"Iris, if I die, you'll be able to live."
That was Jiang Meng's question.
But the other girl merely smiled and shook her head as though the answer were obvious.
"If you're gone, I don't want to live. I don't want to kill people, and I don't want to be an assassin. I won't leave you behind and go on living by myself."
"Living like that would be too bitter, too exhausting. I'm afraid of hardship, and I'm afraid of getting tired. So, in the end, I'll have to ask you to live on for me!"
"Besides, I'm trash my parents sold off. But you're different. You still have family waiting for you to come home."
"After I die, call yourself Iris. Iris, the rainbow goddess. What a beautiful name."
Jiang Meng's tears fell.
Even though she had already cried once back then, experiencing it again still made her cry.
"How can you just die like this? I couldn't save you last time, but this time, I won't leave you behind, no matter what. I'll save you!
"And neither of us will ever have to be an assassin again!
"There's something else you got wrong. I don't have any family anymore. You're the only family I have!"
Iris was also just a code name.
They privately chose these code names for themselves, much like nicknames.
To the organization, they had no names. Just as Jiang Meng was called Eleven, this girl was called Seven.
But to each other, these nicknames were "proof that they were human."
What followed unfolded just as it had in her memories.
Although Jiang Meng initially kept insisting on saving Iris, and her strength was nothing like it had been back then, she was also confident she could save her now.
But...
She understood something