1.
Morning came naturally.
It was the dawn, just as the sunset was beginning to rise.
As I rolled over in bed, I saw Silver Wolf sleeping soundly right beside me.
"Grrr...!"
I stretched my arms wide.
Then I covered Silver Wolf with the blanket and stepped out onto the balcony.
I lit a cigarette and breathed in the dawn air.
The sky was dyed with sunset light, but the sun itself never rose.
It was a strange sight, no matter how many times I saw it.
For some reason, Punklorde never saw the sun rise for all eternity.
Was it because of ether, the source of imagination and power?
Cigarette smoke mingled with the sunset and scattered away.
Even I, who hated getting up early, always got a little sentimental at this hour.
I’d acted on impulse and held Silver Wolf in my arms last night, but....
"Ah, shit."
I scratched my head hard and shook it off.
Thinking about it wouldn’t give me an answer.
- click
After finishing the cigarette to the very end, I went back inside.
I glanced once at Silver Wolf, still tossing in the cool air, then started preparing breakfast.
It felt different from when we first met.
"Han Siu, you really have grown."
To think I was now at the point where I could afford breakfast that wasn’t just toast.
I cracked eggs and fried bacon in the pan.
Since I’d worked out a lot yesterday, I might as well go with an American breakfast.
I finished cooking at lightning speed with my godlike culinary skills.
Then I drizzled syrup over the pancakes and checked the time.
7:00 a.m. There was no more time to waste.
"Silver Wolf, wake up."
"...Mmm."
"Your sugar daddy made breakfast. Come eat."
Silver Wolf poked her head out from under the blanket, inch by inch.
Something was off about her.
She looked at me with a dazed expression, then gave me a half-lidded glance.
"...Can’t I sleep a little longer?"
"No. I’ve got work, so I need to head out again."
If it were up to me, I’d happily go for round two, but I really didn’t have time.
The knife was already at my throat.
"Again?"
"Yeah. Gotta work fast."
Silver Wolf fumbled for the clothes I’d tossed onto the bed and started putting them on.
Maybe her embarrassment had already worn off, because she let out a small yawn and hugged me.
"Mmm...."
"Come on, let’s eat. I made something good."
"Adrian."
"What?"
"My throat hurts. My back hurts too, and my legs are shaking."
Silver Wolf looked at me with a slightly sulky face.
"You said it was your first time."
"It was my first time."
"Then why were you so skilled?"
Now hold on, Adrian really was a first-timer.
The problem was that Han Siu wasn’t.
That wasn’t a lie, was it?
"And, and... you kept spanking me, and doing weird stuff, and making me say dirty things...."
She was so flustered by her own words that she rambled on, her ears turning bright red.
I had done quite a bit of mysterious human-anatomy research last night.
"Either way, you liked it, right?"
"..."
"You were the one saying ‘more, more’ while making those little noises...!"
"Die!"
For Silver Wolf’s privacy, I’ll refrain from going into further detail.
And there was one more thing I’d learned from last night.
You could earn points through thrusting too.
Since it was our first time, I’d originally planned to take it gently.
But Silver Wolf’s reaction was good.
And the points were being mined like crazy, so I couldn’t hold back.
Ah, and just in case she tried to report me to the police, let me say this.
This was consensual, okay?
I was being considerate, and the one who lunged at me and pinned me down was Silver Wolf!!!
Your Honor, I am innocent.
So please don’t smack my head three times with the gavel.
"Is the food good?"
"Yeah. You did well. It’s delicious."
A perfectly done sunny-side-up egg with a soft yolk.
Nicely crisped bacon.
And finally, pancakes topped with butter and syrup.
It was a luxurious meal.
"Thanks for the meal."
After finishing breakfast deliciously, I changed clothes.
My coat was tattered from being worn too much and taking too many hits.
A frayed, ordinary sweater.
And finally, the sword that had endured my brutal training.
When I looked at the blade, it was gleaming brightly despite how little care I’d been able to give it.
Looks like the pawnshop owner really was a blacksmith.
"With a fresh feeling and a fresh mood, one pull, go!"
The only thing that could break me out of this hopeless situation was a blessing.
If I got a blessing that could widen the path of thought and choice.
[Shadow of the Past]
- Rank: ★★☆☆☆
- First Effect: When used, you can read one random past event of the target for 1 minute.
- Source: "Mystery" ■■■
- Note: One-time use. It may reveal the other person’s shameful secret, or it may show a happy memory.
"That’s... vague."
If I could read the past I wanted, this would be a broken-as-hell blessing.
The problem was that one clearly written word at the front: random.
Even if I used it on the troupe leader or Hanabi, what good would it do if it just showed me a minute of them petting a stray cat?
Because of the randomness, it was a frustratingly ambiguous item.
Still, it seemed better than having nothing.
