In the stone-walled manor of Count Piast, Yolenta is nothing but a quiet servant girl who dusts the library and keeps her head down. But every night, she slips away to a hidden attic and does the one thing forbidden to women of her station: she watches the stars.
Three years ago, she discovered a discrepancy between the Church-sanctioned star chart and the actual night sky—a tiny, relentless deviation that shouldn't exist. Armed only with her mother's forbidden Star Language dictionary, a windo
Orb: The Star Inheritor - The Guard Does Not Look at the Stars — The Third Night and the Vanished Notebook
The early-winter wind whistled through the gaps in the observation hut.
Yolenta sat with her back against the wall, staring intently at the calculation sheets spread across her knees. Her fingertips were numb with cold, slowing her writing. Even so, she couldn't bring herself to stop calculating.
(Jupiter's position has drifted again.)
The star charts officially sanctioned by the Star-Reading Tower, and the actual positions of the stars. The discrepancy had grown unmistakably larger over the month since she'd begun observing. According to Church doctrine, the stars were supposed to trace perfect circles around the Earth. But the more she calculated, the more clearly she saw that this simply wasn't true.
(This could be proof of heliocentrism.)
Something deep in her chest grew hot. She was afraid. But she wanted to know. The two feelings always came together.
"Yolenta."
A low voice came from outside the hut.
"Y-yes!"
Yolenta scrambled to her feet and opened the wooden door.
Badeni stood outside. He leaned on a long wooden stick as a walking staff, his clouded white eyes closed. His short dark-brown hair was tousled by the wind, and the old scar running from his left cheek to his jaw stood out sharply in the fading twilight.
"I'm late. Let me in."
Badeni tapped the ground with his staff as he entered the hut.
"Um, Badeni. You're a little early today."
Yolenta spoke as she pulled a candle from a wooden box in the corner.
"Yes. Today I've brought someone else."
"Someone else...?"
Her hands stopped.
(Bringing someone...?)
Until now, she had always come to this hut alone with Badeni. Night observation was a secret act that no one could know about. And yet, another person.
"Don't worry. He's a bodyguard I hired."
"A bodyguard...?"
"Yes. Recently I've heard talk of suspicious figures near this forest. With my eyes, I can only sense a presence. I can't have you walking the night roads alone. So I decided to hire a young substitute fighter from the Civil Guard Association."
With that, Badeni called toward the door.
"Come in."
The door creaked.
The one who entered was a tall young man.
His near-black dark-brown hair was left to grow untamed, still bearing the marks of sleep. But his face was carved with shadows far deeper than his years. His amber eyes swept quickly across the dark hut, expressionless.
On the back of his right hand, the scar of an old cut.
And above all, those eyes.
Even in the gloom, they caught the light clearly.
(His eyes...)
Yolenta held her breath as she looked at them.
"This is Okuji. A substitute fighter with the Civil Guard Association, mostly taking night-watch work. An acquaintance of mine introduced him."
"...I'm Okuji."
Okuji glanced at Yolenta once, then immediately dropped his gaze to the floor.
"Ah, um, I'm Yolenta. I do star observations here with Badeni..."
"I know."
Okuji spoke bluntly.
"I was told when I was hired. That you do star calculations. That's enough for me to know. I'll keep watch outside. I won't come in."
With that, Okuji turned his back and started toward the door.
"Wait."
Badeni's sharp voice stopped him.
"What?"
Okuji halted.
"I don't intend to ask you for lookout duty alone. I want you to assist with the observations as well."
"Assist with observations...?"
A flicker of confusion entered Okuji's voice.
"Yes. I've heard your eyes can accurately capture the positions of stars even in darkness. My eyes don't see. Yolenta's eyes are excellent for calculation, but she's not yet used to observing in dark places. So I'll use your eyes."
"...My eyes are eyes for fighting. Not for looking at stars."
Okuji spoke in a low voice.
"Even so. Your eyes are, right now, in this hut, the most accurate observation instrument I have. I won't hear any complaints."
There was an uncompromising force in Badeni's voice.
Okuji was silent for a while, then finally let out a small sigh.
"...Fine. But I don't like looking at stars. Just remember that."
Leaving those words behind, Okuji finally stepped outside.
A heavy silence settled over the hut.
"...Um, Badeni."
Yolenta spoke hesitantly.
"Is he really going to be all right? He seems so... hard to approach..."
"He's fine as he is. The man is sparing with words, but he does his work reliably. And then there are those eyes. Those eyes might produce more accurate figures in this darkness than my calculations can."
Badeni slowly lowered himself down, feeling for the candle flame with his fingertips.
"But there's one thing that concerns me."
"What's that?"
"That man has a pathological hatred of looking at stars. I don't know why, but I hope it doesn't interfere with the observations."
At Badeni's words, Yolenta looked outside the hut.
In the dark forest, Okuji's back was faintly visible.
(Hating to look at stars.)
To Yolenta, that was simply incomprehensible.
The night deepened.
Through the hut's window, countless stars cast their cold light across the sky.
"Then let's begin. Yolenta, calculate today's position of Jupiter."
"Yes. ...Let's see, based on yesterday's observation data, Jupiter today should have advanced about three degrees toward Virgo."
Yolenta answered confidently, looking at her calculation sheets.
"Three degrees. Then how does it look in the actual sky? Okuji, can you see it?"
Badeni called toward the outside of the hut.
A moment of silence.
"...I see it."
Okuji's voice came back from the darkness.
"Above Spica, in Virgo. The angle is... three degrees and four minutes. No mistake."
Yolenta caught her breath.
"Three degrees and four minutes...! My calculation was three degrees and three minutes. Almost exactly right."
