Chapter 73: When Roses Were Sweet (3)

[73] 10. When Roses Were Sweet (3)

What always follows intense emotions is shame. This is a fact I’m well aware of.

After all, crying and throwing tantrums is, in a way, my specialty.

But there are limits to everything.

I looked at Irene, curled up in the corner, with a pathetic look in my eyes. She was facing the wall, buried under a blanket.

… For three hours.

Finally unable to endure it any longer, I stomped my feet and said,

“Stop being ridiculous and get up.”

“…Just a little bit longer.”

I let out a deep sigh.

“Just answer me this. Are you the Irene I know? The one who…”

“Yeah, I’m from the world where Nicolai is still the Emperor.”

I sighed in relief. Then a moment later, I felt irritation tickling my throat.

“Why are you acting like this *this* time? You didn’t do this when we first met and cried our eyes out, happy to have found someone from our homeland.”

“…You cried too back then.”

“What?”

“It’s all your fault,”

Irene kicked the wall pointlessly. Wrapping the blanket tighter around herself, she mumbled in a whining tone.

“Because oppa is fine and I’m the only one crying pitifully, it’s like… you know… I, I feel like I’m the only one de-depending on oppa…!”

I was speechless for a moment. Maybe she felt a bit guilty at my silence because she raised her voice.

“I-It’s true, isn’t it…?! W-Why weren’t you crying? Was I the only one who was scared? The only one who was afraid of being the only one left from our world?”

Of course I was also scared.

No, actually, this whole situation terrified me.

A sudden arrival in an unfamiliar world,

a world with different common sense.

And a situation where, instead of answers, only questions piled up.

It was like the first time I’d arrived in this world.

It’s just that I’d become too used to misfortune. At least enough not to be consumed by them.

But even if I explain that, Irene wouldn’t believe me.

“Fine, fine, it’s my fault, I’m sorry. Happy now?”

I readily apologized.

But all I got was a sulky voice,

“…Oppa, do you know how much I want to punch you right now?”

…Just what the hell does she want me to do?

As I was mulling over these thoughts, Irene let out a sigh and sat up. She grumbled, her voice full of dissatisfaction,

“Well, I’m the nice one, so I’ll just have to put up with it…”

Then, slapping her cheeks, she turned to me.

“Let me give you a brief overview. Right now, you are…”

“Hold on a moment.”

I walked up to her and pulled out a handkerchief from my pocket, wiping the dust off her face.

“That’s what happens when you hole yourself up in a place like this. Next time, if you’re going to be like this, at least do it somewhere clean. You call yourself a woman, with your face all dusty.”

I picked off a clump of dust from her hair and then stepped back, crossing my arms.

“Now, you can explain.”

“…”

“I said explain, didn’t I?”

Irene’s blank face suddenly twisted into a frown. Then, she blurted out something completely random.

“I’m your younger sister.”

“What?”

“Don’t ever do that to me again. Do that kind of stuff to Feya *Unnie*.”

“What does that even mean…”

“Forget it, I’ll start explaining the situation.”

And then, without another word, she pulled out a chalkboard from her subspace pocket.

I sat down, thinking that she was being even more moody than usual.

“First, this is a different world from the one we were originally in. To be precise, it’s a copy of that world. I think the term ‘parallel world’ might be more familiar to you?”

I had thought as much.

Time travel, it really is impossible,

and if the history I knew had been altered, then there were only two possibilities:

I’ve gone mad,

Or I’ve come to a different, yet similar world, just like what happened to Parsley.

So, there was only one question I needed to ask.

“So, how did I get to ‘this world’? And how did you get to ‘this world’?”

Traveling between worlds is no easy feat.

Even Parsley had needed the help of the pocket watch. I, too, had barely been able to follow her by using the magic stone in my chest.

Definitely not something that could’ve happened by chance.

In other words, the only explanation for me being here was that someone had deliberately brought me here.

Irene’s face twisted at my question. She hesitated for a long moment before finally speaking,

“Well, first of all, I didn’t come to ‘this world’ separately. I came here with you. And as for the reason…”

[I’ll explain from here.]

Irene and I turned our gazes toward the window. Or rather, to what was *outside* the window.

“A squirrel…?”

[It’s a chipmunk, not that it matters. Anyway, can you open the window?]

A chipmunk, speaking fluently, tapped on the window.

It was clearly a sight that defied common sense, even in this fantasy world. I felt my thoughts come to a halt.

