Chapter 15

What should I do? What should I do? What should I do?

"F-Fred, why are you on this ship? I thought you still had a request from Tonos, and after that, you were supposed to head to Big Nile..."

Inside me, the face I created as a "musician who's rude unless there's money in it" and the face I created as a "friendly alchemist" were all mixed up. What should I say? How can I make it not seem unnatural? I didn't mean to stand out, but I failed, I failed.

Seeing how clearly flustered I was, Fred, who was only surprised by the unexpected reunion, seemed to realize something and pushed through the crowd to stand in front of me.

"Oh, right! Well, what a coincidence. I was surprised too. Hey, let's celebrate our reunion! I'll treat you to lunch! It's just about lunchtime, right? What do you think, folks? It's good to give a young and promising musician a break, right?"

Fred said this, put his arm around me in a friendly manner, and led me out of the crowd a bit forcefully. I heard voices behind me: "What's going on, he just suddenly...," "That guy is a silver-ranked adventurer, and he seems to know him," "But it is lunchtime, so let's go eat too," "Will he come back after eating?"

"Fred, um..."

"It's been a while, so don't get so worked up. Let's talk while we eat."

Looking up at his very natural smile, I finally realized that I had talked too much about the matters I was involved in when I used my previous fake name. I was involved in a request from someone named Tonos, and Fred, a silver-ranked adventurer, was supposed to head to Big Nile next. We met there. It would be easy to investigate if I thought about it. Fred, who had helped me out of that situation without asking about my circumstances, was wearing a silver adventurer's plate around his neck. He pretended to be a troublemaker by bringing his acquaintance out of the crowd without considering the atmosphere.

"Is a restaurant okay? I think a seat by the wall would be less likely to leak our conversation."

"Um... I can't go upstairs, I'm in a third-class cabin..."

The dining room for third-class passengers and the restaurants for second and first-class passengers are, of course, separate. Since this isn't a luxury liner, the restaurant isn't that formal, so I probably wouldn't be turned away in this outfit, but there are guards at the stairs connecting the upper and lower decks to prevent third-class passengers from entering the floors where wealthy guests stay. They might not remember everyone's faces and names, but I can't risk being investigated as a suspicious person.

"Eh?! R... You're in a third-class cabin? Even for a boy, that's not good! Hey, were you okay yesterday? Nothing happened, right?!"

He was worried about me, and I didn't even notice that he was being careful not to say my name. I didn't realize it at all. What should I do? In a panic, I ran down the stairs leading to the third-class cabin, trying to escape. I couldn't think of any solutions.

"Nothing happened, I'm fine. I'm sorry for almost talking about the request you were on in front of everyone."

"No, don't worry about it. Um, if you have some situation, can you at least tell me about it? For now, it's better to talk somewhere with fewer people. My compartment is a private room, so how about we talk there?"

What should I do? I don't know what to say or who to pretend to be. My mind is so full of the fear of being exposed that I can't even speak. I just feel guilty and am trying to figure out how to escape this situation, putting myself in an even tighter corner. I should have just said, "I'm learning music a bit, so I'm earning some money on the journey." It might have seemed unusual, but Fred, who had been careful not to ask about my situation, would have gone along with it. But I didn't realize that, and I ended up making things worse, leading to an irreparable situation. I didn't even notice that many people were watching me, the boy who had stood out on the deck.

"Hey! Liana, you sang a song earlier, right? It was really good!"

So, I had forgotten that there was someone in the third-class cabin who knew I was a girl.

"Liana," called out, I thought, "Oh, another lie exposed," and a cold shiver ran down my back. I couldn't think of what to do, and the only thing that came to mind was to run to a place where no one could see me, put on my coat, cast a concealment spell, and tremble in the dark until we reached the port.

"..."

With just that one word and my reaction, Fred must have realized that I had lied about my name, background, and gender. He let out an awkward sigh. I was frozen at the entrance to the room, unable to even look at him, despite all he had done for me.

It seemed that some people hadn't realized it until this morning, but I could hear, "That girl was actually a girl." No, but, if they start talking about me, the boy who stood out on the deck, the people in this room might talk about it too. It would be the same. It's my own fault for saying something careless while half-asleep. The regretful me heard, "Ah, yeah, that boy's butt is pretty round," and I blushed and squeezed my eyes shut. Mistake after mistake. Running away didn't go well at all. I shouldn't have thought I could run away and be happy.

