Editing Hyouketsu Kyoukai no Eden:Volume 6 Final Chapter (section)

===Part 3===

At the open-air cafe, ‘The Twins Swans <Albireo>‘.

“Yuto-cha─n, take this cake set here to table five─. Eyriey, you take table seven’s order. After that, clean up table nine and prep table ten.”

“O─kay!”

“O-Okayyyyyy! A-Aren’t we too busy, Head Chef!? I’m hopeless at this kind of physical laborrrrr!”

The adorable answer from Yuto was contrasted by Eyriey’s shout that bordered on becoming a scream and echoed across the kitchen.

The time was right at noon.

It was the time that they became busy with customers lured in by the smell of the cooking from the kitchen.

“I-It’s already noon! I made a promise to play with friends after noon, you know!?”

“You’re meeting them here, right? Then work hard until your friends get here. Come now, I’ll even pay you double time. Yuto-chan, watch and learn.”

With Sheltis gone, Yuto had now completely become the main helper in the store.

At first, she had just been helping as far as wiping down tables but now she was an all-purpose helper than even took customers’ orders and delivered food.

“Hey, hey, Eyri-nee! Yuto was praised by the customers as amazing!”

On each arm was two plates of a cake set and coffee. On top of that, she had a large tray on her head and she had another table’s lunch set consisting of three plates on there, so it was surprising.

“Eyriey, take a lesson from her as well.”

“……That’s insane.”

She headed out into the shop from the kitchen while holding a large tray.

“Ugeh, what a big line……”

The line that couldn’t fit into the store was lined up outside the store in a coil.

And.

With the refreshing chime of the front door bell, the door of The Two Swans opened. Another customer? Everyone thought that and turned their eyes in that direction──

 

The store interior seemed to have become separated from the flow of time as it turned silent.

 

“Excuse me.”

A single girl entered.

Wearing a simple and plain shirt and skirt, she was petite and had slender limbs. She had a face that still had youth left in it and she was just a little under Eyriey in height. She was not any older than her late teens. At best, she was thirteen or fourteen.

──Everybody forgot words and gulped.

──Her gem-like beauty could even be called a fantasy.

“……Umm, is Eyriey-san here?”

Her moist eyes that seemed sorrowful were a vivid azure.

Her skin was white like porcelain and there was not a blemish upon its smooth surface. And the most eye-catching thing about her was her long hair which extended to below her knees.

Just like seven-colored silk thread, it changed colors beautifully as it fluttered.

The color of reflective water ── with a translucent silvery white like ice as its base, the parts that light passed through shined with a compound color made with pearl and gold.

“Ohh, Shasa-chan. Been a while!”

At Eyriey’s voice, the majority of the customers finally came back to their senses.

“It has been a while. ……I’m sorry, it has been a long time since I came to the Living Districts so I was a little lost. Am I late?”

“No─pe, actually you’re right on time. Wait a sec, I can get off work so I’ll just go tell the Head Chef! Ah, you can sit there at that reserved seat!”

“Okay.”

The girl sat in the chair with a wide smile. Just that small action gave the impression of an impressive painting by a first-class painter.

“He─y, Head Chef, my friend’s here so can I go─?”

“Oh my, it can’t be helped. By the way, your friend wouldn’t happen to be Sheltis, would it?”

“Nope. I met her while walking around observing at {{furigana|Tenketsu Palace|Sophia}} and we got along. She’s amazing; she has the entirety of the tower memorized.”

“Ohh. If it’s a secretary from the tower, then I might have met her once before.”

“Eh?”

What does that mean? While Eyriey’s mouth was hanging open, the apron-clad Head Chef trotted from the kitchen to the store interior──

“Let’s see……ah.”

“Ah.”

From the direction of the store came the dumbfounded voices of the two.

“Oh my. What’s thiiis, it’s been a whiiile! I was wondering who it was but it’s Salah──”

“Nice to meet you, I’m Shasa.”

“……the Quee”

“I’m Shasa.”

“…………Sa”

“Please refer to me as Shasa.”

“…………Okay, okay.”

After a little while, an uncommon wry smile appeared on the Head Chef’s face and she returned.

“Oh, hey, hey, Head Chef, do you maybe know Shasa? It sure sounded like it!”

