TL/Editor: Butter Cat

    Status: 4/week mon-thurs

    Illustrations: none

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    〈 Chapter 65 〉 Chapter 65. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.

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    "—Aris has been acting strange lately."

    The one who started the conversation was Remi Akaia, sitting across from me, sipping her coffee with a serious expression.

    She was forcing herself to drink the dark-colored coffee with ice cubes floating in it, saying it was the latest trendy drink.

    I wonder if she even realizes how distorted her face looks.

    Unable to bear watching any longer, I added a spoonful of honey and a generous amount of milk. Only then did the wrinkles between her eyebrows finally start to disappear.

    Seeing that familiar sight, one I had witnessed countless times in my life, and even experienced myself sometimes, evoked a strange feeling within me, but the person in question didn''t seem to notice, just continued to stare at me with a disgruntled look.

    By the way, Aris acting strange, huh.

    It’s true, even I had to admit that Aris''s recent behavior had been a little strange.

    Normally, Aris would look at me with sparkling eyes the moment she heard my voice, but lately, she would respond late when I spoke to her, and sometimes she wouldn''t even react at all.

    Moreover, she would spend all day in her dorm room staring blankly out the window, not even setting foot in the flower garden she loved so much.

    As if she was possessed by something.

    It was so heartbreaking to see her seemingly lost and listless.

    And it was even more concerning because Aris was the type of person who would hide her struggles and try not to worry others.

    "She''s been responding late when I talk to her! My Aris, who always used to answer with a smile!! Huh? And she spends all day in her dorm room, just staring blankly out the window. She''s not even going to the flower garden to look at the flowers she loves! This is serious, do you understand!?"

    "...Wow, that''s creepy."

    How can she be this accurate?

    I wonder if there''s some kind of mind-reading magic in somewhere in the world.

    I rubbed my arm, goosebumps rising as Remi Akaia recited everything I had felt while observing Alice for the past few days, word for word, without a single mistake.

    Hey, passing security guard over there, there''s a stalker here stalking a young child.

    The goosebumps that popped up on my arm were proof that my feelings weren''t an exaggeration.

    "....Ah, shit! Is this a time for jokes!? Aris is depressed, I tell youuu!!"

    "Eek!? Th-That… That’s true, buuuut—!!"

    "Then, what is it!? Do you know something!?"

    Tell me, spill it, tell me everything!! S~ea??h the n??el Fire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    Let go, let go of me first, I can''t talk unless you let gooOooo—

    Clatter, clatter, my body swayed like a piece of paper in her hand, shaking me back and forth by my collar.

    I tried to tap out, tapping on her wrist repeatedly to signal my surrender, but my desperate plea didn''t reach her as she was too caught up in her excitement.

    And so, for a few minutes, strange screams echoed through the coffee shop, or so they say.

    Caw, caw.

    **

    Every cause has an effect.

    That statement, which could also be interpreted as ‘everything has a cause’, was sometimes expressed as ''Nothing comes from nothing (ex nihilo nihil fit)''.

    So.

    Even Alice''s sudden change in behavior must have a reason, it couldn''t be happening for no reason.

    After much deliberation, my answer to the question of what was making Alice sad was—

    "—Homesickness?"

    "...Well, something like that."

    Nostalgia, a longing for home when in a foreign land.

    I concluded that homesickness, which was also considered a form of depression, must be the cause of Alice''s current struggles.

    In fact, Alice''s behavior, although slightly different, were very similar to what I had done before.

    The longing for a homeland you can''t return to, a home you can only picture in your mind.

    I, too, had spent countless hours staring out the window, my vision filled with nothing but foreign scenery, trying to process my emotions. So I could easily understand her behavior.

    And considering Alice''s circumstances, it was practically a confirmed diagnosis.

    "There haven''t been any other significant events, right?"

    ".....I guess so?"

    "The only things that have happened so far are you and me acting like idiots in front of Alice, right? ....Well, there was that time when you and I fought. But… I don''t think that''s it."

    The fight between me and her, a bloody battle that could be considered one of the main suspects, could be a possible cause, but even that had happened a long time ago.

    Of course, Alice had panicked back then, but thanks to her kind nature, it hadn''t taken long for her to forgive Remi Akaia, who had hurt her, and to become close friends.

    And Remi Akaia, who had spent sleepless nights worrying that she would be hated after accidentally injuring Alice''s arm, had been saved by her angel-like little sister who had approached her first, saying it was okay.

    And so.

    That day''s fight had ended in a ridiculously anticlimactic way, and it was an event that had essentially been concluded in everyone''s memories.

    It might have been different if it were right after that day, but now, nearly a month later, it was unlikely that it would suddenly start bothering Alice now.

    I could guarantee it wasn''t the cause.

    The truth should always be sought in simplicity.

    And never in chaos and complexity.

    Be objective.

    Think rationally.

    There is a cause.

    But no matter how much I thought about it, Alice''s current worries, couldn''t be attributed to anything that had happened within the ''Akard Empire''.

    It meant that Alice''s depression wasn''t caused by anything that had happened ''here''.

    When we first arrived in the empire, Alice''s behavior wasn''t that different from the Alice I knew, so it couldn''t be because of something that had happened before either.