"Okay! What's your name?"

"Wh-What?! ...Suhak... it's Suhak..."

Suddenly, Fred knelt down to my eye level and started talking to the child who had called himself Suhak. I knew his name from my conversation with my mother, but I hadn't called him by it since I didn't want to get too close.

"Suhak, you know, even if you know someone is lying, it's not nice to call them out on it. Liana was hiding that she's a girl."

"...Lying is bad!"

"Lying to hide something bad is bad, but this person didn't do anything wrong, right? They just didn't tell the truth to protect themselves."

The boy turned away from both Fred and me, looking unhappy.

"Suhak, wouldn't you be sad if someone revealed your secret?"

"I don't have any secrets."

"But it's not good to reveal someone's secret without their permission. Can you promise to do better next time?"

Fred ended the conversation and turned to me. "Where's your luggage?" he asked. I looked at the bed I had been using, but it was empty.

...It's just a disguise to avoid revealing that I'm using an expansion bag, so it doesn't matter if it's gone. If I ask the mother of the child who has been staying in this room, she might have seen the culprit, but I don't feel like asking.

"I'm fine. I have everything I need on me."

"Ah, I see. Got it. Let's go get lunch, then."

Fred, who seemed to have realized that there was nothing on the bed, led me out of the dimly lit third-class cabin. Still thinking, "I failed," I clung to his words, "I'll take care of it, so trust me," whispered in my ear.

We passed through the deck, and I realized we were heading to the upper deck with the better cabins. I shrank back for a moment.

"It's okay. On a ship like this, they just judge by appearance, so they won't investigate."

Fred walked past the crew member standing guard at the stairs, pretending to be surprised, "I didn't know we were on the same ship! What a coincidence!"

Fred, who was acting friendly, used his body to subtly hide my face, which was looking down awkwardly. I only realized this after we entered the private room. I had panicked and been very rude, but he had taken me away from the scene, scolded the child for me, and tried to cover for me, protecting me as much as possible to prevent any further harm.

"Let's sit... Oh!"

In the compact room, about the size of a four-person carriage, Fred put his luggage on the floor and exclaimed, "I just noticed." I flinched at his words.

"...Um, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to... I was so focused on you being a boy. I thought if we stayed there any longer, it would lead to something you didn't want. I thought this place would be better... I didn't mean to bring you into the room or anything..."

"...Huh?"

I braced myself for what he might say, but his words were so unexpected that I couldn't understand them at first. But as the meaning slowly sank in, I realized, "Despite all the lies and the rude attitude, he's still being considerate of me." I couldn't meet his eyes, feeling both guilty and uncomfortable.

"Well, you're a hundred times safer here than with that guy in the room. You can trust me. ...What should I call you?"

"...Liana, please call me Liana."

He asked without asking for my real name, and I took advantage of his kindness again.

But I, the ungrateful one, was only thinking about how to explain the reasons for my lies, or how to cover them up.

"...I'm sorry! Fred..."

"Why are you apologizing?"

But, Fred stopped me before I could continue.

"Liana, you didn't have any ill intentions, right? I've pretended to be someone else countless times to avoid trouble. I thought you might have some situation... "

"...You're not angry that I lied...?"

"Why would I be angry?"

His genuinely puzzled words made me feel like I had been forgiven, and I burst into tears, unable to hold them back. I knew I was causing him trouble, but I couldn't stop. The more I felt guilty, the more anxious I became, and I could only press my lips tightly together to keep from making a sound.

"Um, ...right. I'll go get lunch."

Fred, who had been fussing over me, seemed to realize that I needed to be alone and was about to leave his own room. I felt terribly lonely, but I knew that if I spoke, I would sob, so I grabbed the hem of his shirt like a child.

Noticing my small restraint, Fred didn't try to remove it and instead sat on the bed a little away from me.

"Then, I'll explain what I couldn't earlier. First, why I didn't go to Big Nile as Tonos planned and ended up on this ship..."

Fred started talking in a bright tone, as if to comfort me. The content was indeed something that would have caused trouble if we had talked about it in front of a crowd. I realized again that he had been protecting me from the moment we met, and I felt so guilty that I wanted to bury myself in the ground.

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I somehow came up with a subtitle, but I couldn't think of a subtitle for this story, so I gave up after 15 minutes.