Chapter 4

Eliza was reading Anji’s file. It turned out the boy had constantly been targeted by his peers. He never played with toys and ignored the other children’s interest in games. Most of them didn’t speak at all, though a few tried to befriend him. The records showed that in those moments, Anji did talk—and very well at that. His speech was more like that of a twelve- to fourteen-year-old teenager than a five-year-old child. The other kids were drawn to him; he wasn’t a leader, but they wanted to listen to him. He explained complex things in a way a child could understand, often using examples—his behavior was far from childish.

The records were a year and a half old. For some reason, after switching groups, he stopped speaking altogether. Today, it was discovered that he had been frequenting the cosmoport sector for a long time. As usual, he said nothing, and his supervisor didn’t question him about it. Eliza decided she needed to dig deeper into the collected material to understand the reason for his silence. Only then could she develop a plan for the boy’s future social adaptation.

With that thought, she set her coffee mug aside and immersed herself in the case files.