Epilogue
One week had passed since all the commotion caused by my splitting in half. We had returned to Dolkness County, and things had settled down. I wasn’t sure if saying they were now at peace was quite correct, but the hero and the Demon Lord had disappeared, and I had both sides of my body back.
The side of me that had died felt that coming back to life would be bad, but that was a conclusion I had come to when I didn’t know that only half of me had died and things had gotten a bit jumbled after my losing control and whatnot.
My wedding, another event where I had a bad feeling would bring some kind of trouble, was coming up, so I was really glad that this situation was wrapped up in a day.
Still, the battle between my left and right sides had seemed to take quite the toll on me. I was feeling the exhaustion of both sides at once, so I hadn’t been able to do much for the past week.
I’d recovered quite a bit now, so I wanted to return to my usual work starting tomorrow, and I was discussing that with Patrick.
“I’m fine now. It was less of a physical toll and more a mental one from having two sets of memories in my head.”
“Your left side met with the hero and the Demon Lord early on, right?”
“Well, I met with other people before the Demon Lord, like a calico cat that wasn’t afraid of me.”
“Was it actually a cat?”
How sharp of you to notice, Pat-Pat. That calico was a middle-aged man. I think I’ll wait to tell him about the cat brothers, though. I feel like the load of remembering the shocking image of the cat-eared man combined with trying to get him to believe me will be exhausting.
Since the brothers were reunited in the Kingdom of Twilight, the younger brother had the chance to reveal the truth about his made-up travel logs, and I felt that they had a nice ending. As for the hero and the Demon Lord...
“Do you think it was good that they reunited after death?”
“It was probably good since they were able to get rid of the regrets they had.”
“That’s true...”
Seeing the hero and the Demon Lord disappear into the sun together, it was hard to imagine that they had once hated each other. The hero had spent centuries in Twilight, while the Demon Lord spent that time sealed away. It had taken quite a while, but at the end, they were friends...or at the very least, they’d returned to their previous relationship.
As I imagined what the hero’s face had looked like when he’d returned to his barbarian form, since I hadn’t been able to catch a single glimpse of it, Patrick mumbled something as if overcome with emotion.
“I never expected there to be an afterlife.”
“Just like Lemn explained, I’m not really sure what the point of that place is, though.”
The reason the Kingdom of Twilight existed was unclear. Unless someone was an exception like me, no one there would be coming back to life. It could be hellish for someone to just spend their time there, continuing to hold their regrets from when they were alive.
Still, I’d seen people who seemed to be saved by the Kingdom of Twilight, so I questioned its existence, but I couldn’t reject it.
“I’d like to hear what happened there one day,” Patrick said.
“Yeah... I’ll tell you about the cat-eared man when I have the energy for it.”
“That sounds like an exhausting story.”
“I don’t think I’d be able to endure telling it while I’m feeling down.”
Since he’d just said he wanted to hear about it, Patrick grimaced, realizing he couldn’t take it back. Should I just tell him now? I have the story about the brothers who wanted to be cats or the story about the woman who swapped reality with paintings and turned into actual abstract art.
Patrick sensed something bad coming, so he changed the subject. “You’ve caused various commotions in the past, but I can’t believe your left and right halves split.”
“Would you have been able to believe it if it was my top and bottom halves?”
“Top and bottom...?”
Maybe I should try to split into two horizontally next. I feel like I’ll be able to keep one half from dying. If I say I’m going to do it, Patrick will probably try to stop me, so I’ll keep it to myself.
Speaking of, I haven’t told Eleanora about the cat-eared man—I mean, the unfortunate perfumer, Quartus. I told Patrick I would be off and headed to see Eleanora.
“Lady Eleanora!”
Eleanora was in her room. As soon as she saw me, Eleanora handed me something I’d never seen before. What is this...? There was a string with a heavy, metal button on the end of it. Eleanora held up the string and began swinging it like a pendulum.
“Yumiella, you are getting sleepy, very sleepy...”
“I’m not.”
She was trying to hypnotize me, and the metal button was being used like a five-yen coin, which Japanese kids used to do the same thing. This kingdom didn’t have any coins with holes in them like Japan, so that was probably why she’d used the button.
I didn’t know that this world had a similar form of hypnosis as what I’d seen in my past life. I wonder where Eleanora gets her information from... Also, I would never get hypnotized by something like this. You hypnotize someone by whispering a countdown in their ear. Oh, but if Eleanora were to whisper into my ear, I feel like she’d scream out of nowhere and burst my eardrums. That sounds terrifying...
As such silly thoughts ran through my mind, Eleanora continued her silly hypnosis.
“You are getting sleepy, very sleepy...”
“Like I said, I’m not.”
“Maybe you’re someone who’s resistant to this. I’ll try it on someone else.”
The only people this sort of thing works on are gullible and a little stupid. But there isn’t anyone who fits that description around us.
Anyway, time for the main topic. I’m sure Eleanora isn’t seriously trying to learn hypnosis either. She’s just bored.
“Do you remember the scent of the black notebook you found in the forbidden archives?”
