(Thank you very much to 'Yume no Shouyou,' 'Lei Xiang,' 'Kui Yuan-ge,' 'Yunqi Qinggu,' 'Xu Jing Ji,' 'Erciyuan de Shuangxiezuo,' and 'Pokémon' for your tips!)
"Who?!"
Felix jolted and abruptly turned to look behind him.
But the moment he did, Felix froze on the spot.
"So it really was... you..."
As a sorrow-filled voice rang out, a girl with dazzling golden hair that shone even in the darkness of night, a little dragon perched on her shoulder, slowly emerged from the shadowy forest and stepped into the moonlight.
"You..." Felix's expression changed as he looked at the girl emerging from the woods.
"Char!"
The newcomer was none other than Charlotte!
Charlotte raised her head and met Felix's thoroughly changed handsome face with her gaze. A miserable smile appeared on her face.
"How I wished it wasn't you..."
Hearing Charlotte's grief-stricken words, Felix recovered and looked at her with eyes full of sincerity.
"Char, please calm down a little. This is a misunderstanding..."
Though he said that, Felix's voice grew lower and lower.
For no other reason than that tears had begun streaming from Charlotte's clear, crystalline eyes.
"Why... was it you..."
"Char..." Felix gritted his teeth and spoke painfully.
"Don't you trust me?..."
Charlotte laughed at that, a laugh as if she were torturing herself.
"Felix, don't you understand yet?..."
"Understand?..." Felix looked utterly confused, though a faint sense of foreboding rose in his heart.
"Understand what?..."
Seeing Felix still putting on an act, Charlotte wiped the tears from her cheeks and, her voice trembling, spoke words that made Felix's heart pound violently.
"That thing about being able to extract what an 'Automaton' saw before it was destroyed—that was all a lie. From the moment you took that 'Automaton' out until you burned it, I saw the entire process!"
"You—!"