Chapter 30: A Familiar Stranger

"Are you really Noctis?!"

My heart gave a single hard thump.

She could have been joking.

Unfortunately, the expression on her face was too serious for me to tell.

Trying not to show my panic, I shrugged.

"Who else would I be?"

"I don’t know. You could be a shapeshifting Nexus user, an evil twin from a parallel universe, or an ancient spirit that took over his body."

A cold chill ran down my back the moment I heard the last option.

Eris had to have said it completely at random. Shapeshifting and mind-control abilities existed in this world, so making a joke like that wasn’t particularly strange.

Even so, I didn’t like how easily she had come close to the truth.

I forced a bored smile onto my face.

"If I were an ancient spirit, do you think I’d tell you?"

"Probably not."

"Then asking me is completely pointless."

I was about to walk past her toward the couch when Eris suddenly grabbed my wrist.

"I’m not finished yet."

The moment I turned and tried to pull my hand free, she placed one foot behind mine. I lost my balance and fell backward, my back landing against the soft cushions of the couch.

Before I could understand what had happened, Eris climbed on top of me.

She planted one knee beside my hip and the other on the opposite side, straddling my waist. With one hand, she gathered both my wrists above my head and pressed them against the couch as her face moved closer to mine.

"Hey! Get off me!"

"Pass my test first."

I pulled against her grip, but the morning workout had drained most of my strength. Eris, meanwhile, kept her balance on top of me without the slightest effort.

As she leaned closer, the loose neckline of her shirt slipped down. The upper edge of her black sports bra and the faint shadow between her breasts entered my view, while the bottom of her shirt rode up again and left most of her stomach exposed.

Her bare thighs pressed firmly against both sides of my waist. I could feel the warmth of her skin even through my clothes and sense how the muscles in her legs held my body in place whenever she moved.

My heart began beating faster.

That was entirely because I was in danger of having my identity exposed.

It had absolutely nothing to do with the beautiful, half-naked girl sitting on top of me.

Probably.

Eris’s crimson hair fell around our faces as her mismatched eyes stared directly into mine.

"What did we bury in my grandmother’s garden when we were eleven?"

Something stirred inside my mind.

Several fragmented images quickly came together. Two small children were digging through the soil with mud-covered hands before placing a broken porcelain bird into the hole.

"Your grandmother’s favorite porcelain bird," I said. "We buried it so she wouldn’t find out we broke its head off while playing with a ball."

The corners of Eris’s lips curled slightly.

"You broke it."

"You kicked the ball."

"You were the one who stood there instead of moving and caused it to hit the statue."

"By that logic, the victim was entirely responsible."

"Even in her final days, my grandmother still thought one of the servants had stolen it..."

As the details of the memory grew clearer, the emotions left behind by Noctis resurfaced. I remembered how he had trembled with fear of being caught while Eris mocked him for digging the hole too slowly.

Answering correctly made me feel slightly more at ease, but I still wasn’t completely safe. My memories of the past were fragmented, and there was no guarantee the answer to every question would appear in my mind.

"Are you convinced now?" I asked.

"Not completely."

"Then get off me and continue your questions like a normal person."

Eris stared at my face for a few more seconds. Eventually, she released my wrists, though she continued sitting on top of me instead of getting up immediately.

"You look like Noctis," she said. "But something about you has changed."

"People change."

"Not this much in a few days."

"I did."

The suspicion on Eris’s face didn’t disappear completely, but she stopped pushing. As she climbed off me, her bare leg brushed against my body before she sat beside me on the couch.

I quickly sat up and adjusted my shirt.

She was the one who actually needed to fix her clothes, but I didn’t dare say that aloud.

Eris pulled her legs onto the couch and sat cross-legged. One of her bare knees was close enough to touch my leg.

"Why are you avoiding me, Noc?"

This time, there was more hurt than anger in her voice.

I lowered my gaze to my hands as I tried to decide what to say. I couldn’t tell her the truth, but I also couldn’t explain all my behavior by claiming I had been busy.

"I’m not avoiding you."

"You haven’t answered my calls for two days. You reply to my messages hours later with a single sentence, and every time I try to talk to you, you make an excuse. If that isn’t avoiding me, what is it?"

"I needed some time."

"From me?"

"From everyone."

That wasn’t entirely a lie. Ever since I came to this world, I had been trying to understand everything that had happened, deal with the System’s missions, and learn about the real Noctis’s life. The main reason I had avoided facing Eris among all of that was my fear that she would notice the truth.

Eris’s shoulders dropped slightly.

"You could have told me."

"You’re right."

My agreement came so easily that her eyebrows rose in surprise.

"You’re not going to argue with me?"

"No, because you’re genuinely right. I should have at least told you properly that I was fine and wanted to be alone."

After a brief silence, I clasped my hands together over my knees.

"I’m sorry, Eris. I didn’t mean to worry you."

Eris looked away from me and turned toward the window. She pressed her lips together and waited several seconds before speaking.

"I thought someone from your family had contacted you," she finally said. "I thought your father had asked you to come back or that they had said something cruel to hurt you again. Then I started imagining worse possibilities."

She didn’t need to finish the sentence.

After being thrown out by his family, Noctis had started living alone, and most of the people he had once been close to had cut off contact with him. When Eris went days without receiving a response, she had thought her isolated friend might have harmed himself—or that his family might have killed him.

The possibility left a heavy pressure in the center of my chest.

To me, Eris had been a dangerous person who might expose my identity. To her, I was the one friend who had stood beside her since childhood, only to suddenly disappear.

I lowered my head slightly.

"I’m truly sorry you had to think about something like that."

When Eris looked at me again, her mismatched eyes glistened faintly.

"Don’t do it again."

"I won’t."

"At least send me a message to let me know you’re alive."

"I promise."

Eris studied my face for a while before resting her head against my shoulder. Her crimson hair spread across my neck and arm while we both remained silent for several seconds.

Having her sit this close still made me nervous, but I didn’t try to push her away.

At that moment, my phone vibrated on the table.

Both of us looked at the screen at the same time.

[Angel: Did you make it home?]

Eris lifted her head from my shoulder.

The moment she read the name on the screen, the softness in her expression changed almost imperceptibly. Her smile didn’t disappear entirely, but her red eye narrowed slightly.

Before I could reach for my phone, she picked it up.

"Eris."

One of her eyebrows slowly rose as she stared at the screen.

"Who is Angel?"