"Hmm. Even with your height, those look quite good on you."
"...aw geez, thanks a lot..."
"But I still don't think that's quite right. Mister, could you please bring us the other set instead?"
"Certainly."
Having stepped out of the changing room, now wearing what I could only say was a very uncomfortable set of clothes. Suit and tie, dress pants, and shiny black shoes that pressed into my feet way too much. And just like me, Ms. Zito didn't think it suited me. So, she once again sent the well-dressed man that worked in the shop away to fetch other clothes for me.
"Is this really necessary, Ms. Zito? Isn't just a nice shirt and a pair of jeans enough?"
A nice shirt and a pair of jeans, which had been pretty much the most exclusive clothes that I had ever worn in my life, and also what I thought was suitable for someone like me. Coming in here, in this way too expensive-looking shop full of sparkling dresses and magnificent suits, I felt like an eel that had somehow made it to an opera.
Shaking her head, she didn't share my view on it.
"No. Clothes are important, no matter what you think. Clothes are another way for humans to speak, saying things like 'I know how to take care of myself' or 'I have money', or even 'I don't have any self-respect so I don't care'."
Ignoring her little verbal jab, I did think I could see a bit of what she was explaining when looking at the demon herself. Wearing a nice-looking white top, consciously allowing one side of it to hang a bit outside of her stylish gray slacks, topping it off with her hair put up in a knot that was both a bit messy while at the same time being sexy.
It was not over the top at all, but still enough to see that she was someone with a bit of status. It had to be said that the fact that she was gorgeous helped a ton as well.
Returning with more clothes in his hands, the attendee quickly handed over the clothes to Ms. Zito, who then in turn handed them over to me.
"Here you go, Ms."
"Thank you. Now, try these on Aarick. While you do that, I will continue looking at clothes that might fit you."
Thus my marathon session of trying out clothes continued, with Ms. Zito endlessly bringing more and more clothes for me to try on.
'-Fight, Aarick!'
==========
The city of Rellea was in a lot of ways quite splendid. Modern and tall buildings, clean streets, and an air of freedom brought out smiles in everyone that enjoyed their time under the clear blue skies.
All kinds of humans of all ages were walking around the streets. Families with small children, teenagers, young adults, elderly, etc., and all of them seemed so very content with their lives.
So, while I was walking through the streets, wearing a pair of semi-casual black slacks and a dark red t-shirt, I was having trouble keeping a frown from appearing on my face. This, as a result of their smiles proving that the life I had previously lived was never important.
Because behind these joyful streets, there was another reality. A reality that I had lived in, on the backstreets, a darker world where the weak had no choice but to bow and beg. Because only the strong were allowed to walk under the light of the sun.
Even now that I was wearing these nice clothes that Dona had bought for me, which should have been proof that I as well had left that world, there was no doubt that my memories would always be a part of me.
"You're late..."
Setting my gaze straight, my eyes quickly landed on the woman that I was going to meet, her feet going up and down like a rabbit's foot on the street due to her frustration. Celina Black was standing outside of a restaurant where we were going to have lunch, but more importantly, where she was finally going to get to ask me about Levi and Will.
Wearing a quite basic, but still nice, white summer dress, she looked quite good under the hot rays that shone down on her, making her golden hair shine even more than normal.
"Ah, sorry. I got caught up in some things."
"Haaa... Let's just go in."
Following her into the very normal-looking restaurant, it didn't take long until we were sitting at a corner table, hiding quite well from the outside world. After getting myself a cup of coffee, with Celina grabbing herself a cup of tea, we were off to the races.
"Now, tell me about Levi and Will."
Taking a sip of my coffee, I realized that she must've forgotten what I had said was part of my deal. It had not been to tell her everything I knew, instead...
"Tell me what you want to know. I'll answer any questions, but I have no intention of sitting here and telling you my life story."
Why? Because it would be annoying to just sit here and tell her everything from the start to the end.
After hearing my words, she quickly realized what I was talking about, and probably also realized that it would be useless to just hear me blabber on and on about things of no importance.
"Alright. Then, my first question. What was your relationship with Levi and Will?"
"In the past, I regarded them as friends, or at least I regarded Levi as a friend and Will as an acquaintance."
"How did they act back then, in junior high?"
"They acted like normal students, just more motivated due to their backgrounds."
"Did they ever use their background to pressure you or anyone else around them?"
"No. Of course, their backgrounds were always part of every situation, but they never openly used their connections to pressure anyone."
"Why are your answers so poor?"
"Because your questions are shit."
"That's because I didn't know I would have to prepare questions for this! I thought you were just going to tell me everything!"
Staring at each other, I was just as annoyed with her as she was with me. So far, her questions had been less than interesting, they had been absolute trash. For me, however, I didn't care too much about how bad she was at extracting information, because her end of the deal was still very much alive for the future.
Picking herself back up a bit, she finally took some time to gather her thoughts, to finally try and pinpoint what she really wanted to know, and as a result, what kind of question she would have to pose.
In the end, she had seemingly landed on a question that she felt content with. And honestly, it wasn't a bad question at all.
"Were any one of them in some way connected to your alleged disappearance and if so, in what way?"
It was kind of a hard question to answer because I could very much choose what I wanted to tell her. In the case of all my records vanishing, I didn't actually know what happened, so it wouldn't be untrue to just say 'I don't know'. At the same time, if not for the fact that I had gotten hurt, that would have never happened in the first place.
And even more importantly than that, if she for some reason chose to use the information I could give her in a clumsy way, she would most likely lose her life. And I might lose mine too.
Even still, I decided to tell her one of the truths of the matter. Putting down my cup of coffee on the table, I looked up into her eyes, wanting to make sure she took me seriously.
"I don't know what happened to my records during these four years, so that, I can't answer. But I can say that Will was very much behind the incident, even if he didn't necessarily mean to cause it. More or less, it was an accident caused by him when trying to highlight how weak I was."
It might sound convoluted, and it was, but I didn't want to put Celina in even more danger than she was already getting herself into if I could help it. She could still be very useful to me in the future, after all.
Sadly, I also knew that this answer would inevitably bring a very uncomfortable follow-up question that I would rather not answer. Still, it was the better option even if it would be a bit embarrassing.
Pushing back a lock of her golden hair, her blue eyes shone a bit. Unlike Levi's eyes which were like the ocean, Celina's blue eyes now looked a bit like the sky.
"Why did he feel the need to do that?"
"Because Levi had a huge crush on me."
"..."
Feeling my ears reddening a bit, as it had been more embarrassing than I thought to say that the ice queen herself had been infatuated with me when we were kids, I impatiently awaited whatever she was about to say.
"...really?
"Really."
"Levi? Levi Ayim? The Ice Queen?"
"Correct."
"But... aren't you a little short for that...?"
"We were kids! She was shorter than me back then!"
Though it hurt to hear her call me out on my height, there was at least someone in my head who could comfort me.
'-Don't listen to her, Aarick! Even if you're a bit short, you're still super handsome! She will see, as soon as your body catches up, she won't be able to look at you like that anymore!'
It was true. I was very handsome. Yet, even though I knew that, it still hurt. A lot.