"The points I worked so hard to mine from Silver Wolf...."
The Red Thread of Fate was also a blessing with a double edge.
It would be strange if only blessings that helped me showed up.
Ha... this is annoying.
Right now, there was a heavy burden sitting in one corner of my heart.
The responsibility of uncovering the secret this run, no matter what it took.
And if I failed, it wasn’t just me who’d be left behind, but permanent death as well.
Hanabi, you pathetic little bitch. If I’d known it would turn out like this, I wouldn’t have gone to watch the play.
But it was already done. There was nothing I could do about it.
If I hadn’t met Asat and Zephiro, there would have been no way at all.
"Can’t I come with you?"
"Tch! Stay home. This’ll be over quickly. I’ll definitely come back."
"..."
I wanted to take Silver Wolf with me, but if I failed, she’d die too.
It was selfishness.
My ugly selfishness.
Even if I failed and died, I wanted Silver Wolf to live.
"I’m going. I’ll bring back something tasty, so don’t worry."
"...I’ll be waiting."
Huff, huff, huff.
I felt like I’d planted way too many death flags.
But who was I?
I was a possessor-regressor who could see both the future and the past.
There was no such thing as defeat.
An outcome I wouldn’t even consider.
That was my constant belief.
I didn’t know whether I could call my choice the correct one.
But even if it wasn’t correct, my past wouldn’t change.
I would struggle until the very end.
Even if death was waiting right in front of me.
Even if I had to throw myself into a flame that would burn forever.
I wouldn’t give up.
"Let’s go out there bright and bold!"
In front of the apartment, I stretched and walked out.
There was only one place I was heading.
The troupe, which you could call the main body of evil itself.
I was short on information, so I had to dig.
It was time to switch genres into a stealth-action espionage story.
Let’s think about the quest again.
The title was Fireworks of the Companion.
The conditions were hidden.
The options that came to mind were to chase after the truth behind the incident and Hanabi’s story.
The troupe was hiding a secret.
And not just any secret, but one that absolutely could not be revealed to the public.
"The clear condition is hidden too. Damn, there’s really not enough information."
I figured the clear condition was probably hidden inside that secret.
Once the conditions were revealed, it might actually be a quest that could be cleared surprisingly easily.
Rather than smashing everything with brute force, this was a nonsense riddle that had to be solved by thinking.
Hanabi’s past.
The woman in the troupe who looked like Hanabi did when she was performing there.
The troupe leader with a mask covering his face.
And the others were just ordinary troupe members.
Hanabi had fooled me.
That was definitely not the kind of force a normal girl could possess.
Talent beyond the ordinary.
The reason she deceived me and that sudden overreaction.
And that sad look she’d shown at the end.
While I was thinking, I arrived at the troupe’s street, where fanfare was echoing through the air.
There were clearly fewer people than when I first came.
As with movies, the first week after opening was when all the attention poured in.
Looking around, I could see the merchants were already starting to pack up and leave.
"Hey, still doing business?"
"...Ah! It’s you!"
The merchant who had given us the red goldfish.
He was the one who mainly sold goldfish scooping.
"Are you taking good care of the goldfish I gave you?"
"I am. So well, in fact, that it’s gotten nice and fat."
A goldfish living more comfortably than its owner.
Its owner doesn’t even know what kind of hell he’s grinding through.
"I’m glad to hear that. A lot of people take them home and then just irresponsibly abandon them."
We exchanged a few brief pleasantries.
From what I heard, they were getting tired of the play too and were starting to prepare to move on somewhere else.
One week later, they’d do their final performance and leave.
Shit. I’m screwed.
The little time I had just got even shorter.
"By any chance, did you see the girl who was with us then?"
"The one with the unusual eyes? Hmm... no, I haven’t. I only saw her for the first time back then, after all."
And then I heard one more unexpected thing from the merchant.
"This troupe hasn’t been around very long. Even if they aren’t popular, there’s no troupe that becomes famous from the start, right?"
"...Is that so?"
"Exactly. I’m a merchant who makes a living off seasonal business too. I latch onto troupes like this to survive."
A troupe that hadn’t been formed for very long?
But Hanabi had definitely said she’d known the troupe’s leader for a long time, hadn’t she?
Was my memory wrong?
Had I developed young-onset dementia or something?
The merchant had already finished packing and was getting ready to leave. As the barren street came into view, I ended my conversation with him and moved toward the troupe.
Even if I wandered around outside, I couldn’t see any troupe members or anyone else.
Hanabi was gone too, as if she had vanished completely.
Something felt off.
My instincts had never been wrong.
Without saying a word, I turned around.
And what I saw behind me was...
"You’ve got a nasty hobby."
"Haha, I’ll take that as a compliment."
It was the troupe leader, wearing a mask and looking at me with interested eyes.
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