Retirement / Mental Disorder

Her fingers never left the hilt of the knife. The man beside Mei exuded a dangerous aura no less than Lin's, and his gaze was even more aggressive, constantly lingering on Ying's hands and feet, wary of her sudden attack.

Mei glanced at her ticking watch—their meeting time was limited, many people were watching her and waiting for her to go back to work.

After putting her hands down, Mei said to Ying, "I have erased all traces of you. That night by the lake, it was just me, Kevin, and Lin, who had just returned to the Fire Moth. And Lin's wound will be treated as a 'secondary recurrence' of the laceration."

Sakura quietly observed Mei's expression. It was a futile effort; even a professional psychologist might not be able to discern anything from the girl's face. However, Sakura could sense Mei's sincerity. So, she took a deep breath, nodded, and said, "You don't seem... to be lying. Well then, the deal is done. Farewell."

The pink-haired girl removed her fingers from the hilt of the knife, pushed open the cell door under Kevin's gaze, walked past the two of them, and headed outside, completely unafraid of the darkness before her.

"Miss Sakura, are you really not going to reconsider what I said last time? You've already experienced that during this mission, haven't you?"

"..."

Sakura's high heels stopped in the darkness.

Temperatures around the world are changing drastically. Even outside the epicenter of the Honkai, the aberrations are affecting other places, as if we have entered a low-temperature era that does not belong to humankind.

Sakura saw it clearly.

If a mere change in temperature can cause a dramatic transformation in human society, then what kind of hellish scene must those central points she only saw in the video be?

Can I really protect Ling in the event of a disaster that could happen at any time?

"The Firemoth is currently facing a shortage of manpower, Miss Sakura. Humanity needs people like you. If you don't want to, we won't stop you, and no one will hunt you down, but no one will bring up this deal with you again."

"..."

"..."

The long silence wasn't just about the atmosphere; it was also a reflection of Sakura's considerations, and she clearly had more to consider than most people.

For some reason, she thought of Lin.

Perhaps it was because Lin was the only member of the Moth Chaser who knew her before this incident, or perhaps it was for some other inexplicable reason, but when Sakura thought of him at this moment, she felt that this was not a coincidence.

So she turned around and asked, "... What do you need me to do?"

"Welcome to the Fire Moth, Sakura." Mei seemed to have anticipated this outcome. She smiled slightly. "As I said last time, we need you to do what you do best. You will stay in the Poisoned Cocoon, but this team will no longer be the Speaker's private army, and your job duties will also change to some extent."

"... Where are the members?"

"For now, it's just you, but I'll expand it soon."

"Won't the others have any objections?"

In dealing with Sakura's matter, it is clearly not up to Mei to make the decision alone. The High Council in the Fire Moth, the Speaker, and Lin are all people who know her inside and out.

"If you understood how the Moth of Fire works and its core, you wouldn't ask that question."

"Lin is the same?"

"... No, Lin..."

May paused for a moment, and Kevin's gaze also flickered for a split second.

"Lin... has disappeared."

Chapter Sixteen Retirement

This man has a mental illness.

After the girl followed him around the house, she came to a conclusion she was certain of.

He started talking to himself as soon as he entered the room, as if he were talking to someone, but in reality there was nothing around him except himself, and he ignored himself, which means that he did not exist in his eyes.

He has severe delusions; apart from being able to recognize the structure of a house and avoid bumping into it, everything else about him is abnormal.

Within minutes of entering, he used a sculpture's hand, a shoe, and a water glass as telephones, speaking normally as if he were "making a phone call."

There are also those who look out the window at the snow and say they don't want to swim, pick up an empty bowl and mutter that the coconut juice is too sweet, and stand under the light and say that the sun is too strong.

This crazy, Mental Instability look... how should I put it... it's a bit inexplicable... pitiful?

"Anyway, it's none of my business. I was just doing my job..." The girl scratched her head, then she remembered something important, "By the way, aren't you the person in that photo?"

Although the boy in the photo is younger than me, it's possible that the photo was taken a long time ago.

Since he can't see me anyway, wouldn't it be possible to quietly remove the cloth from his face without being noticed?

Thinking of this, the girl approached the man's wheelchair with light steps, stood next to him, and waved her hand in front of his eyes. After making sure he couldn't see her, she grabbed the cloth from his face like a thief.

Grasp the knot in the fabric with your fingers, then gently apply pressure...

"Smack."

"Alas--"

Without any warning, the man grabbed her wrist with his right hand.

He... he's faking it!

"I... I'm called Pardofelis! I have a boss behind me, and they love buying my stuff! Go ask around on Dusk Street! Don't do anything reckless!" Pardo hurriedly announced her name while pulling her hand away, hoping to scare the guy.

"Is this your child? Immer, that's wonderful. You got married after the Honkai ended, but it took you so long to have a child."

"Huh?"

Pardo thought she had misheard, so she stopped shouting and looked into the man's eyes.

Only then did she realize that the man only had one eye, illusory and fragile, diffused into a round disc, and he wasn't looking at her at all.

"Yes, we've finally retired."

He nodded with a smile.

"I still didn't see it..."

Pardo came out of the house, touched her face, and couldn't help but sigh.