“……………………No. I don’t know her at all.”

“What was that unnatural pause!? Hey, wait, don’t turn away!”

“Well, never mind, never mind. So, Eyriey, you’ll be eating with her and then going to play, right? I have two peoples’ portions prepared.”

Sandwiches with plenty of seasonal vegetables used and onion soup in a mug. For after the meal was bite-sized cakes and milk tea.

“Ohh! So with that, sorry for the wait, Shasa!”

“R-Right……”

She stared at the lunch set upon the table as if it were novel.

“What’s up?”

“Ah……nothing. I always only have meals from {{furigana|Tenketsu Palace|Sophia}} so it’s a little different.”

“Hohoh, now that you say it, there is a dining hall at the tower.”

“There is a dining hall but I have my meal carried to my room. And it’s been a while since I had something solid like this. I’ve at most had black tea with honey added.”

“Geh. That’s no good, Shasa, that’s why you’re so thin!”

“Thin……that’s right, isn’t it, like I thought. I’ve always had a lack of appetite though.”

The girl patted her chest through her clothes. The thickness from her back to her chest, as well as her arms and thighs, were thin to the point it seemed they would snap if she were to miss a step on the stairs.

“It’s not like you hate to eat though, right?”

“That’s right. Not having many chances to eat because of work and continuing a lifestyle of not eating affects your body like this.”

“Haa, you sound busy with work. Since you only get to enjoy yourself like this once a month.”

“It’s my job but it’s like my life. ……It is my duty, and a promise.”

Placing her hand to the edge of the steaming mug, the girl’s face reddened slightly.

“But it’s nice to ‘enjoy myself‘ like this as well. It’s somehow nostalgic.”

“That’s right─. Enjoying yourself is important, so eat well, enjoy yourself a lot and sleep well! Look, the soup’s gonna get cold. Eat the sandwich too!”

“R-Right!”

Shasa gripped the mug with an expression of utmost seriousness.

“W-Well then! I, Shasa Endens Lin Kale, shall now partake of this lunch!”

“You don’t have to be so serious about it.”

“At any rate, it’s been a long time. ……I-I’ll do my best. Eii!”

She timidly lifted up the mug and drank the soup.

“…………”

“How is it?”

“…………It’s delicious.”

She couldn’t believe it herself. She blinked numerous times and brought the mug towards and away from her mouth.

“B-But I still don’t understand! Once more………………ah…………it’s delicious……”

The girl hid her mouth with her hand and her face went bright red.

“……It’s, delicious.”

“Right─. Our Head Chef is amazing. Try the sandwich too!”

“R-Right!”

She nodded with a some more vigor than just prior and reached her hand out to a sandwich on the plate──

“………………”

Her hand suddenly stopped.

“Shasa?”

“…………My body……is…………after all…………right after the barrier…………transfer, if…………I get careless………………not good…………………………”

Her shoulders slumped and she collapsed off the chair in that manner.

“Shasa!?”

──She’ll hit the floor at this rate.

Her hand that she reached out reflexively wouldn’t make it in time and the girl who had fallen out of the chair had her face make a beeline for the hard floor ── just before Eyriey who pictured that scene was about to scream, somebody’s hand caught steady hold of Shasa’s body.

“U-Uwawawawaa, E-Eyri-nee, help meeee!”

“Yuto!? A-Amazing, Yuto, good job!”

In place of Yuto who was holding up a body larger than her with all her strength, she held Shasa from behind. She sat the girl who seemed to have lost consciousness on the chair once again and steadied her against the back of the chair.

“Pheeew……that was dangerous. I wonder what’s wrong; we should call a doctor.”

“Hey, hey, Eyri-nee, I think Shasa-nee is probably just tired.”

Yuto tugged on the edge of her sleeve and nodded.

“She did say her work was tasking. I wonder if I should let her rest in my room until she gets better……daaarn, I don’t know where Shasa lives.”

It would be best to take Shasa back to her house but she only knew that she worked at {{furigana|Tenketsu Palace|Sophia}}. She didn’t know which post she worked either so she didn’t know who to contact.

“Shasa-nee said she had a room at the tower.”

