This House Has A Delicious Restaurant - Chapter 17 - Raid (2) - Part 1

17. Raid (2)

I couldn’t remember my parents’ faces.

Most of my daily life consisted of begging, and even then, anything useful was often taken by those stronger than me. Of course, the useful things were food and money.

“You crazy bastard, even when you get something, you bring back this? You must have thought you were a girl because you’re so skinny.”

Petals, now withered and pitiful, fluttered down over my head. It was from a flower I had just received from a middle-aged woman while begging.

They looked down at me, quietly standing with my head lowered and seemed to decide that there wasn’t anything worth taking today. Annoyed, they pushed me roughly on the shoulder.

Even when I fell backward, I didn’t let out a single groan, which made them laugh among themselves again.

“Next time, bring back something decent or steal something. Otherwise, I’ll steal your backside.”

They laughed amongst themselves, finding some crude amusement in their disgusting words.

I nodded and hurriedly fled the scene, sitting down on the sidewalk where people were passing by. No one spoke to me.

The middle-aged woman who had given me the flower earlier had been kind. She must have known what would happen if she gave me food or money, so she put a freshly baked cookie directly into my mouth.

And then, she handed me a flower. Maybe she had mistaken me for a girl.

But thanks to her, I got to eat a cookie, so I could survive today, at least for now.

I clutched my starving stomach and curled up. My body, weak from lack of food, was frail, and my hair, never properly cared for, was tangled and hung down to my waist. My face was so obscured that it was barely visible.

I had always been weaker than others my age, so if I had continued living in the back alleys, I might have died early or spent my life as a toy for those nasty guys. Yes, a toy for sexual exploitation.

The decent-looking girls were either sold or worked in places where they sold their bodies, so even a young and frail boy like me seemed tempting to them.

But even if I ended up with them, I wouldn’t get any money or food. At that point, it might have been better to just kill someone, tear off their flesh, and eat it to stay alive.

Those thoughts kept piling up, day after day. When I finally accepted that there was no bright future left for me and gave up hope, they appeared before me.

“There you are. I’ve been looking for you.”

It was as winter approached, and my body was freezing from the cold.

A middle-aged woman spoke to me as I lay curled up on the ground. It was the same woman who had given me the flower and cookie earlier.

She looked at me with a sympathetic expression. Unlike me, she had bright blonde hair and golden eyes, and even though she was older, she was beautiful.

She didn’t seem to care about the filth or the smell as she picked me up and held me. Then she whispered that if I had nowhere to go, she would become my family.

Even as I was losing consciousness, I think I nodded weakly at her words.

I remembered something a boy, who had lost his life after being beaten by those scumbags, once said. He had mentioned that no matter how hard life was, something good would eventually come along.

He had spoken about hoping that an angelic person would take him away, and I had openly mocked him for it.

He’s no longer in this world, but if I could meet him now, I would apologize for laughing at him back then.

The middle-aged woman told me she didn’t expect anything from me. She said that after seeing me that day, she couldn’t stop thinking about me even when she went home, so she discussed it with her family and decided to take me in.

At first, I thought maybe it was because she didn’t have children, but through our conversations, I realized she had two sons. So, she hadn’t taken me in because she mistook me for a girl either.

She showed me kindness without expecting anything in return. She treated my wounds, bathed me, fed me, and gave me a place to sleep.

This inexplicable kindness confused me and made me wary. My life had become much more comfortable, but I didn’t let my guard down.

Then one day, she held out a ring she had been wearing.

“This is something I cherish.”

She didn’t say anything more. I didn’t understand why she was giving it to me or what it meant.

She just looked at me, so I picked up the ring and then put it back down. Then she placed a necklace she had been wearing on the table.

“Here.”

I didn’t know what she was trying to do, but this time, I picked up the necklace.

It was a necklace with a small blue gemstone. As I fiddled with the gem, she smiled at me.

“Do you like it?”

“It’s… pretty.”

“Then it’s yours. It’s a gift for you.”

She put the ring back on her finger but didn’t take the necklace back. Even though I told her I didn’t need it, she didn’t seem to hear me.

I ended up keeping the necklace, and maybe at that moment, she had a vague sense of something.

“To me, he seems like a normal child.”

“Oh my, are you doubting my abilities?”

“No, but there hasn’t been any noticeable reaction so far.”

“There are many different abilities. We’ve tried various tests, and it seems his ability is related to gemstones. But it appears it has to be a gem that resonates with him.”

“I see. Then it’s understandable that he wouldn’t have known about his ability until now. As a beggar on the streets, he wouldn’t have had the chance to see or touch gemstones.”

“That’s right. So, we’ll need to continue testing regularly from now on.”

“Then it’s time to bring him into the fold.”

“Yes.”

The conversation I was eavesdropping on was brief, but it allowed me to understand the situation.

