Chapter One: “Gifted Academy, and to the Bird Estate” (Reserved)
ep.2 Chapter One: “Gifted Academy, and to the Bird Estate” (Reserved)
Published: September 17, 2025 23:00
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Chapter One: “Gifted Academy, and to the Bird Estate”
Under the blue sky, I rode along the seaside road.
The coastline stretched endlessly to the horizon,
the sand glittering as the wind lifted it into the sunlight.
And racing through it all was my beloved Harley-Davidson.
Well—classic on the outside, futuristic on the inside.
It ran on hydrogen fuel and could splash through shallow waters with ease.
A one-of-a-kind, custom-built bike I received on my tenth birthday.
The rider gripping the handlebars: Oliver Jones.
Brown hair, green eyes—an ordinary look, maybe, but with circumstances far from ordinary.
Beside me, in the sidecar, sat my partner—
a sharp-faced robotic Akita, Hachiko.
My parents, Hera and Zeus, gave him to me when I was three.
He was built to look exactly like a real puppy,
and his AI body grew until “age ten,” then stopped.
Robot pets, you see, evolve according to their owner’s personality.
In other words—pets resemble their masters.
“Woof.”
He barked shortly from my side, and I couldn’t help but smile.
“Nervous too? Yeah, me as well. New city, new school… first day jitters, huh, Hachiko?”
He gave me a quick glance, then looked forward again—reliable as ever.
Our destination: the Bird Estate, a grand mansion.
Normally, Gifted Academy students lived in the dorms,
but thanks to my father Zeus—who happened to be the headmaster’s close friend—
I was allowed to stay in this house.
Three other students already lived there.
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When I parked my bike in front of the gate,
a boy in a floral apron stepped out.
An apron—seriously?
“Welcome, Oliver. Cool bike. Park it in the garden.”
“Thanks. …Wow, that’s a lot of plants.”
Inside the gate, flowerpots and planters crowded every corner, each with a name tag.
“‘Leonardo the Fifth,’ ‘Da Vinci the Second’… wait, you named all of these?”
“They’re important to me. If only that ferret would stay away, they’d be fine!”
At that moment, a ball of fur rolled out.
A sable mitt ferret, with panda-like black and white markings.
Rafaela’s pet—Fei-taro.
“HEY!! You dug up Michelangelo the Third again!”
Katie shouted, while Fei-taro cackled—“kuk-kuk-kuk”—as if mocking him, ready for battle.
Hachiko immediately stepped forward, eyes blazing with a sharp “woof!”
“I won’t do it anymore,” the ferret muttered sulkily,
then gave Katie’s leg a playful nip.
“Why me?! Go bug Rafaela! Stop coming after me!”
“Because you’re kind. He doesn’t mess with Rafaela.”
Wait—did Fei-taro just… talk?
Seriously, that was one chatty ferret.
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Then, from the doorway, she appeared.
Cream-colored hair loosely braided,
blue eyes gazing straight at me—
an angel of a girl. Rafaela.
“Nice to meet you. You’re Oliver, right?”
“Yeah. Pleased to meet you… Rafaela.”
“No need for ‘pleased.’ We’re the same age.”
In that moment… I think I fell in love.
Her calm voice, her clear eyes—it all felt flawless.
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That night, in the Bird Estate living room—
On the sofa lounged a strikingly beautiful blond-haired, blue-eyed boy.
His name: Emil. Supposedly nine years old…
But inside, he was anything but nine.
They said he had once been a Black bodyguard.
After nearly dying on duty, his brain was transplanted into a Japanese-made clone body—
a Honda model, no less.
He had lost his memories, but his movements and gaze were pure professional.
“You’re Oliver, right? That makes us complete. Nice to meet you.”
That smile of his—too perfect, almost suspicious.
And yet, he didn’t feel like a bad person.
Surely, he carried a past of his own.
Not that I was one to talk.
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And so, my new life began.
Admission to Gifted Academy.
A reunion with the dorm overseer.
And above all—the fateful meeting with the man called Maharaja.
Back then, I had no idea I was about to be caught in a myth.
But… it had already begun.
Everything started here.
