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 - First snow night — the stolen notebook, and what it surely knows
It was the night of the first snow.
Outside the observatory hut, powder-fine snow had begun to fall without a sound. During the day there had still been traces of late autumn, but come nightfall the cold had descended all at once.
Yolenta sat with her back against the hut's wall, flipping through calculation sheets on her lap. Her fingertips were numb, and the hand writing the numbers trembled slightly. Even so, she couldn't stop.
(Jupiter's retrograde motion is this regular?)
Something deep in her chest gave a hot, heavy throb. She was afraid. But she wanted to know. That feeling hadn't changed in years.
"Cold, aren't you?"
Badeni spoke from the corner of the hut. He held a long wooden stick as a cane, his clouded white eyes closed. The candle flame flickered across the old scar running from his left cheek to his jaw.
"I-I'm fine. Calculating keeps me warm."
Yolenta answered with a sheepish grin.
"Liar. I can tell your fingers have stopped moving."
"Wha—"
"The intervals between page turns are longer than usual. Proof your fingers are stiff with cold. Come closer to the fire. I can't have your calculations slowing down."
Badeni spoke bluntly.
"...Yes. Thank you."
Yolenta gave a small bow and moved over to the campfire.
(This man really can tell everything from sound alone.)
It was almost frightening. But she didn't mind. If anything, that sharpness felt like being watched over, and it warmed something deep in her chest.
Outside the hut's door stood Okuji.
Snow was beginning to pile on his near-black dark brown hair. His amber eyes stared fixedly into the depths of the dark forest. On the back of his right hand was the scar of an old cut.
"Okuji, please come inside. It's snowing."
Yolenta called out to him.
"...A watch is kept outside."
Okuji answered without turning around.
"But if you catch a cold, you won't be much of a watchman anymore."
"...Suppose you're right."
Okuji was silent for a while, then slowly came inside the hut.
"Do you always let people in like that?"
Okuji said as he sat down by the campfire.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"...Nothing. Just that you trust people too easily. That's what's dangerous."
Okuji's voice was low and blunt.
"But you trust me, don't you, Okuji?"
Yolenta said, looking straight at his face.
"...Why would you think that?"
Okuji's brow shifted slightly.
"Because right now, like this, you're sitting next to me."
Yolenta smiled brightly.
Okuji opened his mouth as if to say something, then stopped.
"...Weird one."
Okuji muttered under his breath and dropped his gaze to the fire.
Yolenta quietly watched his profile.
(Okuji is really a kind person.)
He didn't say much. But for the past month, nearly every night, he had been out in the falling snow protecting them.
"Getting used to the three of us like this, aren't we."
Badeni said abruptly.
"...Yeah, well, I suppose."
"I like this hut. It feels somehow like a secret base."
Yolenta looked around the inside of the hut.
Stone walls. A wooden roof peeling in places. A single window. A door that hung crooked.
At first she'd thought it was a ruin. But now it had become the most comforting place in this world.
"A secret base, hm. ...Childish, but not a bad way to put it."
The corner of Badeni's mouth softened, just slightly.
"Badeni, did you just smile?"
Yolenta said in surprise.
"I did not smile."
"No, just now, you definitely smiled."
"I said I did not smile."
"The corner of your mouth went up a little."
"You are mistaken."
"...You two are noisy."
Okuji said, exasperated.
"Oh, sorry."
Yolenta hurriedly covered her mouth.
But it was somehow funny, and the three of them shared a small laugh.
A quiet time on a snowy night.
If only this time could last forever.
Yolenta thought so from the bottom of her heart.
—That was when it happened.
Outside the hut, she heard the sound of footsteps in the snow.
Not one person. Multiple sets of footsteps.
Okuji rose without a sound.
"...Someone's coming."
Okuji's voice turned sharp in an instant.
"How many?"
Badeni asked in a low voice.
"Three. ...One has light footsteps. A noble."
Okuji glared outside through the gap in the door.
"The other two are guards, then. ...Underlings."
Badeni rose slowly.
"Badeni..."
Yolenta's heart began to pound.
(Who would come to a hut this deep in the forest at this hour of night?)
A bad premonition chilled her to the core.
Creeeak...
The door was opened from outside.
Cold wind rushed into the hut along with the snow.
"Well, Badeni. It's been a while."
It was a man's voice.
A clear voice that carried well. But it held an unpleasant sort of composure, as though appraising everyone in the room.
Yolenta looked at the man.
He appeared to be in his mid-thirties. His silver hair was slicked neatly back. He wore a deep blue coat, and at his chest gleamed the sacred emblem of the Church of the Star Scriptures.
His face was handsome. But his eyes were not smiling.
"...Wilfried."
Badeni's voice was low and trembling.
"You—why are you here?"
"Why, you ask? Simple. Because I've been watching your research all along."
Wilfried strode boldly into the hut.
Behind him were two men in black coats. Underlings of the Inquisition.
"...So it's this woman and this man. Your new toys."
Wilfried looked Yolenta and Okuji over in turn.
Yolenta felt the hair on her whole body stand on end under that gaze.
(I know this man.)
(This is the man who stole Badeni's research.)
A bitter look rose on Badeni's face.
"...Wilfried. Haven't you taken enough from me already?"
Badeni's voice was low, as though he were suppressing his anger.
"Taken? Don't say such ugly things. I merely returned your research to its proper place."
Wilfried smiled thinly.
"Its proper place?"
"Yes. Under the authority of the Church. Your research is wasted on a blind heretic like you."
Wilfried's words carved into Badeni's heart like a knife.
"...You bastard."
Badeni's hand gripped his staff tightly.
"Now, wait. I didn't come here today to reminisce. I found your precious research notebook, you see. I came to show it to you."
