Author's Note: ...Yeah, I just... don't... know.
Don't read the note at the bottom if you haven't finished chapters 11 and/or 12 yet.
Summary: It was the last time he tried going into the village.
"Big brother, big brother, you're back!" the child babbled. "Mummy and daddy told me you were gone and weren't gonna be around no more but they're wrong and you're here!"
"You're gonna stay now, right? You're not gonna disappear and leave me alone again, right? Mummy and daddy weren't like they usually were for a while after you left; daddy would always go off and mummy was always so sad all the time..."
All he could do was stare blankly at the child who was crying in his arms. He'd never seen this child before… Was this something he'd forgotten…?
As he turned questioningly to the cat at his side, a woman and a man rushed out of the house to scoop up the child frantically, looking at him with something akin to terror in their eyes. "Th-that's not your brother," the mother choked out as she drew away from him hurriedly. "Whoever— whatever that thing is, it can't be your brother."
"Get away from here, monster," the father growled with false bravado. "Leave my family alone, or I swear I'll—"
False bravado or no, the hostile reactions were enough.
Confused and hurt, Vayne retreated back into the forest.
---
"Sulpher… did I do something wrong?" the silver-haired boy asked morosely.
The cat's tail lashed around erratically as he stared into the sky, the only outward sign of his troubled state of mind.
…No, the cat said at length. Not you…
...Umyeah. How was Vayne created? Where did Vayne's body come from? Did it come from nowhere as he was born? Is he like a homunculus or something? As an artificial Mana, did he still have the body composition of a Mana? Well, he can bleed and eat, so he has to be more than just pure power... So is he physiologically human? A(n incomprehensible to me) combination of both?
...What if after several failed attempts, Theofratus was insane enough to go grave-digging?