It was already past the evening before Noah realized how much time had passed by since the moment he aimlessly escaped from the marketplace. Lost, confused and heartbroken he tried to go through every possible route and lane to find his way back to Kirin. But his deliberate attempts were harder than he had imagined.
Before he could realize his worn-out state, his legs started to give up on strength, making his feet wobble to keep running anymore. Huffing and gasping pretty hard, he glanced around while finding himself in an unknown small pasture field, probably located far from the town.
Cursing his miserable fate, Noah leaned his back against a giant willow tree at the center of the field and sat down on the ground. Holding a defeated look on his rolled ocean eyes, he peered a blank gaze at the dark sky, looking at those few little stars glistening on their own.
"Fuck...What the fuck going on? Why the heck is all these terrible things happening to me? Since the moment I woke up, there hasn't been a single minute where I could be at ease! I just wanted to lead a simple life in my own small world. Then why...what kind of ridiculous joke did you all play with me?" While grumbling out his frustration at the divinity up above, his ocean eyes swelled in tears as he continued his vent.
"Why the heck did I transmigrate in an assassin's body? Just why? Death would have been much a better choice than living this shameful life! What did I ever do wrong to deserve this---"
"Sheoran?"
The sudden, manly familiar voice flinched Noah as he quickly lifted his chin up with a jolt. To his surprise, the person who had appeared looking for him was no one other than Kirin, holding a concerned look on his face. As soon as he noticed him, unable to suppress his emotional turbulence anymore, Noah whimpered in a broken voice, "Ki...Kirin...Finally...Y-You...f-found me..."
"Ah, goodness! Where the heck you have been all this time?" In a loud, irked voice, Kirin asked him with a stiff gaze prominent at him. He ruffled his reddish brown hair with his fingertips and whined at him. "Do you even have an idea how much I was worried for you? I asked you to go to Lake Blues...then what the heck you are doing here, by hiding behind this tree?"
"I...I am sorry..." Tears helplessly rolled down his cheeks as Noah sobbed, averting his gaze from him. Holding a distressed expression, he murmured, "I tried my best to head back to you...but I couldn't. I lost my way and reached the marketplace. I was chased away from there and while running, I reached here.
I...don't even know what's happening with me anymore. I am so lost...and confused... I don't know anything..."
Hearing his sorrowful lament, Kirin continued staring at him for a moment and exhaled a heavy sigh. Bearing that concerned look in his wadded eyes, he sat down next to him and tapped his shoulder, trying to make him calm down.
"Sheoran, get a grip of yourself and answer me first. Did you go to the lake as I had asked you to?"
"Y-Yes..."
"Didn't you retrieve any of your memories back?" Kirin narrowed his gaze at him, as he asked in a stiff low voice.
Whereas holding a pained look in his teary ocean eyes, Noah shook his head in denial as he murmured, "I have told you countless times...I didn't lose any of my memory, but I am someone else instead! I am trapped in this body...and...I don't know why am I going through all this misery!"
Kirin retained a baffled look on his face as he heard his lament, followed by a heavy sigh off. For a brief moment, he stayed numb and mumbled back, "Gosh, this was my last hope to bring you back to your normal state. But...I don't know what to do anymore too.
Look, you must be also aware that whatever you have been telling me since the moment you woke up will sound crazy to everyone, right?"
"Exactly!" Noah almost jolted up, agreeing to his context helplessly aloud. "No one is believing me...and I know, others might consider me crazy. But, I can't even understand it...Why did I have to wake up as an assassin!?
Today at the market place a woman accused me of stabbing her son to death, for the sake of money. Everyone was darting their scornful gazes at me. But...I...I can't bear to stay near or touch any sharp objects! Then why? Why am I blamed for a sin I didn't even do? Watching the woman mourn so hard for her son...m-my heart ached so painfully...yet I couldn't do anything for her except running away from there like a fuckin' coward!
I felt so terrible, Kirin!" He tried to explain his emotional turbulence in a husky, broken pitch, while tears streamed down his supple white cheeks.
