Chapter 158 – 158 – A Strange Date With a Rival
“There are about 30 minutes left.”
“I guess you could say I had a great time spending 30 minutes. I had fun running around out of breath, right?”
I don’t know if Erina heard. She probably didn’t hear. She is wearing her earplugs while the music is playing.
Erina opened the notebook she picked up at the store and drew lines with a pen on the page.
“Do you know what happens to people when the world they lived in disappears? I make a list of things I regret doing in that ruined world. No one told me to, but I write down the list in my head every day, look at it, and repeat it.”
“I see.”
“I think I’ve done almost everything I wrote down on the list today. Riding my bike with Dr. Red headphones on and enjoying the breeze, done. Riding through the world’s last hit song playlist, done. I couldn’t go to the amusement park again because I was afraid my father would get angry. Return to, done.”
“It was a strict family.”
“When I was young, I rode a roller coaster that I couldn’t ride due to age restrictions, painted a boring-looking carousel, and enjoyed the thrill of riding a Viking without lowering the safety bar.”
“It was a little scary. If I hadn’t caught it, it would have flown outside.”
“I drank a lot of my favorite blueberry smoothie and whiskey coffee, ate a whole pint of sherbet ice cream that was banned because it was rotten, played the roulette prize, tried to win souvenirs by shooting, and even saw the park’s mascot, an oversized teddy bear. I bought it.”
“Yes.”
I mumbled, crushed by prizes, souvenirs, and oversized teddy bears.
I can’t believe you went on a date with the guy you thought was the guy who stole Tena, and treated him like this. If you had told Tan Bantai a week ago that this would happen, you would have probably been hit on the top of your head with a backpack. As a bonus, there would have been cries asking what had happened to their sexual identity.
I glanced at Erina, who looked good in an aristocratic dress. The fact that she suits him so well is so awkward.
“Been there, tried it, tried it all.”
Erina, who was furiously drawing lines, seemed so angry that she threw her notebook out the window.
The notebook flutters and flies away, but there is no sound of it hitting the floor. I gulped and glanced out the window.
It’s a bit scary high. It seems to be at least 50 meters to the bottom.
Did I mention that the name of the ride we are riding now is the Ferris Wheel? I hope that the Ferris wheel is as safe as the ones I rode before. For some reason, it seems like the frame is shaking unusually in the wind.
Looking at Erina’s reaction, it seems that it is not a machine with frequent accidents. Erina said in a bored voice.
“It’s nothing.”
“Nothing special?”
“Isn’t it strange? At the time, the world seemed as stuffy as a cage, but when I look back, I can’t help but wonder why there were so many regrets. My tongue remembers the texture of food, my ears picture famous songs, and my eyes see people I don’t even know. This crying and laughing was so good. Sometimes, my nose twitched on its own. It reminded me of the salty sea breeze that I didn’t seem to miss at all, or even the acrid exhaust fumes of the munitions factory complex.”
Erina leaned against her window. His expression is very gloomy.
There’s no trace of them giggling and having fun as if they won’t regret it. Maybe she pretended to be bright to hide her true feelings.
“But when I went through it again, it wasn’t that big of a deal. Well, it was just a little bit of fun?”
“Oh my.”
Erina frowned when she saw the shape of her mouth. She then put her headphones aside her ears and said,
“Like that? Did you say that? No, it’s not like that. It’s a terrible tragedy. Have you ever been given a gift that you didn’t ask for because it was so dreamy and you thought it wasn’t that thrilling?”
“I don’t know what that feels like.”
“Hmm. Imagine that you have become a patient with severe constipation and can’t even dream of smooth bowel movement for the rest of your life. It’s terrible, isn’t it? But in the meantime, it’s been a long time since you’ve achieved great success, and even so, it doesn’t feel that refreshing. In the future, there will never be another lukewarm success story like this one. “There won’t be any. It’ll be doubly terrible, right?”
“I understand, but isn’t there a better analogy than what happens in the bathroom?”
“Or, an alopecia patient grows new hair, but it’s so curly that even a comb can’t get through it, so it just gets hot. How about that?”
“…Wouldn’t it be better to have at least that?”
“Oh, I don’t know. If I keep wearing these headphones, I feel like my hair is going to fall out. Ugh, my neck hurts. They’re really, really heavy! How on earth did these headphones become popular?”
“It’s heavy?”
It’s definitely an item that seems unnecessarily thick, but the word ‘heavy’ comes out of the mouth of a porter as talented and apt as Erina.
The fact that all kinds of prizes and dolls were entrusted to me took on a new meaning. The sight of Erina massaging her forearm is also suspicious.
I don’t know if it’s a question worth asking at a time like this…
“By any chance, you weren’t a porter?”
“Yes, I was a porter. But I wasn’t a porter from the beginning. At that time, I was just a girl.”
“What do you mean, from the beginning? Aptitude is innate from birth.”
“There’s a long, dirty, tearful story about that. There’s only 30 minutes left until the world ends, so if I start explaining it now, I probably won’t be able to finish it.”
“···Then I guess I’ll have to go back and ask.”
“It’s a story with nothing to hide, but if you listen to it, it’s probably not a big deal. It’s like it’s not a big deal that I’m rewriting my memories right now.”
Lights of all colors spread like a kaleidoscope on Erina’s white cheeks and hair against her window.
The identity of the light is the night view outside. It is brighter and more colorful than the festival street seen from Dragon’s Nest. Perhaps the reason why there are strangely no stars in the sky of the Demon World is because the stars were dragged down to that city and hung there.
