[56]
He finally learned it.
Sewing.
“Why do I really need to know this?”
Peter asked as he skillfully cut thread with his teeth.
Chris remained silent with a somewhat complex expression.
That seemed to be answer enough, as the Locksmith didn’t ask any more questions.
“I thought you’d do it by hand, not with telekinesis.”
It seemed he wasn’t curious about the answer, but simply amazed by Chris’s telekinetic tricks.
“Come to think of it, you drive with telekinesis too.”
“Having both hands free allows me to do more varied tasks.”
Like shooting, for instance.
Chris added this in a casual tone, focusing on his sewing while Peter nodded off without him noticing.
He had mostly mastered running stitch. Next was blind stitch, he’d been told.
Peter discovered the reason for this sewing obsession two days later.
A button-shaped recording device was included in a package picked up from the Summer Continent.
“Is this the new item you requested from Anong?”
“Yes.”
Chris carefully lifted the button, which looked smaller than his finger.
“It’s a button.”
“What? You learned sewing so diligently but skipped how to attach buttons?”
“It’s more that…”
His voice suddenly choked.
“It’s so small.”
It truly was small. Even more so because it was for a child’s clothing.
In the end, Chris obtained several more buttons of similar size and continued practicing sewing.
Initially, he planned to wait for when Dahlia and Dain went out again.
But Dahlia rarely came outside. The one time she did go out, Mihir, posing as her husband, was with her.
Because of this, Chris was monitoring the situation.
‘Should I target when they’re in the factory?’
Learning to sew with telekinesis rather than by hand had been a good decision.
From his observations, the child wasn’t in the basement 24 hours a day.
She often shuffled around when others were asleep or taking breaks.
She seemed to have escaped the stuffiness when the interior was busy.
Chris waited for Dain’s brief outings.
And finally, an opportunity came. When the two Espers left Factory 8, the child came up from the basement.
Removing and reattaching a button through a narrow window wasn’t easy.
He had prepared a sewing kit by the Factory 8 window for this day.
‘It’s a bit far.’
Chris inwardly clicked his tongue. He didn’t want to go beyond the cover of the bushes, but the child’s position was partially obscured by the window frame. He could move the needle but might accidentally prick the child’s skin.
Sighing, Chris carefully assessed his surroundings before slightly extending his tail.
Swish.
The child, who had been excitedly roaming the empty factory interior, noticed something shining and approached the window.
The white tail, reflecting the moonlight with a pale silver glow, was very fluffy.
Dain’s mouth opened wide at the sight of it swishing like a fishing rod.
“W-wow…”
Chris could see the child practically hanging from the window.
‘Good.’
Chris moved quickly.
The hidden needle and button descended behind Dain’s back.
It was the beginning of a careful operation.
“Doggy?”
He didn’t forget to wag his tail to keep Dain from noticing anything strange.
“Doggy, come here!”
He could see the child whispering while glancing around. Her adorable hands covering her mouth to prevent her voice from getting too loud were distracting.
But how could he acknowledge her?
The child, perhaps disappointed that the beast wouldn’t turn to look at her despite her gestures, shook her body vigorously.
‘Oh no!’
Chris broke into a cold sweat as he was performing delicate telekinetic work while using his shapeshifting ability.
Just now, the child’s sudden movement almost caused him to prick her with the needle.
‘Please. Please stay still.’
But when do children ever grant adult wishes?
Chris pondered for quite some time about what to do.
He needed to capture the child’s attention. To keep her fixed to the window.
There was no sign of Espers or guards. It didn’t seem like people would come up either.
The hesitation was brief. If he missed this chance, who knew when he would meet Dain again?
Chris stepped his front paws into the open moonlight.
“Wow…”
The girl, who had clung to the disguised Dahlia and ignored Chris when they first met, now stared at the wolf with wide eyes.
Honestly, he was too large to be appealing to a child. But thanks to the appropriate distance, in Dain’s eyes, Chris looked like a slightly oversized dog.
As if out for a stroll, Chris slowly moved, circling the open space in front of Factory 8.
“Pretty.”
Entranced, the child didn’t notice one of her buttons falling off and being replaced with another.
Chris took one last look at Dain. The girl, with her cheek almost pressed against the window, didn’t take her eyes off the wolf’s golden gaze.
Just as he entered the bushes, an adult approached from behind Dain and lifted her up.
