Chapter 37
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 37: The Unfinished Story (3)
"Do you perhaps have business with me?"
As I asked like that, she stopped in that spot like a person whose feet were stuck to the floor.
The noise of the banquet hall receded, and only the sound of our breathing rang faintly in the corridor.
"Ah... um...."
She repeatedly stopped trying to say something, and blue pupils boasting deep color even in faint lighting shook minutely.
It was definitely a face and reaction of coming to find me.
Otherwise there was no reason to follow to such a secluded place, and no reason to be so flustered at the question asking if she had business.
Yet unable to say anything, she stands blankly.
Like a person who committed a sin.
I naturally looked at her carefully.
Reddish hair flowed down long behind her back.
Hair with fine-textured lines was drawing beautiful curves like low crashing waves.
Every time lighting touched obliquely, red texture shone deeply like pomegranate.
Blue pupils were clear and deep color.
Not simple blue, but transparent light like a frozen lake under winter sky.
Long eyelashes grown over it couldn't hide subtle trembling.
Slender but solid-looking neckline, carefully clenched fingertips, lips struggling to hide embarrassment.
Somehow.
Strangely.
...Looks somewhat familiar.
The more carefully I picked apart, it didn't seem like a face seen for the first time.
Vague familiarity, and even that flustered reaction felt familiar.
Just, clue of memory where I saw it isn't caught.
"Perhaps... are we acquaintances?"
Asked carefully.
From the woman opening and closing hands, unable to control shaking pupils, nothing like threat was felt.
Impure intention wasn't felt either.
Just, wondering why her reaction became strangely dull and stiff, I just looked somewhat warily.
"......!"
The woman's pupils dilate again.
Looking into it in more detail, blurry lines began to wriggle somewhere in the head.
Those pupils seemingly terrified of something are familiar.
Scattered afterimages pass by quickly.
Girl walking the neat corridor of the Academy.
Girl with red hair braided long in twin tails.
Girl drawing alchemy schematics bowing her head in the laboratory.
Girl continuously looking around as if anxious somewhere.
Girl terrified containing displeasure and discomfort in blue pupils.
Memory of Edom Rivan.
Not my memory, but afterimages I merely inherited.
"D, don't tell me......."
Something scattered in the corner of memory like residue begins to be reassembled.
Meanwhile clinging to success and survival, pieces considered unnecessary were worn out quickly.
Figures, incidents, emotions of past days too. Like a crushed painting.
But now, blurry lines begin to connect as one.
Crushed painting slowly catches outline with clear lines and continues coloring.
Fluttering red hair.
Blue eyes mixed with disillusionment.
Heart, suddenly beats greatly.
Thump.
One more time.
Something not recalled even once in 3 years began to become clearer.
"—!"
Breath trying to leak out naturally was clogged tight.
Face become clear before knowing.
Fragments of memory having matched the puzzle before knowing.
Mouth trying to contain the name of that subject stops.
Because she bowed her head first.
"S, sorry."
It was a short and urgent voice.
Voice of a person who swallowed trying to say something more.
Then turning her steps, she began to retrace the path she came.
Like that she ran down the corridor almost as if escaping and disappeared.
I stood blankly in that spot.
Heart was still beating fast.
In the memory of Edom Rivan, the most intense figure.
Original heroine, Vivienne.
Looking at the red silhouette disappearing to the end of the corridor, I muttered low.
"H, how...?"
Original heroine came to this distant land?
How on earth encountered again in this vast land, this banquet hall?
I escaped without a sliver of lingering regret to get out of the original work, but why was she hovering around me?
At the sudden reunion, inside head begins to tangle complexly.
It was a reunion not even imagined in dreams, and since it was a reunion not knowing it would be faced in this way at least, it's just baffling.
By now, shouldn't she be spending sweet time with the original male lead, erasing things like Edom Rivan from memory...?
Don't tell me...
'Original male lead isn't here too, right?'
The moment questions following confusion saying that bit their tails.
"You were here. I looked for a long time...!"
Erwin's voice cut that tail.
Only then did clogged breath exhale thinly.
Thinking circuit that was tangling and twisting stops its coil for a moment.
"Ah... no."
As if nothing happened, I had to head to the center of the banquet hall again led by Erwin's hand.
For some reason, her expression seeming extremely anxious glimmered in eyes.
In the afterimage of memory Edom Rivan possessed.
...It was that expression.
**
"Do you perhaps have business with me?"
At the low and calm voice heard from behind, Vivienne's heart sank with a thud.
His voice heard for the first time.
Nevertheless, unlike appearance and atmosphere that changed form, voice of 3 years ago whose essence didn't change at least.
