Oh, what shall I call this emotion? What shall I call it?

　To be able to see it with my own eyes is bliss. Her voice is like a heavenly tune. So be it. That's why my heart is spitting out fury like a flag.

"Oh, come on. The woman I'm in love with is not someone who speaks as cheaply as you do.

　The heat has invaded his bone marrow, and his breath is no longer a mere exhalation. Just a few moments ago, he had only exhaled cold air. It's as if heat itself has entered my body from somewhere and is biting off the cold air.

　My vision, which should have been hazy, became surprisingly clear. Rage, rage, rage... No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

　I don't know the logic, I don't know the reason. I don't know what is and what happened. The only thing I know is that whoever is speaking and talking to me now is definitely not Alueno. Even if the body is a being that could be mistaken for Alueno himself.

　That's why my heart is burning. That's why I want to rip its throat out.

　Yes. Alueno, my love, was a man who never said that effort was futile. Arueno was a woman who would never sneer at the sight of others struggling and bleeding. It was the same when she was in the orphanage, and it was the same in her travels.

　She turned her body around and caught the figure in her eyes again. Her figure was so much like Alueno's that you could not help but think that she was really Alueno herself. But there is still something fatally different about him. It's a spirit, or should I say a soul? The one thing that invisibly but surely made up Alueno is missing from the being in front of me.

　I looked at the nameless woman and opened my lips.

"What's wrong, shut up. Smile. You were laughing so hard just now. As if that's all you can do.

　Yeah, that's right. Only people who don't know what they're doing can mock hard work. Only a coward who can't even shed his own blood can laugh at someone else's blood.

　And Alueno is not one of those people. That's what I believe. Not now, not in the past, and not even in the future.

"Laugh, you coward. I don't know who you are, but you'll laugh until the end of your life. You're a coward who can't even speak without borrowing a human form.

　The words came out of my lips like a muddy stream.

　It is completely different from the beautiful words that were being spoken in my ear just now. It's just a string of words, not something to be admired, as if you were spitting out your emotions from your lips.

　But that's about right. It's no fun for a language to be bound by rules all the time.

　There was a gap where I had finished spitting out all these words that had become a blazing heat.

　A word was dropped into the gap. It was someone else's voice, completely different from Alueno's words, Alueno's tone of voice, and Alueno's tone of voice.

　--It's just like him, isn't it? You're just like him, aren't you? No wonder Oufru grabbed his hand.

　I couldn't respond to the words right away. The words were so unconnected, and yet so strangely familiar.

　What was Ohuru, I wondered. I think it was a heraldic deity or something by that name. But why does it come up now, here and now? I can't figure it out. The voice of the unknown one echoes in my ears again.

"What's wrong with your face? Oh, it's this body. What, a saint is something close to me. Then I have no problem borrowing some of it.

　This body, saint, borrowing. These words keep popping up in my mind and then disappearing. What's he talking about, this guy? I don't understand. There's a limit to how much I don't know.

　It's as if his fevered mind is refusing to process the information. A few possibilities pop into my head, but I brush them away as if they don't exist. It can't be. There is no such thing as a possibility.

　On the contrary to his useless mind, his body was eloquent. Without realizing it, he opened his body halfway, and the little finger of his right hand rested on the treasured sword at his waist. His eyes trembled as if they were pulsating.

Don't do that! I'm a coward. I'm a coward. Please, please, please don't do this.



　The words spoken by the human in front of me, something in the form of an alueno, are quite light and thin. It's as if there is no real feeling in it. I don't even know if it's possible to have a conversation with it.

　At any rate, there is no sense of weight, which words should have, in the voice that comes from her lips. Isn't it really just a sound? It even makes me think that it just sounds like words by chance. Light words do not make us feel threatened at all.

　And yet... My eyes never stop twitching, my heart never stops palpitating, my legs cower. My body won't let go of its stance.

"Yeah, but there's nothing you can do about it, because this body is, well, your girlfriend, right?

　He said that right in front of me, right next to me. And then he laughed and showed me his white head, dressed as if he were going to give it to me himself. Yes, it looked really funny, really, really funny.

　It dazzled my eyes. The bone marrow flared up, and the pain that had covered my whole body vanished. My fingertips gripped tighter.

"Oh, yeah, you know. My hobby is writing scripts. I write good scripts, if I do say so myself. Yes, everyone gets saved, everyone gets happy. It's the happiest, funniest, most joyful story ever. There are heroes, there are brave men, there are saints. At the end, everyone is smiling.

　She smiles merrily, changing the subject from time to time. She traces my chin with a thin white finger, as if playing with it.

　My bitten teeth make a sound like they're about to shatter. My jaw makes a creaking sound I've never heard before. If I hadn't done that, I wouldn't have been able to stifle the rage that was warping my body.

"I've decided on your role in the story. It's a good role. A role that only you can play. A very, very important role. While everyone else is having a good time.

　The being in front of me opens his eyes, muttering. A golden glow was peering into my face. Our lips are so close that they almost overlap, and words leak out.

　--You'll die alone and in despair.

　It's like a blessing. It's like a curse. I opened my eyes, and the woman's hand was pressing on my body. I felt my body lose its weight. At the end, the woman looked at me as I fell out, and said, as if muttering.

　So, at least make light work of it, she said.