The children embraced the black smudge eagerly.Then, the smudge slowly took shape, transforming into a human figure.
"Dad, co back quickly...!"
Naru shouted, clinging to the man's legs.Everyone silently watched this scene.They wanted to say sothing, but the words just circled in their heads without reaching their throats. Salo was the first to regain her composure.
"...Are you Judas?"
Salo asked the man cautiously. The Judas in her mory was obscured, as if his face was veiled by soot.Now, facing him directly, it was like wiping a photo with a clean handkerchief; many things started to beco clear.
"Judas..."
The man mumbled his na as if hearing it for the first ti. He savored it a few tis, as if tasting the na Judas on his lips.
Watching him, Brigitte reached a conclusion about the hypothesis she had only considered in her thoughts. The current Judas might be a different entity from the one before.
"Do you not rember us?"
Brigitte asked the man.He furrowed his brow or shyly scratched his nose with a finger. It seed he had lost all mories concerning everyone.Brigitte could not even begin to guess what the fight between Judas in the ntal realm and Nocturne was like. Thus, she had no idea how Judas lost his mory.
"I'm happy that you're back, but also a little sad."
Joy and sorrow.These two emotions were in perfect opposition, leaving Brigitte feeling numb. She was in such emotional equilibrium that she didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Thud— Thud—Cariote circled around Judas like a wary cat. Being highly cautious, she found it difficult to accept this entity that was once a black smudge.Shhh—After poking the arm with a finger, Cariote asked.
"How did you return here if you've lost your mory?"
Cariote's question was loaded with significance.It felt like Saint Iris asking the heavens for so 'truth'. What would the man answer?
"I didn't return here. I just stopped by. I've visited every ho in the world. And it's only here that I finally t them. People who called Dad..."
He claid to have visited every ho in the world.It sounded like a boastful tale.Yet, having encountered many stories that were more unbelievable than lies, people simply had to accept it.This man had traveled to every ho in search of sothing, and he had finally found it.
The man looked at the children's faces.As if trying to morize each expression and eye color.And that was indeed what he was doing.By looking at the children, the man could understand who he was.
"I think I once said this. The children beco my daughters because I think of them as such... But now I see I was wrong. These children beca my daughters because they called Dad, and that's how I beca a father."
The man's mory was incomplete.He was like a blank white paper.
Yet, as he looked into those innocent eyes gazing up at him, calling him 'Dad', a storm of thoughts flashed through his mind like lightning.For these children, he felt he could fight any injustice, even sacrifice his very life.Of course, that was an impossibility.For the man had beco an extraordinary being, in a sense that made any injustice nonexistent.It was rely a symbolic taphor.
“Naru!”
Naru suddenly raised her hand, announcing her na.
“Naru is Naru!”
It was a strange thing to say.But the children keenly sensed the odd sparkle in the man's dark eyes as he heard the na.Children often have more sensitive perceptions than adults.
“Hina is... Hina!”
Introducing herself, Hina seed slightly upset, thinking Naru had stolen her turn again.Naru seed unaware, but Hina, being more conscious, felt a great disappointnt.
“...I am Cecily Von Ragdoll. And... at the sa ti, Cecily Barjudas.”
Cecily introduced herself with a hint of embarrassnt. Being a noble lady, she was quite ashad to call herself the daughter of a thief.But soon, it didn't matter.Nobles, in a way, were thieves on a grand scale.
“Naru, Hina, Cecily...”
The man whispered the nas of the three children, pointing at each one with his finger. It was as if he was a child learning to distinguish letters and objects from his parents.
“Naru, Hina, Cecily...”
Many things seed to be coming to the man's mind.But they were like a clump.mories so compact and intertwined that they needed more ti to be sorted out.
“I am Salo.”
A woman approached the man and spoke.Salo placed her palm over her chest, gracefully curtsied, holding the hem of her dress on one side.
“Salo...”
Hearing the na, the man's eyebrows twitched as if he rembered sothing. His gaze blatantly swept over Salo from head to toe, left to right.
If soone else had looked at her this way, she would have hit them, but for Salo, that wasn't important right now.Salo was smart; she knew exactly what she needed to do at this mont.
“I was your only lover. Rember that.”
“The only one?”
The man furrowed his brow and twitched his eyebrows again, skeptical of the truth of that statent. At that mont, Brigitte, grasping the situation, burst out in anger.
“That's a lie! Judas, do you really not rember anything?”
Brigitte too rushed towards Judas.And she suddenly hugged him tightly.
“I am Brigitte!”
Everyone was surprised at the sight.Because the usual Brigitte had always maintained a certain line with Judas. They never casually held hands, so for her to suddenly hug him like that.
"We've had so many adventures together! If it were a novel, it would fill at least five volus of epic tales!"
It was like a scene where a wife greets a lover or husband returning from the battlefield. It seed almost noble.
