“Would you like me to stay by your side, Master?”

Eileen rested her slender, trembling hand on my arm and looked down at me. In the dim moonlight, she stood before me in nothing but a light nightdress, her pale face impossible to look away from.

This time, Paper-chan was considerate enough not to shut off my vision.

A blush crept over her cheeks, and an unfamiliar tenderness shimmered in her red eyes.

She gazed at me with deep affection, then

licked her lips.

“Ah…”

My nonexistent brain completely short-circuited. I could only stare blankly at the angelic girl before me, afraid to speak or even move, as if she might vanish if I so much as blinked.

I had to admit, Eileen seemed almost like a different person just then. But when I remembered how young she was and how innocent her face looked, the contrast made me deeply uneasy.

What a frightening girl. I rubbed my jaw, thinking to myself.

“Eileen, where… where did you learn to act like that…?”

As a member of the fairy race, Eileen had been born with an incredibly cute and beautiful face. Even so, knowing how to win people over wasn’t something you could learn just by reading a book.

At that moment, Eileen had an almost otherworldly charm.

“At the place I just told you about. The woman who took me in made me learn all sorts of ways to cater to men’s demands from a succubus older sister.”

There was a trace of disgust in her eyes, but more than that, there was pain mixed with fear.

“But she never made me put any of it into practice. She said that way, I could become a top-quality commodity…”

“But then I escaped… The way those men looked at me was so vile… I could only keep running and running…”

“Eileen…”

I reached out without thinking, cupped her face, and wiped away the tears at the corner of her eye.

Eileen lifted a hand to mine. As if she’d found the key to happiness, a faint smile appeared on her flushed face.

“But then I was caught. You saved me, Master… You gave me happiness, something I hadn’t known in so long…”

“I want to repay you, but I have nothing left… I can only offer myself…”

“I know people expect girls like me to make them happy, so… if you don’t mind… you can ask me to do whatever you want… I only ask that you let me stay by your side…”

I opened and closed my mouth, not knowing what to say.

“…I just… did what anyone would’ve done… You don’t have to…”

“It wasn’t just anything!”

She suddenly shouted.

“You have no idea. When I was wandering alone, so many people tried to catch me and hurt me because of these ears and this face. So many looked down on me and mocked me. No one believed me. No one helped me. Even when I went to work at a monastery, I barely had enough to eat—and sometimes they whipped me…”

She spoke softly, her red eyes trembling again and again as the pain of her past rose to the surface.

“I once thought about ruining my face, but… but Mom said she liked the way I looked… Even before she died, she kept saying, ‘Eileen, you’re really cute’…”

Then she changed the subject, leaning so close she was almost pressed against me. Her nightdress shifted as she moved.

“But you’re different! At first, I only thought you couldn’t bring yourself to hurt me. But now I believe you really do see me as a companion!”

“I may not be much use to you… but even as a skeleton, I’m sure I can still be useful. I’m confident in what I can do…”

She spoke softly, her face so red it looked ready to burst.

No, no, no! What was that about serving men at night?! And did you even hear what that shopkeeper shouted after being blinded by your magic?! Don’t you know how terrifying your talent for magic is?!

Wait…

Was I the only one in this world who knew her true identity? Maybe Eileen’s mother had known too.

Huh… Things were getting more and more interesting.

But what was I supposed to do about the situation right in front of me? There was no way I could accept what she was offering!

My body simply wouldn’t allow it! It was a hardware problem!

“Eileen, have you ever met your father?” I tried to change the subject.

“No… Mom said Dad left home when I was very little… She died of an illness when I was ten…”

“I see… So you don’t have any other family, either.”

“Mm…”

Silence fell between us again.

No father or mother. No brothers or sisters. No family at all.

Nothing left…

Everything gone…

Two people with the same fate, like a pair of interlocking gears.

By fate’s design, they had become tangled together.

“Um… Master… Don’t you like me…? Am I not good enough…?”

