"Lia…"
"…"
Emil stared at Lia, who was behind Bran, with an incredulous expression.
She didn't answer Emil's words, her head bowed low.
"No way…? Lia, this bastard is lying, aren't you?"
"…"
"You can at least agree on that, Lia… I believe you."
"…"
"Lia… Lia! Answer me! Just say no!"
Due to his agitation, blood gushed from his severed finger.
But more than that.
Watching Lia's silence was even more agonizing.
'Emil…'
The translucent Lia looked at Emil agonizingly.
Having witnessed everything, she knew his trust was about to be betrayed.
That's why she only wanted one thing.
That her dream-self, even if it were a lie.
Would deny it, if only for this moment.
But.
"Hoo… heh."
"Lia…"
To make such a judgment, her heart had already left Emil too long ago.
"I'm sorry, Emil…"
"Lia! What in the world are you saying…!"
Lia lifted her bowed head and looked at Emil, whose arms were tied to the table.
His fingers on one hand were all severed.
Even seeing that.
Lia smiled faintly.
"Emil, do you love me?"
"What…?"
"Do you love me? Huh? What do you say? Emil."
Her eyes, eroded by darkness, trembled subtly.
She was clearly smiling, but she exuded a subtle aura mixed with anxiety and despair.
She looked at Emil with empty eyes, as if she had given up everything.
And Emil, questioned by such a Lia.
"Of course I do…"
Gritting his teeth.
He cried out to Lia, as if pleading.
"If I didn't love you, why would I be doing this!"
*Thud!*
When Emil slammed his uninjured hand on the table, the pooled blood trembled.
"Because I love you! Even if all my fingers on both hands were severed! I wanted to save you! But! But…!"
Tears welled up in Emil's eyes.
They were tears of injustice.
Soon, clear, transparent tears dripped onto the blood pooled on the table.
"But… how could you do this, Lia…"
"…"
"Let me ask you in return, Lia…"
Emil lifted his tear-streaked face and looked at the smiling Lia.
His eyes were also covered in despair.
"Did you… ever love me…?"
"…"
A question filled with both resentment and desperation.
Lia, who heard that desperate question.
"Hoo, heh, heheheh…"
Laughed.
"Ooheheh…! Ahahahah!"
"Lia…"
"Of course, I truly loved you too, Emil."
A confession of love that felt utterly insincere, almost like mockery.
Emil's eyes trembled violently upon hearing Lia's confession.
"Yes, I love you, I truly loved you… Your warm affections towards me were truly sweet."
"Lia…"
"Emil, you're a good person. I truly fell for you. I thought I could entrust everything to you. I even imagined us getting married, you know?"
"Then… then why—!"
"That's why…"
*Drip.*
Tears streamed down Lia's face.
But the corners of her lips were still turned up.
"Sacrifice yourself for me, Emil."
"…"
"You're Emil, who loved me so much, so… for me, who truly loved you… sacrifice yourself."
"…"
The two lovers looked at each other with tear-stained faces.
However, no affectionate feelings flowed between them anymore.
Only despair.
Only different forms of despair remained in that place.
"…Bran."
And in the silence where no words were spoken.
Emil spoke to the man who was watching the two lovers with great satisfaction.
"Pff, what is it, Emil? Do you have a favor to ask? …Perhaps you want your arms untied? Do you want to pin Lia down and beat her?"
"…No."
"Then? Are you thinking of asking to be untied so you can get treated?"
"…Not that either."
Emil smirked at Bran, who had guessed all wrong, and looked him in the eye.
The moment Bran met Emil's gaze, his expression hardened.
"Let's play a game, Bran."
"…"
"It's my turn to tell a secret, isn't it?"
"Ha, you're betting fingers now? I told you. Lia's debt—"
"I'm not betting fingers."
*Thud.*
Along with his answer, Emil plunged a knife into the table.
Emil's drops of blood, thickly pooled on the knife, fell onto the table.
"I'm betting my life."
"…What?"
At Emil's words, Bran stared blankly at Emil for a moment.
Then, with wary eyes, he said with a laugh.
"I'm betting my life…? Why would I do that?"
"If you don't like it, bet something else."
"…What do you mean?"
"If you lose, don't touch Lia after that."
"…"
"Promise. On the parchment."
"…In return, you're betting your life?"
"Yes."
"Heh, hahahaha! That's good. A condition where if I win, I get both your life and Lia."
Bran laughed and accepted Emil's proposal.
And the parchment glowed, signaling the start of the game.
"I…"
Emil posed the question.
"Still love Lia."
"…What?"
"Now, answer."
"…"
Bran's smile vanished.
Lia's expression, behind him, also hardened.
Her tightly clenched hand trembled, and her empty eyes stared at Emil, seated at the table.
And then.
"…Lie."
Bran, carefully and seriously, gave his answer to the question.
*Smirk.*
Emil smiled.
The two, seeing his smile.
Soon widened their eyes in disbelief.
*Splurt!*
"E-mil…"
Lia called out Emil's name blankly, with dead eyes.
*Gush!*
But his answer didn't come.
"…"
"Crazy bastard."
The knife, which had been plunged into his neck and then pulled out.
A fountain of blood filled the classroom through that hole.
And then.
*Thud.*
Emil collapsed onto the table.
Blood slowly flowed onto the parchment next to him.
The parchment next to Emil.