The entire time she moved away from the window, Dain was carried by the person who had approached from behind.
Chris stood still, watching.
He didn’t feel good about it.
But now it was time to go back and observe.
The button transmitted video in real time.
Chris could roughly understand the underground structure. It seemed to have originally been a facility room, with some equipment removed to create living space for people.
Of course, it was as poor as the container Yuri had lived in.
Personal spaces appeared to be divided by partitions, and the bathroom seemed to be shared.
In the harsh environment, everyone was exhausted. Some were seen staring into space, intoxicated by drugs.
Even trees in midwinter store vitality while waiting for a momentary spring, but these people were like branches already cut from the tree.
Surrounded by such people, Dain mostly spent time alone.
No sunlight entered the gloomy basement, and there wasn’t much for a child to play with.
No friends to play with, no one to take care of her. Everyone was too exhausted.
The person Chris initially assumed was her mother turned out not to be her birth mother.
She took minimal care of the child’s basic needs as an adult responsibility, but that was all.
‘Is only Dain’s father in this abandoned factory district?’
Still, Dain appeared quite brave.
She went to a metal railing, and the screen wobbled back and forth. Chris realized Dain was swinging alone.
In the dim darkness, she quietly moved and opened something like a picture book. Unable to read yet, she just traced the pictures with her finger.
Simple meals were provided by people who came down from above.
One unexpected fact was that Dain tried to go upstairs every day.
Whenever possible.
“Why do you keep doing this?”
Tired of keeping the child underground, the woman caring for her asked.
“There’s a doggy upstairs! A super big doggy!”
Was it because of me?
Chris almost bit his tongue in surprise.
At the same time, he felt some regret.
Attaching the button was important, of course. But what if Dain made a scene about wanting to see him and fell out of favor with Espers like Dahlia?
The answer to that question came soon enough.
“Why won’t you listen!”
Having heard that Dain was throwing tantrums daily, Dahlia from Factory 4 appeared.
Chris, who happened to be observing the situation beside Factory 8, tensed involuntarily.
“I hear you’ve been sneaking out every day. You really need to be punished.”
‘Should I get the child out even now?’
Dain had been sneaking out and wandering around for more than just a day or two.
So if she disappeared, they might not find it very strange.
However.
‘If such a small child managed to evade all the Espers and disappear, they would find it suspicious.’
Chris gritted his teeth.
Checking the screen transmitted by Dain’s button, Chris paused.
Dahlia, who had gone underground, showed an unexpected side.
“Mom, no, damn it. I’ve got such strange titles stuck in my mouth when I don’t even have a decent man.”
Irritably brushing her hair back, Dahlia asked Dain:
“What did unnie tell you?”
“To be well-behaved… and quiet… but, bu-ut the doggy!”
“Doggy?”
“When I lived with mom and dad… we raised one. But it disappeared. I think it came looking for me.”
“Ah,” Dahlia irritably ruffled her hair.
“Where did another lost mutt crawl in from?”
It was more like a mutter to herself, but Dain questioned:
“…Mutt?”
Dahlia could see the child looking at her with round eyes.
“No! No. I misspoke. Doggy. Woof woof!”
A hehe laugh could be heard from Dain at Dahlia’s startled correction. Looking at the child’s face, Dahlia softened her fierce expression and smiled.
‘I never thought she could make such an expression.’
Dahlia took out a hidden storybook and handed it to the child.
The more he observed the situation, the more confused Chris became.
‘What is going on?’
He couldn’t understand it.
***
“So?”
Peter, who was checking the screen with Chris after he returned from the abandoned factory district, tilted his head.
“Even if she’s nice to the child. Does that change the fact that this woman is forcing harsh labor on the people there? Monitoring them so they can’t escape, beating them if they resist.”
Chris agreed with this.
Even if she was good to Dain, it was difficult to see Dahlia as a good person.
“Just because someone is a good person doesn’t mean they’re always kind. Well. They might litter while walking down the street. Or jaywalk or do other minor infractions…”
Rolling his eyes, Peter carefully broached a sensitive topic.
“I mean, even Rosenhauser pretended to be so dignified and nice in public, but was a bastard behind the scenes.”
Bastard.
Chris inadvertently thought of Dahlia at those words.
The Esper who had been startled when Dain repeated the curse she had used.
“It’s just that even a bad person can sometimes pretend to be good. Just as a good person can pretend to be a bad guy.”
