>Just an ordinary man.
>I helped the man to his feet.
>In the darkness, that familiar yet distant face surfaced again and again in my memory.
>Plain. Ordinary.
>Truly… such an utterly ordinary man.
>An ordinary face. An ordinary build.
>Even his personality was plain; so unremarkable that it stirred not even the faintest trace of intrigue.
>…Except for this.
>…This one thing alone sets him apart from the rest.
>Those eyes shone like twin stars.
>I couldn’t comprehend how, in a world drowned in lies, betrayal, and rot, such eyes could still be born.
>Just as I expected, he gave no reaction to such teasing.
>In my memory, he should have been someone more gentle, more humorous…
>He stood, stepped to the door, and tapped it lightly to test its thickness.
>For a moment, he looks almost childlike. Fragile, endearing even.
>…Why is that, I wonder?
>Why can such an ordinary man thwart Little Bill’s plan again and again?
>Why can such an ordinary man stand in the center of so many storms, and never waver?
>Why…
>Why can such an ordinary man anchor my memories, my actions, my thoughts and my emotions?
>I want to know the answer.
