Luis pondered those words in his mind.
Even though he had never gone to school, he understood the metaphor.
'The other side of his personality? Does Mr. James Moriarty really have another personality?'
Hesitantly, he looked the two women up and down.
"...Raise your hands. Right now."
Luis spoke firmly.
'I'm such an idiot. How am I supposed to check whether they're carrying weapons?'
Seeing the hesitation on Luis's face, the two women exchanged glances before Lalita cleared her throat.
"Don't worry. Neither of us is carrying a weapon."
Lalita knew Luis couldn't simply search other people, especially women like them.
Knowing the street outside was fairly crowded, Luis opened the front door and the windows wide.
The two women nearly frowned.
"Are you really that wary of a woman like me?"
Hearing that, the woman with the high ponytail smirked and said, "That's because he's afraid of your face, Lalita."
Lalita let out a sharp snort.
"Your smile always scares people, you know."
The woman's eyes widened. She looked at Luis and asked in a voice that was almost raised, "Are you scared of my smile?"
Luis was just about to sit down on the armchair. Looking back over his shoulder, he replied, "It's nothing special. Don't exaggerate."
After saying that, Luis invited them to sit down without hesitation.
His vigilance eased somewhat because the Luifis pistol he had deliberately hidden was tucked into the folds of the sofa.
Luis began the conversation by asking,
"What do you mean? He has another personality within the same body?"
Lalita nodded.
"Yes, more or less."
She glanced at her friend sitting on the sofa to her left.
Holding a blue pillow in her lap, the woman named Devi said flatly, "Well, in short, there's something unique about his body."
Luis frowned.
'That's it? That sounds pretty ordinary.'
From what Luis had gathered through conversations with other people, everyone possessed at least one unique trait, whatever it might be.
Yet one question continued to bother him: did they want to meet James Moriarty simply because of his 'split personality'?
Uninterested in continuing the conversation, he decided to send them away.
However, sensing his indifference, Devi quickly interrupted, "The problem is, he possesses supernatural power."
Luis almost rose from his seat but sat back down when Devi's gaze settled on him.
"I-Is that true?" Luis asked, seeking confirmation.
Lalita nodded and tried to explain, "More or less, there are two fairly powerful supernatural entities surrounding his body."
Devi immediately raised her voice.
"Damn it, tell us where that man is right now!"
Lalita shook her head, her expression emotionless.
"Phew... I told you already, you need to be polite when talking to people."
She stood up and rapped the other woman on the head with her knuckles without holding back at all.
Devi whined and begged for mercy, but Lalita, already irritated and in a foul mood, kept hitting her.
"Maybe she's right," Luis said, drawing their attention to himself.
Lalita looked at him for a few seconds before sitting back down.
"By the way, do those two really live here?" she asked, verifying the information.
"No," Luis replied, his tone short and firm.
Devi blinked.
"Are you looking for a fight?" she asked, preparing to throw a punch.
Luis couldn't help reacting to her attitude.
"A woman should choose her words carefully before speaking to others. Otherwise, you won't have any friends. People will avoid you."
Lalita, usually calm, nodded with a smile.
Devi looked at both of them, then turned toward Lalita. She fell silent, her cheeks drooping in defeat.
The room suddenly became quiet, yet Luis and Lalita exchanged glances for several seconds as though they somehow knew each other.
"Thank you for your advice, sir...?"
"I don't have a name," Luis answered honestly.
"You don't have a name?"
Naturally, Lalita was surprised to hear that.
"That's right, I don't have a name. If you insist on calling me something, just call me Luis."
'In truth, it was Evelina who took care of us when we were living in poverty by the roadside. She was incredibly kind, even though her age didn't match her maturity. She also gave both of us our names, and they sounded funny yet unique.'
Luis smiled bitterly as the painful memory crossed his mind.
Looking at Devi's personality, Luis was once again reminded of Evelina Kalderan.
"...Don't think too much about it. I also have a friend who's rather rude to other people, but once she grows comfortable with someone, she gradually changes."
