Marco Susago — POV
As Sarah left the house, I walked over to the blue couch where Maria was sitting. She didn't have anything to do, so I started a conversation.
"So, what do you think of him?"
"About who?" Maria answered, tilting her head slightly.
"About Lazar Kiyokazu."
Maria placed her finger thoughtfully on her lower lip. She stayed like that for a couple of seconds, as if trying to picture him in her mind, before she finally replied.
"Hmm. The last time I saw him, he was with Sarah at our house. He was so positive. There was this strange energy coming from him. His smile felt completely genuine. He seemed like any ordinary boy, but something about him stood out. I just can't figure out what it was. We had dinner together. He was polite, calm, well-mannered. That honestly surprised me. I expected him to be loud and restless like Keigo, but he was the complete opposite. Talking to him felt..."
She trailed off, her gaze drifting to the side, lost somewhere in her own thoughts.
"Maria? What's wrong? Why did you stop?"
Maria turned back toward me, smiled softly, and answered. "Nothing. I'm just trying to find the right words to describe him."
I leaned back into the couch and looked at the ceiling. "Don't drift off topic, Maria, please."
"Where did I stop?" she asked.
"You always forget what you were talking about. That's a bad habit, you know." I kept my eyes on the wooden ceiling above me. "You said that talking to him felt something."
"Oh, right." She nodded, now looking up at the ceiling as well. "Talking to him gives you a strange but positive feeling."
I shifted my gaze toward her from the corner of my eye, curious to hear the rest.
"When you talk, he listens carefully. He looks at you with those green-blue eyes and waits for you to finish. And when he's about to say something, you find yourself actually wanting to hear it. At least that's how I felt. He's cultured, polite. Maya and Keigo raised him very well. Honestly, I've never met a boy quite like him. Being around him lifts your mood just by his presence. And if I could choose, I'd want to have a son like him."
I hadn't expected those words from my wife. I stared at her, unsure of what to say.
"You want to have a son like him?!" The words came out before I could stop them. Maria looked at me with a strange expression, probably because of my reaction. But she had been serious.
She covered her mouth and laughed. "Maybe a little," she said, teasing me. "But hey, you asked for my opinion, remember? I just answered you honestly. And what was that reaction all about?"
I exhaled slowly and tried to pull myself together. "It's nothing. I just didn't expect that kind of answer. It honestly surprised me." I leaned back again and looked at the front door. "You're right. That's just your opinion."
"And what about you?" she asked.
"What about me?"
"What do you think of him?"
I glanced at her, then back at the front door. I leaned forward a little, crossed my hands, and answered calmly.
"I agree with most of what you said. For someone his age, he's surprisingly intelligent and disciplined. I haven't seen him much myself, but I've heard things from other people in the village. They call him the prodigy of the Kiyokazu family." I paused. "I can only imagine Keigo's reaction to hearing that."
Knock. Knock. Knock.
At that moment, there was a knock at the door.
Maria stood up to answer it while I stayed on the couch. Silence filled the room, but my mind wouldn't settle. I leaned forward and rested my elbows on my knees, lost in thought.
"Kiyokazu Lazar..." I whispered.
My gaze drifted to the window beside the front door, and my mind drifted back with it. Back to the day when I saw him standing by the lake.
Flashback
I remember that day clearly.
I had just finished working on the wooden table I had been making for several days. After eating the beans Maria had cooked, I cleared the dining table, washed the dishes, and sat down on the blue couch. The house was empty and quiet. Maria was out with a friend, and Sarah had gone with her.
I sat there and nearly fell asleep. But I didn't want to spend the whole afternoon inside.
„Maybe I should go for a walk?" I thought.
I stood up, grabbed the house key from the shelf beside the window, locked the door, and placed the key in the vase next to the entrance the way we always do. Then I turned and started walking.
It was cold, but tolerable. I was wearing pants, a sweater, and a scarf. I made my way toward the forest gate.
The village was quiet around me. Snowflakes fell from a cloudy sky, and the rooftops of all the wooden houses were white with accumulated snow, black smoke rising from their chimneys. I passed the wooden bench beside the path and the narrow lamp post that lit the village at night. I walked past Kiyokazu's house. It hadn't changed in years. Still the same wooden house that Keigo and I had built together when we were young.
"It takes me back to the good old days..." I muttered.
I continued along the snowy path, passed another house, and soon reached the forest gate. I stepped through.
The path inside was less clear than in the village, marked with footprints from someone who had come before me. I followed them, keeping my eyes on the snow-covered ground beneath my boots. The wind was clean but cold, and the sky had grown heavy with grey clouds. The sun barely visible.
