Translated by Mecorx and Pixel
I stood in front Leslie’s house. What and how should I tell him? As usual, I found myself preparing to explain the situation, while defending myself. I can’t be doing that. This isn’t that kind of a problem.
“It’s Evan. Sorry for all the trouble.”
I said, while knocking on the door.
“I’ll be right there.”
Leslie responded, and eventually came out.
“Marle’s not well. Do you know what morning sickness is?
“Well, kinda,”
“So, what’s up? You weren’t able to find the Wall Market?”
“No, I went. I also met Corneo.”
“I see?”
“I found a photo of Marle from back then…”
Leslie glared at me.
“I stole it, tore it up, and threw it away.”
“You…”
Leslie’s face showed relief. No, that’s not it, I thought in a panic.
“Corneo realised. It even seems that he has copies of the photos. So, if that guy notices that it’s Marle’s photo that is missing… What I mean is that I think that it’ll end up causing the two of you trouble…?
Leslie punched me in the chest. Twice, lightly. Then, he grabbed my hand.
“You know what, I like that stupid sense of justice of yours. Aside from that, I also like you for your utter lack of merit. Was it 2 years ago? I thought this when I was introduced to you by Kyrie. This guy is just some noisy, know-it-all rich kid raised in Midgar pretending to be a pro,
“Those are some pretty terrible things to say.”
“But, I knew after we hung out together for while. Your conscience was something we didn’t have. Kyrie changed thanks to you. Did you know that? It was because of you that Kyrie decided to live an honest life. Same with me. I had done my share of dirty work. I was a henchman at Corneo’s place, you see. But after seeing how much Kyrie had changed, I thought that I should mend my ways. Fabio too, as far as I know, has stopped stealing altogether. Well, except for that recent thing with the Shin-Ra.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“You never know anything and you don’t notice, either. You’re always busy thinking all about yourself, aren’t you? Then you realize later. You’ve gone and stirred up some trouble again, you know.”
“I’m really sorry. If you need to disappear somewhere, you can use my house. The key…”
I quickly tried to take the key out of my bag, but Leslie stopped me.
“It’s ok. This is my problem. I knew that I would have to settle things, someday. I’ve managed to stumble this far, but I’ve made up my mind. You have my thanks, Evan.”
Leslie turned his back to me, and was about to go back to the house, but he looked back…
“Hey, what do you mean I can use your house if I want?”
“I’m going on a little trip. I managed to get a car. I went to Corneo’s place to stock up on fuel.”
“Oh?”
Leslie looked at me with amusement.
“I’ll be away for a while.”
“Don’t do anything stupid, Evan.”
Saying that, Leslie went into the house. I had a feeling that there was more that I had to tell him, but maybe they were just things I wanted to say that wouldn’t matter to him. I started walking toward Edge. There was one more stop I had to make.
