Chapter 72:Talk

Hearing the masked man's words, Xio couldn't help but sigh as she leaned against the opposite wall with her eyes on the ground.

"I don't know why you care about this Mr. Holmes" she spoke in a calm tone as she took out her triangular sword and looked at her reflection in it.

"It's been bad huh?" Ignoring the question, Adryan spoke but Mr. Holmes's usual tone was now a little softer.

Raising her emerald gaze to the man, she observed that he was calmly observing the orange sky.

Looking down at her triangular sword again, she just sighed as she nodded.

"Her mother is devastated... when I told her about Coin's death she just shut down, she hasn't eaten for several days and I can hardly get her to drink anything" Xio replied in a heavy tone, the last few days had left her unable to rest and she had barely been able to sleep.

"You didn't tell her how..."

"No" Xio cut off the man's question but she already knew what he was going to ask.

"I don't want to imagine how she would react if she knew how it happened, when she asked,in one of the few moments that she spoke,how she had died, I could only say that it was quick and painless, that Coin had not suffered..." Xio's voice broke at the end and she had to take a moment to regain her composure.

Adryan just kept watching the sky giving the woman time to calm down and after a few moments Xio took a breath and continued talking.

"I'm not sure if she believed me but so far she hasn't asked me where her body is, I don't know what I'm supposed to say when that happens"

Averting his gaze from the sky, he looked at Xio who kept looking at her sword but her hands were trembling and her eyes were slightly red.

"You can tell her that the recovery of the body was impossible, the only thing you could do was find out what had happened and that you had to escape" Adryan spoke in a somewhat cold tone and Xio gave him a strong look.

"How could I do that to her..." Xio muttered with barely contained anger but...

"You already hid the truth from her once" Adryan cut coldly causing Xio to bite her tongue to shut up and start to tremble in anger.

"Or are you planning to tell her that her daughter's body was blown to pieces? That the truth is that her beloved daughter died in a basement at the hands of a pedophile?" Adryan raised his voice making Xio tremble harder and she clenched her fists so hard that blood began to drip.

Sighing, Adryan just moved away from the wall and stood next to the woman, leaning against the wall, the masked redhead looked at the woman and spoke still with a cold tone.

"I know you want to bury that sword of yours in my neck and twist it because of what I said but you also know I'm right, the way Coin died was horrible and any mother would be horrified that her child died like that, you know that woman better than I do, so If you didn't tell her how it happened then you know very well what she can do to herself."

"..." Xio didn't say anything but she had lowered her arms and her gaze had fallen to the floor of the alley.

"For her mental stability, you will have to hide the truth until the end of your days" Adryan finished speaking, Xio said nothing, she remained silent, still looking at the ground and the alley returned to its silence, only the sound of the carriages being being dragged by the horses and the footsteps of the people outside the alley could be heard.

After a while of silence and seeing that Xio did not move from her place nor speak, Adryan sighed and spoke again but this time in a much softer tone.

"I'm sure you did it with the best intentions for her, you did everything you could for her, you don't have to blame yourself for what happened" Adryan consoled Xio who remained silent.

"The pain you feel now is one you shouldn't be ashamed to feel, you are grieving too."Adryan continued and when he finished speaking Xio raised her head and looked at him, her eyes were red and tired but there were no tears.

"Will the guilt ever go away?" Xio finally spoke and asked in a weak voice to Adryan who only had a weak smile behind his mask.

"No, it will always be there and you will have to live with it but at least I can tell you that it gets easier with time" Adryan replied as he looked at the sky.

Xio also did the same, looking up at the orange sky that was already getting dark, after a few moments she closed her eyes.

The memories that had been torturing her all the previous nights reappeared but this time she didn't repress them but rather let them come despite how much it hurt her.

She saw when she first met Coin, how her mother tried to hit her with the broom for thinking that she had hurt her, how the girl asked her for help with her homework, the lunches she shared with the small family,how she went to their house and how her mother begged her to find her.

As she spent several days and nights looking for her to the point that Fors begged her to rest, she saw how she entered the house and finally found her...

The good and bad memories.

Finally after a long time she opened her eyes and looked at the almost dark sky of Backlund, she cried a little but she felt a little less heavy.

Turning to look at the masked man next to her she just gave him a weak smile.

She didn't know why she had told all this to the man who she didn't even know his face but maybe the fact that he had saved her life motivated her, also maybe it was because she needed a different approach.

Fors wasn't very good at comforting people...

"I needed that Mr. Holmes"she was truly grateful and Adryan smiled under his mask.

"Whenever you want Miss~" he replied, returning to Mr. Holmes's original tone.