Chapter 98: The Horrifying Liar (3)

[98] 15. The Horrifying Liar (3)

The city silently sank beyond the hills.

First, the city walls, and then the watchtowers, and lastly, the statue of me was swallowed. The sunset spread over the hill that had buried the city.

In other words, quite some time had passed since ‘we’ had left the city.

“…”

“…”

“…”

But the inside of the carriage was filled with silence.

This was all thanks to Amy, who, despite saying she wanted to ‘have a chat’, had been silent this entire time.

She simply stared down at her bronze hands, her lips pressed tightly together, unmoving. Her motionless figure resembled a statue.

With the one who had suggested the conversation in the first place acting like this, there was no way anyone else could speak up.

Irene and I had no choice but to remain silent as well. We were desperately trying to read Amy’s intentions.

But silence requires more patience than you think, and Irene’s patience was thinner than I’d thought.

“How did you find us?”

Amy’s eyes slowly turned to Irene. They were dull, sorrowful eyes, completely different from the ones I remembered.

“I didn’t find you, I simply waited at the gates.”

“Waited at the gate?”

“If you were planning on sneaking out in disguise, I could just catch you at the gate. And if you were planning to use a short-distance teleportation, I could just chase after you on horseback.”

Amy said in a gloomy voice, describing a rather simple and crude method.

“And if there had been a secret passage out of the city… Well, that’s just my incompetence, I suppose, so there’s nothing I can do about it.”

“…How did you know it was Rem, even though he was in disguise?”

“Do I look like such an idiot that I wouldn’t be able to recognize the face of the man I love?”

Irene wore an expression as if she had been slapped. The one who had said those words, on the other hand, was as indifferent as ever.

“Haa…”

Irene sighed, and her gaze turned to me. A gaze that seemed to be asking, *Now what?*

But I had nothing to offer, only silence.

The moment Amy entered the carriage,

my mind had become tangled into a mess.

I knew she wasn’t the Amy of my world. I could tell just by looking at her.

Amy wouldn’t have such gloomy eyes, nor would she speak in such a dejected voice. She never wore an expression as if calluses had formed on her heart.

She wasn’t *my* Amy,

but at the same time, she *was* Amy.

That sorrowful face were still Amy’s,

That empty eyes were still Amy’s.

So… I couldn’t help but be drawn to her.

The words I wanted to say, the things I wanted to ask, they all threatened to burst out. And in situations like this, I knew from experience that it was better to keep my mouth shut.

I stayed quiet, and Irene, with a sad look on her face, did the same.

It seemed like the silence that had filled the carriage would continue.

“Before this all began, Parsley said.”

My gaze naturally turns to Amy. Amy continued speaking while caressing her bronze hand.

“That this was our only chance. That this was the one and only way to erase our mistakes and regrets.”

Her tone was flat, but I could sense the emotions swirling beneath those words, sticky emotions that wouldn’t come off easily.

“Clara, the Emperor, and I, we all believed her. We couldn’t help but believe. We were all out of our minds.”

It was the first time her face had twisted with emotion. A dry, scraping sound came from her bronze hand.

And then, Amy looked at me.

Her blue eyes, filled with starlight, turned towards me. It almost seemed as if they were welling up with tears.

It was like a dying plant coming back to life.

“…And now that I’ve seen you, I understand.”

However, at the end, a bitter smile appeared on her face.

“That it was all a lie.”

Her eyes became clouded once again. Even that bitter smile was erased, swept away by indifference.

“I know that Rem is dead. I saw his corpse with my own eyes. And I know that you’re not him, resurrected. You merely came from a different world.”

Amy, who had completely returned to her initial gloomy appearance, declared.

“As long as I know this fact, you can never be *my* Rem.”

I think it was during an ethics class back then. I remember being asked this question:

*Let’s say you had a dog that you loved very much. But one day, that dog dies in an unfortunate accident.

Thankfully, biotechnology is extremely advanced in this world, and they can create an exact replica of your dead dog. A replica that is identical in appearance and even memories.

Would you consider this replica to be the same as your dead dog?*

I wonder what my answer were back then. To be honest, I don’t remember. And I don’t think it even matters.

What mattered now was that Amy had given a definitive answer to that question.

“I’ll help you return to your original world. No, please let me help you.”

Amy lowered her gaze to her bronze hand once again.

“I’m sick and tired of it all now.”

It was a depressing voice, as if pronouncing her own death sentence.

***

It was now evening, too late to drive the carriage any further. Irene took me a little distance away from the carriage.

After casting a Silence spell around us, she looked at me worriedly and asked,

“Are you okay?”

“What do you mean?”

Irene silently turned around and looked at Amy sitting by the campfire. She looked deeply exhausted as she stared silently at the flames.

“…I’m fine.”

I barely managed to shake my head, but I couldn’t bring myself to smile.

*Broken.* That was the word that came to mind when I saw her. She didn’t even seem to have the will to live anymore. It wouldn’t be strange if she were to throw herself into the bonfire right now.

She truly looked as if she had given up and is utterly exhausted by everything.

*Did my death drive Amy to be like this?*

… *And could this also happen to the Amy of my world?*

“Oppa.”

A gentle touch caressed my cheek, and then Irene’s face filled my vision. With a rare serious expression, she said.

“I know you’re wavering. Oppa, I’ve figured out that you’re soft-hearted. But you can’t forget this.”

For a moment, sadness seemed to cloud her eyes.

“You have people waiting for you, Oppa. People who love you, people who care about you very, very much. Don’t forget that.”

Those words sunk into my heart, taking root.

“Don’t worry. I’m not that stupid.”

