## Chapter 89 – Low. Secret #5
The first thing Number 25 saw upon waking was Low’s naked body.
She opened the closet and slowly put on a form-fitting dress similar to what she usually wore, as if showing off. Then, without making a sound, she quietly turned around and looked at Number 25.
Low had a clearer smile on her face than usual.
“You’re awake.”
Looking straight at that smile felt like it would change her heart for the better, so Number 25 rubbed her eyes, which weren’t even crusty, and replied briefly.
“…Yes.”
Perhaps she wasn’t fully awake yet, as Number 25 immediately covered her mouth and yawned after finishing her reply.
She finished dressing in the blink of an eye and approached Number 25 as if gliding. The scent of a rutting female that had enveloped her body last night was nowhere to be found, and the sweet fragrance she usually exuded lingered at the tip of her nose.
“I have some business in District 1, would you like to come with me? It’s boring to stay inside all the time.”
She wanted to go out, but she wasn’t stupid enough not to know her own condition. Right now, she didn’t even have the strength to lift a finger. All she could manage was to raise her upper body and roll her eyes.
Number 25 shook her head laboriously from side to side and replied with a regretful voice.
“No, have a good trip.”
Number 25 wasn’t the only one who was disappointed. Low’s eyebrows furrowed slightly downwards, and she gazed at Number 25’s face for a moment, as if regretting something.
She reached out and gently stroked Number 25’s disheveled hair, smiling again as if nothing had happened.
“Alright, I’ll buy you a cake when I come back, so wait patiently.”
After Low left, Number 25 enjoyed the warmth she had left behind on her bed for a while.
Perhaps because she had slept soundly all night, her stamina had definitely recovered compared to yesterday.
She stretched and got out of bed, but unlike what she had expected, her legs trembled.
Managing to stand up straight, Number 25 looked around and clicked her tongue at the traces left in the room.
Low’s room, which was always kept neat and tidy to prevent the white wallpaper from getting dirty, clearly showed the intense traces of last night, as if to prove that it wasn’t a dream.
The wallpaper, bed, and desk were covered in stains of semen that Low hadn’t managed to swallow.
The room, which had only been filled with the smell of medicine, had long been buried under an obscene scent so strong it made her head spin, a scent created by a man and woman mingling their bodies.
She wouldn’t normally have the inclination to do it, but Number 25 decided to clean her benefactor’s room herself.
First, she opened the window for ventilation, and a cool, refreshing breeze entered as if it had been waiting.
Number 25 took a deep breath, filling her lungs with fresh air, and looked around the room once more.
She had seen the maids in District 7 cleaning countless times. She was sure she could do a good job, so she headed to the first-floor storage room to get a rag.
She wiped away all the visible semen with the rag she had brought, and meticulously cleaned the dusty window frames as well.
The floor, where saliva, vaginal fluid, and semen had dripped, was mopped with a floor mop, and the cleaning was easier than she had expected.
Seeing the black dust on the rag and all the semen gone, she even felt a sense of accomplishment.
But mistakes come from complacency.
Thump!
While cleaning Low’s desk, Number 25 accidentally swung her arm too wide, causing all the medicines and various glass bottles on her desk to fall to the floor.
‘This is a disaster.’
She didn’t know if they were Low’s prized possessions, but judging from her focused expression when she was researching, they must be important items.
Number 25 frantically wiped up the spilled medicines with the rag and hastily swept up the broken glass with her hands.
She didn’t even care that her hands were getting cut in the process.
The blood that had flowed onto the floor could be wiped away with a rag, but the broken bottles couldn’t be brought back.
With a tearful expression, she cleaned up the scattered shards of glass and picked up the pieces that had gone under the desk one by one.
Hiding her head under the dark desk, Number 25 was lost in thought.
‘What should I do….’
She couldn’t think of an excuse.
She had only wanted to do a good deed, but she felt like a fool for only making mistakes.
Thud.
A smaller sound than before rang out.
In her daze, Number 25 had hit her head on the desk while getting up from under it.
At that moment, the flat underside of the desk, where there shouldn’t have been anything, opened slightly, and something fell onto Number 25’s hand.
A black book with no cover or decorations.
Her instincts told her.
To read this book.
As if possessed, Number 25 hurriedly finished cleaning and sat down at Low’s messy desk, holding the book.
Was it a book containing forbidden magic?
If not, there was no way it would have been hidden in such a cumbersome way.
With a slightly trembling heart, she turned the first page of the black book.
Contrary to her expectations, the book was filled with commonplace content.
What she ate today, research on magic, dealing with monsters, and other trivial stories.
Judging from the content, it seemed to be Low’s diary.
There was nothing more interesting than reading someone else’s diary.
Especially if it was a diary containing all of Low’s inner thoughts, as she rarely talked about herself.
But even after reading it, she couldn’t find any special content that revealed Low’s true feelings.
She made a new dish and her acquaintances liked it, or she developed new magic that would be helpful to people’s lives.
Imagining her recording trivial stories one by one made her seem cuter than her usual image.
She decided to read just one more page and then go back to cleaning.
Number 25 smiled and turned the next page, and the content written there was much shorter than the other diary entries.
XX / XX / XXXX
“Everyone has left.”
The corner of the page was slightly crumpled, as if it had been wet with something.
Number 25 absorbed that one phrase as if savoring it.
Did someone precious die?
Her emotions were so vividly felt in that short phrase that it even made the reader’s heart ache.
Number 25 forgot her intention to stop reading and turned the next page. She truly looked as if she were possessed by something.
