Jarilo-VI, the great city of Belobog, the underground Underworld, Rivet Town Orphanage.
"Many years ago, our planet wasn't like this. Back then, there were no endless expanses of ice and snow, no terrifying Fragmentum. People could walk freely across the land, wander through green forests, and enjoy the warmth of the sunshine."
In the orphanage classroom, the teacher read from a picture book, her voice brimming with feeling.
The children's picture book was already worn and tattered from being read so often, but the warm yellow sun and green forests in its illustrations... no matter how many times she saw them, they still filled her with boundless longing.
"Back then, every breath people took was warm and satisfying... the air carried the scent of earth and the fragrance of fresh grass. That was the scent of the forest..."
At that, she couldn't help sniffing.
Unfortunately, the air in the Underworld was thick with the unpleasant smell of rust.
The orphanage's heating system was aging, too. The air she breathed was icy cold, making her lungs ache faintly.
A request for repairs had been submitted long ago, but there were too many places in the Underworld that needed fixing. After all, to the important people above, the mining facilities mattered far more than an orphanage.
The geomarrow extracted from the Underworld's mines was a natural heating fuel. On this planet covered in ice and snow, geomarrow kept the entire city safe!
To Belobog, geomarrow was the city's lifeblood!
Though the children were Belobog's future, without a present, how could there be a future?
At that thought, the young teacher couldn't help sighing.
"Teacher, are there still forests now?" a little silver-haired girl asked timidly.
"Forests... of course there are." A trace of sadness flickered in the young teacher's eyes. "It's just that winter has held them captive."
As soon as she said it, she seemed to realize that something was wrong. A warm, sweet smile returned to her face as she said:
"But winter will pass eventually. Every year, the Paskonja Festival celebrates the arrival of spring. One day, we'll surely welcome a real spring, and when that happens, every seed will sprout."
"Wow!" The children let out soft cries of wonder.
"Wow, wow, wow!" One child's cry sounded rather jarring and half-hearted.
"Chu Mu!" The young teacher immediately glared at him.
He was a child with black hair and black eyes, about six or seven years old, and looked quite different from the other children.
According to the orphanage director, the Silvermane Guards had found him outside the city two and a half years ago. He had been inside a metal egg when they discovered him, which was the only reason he hadn't frozen to death.
However, researchers from the Upper District said it wasn't an egg at all, but a spaceship's escape pod. The child was an outworlder. No one knew what accident had befallen his parents that had led them to send him to Jarilo-VI.
Jarilo-VI was not a good destination for an interstellar escape. More than seven hundred years ago, it had become a planet cursed by the Eternal Freeze, and most of its surface had become uninhabitable.
Belobog, its only settlement, was both humanity's refuge and its prison.
With this city's resources alone, they could never build a spaceship and leave the planet.
Human civilization here had been imprisoned in its cradle!
For this descendant of an advanced interstellar civilization, wasn't that a kind of cruelty?
His parents might still be alive, but he might grow old and die on this planet without ever seeing them again.
As the young teacher thought of that, her irritation softened into pity.
"Chu Mu, stay behind after class."
At the teacher's instruction, Chu Mu's smile froze on his face, then slowly collapsed.
The children around him turned to look, their eyes full of gleeful anticipation at his misfortune.
Only the silver-haired girl sharing his desk looked worried.
"Big Brother Mu..." the girl murmured.
"My life is over." Chu Mu's expression instantly turned grave. "Xiao Bu, the terrifying demon queen of the orphanage is finally coming for me. I may never return!"
"Surely not. The teacher might be a little strict, but as long as you apologize properly, you'll only have to copy out the orphanage rules," the girl named Xiao Bu reassured him.
"Copying lines? What a terrifying, vicious attack!" Chu Mu clutched his heart in anguish. "Xiao Bu, remember to sit at the children's table at my funeral banquet. The grown-ups' table will have alcohol. You can't handle that."
"Big Brother Mu, look what I have." Xiao Bu handed him a sheet of paper with a copy of the kindergarten rules written on it.
Chu Mu glanced at it and asked in confusion:
"How come I don't remember copying this?"
Xiao Bu smiled sweetly.
"Big Brother Mu, I copied it for you and imitated your handwriting. They won't notice, will they?"
"Xiao Bu, do you know what you've done? You're corrupting a future heir to the Architects' will!" Chu Mu scolded her with righteous indignation. "You've broken my heart, truly. I think of you as my own little sister, and you dare tempt me with this! Corruption, utter corruption!"
