The Gold-Eye Tribe and the Gold-Eye Tribe (3)
The Gold-Eye Tribe and the Gold-Eye Tribe (3)
Before me stood a girl with white hair and golden eyes.
She wore a startled expression. Her mouth was slightly open, and her gaze wandered over my body without focusing on any one spot.
I was no different. It was truly baffling. Eye level, facial features, even body type. Except for the completely opposite hair color, a girl who looked exactly like me was right in front of my face.
It was symmetrical, like a mirror placed between the open pages of a book. We stared at each other, our mouths falling open at precisely the same moment.
Who was she.
Why did she look exactly like me.
Why was she here, and what had she been doing with Rote.
Countless questions surfaced in my mind. But my mouth wouldn't move as I intended. The first word I thought of when I saw her burst out on its own.
"...Kasha?"
Akasha, my twin younger sister.
I dredged the word from the middle of my muddled memories. It was unfamiliar, yet strangely endearing.
It was strange. I didn't have a younger sister. The only one back on Earth was an older sister.
Then this girl was Aether's younger sister, not mine. Unfortunate for her, but she was effectively unrelated to the current me.
"Sis?"
The girl called me her sister and strode toward me. It was a distance of only a few feet. She closed the gap in an instant and spread her arms wide.
I had no time to follow my train of thought. Just like a fish caught in a trap, I was pulled into a head-on hug.
"Sis! I never thought I'd meet you here like this!"
She reacted as if reuniting with long-lost family.
I'd had a hunch at first sight, but her voice was exactly like Aether's. Goosebumps prickled down my arms at that fact. Whether she knew it or not, the girl buried her head and kept talking.
"You know who I am, right? I'm your twin sister, Akasha. We were always two halves of one whole. We promised to stay together until death—how could you suddenly run away from home... Anyway, your memories are back, right? Yeah? Aren't they?"
Running away from home, memories coming back. It was full of words I couldn't understand.
If I'd just asked Vermel whether Aether had siblings, I wouldn't have been so flustered then.
"Sis, let's go back to our house soon. You can't go anywhere else now. Got it?"
Squeeze—
The girl hugged me tighter. The pressure on my chest felt like my diaphragm was being pushed right up into my ribcage. It wasn't a strength a person should be capable of.
My breath caught slightly. As my lungs were compressed, I grimaced and stared past the white-haired girl's shoulder. Rote was watching me with a dark expression. I didn't know why, but she looked displeased.
Squeeze—
"Guh, gahack...! Hey...!"
"Ah, sorry! I hugged you too hard, didn't I?"
Only then did the girl slowly release her arms.
I expelled the air trapped in my lungs and steadied my breathing. Once I could breathe somewhat normally, I immediately organized my thoughts.
First, this girl Akasha was definitely my sister. But I didn't know who she was. The only thing I remembered was her name, and even that must've been information the body's original owner had.
I also got some information about the original Aether from this girl. It seemed the real Aether had lost her memories, and I had taken her place. That part was still ambiguous, so I let it slide.
Lastly, this girl's appearance. I had no idea why she was suddenly staying at the Saliere Mansion, but now I understood why the mansion's inhabitants were flustered when they saw me return. The talk about dyeing my hair must have come from this, too.
Having quickly grasped the situation, I swept my gaze around the study. I saw no one besides Rote. She was glaring at me with a far more complicated expression than before. It was a look I'd never seen on her.
[.......]
Even the Hardcover Book, which usually tossed out a remark at times like this, kept its mouth shut, apparently recognizing the gravity of the situation. That left only this girl and me to converse. That fact was deeply uncomfortable.
"Sis? Why aren't you saying anything?"
Akasha took my hand and asked. She seemed to be under the mistaken impression that her Aether's memories had returned.
Unfortunately, I didn't know her. I needed to make that clear.
"I'm sorry, but I don't know who you are."
"...What?"
"I remember your name is Akasha. But other than that, nothing comes to mind."
The girl's bright smile crumpled in an instant.
"Th-that's a lie, right?"
"It's the truth."
I shook my head slightly, driving the final nail into Akasha's trembling question. It was a devastating blow to a family reunion after so long, but it was the truth. Above all, I wasn't the Aether she remembered.
"It's, it's okay. Remembering my name is a great start. You can recall the rest later."