I carefully pulled Irene’s hand away from my face and then, to hide my embarrassment, I said grumpily,

“Besides, girls shouldn’t go around grabbing a guy’s cheeks like that. Guys get the wrong idea from even small things like that.”

“…You really think you’re in a position to say that, Oppa, with four women chasing after you?”

…I had no words to counter that, I closed my mouth. Irene chuckled and finally brought up the main point.

“So, what do you think? Do you trust her?”

“Trust who?”

“Amy. About her helping us get back.”

I glanced at Amy, who was still unmoving.

Then I replied.

“No, not at all.”

A smile spread across Irene’s lips. I continued with a confident smile.

“She started with a lie from the beginning.”

“Oh? What lie?”

“That Amy loves me.”

The smile vanished from Irene’s face. No, it wasn’t just that it vanished, it began to rot away.

Irene rubbed her temples and shook her head.

“Oppa, this isn’t the time for jokes.”

“Uh… This isn’t a joke.”

Irene narrowed her eyes.

“Didn’t you say that you and Parsley weren’t in that kind of relationship, either?”

“That’s because I thought I had broken up with her. My memories had been tampered with.”

“Ah-ha. That’s very convincing.”

Sarcasm dripped from Irene’s lips. Overwhelmed by a surge of frustration, I unconsciously raised my voice.

“I’m telling you, it’s not like that with Amy.”

“And you want me to believe that?”

“It was my one-sided crush. I even got rejected.”

It seemed that those words had come as a shock to her. She pointed at me with a look of disbelief.

“You? Rejected? Really?”

“…What kind of person am I in your head? I’ve been through heartbreak too, you know. Besides, I was only seven back then.”

A seven-year-old’s love is nothing more than playing house. Of course, the aftermath was not small at all…

“Anyway, even if *I* felt that way, Amy didn’t. At least not romantically. As family, maybe.”

Crossing my arms, I asserted. But despite that, Irene still looked suspicious.

“Okay, fine, let’s just say that’s the case for now.”

“That’s not ‘the case for now’, that’s the truth.”

“Anyway! You also don’t think Amy’s telling the truth, right?”

Irene asked, smoothly ignoring my denial. I nodded, suppressing the rising frustration.

“Well, honestly, it is a bit too sudden.”

“I think so too.”

Irene furrowed her brow with a serious expression.

“And the timing is too convenient, isn’t it? Just when we need help the most, she appears like ‘ta-da!’ and says she’ll help us.”

Indeed, it was a rather contrived situation. Even more so considering the fact that she was the one who was in charge of the search until yesterday.

“But it’s also difficult to refuse her help.”

Irene nodded at my words. Biting her nails, she continued,

“We can’t deny that we need help. And someone like Amy would no doubt be a big help…”

Irene’s words trailed off, as if her thoughts were tangled. Then suddenly, she looked up at me with hesitant eyes.

“Oppa, by any…”

But then she clamped her mouth shut.

Confused, I asked back,

“By any what?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

…There are two things in this world that anger me the most. One is when people don’t finish their sentences, and the other is… Ah, forget it.

Frankly, I couldn’t come up with a good solution either. I couldn’t trust her, but our situation wasn’t good enough for us to refuse her help.

Moreover, it was questionable whether Amy would accept our refusal. Amy had always been a girl who got what she wanted.

“A moment.”

A gloomy voice pierces through the gap in our thoughts.

I turned around startled to face Amy who had been standing behind us at some point. Irene was in the same situation as me, stammering as she exclaimed.

“A-Amy? S-Since when were…”

“I have a question.”

Amy’s dull eyes turn to Irene.

“Where are you planning to go now? I’m sure you didn’t leave the city without a plan.”

Those words, because they were so indifferent, struck our weak point even more sharply. Irene opened her mouth with an awkward smile.

“W-Well… we haven’t really decided yet, there are some disagreements…”

Amy didn’t show any disappointment or annoyance at her words. She simply stroked her bronze hand and then said.

“Then, would you mind if I made a suggestion?”

A suggestion?

I looked at her with questioning eyes, and Amy continued in a flat tone.

“The Great Divide. How about heading to where that monster is?”

***

In the deepest part of the Great Divide.…

…There is a room where light and heat do not reach, where everything is frozen.

A place that had once been used to store the corpses of fallen warriors.

However, what occupies that place now is a single delicate silhouette.

*Knock. Knock.*

An empty, hollow knocking sound echoed through the darkness. The silhouette slowly rises and speaks softly.

“Who is it?”

An eerie voice that sounded as if it were scraping against the wind.

Then came a trembling man’s voice from beyond the door.

“Great Chieftain, it’s Gareth. A carrier pigeon has come for you… Ah, it was from a woman named Irene…”

“Let it in.”

Eventually, a sheet of paper pokes out from under the stone door.

“Th-Then, I’ll take my leave…!”

And then, the sound of someone running away fades, and soon can no longer be heard. Only then did the silhouette begin to move.

But the sound of it moving wasn’t that of a human’s.

Instead of the sound of legs taking steps, there was a scraping sound of something hard dragging across the stone floor. Instead of the rustling of clothes, the creaking of joints fills the space.

It was as if a broken doll were moving, or perhaps a grotesque monster.

At the end of these ominous sounds, the silhouette finally reaches the letter. It picked up the letter with sharp nails and slowly began to read.

*Drip. Drip.*

When did tears start to flow down its cheeks?

It was only after seeing round, wet marks on the letter that the silhouette realized it was crying.

“Rem… Rem…”

The silhouette hugged the letter to its chest. And then it began to sob ominously.

A sob that resembled more that of a ghost’s than a human’s.