The two women fell silent, his words piercing deeply into their hearts because they both shared that same trait.
After pondering for quite a while, Devi looked at Luis with the warmest smile she could manage.
"Mr. Luis, I'm sorry. I'm exactly the kind of person you described."
Not wanting to get caught up in the drama, Luis immediately asked the reason for their visit.
"The reason you two came here... was to investigate that man, wasn't it?"
Lalita immediately nodded, having already sensed that peculiarity during the ritual.
"You could say that. But she and I want to meet him in person."
Luis nodded, knowing they wanted to meet James Moriarty.
"I don't know that man. You've got the wrong house," he said, too lazy to entertain them.
Then something unexpected suddenly changed his mind.
Lalita pulled out several banknotes, though nowhere near as much as his 2,000 Pace.
"I can pay you 55 Pace if you tell me where that man is right now," Lalita said, holding out the money.
Luis's eyes widened slightly.
"Heh... well, the truth is, I don't really know." Luis took the money and slipped it into his shirt pocket. "But he's currently in Semilir, in Ource."
The two women stared wide-eyed before exchanging glances and communicating through subtle gestures.
Luis had no idea what they meant as he transferred the money into his pants pocket.
After their silent exchange ended, Devi stared at Luis for two seconds.
"What's that man's name?"
Devi pulled out more money and gently pushed it across until it rested directly in front of him.
Luis swallowed hard at the sight of several stacks of banknotes.
He stared at the money for a long time before answering, "Yeah, he's in Semilir, Vadasa, on Tapasak Street."
"Ource Central, huh?" Devi muttered as she rubbed her chin.
Lalita made the same gesture, while Luis picked up the money and counted it within seconds before sinking into thought.
'Unbelievable. I earned 150 Pace just by talking? Where did those two get this much money?'
Luis nodded, smiling where they couldn't see it, as though he had figured something out about them.
'Yeah... that job probably explains it.'
A single consultation in the city of Semilir cost at least 35 Pace. That was in Semilir, and Luis had a feeling the fee in Kuranda would be roughly twice as much.
Seventy Pace for a single consultation.
It was rather strange, but clubs like that were always crowded with visitors. Some came out of curiosity, while others fell under the suggestion cast by places like theirs.
Luis rose from his seat and politely showed the two women to the door.
Devi wanted to confirm James Moriarty's whereabouts more thoroughly, but Luis answered by twisting the facts.
He said that James Moriarty was somewhere on Tapasak Street without mentioning his name, and everything else he said was deliberately dishonest.
Sensing no deception, or at least none that Devi could perceive, the two women hurried out of the house, said their farewells, and walked along the sidewalk across the street.
Luis left the front door open as his body suddenly went limp, collapsing into the armchair.
'Damn it, this is already the second time I've done this....'
He screamed inwardly, and he had been taking that gamble for the past two days.
'Please forgive me, Mr. James Moriarty. I had no choice. I truly need the money just to survive.'
From that moment on, his body slumped in the chair as he waited for Evelina to arrive a few minutes later.
....
In the eastern district of Schoutzin, on Thirty-Eighth Street, stood a two-story rental house.
The house was tucked away in an alley, far from the hustle and bustle of the main road.
Three people lived there, but that afternoon, they received four unexpected guests.
Saturday, April 5, exactly 5:00 p.m.
In the downstairs living room, two of the residents sat together on a long bench.
A man sat facing a woman with an emotionless expression, while two others stood beside her.
To say they were "standing" was not entirely accurate, since their feet never touched the ground.
One of the guests had arrived in a coma and was staying in the upstairs room, the one vacated by the previous tenant who had fled without saying a single word.
The atmosphere in the room was suffocating, especially with the way they stared at one another and with no one there to mediate between them.
The woman with shoulder-length black hair tried to dispel the awkwardness hanging in the air.
"You two don't know each other?" she asked in confusion.
"..."
