Editing City Series:Volume2 Chapter 4 (section)

===Part 3===

Ralf was not comfortable in his luxurious room in the Savoy Hotel.

“Living in poverty is best for a minister.”

He had a sleeping bag set up on the small area of available floor. That was where he slept. The art deco and modestly luxurious room was going mostly unused.

He had his shotgun and rifle cartridges lined up on the room’s side table as he refilled the cartridges. The cartridges were completely sealed, but for some reason, the powder inside had a way of getting damp.

“I can’t believe this. There’s just too much moisture in England. …If Moyla is back by the time I finish, I’ll greet her and head out to get some work done.”

As soon as he finished speaking his selfish plans aloud, a loud knock came to the room’s door.

“!?”

He stroked the top of the side table with his hand and Overlossed everything so it appeared empty.

He also Overrode a few pound coins in his hand. If it was the bellboy here to make the bed, he could hand him some money and ask him to leave.

“If the expenses keep piling up, I won’t even be able to buy any souvenirs.”

Completely forgetting his previous complaint about not living in poverty, he stood to the side of the door with an annoyed look. His arms were still hanging to either side of his body.

“Who is it?”

“It’s Moyla!”

“…Why?”

He asked a stupid question without thinking. This was the person he most wanted to visit him, but he was caught off guard because he had never expected it to actually happen.

He let his guard down and opened the door.

“Moyla?”

He called out and found Moyla standing in the hallway. She looked on the verge of tears, she was gasping for breath, and her shoulders were trembling, but she must have been relieved to see Ralf because her expression softened.

“Kh.”

With a slight groan, she began to cough. She doubled over and expelled the air from her lungs as if in spasms.

“A-are you okay?”

He wrapped his arms around her and felt something slightly warmer than body temperature reach his hand.

It was blood.

“Moyla!?”

“I-I’m fine. This is normal.”

Her shoulders rose and fell as she breathed and she removed the hand she held to her mouth. Her lips and palm were stained by slightly darkened blood.

“This is due to London’s air. …I’ll be better once I return home.”

She almost seemed to be reassuring herself of that and she wiped her mouth with a hand. She then looked up at Ralf as he held her.

“Ralf, please. Please tell me where Master Valeath is!”

“!”

The words literally stabbed into Ralf.

He frowned a bit.

“Why are you asking me that?”

“I have a bad feeling! I happened across the young man you mentioned last night, but he was so much like Master Valeath…and even the girl by his side was similar!”

“Eh?”

Moyla grabbed at his chest and shouted at him.

“This will only lead to tragedy! Master Valeath is trying to kill himself! He is trying to destroy his own past and everything that happened!”

“…”

“Please! You’re the only one I can rely on right now.”

“Do you really think I’ll tell you?”

Still holding Moyla in one arm, Ralf entered the room and closed the door.

He used his free arm to push the door closed.

He gathered strength in both arms as if to make sure no one could get in and no one could leave.

“That man has gone to kill the young man who resembles him and I know where that will happen.”

“Then please tell me!”

“Do you really think I can do that?”

“Eh?”

Ralf saw the question in her eyes from close range and he spoke to her.

“You’re practically falling apart.”

“…”

“Staying near that shadow of a man any longer will only bring you grief and death!”

“But…”

He shook his head to reject that word.

“Don’t you get it!? No matter how long you stay by his side and no matter how much you love him, you will never get anything in return!”

“I-I am not trying to get anything in-…”

“You are. You’re waiting for that. …That’s why you never do anything on your own. Doing anything that ignores your past would destroy the connection you have with him now, so you don’t do anything.”

She hung her head in his arm.

She bit her lip and held back her Open Words. She may have wanted to say something back at him.

He continued speaking so she would hear him and learn from his words. That was a minister’s job.

“He is treating you like an object, but you are a human with a heart. You can’t become a mere ‘thing’. …Isn’t your exhaustion now proof enough of that?”

He removed his hand from the door and brought his fingers to her mouth. He scooped up the blood remaining there and placed it on her lips as lipstick.

He took a breath and looked at her as if testing her.

“I never again want to lose someone I should have saved.”

Tears welled up in her eyes when she heard that.

Her scarlet lips trembled slightly and spoke quietly.

“I…don’t play fair, do I?”

“Eh?”

As he gave that questioning voice, she moved from his arm, grabbed the doorknob, and began to leave to search for Valeath on her own.

The words she spoke next were the last ones Ralf wanted to hear.

“I’m sorry.”

He did not let her say any more.

He turned her around, gave her a deep embrace, and forcibly took her blood-soaked lips with his own.

He then Opened his past, what he desired, and everything he was thinking. At the very end, he Opened where Valeath had gone.

He simply could not bring himself to say it in words.