Chapter 223: The Silent Puzzle

The Anti-theft Door closed heavily behind her, locking the suffocating warmth and lies behind the door.

The cold wind of Hokkaido poured into her collar through the Elevator of the old Apartment, and Aina Saiten tightened the dark gray trench coat around herself, walking alone into the long, narrow, dark alley.

Although the afternoon sunlight was bright, it could not drive away the piercing cold brought by the melting snow.

Stepping on the muddy black water and leftover snow, her footsteps seemed somewhat mechanical and heavy.

“I never told you it was dangerous there. Who told you?”

Just now in the Foyer, her own cold question seemed still to echo in her ears, and Kaoru Hoshitani’s face, which had instantly lost all color and was filled with panic and helplessness, stabbed deep into her heart like a thorn.

She hated this feeling.

Lies, concealment, disguise…

That person was clearly afraid, yet unwilling to confess.

Even if only a thin sheet of paper separated deception from exposure, he would still struggle to maintain that false daily life that could let them break apart a little later.

How pitiful.

In fact, she had known for a long time.

Just late last night.

That black Old Mobile Phone lay quietly hidden under the pillow, its faint, harsh light quietly showing through the darkness.

If unlucky, when the light spilled from the gap and illuminated that familiar sleeping face, Aina only needed to wake for a few seconds to possibly destroy their self-deceiving peace and spend the rest of her life in suspicion.

The scene from last night, as if quenched in ice water, was clearly carved into her mind.

Aina Saiten closed her eyes in the cold wind, recalling the scene when she opened her eyes and looked at that faint light.

Messy chestnut hair hung down, features hidden under the Shadow, looking silent and oppressed.

This deception had begun very early. Chika had betrayed them. If Chika had not appeared before him that day, no one would know what could have happened at the starting point of this escape.

How many new messages would pop up? One? Or two…

Chika, you are so clever. You deceived us again.

But… just call him “Kazune,” okay?

I am too clear-headed. I am truly sorry.

Aina Saiten turned her head and glanced sideways at Kaoru Hoshitani sleeping beside her.

The forbearance in her eyes, condensed to the extreme, instead became a different kind of calm. Coldness climbed into her eyes, like a resigned outsider watching.

In the darkness, The Boy slept very deeply, mumbling and murmuring uneasily together, brows tightly furrowed, a small patch of faint light spreading under the pillow, the tired expression on his face also disordered, as if someone had pulled invisible strings over it at random, making him very fragile.

The Boy lay on the Bed murmuring constantly; that little thought of wanting to confess in his heart had long disappeared.

Even if Aina Saiten accidentally reached out at this moment, The Boy would never dare to tell the truth.

Akane, who had originally been open and dependent, was now full of fear in his dream, with a bit of servility added… like a Victim trapped in lies for too long, forgetting to flee when the cage was opened, able only to yield to the Will to Submit and wait for the Destiny arranged for him.

Beneath her calm shell at this moment condensed a bone-deep icy cold.

A twisted heartache and sense of clarity danced lightly at the tip of her heart.

Suspicion never faded with time; confirmation after suppression only became more piercing.

She wanted…

Her cold, clear gaze contracted onto Kaoru Hoshitani’s face.

His defenses fell apart in sleep, his eyelashes trembling as he lay on the Bed, like livestock waiting to be slaughtered.

But exposing and pretending not to know were completely different things.

The pain of concealment could not be replaced.

When her gaze swept over the notification on the screen, the beating of Trust stopped there, and the lie broke.

She had truly punctured a false illusion of infinite dependence.

No matter what painful original intention or protective reason this concealment carried, from the moment the light lit up, everything was no longer important.

His independent judgment and choices, the efforts he was to make for them, the things he had pinned down to do tomorrow… all came to an abrupt halt.

His will was thus stripped away alive. This was the will of the controller, the supreme command handed down by Chika.

She felt sorrow and fear at this cruelty.

“Aina Onee-san…” Kaoru Hoshitani murmured on the Bed, his speech indistinct, pale lips pressed against the soft pillow, the black Mobile Phone screen giving off a faint light.

Her finger, stopped in midair, hovered for a long time, yet she had no courage at all to touch it.

Aina Saiten withdrew that finger, curling up quietly in the dark night. The faint light flashed across her eyes, somewhat stinging.

It was a notification, the avatar clear and harsh, the wording intimate, the edge of the screen glowing with a pale, cold light.

The notification had also stayed long enough, as if they often made Secret contact late at night, hidden extremely well, like a work of art used for manipulation.