While hearing his heartfelt lament, Kirin didn't utter a word until he paused first. He exhaled a heavy sigh with a painful smile that curved his lips as he spoke, "Woah...it's hard to believe, but for the first time ever, you sounded more like a human, Sheoran."
"H-Huh? What?" Curiously, Noah frowned.
Holding a blank gaze in his eyes, Kirin stared up at the dark sky with that sad smile evident on his face. "Until now, no matter what kind of brutal murders we have executed, I had never seen you even flinch once. You always held a cold, impassive look on your face as if you had no emotions left within you anymore. Just because of your nature, you were known as the infamous stone-hearted assassin Sheoran, who never failed an attempt.
However, since the moment you woke up today, the way you are talking, the way you are showing empathy for others...it feels so strange yet, you finally look like a human to me now."
Hearing his unexpected revelation, Noah squinted his eyes with a confused look prominent in them. Realizing how cold-hearted person Sheoran must have been, he flinched but asked him back, "Kirin...why are we living this kind of life? Why couldn't we live a normal, ordinary life unlike everyone else? Doesn't it break you to be loathed by everyone else?"
"We are sinful assassins, it's natural for us to be abhorred by everyone. Do you think we deserve love?" The sad arc of the smile on his face tainted a bit as Kirin lifted his gaze down from the sky, shoveling it towards Noah. "Since you can't retrieve your past memories, I can understand you must be deeply hurt inside by the way you faced the loathe from others. But slowly, you will be habituated again.
After all, this is the life that we chose for ourselves, and...it's too late to turn back anymore. We are doomed...and we will have to live this doomed life anyway until our last breath." His low voice depicted the sadness immersed in it.
"B-But..." Noah couldn't utter his words completely, followed by a heavy silence that existed between the two.
"Anyways," Suddenly Kirin's voice deepened a bit, as a solemn expression grew apparent on his face. "I came here to fetch you because the Chief has been looking for you for a while. But, you gotta be careful, Sheoran. No one must get a hunch about your condition or you mustn't do anything which might make the Chief suspicious about you. Do you understand?"
A pale, troubled look grew obvious on Noah's grimace as he continued blinking his eyes, staring at him in wonder. He looked quite nervous and perplexed to deal with the further troubles that awaited ahead of him.
Sensing his anxiousness, Kirin tapped his shoulder once and tried to soar his courage through his words. "Don't fret too much now. Look, if whatever you are telling me is true, if you had really drowned in your world and accidentally came to our world, consider it as a second chance that fate has granted you. You mustn't waste this chance and do your best to live the life you have been granted, okay?"
His warm, considerate words strangely provided Noah a bit of solace that his heart sought for. He nodded his head and didn't object any word more, while slowly standing up from the ground.
Before Kirin could lead him back, all of a sudden his eyes laid on something as he frowned his brows, asking him in a curious tone, "Wait, Sheoran, weren't you wearing a red scarf on your neck? It was your favorite one...did you lose it somewhere?"
Hearing his mention about the scarf, Noah frowned his brows with an agitated look on his face as he was immediately reminded of the encounter he face back there at the lakeside. He exhaled a sigh as he spoke, "No. I...gave it away to a crazy pervert."
"H-Huh? What!?" Startled at his remark, Kirin almost choked his breath.
While holding that agitated look on his face, Noah continued narrating the incident, "I ran into a crazy pervert who was roaming around naked at the lakeside. He was quite handsome, but he was awfully shameless and arrogant! That's why, I gave him the scarf to cover himself a bit, at least like a normal person."
Baffled at his retaliation, Kirin wadded his eyes in shock as he muttered, "But...I have never heard about such weirdos roaming around that lakeside! How did you meet someone like him?"
"Well, I guess my luck has been going terrible." Noah exhaled another sigh, peering a deep gaze into him. "But, I am certain Kirin, I am never going to run into that pervert again. I really hope...never again..."
...
Noah declaimed his answer in a resolute voice, but little did he know, he was already tangled with an unavoidable destiny...