Jhed sat alone at the dining table, eating slowly. Shine had gone to find Nain. Daichi's house was quiet.
He chewed without thinking, sunk deep in his own head.
"I can't believe how foolish I am. A slave who doesn't listen to his master. Who causes delays. Just a few more days." His thoughts had been circling the same point for days — not choosing Shine again.
"It all happens because I don't go outside. It all happens because I have no control over myself. It all happens because I'm afraid. It all happens because I'm... not enough." Jhed said this to himself.
He'd decided to stay here for now. Today he was going to go to the guild and pick up a quest.
He was so deep in thought that he didn't even notice the pretty girl from the counter had come inside. She was sitting in the chair right next to him, watching him. She'd probably been trying to get his attention for a while.
"Hello. Where have you disappeared to?" She brought her hand close to his face.
Jhed saw a hand coming at him and lurched sideways in shock, falling off his chair. Milk spilled across his clothes.
"Nain—" He'd thought it was her hand.
"Oh — it's you." He wiped the milk off with his hand and got back up.
"Why did you get so scared?" the girl asked.
"I was thinking about something, and then your hand appeared right in front of my face — I thought you were a monster," Jhed said with a small smile.
The girl looked at her own hand.
"You have such a pretty hand and it felt like a monster's."
"Jhed, you turned me into a zombie. You left me alone and that's why this happened to me. You're responsible for what I've become. I won't forgive you." Jhed was building a story in his own head. Hallucinations. Nain's wounded hand kept flashing in his mind — as if it were his fault. He was trying to push it away, but it wouldn't go.
"No — I didn't mean it like that." A hollow smile sat on his face.
"I'm trying to forget something, but I can't." The words left his mouth on their own — as if it were Sin speaking from somewhere inside him. After all, the body was Jhed's — but Sin's soul lived within it, and it was that soul driving things forward.
Jhed wasn't only his own.
"Hmm. Did you eat?" The girl wasn't paying attention. She was digging through a bag she'd brought. She hadn't caught what he said.
"You came to get something?"
"Yes, that's what I was looking for—" She placed a paper in his hand. "It says here — for as long as you're staying, your teleportation card will be kept with us. There are quite a few thieves in this town, so we'll keep it safe. Keeping it secure will be our responsibility." She smiled as she said it.
"Oh, alright." Jhed signed the paper without reading it and handed it back.
"Thank you." She looked at the paper.
"Jhed—! Your name is Jhed."
"Yes..."
"Your signature has your name in it. By the way — my name is Silia." Silia smiled.
"Silia..."
"Yes. Well then, Jhed — I'll be going. We'll keep this safe." She slipped the paper into her bag and took the card from him too.
"Hmm."
Silia left. There was still so much Jhed needed to learn.