250 City Tour [2]

"Fuck, I'm bored."

Kiera sat outside the residence with her knees squatted as she took a puff of her licorice stick.

"Tastes like shit."

Despite the amount of time that had passed, she still wasn't used to the flavor of the licorice stick.

If anything, she hated it more.

But,

"Ukh."

It was better than smoking so she had no choice but to keep doing so.

"Why do I even do this to myself?"

In the end, she had pretty much already forgotten the reason why she had stopped smoking. It was just a bad habit in general, but it did help her out a lot with stress.

Like a lot

"Ugh, whatever."

Out of habit, she flicked the stick away even though she wasn't supposed to do that.

"Ah."

Looking at it, her lips twitched.

'I definitely could've made it last longer.'

They were expensive and stuff.

"Whatever."

The location of the residence wasn't quite far from the city center, and after thinking about it, she decided to head towards it. She needed some fresh air, especially after everything that happened to her over the past couple of days.

As she walked, she looked at her surroundings.

Bremmer, being the capital of the Empire was quite a bit different compared to the other cities. It was brimming with vitality, with people flocking every area she walked by as shops lined up the cobblestone streets with vendors shouting with loud voices throughout.

"....It's been a while since I've been here."

Probably been at least five years since she had last been in Bremmer.

It wasn't that she didn't want to go, but everything in the city was ridiculously expensive. A loaf of bread could go for 10 Rend in the capital which was daylight robbery.

Kiera had some money, but she wasn't stupid enough to get scammed by this.

"Hm?"

Suddenly, Kiera stopped and looked in the distance where she spotted a familiar figure.

Or at least, what she thought was familiar.

Wearing a brown coat and top hat, she was trying her best to hide her identity, but the flock of purple hair that would slip from time to time was clearly noticeable to Kiera.

But that wasn't what truly caught her by surprise.

What caught her by surprise was the way she carried herself. Looking around, she would nudge the end of her coat closer to her face in an attempt to hide her face.

But that only made her more conspicious.

"The fuck...?"

Kiera looked at the scene in confusion.

What in the world was she doing?

Kiera was about to approach her when she noticed Evelyn stop by a food stall where she bought some food before retrieving a notepad where she jotted down a few things on it after taking a bite.

She would then throw the food away before going to the next stall and repeating the process.

"What fucking waste."

The more Kiera looked, the more irritated she felt.

It was to the point where she found herself grasping Evelyn by the shoulder.

"Oy, you."

"....Uh?!"

Evelyn flinched at her touch.

"Why are you wasting so much food?"

"What are you talking about? Who are you?"

The tone in which she spoke was quite deep, but it only made Kiera looked at her even more wierdely.

"You've completely lost it."

"Uh... Ukh, ah."

Evelyn's face distorted as she made all sorts of faces. Eventually, she sighed and took off her hat.

"....I was just tasting food."

"I know that."

That much was obvious to Kiera.

"But why did you have to hide your face like that?"

"....Just because."

Evelyn answered, stealthily putting her notebook down.

This didn't escape Kiera's sight as her eyes narrowed, but she thought better of it and pretended to ignore it.

"Alright, fine."

She was just about to leave when all of a sudden a loud voice echoed in the distance.

To all those present, have any one of you experienced fear before? Do you know what it's like to faint from fear?

The contents were enough to attract Kiera's attention as she turned her head.

A crowd gathered before the speaker as a small projection appeared on his left side. Within the projection, one could see a single person walking in the dark.

If you don't know, then you can come to our haunted house! If you manage to get through it without so much as flinching, we will guarantee you a wonderful surprise!

"Oh?"

Kiera's eyes flicked open at the sight.

Her interest piqued.

'Wonderful surprise?'

She didn't hesitate to move in the direction of where the event was happening.

"Are you going?"

Evelyn asked from behind. Kiera glanced at her with an expression that seemed to say, 'Isn't it obvious?' before heading forward and joining the crowd.

Evelyn stared at her back for a brief moment before biting her lips.

"Fine."

She too headed forward.

"....I've eaten enough."

***

".This should be good."

Delilah licked her fingers as she downed the last piece of cake that was in her plate. From time to time, her eyes would flicker towards the sweet section. I could tell that she wanted more.

'Does she not get fat at all?'

It was surprising to see her so fit when she ate so much.

Or was it that she only ate sweets?

Tap

Tapping her finger lightly over the wooden table, the noise surrounding us ceased.

"Hm?"

I looked around.

It was quite an impressive skill if I had to say. It was dead silent around us. Almost as if we were the only two people present, and yet, I could still see everyone conversing around me. It made me envy her for a short minute.

<nulli>'Maybe one day.'

".I've already heard what happened from the other students."