The woman sitting across from the man looked at him with eyes as cold as ice.
'So, he's been using an alias. Where is he now, and who are those two women?'
Even though they had once been at odds, fate had brought them together again, and after observing the situation around her, the woman immediately understood.
The blond-haired man stared at the beautiful woman with dark gray eyes, lost in thought.
'Damn you, Actitus. Why didn't you tell me where you are now? And what was that letter about?'
Reading that infuriating letter alone had already made him sick of it. On top of that, Felina Ronatte had no idea what had really happened during their long separation.
"Where is he now?"
Felina looked at Aaron, unwilling to say his name for one compelling reason.
Aaron had expected the question, especially considering Zuhen Mudelk's condition remained exactly as it had been that day.
He answered calmly, as always. "He's away, and he didn't say anything about where he was going," he replied, occasionally glancing at Hana. He often saw Zavi talking to her.
It would be better if Zavi were close to Mine Rasuha, contrary to what he currently understood.
In reality, it was Hana Zayela whom he was closest to, since they shared similar views and were close in age.
Meanwhile, Mine Rasuha looked indifferently at her Recipestele, who was currently wearing a human form.
Hana looked at Mine sympathetically before shifting her gaze toward the three women standing to her left.
"Oh, right, damn it... I just remembered. You're the one who tried to kill me back then."
Felina searched deep within her memory, trying to recall the blurred faces of Hana and Mine.
While Hana kept rambling on, Felina leaned forward slightly and asked in an almost threatening tone, "Tell me, where is that man now?"
The three of them did not answer immediately. One of the women approached Mine Rasuha while sobbing.
"...Why? Why didn't you come looking for me?"
Discarding her human form to reveal her spiritual one, she struck Mine, her contractor, across the cheek, though the blow had no physical effect.
Even so, it troubled him as he tried to explain why.
"I was being held back by something strange, and maybe by that winged creature too. Besides, I called you more than fifty times. Didn't you hear me?"
Munien nodded through her sobs.
"No. But before that, I went to a huge abandoned mansion with a cracked gate. The spiritual energy there was incredibly strong, but in the end, I managed to find you again," she said flatly.
Seeing Mine's brows knit together, Munien quickly added, "About that... I worked together with that woman and, well, forget it. There's no need to bring it up."
Tell, who like Munien had taken the form of a young girl, lost the smile she had been wearing when she was almost mentioned, replacing it with an angry glare.
"What did you say?" Her tiny fingers clenched tightly, and steam puffed from her little nostrils.
Munien smiled back at her, acting even more recklessly than before.
"...What? Want to fight again?"
Tell immediately assumed a fighting stance.
"Come on, then. Do you think I'm afraid of you?" she challenged, her fighting spirit blazing.
The other four fell silent, unsure how to react. Now the two Recipesteles stood side by side before the closed door, ready to exchange blows.
They had an agreement that whenever they had a dispute, they would settle it through a fight, with the loser required to obey the winner's demands or words.
So far, Tell had won six times and lost four times against Munien.
Aaron rose from his seat, feeling that this was hardly an interesting conversation.
Yet pale blue needles compelled him to sit back down, and he could only sigh, realizing this had been inevitable.
He glanced at the two of them and said, "You two leave. I'll handle this woman."
If Aaron had to choose among the women around him, he would choose Hana because she was kind, cheerful, and, above all, carried herself like a proper woman.
As for those two, Aaron regarded them as nothing more than lumps of walking flesh given life and a soul.
Nothing more.
Hearing those words, or rather, that request, the two of them rose from their seats and decided to leave the house.
Before they did, Mine told Munien to stop fighting and disappear so she wouldn't attract the attention of the supernatural beings outside.
Realizing there was truth in that statement, the two Recipesteles nodded and agreed to continue their fight another time.
The door opened, and Hana and Mine stepped outside, quickly walking away from the lodging house.
Back on the sofa, their gazes locked like predators stalking their prey, each waiting for the other to speak first.