Yolenta raised her voice in astonishment.
(Amazing. In this darkness, and in an instant, such an accurate figure.)
She looked at Okuji outside the hut.
Okuji wasn't looking up at the sky. He was looking at the ground.
"Okuji. You just looked at the sky, didn't you? So how can you tell such an accurate angle?"
Unable to contain herself, Yolenta stepped outside and approached Okuji.
"...My eyes just see it on their own. Even without looking at the sky, the positions of the stars float up in my head."
Okuji answered in a murmur, still looking at the ground.
"That's amazing! I spend hours every night measuring star positions and calculating. And you produce a more accurate answer in an instant."
Her voice was slightly giddy with excitement.
"...It's not amazing. My eyes just see well. Nothing more. They're worth nothing beyond that."
Okuji's voice was cold.
"But those eyes are helping Badeni's research right now. I think that's incredibly valuable."
Yolenta looked up intently at Okuji's face.
Okuji looked at her for just a moment.
His amber eyes caught the starlight and glinted.
"...You're a strange one."
Okuji muttered that and dropped his gaze to the ground again.
"Me?"
"Yeah. A normal woman wouldn't be doing star calculations in the middle of a forest at night with two men. And you're the first person to seriously call my eyes amazing."
His tone was as blunt as ever. But it seemed just a little softer.
"I'm not normal, you see."
Yolenta smiled faintly.
"...Seems that way."
Okuji gave a small snort.
The observation proceeded smoothly.
Badeni recited the formulas aloud.
Yolenta transcribed them onto the calculation sheets and derived the figures.
Okuji read out the actual star positions from the darkness with precision.
The three roles meshed together.
"...Not bad."
Badeni murmured under his breath.
"What isn't?"
This observation, with the three of us. Alone, my calculations take too long. Yolenta alone has limits observing in darkness. But with Okuji's eyes added, the precision of our observations has risen dramatically. ...Not bad. No—quite good."
The corner of Badeni's mouth softened, just slightly.
Those words made Yolenta happy.
(Badeni is praising us.)
It was rare for Badeni to praise anyone.
Which meant Okuji's eyes were truly exceptional.
"Okuji, did you hear that? Badeni said quite good."
Yolenta called toward the outside of the hut.
"...I heard. But what got praised was my eyes, not me."
Okuji's voice was as dark as ever.
"Your eyes are part of you, Okuji. It's the same thing."
"...It's not. My eyes see things on their own, regardless of my will. I just follow along. Like a tool."
Self-mockery crept into Okuji's voice.
Yolenta tried to say something, but the words caught in her throat.
(Why does he deny himself so much?)
During a break in the observation.
Yolenta and Badeni were talking about stars inside the hut.
"About the retrograde motion of Mars—I think that if we assume the Earth and Mars both orbit the Sun, the retrograde motion can be explained naturally."
Yolenta spoke to Badeni with shining eyes.
"Yes. I've reached the same conclusion. Because the Earth orbits faster on an inner track than Mars, at the moment we overtake it, Mars appears to move backward. In geocentrism, explaining this retrograde motion requires a complex mechanism called epicycles, but with heliocentrism, simple elliptical orbits explain everything."
Badeni responded in an equally heated voice.
"And the phases of Venus! Venus shows phases because it orbits the Sun. If it orbited the Earth, Venus should always appear as only a crescent."
"Exactly. The phases of Venus are one of the strongest pieces of evidence for heliocentrism. I've recorded it in detail in my research notes."
"Research notes... I want to read more of your notes, Badeni. You showed me a little before, and that part about the new interpretation of planetary retrograde was so interesting."
"Yes, I'll let you read it thoroughly sometime. That's something I compiled over three years right after graduating from the Star Academy. You could call it the first treatise to systematically present evidence for heliocentrism."
Badeni's voice was proud.
"...You two really can talk about stars forever."
Okuji's voice came from outside the hut.
"Okuji, if you'd like, why don't you come in and join us?"
Yolenta invited him in.
"...I'll pass. I don't really understand star talk."
"But your eyes can see the stars more accurately than anyone's, Okuji! I'm sure if you heard about them, it would become even more interesting."
Yolenta pressed on.
"...It doesn't need to become interesting. I don't like looking up at the sky."
Okuji said that in a murmur.
Yolenta stepped outside and stood beside him.
Okuji was still looking at the ground.
"Why don't you like looking up at the sky?"
Yolenta asked quietly.
"...When I was a kid, a priest taught me. That the night sky looks beautiful because we're looking up from the bottom of a filthy Earth."
Okuji's voice was small and trembling.
"The bottom of a filthy Earth..."
"Yeah. We're born carrying sin. This world is full of filth. So don't look up at the sky. The stars exist to make us realize how filthy a place we're in. ...That's what I was taught."
Okuji clenched his fist tightly.
"Ever since then, I've been afraid to look up at the sky. When I see the stars, I feel like I'm being made to realize how filthy a place I'm in. ...So I've lived looking only at the ground."
His words were heavy and dark.
A sharp ache pierced Yolenta's chest.
(This person has been living all this time, blaming himself like that.)
"...That's wrong."
Suddenly, Badeni's voice came from inside the hut.
Badeni came outside, tapping his staff.
"Badeni..."
"Okuji. The priest who taught you that clouded your eyes to the stars. No—he refused to look at them. The stars aren't beautiful because we look up at them from a filthy Earth. The stars simply exist. Whether anyone looks or not. Whether you live looking at the ground or not, the stars remain in the sky, unchanged."
Badeni's voice was quiet but powerful.
"...The stars simply exist."
Okuji repeated Badeni's words.
"Yes. The stars have nothing to do wit
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