"How about it, do you rember anything? Huh?"
Brigitte looked at Judas with eyes brimming slightly with tears.However, Judas's expression was ambiguous.That made Brigitte angry and disappointed.
'Isn't it in ordinary stories that the dramatic power of love brings back mories...? Was I only that much to Judas...?'
Of course, she didn't show it.She simply pinched Judas's side with her finger.Judas ntioned it.
"This pinch feels familiar."
Saying that, Judas's eyes turned to Cariote. His expression seed to wonder if he could have been lovers with soone who looked as stern as her.Cariote, realizing his intent, shook her head honestly.
"I was not your lover."
"......"
At those words, everyone held their breath.So seed to be shocked.To be that honest in such a situation?
Cariote felt everyone's gaze but didn't particularly care. She had always lived without concern for what others thought.Instead of responding to the people, she just added a few honest words.
"I wasn’t your lover, but I will beco sothing closer than that to you. Cecily is born in September. Which ans she was conceived around November. By November, I need to be your wife. And on the exact date, without a single error, we have to create Cecily."
The crowd was astonished again.It was too honest a reveal.Thankfully, Salo and Brigitte, as well as Saint Iris, quickly covered the children’s ears. Otherwise, it could have seriously shaken the children’s values.
Pop—Soone approached Judas.It was Sifnoi, who until a mont ago seed ready to beat a black stain with a broom as if on guard. Sifnoi approached Judas, raising her hands high and exclaid.
"This Sifnoi knew that Lord Judas would return and was the first to spot him...! In fact, I was the first to recognize the black dust stain as Lord Judas...!"
At Sifnoi's bold words, everyone fell silent.To be so brazen after trying to chase Judas away with a broom.But since Sifnoi was indeed the first to discover Judas, everyone just remained quiet.
"If I, Sifnoi, may say so, I am Lord Judas's loyal follower and right hand...! And the successor whom Lord Judas promised to legally pass on the throne of the King of Thieves...!"
Sifnoi, seizing the opportunity of Judas's mory loss, thought it was ti to take advantage to claim her share.Sifnoi believed she deserved so reward for her significant contribution during the 「Disaster」With such thoughts, she was internally smirking when Judas said.
"No, I'm not sure about everything else, but this part is definitely wrong."
"Hiiik...!"
"This is a strawberry!"
Naru pointed at the strawberry with her finger.
"Strawberries are delicious! They're sweet and sour! Strawberries co out in sumr, but there are so that co out in winter too! They're tasty! Naru can't really taste strawberries anymore... but instead, I'll give them to you Dad!"
Swoosh—Naru picked up the strawberry and handed it to her father.Judas inspected the strawberry handed to him, then popped it into his mouth.As the juice spread in his mouth, it felt like his wrinkled brain was suddenly expanding.
As sothing seed to rise in his mind, slowly trying to figure out what it was, Hina, who had been watching, said,
"This is a peach... Hina loves peaches the most... because they're pink..."
"Naru loves peaches the most now too! Because Naru can't taste strawberries anymore!"
Hina frowned as she watched Naru raise her hands with a whoosh-; she didn't like that Naru was encroaching on her turn and even trying to steal her preference for peaches.While Naru and Hina were bickering again, Cecily pointed at the ceiling.
"This is a chandelier. It's a very aristocratic ornant. And this is a fan that every noble lady must carry..."
Cecily also eagerly explained what she knew to her father. She looked just like a mother pointing things out to her child.And indeed, that was the case.The children, without sleeping, brought objects to their father, who had beco white as a sheet with erased mories, to help paint his mories anew.The thod was quite effective, and the man seed to be recovering so of his mories.
"The daughters educating their baby-like father... Isn't this completely backward?"
Salo couldn't help but laugh at the situation.Only now could she finally let go of various feelings and laugh.To Salo's comnt, Brigitte said.
"They say sotis the outco creates the process. It's entirely possible that the outco of being daughters creates the process of us."
Brigitte found this scene very moving.
And she thought that perhaps there exists in the universe a will so great, she could call it a massive force, and maybe every branching path ultimately leads to such a scene.
"Whatever choices we make, whatever words we speak, we were destined to end up in this scenery. The process might differ a bit, though..."
"Hmph, what are you even talking about? Don't act so smart."
Salo scoffed disdainfully.Annoyed, Brigitte retorted, "Maybe it was too complex for you. If it sounded like showing off, that's on you," and sneered.
Just like Naru and Hina, the two began to fight, grabbing each other's hair.Cariote, not wanting to join in, kept a slight distance from the won, but her sensitive ears caught Judas expressing doubt.
"But... didn't I have one more daughter?"
Judas asked.At his words, the children stopped what they were doing and looked at each other.One more daughter.That was completely unheard /genesisforsaken
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