    The only thing that remained was the fact that Alice had come to ''this place''… could that be it?

    If so, the thing that''s bothering Alice right now is the fact that she''s been separated from ''her'' and came all the way here…

    Dozens of hypotheses were formulated.

    After eliminating all impossibilities, that was the only thing that remained.

    "........You."

    ".....Hmm?"

    But even after I shared my opinion, Remi Akaia''s face didn''t brighten up.

    Rather, her face was growing with suspicion and doubt, and I realized that she wasn''t studying Alice, but me.

    Oops.

    Was I, too lost in thought?

    I made a mistake.

    "Come to think of it, you never told me in detail about how Aris has lived all this time."

    "...."

    "You always avoided going into details, just glossing over things with vague explanations, full of holes."

    That''s right.

    I had told Remi Akaia about the past that Alice and I had shared, but it was only a small part.

    At most, all I had told her was a brief overview of the unfortunate incident in Syria Village, where I met Alice, and that I had learned some basic swordsmanship from her before becoming a mercenary.

    In other words.

    The story of ''her'', who was probably working hard somewhere at this very moment, was completely omitted or skipped over in my explanation.

    The doubts and suspicions that Remi Akaia felt must’ve all been because of this.

    How Alice, who had been critically injured, could have been rescued and treated after falling into a freezing river in the middle of winter.

    What the half-year gap between Alice''s disappearance and her living with me meant.

    How we escaped the desperate situation in Syria Village.

    If she was as clever as I thought, she would have immediately grasped the contradictions and inconsistencies in my story.

    Of course, she must have had some suspicions from the beginning, but until now, she had been too happy to be reunited with Alice to bother questioning me.

    And so, the forgotten bomb, had now resurfaced.

    Yes.

    That kind of thing that I couldn''t bring myself to mention.

    The reason I didn''t tell her was because I hated sharing someone else''s story without their permission, it felt like gossiping, but the bigger reason was something else.

    That the person — no, the being who saved Alice, was classified as a ''monster'' by the standards of this world.

    That it was none other than she who had bitten off Alice''s arm, and Alice considered her to be her true ''family,'' more than her biological family.

    To casually reveal that cruel truth to Remi Akaia, of all people.

    So.

    I shook my head.

    "…I can’t tell you."

    "…You…!?"

    I couldn''t bring myself to tell a white lie.

    I couldn''t do that.

    I was sick and tired of lying to others, and I couldn''t just reveal someone''s secret, a secret that was more precious to them than their own life, to a complete stranger

    Caw, caw. Even if I were to paint the crow crying sorrowfully above us white and presented it as a gift, who would accept a crow that was just pretending to be white?

    (TL Note: Similar to ‘a leopard can’t change its spots.’)

    The paint would chip away, revealing the black beneath.

    A lie is a dirty sin that only plunges both the person who says it and the person who hears it into misery.

    In the end, all I could do was keep my mouth shut tight and present only the result, without explaining the process or the reason behind it.

    I said *that Alice was desperately missing someone, or, something that wasn’t here for some unavoidable reason.*

    I said *that the one who entrusted Alice to me is the very person who saved her and whom Alice adored more than her biological family.*

    *That when the time was right, and if she wishes, you too will be able to know the truth.*

    *That a little time, a little patience, was needed.*

    Hoping to ask for that—

    "Caw, caw!"

    "…Huh?"

    A…Cr…ow?

    A slightly raspy crow''s caw, came from the rooftop of the building we were sitting at.

    The ominous sound of a crow cawing loudly three or four times.

    The people passing by and Remi Akaia sitting in front of me were ignoring and not reacting at all to this seemingly ordinary event of a crow cawing.

    I wish I could just ignore it too, but in my current state, I couldn''t bring myself to do so.

    That''s because I had bad memories associated with crows.

    And because it was a creature that symbolized ''her''.

    "—You''re telling, a very interesting story."

    ".......I''m screwed."

    Bang!

    I desperately hoped this wasn''t real, and slammed my head on the table.

    I hoped it was just a bad dream.

    But the vivid pain on my forehead felt like it was saying, ''Now that the owner is dead, this is my world!''

    If I die, you die too, you bastard.

    "..Ha...Haha..."

    I forced my stiff neck to turn, and greeted the new participant in this conversation with the brightest smile I could muster.

    "I''m also very interested in hearing your story. Like, why you’re with that girl over there."

    "...Who are you. Do you, know me?"

    "I know you. I know you better than you know yourself."

    Speak of the tiger and they shall appear, as they say.

    (TL Note: The original proverb in Korean is “Even a tiger comes if you say his/her name”, basically means whatever you were talking about just appeared. But I translated it into an English idiom and changed the term a bit so it fits, ‘Speak of the devil’.)

    But I didn''t know that something several times scarier than a tiger would appear.

    If I knew, I wouldn''t have said anything.

    Really, I wouldn''t have.

    Really…

    "Don''t you agree, ''Parasite''?"

    "...Ah, I really miss Alice."

    They say people are naturally afraid of animals that are black.

    As far as I know, there was an animal far more terrifying than any other.

    She, Saelli, had appeared in the imperial capital.

    **

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