Ch.19Chapter 19. You’re Like a Doll Now

“How long has it been since we last met? Six years?”

“Five years.”

“Five years! Wow… five years.”

Rabin felt a sense of transience at the realization that so much time had passed.

Five years had already gone by while he’d been living frantically, waiting for the man standing before him.

Still, he felt more pride in having successfully welcomed Lin, or rather Mr. Lee, to the garden he had cultivated.

“You’ve really changed a lot, Mr. Lee. I never expected you to become so muscular and sturdy. Your voice has gotten deeper too, and all that remains is that strangely gentle face of yours?”

“Is that so? I’m not sure. I’ve just been focused on earning my daily bread…”

“Come on, why so modest? You’ve become quite remarkable.”

As Rabin tried to continue the pleasant conversation, he realized there were many eyes around them.

Though the Thieves’ Guild was the central hub of information, details about Lin were classified as top-secret.

If Rabin were being honest, more than the information classification, he disliked the idea of anyone besides himself knowing Lin.

“It’s awkward to keep standing here, so let’s go to my office.”

“You have an office?”

“I may not be as impressive as you, but I am the head of the Thieves’ Guild, you know?”

As Rabin walked ahead proudly, Lucy asked Lin with displeasure from behind.

“Lin, why does he call you ‘Mr. Lee’?”

“Shh.”

Lin urgently raised his index finger and whispered so Rabin couldn’t hear.

“Very few people know my name.”

“Really?”

“Since I’m a commoner with a surname, they just call me ‘Mr. Lee’ because I don’t tell them my first name.”

“I see.”

Lucy took the opportunity to ask more.

“So… how many people know Lin’s name?”

“Hmm, three?”

“I’m one, and who are the other two?”

“Uh…”

Lin hesitated, wondering if he should tell her. It seemed like asking for trouble.

As he wavered, Lucy’s eyebrows shot up immediately.

“Don’t tell me they’re women?”

They were women.

He could just say yes, but somehow he was reluctant to answer.

As Lin struggled with how to respond, a thought occurred to him.

One of them never had any interest in him to begin with.

And the first one had probably forgotten all about someone like him long ago.

If true, it would be quite painful and sad for Lin.

“They are women, but…”

“But?”

“It was so long ago that both of them have probably forgotten. You’re the only one who’s ever been curious about my name.”

“So I’m the only one who knows Lin?”

“…That’s right.”

“I’m glad.”

Lucy stroked the back of Lin’s hand with her thumb.

“I’m the only one who knows Lin.”

Lucy pressed her body against his.

Just as she was about to rest her head on Lin’s shoulder, the cheerful thief interrupted.

“Here we are! This is my office!”

Lucy glared, but with her hood covering her face, Rabin couldn’t see it anyway.

Though he called it an office, there was no desk.

It was questionable whether this modest room with just a cot and a few backless wooden chairs could even be called an office.

“Please, make yourselves comfortable.”

As Rabin sat on the bed and offered them seats, he paused slightly when he noticed the two holding hands.

Lin, noticing his gaze, tried to subtly let go, but Lucy interlaced their fingers more firmly instead.

Naturally, Rabin was quite displeased with this action.

“So, after rejecting my invitation, you ended up becoming a porter for the Hero’s party, I hear?”

So Rabin decided to get under Lucy’s skin, not knowing who she was.

He would use stories from the past that only he and Lin knew, along with tales from the Demon Lord subjugation era that Lucy wanted to avoid.

“And it seems you weren’t even treated properly in the Hero’s party.”

Lucy’s entire body shuddered.

How does he know?

She was still unaware that Rabin was skilled enough to have been considered as a final candidate for the Hero’s party.

“What was with that ridiculous mask? Did the Hero and party members not even want to see your face?”

If what he said jokingly was actually the exact reason, how would Rabin react?

“…”

“…Don’t tell me that’s true?”

“Well…”

“This is absurd. No one in the Gutter Alley treated you like that. You were a genius among geniuses!”

“That’s not true. Don’t exaggerate.”

“Well, whether you’re a genius or not is beside the point.”

Why mention it if you’re going to dismiss it so easily?

Lin was uncomfortable with this topic.

Even if not for Lucy’s sake, it wasn’t a good time for him either.

But Rabin growled and brought up that name.

“Arsil.”

Lucy’s ears perked up at the unexpected name.

If he wanted to criticize that time, he should have targeted the entire Hero’s party.

She wondered why he was singling out the Saint.

“Why did that woman participate in tormenting you, Mr. Lee?”

“That’s…”

Because I deliberately hid it.

But Rabin didn’t give Lin a chance to explain.

“Did you do something wrong? The Mr. Lee I know wouldn’t inconvenience others. You were Arsil’s right-hand man since childhood. How could she treat someone like that so carelessly! Besides, that woman originally…!”

“You’re too excited, Rabin.”

“How can I not be!”

“I deliberately wore a mask and hid my identity from the Saint.”