*Humming…*
Was emitting a red light, indicating [Incorrect].
***
"Hwaaaahhh—!!"
Lia wailed.
Immediately after waking from her dream.
Etching Emil's vividly appearing dead form into her heart.
She poured out tears and screamed with eyes as broken as her dream-self's.
"Ugh, Emil! Emil! H-ugh, Emil—!!"
He died.
He died, declaring his love in a cruel way.
Even though he won the game, he plunged a knife into his own neck and died before her eyes, as if he no longer wished to live.
That vivid memory tore at Lia's heart.
"H-ugh, nooo… Emil… H-ugh, Emiil…!"
Lia clutched her aching chest and cried endlessly on her bed.
In place of her broken dream-self.
Having inherited the memories, she wept bitterly, tormented by Emil's death.
And then.
*Knock, knock, knock.*
Someone approached Lia's door.
And without waiting for Lia's answer, a voice came from beyond the door.
[Are you suffering?]
"…"
A familiar voice.
A voice she had heard somewhere before.
At that voice, Lia, as if enchanted, walked to the door and opened it.
"…"
"…You saw it after all."
Chris stood on the other side of the door.
"Why are you…"
"That's not important."
"…"
"Are you suffering? That Emil died… and that you trampled on Emil's heart."
This person knew about the dream she had.
No, how did she know the memories of that time?
"I'm suffering…"
But what was important to Lia right now was not that fact.
"I'm suffering terribly… My chest aches as if I'm going to die…"
Lia answered Chris's question, tears dripping down.
"That wasn't… just a dream, was it? It was real… something Emil went through, wasn't it…?"
And she asked her about what she had vaguely felt in the dream.
Such a vivid memory.
It was a fact she naturally realized as the memory seeped into her body.
And Lia's thought.
"That's right."
Was soon confirmed as truth by Chris's affirmation.
And Chris said to Lia with an indifferent expression.
"Follow me."
"…"
With only that last word, Chris turned her back and walked down the hallway.
Where were they going?
She didn't know anything, but.
*Thud, thud.*
Lia followed behind Chris.
Because she felt that wherever Chris was heading, there would be something to alleviate her suffering.
And then.
"This is…"
"I prepared it because I thought you might need it."
"…"
The place they arrived at, following Chris, was a abandoned warehouse in the city.
"Mmph! Mmmph—!!"
And there.
Bran lay tied up on the floor.
"And next to him…"
And next to the lying Bran, two more corpses were laid out.
They had already begun to decompose, making their faces unrecognizable.
One of the corpses even looked as if parts of its body had been torn off.
"Friends."
"Friends…? Whose…?"
"His."
*Thud.*
Answering Lia's question, Chris kicked Bran with her foot.
"Mmph! Mmmph!"
At that, Bran struggled frantically, as if pleading with Lia, his face filled with terror.
"One was named Malcolm, I think, the other one… Anyway, they're this guy's friends."
"…"
An unpleasant stench of decay stung Lia's nose.
But she didn't care.
"Mmph! Mmph!"
Lia simply looked down at the tied-up Bran with empty, hollow eyes.
"What do you want to do?"
And Chris's voice came from beside her.
"There's no one around here. Whatever you do, you won't get caught."
"…How did you get this place?"
"I bought it. It was abandoned, so it was cheap."
"…"
"Don't look at me like that, I didn't do anything strange. I used to work on battlefields. I bought it with the money I earned then."
"Right…"
Whatever.
The origin of this warehouse wasn't important.
*Rustle.*
After Chris finished explaining, Lia knelt down in front of Bran.
"Bran, I'll untie you? Don't scream."
And she untied the cloth gagging Bran's mouth and pulled out the cloth stuffed inside his mouth.
"Li-Lia! Help me! That bitch treated my hands and then suddenly dragged me here—!"
*Slap!*
"Quiet."
"Li-a…"
"I told you not to scream."
Bran stared blankly at Lia after being slapped by her.
And seeing Bran finally quiet, Lia smiled sweetly.
And subtly looked back at Chris.
"This place is good."
"Isn't it?"
"Yes, no need to rush, hide, or prepare."
"Wh-what…?"
At Lia's words, Bran mumbled in a terrified voice.
At his voice.
Lia shifted her gaze from Chris to Bran.
"Bran."
"Li-Lia! Please! Help me—!"
And Lia, with empty eyes, raised the corners of her lips and softly said.
"What game should we play?"
"…"
"I know lots of games."
*Clink, clank.*
As if they had been working together for a long time, Chris handed something to Lia.
It was a nut hammer.
"Ah, how about this one?"
"Lia, wa-wait…! Just a moment! Please listen to me—!!"
"Your touch is still a very unpleasant memory for me right now."
"Don't do it! Don't, please! Lia—!!"
Chris, as if understanding Lia's intentions, went behind Bran and held him still.
And Lia slowly unbuckled his belt.
"Since there are two… if you endure two screams, I'll let you live? It's that kind of game."
"No! Let go! Goddammit, let goooo!!!"
"Ah… disgusting, repulsive, sickening, filthy."
"No, no no no no—!!"
*Clink, clank.*
*Rustle.*
Lia, still smiling, uttered words of disgust as she pulled down Bran's pants.
At this, Bran continued to scream, his face pale.
And then.
Thereafter, a man's screams continuously echoed around the warehouse.