78 Liar

Seeing the sudden shift in Gray, there was only one thought in my mind.

Eh? I could've sworn he normally called her Mom, not Mama.

While I was thinking of useless things, his mother panicked slightly.

"W-What are you talking about? I've never lied to you!"

There was a shortsword on the ground, which belonged to Gray's mother. He picked it up and pointed it at her.

"A long time ago I believed everything you said, Mama. But does Mama remember what she said when I asked where Daddy was?"

She furrowed her brows. It seemed she didn't remember.

"I... I told you where he went."

Gray responded softly.

"Mama said he went away to find a new job."

His mother hurriedly nodded after hearing that.

"Yeah, exactly?"

Gray tilted his head to the side ever so slightly.

"Then why did I see Daddy dead?"

Silence fell. His mother's expression warped greatly.

"I... I didn't know about that. It looks like he wasn't able to secure work."

"Mama."

Gray's eyes widened ever so slightly.

"I know Mama killed him."

"What? Impossible! I... I..."

Oh, dear.

Before she could find an excuse, Gray continued.

"But that's not the biggest secret I know."

Everyone froze up and looked at Gray, frozen in place. There was something worse than that?

Gray pointed the shortsword dangerously close to her face.

"Mama's eyes. Mama is looking at me the same way she looked at Daddy before killing him. If I let Mama go, she will find a way to kill me."

Wow. He could even tell that sort of thing?

Now that I took a closer look, the way she was looking at her son had become rather hateful. It seemed she was unable to even hide it anymore.

"That's... not true."

Gray began to speak with melancholy.

"I know there was a time when Mama tried her best to help us. I know Daddy was bad and used the money badly. I know Mama just wanted us to survive together."

A smile formed on his face, but it looked sad.

"But Mama is already gone."

Huh?

"Isn't she right there though?"

Gray shook his head.

"Mama disappeared when she met with her many dangerous friends."

He pulled the shortsword away.

"I don't want to die. But Mom wants me to die. So... I have to..."

While trying to catch up with his thought process, Gray suddenly swung the shortsword with all his strength, disappearing into a blur. His mother yelped and raised her hand to block it, but-

Brutal cracking resounded through the air.

Both a hand and a head flew up into the sky before landing on the ground with a splat, coating the ground with blood. I blinked a few times, reevaluating what my eyes had seen.

This lanky kid that looked like he wasn't too far from starving just used a shortsword to cut through both his mother's wrist and neck. Setting aside how wrong the situation felt, even I wasn't too confident that I could do something like that with that much ease.

But while all those thoughts rushed through my head, my eyes ended up landing on Gray, who in turn was looking at the corpse of his mother. He dropped the sword and began to sniffle.

Soon enough, he frowned deeply as tears began falling from his face. He wiped them away with his dirty hands, but whatever was wiped was quickly replaced with more tears.

...If it's that hard for you to kill your mother, then why did you do it?

I let out a long sigh and patted his head.

"I don't understand your choice, but you're going to have to deal with the consequences. What are you going to do now?"

Gray spoke between sniffles.

"I don't know."

He already began calming down somewhat.

"I just didn't want to die. But I don't know how to live."

Huh. Did this guy suddenly age several years to become an edgy teen?

Well, I guess he did literally kill his mother with his own hands. And there's also the fact he saw his dead father when he was younger.

Ok, maybe it's fair enough then.

"...Maybe you can take your time to find out with these people. If they allow it, of course."

I turned to Jess, and she shot me a complex look back. Her eyes were asking me if I was serious, to which I nodded. She sucked in a cold breath before crossing her arms.

"I suppose it could be arranged. But we won't be able to take in every kid that ends up without a home."

Gray wiped away the last of his tears before looking at me with a smile.

"If that's what good person says, then I'll do it."

In the end, the servants and everyone else started to pack up. I almost joined in out of instinct but remembered I looked a little different right now. Although both Gray and Jess definitely knew who I actually was, it was probably better for fewer people to know.

Gray hopped in the back of the carriage, warranting some curious looks, but nobody directly objected to it. As for me, I simply left and decided to walk home. It was incredibly tempting to just teleport back, but I already resolved that the feature would only be used for emergencies.

