Seele hummed a tune as she plunged her knife into the little pig's belly, and with a light push, she sliced the belly open along the grain.
The pig, already bled out, didn't bleed anymore. The knife in her hand, precise like a surgeon's scalpel, separated the meat from the bones, cutting it into pieces suitable for cooking.
Dark red bloodstains and fat clung to the knife. The small, crisp cutting sounds echoed in the empty room.
"Knock."
"Thump-thump-thump."
A knock interrupted the sound of cutting meat.
"Creak—"
Seele pulled open the door and saw Himeko standing at the doorway with a strained smile, shaking a wine bottle in her hand.
"Want a drink, Seele?"
…
Himeko and Seele sat opposite each other at a small round table. Himeko poured wine into Seele's glass, filling it halfway, then filled her own glass completely.
"When I first met you, you couldn't even drink. Now, you've reached the age where you can get married." Himeko raised her wine glass but didn't drink. Instead, she looked at her slightly disappointed face reflected in the wine, "It turns out that… several years have passed."
"…"
Seele kept her head down, saying nothing.
Several years?
It was indeed several years of time.
"Not drinking?" Himeko raised her glass and drank half of the wine, smacking her lips as she asked.
"Mhm." Seele also picked up her glass and took a sip, then coughed, choked by the strong alcoholic fumes.
"Cough, cough, cough…"
Himeko sighed, then gave a somewhat inexplicable smile, helping Seele catch her breath.
"Seeing you like this, you're still much the same as before. Recently, you've been acting a little unlike the little Seele I know."
"Cough, cough… Phew… Have I changed?" Seele asked, her eyebrows twitching after she finally caught her breath.
"You have. The old you would probably be too heartbroken to see anyone now."
"…Is it because of Lin?"
"…"
Himeko put down her wine glass and straightened her expression, "Listen, Seele, I've seen many people fall in front of me…"
"I know."
"…"
Seele smiled lightly and said to the surprised Himeko, "Lin said that a sacrifice is not just about 'meaning.' If one indulges in the meaning brought by the sacrifice, they will lose their intrinsic quality."
"Sometimes I think, how nice it would be if people were like pigs. I can just cut them down with one knife, and they wouldn't mourn the passing of life."
"In the eyes of the Honkai, are we not just livestock waiting to be slaughtered? Is that why it kills us, so casually…"
…
"Do you know? Humans are a particularly interesting organism when it comes to lying."
The man in a black suit and neat tie sat in his position, looking at several documents in his hand, flipping through them briefly.
"Sometimes, humans lie not to benefit themselves, but to gain recognition from others."
The Chairman smiled into the communicator behind him, "This may sound strange, but humans do possess this unique psychological satisfaction, different from other animals: achieving recognition through deception, not for survival, nor for profit, but merely for 'recognition.'"
"Though I do this occasionally myself."
"…Are you not going to continue interfering with that assassin?"
"Why interfere? She is fighting for all of humanity now. Isn't that consistent with my original idea? Who commands her is not that important." The Chairman pulled out Sakura's file, lit it with a lighter, and threw it into a corner, watching it burn to ashes.
"Then why did you… ask me to fight her before?"
"Why, you ask… Wouldn't it be bad if someone was killed under my watch while I just stood by and watched? Besides, you actually wanted to kill Miss Sakura too, didn't you? I merely gave you a chance to vent. If people constantly hide their gloomy emotions, they will eventually break."
"…"
The communication was hung up. The Chairman slowly retracted his smile, looked at the bright light above his head, closed his mouth, and pondered.
…
"I still didn't see that man… By the way, are there more people at the sanatorium? Were there always that many people there before?"
Pardofelis walked along the small path, pondering the people and children she had seen in the sanatorium earlier.
Must be an illusion… I didn't go there often before.
Soon, she reached the house. She expertly jumped over the courtyard wall and only realized where she was when she got to the door.
"How did I end up here again…" Pardofelis regretted her actions and turned to leave, but then she suddenly thought that the man who seemed to have delusions had been in this house for a whole day, and she couldn't help but feel a little worried. She turned back and looked at the door.
Even though it's none of my business, but…
Her innate kindness made her still worry about Lin, so she decided to check on him one last time, then pushed the door open and walked in.
"Gasp—"
However, the scene before her eyes startled her.
The man was lying face down on the floor of the hall, his wheelchair overturned beside him. His eyes were unfocused, and he was struggling, but he couldn't stand up or grab onto anything, only waving his limbs meaninglessly.
"A-are you okay?" Pardofelis swallowed, walked over, grabbed his shoulder, and lifted him up.
Huh?
The man's muscles felt unexpectedly firm, well-defined, not at all like a disabled person whose limbs had atrophied and who was mentally deranged and confined to a wheelchair.
But Pardofelis didn't think much of it. She lifted Lin back into the wheelchair. Only after sitting back in the chair did Lin stop struggling like a drowning person.
After settling in, Lin's single vacant and hollow eye looked left and right, then looked at Pardofelis, nodding to her, "Thank you, Anna."
"I am not Anna! I am Pardofelis, P-A-R-D-O-F-E-L-I-S. You can call me Pardo or Felis… You must remember that." Pardofelis corrected him in dissatisfaction, then sighed again, "Why am I even bothering with you? You can't even buy anything from me…"
Pardofelis didn't know why this man was here, why his face was covered, or why he was mentally disturbed, nor did she care much.
If she had any curiosity, the only thing she wanted to know was whether the man who gave her the key was still monitoring this place. If he was, and he hadn't shown up yet, did that mean… she hadn't done anything wrong?
Pardofelis thought hard, but being the optimist she was, she figured that maybe the key just had to be in this house, or maybe this man wasn't the boy in the photo.
"Can I, eat this?"
Lin picked up the fruit knife on the table and brought it toward his mouth.
Pardofelis broke out in a cold sweat. She swiftly snatched the knife away and turned to place it somewhere Lin couldn't reach.
"You really don't give me a moment's peace…"
Pardofelis looked at Lin, who was still talking to himself, with a look of worry.
This person is so dangerous being alone in the house…