The Boy came down the stairs with a bloody cat in his hand, making quite a scene.
The mangled animal didn't cause this underage Child to show any expression—if one had to say there was one, it was disgust.
Weak animals, weak fates.
The grayish-white wall plaster had long since become mottled and peeled off. Earlier, these children could peel off the plaster when bored, gather it into a ball, and throw it under his pillow or stuff it into his water bottle. Now, with age, this interesting activity of theirs could no longer continue.
They had switched to another kind.
For example, throwing some wild animals into the Boy's quilt or under his bed, and then pressing their ears to the door, quietly waiting for the screams to ring out from inside the room.
Though they only ever found those torn animals and organs on their own beds.
—Soon, none of the children in the orphanage dared to provoke him.
Except for himself.
Seemingly out of revenge, or perhaps because it was interesting? Those children had provided him with a great recreational activity, to the point where wild animals near the orphanage were almost extinct.
Only cats, which were numerous and had high reproductive rates, could occasionally be caught by the Boy: he would gently take out a stolen sausage, grab the scruff of the neck, throw, smash, and crush with a stone.
Then he would get a perfect scary toy.
Fantastic.
The Boy thought as he ran down the stairs, preparing to choose a lucky victim for today to complete his entertainment. As a result, he almost bumped into someone.
To be precise, he had already bumped into them.
It was a shadow as hard as a wall.
He took two steps back and sat on the floor with a 'thud.' The wild cat's corpse also rolled into the corner of the stairs, leaving some bright red bloodstains on the floor.
He looked up.
It was a Beast-like man in a suit.
He was bald and clean-shaven, with bulging muscles almost bursting out of his clothes. The man stared down at him, his hawk-like eyes almost piercing through his heart—
Terrible and terrifying, he felt as if he had met a natural predator. After a cold current ran through his body, the Boy shivered.
"You have to watch where you're going." The man's words were strange. He muttered a couple of sentences before bowing humbly to the shadow behind him and saying something else.
Only then did the Boy notice that the Dean had been following that surrounded shadow, head bowed, explaining the history of this orphanage and how she treated these children kindly.
Oh, another hypocrite with too much money and nowhere to spend it?
The figure gradually became clear.
It was a... girl who was young beyond belief.
He even felt the girl wasn't as old as he was: her long hair stretched out as quietly as the night; her features were exquisite—the Boy had never seen such a beautiful person; she elegantly pursed her lips, and when her high heels clicked against the floor, even the crisp tapping sound was so wonderful... It seemed she wasn't human, but a creature humans had never seen but longed for—luring those ignorant humans to enter her already open, fanged maw foolishly and willingly... The Boy felt this girl was even more terrifying than the muscular man.
"Rest assured, the money won't change," the girl's honey-sweet voice rang out thickly. "For the specific handover, you can talk to Nagini. Now, I'd like to meet—"
The girl winked at him. "Meet this little gentleman, if I may?"
The Dean looked worried. "He's the one I told you about..."
"Oh, I know. Seeing him makes it clear; he's a Child with decent talent." The girl looked around. "Is there anywhere... I mean, can we have a moment alone with him?"
"Don't worry, I won't mistreat the Child."
...In the Boy's own room.
The sound of bells jingled and jumped about.
At his strong and stubborn insistence, the Boy carried in the carcass of the tomcat—as he passed the girl with a gloomy, lowered head, he 'deliberately' rubbed the carcass hard against her skirt.
Perhaps in the next second, he would hear a scream?
Ha... the next second, he was knocked down by a punch from the bald man.
Bang!
The Boy fell face down on the ground, and the carcass rolled away again. This time, the cat's dead soul should be somewhat satisfied.
"You'd better watch where you're going," the bear-like man said in a monotone, devoid of joy or sorrow. "Stay away from My Lord, you filthy brat."
Turning over to lie on his back in resentment, he found the man's gaze familiar: it was exactly how he looked at the animals he had strangled, crushed, or stabbed to death; it was also how he looked at the children in the orphanage.
Now, he was being looked at with that same gaze.
This made him very angry.
"How dare you lay a hand on me!" Muttering viciously, the Boy yanked open a slightly ajar cabinet door: he had been prepared, waiting for a certain day to come.
To witness his greatness and uniqueness.
The Boy shouted the same towards that incredibly venomous cobra.
Sss... The snake's tongue flicked out, its head rising from the floor to aim at the innocent and naive girl in the center... Let my path begin with you... He didn't notice that all three people were looking at him with strange expressions. More precisely, it was the bald, burly, bodyguard-like man whose expression was odd. He looked at himself, then at the snake, then at the figure on the other side of the girl—
She had purple-painted lips and stood silently with her arms crossed.
