Epilogue 2 — Eris and Chris
“And that’s pretty much the story. Darkness hasn’t come out of her house since then. I’m planning another break-in…”
I was in a cozy little café on the outskirts of town. A bit of a hole-in-the-wall. We were the only ones there.
“Well, it sounds like you’re as much of a monster as you ever were. Don’t be too hard on Darkness, okay? She may look tough, but she’s really pretty sensitive.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. What about you, Chris? What have you been up to all this time? How long does it take to get to Axel from the Capital?”
Chris had finally gotten back from the royal city, and I was bringing her up to speed on recent events. She scratched the scar on her cheek in embarrassment. “Aww, y’know. I’ve been busy. I was actually just nearby once, but then I was called away all of a sudden. I had to take care of some stuff before I could finally get back here.” She stretched out over the table, exhausted.
“Called away? Who could call you? Is there some kind of guild for thieves?”
“Er… Well, you know how it is. When someone dies, things just get…”
“Don’t tell me you moonlight as an undertaker.”
Chris didn’t dignify that with a response but only sighed deeply. “Can you believe it?” she said. “That divine item we were looking for—all this time that lord had it. When I broke into his home in the capital, I just assumed I had made a mistake because of Miss Aqua’s divine item!”
I’d heard that the second divine item Chris and I had been looking for in the capital had turned up in Alderp’s basement. Chris had gone to collect it first thing when she got back to town. Supposedly, the item allowed you to control a randomly summoned monster. I wondered what the old fart had planned to do with something like that.
By the time I finished explaining everything, Chris’s coffee had gone cold. She drained her cup in a single gulp, then said, “Anyway, all’s well that ends well. Thanks for helping Darkness out, Lowly Assistant.”
“Sure thing, Chief.” We both smiled.
“Sigh… I still haven’t gotten back that other item, though. Hey, Lowly Assistant, would you—?”
“I’m telling you right now, I’m busy.”
Chris puffed out her cheeks, annoyed that I hadn’t let her finish. “I’d pay you…”
“I’ve got plenty of money.”
Chris scratched at her scar again, in consternation this time. “Pfah. Fine. You’re on notice—I’ll get you to help me again soon.” Then a gentle smile came over her face.
……Huh?
That smile, combined with the way she scratched her cheek… Something felt off. Or…like I’d seen them somewhere recently.
You know, I’d been wondering: Why would Chris talk about “Darkness” and “Megumin” but go out of her way to refer to “Miss Aqua”?
And then there was the fact that even her name sounded a bit like someone else I knew… Someone with the same color hair and even the same color eyes.
That person called Aqua her “senior” and talked about “Miss Megumin.”
But she still just called Darkness “Darkness.”
Could it be because Darkness was her…friend?
I had the urge for a little mischief.
Chris was just getting up and waving good-bye when I said:
“By the way, Lady Eris. Where are you keeping the divine item you took back from His Lordship?”
“Oh, that? I sealed it up in the cave where the hydra used to—”
Chris—or rather, the goddess Eris—stopped where she was, that same sweet smile frozen on her face.
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