But she was afraid. The hand resting on mine wouldn’t stop trembling.

She was only pretending to be brave.

“Eileen, why are you so afraid?”

I didn’t understand.

“I promised I wouldn’t abandon you. Why do you feel like you have to go this far?”

I couldn’t understand.

What had she gone through before?

“Um… I… I’ve been deceived so many times…”

She lowered her head and began to tell me about her past.

After her mother died, someone took over their home.

While wandering, she was bullied.

On New Year’s Eve, she found a little happiness—only to have it cruelly torn away right in front of her.

And later, those dreamlike few months at the Red Court.

One long deception after another.

“I kept losing things, over and over. That’s why I’m scared. I’m really scared…”

“I’m afraid this is a dream and I’ll wake up with nothing.”

“Sometimes I even wonder if I’m still alive. Maybe I’m already dead, and this is just a dream…”

She looked at me, her eyes shrouded in a heavy fog, and smiled with an expression that was both despairing and happy.

“Hey, big brother… Tell me. Am I dreaming a happy dream right now…”

“Or am I trapped in yet another lie?”

I opened and closed my mouth.

“……”

“…”

But no words came out.

The cost of answering that question was too great.

I wasn’t sure I could do it.

……

…

The clock ticked on.

The wind outside the window sounded like someone wailing.

The girl sat on top of me, staring blankly as she waited for an answer.

“I see… You won’t answer me…”

All she heard was my silence.

The faint hope that had appeared in Eileen’s eyes faded away.

“Mm. I understand… I knew it would be like this.”

She smiled at me politely, then quietly got dressed.

Huh…?

What was she doing…?

“I’ll go talk to Big Sister Fei’er. I won’t cause you any trouble.”

Wait…

Don’t go!!

The girl stopped at the doorway and bowed deeply to me.

“You’re a good person, Mr. Ojer. I won’t reveal your secret, so please don’t worry.”

Wait!!

Don’t leave me alone…!

Thud.

The sound of the door closing.

……

…

“What are you trying to do?”

“Hah… huff…”

I stood frozen in place, still holding her hand.

“Please let go.”

“……”

I didn’t want her to leave.

“That hurts. Please let go.”

I didn’t want to lose anyone again.

I didn’t want to be alone all over again!!

“Let go! You’re lying to me! You don’t even have the courage to admit it!”

She shouted and struggled to get away.

But I didn’t budge.

“Let go!! Liar!!”

“No!!!”

Thump!

“Ow! Huh…?”

I pinned her against the door and looked down at her.

The girl strained to look up at me. My huge shadow fell over her. Beside her small frame, I was a giant, skeletal monster.

She began to grow afraid.

“What are you… going to do…?”

“…Hey. You said you were afraid this was a dream, right?”

“Huh?”

“You also said you were afraid you were living through another lie, so you wanted to run away from me.”

“Isn’t that true…? You… You don’t even have the courage to admit it…”

She looked away. Her red eyes began to fill with tears, and her voice trembled.

“You’re just like the others. You act kind to me, but you’re really only waiting for a chance to sell me off… Maybe all the stories you told me were lies. Maybe you’ve fooled lots of people into trusting you before…”

“Think whatever you want. To me, you’re just scared and trying to run away.”

“……”

She fell silent, lowering her head as she sobbed softly.

She was afraid her happiness would be torn away again, so she wanted to run before the truth could catch up with her.

She could finally leave that past behind. She could have embraced a wonderful future.

But she was afraid.

She was afraid of what lay ahead.

No matter what it might be.

“So I came up with a game.”

“Huh?”

“A game that could make both of us happy.”

“I’m going to keep you trapped in a happy lie, Eileen.”

I spoke softly, lifting her chin as I looked into her eyes, where red ghostly flames burned.

I would hold on to her with beautiful lies.

I would let her spend her whole life immersed in a dream she would never wake from.

And so, that night, the reincarnated dead spoke to the girl covered in scars.

.

.

“—I’m going to take you away.”