You Will Die Soon
"Me?!"
"...What am I supposed to do with you. Once I start complaining, there's no end to it."
"Perfect timing, then. Whining is one thing I've always had more confidence in than anyone. So how about this. Whenever things get hard, we dump every last bit of what's weighing on us. Okay?"
A clear tear slipped from the corner of Charlotte's smiling eye.
In my entire life, the only people who had ever cried for me were my parents. And somehow, in this other world, I had found one more.
It was a strange feeling. Embarrassing, and aching, and melancholy, and warm all at once.
But one thing was certain—it wasn't a bad feeling.
After losing my parents, I had deliberately kept my distance from other people. I couldn't stand the thought of someone else getting hurt because of me. I wanted to erase my existence from everyone else's lives.
But this time... even I...
"...Okay."
I wanted to try being brave.
Not pulling away for fear of wounding someone, but drawing closer so I could be someone else's strength.
I wanted to change.
"How should I put this... I feel like this whole ordeal has brought me a lot closer to you, Lady Charlotte. Before, there was always a bit of a businesslike distance between us, but now... it really feels like we've become friends."
"What? I never thought of it that way. Businesslike, you say?"
"......If I say I was joking right now, will you let me off the hook?"
Charlotte glared at me through tear-bright eyes, then shook her head and smiled.
"Normally I'd drop you straight out of the sky for that... but I'm in a good mood today, so I'll let it slide."
"Haha. Looks like I'll have to keep a bottle of liquor in my inventory every time I come see you from now on."
"That might actually be the right answer. But you know..."
Charlotte popped a snack into her mouth and narrowed her eyes.
"That 'Lady' thing. Doesn't it feel a little distant? Honestly, we're a little too close now to keep acting like strangers..."
"You mean we've gotten close?"
"Yeah. That's what I was trying to say. Thanks for saying it for me."
"Then shall we settle on some new forms of address? Something simple, like calling each other by the usual polite titles?"
"Hmm... that wouldn't be bad, but somehow..."
Charlotte sipped her beer, still turning it over in her mind.
"...Or we just use names?"
"Just names, meaning..."
"I call you Shion, and you call me Charlotte."
"That's not half ba—"
"No, no. I've got something better."
In that instant, Charlotte's eyes lit up.
"How old were you before you got possessed?"
Why was she suddenly asking about my real age?
"Twenty-three."
"Is that so? Heh heh heh... so that's how it is."
Charlotte let out an unnerving little laugh.
"Then from now on, when it's just the two of us, call me Noona."
"Excuse me?"
What kind of nonsense was that out of nowhere.
"Forgive me for asking, Lady Charlotte, but may I inquire as to your age in the real world?"
"I-it's not like you need to say 'age' so formally. I'm twenty-four. I haven't even graduated college yet. Anyway. You're a year younger than me, so calling me Noona is only right, isn't it?"
"Is that... how it works?"
"That's how it works."
Charlotte bulldozed right over me. And the worst part was, she wasn't exactly wrong, so I couldn't think of a decent comeback.
Noona. A word I had never once spoken in my entire life.
Somehow, even just trying to form it, my whole body seemed to reject the idea on instinct.
"Th-then how about this! We play rock-paper-scissors, and if you win, I'll obediently call you whatever honorific you want."
"Deal. You promised, okay?"
Charlotte's eyes locked into focus mode.
If this had been a real fight, I could have peeked into the future and known what she'd throw. But right now, I didn't even need Future Sight.
Because I've got a four-leaf clover.
I was going to win this dirty and ugly, borrowing the power of an artifact.
"...What? Why are you smiling like that? It's creeping me out. I told you to smile more, sure, but not like that."
"Heh heh. It's simply that I'm enjoying this time with you, Lady Charlotte."
"Wh-what are you even saying, you idiot. Whatever. Starting now. Rock, paper..."
Poor Charlotte. No matter how hard you struggle, you can't beat me in a contest of luck.
"Scissors!"
"Scissors!"
Charlotte and I thrust out our hands at the same time.
And the result was—
Charlotte: rock. Me: scissors.
"Yesss~! I won~!"
"......?"
I... lost?
I checked my wrist. The bracelet etched with four-leaf clovers was still sitting right where it belonged.
