Chapter 494: The Little Tiger Called Sunflower with Childlike Heart in a Broken World

The Little Tiger Called Sunflower with Childlike Heart in a Broken World

Leon’s interest was immediately piqued.

"What’s your name?"

The young woman froze.

For a moment, she didn’t answer.

Instead, she raised one hand and touched her chin. Her head tilted slightly to the side.

She looked almost as though Leon had just asked her a question of great importance.

Her deep blue eyes drifted upward.

She even put on a serious, thoughtful expression.

It was almost funny.

She was clearly trying to imitate the adults she had seen before. Whenever they were asked something difficult, they would stroke their chins, stare into the distance, and pretend they were thinking about some profound matter.

She was doing exactly the same thing.

Leon watched her quietly.

She was eighteen or nineteen.

Old enough to understand what danger meant.

Old enough to know that the world could be cruel.

She had survived on her own for long enough to learn things that most people her age would never have experienced.

And yet...

There was still something strangely innocent about her.

Not childish.

Just simple.

The way she thought. The way she reacted. The way she sometimes became fascinated by the smallest things.

It felt as though life had forced her to grow up in some ways while leaving other parts of her untouched.

After a few seconds, her eyes finally returned to Leon.

The playful look disappeared.

Her gaze became unexpectedly sharp and intelligent.

"My name is Shasa."

She paused.

Then she seemed to remember something.

"The old Hermit who gave me food used to call me Little Tiger."

Her nose wrinkled slightly.

"I didn’t like it."

She shook her head with complete seriousness.

"So I changed it again."

Leon raised an eyebrow.

"You changed your own name?"

"Of course."

Shasa looked at him as if the answer were obvious.

For a moment, she seemed perfectly casual.

Then her expression changed.

The playful look disappeared from her face. She became strangely solemn.

"It’s Sunflower now."

She lightly pointed at herself.

"You can just call me Sunflower."

Leon stared at her.

He didn’t answer immediately.

Then the corners of his lips slowly lifted.

Little Tiger?

The name really was strangely fitting.

There was nothing particularly intimidating about Shasa’s slender frame at first glance. She looked almost harmless when she stood there like this.

But Leon knew better.

There was a frightening amount of strength hidden inside that seemingly delicate body.

Thinking about everything he had witnessed, Little Tiger wasn’t an exaggeration at all.

If anything, it might have been too gentle.

Leon glanced toward the damaged streets of Greyhaven City.

Broken walls stood on both sides of the road.

Dust still clung to the air.

Some buildings had been reduced to little more than piles of stone and splintered wood.

Looking at the destruction around them, Leon suddenly became curious about the old Hermit who had once raised this girl.

Even if that old man had only stayed with her for a short time, he must have been quite an interesting person.

After all, raising someone like Shasa couldn’t possibly have been easy.

Leon silently sighed.

Still...

Calling her Little Tiger had probably been a little too honest.

A tiger was fierce.

It was dangerous.

It could tear apart anything that underestimated it.

And judging from what Leon had seen so far, Shasa was arguably more troublesome than a tiger.

Much more troublesome.

At least a tiger wouldn’t casually wander around a ruined city while treating everything around it like some sort of adventure.

Fortunately, Shasa was still young.

More importantly, her mind was surprisingly simple.

She didn’t seem to fully understand just how terrifying her own strength could be.

That was probably the only reason things hadn’t become even more chaotic.

Leon imagined what would happen if Shasa grew older.

If she gained more experience.

If she learned exactly how powerful she was.

If she ever became completely aware of the kind of force she possessed...

Leon’s expression became slightly strange.

Anyone foolish enough to provoke her would probably regret it before they even realized what they had done.

Their ashes would likely be scattered across the wilderness by the wind.

Beside him, Rias covered her mouth.

A soft laugh escaped her.

She stepped closer to Shasa.

Then she reached out and gently poked the girl’s cheek.

Shasa blinked.

Her cheek was still slightly dirty.

After wandering through the ruined streets for days, it would have been strange if she had remained spotless.

A thin layer of dust covered her skin.

Yet beneath it was a healthy, youthful glow.