That voice calling her name persistently chasing behind her every other day was heard.
Breath clogged as if stuck in throat.
Until just now, there wasn't even awareness that she was following him at the end of the corridor.
Just, didn't want to miss his silhouette seen beyond red wine-colored lighting inside the crowded banquet hall.
Since it was time made with difficulty, and she wished this resolution to be the last.
However.
Coming to senses, it was a secluded corridor.
And he appeared right in front as if waiting.
Distance of merely a few steps.
His pupils faced again were aiming exactly at her.
Although a face close to expressionless, 'wariness' was clearly contained in it.
And the moment facing that gaze, for some reason heart crashed with a thump.
Only then did she realize.
The fact that she was 'chasing' him.
Resolution deciding to make time with difficulty, resolution to even dress up for a social gathering not much interested in, and resolution to scratch out uncomfortable itchiness through today's banquet.
Resolution to derive a definite conclusion not to allocate time nor nerves anymore to this vague familiarity caused excessive observation.
As that thought brushed her head, her face became pale.
Iden's gaze becomes a little sharper.
Maintaining distance mixed with wariness, posture placing center of gravity to pull out anytime turning body, that appearance was too familiar.
It wasn't felt by concluding him as Edom Rivan.
Just current situation, Edom Rivan of that day was projected in her own state so it is like that.
Edom Rivan.
When he first started following her, it was exactly the same as the attitude she took.
Keeping distance, fixing gaze, posture ready to avoid anytime.
And now that gaze, she is receiving it.
Breath became short momentarily.
I... what was I doing right now?
Just tried to do 'confirmation' through observation.
Thought it would be the end if only getting certainty that he is a person with really no relation, but from the moment 'recognizing' the name hovering around ears, something became strange.
Desire to resolve anxiety if perhaps he is Edom, and the obsession of that day might repeat, strongly led her.
Whether pretending not to know even seeing her, 'coincidence' encountered in this vast land wasn't one of the 'intended' plans.
From the moment recognizing the name Iden Summonfield, moves unable to understand even herself started.
Resolution trying to focus on alchemy research resolving anxiety and discomfort through confirmation led to distorted steps.
And the end of it is now.
Stood in front of him in a secluded corridor.
Vivienne's fingertips trembled minutely.
Gripped dress hem tightly then released.
Had to speak.
Even some excuse. Even reason, but mouth didn't open.
"Perhaps... are we acquaintances?"
"!!"
Vivienne's pupils dilated greatly.
That simple question asking if acquaintances was heavy enough to be hard to endure, and due to that question, Vivienne's head became a blank sheet of paper.
He felt it too.
Vague familiarity like herself.
It was a moment doubt transformed into certainty, but question was still there.
No, rather amplified.
Why he threw the question asking if acquaintances, even though appearance during Academy days and now didn't change much, why he couldn't recognize her.
Shouldn't be possible.
Shouldn't be possible he couldn't recognize her.
Even if the face of the woman he obsessed over terribly was crushed, he would recognize it.
Doubt became certainty, but question only changed form into another question.
Head dizzy and stomach nauseous.
"...S, sorry."
First, Vivienne, deciding to escape this confusion and chaos and organize the current situation, bowed her head.
Then as if running away, turned her steps.
Shoe heels rang the corridor floor quickly.
Heart beat loudly every step.
Felt like he was saying something from behind, but didn't look back.
Like she did in past days.
Vivienne, escaping the corridor turning the corner like that, stopped leaning on the wall.
And retraced his pure face asking if acquaintances.
Did he forget memory about her due to some incident.
Or did he completely erase his ugly past in the short time of 3 years.
Although Edom's unique gloominess wasn't in the question asking if acquaintances, he was clearly Edom Rivan.
Even without bothering to check the straight scar under the ear, intuition was pointing that it was him.
Informing there was a reason for vague familiarity.
No.
His voice heard twice was clearly the same as his 3 years ago.
That voice still remaining clearly in brain, clearly.
Edom Rivan who cut the link of obsession overnight and disappeared suddenly.
Vivienne reuniting again in this distant land with him who disappeared without a rumor leaving only rampant speculation.
With worry if perhaps she touched a useless beehive, if the string of broken ill-fated relationship might be tied again, she couldn't take a step for a while.
And.
Vivienne, who got the hypothesis with error rate less than 0.1 percent that Iden wouldn't be Edom Rivan wrong, began to calculate the probability of encountering the man who disappeared 3 years ago at one point of this distant and vast land.
Putting coincidence at the priority of the formula, adding inevitability stepped herself.
'.......'
0.00002%.
Nonsensical thing was happening.