Chapter 43: It tasted purple!

“Hastily cleaning up a mess so ridiculous even Dooly’s magic tricks wouldn’t have caused it, I used the method Ahri taught me when she stayed at our house to erase a portion of Riven’s memories, preventing her from suffering post-traumatic stress disorder.

This is absolutely not because I want to hide the fact that I am the culprit behind this incident.

Absolutely, never.

This whole thing was Riven’s suggestion originally, and there’s that perfectly valid old saying: “It’s not a crime unless you get caught.”

Therefore, doing this benefits both Riven and me.

As a bonus, no one else besides me will know the truth about this incident.

I am not a bad Vastaya!

Go catch Ahri, who’s probably using Charm somewhere else again!

After that, I woke Riven up, told her she suddenly collapsed, suggested she seemed very tired, and sent her home.

It was a simple perception manipulation, taking advantage of her groggy state right after waking up.

Thanks to that, Riven, while puzzled about the fact that she collapsed, trudged towards her home.

Good.

According to plan.

Now there’s no one left to hold this against me.

If I feign ignorance, they’ll have no evidence and will eventually have to give up.

Of course, since I dealt with all the traces beforehand so they wouldn’t even know something happened, the possibility of someone coming to me is extremely slim.

Although I’ve dealt with the aftermath of this incident to some extent, the fundamental problem remains unresolved.

I don’t know how long my current condition will last, but honestly, I think this makes no sense.

How can a person not bleed a single drop after being stabbed with a knife, and create a scene of destruction like a meteor impact with just one punch?

It seems I need to be careful until I find the cause of the changes happening to my body.

If I make a mistake and send someone to meet the Lord, it will truly be irreversible then.

I think I’ll need to put in some effort going forward to find a way to resolve the unease in my heart.

12 hours later.

“Hi hi! Zoe, the Aspect of Twilight, is here~.”

“That thing yesterday looked fun, how’d you do it?”

“Well, of course.”

“As they say, birds hear the words spoken by day, and Zoe hears the words spoken by night…”

As always, Zoe appeared, passing through a portal at a crucial moment.

Ultimately, thanks to that officially cheat-level performance Aspect, my attempt to completely conceal my actions failed.

Well, judging by her asking me how I did it, it seems Zoe doesn’t know the cause of the changes in my body either.

This is quite disappointing.

In the end, one method of investigation has been eliminated, and I don’t have much confidence that the remaining methods will lead to finding a solution either.

It’s more like, ‘It would be nice if I found out by luck.’

Perhaps I’ll have to live my whole life anxiously like this, without ever finding the cause.

‘If anyone is watching me, tell me the answer!’

Still, I couldn’t just send Zoe away after she came to visit, so I went back home to prepare to make a cake.

No, perhaps the rather plausible thought occurred that she came here aiming for this from the start.

Zoe’s scheme to hold yesterday’s events over my head and make me keep baking cakes forev…

“Hey, you there! Can’t you hear me?”

“Annyeonghasalbeop!?! Wh-who are youuu?”
TL Note: Annyeonghasalbeop is a nonsensical, cutesy greeting combining ‘hello’ and ‘martial art’.

Startled by the voice suddenly coming from behind, I couldn’t even greet properly and my tongue got twisted.

Even I didn’t know what kind of greeting I had just blurted out.

Putting aside my embarrassment, I looked around to see who called me.

However, there was nothing there.

‘What is this, could it be a ghost…’

“Not there, here! Down here!”

Down here?

Looking down again, I saw a little young lady (?) with a tiny stature wearing a large hat.

From her appearance, she didn’t seem human, but I have no memory of such a race existing.

Ultimately, it means she’s a race I don’t know, so what brings her here suddenly?

Could this kid also be here because of what happened yesterday?

“Can I watch you make that thing you’re about to make?”

“Pix has been nagging me to follow you since earlier.”

At the little girl’s words, suddenly some fairy-like creature, no, a real fairy, flew up, circled around the girl, and then flew towards me.

It seemed to have something it wanted to say, but I couldn’t understand it.

Eventually, after hovering near me for a while, perhaps tired, she gently landed on the girl’s shoulder.

Since just following and watching wasn’t a problem, I took them back with me.

Watching the little girl constantly hopping on one foot on the way, I guessed she had a very cheerful personality.

Although, it wasn’t long before she said it wasn’t fun anymore and started chatting with the fairy named Pix.

After arriving home, a little later, after making the cake, I also tried baking some other bread as a test.

I put grape jam in the bread to make it sweet, but I hadn’t tasted it yet, so I put it in a basket to eat later.

I was planning to eat it as a snack after giving the cake to Zoe, but it disappeared completely while I was briefly wrapping the cake.

There is always only one truth.

The culprit is that little girl.

The bread crumbs stuck around her mouth are the evidence.

Without needing a trial, by unanimous guilty verdict, I grabbed the little girl’s cheeks and spun her around.

When I asked why she ate it without saying anything, the answer that came back was unexpected.

“It tasted purple.”

“So I ate it! Muhehehehe! Uhu, uhat uhehe heheh!”

I don’t know if that “purple taste” meant grapes, but I thought her laugh was really peculiar.

It gnawed at my sanity almost on par with Zoe’s rapid-fire speech.

I thought perhaps she might get along really well with Zoe.

“Luluuuuuuu!”

“Zoooooeeeeee!”

No, it wasn’t just a thought; they were actually getting along well.

Seeing them, it seemed they already knew each other, which made me wonder what my position was, caught in the middle like this.

“Wow! This is super pretty!”

“Right? Pix has been practicing sparkles lately.”

The thought that the phrase ‘a match made in heaven’ referred to exactly this kind of thing naturally came to mind.

‘That’s how well they click~’ No, what am I saying…

My mind is so frazzled that strange words keep popping into my head.

“Really? What else is there?”

“Here, I’ll show you! Enlarge!!!”

Huh?

What’s happening to Zoe?