“Did you sleep well last night? I made breakfast. It will be ready to eat soon. I prepared all the medicine you like.”

“Very good.”

Without a trace of hesitation.

Her gaze moved downward, piercing the disguise.

The daily conversation gradually gathered, blooming into long passages of lies in the false morning. That instant was truly freezing.

Kaoru Hoshitani was like a blinded Victim, completely unaware…

Several details placed in the room that she dared not verify opened their mouths to roar, but were suppressed by Aina Saiten’s calm, forbearing movements.

The lack of expression in Aina Saiten’s eyes made everything still.

Using the excuse of going out, she painfully suppressed the questioning in the bottom of her heart and did not expose it.

The exposed map stunned her.

From the corner of the Drawer, Aina Saiten saw markings earlier than the plan, and the bone-deep chill that swelled from it almost swallowed her whole.

It was as if a silent ice storm had risen in her chest, freezing her last hopes completely.

She hated this kind of discovery too much; it was simply suffocating.

After touching it once, she could never forget such a chill that pierced the Soul.

After going out, the cold wind swept away all disguises.

The Truth arrived as expected, and a dead silence fell in her chest.

“Ding…”

Several crisp notification sounds broke the oppressive silence. Aina Saiten, walking on the Street, stopped.

The message jumped out from the chat box covered by lies.

The sharp sense of rupture seemed to tear her world in two.

The nerves of Trust were almost paralyzed.

She would rather play dumb from then on, yet she stubbornly kept the last thread of Rationality and felt the endless chill.

The other party precisely controlled the measure of concern, hypocritical… but not breaking the situation.

Aina Saiten glanced at the envelope photographed in the Mobile Phone.

It no longer matched. She could not keep deceiving herself.

Aina Saiten did not want to let this lie stay hidden for too long.

She did not lash out at all. She only opened a small crack in the pieced-together Truth and confirmed a tiny bit of evidence, so that she would not be so pitifully blind.

Aina Saiten put the map back in its original place and stood up, silently taking a Photograph. Her eyes thus became gentle and calm.

If not for the sickly cold still showing on her pale face, she would have looked as normal as an ordinary woman going out to buy medicine.

Aina Saiten turned around and walked straight into the Convenience Store, leaving a few threads of doubt circling in her heart, staring blankly at the wide-open Truth, not daring to disperse.

They shrank pitifully in the bottom of her heart, aching faintly.

…

Aina Saiten had just finished buying daily necessities when the message came.

“When are you coming back?”

She took a deep breath and exhaled as much of those cold emotions of Despair as possible.

Even though the other party could not see her appearance, Aina Saiten still subconsciously showed a gentle smile at the screen.

With somewhat cold hands and feet, she sorted the receipts that had accidentally been rummaged into a mess in her bag.

After a long while, she typed a reply, her tone casual and light.

“Akane, I went to the Convenience Store. I bought a few boxes of medicine and will be back soon.”

Aina Saiten lowered her eyes, her fingertip lightly brushing over the Photograph in the album. Chika’s handwriting once again gave off a cold, harsh warning.

Tiredly, she locked the screen and closed those few cruel pieces of evidence.

Her face was calm, and the hidden pain of being deceived began to grow wildly like vines again.

“All right… if the snow gets heavy, come back quickly. Don’t go out so far from now on. Remember not to stay in the cold wind too long, or you’ll catch a cold. Oh, right… what do you want to eat tonight?”

The period after exposing a lie was always the most fragile. Even a little care could stir up stormy waves in the bottom of her heart.

The Boy’s message turned into an extremely fine sting that drilled into her eyes and rushed into her nerves, making her whole body cold and trembling.

If she had not grabbed the door frame of the Convenience Store, she would almost have collapsed into the snow.

The cold wind brushed over the desolate Street, sweeping away tenderness in an instant and growing large patches of silent, oppressive paleness.

The remains of Trust withered and sank into the soil, and she was able to wake.

Akane… you are so foolish. I cannot bear to let you go, and I want to hold you back.

She wished she could tear Chika’s conspiracy to pieces and lay it all before him; even facing the Truth directly would be nothing.

“Mmm… I want to eat the tomato beef brisket Akane made last time.”

“Okay. Be careful on the way.”

Aina Saiten gave a soft, light laugh and replied as usual.

“All right, Akane is so good.”

When she pushed open the door to Home, she asked as if casually, “Miss Chika found this place for us. Has she been here before?”

Kaoru Hoshitani was stunned for a moment. “Probably… not?”

“Oh, just asking.”