"What did you just say?" Reins touched her ear, "I'm sorry, I think I misheard something." ”

"I said I liked you." Appaya calmly repeated, "You didn't hear anything wrong, that's what I said. ”

Instead of letting Reins continue to think, he gently took Reins's shoulders and put her in front of him.

"I don't know why you're rejecting this obvious fact." "I was restrained last night because I didn't want to scare you into running away again," he said, "but today I can't stand it. ”

Reins looked at him blankly as if she had forgotten what to say.

"The person I like is just in front of me, arguing with her friends for my safety, do you know how much I wanted to kiss you directly?" He looked straight into the mercenary's red eyes, "And Hermiria dares to be so close to you, which makes me irritable...... Very irritable. You even call each other so intimately at a critical time, and at that time I really want to take you away. ”

“…… Hermiriana is ......"

"Is that the man you're focusing on?" Appaya complained dissatisfiedly, "What about my heart? ”

Rheins stiffly looked away.

"No...... Wait, I'm not prepared......" she said with some incoherence, "you...... You clearly like ......."

"Even now, do you still want to use what I like as an excuse?" Apaya reached out and stroked her face, "You, who can see the breath of the soul, still insist on using this statement to escape?" ”

The distance between the two was so close that it even made Reins feel breathless, but Apaya didn't let her go easily.

"You like me too, don't you?" Apaya looked at her face carefully, "If you can't name a reason for my convincing refusal, then I assume you accept it, and I'll kiss you." ”

Reins looked back at his face in shock.

"You're not serious, are you?"

"I'm serious." Apaya looked very calm at the moment, "So if you have any reason, please tell me directly." I was going to ask Hermiria or your Fili what happened to you, but in the end I decided to ask you directly first, even if you said you wouldn't tell me. ”

"Then I won't-"

"Then you're agreeing to my quest, Rhine." He said lightly, "You don't have a partner, and you like me a little bit yourself, you can't resist my pursuit as a symbiote, can you?" ”

Reins felt like her brain was being flooded with a tremendous amount of information.

Does he know symbiosis? No, no, he does know and understand from the fact that he has learned some little tricks on the soul...... And he accepted it!

…… No, that's not the point at the moment......

You can't run anymore, Reins, and you must tell him about your past—before it all begins.

“…… Then I'll tell you what I used to do. Her face began to turn pale, "After hearing this, you will make a decision." ”

Apaya nodded and took her hand.

Twenty-two years ago.

A weak baby is abandoned in the middle of nowhere.

There was nothing else on her body, only a necklace with a nameplate.

She was then picked up by a gray-haired man.

Until she was old enough to start remembering, she had been living in a cold space.

There was a mechanized process everywhere, and all the people who came and went had the same expression, only the gray man was slightly different, and his expression was very vivid.

It was so alive that it became her nightmare.

Start with a rabbit, then cats, dogs, and then larger animals.

She was going to take the dagger in her hand and kill them.

If she doesn't, she'll be locked up in a dark room and punished in fear that she won't be able to see anything.

Her body would be beaten, her fingers would be pierced with sharp objects, and her hair would be pulled up with force.

So she had to do it.

"I've heard that on the eastern side of this continent, in the culture of those people with black hair and black eyes, 4 is an unlucky number. So little 4, you can't fit this number better. You see, you are also with black hair and black eyes. ”』

The man said this, deciding on her number.

Then one day she actually killed someone.

Only the first time she killed, she felt sick and then vomited.

After that, he was punished again in a dark room, this time even being burned with red-hot iron, and having to be operated on without anesthetic to repair the skin.

So she will never vomit again.

She followed the seniors in this organization on an assassination mission, she didn't understand the meaning of her actions, but if she didn't do it, she would be punished, so she did it.

When she was 8 years old, she began to "experiment" with something she couldn't understand.

"Little 4, you have to endure it, huh? In this way, I can live up to my behavior of picking you up with the qualifications I fancied you back then, and if you can't bear it, then die. ”』

She didn't want to die, so she accepted.

But it really hurts.

She sat in the room, and various instruments connected her to different, non-identical objects, which would then appear with different colors of light and float into her body.

It was so painful that it felt like her veins were bursting.

It was much more painful than the punishment she had received in the dark room, and no amount of begging for mercy could relieve it.

She had wondered if she would stop herself from accepting the experiment because she couldn't accept the light.

— until she saw the corpses of children who failed experiments being thrown into the wilderness.

