A turbulent day had passed, and dawn arrived.
“Haaahm.”
With my back to the still-dim window, I scratched my disheveled head, climbed down from the bed, and muttered softly.
“…Asking me to believe in her… It’s been years since I’ve heard words like that.”
Yesterday, Isil had clearly asked me to trust her and said that she would probably need time to prepare.
She had said it was something that wouldn’t be resolved in just a day or two.
So until then, I should just enjoy a normal academy student life—
Knock, knock.
“—Jin, are you there?”
“…Isil?”
While organizing my thoughts and changing, Isil’s voice rang out from beyond the door along with the sound of knocking.
Hearing her, I quickly finished putting on my clothes, walked briskly to the door, and opened it.
Click.
Sure enough, Isil in her uniform was looking up at me.
“What brings you here so early?”
“…There’s something I want to talk about for a moment. May I come in?”
“Uh… sure.”
When I stepped aside to make way, Isil naturally passed by me and entered my room.
“…The room layouts are all the same?”
“Huh? Of course they’re the same? It’s the same building.”
“…I see.”
At my puzzled expression, Isil simply nodded once, then sat at the desk beside the bed and turned back to me.
“…First, thank you for believing what I said yesterday, Jin.”
“Ah, well, when I listened to you, you seemed like an expert in this sort of thing. I didn’t have any particular reason to object, so I just thought about it rationally. It’s nothing to be thanked for.”
“…Aren’t you curious why I know so much about ghosts? It doesn’t seem like such dead beings were common where you lived.”
“Ah.”
Indeed, just as Isil said, there had been no tales of ghosts appearing or the dead rising in the Prah Territory where I had lived.
Rather, there were overwhelmingly more stories about seeing fairies in the forest, or encountering an incredibly beautiful woman while walking down the road whose ears were long and pointed like a fairy’s.
Above all, my father would talk endlessly every year about the fairy he had met.
“But why did you suddenly come to ask about that?”
“…Because we’re neighbors. I was curious about your thoughts.”
Isil gently touched her chest as if the words she had uttered prickled, then looked up at me.
“When we first met, you called me your neighbor… So I came because I was curious about my neighbor’s thoughts.”
“Hmm, I see.”
Even as she said that, Isil’s eyes wandered about, lost for somewhere to land.
Her reaction looked so much like a child honestly confessing her mistake to a teacher that I smiled slightly.
‘She’s cute.’
“Pfft, you came to see me first thing, so why so nervous? We’re neighbors, so feel free to ask.”
“…Really?”
“Yeah, and it’s probably not just me—Hwaryeong would be the same. She has a bold personality to match her looks.”
“…Yeah.”
After confirming that her tension had eased slightly, I opened my mouth again.
“So… you asked if I’m curious about why you know so much about ghosts?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m curious… I guess. But you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
“…”
Watching Isil quietly bow her head at my answer, I thought.
And I looked down at her, organizing my thoughts.
Just how many years apart were this child and I?
I was not someone with past memories layered over the persona of Jin Prah, but a reincarnator living a second life.
So if I added my age from my previous life to my current one, I was well over thirty. I couldn’t truly treat this child as if she were my equal, could I?
If I were really her age, I would probably hurt this tender-hearted child with thoughtless words.
Fifteen was an age not yet mature enough to truly consider others.
“Isil, everyone has secrets they want to hide. It doesn’t matter whether the secret is shocking or not.”
“…Yeah.”
“And no matter how close you are, having someone ask or pry into your secret without your permission is an extremely unpleasant experience.”
Recalling my school days from my previous life, I furrowed my brow slightly and continued.
Just how cruel can the innocence of children become?
I was one of those who had experienced that truth firsthand.
There were so many empty-headed people incapable of considering others’ positions.
“People always try to consume others for the sake of interesting stories. They band together with those at their level and commit vulgar acts without hesitation, shamelessly so. No matter how young they are, such things are unforgivable to the victim.”
“…Jin?”
“Ah, I got a bit worked up, ahem! Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, I’ve had someone dig into my secret without my consent too. And I know very well how filthy that felt.”
“Yeah.”
“So I’ll wait until you want to tell me. I want to keep a long friendship with you. And if you really don’t want to, you don’t have to say anything until graduation.”
“…”
I waved my hand lightly at Isil, telling her not to worry too much since I would wait until she wanted to talk, then sat on the edge of the bed and looked at her.
Had my sincerity gotten through to Isil?
She looked at me quietly, and the tension that had faintly trembled her shoulders until just now had clearly disappeared.
Pink irises contrasting with her silver hair met my retinas.
It was in that moment that I thought this was the first time I had made eye contact with her.
Come to think of it, had Isil ever looked straight at me with such calm, unwavering eyes?
“Jin.”
“Yeah.”
“I actually came from the Black Forest.”
“I see.”
“…So you’re flustered too—huh?”
I nodded calmly at the flustered Isil.
“So you came from the Black Forest? No wonder. From what I’ve heard, undead roam around there. It must have been tough.”
“…What do undead—no, more importantly… aren’t you surprised?”
“No, not really?”
I shrugged and spoke to Isil, who seemed more flustered than I was despite being the one to bring it up.
“You could have come from the Black Forest. Why is that surprising?”
“…Do you not know what it means to come from the Black Forest?”
“No, I mean, the local specialty there is witches, so aren’t you saying you’re related to a witch?”
“…Local specialty?”
“Yeah. Why do you think the Empire hasn’t been able to push further north? Because the Black Forest blocks the way, right? I remember reading in some newspaper that undead come down at regular intervals, making it the optimal place to gain real combat experience…”
Hadn’t it said that about thirty percent of the gunpowder circulated in the Empire was consumed in the Black Forest?
I recalled some famous person saying that while it was an economic loss, there was no training ground like it for improving the army’s capabilities.
Most undead that poured out of the Black Forest were little more than moving corpses, so one or two shots caused their bodies to burst and be immediately neutralized, or so I had heard.
Of course, they said there were beings called disasters deep in the Black Forest, but well, the Imperial army guarding it would handle that.
Artillery was the god of the battlefield. Since cannons already existed, couldn’t most things be handled with bombardment?
“…I’m surprised. I even thought you would despise me or avoid me…”
“Hey, why would I avoid you? You haven’t done anything wrong.”
“…I haven’t done anything wrong?”
“Of course. What wrong have you done?”
I spoke calmly to Isil, whose face had gone blank, as if I were stating the obvious.
“Being discriminated against simply because you came from the Black Forest is prejudice. That’s not rational.”
“…Prejudice.”
“Yeah. So don’t worry too much. I don’t know about others, but at least I won’t avoid you just because you came from the Black Forest.”
“…Hic.”
“U-uh oh.”
Had my words acted as some kind of trigger?
Tears began to stream from Isil’s eyes, which had been staring at me blankly.
“Why, why are you crying all of a sudden?”
“…”
At the sight of Isil beginning to cry silently, I put on a flustered expression and quickly went to her.
“There, there, don’t cry. I don’t know how my words sounded to you, but if I made a mistake—”
“…No one.”
“Huh?”
“No one has ever said such things to me before.”
Squeeze.
She reached out and hugged me as I approached.
And she whispered softly into my ear in a sobbing voice.
“…Thank you, Jin.”
At her gratitude, I simply patted her head and thought.
I’m glad her pent-up emotions are spilling out, but this posture is killing my back.
Can’t she let go soon?