Rias looked at her for a moment.

A warm smile appeared on her face.

"Then why did you change your name to Sunflower?"

Rias reached out and lightly poked Shasa’s cheek again.

"Isn’t Shasa a perfectly good name?"

Shasa blinked.

For a moment, she said nothing.

Then she actually began to think about it.

Not for a second or two.

She stood there with one hand resting against her chin, her brows slowly knitting together. Her expression was so serious that anyone watching might have thought she had just been asked to solve some great mystery.

Rias waited.

Selena glanced at her.

Shasa continued thinking.

Finally, her eyes lit up.

"Because..."

She paused.

"I like sunflowers."

There was no hesitation in her voice this time.

She said it as though the answer were obvious.

Her lips curled into a small, happy smile.

"They’re the prettiest flowers in the world."

Rias stared at her for a moment.

Shasa seemed pleased with herself for having found such a simple answer.

Then, as if she suddenly remembered something important, she continued.

"The old Hermit said I was always looking at them whenever we passed fields full of flowers."

Her voice became softer.

"He said I would stop walking just to stare at them."

A faint smile appeared on her face.

"So he started calling me Sunflower."

She lowered her hand from her chin.

"I liked it."

There was something almost childishly sincere about the way she said those words.

Not childish in the sense of being immature.

There was no ignorance in her eyes.

Shasa had seen too much.

She understood death. She understood loss. She understood that some people disappeared from your life and never came back.

But there were still small things she treasured.

Flowers were one of them.

"I want to see lots of sunflowers in the future," she said.

Her blue eyes brightened again.

"So I changed my name."

Rias’s smile slowly faded.

She had expected some amusing reason.

Something silly.

Something that would make her laugh and tease Shasa about it later.

Instead, she had gotten something painfully simple.

There was no grand meaning behind the name.

No ambition.

No desire to create some impressive new identity.

Shasa had simply seen something beautiful.

She had liked it.

And somewhere along the road, that little flower had become connected to a memory she wanted to keep.

Maybe that was why the name mattered so much to her.

A sunflower was bright.

Warm.

Alive.

It could stand beneath the sunlight even after the ground around it had been torn apart.

Perhaps, for someone like Shasa, that was enough of a reason.

Rias looked at her quietly.

For once, she didn’t tease.

She didn’t poke her cheek again.

She simply reached over and gently rubbed Shasa’s hair.

Shasa looked up at her.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Rias smiled faintly.

"I just think Sunflower suits you."

Shasa’s eyes widened.

"Really?"

"Really."

A little happiness returned to Shasa’s face.

Selena quietly looked away.

Her blue eyes drifted toward Greyhaven City.

The sight waiting for her was enough to silence whatever thoughts had been forming in her mind.

Ruined buildings stretched along the streets.

Some had collapsed completely.

Others were still standing, but barely.

Broken walls leaned at dangerous angles. Wooden beams jutted out from shattered houses. Dust covered almost everything.

Here and there, thin trails of smoke still drifted through the night air.

The city was quiet.

Too quiet.

Under the dim light, refugees huddled beneath makeshift shelters.

Some slept.

Some whispered among themselves.

Others simply sat there, staring into the darkness with hollow expressions.

Almost half of Greyhaven City was made up of refugees now.

People who had nowhere else to go.

People who had lost their homes.

People who had watched their families disappear.

Selena’s fingers slowly tightened around the edge of her sleeve.

She understood them.

Perhaps more than most people could.

She had once been one of them.

She remembered what it felt like to lose everything familiar.

To look at the place you once called home and realize that it no longer existed.

To keep walking because there was nowhere left to return to.

To enter a foreign land with nothing but the clothes on your back and the memories you couldn’t escape.

These people were living through the same nightmare.

And now there was Shasa.

Selena’s gaze slowly returned to the blonde girl.

Shasa was still smiling.

She was talking quietly with Rias, her expression brightening whenever the conversation turned toward sunflowers.

She looked so out of place against the ruined city.

A girl who dreamed about flowers while standing in a place filled with broken stone and burned homes.

Selena’s chest tightened.

