Memoirs of the Returnee

Chapter 56: Debts (2)

Debts (2)

At the bus stop of the Edsilla Police Station, I’m sitting on a bench waiting for the bus.

“Ah, that was delicious.”

My stomach is already full.

The cafeteria in the police station, cost-effective. I think I ate about 6-7 servings of pork cutlet, wheat noodles, and hamburger steak, but it only cost me 20 Ren.

“Ah, I’m full.”

The swordsmanship class this week is in the afternoon, so I have plenty of time.

As I’m waiting for the bus, rubbing my bloated stomach, someone quietly comes and sits at the very end of the bench.

That is, at the farthest edge of this long bench from me.

A floral scent wafted over.

“...What are you doing here?”

It was Elise.

She spoke while keeping her gaze fixed straight ahead.

“Do you know who Belendex is?”

She’s talking nonsense. Did she eat something wrong somewhere?

Anyway, Belendex is the guy who bit me in the side in Recordark.

“Yeah, I know.”

“You know?”

Elise squinted one eye and asked again.

“He’s the murderer who died yesterday, Belendex.”

“No, that’s... correct, but...”

Elise, who had stopped speaking, shook her head back and forth.

“Forget it. It’s my fault for asking you.”

With that, she immediately stood up from her seat.

Whether she has something to say but doesn’t want to, or whether she came even though she has nothing to say.

To her, who came and is about to leave again, I calmly added.

“He’s the real culprit.”

Elise’s small back stiffened. She turned her face to the side and asked again.

“...What?”

“He’s the real culprit. The real culprit of the Noah Lucille case.”

In other words, the owner of the crime that Noah Lucille was framed for. The so-called ‘Demon of Mirina’.

The human garbage psychopath who killed 77 people in the city of Mirinae was already in prison.

Already 10 years ago, for a different murder.

“.......”

Elise seemed to be stunned for a moment, then quickly shook her head.

“Are you an idiot? Belendex is Noah Lucille’s copycat. He’s a copycat, so Noah Lucille is the one who actually killed him.”

Hmm. It seems like she picked up nonsense somewhere, or rather, heard nonsense somewhere.

I asked.

“So?”

“So, ask your brain. Your claim that Noah Lucille was framed is wrong. If Noah Lucille was really framed in the first place, why would he kill the real culprit? Rather, he should keep him alive to correct-”

“He has no intention of correcting it.”

“What.......”

At that moment, Elise’s words were cut off. I shrugged my shoulders and continued my words.

“Because it won’t be corrected. Because 19 years have passed.”

His time won’t come back.

The 19 years that have already passed, the life that has disappeared, and the stolen future will never come back.

Unless you regress like me.

“You don’t know. You haven’t even lived 19 years properly yet.”

“...I lost.”

Elise spat out a pretty cute word. She glared at me with a furrowed brow and crossed her arms.

I said to her.

“But who was that prisoner in the isolation zone at that time? The Inspector kept asking.”

For a moment, her body flinched on the bench, but she soon wore a somewhat high-handed expression.

“...He’s a non-existent person. You should not think any further.”

Then she shot me a sharp look.

“Petra is much more ruthless than you imagine. It means you should forget.”

It’s almost a threat.

“...Ah, yes. Of course.”

I nodded obediently. Elise quietly flicked her hair.

“Now, disappear.”

She told me to disappear, but she was the one who got up first.

Did she really eat something wrong?

Anyway, Elise walked somewhere. There was a luxury sedan at her destination.

“What a hateful 19-year-old.”

Again, I hate Elise. The same goes for Petra.

The word ‘little sister’ always gives her chills.

If a man who gruesomely dismembered people and laughed disgustingly amidst the carnage called her ‘little sister’, anyone would come to hate the word itself.

─...I told you not to call me that.

There was a bit of static noise, but Cookie recorded it clearly.

─Oh, so it’s a crime to call a sister a sister....

There was nothing special about the conversation itself upon hearing it again.

Despite that, Elise recorded those conversations on her laptop.

——Kraaaaaa!

─You little shit!

It was the moment when Yael took advantage of the magic storm to startle her.

Judging by the thump- and the shaking sound, Cookie must have been dropped at this time.

─Eeeek!

“......Delete.”

With her face turning red, Elise removed this part from the record.

Anyway, at this point, Elise left the isolation zone.

So from now on, it’s just Shion Ascal and Yael.

─You, must be disappointed?

Yael said. As he feared, he started a conversation with Shion Ascal.

What kind of useless talk could it be?

─What about?

Shion Ascal in the recording responded. Elise was on high alert. She clutched her smartphone just in case.

Depending on the situation, she might have to report to her father. She might have to clean up after Shion Ascal.

Yael’s crime is not just murder, so if he revealed that ‘secret’ to Shion...

─You seem to have followed Elise, but it probably won’t work out for you.

─What the hell are you talking about all of a sudden?

─What am I talking about.

But, the flow of the conversation is a bit strange.

─Her ideal type is a tall man. You won’t make the cut.

“What is he saying.......”

Elise frowned. She didn’t have an ideal type in the first place. But that’s not the problem.

However, what came next.

Shion Ascal’s response was a bit strange.

─That’s unfortunate to hear.

“......Unfortunate?”

─Ha! You’re honest.

“Honest?”

After this, the conversation is hard to hear due to the wind and storm sounds.

“......Uh.”

Elise unknowingly shivered. She didn’t know why, but she felt a chill. Something about her throat felt eerie and dreadful...

She silently rewound the recording.

─What am I talking about. Her ideal type is a tall man.

─That’s unfortunate to hear.

─Ha! You’re honest.

That’s unfortunate to hear.

Thinking about it, Shion Ascal’s physique is not just ‘tall’.

Then, the meaning of ‘unfortunate’ is......

Chills ran down her spine. Concentrated hatred, contempt, and loathing surged from deep within her chest.

No, it can’t be.

There’s no way.

He hates her. He said so himself.

However.

If by any chance, no, if by one in a hundred thousand chance, it’s some bullshit like ‘I started to hate you because I liked you too much’, then Shion Ascal is a man who must die. A man who must be killed.

Of course, she’s familiar with this kind of situation.

Elise Petra’s beauty is so flawless that even she acknowledges it, and because she has lived the so-called ‘life of an idol’, receiving envy and jealousy from the same sex, and love and admiration from the opposite sex.

Naturally, she had many stalkers, and many people obsessed with her.

But this time, the target is different.

If that monkey-like bastard dares to harbor even a tiny bit of vile intentions towards her...

Her lips instinctively gnawed.

Wasn’t the person he admired, that pitiful and pathetic person, Soliette?

Could he be a lunatic who likes anyone beautiful, regardless of their age or gender?

Elise silently thought and got up. She forcibly suppressed her anger and murderous intent.

Instead, she picked up one of the stuffed animals that filled her bed and dissected it. She stuffed Cookie’s mana core and Magic Spell into its body.

It was a rabbit again.

A slightly whiter rabbit.

Elise nodded indifferently and muttered.

“Cookie, resurrect.”