According to the dates, it was written several years after that short diary entry.
XX / XX / XXXX
“Today, I found that child… that is, ‘Ryu.’ Goodness, I thought all traces of you had disappeared from the world after that war.”
Traces? That child? Ryu?
Number 25 began to turn the pages, as if chased by the anxiety that had surfaced in a corner of her heart.
After the diary entry about finding the child, Low began to write again about trivial daily life or research achievements. But what Number 25 considered important was not such useless content.
Number 25 frantically searched for and read only the parts written about the child, excluding the parts about Low’s daily life.
The stories about the child were easy to find.
XX / XX / XXXX
“If you’re not in this world, shouldn’t I naturally protect that child? Right? You also told me to take care of Ryu if something happened to you.”
XX / XX / XXXX
“That’s it. I finally got that child back. I feel sorry for the child in District 7, but I had to use a slightly forceful method. It can’t be helped. Your trace, your child. I can’t let them fall into anyone else’s hands. I won’t let them go again.”
Number 25 pointed to the date with trembling fingers.
It was exactly the date she had come to District 2, led by Low.
‘What is this.’
Number 25 continued to read the contents with a bewildered expression.
The more she read, the more Number 25’s expression gradually distorted.
Her brain couldn’t accept it.
Before she knew it, a feeling of nausea rose to the back of her throat, but Number 25 barely endured it and turned the page again.
XX / XX / XXXX
“I feel like Ryu is avoiding me. Well, I can’t expect us to become close from the start. Even if I know you, you’ve never seen me. But time will restore our relationship to what it was.”
She turns the page.
XX / XX / XXXX
“Recently, I think I’m having problems with my emotions. My face turns red whenever I stand in front of Ryu, and I smile involuntarily. It’s just like when I saw you….”
She turns the page again.
XX / XX / XXXX
“Yes, I think it’s time to admit it. At first, it was empathy and compassion for those who had lost their loved ones. But the more I see him resembling you, the more I realize that the emotion I’ve been trying to label as compassion is love.”
She roughly grabs the corner of the book and turns the page as if tearing it out.
XX / XX / XXXX
“At first, I just liked seeing him, as if you had returned to your childhood, as if I had become your parent. But as time goes by, the warmth and tenderness that only that child gives me, they all make me happy….”
Number 25’s hand, turning the pages, becomes faster and faster.
Her pupils are shaking violently, and her breathing becomes rapid.
XX / XX / XXXX
“I’m sorry. If I like your child more than you, who are no longer in this world, you who have never looked at me in your life… I’m probably an unspeakably bad woman. But I can promise you this one thing. This feeling is not a substitute for the feeling I felt while looking at you. I’m even happier now than I was when I was laughing and spending time with you back then. So much so that I can’t even contain this overflowing emotion. When I stand in front of Ryu, I feel like I’ve returned to my girlhood….”
XX / XX / XXXX
“Today, I’m going to slowly start a relationship with that child for research purposes. You can curse me as a dirty, cowardly bitch.”
After that, it was written about the acts she had done with Number 25 under the guise of research.
“So it wasn’t really for research purposes….”
There was a sense of emptiness in Number 25’s voice as she muttered that.
Finally, on today’s date, Number 25 turned the page with a feeling of resignation.
XX / XX / XXXX
“…….”
●
Low returned to the tower before nightfall.
She had a tired and sleepy expression, as if she hadn’t gone for a good reason.
But when she thought about sharing the cake in her hand and having a chat with Number 25, a smile quickly returned to her face.
Standing in front of the door, she slowly turned the doorknob, only to be greeted by the immense hatred and betrayal condensed in Number 25’s small body.
As soon as she saw Low, Number 25 threw the diary roughly at her chest.
Low’s pupils widened as she watched the diary hit her chest and fall weakly to the floor.
The way she was biting her lip showed her anxiety.
“How did you….”
No, that’s not important right now. Low looked straight at Number 25 and asked in an anxious tone.
“Did you happen to see all the contents inside…? Surely not everything…?”
Number 25’s chest rises and falls rapidly. Heaving, heaving – with each rough breath accompanied by sorrow, her chest swelled, and soon tears like chicken droppings rolled down Number 25’s eyes and onto the floor.
Convinced of her anger, Low sensed that he had read the diary.
“W, what is this diary…!”
How much had she cried? The cracked voice coming from her swollen throat even gave the illusion of being garbled.
Low bowed her head and said nothing. She carefully placed the cake on the desk and then let out a long sigh.
That action gave Number 25 even greater certainty.
She thought they had become somewhat close.
She thought she was a more affectionate person than she had expected, and not such a bad person.
At least, she had just made up her mind not to hate her until she left District 2 and went to District 7.
Were all those feelings a sandcastle that seemed like it would collapse at any moment?
A huge sense of betrayal that swallowed up all the favorable feelings, like a sandcastle being swept away by the waves.
“Why, why….”
Number 25’s tearful expression distorts.
Words didn’t come out properly.
What rushed out before the sound was a cry filled with grief.
Number 25 swallowed her sobs with difficulty and shouted at Low, who was standing in front of her.
“Why haven’t you told me about my parents until now!”
After finishing her words, Number 25 began to run with staggering legs, roughly pushing past Low’s shoulder, who was blocking her way, and went outside.
Low belatedly reached out in the direction where Number 25 had disappeared, but her ambiguously outstretched hand lost its way in the air.
Did she, who had concealed the truth, have the right to hold him back?
In the room swept away by distorted maternal love, only the sweet scent of cake and bitter regret remained.
