Chara had been wandering around the train for two days because Dolly had given her a simple map.
The lines on the paper were winding, marking the purposes of different carriages.
She couldn’t really read the words, but she could recognize the shapes of the drawings.
The dining car had a bowl drawn on it, the bedroom had a bed, and the Parlor Car had two windows drawn by the wall.
She folded the map and stuffed it into her pocket, deciding to walk toward the rear half of the train today.
Flowey was still sleeping in the room.
He had been sleeping more and more lately, saying that the feeling of taking root in the flower pot was too comfortable, hundreds of times better than the dirt in the wild!
Chara didn’t wake him up and went out alone.
The corridor was a bit livelier than the past two days.
People she didn’t know were walking around, wearing all sorts of clothes.
Some were carrying boxes, some were holding [Relics], and some were leaning by the windows chatting.
Of course, the main thing was that Pom-Pom was furiously scolding Akivili and a dozen or so people, ranting about how He and the [Nameless] had done some strange things again…
She walked close to the wall, trying her best not to block anyone’s path, but when she turned a corner, she accidentally bumped into someone.
The person was just walking out of the opposite carriage.
Neither of them was watching the road.
Chara’s forehead bumped into his waist, and she stumbled backward, almost sitting on the floor.
“I’m sorry,” she said quickly.
She looked up and saw an unfamiliar face.
A handsome man with white hair that reached his shoulders, the tips dyed a bit of gold.
He wore a beige and light gray hooded coat, draped with a geometrically patterned cape printed with large and small diamonds and triangles.
On his back was a massive eight-pointed star crest that reflected slightly under the light.
Below, he wore a long robe with golden patterns: Isee.
That tall figure immediately made Chara take a step back, her momentum vanishing in an instant.
The man looked down at her, neither angry nor smiling.
“It’s fine.”
Chara turned sideways, wanting to leave.
“Wait a moment.”
She stopped and turned her head.
The man leaned against the doorframe, hands in his cape pockets, and tilted his head to look at her.
“Are you the new kid?”
“I heard you were brought back from a dead planet.”
She instantly lost her mood and didn’t answer.
The man seemed unbothered by her silence and continued talking.
“My name is Isee.
You’re Chara, right?”
(T/N: I see, I see, his name is Isee…
Do you see?)
She nodded.
● You don’t know what this strange person’s motives are.
“You don’t look very happy.
Let me perform a magic trick for you.”
Chara was stunned for a moment.
“What is magic?”
He looked at Chara and didn’t speak for a few seconds, as if he was genuinely stumped by the question.
“You don’t know what magic is?”
“Nope.” Chara shook her head.
“Can you eat it?”
Isee was silent for an even longer time, as if he had heard an unexpected answer.
“You can’t eat it, but watching it will make you feel a bit better.”
Chara looked at him half-skeptically.
She didn’t really believe anything could make her feel better, but this person didn’t look like he was lying to her.
Plus, he wasn’t angry when she bumped into him just now, and his tone wasn’t fierce.
“Alright, then do it.”
Isee took something out of his pocket, a golden coin a size larger than a regular one.
He placed the coin in the palm of his left hand, let Chara take a look, and then covered it with his right hand, making a fist.
“Watch closely.”
He opened his right hand.
The coin was gone.
Chara stared at his hand for two seconds, then looked at the ground around him.
Nothing.
She frowned.
“Did you hide it?”
Isee didn’t answer.
He flipped his left hand over, palm facing up.
The coin reappeared, resting steadily in his palm as if it had never disappeared.
Chara blinked.
“Did you put it back?”
“No,” Isee said.
“It was always in my hand, you just couldn’t see it.”
Chara didn’t quite understand.
She looked at the coin in his hand, then at his expression.
That face still showed no fluctuation.
“Do another one.”
Isee put the coin away and swapped it for something else: a white card, blank, without any patterns.
He held it up vertically for Chara to see, then brushed his palm over the card.
A yellow flower appeared on the card, very similar to the ones she used to weave into crowns before.
The lines of the petals were drawn very finely, and the color was applied very evenly.
Chara stared at that card for a long time.
(O.o)
“How is this done?”
“It’s a secret.
A magician never tells anyone how the trick is done.”
Chara looked up at him.
“Then why did you do it for me to see?”
Isee flipped the card over, the blank side facing Chara.
He thought for a moment and said, “Because when you bumped into me just now, you said sorry.”
“So what?”
“Nothing much.” Isee folded the card and put it back in his pocket.
“A tavern…
what kind of place is that??”
“No, it’s better if a child doesn’t know…”
He stood up straight, patted the nonexistent dust off his cape, and prepared to leave.
He walked two steps, then stopped and looked back at Chara.
“Can you not read?”
Chara’s heartbeat skipped.
She lowered her head, looking at her toes, her fingers twisting inside her sleeves and then letting go.
“…Yeah, I’m uneducated…” Her voice was very small.
Isee walked back and squatted down in front of her.
His line of sight was level with hers, without mockery or pity.
“I’ll teach you how to read.”
Chara looked up.
“Why?”
“Because you have to learn to read eventually.
The train is full of words everywhere.
You can’t read the map, you can’t read the menu, and you can’t read what others write to you.
That’s inconvenient.”
Chara was silent for a moment.
“Don’t you charge money?”
This answer made Isee pause for a moment.
“No money.
It’s free.”
Chara thought about it and nodded.
“Then…
when do we start?”
“Tomorrow.” Isee stood up.
“Come find me in the Parlor Car in the morning, and bring your flower.”
“How do you know I have a flower?”
“I know everything.”
Chara watched him turn and leave.
The geometric patterns on his cape swayed with his steps, diamonds and triangles alternating as they appeared and disappeared.
She stood in place, watching his back disappear at the end of the corridor, then turned and walked back.
When she returned to the room, Flowey was still sleeping, his petals closed, his roots and stem planted in the soil, breathing steadily.
She walked to the window and looked at the stars outside.
They were the same as the ones she had seen under the withered tree before, but this time, when she looked at them, something in her heart felt a bit different.
She couldn’t say what it was, only knowing that she had to go to the Parlor Car tomorrow morning, where a white-haired person was going to teach her how to read.
She walked to the nightstand, reached out, and touched Flowey’s petals.
The petals moved slightly but didn’t open.
She didn’t wake him up, sat back on the bed, and pulled the blanket over to cover her legs.
● You encountered a strange white-haired man.
He performed a magic trick for you and said he would teach you how to read.
This fills you with DETERMINATION.