YGTWHV [60]

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–

Siren had seen the king of Carnot directly before.

It was in the past, a long time ago. You’d have to rewind back to her days in the research institute for that. In addition, it wasn’t when the research institute was blown up.

When that incident happened, Siren was in the next building, so she took the opportunity to make an early escape during the chaos. In other words, she didn’t personally see Lakis in the lab that day.

The time Siren saw him was a little further in the past.

Naturally, Siren was one of the few test subjects that succeeded in absorbing the ruin’s power during the experiments. Around when her abilities matured to some extent, Siren’s hobby became using birds to see the outside world.

“Today, you’ll go to the ‘grave’.”

Then one day, she overheard a conversation between the doctor and the researchers and suddenly got curious.

~

“Me? I don’t want to! I went last time too.”

“Don’t you know I’m busy with something else? All you have to do is go and see how many are alive; why are you making such a fuss?”

“That place is actually really scary.”

“I don’t see what’s scary, they’re all the same. Just experiments.”

“You don’t really think that though, doctor-nim. Whenever it’s your turn, you use this excuse or that excuse to hand it over to us, you think I don’t know?”

“What, you punk?”

~

The ‘grave’ they mentioned, referred to the place where second generation test subjects stayed. However, the environment there was different from the research institute, so it seemed to have a more bloody and dangerous atmosphere.

Siren had briefly heard the researchers say that the lab where she was, was a ‘greenhouse’ compared to the ‘grave’. They were subjected to painful experiments every day, and if they couldn’t endure it, their only path was to die and be disposed of, yet they said such a life was like living in a greenhouse?

Honestly, at the time, Siren was quite peeved. Hence why she snuck a bird into the place they called the ‘grave’. And as for what she witnessed…

It was a truly horrible and vomit-inducing place. As disgusting as it was, it was also a scary and blood-curdling place to be.

After that, Siren threw up everything she ate for almost a week and had nightmares every night. It was so bad that even Arachne who didn’t pay her much attention, came to ask her what was wrong.

The person Siren saw in the ‘grave’ through the bird was none other than Lakis Avalon when he was a boy. Even then, as soon as he discovered Siren’s bird, he caught it with a bloody hand and separated its neck from its body immediately.

“No, why is someone that’s supposed to be in Carnot at Arachne’s house?”

Siren was flustered and her mind was a mess.

Why in the world did that terrifying being appear at Arachne’s house? Was he an intruder aiming for Arachne? Then shouldn’t she let Arachne know as soon as possible?

But somehow, didn’t he look natural entering the house? On top of that, the mask in his hand was Arachne’s, wasn’t it?

…Eh?
Then what is this?

Siren was suddenly confused. Honestly, she wasn’t on the bright side.

‘Right, let’s ask the watchdog.’

“Hey, watchdog! Where are you?”

“Krreung?”

Despite raising her voice to call out, she heard a response right next to her. Siren was startled and turned her head. Then she saw Leo slowly lifting his head from between her wings which were sprawled richly over the floor.

Leo looked like he had been sleeping with Siren’s wings as a blanket; his eyes were unfocused, and he pricked up his ears. Of course, seeing that, Siren felt her anger rising.

“This little—! What do you think you’re doing? No wonder my wings were heavy!”

Siren spread out her wings and the heap of luggage on it fell to the floor. Leo landed nimbly on the ground in a sight that irritated Siren’s eyes. Then he scratched the back of his head.

“Hey, do you know who is in Arachne’s house?”

Siren hugged her wings to herself as if to protect it while giving Leo a scowl. But she didn’t forget to verify the important stuff.

Hearing Siren’s question, Leo tilted his head. As he wondered what Siren was asking about, he remembered what was said at the graveyard a while back.

“A cat?”

“A cat??”

Siren’s face distorted.

‘A cat’, what kind of nonsense is that? Or had Arachne been raising a cat in her house too?

“What about a person?”

“Kng?”

This time, Leo shook his head like he didn’t know anything.

“Where is Odin?”

She asked thinking it would make more sense to ask the Crow about this kind of thing, but Leo seemed to be getting sleepy again because he began to curl up on the feathers that had fallen from Siren’s wings.

Siren felt like she was about to burst from frustration and tried to urge Leo. However, Leo only gave a long yawn and no longer listened to her.