And this girl...

She had gone through all of that too.

Yet somehow, she had still found something she wanted to look forward to.

Sunflowers.

Selena lowered her eyes.

For a long moment, she said nothing.

Then she quietly exhaled.

Maybe that was why Shasa’s answer had affected them so deeply.

Sometimes, after losing almost everything, a person didn’t need some grand reason to keep going.

Sometimes, it was enough to have one small thing left to look forward to.

For Shasa, it was a field of sunflowers.

And maybe, for now, that was enough.

Shasa was one of those survivors who had never known what a comfortable life felt like.

She had never lived in a warm, peaceful home.

She had never tasted expensive food or delicacies.

She had never had the luxury of standing in front of a table and choosing whatever she wanted to eat.

For someone like her, even the smallest things could become precious.

Maybe, once upon a time, someone had given her a sunflower seed.

Maybe she had simply seen a field of sunflowers while traveling along some forgotten road.

Selena didn’t know which one it was.

Perhaps Shasa didn’t know either.

But somehow, that simple flower had stayed inside her heart.

It had become something she liked.

Something that made her happy.

And maybe that was all there was to it.

Shasa wasn’t complicated.

If she liked something, she said she liked it.

If she didn’t like something, she said so.

She didn’t know how to hide her feelings behind clever words.

There was no deception in her voice.

No secret calculation behind her innocent smile.

She simply said whatever was on her mind.

Selena’s heart tightened.

Looking at the girl standing before her, she suddenly felt a strange ache in her chest.

She slowly walked toward Shasa.

Her footsteps were light.

Careful.

She didn’t want to frighten her.

When Selena finally reached her, she stopped beside her.

For a moment, she simply looked at her.

Then she gently raised a hand.

Her fingers brushed through Shasa’s dusty blonde hair.

The girl’s hair was messy from the long journey, with strands falling carelessly around her face.

Selena stroked it gently.

Her voice was softer than usual.

"Sunflower..."

She paused for a moment.

"Then why are you here alone?"

Shasa looked up at her.

Selena’s hand remained against her hair.

She hesitated before asking the next question.

"Where are your parents?"

Her voice became even gentler.

"Don’t they care about you?"

The moment those words left her mouth, Shasa’s expression changed.

It was subtle.

Almost too subtle to notice.

The playful light in her eyes faded.

Her smile disappeared.

For the first time since Selena had met her, Shasa looked genuinely quiet.

She turned her head.

Her eyes drifted toward the broken street ahead.

The ruined buildings stood beneath the dark sky.

Dust covered the ground.

Broken stones and shattered wood were scattered everywhere.

Shasa stared at it for several seconds.

Then she answered.

"A few months ago..."

Her voice was calm.

Almost strangely calm.

"Many ferocious beasts suddenly came to the village."

Selena’s fingers stopped moving.

Shasa continued as though she were talking about something that had happened to someone else.

"Father and Mother were..."

She paused.

Her brows knitted slightly as she searched for the right word.

"They were... croaked at that time."

Selena’s heart sank.

Shasa scratched her cheek.

Her expression remained innocent.

"So were many people in the village."

She said it so simply.

There was no crying.

No screaming.

No anger.

That somehow made it worse.

Selena couldn’t bring herself to speak.

Her hand remained resting gently on Shasa’s dusty blonde hair.

Shasa continued.

"I was hiding inside a cabinet."

A faint smile returned to her face as she remembered it.

"Those stupid ferocious beasts didn’t notice me."

For a moment, no one said anything.

The air around them seemed to settle.

Leon stood quietly nearby, his eyes resting on Shasa.

Rias’s expression softened as well. There was something strangely innocent about the way Shasa told the story, as though she had simply been lucky enough to find a good hiding place.

Selena remained silent.

She stared at Shasa for a long moment.

Then Leon’s lips twitched.

He tried to hold it back.

He really did.

But in the end, he couldn’t help himself.

"Hm?"

His gaze shifted toward the girl.

"Little one..."

He paused.

There was a faint hint of amusement in his voice.

"Do you actually know what it means to be ’croaked’?"