A positive way of thinking. If she'd thrown a fit right then and there about me not remembering her, it would have gotten messy.
"Anyway, I'm your sister. You understand that much, right? So, shall we go home now?"
Anticipation crept into her now-lilting voice.
"Home?"
"Yes, the house we live in. You've had it so hard here. Don't live in a place like this. Let's live with our own kind, the Gold-Eye Tribe together. Okay?"
A place where the Gold-Eye Tribe gathered. I knew of two such places.
One was near the Demon Continent, in the southern and western Elankaya Mountains.
The other was the southeastern part of Kaurelia, the elven country.
It was obvious which one Akasha meant. It had to be near here. Considering its geography, I could guess how harsh the gathering place for the Gold-Eye Tribe would be.
Vermel hadn't told me anything, but it was probably... a place like that, and worse. I decided to put her off.
"I'm sorry, but I can't do that either."
"Why?"
"The new term starts soon."
"The new term?"
Akasha let out a short laugh. A reaction of disbelief. Her response was so dismissive that it made me incredulous in turn.
"You mean attending the academy?"
She took a step back, crossed her arms, and asked. Her tone was a little curt.
"What's the point of you being at a human academy? You already know the ins and outs of most Magic Arts. Just drop out."
I'd heard this repertoire somewhere before. It was a lot like what Prince Clion said when he tried to buy me.
Chairman Robespierre had given me a hint that a demon was hiding in the imperial family. If the Second Prince's attitude wasn't simply his nature, then his attempt to make me drop out was purely the doing of a demon.
"Huh."
So that was it. That was how it was.
The first thing I'd have to do when I got back was interrogate that elf who didn't tell me properly. My lips curled up slightly.
"Drop out? No."
"Why?"
When there's no real reason to give, you change the subject. That meant it was time to break out the old "More importantly."
"More importantly, it was you who took the Tokamak from the warehouse, wasn't it."
"...Huh?"
At the sudden shift in topic, Akasha's pupils began to waver subtly. I'd hit the mark.
The deduction itself hadn't been difficult. Rote or Lorwell would have had no reason to meddle with my things, and the same went for the servants working in the mansion. Why would anyone steal a heavy Tokamak whose purpose wasn't even obvious?
Assuming no other outsiders came while I was gone, she was the culprit. She looked just like me and acted just like me, so she must have reacted the same way upon seeing the Tokamak.
— Whoa, jackpot!
That was definitely what she would have thought as she took it. Aside from my being a physicist, it seemed the original Aether had the ability to design a Tokamak, too.
"Th-the Tokamak, you said?"
"I used the abbreviation, but you know what it is."
"Of course. You're the one who told me to call it that. I was there with you, so how could I forget?"
Akasha's eyes, momentarily flustered, regained their shrewd gleam. It looked like she was up to something. She glanced furtively toward Rote and continued.
"Ah, I remember now. You kept vowing and vowing to make a device that could confine a magnetic field. Then, when you were stuck and agonizing over it, where do you think you got the inspiration?"
"What...."
"Elves, I'm talking about. When you went to visit a friend there, you found out by chance that an elf was making a magic device similar to what you were working on, and you secretly tailed him. You were... a bit of a pervert back then, sis."
Shit? The original owner of this body stalked people for research? This girl was seriously crazy.
No, that couldn't be it. A liar's tone is different from their usual one. There was no logical basis, but I sensed intuitively that Akasha was mixing in lies.
"Anyway, I didn't expect you to be still researching the Tokamak even after losing your memory."
This one, on closer inspection, even used the same rhetorical tricks I do. She'd hijacked the phrase "anyway" to smoothly steer the conversation in a direction favorable to her. At this rate, I'd lose control of the dialogue.
I kept a poker face and demanded what was mine.
"Enough of that. If you took the Tokamak, give it back."
No sooner had I finished speaking than Akasha backed away several steps. Her golden eyes slid over Rote's face. Rote, who still hadn't gotten a word in edgewise, just kept letting out shallow sighs.
Akasha was now several meters away from me. Quite a distance compared to the start. The study had only this one door, so I didn't know why she was creating distance.
Just as I was thinking that and about to take a step forward.
"Hmm, give the Tokamak back?"
Akasha twisted the corner of her mouth slightly.
"What if I don't want to?"
And then she smashed the window and fled.