Chapter 29: Lies

In conclusion, I declined Layla’s offer.

There was no special reason.

I already felt overly involved.

It was enough.

No, it was more than enough.

It was my past self who wanted that kind of attention.

My past self who struggled to somehow shed the image of a loser.

“…… One year.”

It was not what I wanted now, acting as if something had been cut off after receiving a terminal diagnosis.

-You reject every offer I make.

-I’m sorry, Princess.

-No, you don’t need to apologize. I didn’t expect you to accept it in the first place.

Layla didn’t believe I would really accept it in the first place.

This was also really amazing.

It must have only been a short time since we started talking properly.

How on earth did she understand me so well?

It was so amazing that I wanted to ask her directly if I had the chance.

“……When?”

However, I wondered if that opportunity would really come to me.

I just wondered if that opportunity would come within the next year.

One year.

If I didn’t come within that time, the person who would accept me would disappear forever.

Of course, I could have been involved to some extent in this.

Just like I had just now.

If I had stayed close to the original character, Layla, that opportunity would have come sooner.

I knew this fact well.

Even though I knew this well, I declined Layla’s offer.

Because it was important.

Because my set goal was more important than simple curiosity.

Because that goal, which was already full of contradictions.

Because that goal of living comfortably and dying when I had to, was more important.

There were many things to argue against this judgment.

As I said just now, my goal itself was already full of contradictions.

There were more than one or two things that were bothersome.

From the moment I had that goal until now, I had committed too many actions that could not be explained by common sense.

I coldly rejected Aria Trice.

I had an unnecessary fight with Edgar Tristan.

I even intervened in the incident with Ellis that happened in the original.

Even the last action was in progress.

Until the midterms were over, it was a present-continuous action that would continue.

“……Incidents that didn’t have to happen.”

The common denominator of these incidents was that they were all incidents caused by ‘actions that didn’t have to happen.’

It was common sense.

There was no reason for me to create those incidents.

Aria’s case could have been resolved by just blurting it out and sending her away.

The problem that Philip and Edgar had been arguing about was something that could have been ignored as always.

Lastly, Ellis’s case.

If I had just watched, the incident that was briefly mentioned in the original would have happened and passed.

It was definitely something that could have passed quietly.

It was something that I could have passed without anything happening to me.

At least that’s what I thought now.

“……What’s the reason?”

It was just that I didn’t think that way at the time of each incident.

It was because I couldn’t think calmly.

I had regretted it by myself during the club time earlier.

Tiring-

[Sender: Ellis Akstra]

Do you want to see it for a moment?

[This is the other person’s last message.]

“…”

It was only now, after regular classes and the Academy’s work hours, that I received such a message.

***

A quiet cafe inside the Academy that I had visited before.

The cafe that Ellis had visited with me last time was the place Ellis had called me.

“You’re early.”

“… “

“To be honest, I thought you’d be a little later.”

I opened the door to the cafe and quietly went in, and Ellis was already sitting inside.

“……What is all this.”

“This? It’s nothing special, just a collection of documents.”

She was sitting at a table with all sorts of complicated-looking documents spread out on it.

She said that she sometimes used it as an office.

It seemed like she hadn’t lied.

“You thought what I said here back then was a lie?”

“…… Of course. How can you believe that I use a public place like this as an office?”

“Hmm, really? It seems you still don’t trust me.

At least I don’t think I’ve ever lied to you.”

It wasn’t a lie.

Privately.

“It’s not like I don’t create situations where I have to lie?”

“…”

It’s just that Ellis intentionally avoided situations where she had to lie to me.

It was natural from the beginning.

Our relationship had only gotten a little closer recently, but our relationship was nothing more or less than a business relationship.

I held Ellis’s secret hostage.

Ellis passed on information to me in order to keep that secret.

Strictly speaking, we were worse off than others.

Our relationship with Ellis could be considered a relationship where one side blackmailed the other.

Ellis smiled bitterly as if she knew I would say this.

“That’s right, I’ve never told you my story first.”

“….”

“If it weren’t for the situation where I had to tell my story, I wouldn’t have to lie.

You’re right, right?”

Ellis smiled slightly, but bitterly.

I stared at Ellis like that and brought up something I’d been curious about.

“So, why did you call me?”

“Are you trying to get to the point already?”

“I don’t think you would have called me for no reason in the first place.”

“……If you’re that curious. Here.”

As soon as she finished that sentence, Ellis handed me a document.

“……This.”

“Yes, it’s a document that I’ve organized in my own way the reasons why you’ve changed.”

The exact moment I was possessed.

In other words, the document that organized all my actions from the time I first contacted Ellis up until now.

I got goosebumps.

Even though I clearly knew that the woman in front of me was this kind of person, I got goosebumps.

Maybe this was natural.

If you were being investigated without your knowledge, it would be natural to get goosebumps.

As if she had read my expression, Ellis continued to speak calmly as if she was wondering why I was acting so embarrassed now.

“Why are you looking so flustered? You knew that too.”

“…”

“I don’t understand why someone who knows me better than anyone else is so flustered.”

“……Knowing something and actually experiencing it are different.”

“You’re not wrong.

I didn’t even know you were this kind of person until you caught my weakness.”

Ellis nodded as if she was right.

“Well, anyway. The reason I’m showing you this is simple.”

“…”

“During class earlier. Why did you do that during the afternoon class earlier?”

“The thing about meddling between you and Erica Perleino?”

“Yes. That thing. No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t come to a conclusion.

Why did you suddenly interfere there?”

And how did you know that I would take out the dagger I had hidden if you hadn’t stopped me?

Blood-red eyes.

The creepy red eyes that were characteristic of Ellis Akstra were staring straight at me.

A truly terrifying gaze.

If a person lacking courage had encountered it, their mouth would have frozen in fear.

“Well, why did you interfere?”

“…”

“I don’t know either. Why did I interfere between you and that woman?”

Fortunately, since I had already threatened Ellis directly, it was a gaze that I was quite familiar with.

Ellis slightly relaxed her eyes that had been glaring at me and opened her mouth as if she was dumbfounded.

“Are you trying to tease me even in this situation?”

“No, seriously. I don’t know why I did that either.”

“What did you say?”

“I think you said that earlier. You’ve never lied to me even once.”

“…”

“But that goes for me too. I’ve never lied to you either.”

“……Huh?”

Ellis looked at me with an expression that said she couldn’t believe it.

But, unfortunately, even the words I was saying right now weren’t mixed with lies.

“I really don’t know either. Why I got involved in that.”

“….”

“I could have just stayed still. Why did I bother to get involved?”

“……If you don’t know that, then who would?”

“That’s right.”

It was an inevitable question.

In this world, everything revolves around cause and effect.

If there is a result, there must be a cause.

“Wouldn’t someone know?”

“…”

“Someone I don’t know right now might know why I did that.”

“What kind of nonsense is that?”

“I don’t know, either. I just think of it as the nonsense of a person who doesn’t know the inside.”

At least I’d feel better if I thought of it that way.

Just like how you dismissed the story you heard on your way back from the hospital that day as nonsense.

I didn’t say the last sentence out loud.

I could have said it if I had to, but I didn’t really want to say it.

Even this reason was hard to explain.

Even this excuse wasn’t a lie.

I just didn’t explain it.

Just like Ellis didn’t tell me the past I knew about.

I just quietly muttered in my head, staring at the woman who was still staring at me dumbly.