Luck doesn't come because she's the unlucky No. 4.

But it still hurts, and every time it hurts, it makes her want to give up, but she can only endure until the experimenters don't want to waste that light and take the initiative to stop the experiment.

And in this experiment, the color of her hair and eyes gradually changed.

The appearance of each child who participated in the experiment changed.

Then one day, for some reason, she suddenly leaned on the glass and looked at a little boy who was being experimented with.

I can't say how it felt, but she really wanted to get to know him, and she wanted to know him.

"What's the matter, Little Four? … The boy? Looks like a test subject who just came in, right? The child's grades in the skills class are too poor, and this is the only place where it can be useful. ”』

『“…… Do you want to merge for him? Hey, little 4, are you kidding? When is it your turn to bargain? ”』

The gray-haired man said this, also puzzled by her reaction, so he took their blood.

"Little 4, great news, huh? Do you remember that little boy? The verification results are out, you and the kid ...... It's twins. ”』

Twins.

It was the first time she had heard the term.

Then she knew that it was the closest blood relationship. Even her parents and other ordinary siblings can't surpass it.,It's only half of her body.。

She wanted to protect him.

So she took all the experiments instead of him, and he was sent back to the skills class.

If it was for my younger brother, even if I was experimenting day and night, the pain seemed to become bearable.

…… That's what the younger brother said, that's what the gray-haired man said.

But her brother was not close to her. My brother met a partner in a skills class, and that partner had a very good score, and often helped his brother tutor after class to teach him how to fight.

In her absence, my brother was also well taken care of, which was good.

Fortunately, the younger brother has not yet graduated from the skills class, otherwise he would have been sent on a mission and given a number.

…… Because of her relationship, the instructor said early on that the younger brother would not get anything good to number.

It doesn't matter if her brother is not close to her.

It was also after this that the gray-haired man cursed himself with blood boiling. So she couldn't get near her brother anymore.

She could only hide in the shadows and watch secretly, but fortunately her brother didn't seem to feel bad about it, he and his partner were doing well, which made her a little jealous, but she wouldn't do anything to that partner.

Later, I don't know if it was an accident or an inevitability, she successfully fused with a certain light.

The experimenters were ecstatic.

And she just felt as if she wasn't human anymore.

She has special abilities, unlike the magicians in the Order who need to read from the script, and she is free to call on all the elements that exist in front of her to use them.

Because she is not proficient yet, in addition to the original skill class, there is an additional course on controlling this ability.

…… Then one day she noticed that her hair had turned silvery white and her eyes had turned blood red.

Originally, she didn't like this look very much, but then she secretly saw that her brother had also become like this, well, then she liked these two colors.

She was 12 years old.

She was given a mission by the gray-haired man to find her companions.

Find a companion who can develop a tacit understanding with her in the future and carry out tasks on a regular basis.

So she went out to find it.

She meets a little girl with sky blue hair.

The little girl's amber eyes made her feel cute, and she wanted to take her back.

But the little girl hesitated, she didn't seem to want to go.

She said her name was Hermi, and that the adults in her family told her to stay here and not go anywhere else. So she felt a little regretful. But she didn't give up, she went to see Hermi every day, trying to convince Hermi to follow her.

Finally Hermi said that as long as she was done here, he could go back with her.

She was delighted.

She accompanies Hermi to do what she has to do.

Hermy pulls her to a run-down-looking cemetery, and along the way she uses her abilities to help Hermi chase away those shady ghosts, which makes Hermi give her a grateful smile, which she loves. Eventually, Hermi carefully picked up what looked like a tile from the ground, but when Hermi returned to her, the tile-like thing suddenly moved on its own.

Then a familiar light floated on the tiles.

Hermi said: It is a "gift from God" that brings misfortune, and my task here is to recover it. It reacts to you, you ...... Don't go near it.

Hemy said, "I'm sorry, I can't go with you, because I'm a church member, and I can't go anywhere else."

Hemi said: I'm sorry I lied to you, I can never be your companion...... And I'm not a girl, I'm pretending to be a girl, it's just convenient to do tasks...... I'm not called Hemi either.

…… She hasn't seen Hermy since. She went somewhere else to find someone willing to be her companion.

But I always feel that no matter who it is, it is not satisfying.

Everyone is not as cute as Hermi, nor is Hemy smart.

…… No, don't think about Hermi, he's not even called Hermi.

Smofa Hemiria. This is the full name of the child who lied to her.