บท 48: Bitter Irony

***

February 09, 2029

"Oh! Awake now?" The first voice that greeted him upon waking up was hers. It had been quite a while since he heard that word from her.

"Yeah, stayed up too late last night," Lucas responded, observing Lucy's smile, a complete departure from the tearful version of her he had seen yesterday.

"So... What were you up to last night?" Lucy inquired.

Attempting to concoct an explanation, Lucas found himself at a loss for words. He frantically glanced around the room, his attempt at diversion swiftly interrupted by Lucy.

"Care to elucidate why half of the room is adorned with black marks?"

Hearing her query, Lucas surrendered his attempts to fabricate excuses with a sigh.

"Do you recall that book?" he ventured, seemingly caught in a lie, though a subtle smile formed in the recesses of his mind.

"The one from the white building?"

"Yeah, it appears that achieving tier 1 granted us the ability to learn skills from it. The one I acquired last night is known as the 'Fireball Control Skill Book'. "

He illustrated, conjuring a mental image of a small flame dot on his hand. Lucy regarded it with intrigue.

"Watch," he continued, manifesting a tiny ball of fire in his palm. "I spent the entire night practicing, but my control is still quite limited. Currently, the most I can do is ignite firewood."

Perplexed by his newfound skill, Lucy inquired, "So... is it, like, endless?"

"Yeah, I believe so... It doesn't seem to have any inherent limitations, though I do need to refine my control. Irony at its best, don't you think? A 'Fireball Control Skill Book' that doesn't confer automatic control."

She nodded; her expression was thoughtful. "True."

"Lucy, what's your current intelligence stat?"

"That insignificant one? Um... I believe it's around 20. I started with 17, I think. Why do you ask?"

She appeared genuinely puzzled.

"One of the conditions for learning the skill required 20 intelligence points," he explained.

Her eyes narrowed suspiciously as she looked at him. "Lucas, did you already know about this condition? You were the one who suggested that I raise it to 20."

"Nah, I just thought achieving the standard human intelligence stats would be more satisfying than 17."

Lucy remained silent, her demeanor indicating that she interpreted his response as a thinly veiled insult.

Chuckling softly, Lucas retrieved all of Lucy's class books from his pouch and handed them to her.

"You won't need the magnifier for this one. Just pick up any of the books randomly. If you've met all the conditions for a skills book, it will prompt you to decide whether you want to learn it or not."

"Through a notification screen?"

"Yes, something like that. Once you confirm your intention to learn, your body might feel colder for around five minutes or so. It won't be painful. Don't worry."

"Don't worry? You do realize that I might catch hypothermia and die... maybe."

"Nah, trust me."

Lucy nodded, shifting her attention from book to book as Lucas left for the bathroom, making sure to lock the door behind him. His shower took only twenty minutes, but he returned to their room to find it unbearably cold.

Lucas knocked on the door. "Lucy, it's me."

"Click!"

With the door unlocked, he entered, immediately overwhelmed by the cold. His teeth chattered rapidly, causing him to grind them against each other.

Closing the door and seeing Lucy standing there with an awkward smile, Lucas inquired, "How did it get this cold? I'm practically shivering."

With a reluctant smile, Lucy replied, "I was practicing my skill control. It's... quite challenging."

"It's okay. You'll improve with time. So, what skills did you obtain? The floor feels damp, and the cold is intense."

"I acquired the 'Hail Control Skill Book', ranked as rare. I'm not sure how the ranking system works, though."

"Hail? Well, at least your skills won't accidentally set our room on fire like mine. As for the ranking, I just found out about it yesterday. But before I explain, there's something I want to ask you."

Lucas braced himself for her usual puzzled expression, but instead, she continued to smile at him.

"You already know?" he asked in surprise.

"Yes, I've been thinking about it all morning," she replied, deep in thought.

Lucas noticed the tear concealed in her eye. "Lucy..."

He spoke gently, attempting to soothe her. "You know, if you need to cry, it's okay. Don't worry, I've shed my fair share of tears too, and besides... that... it's in the past."

She raised her head, meeting his gaze after hearing his words. "No, it's alright. I've moved past it, and he didn't succeed in doing... that... I'm the one who should apologize if only I hadn't worn that skirt."

He saw her bite her lip, her voice quivering. "You don't need to apologize. I won't treat you any differently. And about the skirt... it's not your fault."

He tried to dispel her misconception. "How about this? We'll leave this place in a few more days, once the whole murder situation has settled down. If we left right now, it might raise suspicions since we can't fake our deaths. Okay?"

Lucas voiced his concern and the solution he'd come up with while showering.

"You're my only friend, and we've been through so much together. I don't want anything to happen to you."

Hearing his words, Lucy realized he was being completely sincere. She felt a sense of remorse for him, too. If not for what had occurred, she believed he would have truly enjoyed living there – just as she herself had enjoyed her time.

"Thank you," she replied in a hushed tone.

"No need to thank me. With someone as awful as that in a high position here, our prospects wouldn't be great, anyway."

His voice held a note of relief. In truth, Lucy had woken up feeling somewhat better that morning. Although the memories of the incident lingered, they didn't weigh on her as heavily.

Her mind was now focused on becoming mentally and physically stronger. If she achieved that, she was confident nothing like that could happen again.

While showering, she overheard the other non-active members talking. They discussed the hunt for the murderer, speculating about Aunt Edith as a suspect despite the lack of evidence.

Lucy harbored guilt that the kindest woman she'd encountered since Sarah was now under suspicion because of her. However, she didn't know how to shift that suspicion away from her without involving Lucas or revealing their abilities.

'I hope Aunt Edith will be okay,' Lucy thought to herself. She believed that without evidence, the suspicion surrounding her would likely dissipate, just as Lucas had suggested; "Let all of this die down."

Her anger toward the deceased man still smoldered.

If it were possible, she would want to torture him repeatedly for all that he had done. She had also learned from the non-active member's conversations about how pervy that guy usually was, even though she hadn't heard of any other victim speaking up.

'Maybe they're like me, afraid,' she thought.

As Lucas continued to console her, he suddenly shifted the topic to the new system building he had come across.

"After we leave here, we could head to the new system building. I spotted it yesterday. It's a completely black structure, slightly smaller than a normal house. I believe it's called an 'Auction Market Building'."

Lucy's interest was piqued as she listened. She found it quite funny and ironic that their initial meeting had occurred near the white class change building, and now they were dealing with her most traumatic experience in this place.

Curiously, the building they were in was also close to the mall. While the dimensions were quite different from the area around the white building, she found it amusing that the black building near the mall was also nearby.

'The first time was when I almost got killed, and the second time was when I nearly faced sexual assault and degradation by a middle-aged man,' she mused to herself. She felt an urge to laugh at the heavens and question if this was the fate that had been written for her. She could sense her personality slowly changing through these experiences.

As she continued to listen, Lucas brought up another intriguing topic—something about encountering a pale and skinny ghoul.