Delilah spoke all of a sudden.

"I would like to hear it from your side now. What happened?"

She spoke in a serious tone.

Her whole atmosphere changed, and I could see that the current Delilah was not the Delilah I was used to, but the Chancellor's version of her.

Brushing her long and silky black hair behind her earlobe, she quietly asked,

"There was also an item that I gave you in case something wrong happened. Why didn't you use it?"

"About that"

I scratched the back of my head. Delilah had in fact given me a small talisman before heading out of the Academy.

Knowing how bad my luck was she had given me the talisman.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to use it.

"I lost my memories."

".You lost your memories?"

Was it just me or was it getting increasingly easier to read Delilah's expressions?

Despite the fact that she sat in front of me with an expressionless look, for some reason, it felt like I knew exactly how she was feeling.

Currently, she was looking at me in doubt.

She didn't seem to fully believe my words. I didn't blame her. It was certainly a weird excuse. Especially since I was fine now.

"Yes, I lost my memories. I don't know how."

It was still something that I was trying to rack my brains about. How was it possible that I had lost all my memories?

Why did it happen?

It wasn't something that I had purposely done to protect myself like in the past.

This was an entirely new and foreign sensation to me, and I had an inkling that it had something to do with the blood that I had been injected with.

<nulli>'Maybe I'm overthinking'

But the more I thought about it, the more likely I found this idea to be possible.

"...."

Delilah sat in silence for a brief moment before raising her head to look at me.

"If you lost your memories then a few things make sense."

Thankfully, Delilah seemed to buy my story. I knew that she couldn't detect lies, but her gaze made it seem as though she could see right through me.

It was a sensation that was hard to describe. But it certainly didn't feel good.

"Okay."

Delilah placed her hand on the table, sliding over a black ring in my direction.

"You can have it back."

".."

I stared at the ring in silence. Its former distinctive yellow frame, filled with intricate patterns and designs, was long gone. In its place was a black, polished finish, making it look like a cheap trinket one might find at a street stall.

I took the ring and looked at it before raising my head to look at Delilah.

"It's black."

".It is."

Delilah nodded with a serious expression.

Glancing at it, I almost thought she was jealous of the way it looked.

'Why does it seem like she likes it even more than before?'

Now that I realized it, she really liked the color black.

Was this the reason she had it colored black?

"Well, it works."

I slid the ring over my finger and looked at it. Unlike before, it no longer seemed conspicuous, and actually looked like a regular ring.

This was something Delilah had done in order to make it a lot harder for people to tell the identity of the ring.

Probably why she took it.

"Be careful with the ring."

Delilah suddenly said while I was absorbed by the new appearance of the ring. Meeting her gaze, I could see the serious look in her expression.

".I took some time to test the ring, and from what I was able to see, there are a few limitations to it."

"As in?"

"The stronger the person the longer it takes for them to fall for the brainwashing ability."

"And you know this because.....?"

"I tried it."

"."

The way she answered so nonchalantly made me lose all my words.

Seriously?

"There's a lot of people that are imprisoned within the Megrail Estate. I went there to try it."

"Oh."

Well, that made sense. Since they were imprisoned they were probably not good people so there was no need to feel guilty.

But there was something that was bothering me about the piece of information.

"Weren't you on bad terms with the Megrail family? How did you manage to convince them to let you do that?"

"."

Delilah didn't answer and rubbed her finger over the leftover crumbs of her cake.

Her silence spoke a thousand words and I just silently accepted it.

<nulli>'Right, I guess this must be the privilege of being strong.'

<nulli>She could go whenever she wanted without anyone complaining. In the Megrail case, they probably just let her be since they didn't want any trouble with her.

"Okay, this should be everything."

Delilah glanced to her left briefly.

Then, tapping onto the table, the noise returned. She then proceeded to stand up. I was just about to do the same as well when she stopped me.

".....You should stay."

"Hm?"

I looked at her in confusion.

Just as I was about to ask her what she meant by that, she nudged the window with her chin. That was when I finally turned my head and noticed it.

".....!"

Staring at me from the corner of the street was a familiar gray-eyed figure.

Holding onto an ice cream, he stared at me from the opposite end. His face was like that of a rock. As if he had seen the most unbelievable thing ever.

I felt my face harden at the sight.

Splat!

I didn't hear the sound, but I could imagine it as the ice cream fell from the cone and splattered all over the ground, staining his shoes.

Nonetheless, Leon's expression remained the same.

With bloodshot eyes, he slowly brought the cone close to his mouth and took a lick of it.

The most worrisome part was the fact that he didn't even notice the ice cream missing as he went on to lick the air.

"...."

"...."

For how long had he been standing there for?

***

Another chapter today.