Then she realized she had forgotten about this.

The only person the watchdog really listened to was Arachne. Although it was a failure, the watchdog was like other test subjects in that he was generally indifferent to anything other than himself. The only exceptions were Arachne and Odin, but of course, Leo’s feelings for the two of them were on the opposite side of the spectrum.

‘Dammit. I’ll just have to talk to Arachne when she comes.’

Today was when Arachne stopped by the watchdog’s hideout anyways. So with the thought that she’d rather ask Arachne personally later, Siren began to irritatedly mend her feathers that were pressed down by Leo.

* * *

“Uhh, Arachne?”

However, when Yuri really came, Siren had shriveled up and her vigor from earlier had vanished into thin air.

“You’re awake this time.” (Yuri)

Most of the time when Yuri visited, Siren was in a deep sleep trying to recover. So Yuri commented on the fact that Siren was awake because it was a bit of a surprise.

“Yuri!”

As expected, Leo immediately ran out to greet Yuri with his usual happiness. Siren glared at him while thinking he was a detestable watchdog.

“Ehem. Umm, Arachne.”

Siren faked a cough and began choosing her words. She didn’t think about it earlier, but she had to approach the subject of Lakis Avalon in Yuri’s house carefully. If she made a mistake, Yuri might catch onto the fact that she peeked at her house without permission.

“So you…I mean, do you live alone?”

For now, Siren threw out the first question as naturally as possible. But unfortunately, the question didn’t sound very natural to Yuri.

“Why do you ask?”

Feeling suspicious, Yuri narrowed her eyes and returned the question.
Siren was startled by that and made an excuse.

“Just, I was just curious! Why? I can’t be curious about that too?”

To Yuri, there was no reason for Siren to be curious but somehow, she felt it would get annoying if she said that, so she left those words inside.

“I’m not alone.”

After the casual reply, Yuri once again fell into a strange mood. ‘I’m not alone’. She didn’t know how many years it had been since she said those words.

“Oh, then?”

“Did you look at my house again?”

Yuri threw a fastball in a flat tone and Siren got flustered. It pricked her conscience and she denied it in even more of a huff.

“No way! How could I! What do you take me for! Do you think I’m that free?”

She definitely looked.

Yuri was certain.

Then obviously, Siren saw Lakis Avalon at her house and was nervously feeling her out now. But Siren insisted on claiming she never looked and as it was inevitable, Yuri didn’t feel the need to drag the words out of her. Of course, from Siren’s point of view, it was as if she’d gotten hold of her weakness.^[1]

“It’s because the watchdog…he said you were living with a cat so…”

“That aside, I bought this for you.”

Siren also realized that and grew more gaunt than before, with her wings dropping down. But when she saw Yuri digging through the rustling paper bag, her eyes began to sparkle.^[2]

“Y-You bought something for me?”

Arachne brought a present for me!

Actually, Siren didn’t say anything because she felt it would be lame, but so far, she had inwardly been envious of Yuri bringing both candy and clothes for Leo. So hearing this, she perked up.

“What is it?”

Siren looked at Yuri’s hand with both delight and nervousness.

“Nothing much, I just felt you’d need it.”

“That’s okay, I’m fine with anything!”

However, when Yuri took it out of the paper bag and placed it in Siren’s hand…

Siren grew heated up and flung it away.

“I don’t need this kind of thing, OK?!”

The thing Yuri bought for her was her very own hair growth lotion! In Yuri’s mind, she was paying attention to the sparse and missing feathers on Siren’s wings. Of course for Siren, her expectations were crushed to the ground so she couldn’t help but get upset.

Unable to know what Siren was thinking, Yuri saw that Siren was fine moments ago then became upset and merely thought that Siren’s personality was just as unpredictable as before.

“If you don’t need it, I’ll throw it away.”

Yuri shot out a thread and brought the hair growth lotion that was thrown to the floor back to herself. Then Siren flinched again.

Translator’s Corner:

^[1] It says ‘gotten hold of her ankle’ which I assume to be weakness. It’s probably right.

^[2] The placement of this paragraph is very odd. It says: ‘Siren also realized that’ and it’s not clear what exactly she realized but it’s referring to the previous paragraph.

*.*.*

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