"No, it looked like it had been here all along." Dahlia's gaze fell on the black cat as well.
"Anyone could be watching from anywhere."
"Only here can I safely speak of certain secrets... secrets meant for your ears alone."
"You should have noticed that everyone's [Remembrance] has been altered."
She smiled calmly.
"My name is Constance, an ordinary Memokeeper."
"If you're willing, then bear with it for now and call me [Dahlia], like everyone else."
"Why do you all like using online aliases?" Yan Huan could not quite understand. He leaned back into the sofa, his fingers unconsciously tapping the armrest.
"I wanted to ask back on Amphoreus. Is this some kind of performance art?"
"When one roams the world, one cannot always act freely." Dahlia smiled faintly, a trace of near self-mockery mixed into her expression.
"Allow me to apologize."
"I originally thought your abilities had been weakened, so taking the form of someone familiar to you would make many things go more smoothly."
"...Many things?" Yan Huan gradually realized the truth.
"You wanted to sneak onto the train and steal something, didn't you?"
Dahlia: "..."
"Anyway, let me begin with the [First Question]."
"Now, please slowly turn your head..."
At her words, Yan Huan slowly turned to look at the spot beside him on the sofa. He moved unhurriedly, with an air of calmness.
"Hm?"
At some unknown point, a body had appeared on the carpet before the sofa.
It wore the clothes he usually wore, lying facedown and utterly lifeless.
It was his own corpse.
The black cat on the sofa stopped grooming itself. It lowered its head and gazed eerily at the corpse, its amber pupils narrowing to thin slits in the dim light.
"How did it feel to see your own corpse this way?"