...But damn. How bad would it be just to use it one time?

No, no. No. I can't.

Fuck. This is going to take a while.

Jess called out to me as I left, asking me if I wished to join in on the ride, but it would be a little hard to explain once we did end up reaching the manor, so I decided against it. When they headed off, I did so too.

Then, I suddenly thought of an alternate solution.

I could just hop off halfway and make my way back then.

My gaze shifted to the carriage, but it was already just a dot in the distance.

Fuck.

Fucking hell.

...

When I eventually made it back, it was fairly deep in the night. I decided to just run, pretending I was the protagonist of the game. While I didn't work that hard on maintaining my physique recently, it was still pretty damn good.

Bryson probably exercised every day. But I guess that was normal considering how power-hungry he was.

I should find some time to do that, assuming that nothing happens.

Naturally, I took my mask, pedant, and cloak off before returning and bundled it up hoping that it wouldn't look too suspicious. The moment I walked in, I found that Jess was waiting for me.

She had her arms crossed and was glaring at me when I set foot inside. It seemed that I was in trouble.

"I don't know what you've been doing, and while I feel greatly unsettled by that, I will not ask about it. I've decided to trust you, and accept that if you haven't told me, then there is a reason for it. But... please don't keep me in the dark forever."

A small smile formed on my face.

I guess I was exaggerating things a little bit. She isn't that much of a bro-con.

"Haha, don't worry. Soon enough, whether I want to or not, you will understand... basically everything."

After all, you were one of the pivotal allies in that shitty ass game. Only time will tell when your role becomes indispensable. Besides, Nathan is probably super desperate to even just get more time to look at you.

Jess smiled softly.

"Alright, let's go then."

I blinked a few times.

"You don't mean... bathing together again, right?"

Jess looked back at me with a confused expression.

"Huh? What else would it be?"

Hm. Maybe her being a bro-con wasn't actually an exaggeration.

...

Another painful session resumed, but I ended up falling asleep faster since I was quite tired from running.

To be honest, I had fully expected the book to interrupt my dreams once more and ask a bunch of pointless questions. However, he never did end up appearing. It left me waking up in that awkward situation where Jess was holding onto me like before.

Did other brothers and sisters do this kind of thing?

Hm. I never had any siblings, so maybe I was actually the one being weird about this.

Gray ended up joining us and took a room with one of the servants. He greeted me excitedly with the uniform of a butler, but it clearly didn't fit him. His hands weren't visible because of the overly long sleeves, while his pants were rolled up several times over just so that they wouldn't touch the floor.

He was enthusiastic about helping about, but from the look of the butlers, he was more a detriment than anything else.

With that, another whole school day went on. Jeff tried to catch me at a point where Jess wasn't around to ask me for tips about how to get with her by waiting past the doors on Class A. Unfortunately for him, Jess had sniffed it out and scolded him before any meaningful conversation could happen.

He was probably going to try again.

Nathan asked to come to my place later to discuss our plan to head to the north, and I agreed. Classes passed by fast, though lunchtime was a little bit strange.

"Could I sit here?"

With a blank expression and a flat tone, Ela walked up to our table and requested to sit with us. Even though she asked, it felt as though she was actually forced into this. However, this was kind of just her personality.

I say kind of because she does change quite a bit as the story progresses.

The five of us, Nathan, Arianne, Raisa, Charlotte, and I all looked at each other. We were trying to see if any of us actually knew this girl personally, but it was quickly becoming apparent that we didn't.

Ela caught onto our confusion and bit the bottom of her lip.

"Nevermind, forget I asked."

I covered my mouth with my fist and coughed a few times.

"Well, there's no particular problem with you sitting here. Though, it may be hard to talk with one another since we don't know you too well. Maybe you could introduce yourself?"

Ela gave me a long stare, which felt like it was filled with malice even though it probably wasn't. Out of nowhere, she suddenly stood up straight and put one hand over her heart.

"My name is Ela, of the Glyn family. The rank of my father is an Earl, my current age is eighteen and my height is one hundred and sixty-one centimeters. My eye color is light blue. My birthday is on..."

I... who even introduces themselves like that? Is this a text-to-speech of her driver's license?

Now that I think about it, Ela never really did have any basic social skills.