Ray

## Voices

**Ray** (レイ, *Rei*) a model student of Grace Field House, who consistently gets perfect scores during the daily exams. He is also known for being an avid reader with high intellectual abilities, blunt skepticism, and cunning. Despite his distant disposition, Ray is able to interact well with the orphans and is fiercely loyal and caring to particularly Emma and Norman.

Being one of the smartest children living in Grace Field, Ray is considered to be one of Grace Field House's three "Premium quality goods" next to Norman and Emma.

After his success of escaping Grace Field alongside Emma and 13 other orphans, Ray now seeks William Minerva, whom he believes can grant him and his family liberty and help them find a safe and peaceful life away from the demons.

## Appearance

Ray is a slim boy of average height with somewhat messy short black hair, parted to the right so that the longer, chin-length clumps on his left obscure much of his face. Around the sides, it appears to spike upwards, following the shape of his head, and he also has triangular forest-green eyes with noticeably small black irises.

He wears the standard orphanage uniform- a white shirt and trousers along with plain shoes. The number "81194" is tattooed across the left side of his neck.

## Personality

Ray appears to be aloof, introverted and snarky; often excluding himself from playing with the other orphans and prefers to read a book instead. However, he is able to interact well with his fellow siblings and loves them all deeply. Even if there are times when they do not get along, he still deeply cares about their well-being and would go to great lengths to keep them safe. An outspoken person with little patience for inconvenience and silliness (like Emma's), he frequently loses his temper or is often left dumbfounded when people such as Emma display reckless behavior and intentions, noticeably when he considered Emma as an "airhead" when she intended to rescue every orphan from Grace Field.

Furthermore, he is very blunt and honest, as when Norman is trying to figure out a way to break it to Emma that Ray was the spy all along, Ray abruptly comes out with it before Norman has the chance. In some cases, he considers it a kindness to be blunt, rather than alleviate the truth or give people false hope. He was also motivated by cold logic and reason, and he figures the best plan for success is to take the smallest group possible, even if that group doesn't include himself. While he worked extremely hard for six years to make sure that Norman and Emma could escape safely, he had to sacrifice a great price, possibly his other siblings that were shipped out.

Ray's strengths are his cunning, sharp wits, and his manipulative nature. He is also rational, logical, and cynical. He is an academically inclined young boy who excels in the orphanage's daily tests, also using his intelligence to decipher problems and to come out with solutions. According to Emma, he's always the best at anything he tries. According to Norman, he is level-headed and precise in everything he does. He also always thinks ahead and finds the most optimal solutions to things.

According to the data Krone obtained, Ray is a person who makes plans too fast and gives up on them just as fast. This was specifically proven when after the plan of saving Norman got foiled, Ray lost hope and excluded himself from helping the others to devise another plan to escape. Ray is also noted to be extremely self-sacrificing and audacious. He was driven to suicide via self-immolation and willingly did so to help aid in the escape. However, he also reveals to Emma that he wasn't going to go down like cattle and he would die as a selfish human. His little hesitation in throwing his life away stems from his past. Because he has known about the truth about the farms, the outside world, and his very own mother from a young age, Ray began deeming his life as "cursed" and therefore planned to die inside the orphanage. Additionally, after years of watching his siblings walk to their death without doing anything about it, Ray developed extreme guilt and felt like the only way he could atone was by dying himself.

However, after the escape succeeds, Ray comes around to see that even a dream-like future can be achieved. This culminates in his change of mindset, and he admits to Emma that he's glad to see their siblings safe when he had previously thought bringing them would be a burden. He swears to keep on living, atone for his mistakes, and protect his family and becomes fiercely protective and loyal to them. As opposed to his relatively pessimistic mindset prior to the escape, Ray became more optimistic and is now not scared to hope for a dream-like future where no one dies. Being surrounded by his family, no longer having to keep secrets from them, and being accepted by them, is the first time Ray is starting to heal, and he also resolves not to do things on his own anymore.

## Etymology

* Old French rey, roy ‘king’. Occasionally this was used as a personal name. English: nickname for a timid person, from Middle English ray ‘female roe deer’ or northern Middle English ray ‘roebuck’. English: variant of Rye (1 and 2).