.
"Sugawara Kentarō, could you give me your neck bones?"
Alluka tilted her head, her expression unchanged by his refusal. She stared unblinkingly at the old man before her, her ribbon-like hair brushing her soft cheeks in the wind.
She maintained her doll-like smile, her pale palms held open and upward, as though asking for something.
"I refuse."
Sugawara Kentarō laughed in anger. With his back to the candlelight, he straightened to his full height before Alluka, looming over her, wanting to see what even more unreasonable request this brat could make.
"Sugawara Kentarō, could you give me your skull?"
This was Alluka's fourth request.
The candlelight flickered across her small, pale face, and her azure eyes glimmered faintly. Her voice remained just as gentle, but for some reason, Sugawara Kentarō felt that something about the atmosphere was wrong.