NOVEL NEXT Chapter 27: HELLO!
HELLO!
Chapter 27: SADGE!
Author: Don't you feel ashamed of snatching a young girl's food?
Vira: No, it was tasty, and I am younger.
Author: She is mute!
Vira: I am deaf!
Although the girl's gestures were weird and made a question mark pop up on Vira's head,
he still kept putting the carrot pieces into his mouth.
Seeing him unfocused, his expression unchanged, and—most importantly—only five pieces left in the bowl,
she became more anxious. She sped up her hand movements and even hammered the table with her fist, trying to communicate with Vira.
Fortunately, as there were only three pieces left in the bowl, the girl realized how futile her attempts were.
She grabbed a notebook and pen from the side, wrote something in it, and then smashed the notebook against Vira,
who was now staring at the lone cake left on the table.
How satisfying it would have been if the notebook had smashed Vira's face!
But unfortunately, unlike the girl—who seemed to have broken her leg—Vira was completely fine and agile enough to catch the notebook mid-air.
After grabbing it, Vira noticed something written on the page.
As he was about to grab the side and read it, he was once again alerted by an unidentified flying object.
It was a plate—thrown by the girl—who, for some reason, looked even more anxious than when he ate the last carrot in the bowl.
Although the plate flew far above his head, its contents splashed onto the area below.
Vira quickly dodged to the side, nearly stepping on the girl's leg.
Fortunately, he remained unsplashed by the steak's remnants,
and the girl's foot wasn't injured any further than it already was.
When Vira, now curious about why she had thrown yet another object at him, looked at her,
he was greeted by the sight of the girl waving her hands as if she were shooing away a fly.
Fortunately—though Vira was definitely more annoying than one—he hadn't yet stooped that low in her mind.
Instead, she kept repeating that slapping motion just above her still-left hand.
Vira felt like he knew what the girl was saying—at least this time—so he spoke for the first time since entering the room.
"You want me to turn the page?"
Seeing her response—a desperate, continuous nod—one might think Vira would ignore it and keep reading the page.
But fortunately, unless something piqued his interest, Vira was pretty indifferent to most things.
And what a bedridden mute had written in her notebook in the past wasn't really something that aroused his interest—at least not yet.
So he turned the pages one by one while watching the girl's reaction—or rather, her gestures—since her panic wasn't exactly a clear indicator of what she wanted to say.
After flipping through a few pages, Vira finally saw a message scrawled in large, bold letters, almost covering the entire page:
"GIVE ME MY CAKE"
"Why?" Vira asked as he handed the notebook back to the girl.
By now, he was already certain she couldn't speak.
When she returned the notebook, a new message was written:
"It's my food!"
"So what?" replied Vira.
Fortunately, though it sounded mean, he wasn't actually trying to be.
"YOU ALREADY ATE EVERYTHING ELSE… GIVE ME THE CAKE!"
Vira: "I gave you the vegetables and only ate the ones you didn't like."
Girl: "I kept the carrot for last." (With a tinge of anger.)
Fortunately for the girl, her cake was Black Forest—one of the few varieties Vira didn't particularly like.
So he handed her the plate, making her visibly happy.
But her joy was short-lived.
Just as she picked up the spoon to take a bite, Vira snatched the cherry on top.
She wanted to scream or smash the spoon in frustration,
but recalling how easily Vira had snatched food from her hands earlier,
she quickly started shoveling big chunks of cake into her mouth.
Meanwhile, Vira wandered around the room, and after opening the window,
he sat on the window frame in a weird position.
He sat—or rather hung—on the window frame, with only his legs keeping him from falling.
His legs gripped the frame while his upper body dangled freely from it.
After finishing her cake, the girl stared at Vira's weird position and wrote in her notebook:
"Are you a ninja?"
Vira: "No! I am a thief!"
It was unclear which dictionary she was using, but to her, "ninja" and "thief" seemed to mean the same thing.
Well, considering most ninjas in television at the time were either stealing or assassinating, she probably thought they were the same.
"I AM ONE TOO! I can go poof and vanish from people's sight. Even Jamie and Roger can't find me."
"Are they your guards? Where are they now?" Vira asked.
Unfortunately, she seemed to have never communicated with peers before.
She was in her own world, not listening to him at all, rambling as if she were talking to her grandpa and maid aunts—who she kept bringing up over and over.
She went on and on, completely ignoring Vira's words.
But Vira wasn't some kind elder who would patiently listen to her talk (or write) about her everyday life, her new discoveries, and whatever else she found interesting.
So, he interrupted her writing with a loud voice:
"SO WHERE ARE THE TWO GUARDS AT?!"
Startled, she finally wrote:
"They are with Grandpa. He said he will come tomorrow."
"And! And! I can also move things with my mind! Wanna see?"
Vira didn't seem too interested, but he still replied, "Sure, show me."
Hearing this, the girl closed her notebook, placed it on the table, and puffed up her cheeks.
It was clear she was exerting force, but for what exactly was unknown.
Where was she even directing her effort?
At first, Vira was mildly interested.
After all, the way animals were drawn to him and how he communicated with them felt like a superpower in itself.
Although, after nearly four years of life in this world, he had come to believe that he was special only because of his reincarnation—he never really thought magic or supernatural abilities were possible.
But after several minutes passed and nothing on the table moved—not even an inch—he got bored.
He turned his attention to the garden outside the window and spoke to Viper, the snake coiled around his neck:
"Call me if she moves the notebook."
He wasn't expecting much.
But soon enough, Viper alerted him.
Something had moved.
Excited at the thought of finding someone special, Vira quickly turned back around—only to be disappointed.
Sure, the notebook had moved… and yes, she had moved it.
Just not in any magical or supernatural way.
The girl, seeing Vira's reaction, seemed eager to explain herself.
She picked up the notebook and wrote something, then turned it around for him to see.
It read:
"She moved the notebook."
This was why Viper had called him.
Vira was speechless for a moment.
Then, the girl continued writing:
"It worked before! When I was playing in the garden, a branch fell, and I moved it! A black smoke came and pushed it to the side! Although it scratched my foot, I moved it—I swear!"
"Ohh! Sure. Let me see if you can do it again. Also, who is your grandpa?" Vira asked, trying to steer the conversation away, convinced she had simply been scared and misjudged the distance.
"He's a big politician. Also, he owns the Corah Company."
That caught Vira's attention.
Fortunately—or perhaps unfortunately—before he could break the grave news that the Corah Company was shutting down, he was alerted by the lizards he had placed by the door as a precaution.
Someone was coming.
Instinctively, he prepared to flee.
But surprisingly, the girl was more perceptive than either him or the lizards.
She already knew someone was coming and had written beforehand:
"Will you come back?"
"I will come tomorrow to eat," Vira said as he jumped off the window.
And he did come tomorrow.
And the next day.
And every day for four years, until he was seven.