“...”

Eugene waited in silence.

This might seem obvious, but Kristina really resembled Anise. From the first time that Eugene saw her face, he had already sensed a strong resemblance, but after Anise had woken up, perhaps because of her influence, even Kristina’s aura had begun to resemble that of Anise in the past.

Especially when she was sitting in a chair like this, her legs crossed, her head tilted to one side, her eyes narrowed into slits, her forced smile dripping with barely constrained emotions — a tide of irritation and anger that she was struggling to hold back. Except for the teardrop mole at the corner of one eye, Kristina looked so similar to Anise that it was enough to give him goosebumps.

Eugene remained silent.

It could even be Anise, for all he knew, the one who was currently in possession of the body that was sitting in front of him like this. Up until now, Eugene had never once confused Kristina with Anise, but right now, he honestly couldn’t tell them apart…. It was a different story once they actually said something, but so far, whether it was Anise or Kristina sitting in front of him, they had just kept glaring at Eugene with that same forced smile.

“...”

Eugene could only stay the course.

In fact, whether it was Kristina or Anise who was currently in front of him, Eugene had no intention of changing his behavior. Currently, Eugene was kneeling down in front of them without feeling any shame for doing so. It wasn’t just Eugene. Right next to him, Mer was also kneeling down, the corners of her mouth drooping as far as they could go.

The prolonged silence finally ended as Kristina opened her mouth and asked, “Why did you do it?”

They were currently in a family room of a downtown hotel. They had tried to get separate rooms, but Anise had insisted on the family room, arguing that in a dangerous place like Helmuth, it would be difficult for them to deal with any unexpected situations if they were in separate rooms.

Fortunately for them, this family room only had a shared living room and separate bedrooms. Deep down, Anise wasn’t very satisfied with this fact, but to prevent Kristina from overheating, she had to agree to settle for something like this.

This had all happened just yesterday. Until now, no, until the night before, there hadn’t been any problems.

But then Eugene and Mer had left for the Kazard Hills — no, the Kazard Mine — leaving Kristina in the room on her own. It was all for the purpose of potentially collecting more fragments of the Moonlight Sword.

“...That’s… ummm…,” as Eugene tried to figure out what to say, he recalled the conversation that they had just had before the silence began.

—Welcome back, Sir Eugene….

—Ahem….

—...Hamel, why aren’t you looking me straight in the eyes?

—Cough….

—You look too clean for a trip to a mine. Your skin, your hair, and even the coat you’re wearing look clean...