Between Your Letter and My Reply

Chapter 92

[Translated By Divinity]

Lilliana let out a groan before speaking,

“Aunt Pascal… told me to trust you.”

Since Pascal’s words couldn’t be false, she had no choice but to try to believe them.

“But my heart doesn’t always listen to me, so I don’t know if I can trust you. Still, I’ll try to believe you.”

“Thank you, Lily.”

Casey smiled with joy and approached Lilliana with open arms, but she turned away to avoid him.

“Go change your clothes. You’re dripping water all over the hallway.”

Leaving those words behind, Lilliana fled into her room. She firmly locked the door and took deep breaths.

“Father…”

Tears suddenly welled up. When she first heard the news of her father’s death, she was in the hospital and in a daze, so it didn’t feel real. That’s why she didn’t cry or feel a surge of sadness.

But for some reason, seeing Casey’s face made her miss her father.

Until they went on their journey with Casey, her father had always been kind and loving towards his children.

Lilliana remembered her father’s touch and love. Even though they were apart now, she had always believed that there would be a day when they could live together again.

But now she couldn’t see him anymore. He even died during the time she had no memory of. Lilliana hated herself. A daughter who couldn’t even remember her father’s death anniversary.

Tears streamed down her face as she sobbed. But it didn’t make her feel any better. Instead, it felt like the embers that had been dormant in her heart were now burning and sizzling.

***

“I don’t know why she’s crying, so I can’t comfort her.”

Casey said to Damian in a sullen tone. He wasn’t even wet anymore, as if he had dried himself off.

Damian, who had just finished bathing, stopped drying his hair and covered his eyes with his hand as he leaned against Casey’s door.

“What did you do…?”

Casey protested Damian’s question as if he felt wronged.

“I didn’t do anything.”

“How can I believe that?”

“It’s true. I just told her that we should try to get along from now on, that’s all.”

“And that made her cry like that?”

Damian realized from his conversation with Casey earlier that his way of speaking had a way of frustrating people. Therefore, he learned that he shouldn’t take Casey’s claims of innocence at face value.

“You make your sister cry as soon as you arrive, how can I trust you?”

“I didn’t make her cry,” Casey insisted, looking genuinely wronged, but Damian just let out a deep sigh.

“Anyway, my head is pounding because of you.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t know how to deal with you.”

“Why are you making it so complicated? I’m your friend’s brother, your housemate. Do you need any more of a relationship than that?”

“The person who almost killed Lilliana is now living under the same roof as her, and you think I can just relax and not worry?”

Damian glared at Casey with narrowed eyes, but Casey just lay on the bed, legs crossed, and replied while wiggling his foot,

“Don’t worry about that. I have no intention of killing Lilliana. Oh, I mean I have no intention of taking away Lilliana’s power. You got that?”

“How can I believe that?”

“Spirits don’t lie.”

Casey clicked his tongue, but Damian didn’t readily believe that either. At this point, Casey was truly feeling wronged.

“If you don’t believe me, ask Lily!”

“I already know because I asked. But you’re not a pure spirit, are you? What if you can lie because of your human side? It wouldn’t be difficult for you to go around spreading lies about not being able to lie.”

“You’re really impossible to talk to. By the way, why don’t you use honorifics with me?”

“You want me to use honorifics?”

“You use them with everyone else but not me, so I’m curious.”

Damian replied with a sullen face at Casey’s question,

“First of all, Lilliana is my employer. I can’t speak informally to my employer. And Ms. Annette is the owner of this house. I can’t speak informally to the landlord either. Mr. Asher in the room across the hall made my prosthetic hand. I can’t afford to offend him, so I can’t speak informally to him either.”

Then he pointed at Casey and asked,

“So what are you to me?”

“Isn’t your employer’s brother worthy of honorifics?”

“You’re not paying me.”

“Well, then I have nothing to say…”

Casey scratched his head and laughed.

“But it’s not a bad feeling to be spoken to so casually, it makes us seem closer.”

He’s impossible to talk to.

Damian wanted to slap his forehead.

“Oh, the sun’s out.”

As sunlight streamed through the gap between the window panes, Casey opened the window. He reached out to check if it was still raining, and then suddenly left the room. A startled Damian instinctively followed him.

“Where are you going?”

Casey quickly descended the stairs and caught the elevator. Damian, in a daze, boarded the elevator with him. Taking advantage of the brief moment they were alone, Damian asked again,

“Where are you going?”

“To pick up a friend,”

Casey replied with a grin.

“Friend? Who?”

Damian asked again, but Casey didn’t answer. Instead, he tilted his head and asked,

“Are you coming along?”

“No, I…”

“Well, you can come if you want.”

With Casey’s permission, Damian quickly decided on his next course of action. He thought it would be better to stick by Casey’s side and observe what he was doing, rather than letting this unpredictable person, who was about 90% spirit, out of his sight.

He was worried about Lilliana crying, but for her safety, it was better to follow Casey.

Damian grumbled inwardly about the increase in his workload. He didn’t know what kind of day it was that brought him such misfortune.

***

Damian and Casey took the tram quite a distance to the outskirts of the city. They got off at a rural village near Nichio.

Damian, wondering why Casey had come to such a place, followed him. After getting off the tram, Casey looked around and, spotting a cart with luggage, approached it.

“If I were alone, I would have walked, but since Damian and my friend are here…”

He then paid the cart owner a small amount of money and got on the cart.

Damian sat on the pile of straw in the cart, observing Casey who was staring blankly at the sky, then lay down and rested his head on his arms.

Contrary to Damian’s worries, Casey acted perfectly normal during the tram ride. He didn’t know where they were going, but at least for now, Casey didn’t seem to be plotting anything.

But a suspicious person doesn’t go around announcing that they’re suspicious. Damian couldn’t shake off the uneasy feeling that Casey was up to something.

First, he had met Lilliana while Damian was showering and made her cry in less than 30 minutes. Seeing that, Damian couldn’t take his eyes off him.

His head started pounding as he tried to figure out how to keep an eye on Casey while guarding Lilliana.

Unlike Damian, Casey started humming a cheerful tune. Seeing that just made Damian even more irritated.

As Damian kept glancing at Casey, the cart slowed down as if they had reached their destination. The cart stopped in front of a ranch.

Casey asked the cart owner to wait for a moment, then hurried towards the ranch house and called out to the owner.

“Ray!”

The middle-aged man who opened the door at Casey’s call greeted him warmly. Casey shook his hand and said,

“Luther! How have you been? I’ve come to pick up my dog. I found a place to stay.”

“Really? That’s great!”

“Dog?”

Damian, who had been listening to their conversation, raised an eyebrow.

Were they allowed to keep animals in the boarding house?