The Obelian Anthology

The Reunion

"Just wandering around...."

"Where?"

"I just walked along the mountain and the river paths."

"I even copied the video from the debutant and spread it around, but they still couldn't find you."

Oh, was that a video from the debut party?

"I used magic..."

"Didn't you have money on hand?"

"I also used magi... it's a secret!"

Mom, he almost found out that I made fake money!

I pretended I didn't see Claude's narrowed eyes.

"Alright. I thought maybe you couldn't even get your hands on a bowl of soup, but I guess that wasn't the case."

As soon as his low voice grazed my ear, I stared at Claude. Our eyes met for a moment without saying a word to each other.

Claude looked more pale and exhausted than when I saw him in the rose garden and in his bedroom last time. So I don't know which one of us couldn't eat a bowl of soup. But whatever happened, Claude was still standing like before even after he vomited blood just now.

I looked at him in silence and then slowly opened my mouth.

"You said you weren't my dad."

"Yes. I'm not your father." My question was followed by a nonchalant answer.

"Then why are you being like this?" I asked in a small voice, almost whispering, as I gradually felt a strange feeling in the midst of our eye contact.

"Why are you acting like my dad when you said you're not?"

Asking as if you've been worried about me, and you've been looking for me all this time, not for killing me...

This time, instead of answering, there was a series of short silence.

"I don't know."

I watched Claude, who tightened his mouth for a while, gritted his teeth, and then spoke with a different tone from before.

"But the thought of you gives me a strange feeling. The same as when you look at me like that."

I don't know how I looked at the moment, but hearing Claude say those words in that expression made my heart clench. He looked as if he had swallowed dozens of needles.