“Of course! I have no doubt that it was a fragrance made by Sir Quartus! It smelled like a sad dessert at sunset where the residents spent their time peacefully—like a gentle afterlife.”
How terrifying. Eleanora doesn’t know what the Kingdom of Twilight looks like nor did she hear the cat-eared man’s description of the scent. How did she get it so accurately just by smelling it? She really is incredible, even if she’s trying to do some idiotic hypnosis.
Since Eleanora was a huge fan of Sir Quartus, it was a bit difficult to say that I’d met him. Not only that, but the perfumer she admired was a middle-aged man with cat ears sprouting from his head. I agonized over what I should tell her while she continued speaking about the fragrance.
“Also, that was a true scent. I believe that Sir Quartus was in that desert during sunset, and he might’ve not known it, but his younger brother was probably nearby too... I hope they can travel the world together in the end.”
“Terrifying...” I’d meant to keep that in my thoughts, but it had accidentally slipped out.
How? How do you know about the calico brother too? Did she peak into my memories using her hypnosis?
It was Eleanora who had been able to talk the hero down thanks to her love for Edwin, and we were able to establish communication between the living world and the Kingdom of Twilight because Eleanora had found the Demon Lord’s notebook. Perhaps Eleanora was the MVP of this whole incident.
There were several other things I had realized thanks to my two sets of memories coming together. One of those was that the first king had made the mummified mermaid in the basement of the Royal Palace.
The biggest discovery was the Demon Lord’s notebook. The notebook had followed the Demon Lord into the Kingdom of Twilight like an item he’d had equipped. And the one that had been stored for many years after the Demon Lord was sealed away had synced up. The syncing was probably caused by the Demon Lord spraying a fragrance on his notebook. The notebook, of which two copies existed between the living world and the Kingdom of Twilight, had been linked through Quartus’s perfume.
I feel like Lemn also said something about how smells are the only thing that can travel between the worlds.
“Do you know why smells are the only thing that can travel between here and Twilight, Eleanora?”
“That’s an easy question to answer.” What? I’d thought it was a bit of a mystery, and it couldn’t be explained through science, so I was surprised when Eleanora responded so quickly.
I guess Eleanora has some insane understanding when it comes to perfume, so maybe her brain is in hyperdrive. I’m really curious as to why smells are so special! I held my breath and waited for her to continue.
“Because...fragrances are the most memorable thing to people.”
“I see.” Her response turned out to be some fluffy, nice-sounding thing. I’ll give this to Eleanora as a thank-you, then. “Here you go. It’s a gift.”
“What is this...?”
I handed a bottle of perfume to Eleanora. The fragrance we were discussing, which Left Yumiella had on her when she’d lost control, was in my pocket when I fused back into one. It was the one gift I’d brought back from the Kingdom of Twilight.
I immediately left Eleanora’s room. Behind me, I could hear Eleanora’s excited screams, which sounded no different from someone in the throes of death. I feel like this sound is going to be more memorable than anything else.
I didn’t have anything to do, so I decided to execute something that had been on my mind for a while. During this last incident, I had not simply split into two, but rather I was able to split into two. I hadn’t died and split in half, but rather, I thought that I’d split into two, fought myself, and as a result my left half had traveled to the Kingdom of Twilight.
That’s why I believed that if I tried hard enough, I would be able to split myself in two or even create a clone. Still, it was hard to imagine how I’d do either of those things. I had no memory of what it had felt like when I’d split into two, so I couldn’t even figure out where to begin. If anyone out there is knowledgeable in splitting yourself up into your left and right halves, please contact me.
Okay, maybe I’ll try sprouting wings, then. I sort of remember how that feels. It feels like something stretching out of my back. I continued to try sprouting wings while recalling what it felt like in the moment. Just then, Patrick came up to me.
“What are you up to now?”
“It seems like I can’t intentionally split into two or make a clone of myself.”
“I see. How unfortunate.”
The fact that I’d tried to split into two again should’ve been shocking for Patrick, but he’d responded like he was used to this. Do you really think it’s unfortunate? It’s fine, I have some good news for you anyway, Patrick.
“I think I’m close to sprouting wings, though. I have this weird sensation on my back.”
“I think your back is just itchy...”
“No, it’s a more unique feeling than that!”
Patrick began scratching all over my back. No, no, you’re wrong. I’m actually really close to sprouting wings. Patrick continued to scratch my back, interrupting the formation of my wings. He then whispered in my ear. “You’re just itchy. Just itchy. You just have an itchy back.”
“I’m telling you—”
“Your back is itchy. Your back is itchy. You have an itchy back.”
“I feel like it’s just itchy...!”
My back was just itchy the whole time! It’s true, it feels really weird back there. I had just been mistaken about the wings, and I was also mistaken that Patrick was looking at me as if I were someone who was gullible and a little stupid.
Cold air blew in from a gap in a window, causing my black hair to gently sway in the wind. The Foundation Festival would be held soon. The kingdom that the hero and the Demon Lord built was aging another year.
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