I guess i will go to the lake, I decided.
I took the left path. Snowflakes kept falling steadily, and the wind grew colder with every minute.
"Maybe I should have put on one more layer of clothing."
I was still walking when a crow's call cut through the air above me, echoing between the trees. I lifted my head.
A silhouette stood in the distance. Human-shaped. Completely still.
It was dozens of steps away, not moving at all. Seeing it gave me a small jolt of unease. I kept walking toward it, and as I got closer the details came into focus. White hair. A medium build. Dark pants and a white sweater. The figure stood at the lake's edge with its back to me, staring out at the evergreens on the other side of the water.
Snow had piled on his shoulders and the top of his head. Several centimeters of it, at least. He must have been standing there for a long time.
And yet his skin wasn't blue or red from the cold. He looked completely unaffected by it.
The boy slowly turned around.
His green-blue eyes were empty. Hollow. Lifeless.
A chill ran down my entire body. There was no light in those eyes, no warmth, nothing. Just a flat, cold stare that went straight through me. I couldn't move. My right arm had started shaking without me telling it to. I tightened my hand and tried to hide it.
Then he spoke, in a perfectly calm, perfectly flat tone.
"I've been standing here for about an hour. Maybe even more."
I froze completely. My heart jumped. He had read my mind. That was the only explanation that I could get. I stood there staring at him, unable to say a single word, feeling something I had never quite felt before.
Then the boy began walking toward me, and everything changed.
The aura around him faded with each step. His expression softened. The light returned to his eyes. He leaned slightly forward and extended his right hand.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Marco."
Still shaken, I reached out and shook it. His hand was neither warm nor cold. It was as if all that snow piled on him had had no effect whatsoever. A gentle smile had settled on his face, and all of that frightening quality was gone as if it had never been there.
"Hello. You're Kiyokazu's son, right? Lazar?"
"Yes, sir. That's me." He replied with a small nod.
"My god, you've grown so much. Last time I saw you, you were up to about here." I gestured with my hand at chest height.
He rubbed the back of his neck and gave a quiet laugh. "Yeah, I guess I've grown a little since then. Everyone says that."
We both laughed.
"What are you doing out here alone?" I asked, "You know it's dangerous to be wandering here in the forest by yourself. And look at you. You've been standing there long enough for snow to pile up on your shoulders. What were you even doing?"
I reached over and helped him brush some of the snow off from him. He took care of the rest himself, clearing his shoulders and the top of his head.
"Nothing special," he replied. "I just come here to look at the lake and the nature around it. The water, the sky, the trees. That's all." He looked at me with a calm, unhurried expression. "But doesn't that same question apply to you as well, Mr. Marco?"
I smiled. "You're right. And one more thing—you don't have to address me as 'Mister', I'm nowhere near that."
He looked mildly surprised. He thought for a moment before answering.
"If you say so... Marco." He said the name quietly, like he was trying it out. "It might take me a while to get used to that." He stepped past me. "I should head home now. See you later, Marco." He raised his hand briefly as he walked away down the path back to the village.
"Take care, Lazar. And say hello to your father for me okay?"
"Will do," he called back, without turning around.
I watched him until he disappeared down the snowy path. The wind picked up after he was gone, moving through the trees, shaking the snow from the pine needles in soft cascades. I stood there and looked at the lake. At the other side of it, where he had been staring.
There was nothing there. Just endless evergreens.
"What is wrong with that boy..." I muttered. "He almost scared me to death. He doesn't resemble Keigo at all." I looked at the water for another moment. "Something about him is different. Especially those eyes."
I turned and started walking back toward the village along the same path he had taken. When I got home, Sarah and Maria were there. Sarah being in her room. Maria was on the couch reading some book. Night came before long, and the three of us had dinner, then we went to bed.
Present
I leaned back into the couch and stared blankly at the ceiling.
"Lazar Kiyokazu. When you were with Sarah and Maria, you left such a bright impression. And yet those eyes at the lake that day that I saw were... There is something different about you. Who are you, really?"
The front door closed. Maria came back in with her friend Misato. The two of them were laughing as Misato sat down beside me. Maria headed to the kitchen, while being there she asked Misato if she wanted something to drink.
Misato glanced at my face.
"What's wrong, Marco? What's with that expression?"
I shook my head. "Ahh. It's nothing. I was just thinking about something. Don't worry about it."
"If you say so," she replied, and a new conversation began.