"Big Brother Mu, I-I didn't!" Xiao Bu panicked, at a loss for what to do.
"Hmph. I'm confiscating this. I'll keep it as evidence so I can properly condemn it later!" Chu Mu carefully folded the paper and tucked it into his pocket.
Xiao Bu was so distressed she was about to cry!
Just then, the teacher's sharp voice rang out:
"Chu Mu, Xiao Bu, what are you two whispering about in the back row? If you love talking so much, I'll give you the podium. Both of you, come up here and teach!"
Chu Mu and Xiao Bu instantly sat up straight.
The orphanage's demon queen was terrifying indeed!
When class finally ended, Xiao Bu still seemed unable to let go of what had happened earlier. She tried to explain to Chu Mu:
"Big Brother Mu, I wasn't..."
"Don't explain!" Chu Mu cut her off. "I'll let it go this time, but there won't be a next time!"
Xiao Bu nodded and ran out, looking thoroughly wronged.
Watching her go, Chu Mu couldn't help sighing.
This troublesome little sister of his would probably stay up late copying even more punishment assignments for him if he didn't treat her this way, hoping to win his affection.
In the end, it came from an inferiority complex that left her feeling unequal to others. Afraid they would dislike her, she desperately tried to please them.
The children at the orphanage all had this problem to some degree.
Chu Mu understood that, so he couldn't comfortably stand by and let it continue.
She might feel a little hurt now, but that was better than staying up late copying lines.
Besides, he could soothe those hurt feelings later.
Chu Mu was quick-witted, and his thinking was far beyond that of other children his age.
The people around him explained it like this-
Just what you'd expect from a child of an advanced civilization.
He was simply a little too much of a handful!
"Chu Mu, please cooperate with me a little more next class." The teacher came over to his desk and sighed softly.
"Reporting, teacher! I think I was already being very cooperative." Chu Mu eagerly raised his hand.
"By going 'wow, wow, wow'?" The teacher looked at him helplessly. "Why do you always have to tear apart the lies I weave?"
"Lies..." Chu Mu sobered and quietly met her gaze. "Teacher, you know they're lies, too. Spring isn't coming at all, is it?"
"Spring might come in the next moment, or it might never come." The teacher looked out the window at the distant mines. The enormous machinery rumbled so loudly that it could still be heard clearly here.
Countless miners worked around those machines like so many ants.
Her voice gradually grew more agitated:
"But there has to be hope. There has to be! Doesn't there? Am I supposed to tell the children that they'll live underground forever, never seeing daylight, trapped in a lonely city surrounded by ice and snow? That I'm teaching them to read and raising them only so they can become capable Underworld miners?"
At that, her voice turned painfully bitter:
"Spring, hah. Forests, hah... I've never even seen them myself, yet I have to teach the children to believe in them."
Although the picture book described real sights from centuries ago, to people living now, it was like an imaginary fairy tale.
No one had witnessed those sights firsthand, but every generation of children heard such stories from the adults.
They were passed down from generation to generation.
It was like passing along a seed, a seed called hope.
But could these children really live to see the day that seed sprouted?
Hundreds of years had already passed, yet the Eternal Freeze had never relented.
The children would eventually grow up, and when they realized it was a lie, they would protect that lie, too.
This despairing world needed some hope.
Even if it was false.
"Teacher, I'm sorry. I was being too naughty." Chu Mu placed his little hand over the teacher's chalk-dusted hand, as though a reassuring strength passed between them at that moment.
The teacher gradually calmed down and said softly to Chu Mu:
"You came from another world. You must have seen a real forest, right?"
"Yes." Chu Mu nodded gently. "I can tell you about it."
"No, there's no need." The teacher hurriedly shook her head.
She didn't know why she felt so flustered. Perhaps the idea of a forest had already become so perfect in her heart that she was deeply afraid a real forest might differ from what she imagined.
"Let's leave it there." The teacher brought their conversation to a wistful close.
Chu Mu nodded and was just about to leave when a piece of bread was suddenly pressed into his arms.
"Teacher?"
"Take it." The young woman waved a hand. "Be more cooperative next class! Even if it's a lie, you're not allowed to say so!"
"Yes, mission accepted! Long live the teacher!" Chu Mu saluted, making her laugh.
"I'm only volunteering here as a substitute for a while. I'm not a real teacher." The young woman shook her head, a smile appearing on her gentle, serene face. "Once my volunteer work ends this term, I'll open a clinic in the Underworld. Then you'll have to call me Doctor Natasha."
"Yes! Long live Doctor Natasha! May she live ten thousand years!"
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