So, they believed I had some useful traits, and it seemed to be related to gemstones.

Well, that was fine by me. For the first time, I felt like I could sleep peacefully. Knowing what they wanted was better than inexplicable kindness.

“Did you sleep well? Starting today, you’ll be joining with your new family.”

“That sounds good.”

The next day, she took me away as if she had been waiting for it.

Since she had mentioned joining yesterday, I assumed we were moving to develop my abilities. I pretended not to know anything and followed her.

We soon arrived at a massive underground space.

Until then, I knew nothing about supernatural abilities. Most ordinary people didn’t know about them, and the same was true for me, living in the back alleys.

So, when she moved through the wall without using stairs, and when I saw the scene before me, I was utterly shocked.

“These are your new family members. You’ve got an older brother, a younger one… Hmm, and maybe some friends. I don’t know all their ages, you see.”

There were children trapped individually in transparent, enclosed spaces, and others huddled together, crying.

Some people were lying wounded, while others stood motionless in a corner, making me wonder if they were even breathing.

“This girl here is older than you. She can heal without her wounds festering.”

A girl barely clinging to life was lying on the floor, reaching out towards us.

The floor was soaked with blood. It was unclear how long she had been left wounded, but she looked exhausted.

“And over here… this one might be younger than you. He can see through walls. Right now, he’s trying hard, and he can see through two walls. He’s a diligent child.”

This was the child who had been standing motionless in the corner. He seemed to be around my age, with dark circles under his eyes, and his legs were trembling.

I didn’t know how long he had been standing there, but his body and shoulders were bound with long, tight ropes, keeping him from sitting or lying down.

“That one over there can stick his tongue to something, and this one can emit a blinding light every five hours.”

I turned my gaze away from the child who had his tongue stuck to the ceiling.

If he lost control of his ability and fell, he’d likely face something terrible.

The middle-aged woman continued to introduce several children. Throughout this process, I realized one crucial thing.

She knew all about their abilities, even the minor ones, but she had no knowledge of or interest in, their details like names or ages.

As the introductions of many children came to an end, I thought I could hear painful cries echoing behind me, though no one was crying aloud.

As I followed her in silence, we passed by a space that she didn’t introduce.

A boy sat in a corner, glaring at us with an intense gaze. She had introduced even the most trivial abilities, but she hadn’t mentioned this boy, which made me curious.

“Who is that boy?”

“Hmm, what’s there? Oh, that one. Don’t worry about him. He’s not going to be part of your family. He’s just an experiment. We’re testing whether we can give abilities to regular people, and if it fails, we’ll discard him.”

It seemed that the boy could hear the conversation from inside, as his gaze grew even fiercer.

He had black hair and bright golden eyes, like the middle-aged woman. Despite his young age, his features were strikingly clear, making him quite handsome. There was even a slight resemblance to the middle-aged woman, but as we passed by without further attention, I didn’t have the chance to ask more.

I briefly made eye contact with him, but his intense glare made me quickly avert my eyes.

“Mom!”

Just then, a child ran toward the middle-aged woman.

Unlike the other children who were confined somewhere, this child was freely running around and jumped into her arms.

She smiled gently as she picked him up. He was small and cute.

“I missed you! Where did you go?”

“I brought back a new family member.”

“A new family member?”

The child’s curious eyes turned to me.

I wondered what kind of ability this child had.

When I looked at the middle-aged woman, she introduced the child to me.

“This is Terisier. He’s the one I love the most.”

This was the first time she introduced someone by name rather than by ability. Terisier had silver hair, reminiscent of the bright moonlight that shone even in the back alleys.

Terisier.

He was younger than me and seemed to be the closest to the middle-aged woman among the children here.

After that, I wasn’t restrained or confined anywhere. The middle-aged woman seemed to take an interest in me and showed me more affection than the other children. More precisely, she was interested in the still-unrevealed nature of my ability.

“Do you like this one?”

“Yes.”

The middle-aged woman, who seemed to have a lot of money, often brought in gems of uncertain origin. She would hand them to me, and I would select a few that gave me a strange feeling.

“What do you think you can do with this gem?”

“…I’m sorry, I still don’t know.”

Her expression became strange. But I didn’t change my answer. Eventually, she nodded with an expression that said she understood, though anyone could see the disappointment on her face, which I avoided meeting.

The truth was, I had a pretty good idea about my ability. When I held a gem and thought about what I wished for, it would sometimes come true.

Of course, if the wish was something absurd, nothing would happen, but with certain gems, my ability would manifest more strongly.

However, my ability was so peculiar and subtle that it wasn’t noticeable on the surface. Perhaps because of this, the middle-aged woman didn’t know exactly what my ability was.

That was exactly what I intended. I didn’t know how long I could keep this up, but I needed to hide my ability until I could make more effective use of it.

Otherwise, I might end up confined like the other children.