"Three! Two! One! Finished! Traveler! Paimon's finished counting!!"
"Come out! Traveler! Stop playing around... please come out..."
"Waaah... please come out, Traveler. I'm scared without you..."
When no answer came no matter what she did, Paimon's unease reached its peak. She searched every spot around her that she could see, but she still couldn't find Lin Ze.
Her eyes were red and swollen, tears streaming down her cheeks as sorrowful sobs escaped her throat.
"Traveler, what's wrong...? Where did you go...? Waaah..."
As if something had occurred to her, Paimon suddenly raised her arm and wiped away her tears, murmuring in a hoarse voice.
"It must... it must be something Paimon did wrong... that's right. If Paimon does it right, the Traveler will come back."
Paimon covered her face and closed her eyes, trying to hold back her tears. Then, earnestly and carefully, she began counting down from a hundred again, one number at a time:
"One hundred... ninety-nine..."
Paimon's young, slightly hoarse voice echoed through the empty, desolate space.
With every number she counted, memories of her time with Lin Ze surfaced in her mind, until toward the end, she was almost shouting the numbers through her sobs:
"Five... four... three..."
"Two... one..."
Swallowing the bitterness in her throat, Paimon slowly moved her hands away.
She struggled to catch her breath before daring to slowly open her eyes.
"He's... not here? How can that be!"
Paimon hurriedly flew off, calling out as she searched.
"Traveler! Traveler!! I'm here!!"
"Damn it!! Damn it!!!"
"Liar!! Big liar!! The Traveler's a big liar!!!"
Nothing around her had changed. Paimon couldn't see the person who had made that solemn promise to her.
"You... you promised you'd come back when Paimon counted to a hundred! You lied!!"
"Waaah... please... Traveler!"
"Don't leave me..."