Even if this Mental Instability man really is the person in the photo, giving him the key probably wouldn't be of much use.

Forget it, I'll just leave it on the table and call it a day. The rest is none of my business.

Despite thinking this, Pardo recalled the eerily warm scene with the man earlier and couldn't help but feel a pang of sympathy. He probably couldn't even live alone; could he possibly die in this house...?

Did he come here by himself? That's impossible. Given his mental state, even if he knew the way, he shouldn't have been able to get here.

As she thought about it, Pardo reached into her pocket for the key.

"... Huh? Huh—no, it's gone!"

Pardo frantically searched her entire body, but couldn't find the key that had been threatened to be handed over to someone else.

Pardo always carries her keys with her to prevent losing them, but the keys she checked this morning are gone after the man arrives.

Are you kidding me? If that person really is the boy in the photo, wouldn't she be in big trouble?

Pardo, who had always wanted to protect herself, made the biggest mistake at this crucial moment. She immediately turned around and went back inside to look for the key. Logically speaking, since she hadn't left the house all day, the key would have been inside if she had lost it.

But...

"No! It's over! My life, Pardofelis's life, is over!"

She turned the house upside down, even searching the man's wheelchair, but Pardo couldn't find the key. She felt like the sky was falling.

All she wanted to do at that moment was to bury herself in the snow and pass out.

Pardo left dejectedly. She had no interest in caring about the man anymore. Trouble might be coming her way soon, so she decided to find somewhere to hide until then.

"Have you heard? The sanatorium apparently rescued someone with frostbite all over their body! Apparently, not a single patch of skin was intact!"

"Really? Wasn't that a death sentence? How could someone be frozen like that?"

"What else could it be? This winter is so cold, he must have accidentally broken his leg somewhere and then it got frozen like that."

"How miserable."

"So what if it's tragic? That's just how Dusk Street is..."

Pardo took note of what the beggar in dirty clothes on the street was saying.

They aren't necessarily beggars. There shouldn't be anyone on Dusk Street who makes a living purely by begging. Everyone here relies on their own abilities, and you can't survive long if you always depend on others. So they gather all sorts of information, Pardo loves to hear, because some of the shopkeepers who buy things from her also love to hear.

Luckily, I have a house to live in, otherwise I might have gotten frostbite.

After thinking about it, Pardo decided to go and check out the sanatorium.

"..."

Lin sat in his wheelchair, standing motionless in the center of the hall, as peaceful as if he were asleep.

His unfocused pupils were still staring ahead, or perhaps he wasn't seeing anything at all, just spacing out.

"Gah—"

A man pushed open the door and walked in, glanced in the direction Pardo had left, and then walked up to Lin.

"..."

Lin still looked blank, showing no trace of his former quick thinking.

"I originally intended for you to live on Dusk Street. The Moths of Fire didn't control this place; it was a mixed bag but also less likely to be discovered, which is why I built the house." The man sat at the table in front of Lin and said to him, "But before it was even finished, you had already joined the Moths of Fire."

"After you joined the Firemoth, I decided not to let you come here. Your identity has changed. I don't know what made you think of that, but a soldier is a soldier, not a child I need to protect."

"However, someone made a deal with me, so that you can at least spend your last days in peace, which is why I decided to bring you here. Because I never break my word."

"Here, you can freely return to your past or dream about your future; at least... you still have this left."

After saying his last words, the man got up and left. He walked to the door and glanced at Lin, who was lost in her hallucination, with a complicated look in his eyes.

Then the door was closed.

"Clatter".

Chapter Seventeen Mental Disorders

Humming a song, Hun plunged the knife into the pig's belly, and with a gentle push, sliced open the skin along the lines.

The pig, which had already been bled, was no longer bleeding. The knife in her hand, as precise as a surgeon's scalpel, separated the meat from the bones and cut it into pieces suitable for cooking.

Dark red bloodstains and fat clung to the knife, and the crackling sound of cutting echoed in the empty room.

"Click".

"Knock knock knock".

The knocking interrupted the sound of slicing meat.

"Gah—"

Soul opened the door and saw Himiko standing in the doorway with a forced smile, shaking the bottle of sake in her hand.

"Want a drink, Soul?"

Himiko and Komami sat facing each other at a small round table. Himiko wine into Komami's cup, filling it halfway before filling her own.

"Speaking of which, when I first met you, you couldn't even drink alcohol yet, but now you're old enough to get married." Himiko up her wine glass but didn't drink. Instead, she looked at her own somewhat disappointed face reflected in the glass. "So it's been... quite a few years."

"..."

Hun lowered his head and remained silent.

How many years?

It has indeed been several years.

"Aren't you going to drink?" Himiko asked, picking up her cup, taking a half-drinked drink, and smacking her lips.

"Hmm." Hun also picked up the cup, took a sip, and then coughed because of the strong smell of alcohol.

"Cough cough cough..."

Himiko, then laughed somewhat inexplicably, and helped the spirit catch its breath.

"Seeing you like this, you're pretty much the same as before. Lately, you've become a bit different from the Little Soul I know."

"Cough cough... Phew... Have I changed?" Hun asked, his eyebrows twitching as he breathed a sigh of relief.