The Sword and The Shadow

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Hated, thick-skinned, peeping Tom, shameless, frivolous, trouble-maker, horrible speaker, incarnate of awkwardness, masochist, the labels just kept coming, and none of them were good, not a single one.

The sight was not one easy to describe. Everyone present stared at Annelotte, jaws on the floor, unable to utter a single word.

Leguna's expression was colorful, and not in a good way. Every time Annelotte brought up another label, his expression greened a little more as if he had swallowed another fly. When she finally said 'masochist', his skin popped into orcish green.

[Whoa, your skin looks like mine now!] Gahrona commented, unable to hold it in any longer.

No one said a word, Leguna didn't even blink.

Annelotte looked at them oddly.

"What's wrong? Are they not true?"

Eirinn cleared her throat uneasily.

"They're not wrong… It's just.."

"So he really is a thick-skinned thug?" Annelotte asked, frowning, here eyes freezing Leguna.

She had only a handful of memories of him. Most of her knowledge of him came from the labels, and they didn't leave her with a good impression. The few memories she did have were exclusively of how she'd punished him for trying to do horrible things to her, like peeping on her, or of how she had to save him from danger all the time.

She concluded it would be best to avoid him in the future, and to keep her guard sky high when she couldn't. In fact, she had no idea why she'd put up with him like she evidently had in the past. She couldn't see a single reason from what meager memories she had, and she certainly had no intention to do so from now on.

He was at best an acquaintance now, anyway.

"Umm--" Leguna scratched his head awkwardly. "--Was that really the impression you had of me the whole time?"

"I don't know, but I don't think I'd lie to myself."

No way! Given how dishonest you are with yourself, you might even go so far as to lie to yourself! What were you thinking, Annie?! Why did you give me those labels? What's the point? Don't you have a single positive thought about me?

Umm… for example… err… my point is there's a lot of good! Why can't you give me a single positive label? You ruined the good impression you had of me yourself! If this were a book, I'd beat up the damn author! Why did he have to go and make me spend volumes and volumes courting you only to reset everything? I want a refund! Give me back my childhood!

And what's with calling me a masochist? I'm the top! I'm at least a sadist! You might get a few good punches in now and then, but I'm the one tormenting you mentally! Calling me masochist… I'll show you… sigh, whatever. With how things are now, I don't think she'll hold back if I try anything…

"At least you've recovered a little. We can slowly retrace our life together in the future and make you remember everything."

"I don't need your help," Annelotte shot, "I am not your concern."

The soft glow in Leguna's eyes vanished and his spine froze. He pursed his lips and nodded.

"Alright, you must be worn out. Get some rest. We'll talk tomorrow."

He left crestfallenly. Myr sighed and waved his hand to leave.

"Sis Annie," Innilis said softly.

"What is it, Innie?"

"Don't do that to Big Bro, okay? He is really hurt," she said regretfully, shouldering all the guilt.

Had she not poisoned Annelotte, she wouldn't have lost her memories in the first place, which resulted in the change in her behavior towards Leguna. If she hadn't said that to him, he wouldn't be that disappointed in the first place. It was all her fault.

"That's right, Sis Annie! You used to like Big Brother Leguna a lot!" Eirinn chimed.

"I liked him?!--" Annelotte a corner of her heart shuddered, horrified at the thought. "--Don't joke around, Eirinn. There's no way I could have any positive thoughts about him. There's no way I could like a shameless bastard like him."

"Big Bro Leguna isn't shameless!" Innilis spat angrily, "He's the best! I won't let anyone talk about him like that, not even you, Sis Annie!"

"Don't get so emotional, Innie," Eirinn said, "Sis Annie, I don't know what memories you kept. Are they all bad?"

"You can say that," Annelotte nodded, "Basically, it's all him…"

She didn't know how to continue the sentence. Fortunately, Eirinn wasn't really trying to get her to tell her what she remembered.

"Even if they aren't good memories, there should be quite a lot of them, right? Given your personality, why would you endure his constant bugging if you didn't like him?"

Annelotte didn't know what to say. She didn't understand it herself. She definitely disliked him severely, so why had she let the little shit stick around? She didn't think of herself, past or present, as someone who let distasteful people hang around.

"You can say what you like. Even if I did like him in the past, I have no intention of interacting with him now. There must be a reason why I didn't leave myself any positive memories of him, if I even had any to begin with."

"Well… you never did let yourself accept him…" Eirinn sighed.

"Come, Innie. The two of you just woke up. You need lots of rest," she said as she left.

"Wait," Innilis said as she turned around suddenly, "Sis Annie?"

"What is it?"

"Do you really not remember what happened before you fainted?" Innilis asked.

"No. I didn't back up those memories."

"Hmm…"

The girl's eyes brightened for a moment, but dulled after seeing Annelotte's scars. She nodded and left with Eirinn.

……

It was a sleepless night for Innilis. She spent the whole night pondering a decision.

The next morning, Marolyt heard about his daughter's awakening and rushed there to see her.

As she didn't remember much, Annelotte didn't remember how Marolyt left her on Lance without looking after her for a dozen years. As a result, she behaved more familiar with him.

Marolyt wasn't too disappointed to see her like that. So what if it was only a quarter of her memories? Most of her life was spent being raised in a dark place like Moonshadow in the first place, so if most of what she lost was from there, it might even be a good thing for her.

As for Leguna, he looked down as usual. Annelotte acted like he didn't exist.

"Alright, since there isn't a huge problem, check out how this happened when you're free, kid!" Marolyt said, a hint of killing intent in his voice.

"Understood."

Leguna wasn't surprised that he asked. While the matter ended without a huge commotion, Leguna still wanted to find the perpetrator and exact revenge. After all, Annelotte did still suffer a huge setback.

The two thugs, old and young, thus banded together with devious smiles as they discussed how to deal with the culprit.

Just as they were getting into a heated discussion, Innilis burst into the room. Before Leguna could ask her why she was there, she knelt with an audible thud.

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