Pom-Pom fired a soul-searching question at Gallagher. Russell thought for a moment, then chimed in with an addition.
"Hard to say."
There was a certain God King who preferred to remain anonymous, whose wife was a rabbit.
Even after that rabbit reincarnated and cultivated bitterly into a Goddess Queen, he still captured her and turned her back into a rabbit. That was some truly profound love for rabbits.
"You humans really are perverts."
Pom-Pom turned back and said irritably.
Then Pom-Pom knocked on the table, signaling for the man across from him to sit. The train's lights had dimmed from the earlier attack, and the murky light fell from above, smearing everything in the colors of dusk. "You still haven't answered my question, old friend."
"There's no need to mention my old name anymore. Just call me Gallagher now. I never thought there would come a day when we'd draw blades against each other."
Gallagher sat down across from Pom-Pom. The dim yellow light shone on his face, casting broad shadows over it.
Then he raised his head. The face identical to Sunday's gradually changed back into its former appearance the instant he finished speaking. The smell of cheap candy and cheap liquor slowly spread through the air. Time froze at that moment, as though they had returned directly to the frontier of the Asdener Galaxy.
He stubbed his cigarette out against the train wall, leaving behind a small scar, then took out a piece of candy and popped it into his mouth before speaking to Pom-Pom.
"Want one?"
Back in that era of miners, Yellow Sand, company warships, and gunfire from the resistance, the candies he carried had been harder currency than hard currency itself.
"Stop talking about pointless nonsense. Do you know what you're doing?"
Pom-Pom cut him