“Oh, really? Yuto, do you perhaps know where Shasa’s room is?”

“Yeah, yeah! Shasa-nee told me last time!”

“Ohhh, good going. You did well!”

It was the first time she thought of Yuto who energetically shook her head as this reliable.

“Should I go get an acquaintance of Shasa-nee?”

“Yeah, please!”

“O─kay!”

Yuto ran out of the shop door.

……Really, that’s great.

She hadn’t known what to do when she collapsed but it would be one thing off her mind if they could send her back home. The cause was exhaustion so she needed her to rest.

……She purposefully came even though she was this tired.

“Head Chef, I’ll be taking Shasa-chan for a bit───”

“That is a pleasing suggestion but it is not that much of a major matter. I alone will be enough.”

The bell rang again.

“I heard there was someone I knew causing difficulties here.”

It was a woman who was leaning up against the door frame.

Their eyes met and the woman smiled boldly.

……This is an acquaintance of Shasa’s?

……Uwaa, amazing. She’s really beautiful.

She was tall and slender with a sharp face to match.

Her glossy jet black hair was completely straight and definitely without a strand out of place. The beauty of her voluptuous body was also highlighted clearly through her pitch black vestments. Her twin mounds were full to the point that they seemed to be ready to spill out at any moment, her tight waist was curvaceous and it rose up once again at her hips. It was charm that even made Eyriey who was of the same gender gasp.

“It seems that you’ve taken care of Shasa.”

She walked up to the table they were at and indicated the sleeping Shasa with her eyes.

“Ah, are you the person Yuto spoke of? Shasa’s acquaintance.”

“Tsali. To this child……let’s see, I am a friend, quarreling opponent and guardian. We’re not family bound by blood.”

“Ah, like I thought! Ah─ that surprised me. Since your hair and eye colors are completely different. I haven’t heard of sisters that are this different.”

“──As usual, you’re unabashed regardless of the person, Eyri-nee.”

“Fue?”

……As usual?

……Actually, did she just call me Eyri-nee?

“Ahh, I forgot to say that that’s what I heard Yuto refer to you as.”

Giggle. Upon Tsali’s lips which had only a bold smile upon them thus far, her smile changed just a little to one more friendly.

“That’s right! Right, right, Tsali-san, do you know where Yuto went off to? Rather, how did that kid manage to call you so quickly? A communicator? No, even if that were true, you wouldn’t have gotten here so promptly.”

“I thought that things would turn out like this again so I was secretly following her. As usual, she’s quite the handful.”

She carried Shasa’s body.

“Yuto will return soon. As for Shasa……let’s see, please play with her again any time from tomorrow on.”

“Ehh. That’s……I’m fine with it, but will Shasa be okay by tomorrow?”

“It seems that one day of rest really wasn’t enough but this always happens. She should be fine if she rests for the entirety of today. It would be fine if you came to floor 290 of the tower tomorrow at ten in the morning.”

“That’s fine with me……”

“Then it’s decided. I’ll also relay that to Shasa.”
[[image:Eden06_209.jpg|thumb]]

She turned her back on Eyriey and walked towards the door──

“Oh, right.”

“Mm?”

Suddenly coming to a stop, Tsali turned just the side of her face to her.

A friendly and curious smile. Though her face was graceful and sharp to begin with, that smile was somehow really…………really……like an innocent child’s.

…………Huh, this person?

……This person’s smile……who is it……doesn’t it kind of resemble somebody’s smile?

“I’ll say my thanks.”

“Eh?”

“This person here, from the top of her head to the tips of her toes, is self-sacrificing and has a habit of reflecting so somebody has to forcefully take her out to relax. Originally, it was supposed to be my job, but it seems that you are better for it.”

Giii……

The door the woman in jet black vestments pushed on opened easily. The path that was not a path became a path of its own accord and seemed to bless her steps.

“It has been a long time since Shasa made an expression of such enjoyment.”

 

That was the difference between her and Eyriey.

The words that were heard from Tsali that day were for the girl known as Eyriey and……in the distant future, what bestowed a ‘third possibility‘ upon {{furigana|the floating continent|Orbie Clar}}, though nobody knew this yet.

Only Tsali.

And Shasa who continued to sleep within her arms, had yet…………