Suddenly, it feels strange that this world will soon disappear. There were people who wanted to destroy such a wonderful night view.
“To me, it certainly seems like a world worth remembering.”
“Well, that could be true. I guess I was hoping for too much.”
“In fact, the joy that comes from life seems like it’s not a big deal while you’re experiencing it.”
I groaned and put the giant teddy bear down on the seat next to me. Now I can clearly see Erina’s face as she sits facing me.
“But really good things come to mind after they’ve passed. While taking a walk, while hanging out the laundry, suddenly, for no reason.”
“Without a reason?”
“The list you were deleting from the table of contents just a little while ago is actually something I have pondered over while feeling pain since I was young. What if it had been like this? I wish it had been like that. I felt like I was finishing it like homework, as if I was pushed by a sad heart that I couldn’t do it back then.”
Erina, who had been listening with a sullen expression, raised her eyebrows curiously. I put down all the paper bags that were wrapped around my limbs next to me.
“Lastings are inherently painful. Don’t keep them in your heart.”
“Well, I don’t want to hear those words from a guy who was always full of regrets because he thought Tena was stolen from me.”
“Did I look happy, dripping with regret like that?”
“Not really.”
“That’s right. When I have fun thinking about Thena, it’s not when I think, ‘What would I have done if I had stayed next to her?’ It’s when I think, ‘What can I do for her from now on?’ Rather than chasing regrets, wouldn’t it be better to first forget your list of regrets and think of something new you want to do? Something you want to do now and can do now.”
“···It sounds like something is plausible.”
I can understand, to some extent, how Erina feels. The village I lived in was destroyed, so I had no choice but to wander.
This world that Erina is ruminating on disappeared a long time ago. Leaving behind only a huge monster nest called the Demon World. Not only the employees of the Lost and Found Center, but even great kings and heroes of history cannot restore the lost world.
So, even if it was an elaborate fake created by referring to Erina’s memories, an experience like this might not come again. Yet, let alone Erina enjoying her good fortune, she was not even happy. I was truly saddened by that fact.
Additionally, there is a bit of selfishness. Ominously, this Ferris wheel stopped at the top. I wish Erina had found her new purpose even a minute sooner and told us to get down to earth.
···It looks like the expression on his face was noticed. Because Erina suddenly bit her lip, holding back her laughter.
“Tell me honestly. Are you scared now?”
“Uh… Um… It’s scary. Why does it stop at the top? Is that what a Ferris wheel is supposed to be like?”
“No. Normally, it wouldn’t stop for this long. It would continue to turn slowly. That way, the next person would get on and enjoy the view.”
It means it’s broken. A terrible image of the entire cabin crashing down flashes before my eyes.
Fortunately, Erina giggled and added a reassuring explanation.
“It’s not a problem. It’s just a dirty marketing tactic of this amusement park.”
“A commercial tactic?”
“The large Ferris wheel is a popular date spot. The view is amazing, and the space is narrow enough that you can barely breathe if you sit across from each other. One ride takes about 15 minutes, so it’s a reasonable amount of time. In addition, while the Ferris wheel is hard to see from below, it’s not visible to passengers. Since it is open on all sides, couples who enjoy tension can take advantage of this and…”
Erinak lifted her chin as if asking her to imagine.
It wasn’t difficult to think about what the people who came before us did. She suddenly felt very burdened by the seat she was sitting in.
“···Oh.”
“Some amusement parks even got rid of the Ferris wheel because people who make families come out when they are bored at a place where family outings are held. But here, ‘Our Ferris wheel often stops for an extra five minutes. I don’t know why.’ “They advertised it like this. Isn’t it amazing?”
···If you give me 5 more minutes, I will be able to do various things more leisurely. I must have taken the same ride again, praying that it would stop near the top without being detected. The winners must have been so excited that their sheets were soaked with sweat.
It’s a genius tactic. Once again, I thought that the window was narrow for a device used as an observatory.
The more she thought about it, the more she scratched her head in embarrassment, and the bigger Erina’s smile got.
“I told you to do what you can now, right?”
No way.
“I thought of one thing, can I tell you?”
“···It’s a joke, right?”
“If it was a joke, I wouldn’t have even explained in detail what the other couples who stopped at the top did. In some ways, I think it was fate. If we go back anyway, we have to do like those couples, right? “Take off your clothes and hold your breath so as not to be seen downstairs and touch your body.”
According to Erina, the day of her country’s destruction was nine years ago, but now Erina looks like a 24-year-old, not a fifteen-year-old girl.
Otherwise, when I stretched out her snow-white legs through the hem of her dress and tickled her shins, instead of gasping for air, her little boy might have threatened her, asking what she was doing.
The moon’s shadow, scattered widely across her window, clearly revealed Erina’s curves.
The ivory dress blends beautifully with the moonlight and against the skin. Anyone can see that it is a high-quality product made of expensive fabric, but it is the dress that is benefiting, not Erina.
The cool and beautiful curves beneath the fabric have an unrealistic aspect, as if they were carved by a sculptor obsessed with the ideality of the female body. I’m so embarrassed that I wonder how on earth I could have mistaken this person for a man.
She said, “She rode the Ferris wheel with a handsome boy who was so good-looking that she was mistaken for a girl, so it wouldn’t be a bad idea for her to make at least one special memory.”
Erina Soprania, whose gender would be difficult to mistake unless one’s discerning eye was crushed by an artifact, spoke with a playful sparkle in her eyes that had regained vitality.
“Let’s practice here. Then I’ll be a little less scared when I get back.”
