[—-Monster!]
Mary screamed. Rejection. Resentment. You’re different. So we can’t be together.
[Monster!]
She screamed. Don’t come. Don’t approach. Don’t get involved.
The lingering echoes of the woman who was once most special to him howled in resonance.
The instant of being rejected and killing her with his own hands replayed over and over.
“—-Ah—Aah—-Aaaaah—–“
Something cracked within Alfred Curtis.
Each time the world turned upside down, the crack grew larger, creaking, shaking, breaking.
It was—-his heart.
“─────《Lingering Echoes – Tears of the Flowers》 shook the heart.
The past didn’t want to remember, the future didn’t want to imagine.
It touched the exposed nerve-like place deep within everyone’s heart where they had pushed away such things, repeatedly amplifying the memories of pain. And if activated without contact, her ability would spiral out of her control into a random howling. For a normal person, it would forcibly recall their trauma, causing panic attacks with breathing difficulties and heart palpitations.
Her parents had nearly died because of it.
Neighbors had nearly died too.
Even people in the neighborhood she barely knew had their mental scars reopened.
Even after becoming an Unlaw,
just by being around others, Shizuku ended up hurting them.
●
“Ah……Aaah……Ma, ry……So, rry……”
“Oh……You’re quite tenacious. Or should I say shameless, perhaps?”
“─────《Lingering Echoes – Tears of the Flowers – Vision》 ability allows one to see visions of the past or future of what they touch.
In this case, she can see visions to some degree at will, but she can also unintentionally see visions in unexpected moments, so she can’t avoid covering up.
After adjusting and weakening it together with Norman, she can finally do this much.
The true Lingering Echo Flowering Tears is of a much worse quality.
A refrain of trauma.
When used without contact, it repeats a howling close to infinity—now she has gained the ability to direct that near-infinite howling toward a target—but being nearly infinite does not make it truly infinite.
Memories will eventually wear out.
Even the resonant howling will come to an end.
In the end, Alfred was nearly reduced to a vegetative state, but he was still barely standing on his own feet, as if enduring through sheer grit.
“Slum toughness, I guess. What do you want to do? One more push and he might break completely.”
“Indeed.”
With a slight raise of her eyebrows, Shizuku watched Alfred stand there like a zombie.
She considered for a moment, then,
“—Norman?”
“Hm? What is—“
Pulling his hand towards her, she forcefully pressed her lips against his in a half-forced kiss.
“Mmph…!? Hey—“
“Mwah.”
Though he was understandably surprised, she didn’t care as she thrust her tongue into his mouth, ravaging it.
“—Ah?”
The sudden kissing scene left the nearly-broken Alfred utterly confused, unable to make sense of anything.
But two things did surprise him.
One was that Norman accepted her kiss.
Not so much accepting it gladly, but more of an “oh well” kind of acceptance.
Like an adult tolerating a child’s selfish behavior with a wry smile, he accepted Shizuku’s eccentric act without denying it. He even had the composure to adjust his slightly askew hat, gently supporting her waist.
The other thing was
that as they kissed, Shizuku glanced sidelong at Alfred with a smile.
With flushed cheeks distorting her expression, her dark yellow eyes pierced Alfred.
A crack formed within him.
Shizuku noticed this and her smile distorted further.
“——“
In other words, it was a pointed gesture.
You and I are similar monsters, but.
You were not accepted.
You were rejected.
I have someone who accepts me.
I have someone who doesn’t reject me.
But—you and I are different.
Similar, but different.
You are unloved, but I’m different.
It was just a kiss to show that and nothing more.
The smile she had been wearing the whole time was the same.
A sense of superiority over him.
If asked, she wouldn’t deny that she simply wanted to kiss him, but.
“——-“
It resonated within Alfred’s heart.
A teardrop fell and splattered.
A crack formed, his heart shattered apart.
“……How…”
As his shattered heart broke apart, the only thing that spilled out was doubt.
Shizuku and Alfred were different, but what made them so?
“—-Ahah.”
Parting her lips, pressing their foreheads together, Shizuku laughed.
Slightly excited at the fact that a slender, transparent bridge now connected her and Norman, she casually, half-heartedly, as an aside, yet drawn-out, declared:
“It’s simple, really. Elementary, my dear freak.”
With a sidelong glance, slovenly, carelessly, as an afterthought.
But dragging it out.
Shizuku Teardrop, of the Lingering Echo Flowering Tears, told him:
“How would I know?”
“——–“
And Alfred Curtis’s heart broke, his consciousness faded.
All that remained was a chilling, hollow atmosphere.
“Simple, you say……No, you’ve read that novel, right? The final words don’t follow from that line.”
“I’m a woman full of surprises.”
With a shrug, Shizuku slightly twisted the corner of her mouth as Norman let out a sigh.
“Disappointing.”
Not that he was truly disappointed, but still.
●
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT LOCALIZERMEERKAT.PAGES.DEV
“Mary, she’s pregnant”
The day after solving the Wallwood Family’s Locked Room Murder Case, Norman was at Shizuku’s home.
In a modest apartment room, sparsely furnished, there’s only a combined bedroom, living area, and tiny kitchenette, with a small bathroom that also functions as a shower room. The kitchenette looks barely used. The bedroom contains a dresser, a closet, a bed, a desk, and a couch—a bit large for Shizuku, but a perfect fit for Norman.
He’s seated on it now, with Shizuku perched on his lap.
She’s dressed differently than usual in a sleeveless blouse and shorts, without her usual gloves, and her long, beautiful white hair flows freely.
Resting against him, she’s scribbling notes onto sheet music,
leaning her back into him as she tilts her head up to look at his face.
“Pregnant?”
“Yeah. Remember the doctor at the estate? That’s what he figured.”
“I see. And the father?”
“Who else but Alfred?”
“Of course… such a cliché,”
Shizuku remarks, a faint smirk curling her lips.
“Well, it’s like that sometimes, isn’t it?”
It was all rather simple once they knew. Mary Walwood had been pregnant.
She and Alfred Curtis were involved, and she’d probably told him about the baby, expecting no secrets between them now that they’d marry.
Whether she noticed his recent strange behavior was unclear, but in a relationship that close, perhaps she sensed something.
Then he’d revealed his true nature. She rejected him, and he killed her.
“A bit of Walwood family gossip, hmm?”
“Think I could make a few bucks if I leaked it to the papers?”
“No chance.
My sister would probably handle it quietly,”
Shizuku lowers her gaze back to the sheet music, not looking too disappointed.
Cases involving the Unlaws rarely become public knowledge.
Though these creatures blend into the city of Balldlum, only a handful know of their existence.
It would be inconvenient for certain parties if people realized monsters lived among them.
Who exactly finds it inconvenient is unclear—
perhaps the Cartesius Agency, maybe the city’s leadership, or perhaps even the government.
Due to this secretive world, Norman remains officially “unemployed,” despite occasionally working as an agent called by the police as a “detective.” He isn’t actually a detective, though; he’s just paid enough to cover his needs, despite having no clear status in society.
“There were two things I liked about this case, actually,” Norman says.
“Oh? Like what?”
“For one, the target was Category I, so I saved on ammo.”
Following Shizuku’s gaze, Norman glances at the violin case on top of the dresser.
Inside, disassembled, lies a special sniper rifle made by Cartesius.
It’s a weapon designed for use against the Unlaws,
its thunderous sound echoing with supernatural energy.
He hadn’t needed it this time, though.
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