Under the control of Parseltongue, the cobra slithered and coiled, tentatively approaching the three people—the Boy found it strange; they remained still, like roosters frozen in fear.
He had seen children paralyzed by fear before, but shouldn't they at least make some noise?
Before long, a scene that shattered his worldview appeared.
—The tall woman with her hair up knelt down and reached out her right hand: then, his Little Darling defected without lasting even a second.
It slithered into the woman's palm pleasingly, tapped her fingertip with its mouth, and then coiled around her wrist like a soft bracelet.
The room became so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
She... was just like him?
There were others like him?
The Boy stood frozen, looking at the snake submissively resting on the woman's wrist, his lips pursed in silence.
"Ahem." The girl in the center suppressed a smile. "This is the first time I've seen someone use a'snake attack' on Nagini. You really are a helpful and public-spirited Boy."
The Boy just stared at her intensely.
The youth's features, though not yet fully developed, already showed signs of handsomeness.
"Oh, don't be angry. I've sponsored many orphanages along the way. You see, Eve and Baru both like adventures, so I decided to come myself this time."
"You're the only person I've seen with Wizard talent... probably? Sorry, I'm not a Wizard, so I can only sense a slight difference; I'm not sure how you all distinguish your own kind." The girl rubbed her chin, observing the youth's blood-stained fingers curiously. "Why did you kill that cat?"
The cat?
The youth remained expressionless.
"The fate of the weak is always thus."
"Oh... that sounds like something a Wizard would say." The girl nodded, but the Boy angrily interrupted her.
This made the bald bodyguard want to punch him again.
"Wizard?"
The Boy finally asked the question he had hidden for so long.
"They said I needed to see a Doctor."
"That's not right." The girl shrugged, pinching her index finger and thumb together to leave a tiny gap. "You, like many others, have a tiny bit of... talent."
"Barely... barely enough to be considered gifted... maybe?"
"So, is this the proof you're showing me?" The Boy looked at Nagini, then at the snake on her wrist that had been his constant companion—it was no longer his partner.
"A servant? You hired a 'gifted' person? You want to use money to buy people like 'us'?"
"You don't like your own mediocre fate, do you?" He looked at the plain-looking girl, who was only beautiful, and sneered. "You want this talent, so you found a maid with such talent, right? Ordinary Mortal... are you jealous?"
After he finished speaking, the expected anger did not appear.
Instead, the man and woman on either side looked at him with even stranger expressions.
The girl in the center burst out laughing, her voice as melodious as wind chimes.
"Sorry (hahaha), sigh... hahaha, no, I... hahahaha." Covering her mouth, the girl gasped for air amidst the Boy's growing resentment. "I... wasn't praising you, hahahaha."
"You're just an ordinary, average Wizard... I mean, when will you people learn to face your own Ability and let go of that arrogant, boring attitude..."
She held her maid and giggled for a long time until the other woman gently put an arm around her shoulder and patted the young lady's head. Only then did she mercifully let the shamed and indignant youth go.
"Sigh... how boring. I thought I'd meet an interesting Child. Turns out it's just another standard 'Wizard.' No fun. Nagini, finalize the sponsorship, let's hurry. I want to browse the nearby shops."
"Grindelwald is much more interesting; at least he wasn't deluded by power."
"This place is too boring. I want to go home."
The girl gave him a meaningful look, but the Boy shouted unwillingly: "What is your name! Tell me your name!"
"Oh... that..."
"I am Tom Riddle. You should remember this name."
The girl waved her hand casually. "Fine, I'll remember. Before I leave, I'll tell Dumbledore to pick you up and take you to the Wizarding World when he has time."
"As for my name..."
She suddenly turned at the doorway, countless black threads flashing in her innocent eyes.
Tom Riddle seemed to see a space made of nested boxes—
The World was scorched by raging fires, with demons and Angels wailing in pain. They hated and feared, their gazes all fixed upon the eternal and inextinguishable silver moon above.
Tentacles stretching from the dark deep sea, green like soft branches, spread throughout the pitch-black Universe. Manic, disorderly laughter came from the end of the Origin Point—inside those elegant, ornate, and expensive clothes, there now lived... an immortal monster.
She affectedly pinched her fingers, rubbing them a few times, then took a rose handed to her by the maid beside her. With a gentle blow, a frigid wind froze the entire land.
She giggled, and amidst the pious and humble expressions of various creatures, the rose suddenly fell to the ground, shattering into countless crystalline red fragments.
In an instant, the brief stillness was quickly resumed.
The girl still stood at the door, looking at him with a smile, the silver bells on her ankles sparkling.
"Sigh, talking to you is such a buzzkill."
"You are not qualified to know my name, Mortal."
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