And it was Irene’s sharp voice that snapped me back to reality.

“Don’t open it, Oppa.”

Her hand gripped my shoulder tightly. I turned to look at her and saw her face contorted with hostility.

It was the first time I had seen such a strong, negative emotion from Irene.

But what happened next was even more surprising.

[Don’t be so hostile. Aren’t we allies right now? Working towards the same goal?]

“…”

[Besides, wouldn’t you be the one who loses if we start revealing each other’s secrets?]

I could feel Irene’s body tremble through her arm. Eventually, she let go of my shoulder and approached the window.

“If you say anything unnecessary, I’ll kill you.”

[Yeah, yeah. Thanks for opening the window.]

As soon as she opened the window, the chipmunk hopped down.

And then it started to transform,

Its small paws turned into white hands,

The fur that covered its body turned into a suit,

And its beady black eyes turned into those of a human, filled with cunning.

Before long, a man stood was standing in front of me.

And his face was a familiar one.

“You’re…”

“Yes, long time no see, Mr. Steampunk Cyborg.”

The man who opened the way back to the original world,

When I chased after Parsley to the parallel world.

He gave me a bitter smile and said,

“To be honest, I didn’t expect to see you again, but well, what can you do? Alain’s calculator came up with this result.”

I looked at Irene, speechless.

“Irene, did you drug me or something? Or am I sick enough to be hallucinating?”

“…Don’t worry, Oppa, I can see it too.”

That was the moment my last remaining hypothesis was negated. Feeling my thoughts become tangled, I clutched my head.

Then, suddenly, a thought came to mind.

“Hold on, don’t tell me you dragged us here?”

He effortlessly opened a portal to another world back then. So it wouldn’t be that hard for him to bring us here too.

“I’m sorry, but it’s the exact opposite. I’m here to send you back to your original world.”

But he shook his head. He walked toward the black chalkboard Irene had brought out.

“First, let me explain a few things so you can understand the situation.”

He drew a circle on the board and wrote the word ‘Original’ inside.

“This is your original world, the basis for everything, the only one that should’ve existed. Well, it was, at least until your girlfriend messed things up.”

Then he drew another circle next to it and wrote ‘Copy’ inside.

“Because your girlfriend, Parsley, tried to time travel, this place, the copied world, came into existence. Don’t ask me how it works, I don’t really get it either. But, anyway, this copied world…”

“Is the same as the original, until there’s an intervention.”

The man grinned at my words.

“You’re quick to understand.”

“So you’re saying that because Parsley and I went to that copied world and changed the past, this world, the copy, is now different from the original?”

The man’s expression became ambiguous.

“It’s similar, but different. Actually, the one where things flowed according to fate was this copied world. The one where a ‘certain intervention’ occurred was actually was from yo…”

“I told you I’d kill you if you said anything unnecessary.”

Irene suddenly cut him off, her voice sharp.

The man looked at her meaningfully, then shrugged his shoulders.

“Well, you can find that out yourself later.”

“…”

“But, well, you’re right, context-wise. The ‘intervention’ created a gap between this copied world and your world, the original. And the reason for that gap is…”

“My life and death?”

A wide grin spread across his face.

“Bingo.”

Then he drew a skull in one of the circles and a smiley face in the other.

“Unlike your original world where you survived, in this copy, you died. And that changed everything.”

…I understood what he was getting at.

Because of Parsley’s magic, World B, a world identical to our World A, was created.

And because of a certain intervention, I survived in World A, but I died in World B.

And that tiny difference was what made Rose become the Captain, and then the Emperor.

But, still, a question remained.

“So, how did I, and Irene who was originally in the ‘original world’, get to this ‘copied world’? Traveling between worlds isn’t an easy feat.”

In other words, just how did we end up here?

The man stroked his chin for a moment at my question, then casually said,

“The first thing you need to know is that ‘they’ used Alain’s pocket watch to bring you here. Irene, she’s just extra baggage.”

“They?”

“Yes, those who couldn’t accept your death.”

Those words coldly stabbed at my heart. The man narrowed his eyes and continued,

“You’re starting to guess, aren’t you?”

“Hold on, you’re not saying…”

Unsettling thoughts filled my mind,

and his words hit me hard.

“That’s right, your women are the ones who brought you here.”

“Rosalia, Amy, Clara, and Parsley. Those foolish women who couldn’t accept your death.”