Lira stood silently, observing him closely, her eyes softening as she prepared to approach him in a way only she knew how.
In the park, the air was filled with the joyful laughter of children, while their parents watched them with indulgent smiles.
The little ones ran and played around the **Super Random Ball Extractor 3.0**, a large attraction that dispensed prizes hidden in its colorful capsules.
Sometimes, the children received white capsules, which brought disappointment to their faces, but the parents' laughter and hugs quickly melted away that moment of sadness.
Other times, luck smiled, and larger prizes caused bursts of joy.
I stopped to watch the scene for a few seconds. A small emotional fluctuation struck me, an invisible and imperceptible movement in my chest.
One family, in particular, caught my attention: father, mother, and child laughing together, the little one lifted onto the father's shoulders. A perfect picture of happiness.
"Such nostalgia..." I murmured.
A distant memory emerged like a ghost from the past, reminding me of my childhood, when I too was cared for with affection.
The warmth of those memories wrapped around me for a moment before my rational mind took over. I took a deep breath and brought every emotion back under control, letting that memory fall away like a shadow.
Inside a black capsule, I noticed a small pendant. It seemed trivial, but according to Lira's description, it was capable of taking photos and storing images, a technologically advanced item.
A curious thought, but not enough to distract me from my neutral emotional state.
Suddenly, I felt a light touch on my left shoulder.
My reaction was immediate but controlled: with superhuman calm, I slowly turned around.
No sign of surprise showed on my face, every emotion perfectly concealed.
"You... are Lira," I said, recognizing the figure in front of me. My voice was flat, devoid of any hint of emotion.
"That's right!" she responded exuberantly.
"It's me, the one and only fantastic Lira!" Her face was lit up with a broad smile, and her eyes sparkled with childlike energy.
She struck an exaggeratedly theatrical pose, almost ridiculous for someone her age. Her eccentric clothes, full of bright colors and absurd details, completed that surreal picture.
"Why don't you try my game?" she said, tilting her head slightly to one side, as if offering an irresistible deal.
My response was immediate and cold. "I'm not interested."
Lira's smile vanished in an instant, replaced by a dramatic grimace.
Her eyes filled with tears, and her voice became whiny.
"Really? Are you going to make me cry then?" she exclaimed, with a theatricality impossible to ignore.
"I put so much effort and heart into creating it... and you don't even want to try?"
Her tears were clearly fake, and her tone overly exaggerated, but she managed to capture the attention of everyone, including the crowd around us.
The children began to stop, watch, and whisper among themselves.
"What an actress..." I thought, watching Lira without changing my expression.
Even with that exaggerated crying, my self-control remained perfect.
"If I were like most people, I might have fallen for her performance."
However, something was starting to change in the atmosphere around me. I felt the eyes of the people in the crowd focus on me, judgmental and filled with contempt.
The children, especially, cast condemning glances at me.
"Why is the big sister crying?" a child asked in a trembling voice.
"It's the bad big brother's fault!" another shouted, pointing an angry finger at me.
"Yes, he must be a bad person!" added a little girl, clutching her doll as if seeking comfort.
"Maybe he's a hidden villain..." someone whispered, and those words spread through the crowd like poison.
I felt a slight pressure building inside me, an annoyance that tried to emerge. But I controlled it, as always.
However, my rational instinct warned me that the situation was becoming risky.
"If those kids start thinking I'm Enigma, I'm practically doomed." The thought crossed my mind with the same coldness with which I approached every situation.
"Even if the probability was minimal, their imagination knows no limits. It's not worth the risk." The safest option was to give in.