Wilfried drew a single notebook from his coat.
Yolenta held her breath.
(That's...)
There was no mistaking it.
The decisive research notebook in which Badeni had recorded the movements of the stars over many years.
The notebook packed with evidence for heliocentrism.
"...Give it back."
Badeni took a step forward.
"Give it back? This isn't yours. This is a heretical text that defies the teachings of the Church. Just for hiding something like this, you'd burn at the stake."
Wilfried waved the notebook back and forth.
"...You can't mean—"
"Yes. I'm going to submit this notebook to the Inquisition. Do that, and I regain the Church's trust. Your research will serve my advancement. Ironic, isn't it?"
Wilfried laughed.
From the bottom of his heart, gleefully.
"...You've got to be kidding!"
Okuji shouted.
"That's the fruit of years of Badeni's effort! And you're going to use it for your own advancement?!"
Okuji's voice was shaking.
"Effort? Where's the effort in heretical research? It's a futile flailing. The stars revolve around the Earth. That is God's teaching. Those who defy it are simply sinners."
Wilfried declared coldly.
"...Okuji. Stand down."
Badeni said quietly.
"But, Badeni!"
"I said stand down."
There was a strength in Badeni's voice that brooked no argument.
Okuji bit his lip and stepped back.
"...Wilfried. What's your aim? Are you going to kill me here?"
Badeni raised his face.
His clouded white eyes were turned straight toward Wilfried.
"I won't kill you. Doing that would dirty my hands. But you will be made to fully realize your sins at the Inquisition."
Wilfried took a step closer to Badeni.
"So here's a deal, Badeni."
"A deal...?"
"Yes. If you take all the blame alone, I'll overlook this woman and this guard. I won't tell the Inquisition about the two of them."
Yolenta's heart nearly stopped.
"W-what are you—"
Yolenta's voice trembled.
"Didn't you hear? If your master takes the blame alone, you'll be saved. Simple enough, isn't it?"
Wilfried looked at Yolenta and smiled.
"Stop, please stop! Badeni, you can't accept a deal like that!"
Yolenta cried out.
"...Be quiet, Yolenta."
Badeni said quietly.
"But—!"
"...Wilfried. I'll accept that deal."
Badeni said without hesitation.
"Badeni?!"
Yolenta's voice cracked.
"W-what are you saying?! You can't! Absolutely not!"
Yolenta clung to Badeni's arm.
"...Yolenta. Let go."
"No! I won't let go! I won't let you go alone!"
Tears spilled from Yolenta's eyes.
"...You don't understand anything. If I don't go, you and Okuji will be captured. That much I must avoid."
Badeni's voice was astonishingly calm.
"Then let me come with you!"
"You stay here. Your talent is not something to be crushed in a place like this."
"I don't care about my talent! I want to be with you, Badeni!"
Yolenta sobbed and cried out.
(I want to be with this person.)
(I want to learn more about the stars with this person.)
(I don't want to lose this person.)
Something hot welled up from deep in her heart.
"...Yolenta. Listen."
Badeni placed his hand on Yolenta's shoulder.
"You are my finest disciple. You will carry on my research. That alone is enough for me."
"No! I don't want to be your disciple—I just want to be by your side!"
Yolenta buried her face in Badeni's chest.
"...Fool."
Badeni gently placed his hand on Yolenta's head.
"...Surely, that is what it means to know something."
Badeni murmured softly.
"Badeni...?"
Yolenta raised her face.
"I will protect you. I will protect your future. That is my final task."
Badeni slowly peeled Yolenta's hands from his chest.
"...Okuji."
"...What."
Okuji's voice was wet with tears.
"Protect her with those eyes of yours. ...I'm counting on you."
"...Yeah. I know."
Okuji nodded, his voice shaking.
"...Let's go."
Badeni turned his back on Wilfried.
"Badeni! Wait! Don't go!"
Yolenta reached out toward Badeni's back.
Her fingertips brushed faintly against his coat.
But they didn't reach him.
Badeni did not turn around.
"...Farewell, Yolenta. May your star one day reach the truth."
With that, Badeni walked out of the hut.
Into the snow.
Into the darkness.
"Badeni!!!"
Yolenta's scream echoed through the snowy night.
But that voice no longer reached Badeni.
The underlings in black coats flanked Badeni on both sides and led him away down the snowy path.
"...Too bad, young lady. That man is finished."
Wilfried turned a cold smile on Yolenta.
"...I will never forgive you."
Yolenta glared at Wilfried, her face a mess of tears.
"Oh, what a frightening face. But it's useless. You have no power to do anything to me. Live quietly and hide, as best you can. ...Ah, yes. Let me tell you one thing. That notebook is hidden in a sewing box at my estate. If you want to find it, try. But do you have the nerve to enter my estate?"
Wilfried left a booming laugh behind and vanished into the snow.
Inside the hut, only Yolenta and Okuji remained.
"...Damn it!"
Okuji struck the ground with his fist.
"Damn it! Damn it! I couldn't do anything! I just stood there and watched as Badeni was taken right in front of me!"
Blood seeped from Okuji's knuckles.
"I'm useless! Useless with nothing but good eyes!"
Okuji collapsed onto the snow.
"...Okuji."
Yolenta crouched down beside him.
"...I was hired to protect you two. And yet I couldn't do a thing."
Okuji's voice was shaking.
"...I'm the same. I couldn't do anything either. I couldn't even stop Badeni."
Yolenta's voice was shaking too.
"...No. You tried desperately to stop him. I just stood there frozen."
"...Okuji."
Yolenta gently took Okuji's bloodied hand.
"...Stop. My hands are dirty."
"...Mine are the same. Covered in ink from star calculations, all wrinkled."
Yolenta trie
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