Apparently heaven had abandoned me.
No—this wasn't mere abandonment. This was carefully stuffing me into a trash can and slamming the lid shut.
Seriously, why me.
"Go on. Say it. Charlotte Noona."
Charlotte looked at me like she was about to die laughing.
"...Charlotte Hyung?"
"You wanna die?"
"Charlotte Noo......"
"Noona."
"Nunim. Let's go with Nunim. I really can't concede any further than that."
"Tch. If you're a man, just say it properly."
"Haha. I sold off my masculinity a long time ago, I'm afraid."
"Hmph..."
Charlotte fixed me with a long, sulky stare.
"Fine, whatever. Making you call me Noona over one round of rock-paper-scissors was greedy of me. So from now on, when it's just us, you call me Charlotte Nunim. Got it?"
"Understood. Although, in that case... Lady Charlotte would—"
"Charlotte Nunim."
Charlotte's cheeks flushed scarlet as she flashed a smug little grin.
Oh boy. She was drunk.
"Ah, I almost forgot. Charlotte Nunim, how do you plan on addressing me?"
"Hmm... Don't people usually just use names? Calling you 'little brother Shion' would be weird."
"That's true."
"I'll just call you Shion. You call me Charlotte Nunim."
"That seems a little unfair..."
"Hehe. Should've won if you didn't like it~"
Charlotte poured more beer into her empty glass and beamed.
"Ah, today's been such a good day. I made a good friend~ and that friend even became my little brother. Getting a little brother in another world too—feels nice."
"Hm? Lady Char—I mean, Nunim, you already had a younger sibling?"
"Yeah. Not a blood relative, but there was a kid in the neighborhood a year younger than me. He was just like you—couldn't breathe without tossing out some light joke. Cute little guy..."
Charlotte gazed into the empty air, as if sifting through old memories.
But before long, I could see that expression slowly drowning in sorrow.
"He had an incurable disease. Twenty years old at the outside. I prayed so hard for a miracle, but... yeah. No such thing."
"........"
"What an idiot he was. Always going on about how even if he didn't outlive anyone else, he'd at least outlive me. And you know what he said the last time we saw each other? He asked me to live his share for him too. That stupid bastard."
Charlotte's voice trembled, and the rims of her eyes began to redden again.
"When I pointed a gun at you and told you I wanted to believe you—do you know why?"
"...Why?"
But she wiped the gathering tears on her sleeve, forced a smile, and kept going.
"It's weird, but you looked just like that idiot. So maybe, without even realizing it, I wanted to believe in you."
I had played Grand Fantasia more times than I could count, but this was the first I'd ever learned about Charlotte's past.
So she had been carrying a grief no lighter than my own.
"Haha. Then I'll take up your little brother's will myself. No matter what happens, I'll do my best to outlive you, Charlotte Nunim."
I tossed out the joke with a light laugh, trying to lift the heavy mood.
But Charlotte's reaction was anything but ordinary.
".......I wish that were true."
Pearl-like tears began to spill from her eyes, one after another.
I was about to apologize, thinking I'd made a terrible mistake by touching on her family—when she spoke again.
"Shion."
"Y-yes?"
"Why do you think I called you out here like this today?"
"Hmm. Hard to say. Maybe Charlotte Nunim was feeling particularly lonely today. Beyond that, I really couldn't guess."
".....Of course you wouldn't know."
Charlotte guzzled her beer and gave a full-body shudder.
No matter how I looked at her, she was not in a normal state.
"Charlotte Nunim, if you're tired, perhaps you should head back to Luin Academy..."
"No...! Don't—don't stop me."
But the voice that followed was so wretched that I had no choice but to fall silent mid-sentence.
"I don't think I could say this sober. So right now—right now is perfect."
Clear tears streamed down Charlotte's face as she pressed on.
"The reason I dragged you out here today is...... to tell you one fact you don't know."
She clenched her teeth and grabbed fistfuls of her own hair.
"It's such a horrible truth that I agonized over whether to hide it or not...! But even so, it just didn't feel right for the person involved to be left in the dark."
"...And what fact is that?"
At last, she looked at me with bloodshot eyes and spoke.
"You. You're going to die soon."
".....What?"
Me?