“Why? If you had just revealed who you were, you wouldn’t have been treated that way.”

The mage had once asked him the same question.

But Rabin, you shouldn’t do this.

When you know everything.

“If I revealed that I was Mr. Lee, the Saint would ask what happened to Gutter Alley.”

“…And whose fault is that!”

“You’re acting unlike yourself, getting so worked up. You never liked that alley even once.”

“It’s not about liking the place. It’s about losing the people we were with there!”

Lin feels the same way.

And so would Arsil.

Though the mask wasn’t worn by choice, he was so relieved that he didn’t have to reveal his identity to the Saint at their first meeting.

It would have been troublesome if the Saint’s heart had been broken from the start of the Hero’s party.

“Everyone died. From those who followed me to those who followed her after she left! Only you and I remain! That’s why I wanted to go with you so badly. But the treatment you received in the party you joined after rejecting my offer—what was that?!”

The earlier composure was gone as Rabin trembled with anger.

The master thief who had robbed banks in the Financial City with a sly smile was now furious because his childhood friend had been mistreated.

Lin wasn’t sure whether to be touched or tell him not to worry about it.

Even for Lin, it wasn’t painless.

“They prepared food and ate it all among themselves, excluding you!”

Lucy flinched.

She felt strength draining from her entire body.

“That elf openly showed contempt!”

“The mage didn’t even acknowledge your existence!”

“And that stupid Arsil sat there without healing you once while you were bandaging yourself alone!”

“The shield knight pretended to care for you while putting you down with words, feeling a perverted sense of superiority!”

“And that so-called Hero had such a foul mouth, saying all sorts of things to you before going to flirt with the shield knight!”

“Is that how you treat a comrade? Even the most pathetic kid in Gutter Alley wasn’t treated like that! It’s no different from lying to someone they’ve accepted into their group. It’s a betrayal of the promise to treat them as a member after accepting them into the group!”

With a soft sound,

Lucy let go of Lin’s hand.

That list was just a fraction of what the Hero’s party had done.

Yet each item stabbed at her heart.

Realizing how shameless and pathetic she was, Lucy wanted nothing more than to hide somewhere.

As she lowered her gaze, she saw the red thread faintly glowing, visible only to her.

She despised herself for weaving that thread while giggling.

Flirting with Lineford, he said.

She had flirted with her former fiancé who hid his dislike for her and then cut off her legs in the most painful way at the critical moment.

It was true.

That was a past Lucy desperately wanted to deny, to cut away herself if possible.

She had wanted to be affectionate with someone regardless of who was nearby.

Whether it was the elf, the mage, the Saint, or the porter.

Her eyelids grew hot, but she had no right to shed tears.

Now she understood a little.

Why Lin pushed her away.

Having witnessed such behavior, he would naturally feel awkward and suspicious if she clung to him.

Strange.

Though she had no right to cry, her vision blurred with heat.

At that moment,

Lin stepped forward.

“Betrayal… few people have experienced betrayal like you and I have.”

“Yes, when two nations simultaneously decided to eliminate the back alleys…”

“And no one has experienced betrayal like ‘us’.”

When Lin took her hand again, Lucy nearly collapsed.

She had to endure.

Not a single drop should fall.

Be grateful just for him holding your hand for the rest of your life.

“Us?”

“Yes, us.”

Finally, Lin pulled back Lucy’s hood.

Red hair in a long ponytail.

Cat-like features with tear-stained eyes.

“Hero Lucy…! How dare you be with Mr. Lee…!”

“Those people cut off Lucy’s limbs immediately after successfully subjugating the Demon Lord. I took her and ran away because they wanted the Hero dead until the end.”

The situation was explosive.

Rabin looked ready to lunge at Lucy, but Lin firmly blocked his path.

“I can already guess. You ran your mouth too much and got backstabbed by the Hero’s party, right?”

“What are you saying, Rabin?”

Even as he stepped forward, Lin didn’t let go of Lucy’s hand.

The warmth felt through their hands was so comforting.

“We are the Hero’s party. Those people were puppets of the Empire. Just the two of us, me and Lucy, are the Hero’s party. It’s not that we were betrayed by the Hero’s party; the Hero’s party was betrayed by the Empire.”

“…Are you really Mr. Lee?”

The conversation returned to where it began.

“The skinny, frail Mr. Lee has become sturdy, with a deeper voice… has your personality changed too?”

“Not particularly my personality…”

“No.”

This time, Rabin cut off his words.

“Throughout our conversation, no matter what topic I brought up, your expression didn’t change at all. You seemed rather serene.”

The sound of boots stepping on the wooden floor.

Rabin came right up to Lin’s face and gritted his teeth.

“What exactly happened during all this time? What pain made you so numb?”

Lucy didn’t understand.

Lin had always been like this.

“You’re like a doll now.”

At those painfully spat words, Lin unconsciously tightened his grip.

Squeeze-!

Feeling this, Lucy lowered her head and finally shed the tears she had been holding back.