By Zephyria 
My memory has been strangely poor since returning from the Primeval Forest. Or, to be precise, it was closer to being normal. Before, I would recall memories that weren’t mine, and once I became aware of a memory, I would never forget it again. But now, I occasionally forget things that are old or unimportant, just like a normal person.
I don’t know if it’s simply because of my decision not to inherit memories.
“Thank you!”
The child, who had finished his bread and even packed some for his sibling, waved with a bright smile. I watched his small back fade into the distance before asking Kyle,
“Have you been here before?”
“No?”
“But how do you know it so well?”
“I just know when I see it.”
The same goes for the shelters and volunteer organizations… I thought he was just looking around and walking without much thought, but that wasn’t the case.
We naturally held hands again and walked along the path. Kyle, who had been unusually quiet, stopped walking. Then, he looked at me and said something out of the blue.
“I want to eat that bread too. Go buy two, one for you and one for me.”
“…What? By myself?”
“I’ll wait here.”
It was a truly bizarre and incomprehensible request. He was clearly up to something, filled with hidden intentions.
“You can just come with me.”
When I frowned, Kyle tapped his right leg and whined.
“My leg hurts.”
“Then I’ll give you a piggyback ride.”
“With so many people around? I’m too embarrassed.”
“…”
Kyle’s cheeks flushed red as he said something ridiculous. He was utterly shameless. Nevertheless, it was a rare expression to see, and my fingertips tingled.
I suspected his intentions, but I couldn’t refuse such a request. Even if Kyle caused some trouble or acted violently, I could just pick him up and run away if things went south, so it didn’t matter much.
“Are you only going to eat one?”
“Yeah, just one for me. You eat one too. Let’s eat this as a snack and go to a proper restaurant later.”
“Okay.”
I was about to turn back when I paused. Thinking about it, it was something I’d only seen in books, so I asked, just in case.
“You’re not going to abandon me, are you?”
In books, parents usually say that before abandoning their children on the street. The thought suddenly occurred to me, and Kyle frowned deeply.
“Don’t even joke about that.”
“The situation is a bit like that.”
“Just hurry back.”
Reluctantly, I had to move my reluctant feet. Judging from the child’s conversation earlier, he was clearly planning to cause a ruckus at the charcoal shop by himself. Kyle tried hard not to show me his violent side, so he always tried to keep me away in situations like this.
I really couldn’t understand it. But if I had to understand… wasn’t it similar to how I didn’t want to show Kyle my wounded body?
Since I was so stubborn, I decided to indulge Kyle’s stubbornness as well.
I ordered as slowly as possible so that Kyle would have plenty of time to cause a scene. And after what felt like an eternity, I arrived at the place where Kyle was supposed to be waiting. As expected, Kyle was gone, and I heard a crashing sound from the slightly distant direction of the charcoal shop.
I sighed and walked towards the sound. Just then, Kyle was roundhouse kicking someone with his supposedly aching right leg.
“Why, why are you doing this! Aagh!”
“Do you know who I am?”
“N-No, aagh!”
“How dare you get dirt on my clothes? Do you want to die? You greedy toad.”
Judging by the situation, he wasn’t going to kill him, just beat him up a bit. The charcoal shop owner’s heavy body floated in the air as if it were a lie, then crashed into a corner.
“…”
What was his name again? It’s been so long, but he’s still ripping off kids like that… I remembered carrying charcoal as a child and not getting paid.
“Agh! Agh! Agh!”
Kyle kicked the charcoal shop owner several times. He kicked his legs, his face, his arms… It was also strange that he only used his feet and not his hands at all.
But is this really something to get so angry about? Of course, I felt sorry for the nameless child from earlier, but I wasn’t sure if it was something Kyle needed to get involved in.
He’s always been a bit soft on kids… But then again, thinking about it, it was because of Kyle’s personality that I was able to survive in Actan as a child.
Whether it was because I thought Kyle was no ordinary person, or because the charcoal shop owner’s reputation wasn’t very good, no one stepped forward even after a long time.
Kyle, who had been stomping and kicking the man for a while, finally seemed to have vented his anger and left the shop with a refreshed expression. Then, he looked up at the blue sky and took a deep breath.
“Ha, that was refreshing…”
He looked as if he had gotten rid of a thousand years of indigestion. Then, Kyle spotted me, waved, and ran towards me. It was a completely innocent smile that didn’t match the image of him half-killing someone just moments ago.
“When did you get here?”
“Just now.”
I handed Kyle the bread, carefully checking for bloodstains. He must have been careful while beating him up, because his clothes weren’t particularly dirty. He must have beaten up countless people before…
“Which way was your house?”
“That way. But can we just leave that guy like that?”
Shouldn’t we at least tell him not to rip off kids anymore? But Kyle didn’t seem interested anymore and took the bread without replying.
Kyle, who wasn’t used to eating while walking, spilled more than he ate. I roughly caught what was falling with my hands and wiped off anything that got on him, asking,
“Is it good?”
“It’s alright. But why don’t you have one? I told you to buy two.”
Only then did Kyle realize and frown.
“What does it taste like?”
“Just meat. The seasoning is a bit sweet and salty… Try it.”
And so, we shared a bite each and walked along the road. Kyle only ate a few bites, so I ate most of it.
And then we arrived at the place where I lived as a child, the outermost part of the slums. All the shacks were gone, and only a few warehouse-like buildings remained.
“You lived here?”
“Yeah, the terrain seems a bit different. The road is flatter too.”
“Where did you get the mud?”
He really asks about everything.
“There was water nearby. Not a stream, just… There were no roads back then, so the ground would get muddy when it rained. I just smeared that on, I guess.”
“Where did the grandfather you mentioned before live?”
“Grandfather?”
“The grandfather who raised chickens, something like ‘cock-a-doodle-doo’.”
What suddenly… I tilted my head and then widened my eyes.
“You still remember that?”
“Didn’t you say it was close to your house?”
“That’s right. It was probably around here?”
I roughly estimated the distance with my steps. Kyle continued to ask me about various things. He seemed to have remembered every word I had said in passing as a child.
We lingered near the warehouse for quite some time, and finally, Kyle, satisfied, returned the way we came.
“Let’s go now. Do you want to stay longer?”
I tilted my head at his question.
“You wanted to come so badly, and now you’re leaving already?”
“Well, there’s nothing to see… The house you used to live in is gone now.”
Did he really just want to see it once?
“And I’m afraid someone will come to catch me for beating up that bastard earlier. Let’s run away quickly.”
“Who’s going to catch you?”
“The guards or something.”
It was funny how he was pretending to be scared when he wasn’t scared at all.
“If you were so scared, why did you beat him up so badly? You didn’t even warn him not to rip off kids anymore. He’ll probably exploit young children again in a few days.”
“Who cares? The person developing this area will take care of that.”
That was a cold thing to say, considering he even bought bread for the child earlier and asked about the situation.
“He’s lived like that his whole life. Do you think he’ll listen to me if I beat him up a few times and warn him? You have to monitor people like that for the rest of their lives, or kill them to end it. Looking at his face, he seems too rotten to be reformed.”
That meant he wasn’t going to kill him. He was probably just going to stop caring about it altogether.
I hesitated for a moment and then said,
“I used to work at that charcoal shop when I was a kid too.”