Irina was in the kitchen of the inn once more. The lady was kind enough to let us use the kitchen even though we had burnt a hole through one of her rooms. Well, I doubted she knew that.
Having carried me here, Irina told me just sit for today and handled the cooking on her own. I felt a little bad since she had called it a vacation and I was making her take care of me like this.
It wasn't like I had saved her or anything either, she only screamed because she was worried her room had gotten dirty.
While waiting, I tried to call the spirits toward me again, but hey just laughed and ignored all my requests. The small things I could do before like making a pebble hop was also impossible.
"It seems the spirits have gotten a bit too fond of your drunk self to pull any favors for you like this."
Titania said, sitting on the table in front of me as she flailed her legs up and back.
"The drunk Eugene was so unpretentious that he ended up becoming chosen by the spirits."
"You mean that a messy, lobby, psychopathic apology freak is me without pretenses?" I clicked my tongue.
"Yup, all soft and disturbed like a sorry little boy. I would have gobbled you up if you didn't puke that much."
"You're delusional," I said. It was stupid to as much as believe that someone that didn't even hold a certain amount of restraint and discipline was unpretentious. Heck, a person without any self control or thoughts about their actions was more pretentious since they were only half a person.
Our conversation was cut short when Irina stepped in front of table, placing some steaming chicken soup on the table along with bread and some salad as sides.
"Oh, looks good," I said. "Thanks for the meal."
"Sure," Irina answered and sat down.
I dipped my spoon into the soup and took a sip.
"Kaaahah. It's fucking filled with salt!"
"Bwahaahah!" Holding her stomach, Irina started laughing out loud. "That's what you get for not learning your lessons, brat!"
"What lessons?"
Irina didn't answer as she continued laughing and went over to the kitchen again, this time, she returned with another bowl of soup and placed it in front of me. Still laughing, she gestured at me with her chin and I took a sip of this one.
"Um, this is normal."
Shaking her head, the damned teacher went over and sat in front of me once more.
It was a strangely homely feeling, and the fact that we didn't turn on any lights just added to that atmosphere.
"Lesson being," Irina spoke, raising her fork. "You don't step into a woman's room in the middle of the night."
"Excuse me? I came to save from the others?"
"And what fate were those others going to meet?"
At her words, I had no argument left. It was true that she could have killed all of them on her own if she had just willed so. And she probably did will so before I swooped in.
"You see, Eugene Hall," Irina spoke, pointing at herself. "When a woman looks as gorgeous as I do, she has to worry about brats that would lust over her."
"Gorgeous? You? I seem to be having some cognitive dissonance here."
Irina scoffed at my words and bit into her bread. She chewed it down and then looked at me, her chin cocked up.
"This face, and these assets can make any man go insane. Of course, you do that too."
Dantalian had given enough of an impression on what kind of beauty Irina Lester was. Her chest was modest and her rear just the same, her visage was one straight out of a fairy tale, it was natural for one to be proud of it.
But not me.
I chuckled and spoke.
"You can be as flat as a washboard and as gorgeous as Orc's dead aunt." Leaning ahead, I pointed my finger at her and pointed at her heart. "I am only interested in whatever is there. Not like I can see your face anyway."
Irina looked at me and tilted her head.
This was the first time I had mentioned it to her. Everyone around me knew, so there was never anyone who asked.
"I have this thing called prosopagnosia… Ah, face-blindness. It's like, I can see you, but it doesn't register. I can't process faces."
"What kind of stupid disease is that?" Irina asked. "Did you hit your head or something?"
"Well it can happen from that," I explained. After placing the utensils down, I tapped the back of my head. "There's this part in your brain, called a fusiform gyrus that activates specfically in response to faces. It's because faces have a lot more subtle details and require a higher form of processing to discriminate within…"
"What are you talking about?"
"It happened because of trauma. I just got to relive it all thanks to Dantalian, so I can assure you that it's all trauma."
Fuck. If I had been born with Prosopagnosia my body would have probably been blown up in smithereens until it got fixed. Just imagining it slightly ruined the mood to eat.
"I see… so you could never see faces?"
"No faces I remember."
I did see Maria and Dawn courtesy of the original Eugene Hall, but no matter how intimate I got with anyone, it was impossible to see for me now.
It was a fitting punishment.
"I am sorry."
"Don't be. What for?"
Irina looked at me with a slight frown and then shrugged. "Alright," she muttered as she snatched the dishes and left to wash them.
I pushed myself up and followed behind her. My steps were still weak, but I managed to walk with taking as little support as I could.
"You don't have to, kid,"
"Eh, it'll be faster with four hands."
Shoulder to shoulder, we cleaned the place neat and tidy and decided to go back.
We quickly climbed up the stairs and rushed to the second floor of the three story inn, the passage dark.
She was going to sneak into yet another room so I escorted her there.
Before I could leave, she held my sleeves and pulled me back.
When I turned around, I saw the same hard bottles of liquor that I had stolen in her hands, except, she had four.
"Would you like to give me some company?"
I shrugged and nodded.
"The hard stuff doesn't taste good alone."
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