This man has a mental illness.
The girl followed him around the house and came to a firm conclusion.
He had been talking to himself since entering the room, as if speaking to someone, but in reality, there was no one but her by his side. Furthermore, he ignored her, which meant she did not exist in his eyes.
He suffered from severe delusional disorder. Everything was abnormal except for his ability to recognize the room's structure and avoid bumping into things.
In the few minutes since he came in, he had used a sculpture's hand, a shoe, and a water cup as a phone, "calling" others with perfectly normal conversation.
He also looked at the white snow outside the window and said he didn't want to go swimming, picked up an empty bowl and muttered that coconut milk was too sweet, and stood under a lamp saying the sun was too bright.
His nervous and mentally deranged manner, how should one put it… seemed strangely… pitiful?
"Anyway, it's none of my business. I just have to finish my task…" The girl scratched her hair. Then she thought of something important, "Say, are you the person in that photo?"
Although the person in the photo was a boy younger than herself, it wasn't impossible that the photo was taken a long time ago, right?
Since he couldn't see her, wouldn't it be possible to quietly unveil the cloth on his face without being discovered?
Thinking this, the girl approached the man's wheelchair with her light steps. She stood next to him and waved her hand in front of his eye. After confirming he couldn't see, the girl, like a thief, reached out to grab the cloth on his face.
Her fingers grasped the knot in the cloth, and she pulled gently…
"Snap."
"Yikes—"
Without any warning, the man grabbed her wrist with his right hand.
H-he was faking it!
"I-I'm Pardofelis! I have bosses backing me up! They love buying my stuff! Go ask around on Twilight Street! Don't you dare mess with me!" Pardofelis yanked her hand back while desperately shouting her name, hoping to scare the man.
"Is this your child? Immel, that's wonderful. You got married after the Honkai ended, but it took you this long to have a child."
"Eh?"
Pardofelis thought she had misheard. She stopped shouting and looked into the man's eye.
It was then that she realized the man only had one eye, which was illusory and fragile, scattered into a diffused circle. He wasn't looking at her at all.
"Yes, we finally retired."
He nodded with a smile.
…
"I still didn't get to see his face…"
Pardofelis left the house, touching her face, and couldn't help but sigh.
Even if this mentally deranged man was indeed the person in the photo, handing him the key would probably be useless.
Forget it, forget it. I'll just leave it on the table and consider the task done. What happens next is none of my business.
Although she thought this way, Pardofelis couldn't help but feel a pang of sympathy, recalling the man's warm yet bizarre scene. He probably couldn't live alone. He wouldn't die in this house, would he…
Speaking of which, did he come here himself? No way. In his mental state, even if he knew the way, he shouldn't have been able to get here.
Pardofelis thought to herself as she reached into her bosom to feel for the key.
"…Hmm? Hmmm—N-no, it's gone!"
Pardofelis frantically felt all over her body but couldn't find the key that someone had threatened her to deliver to another person.
Pardofelis had always carried the key with her to prevent losing it. The key, which she had confirmed was there just this morning, was gone after the man arrived?
Are you kidding me? If that person really was the boy in the photo, wouldn't I be in huge trouble?
Pardofelis, who had always sought to protect herself, had made the biggest mistake at this critical juncture. She immediately rushed back into the house to look for the key. Logically, she hadn't left the house today, so the key, even if dropped, would only be inside.
But…
"It's not here! I'm doomed! My life as Pardofelis is over!"
She had turned the house upside down, even checking the man's wheelchair, but Pardofelis couldn't find the key. She suddenly felt like the sky was collapsing.
All she wanted now was to bury her head in a snow pile and knock herself out.
Pardofelis left, distraught. She no longer had the mental capacity to care about the man. Trouble would probably find her soon. Before that, she needed to find a place to hide.
"Did you hear? That sanatorium supposedly saved a person with frostbite all over his body! They say not a single patch of skin is good!"
"Really? Then he must be dead, right? How could he get that frozen?"
"What else? The winter this year is so cold. He must have accidentally broken his leg somewhere and then got frozen like that."
"How tragic."
"What good is tragedy? Isn't that just how Twilight Street is…"
Pardofelis heard the words of the raggedly dressed beggar on the street and paid attention.
They weren't necessarily beggars. There were probably no people who lived purely by begging in Twilight Street. Here, everyone survived on their own merit, and relying on others wouldn't last long. So, they would gather all kinds of information. Pardofelis liked to listen, because some of the bosses who bought things from her also liked to hear it.
Fortunately, I have a house to live in, or I might have gotten frostbite too.
Pardofelis thought for a moment and decided to check out that sanatorium.
…
"…"
Lin sat in the wheelchair, positioned in the center of the hall, motionless and peaceful, as if asleep.
His unfocused pupils were still looking ahead, or perhaps not looking at anything, just spacing out.
"Creak—"
A man pushed the door open and walked in. He glanced in the direction Pardofelis had left, then walked up to Lin.
"…"
Lin remained in that dazed state, showing no trace of his former quick thinking.
"I originally wanted you to live on Twilight Street. The Moth of the Fire doesn't control this area; it's a mixed bag of people, but hard to be discovered. That's why I built this house." The man sat on the table in front of Lin and said to him, "But you joined the Moth of the Fire before I even finished building it."
"After you joined the Moth of the Fire, I decided not to let you come here. Your identity changed. I don't know what made you remember, but a soldier is a soldier, not a child I need to protect."
"However, someone made a deal with me to let you spend your final moments peacefully. That's why I decided to bring you here. Because I never go back on my word."
"Here, you can freely return to your past or imagine your future. At least… you still have this."
After the man finished his last sentence, he got up and left. He reached the door and glanced at Lin, who was immersed in his hallucinations, with a complex expression.
Then he closed the door.
"Clang."