Staying the Night?

Soft, even breathing.

On a fluffy little bed, a girl lay fast asleep.

"……."

Beside her sat two other girls in complete silence, watching her.

The air in the room was so thick with awkwardness it was hard to breathe.

Both of them pretended otherwise, but their eyes kept drifting back to the same place.

To one thin wrist of the girl still tossing with fever.

It was a slender wrist that her school blouse usually kept hidden from view.

Tania reached out with a faintly trembling hand and brushed her fingertips over the cuts that marked it.

A flinch!

Even though the wounds had browned with time, the pain must still have been there—the sleeping girl's body gave a hard, full-body shudder.

In that instant, Tania and Adele's eyes flicked to Elysia's face.

Worried, no doubt, that the touch had woken her.

Adele gave a small gesture once she'd finished straightening the room. One of the guild members waiting outside stepped in and bowed her head slightly.

Still seated, Adele leaned in and whispered something into the guild member's ear. The woman nodded and slipped back out.

"…What was that about?"

"I just asked her to bring some medicine and bandages."

"……."

There wasn't much to say to that, so Tania shut her mouth and looked back down at the ruined wrist.

It hadn't been one or two cuts. The wrist was covered in more wounds than anyone could count.

She must have drawn the blade again and again before the earlier ones had even finished healing—the skin was a wreck.

The dense lattice of scars had turned brown enough that, from a distance, you might have mistaken it for a brown wristband.

"…I'm going to the bathroom for a second."

Tania said something she didn't really need to announce, and stood.

Adele gave a small nod of acknowledgment.

Even after getting up, Tania looked down at Elysia a moment longer before she moved.

Click.

When she opened the bathroom door, the first thing that met ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her was a mirror—utterly at odds with everything else in the house.

Not a single scratch. Not a speck of grime.

Even a brand-new mirror would have a hard time looking this pristine.

By contrast, the sink and toilet were so old and filthy she didn't even want to touch them.

"So this is where Ellie's been living all this time."

There was no one to hear her, but Tania murmured it anyway.

None of this was her fault—Elysia living in a place like this had nothing to do with her—and yet guilt sat heavy in her chest.

Was it because she hadn't known her friend was living so hard?

Or because she hadn't noticed that someone so ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠precious to her had been hurting herself in secret?

For the first time in her life, Tania felt her chest go tight with a pain she didn't know how to name.

She looked into the spotless mirror and saw her own face looking back.

The expression on it was one she'd never worn before. The strangeness of it made her deliberately scowl, forcing her features into something else.

Ellie must have stood here and stared at her own reflection for ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hours on end.

Tania knew it. Adele knew it.

Anyone who knew Elysia even a little knew how much she loved looking in mirrors.

She almost always carried a compact, and sometimes she'd get so lost gazing into it that she forgot anyone else was even there.

Once, Tania had asked her why she liked looking at herself so much.

They hadn't been close yet, and Tania's tone had been careless, almost needling—so she'd expected Elysia to get angry.

Instead, Elysia had just beamed and said:

Because I'm pretty.

At first it had only been funny.

To say something like that about yourself, so openly, so shamelessly.

What was even funnier was that looking at that bright, smiling face, Tania had found herself thinking, without meaning to—yeah. She really is pretty.

Raised among the mafia, surrounded by nothing but human garbage, Tania had never met anyone like Elysia. She was a species Tania simply could not understand.

And then Elysia had gone and called her pretty, too.

Of course Tania knew her own face was on the attractive side. Her father had told her she was pretty more than a few times. But that was it.

No one her own age had ever said it to her before.

Everyone who faced her—everyone except her father—had always been shaking with fear.

From that day on, Tania revised her opinion of Elysia.

Not some incomprehensible type of person. Just a complete lunatic.

But by the time she came to her senses, she was already drowning in that girl's kindness.

If she stopped moving her arms and legs for even a moment, that unconditional, bottomless affection would pull her under and she'd drown in it.

Violence and death. Loyalty and betrayal.

It was the first warmth that had ever entered Tania's blood-soaked life, and maybe that was why she couldn't fight it.

She reached toward her reflection in the mirror—then stopped just short of touching the glass.

"…She'd hate it if I got it dirty."

Tania lowered her hand, looked at the mirror a little longer, and left the bathroom.

The guild member she'd sent out must have already returned. Adele was carefully, tenderly disinfecting Elysia's wrist with the gentlest hands.

"……."

Tania watched for a moment, then went and sat down beside her without a word.

Adele glanced at her and, trying to lighten the mood a little, tossed out a joke.

"Did you take a dump?"

"I did not."

"You don't have to be embarrassed about it."

"Are you trying to pick a fight right now?"

Tania wasn't so dense that she missed why Adele had said it, so she played along instead of shutting her down.

But even while they talked, both of their eyes stayed fixed on the unconscious Elysia.

The disinfectant must have stung—she kept giving little flinches and twitches.

When she finished cleaning the wounds, Adele set the used gauze aside, took out the ointment, and began spreading it over the cuts.

"Nngh……."

A small sound slipped from Elysia's lips, but Adele couldn't exactly stop halfway through applying the medicine, so she kept going.

"Pass me that bandage."

Adele pointed at the fresh roll sitting next to Tania.

"Here."

Tania picked it up without thinking and handed it over—then scowled hard when she realized she'd just done exactly as she was told.

Adele paid her irritation zero attention. She unwound a length of the fresh bandage Tania had given her and began wrapping Elysia's wrist with careful hands.

When she was nearly done, the guild member beside them, reading the room perfectly, held out a pair of scissors.

Adele murmured a quiet thanks, took them, and snipped the bandage at just the right length before securing it.

Then she looked at Elysia's face for a moment and said,

"We should wake her up."

"…Why?"

"She needs to take cold medicine."

Still sitting on the floor, Adele leaned in a little, took ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hold of Elysia's fever-hot shoulder, and gave it a gentle shake.

"Elysia."

"……."

"Elysia."

"…Nnngh?"

"Wake up for just a second."

"Okay……."

Elysia caught Adele's hand and forced her upper body upright with visible effort.

Adele placed a single pill in the palm of the girl who still couldn't quite open her eyes, and the guild member handed over a fresh water bottle.

Watching the guild member, Tania muttered,

"She's good…."

"Of course she is. These people have been trained since they were kids."

Adele gave a small snort of a laugh. With one hand she braced Elysia's back so she wouldn't tip over, and with the other she uncapped the bottle and held it out.

"Take it, Elysia."

"Okay……."

Elysia gave a weak little nod, tossed the pill from her palm into her mouth, then took the bottle in both hands and drank.

The whole time, Tania and Adele's eyes were fixed on the bob of her throat as she swallowed.

When she lowered her head after finishing the water, both of them whipped their faces away and pretended they hadn't been staring.

"You can go back to sleep now."

"Okay…."

Using the arm she'd been supporting her with, Adele eased her back down. Elysia slipped obediently under the covers.

And within a few seconds, the soft, even sound of her breathing filled the room again.

"She sure sleeps well."

Adele pulled the blanket up over the snoring Elysia and murmured it under her breath.

That was when Tania, who had been watching in silence, finally spoke.