Chapter 60 : Chapter 60
Volume 2, Chapter 29: On Surnames
The words themselves were normal, but why did that tone sound so much like that of an ambiguous person who had seen gossip and was filled with interest...
Leticia could only shake her head helplessly. “You’re overthinking it. My purpose in coming here is the same as yours. I only came to drink some water... Cough. Mm, drink some water.”
Perhaps because she had been so happy while verbally sparring with Stano earlier, once she relaxed, the sensations in her body grew even more acute. Her entire throat was dry and scratchy.
She still needed to drink some water...
“Heh...”
Watching Leticia’s movements with great interest, Ilo said softly, “Stano, can you tell me your real name?”
“Mm?”
Leticia stopped scooping up water with her hands and asked in confusion, “Why are you suddenly asking for that?”
“Of course, because I’m curious.”
Ilo waved her hand with a grin. “At a glance, you’re a girl with a lot of stories. That’s why I really want to understand you. Look, we’re friends, right?”
“I have no memory of ever becoming friends with you.”
Leticia rolled her eyes at Ilo. “Basically, you were the one who took the initiative to come over and get familiar with me, weren’t you?”
“Ehh—how could you say that?”
After being rejected, she looked extremely hurt. However, with Leticia’s eyesight, it was naturally impossible for her to miss the slight indifference and teasing glimmer in Ilo’s eyes. “I clearly wanted to become good friends with you. Didn’t I even risk everything to help you get away from that uncle’s pestering before?”
How unfair!
Even without Ilo saying it, Leticia knew what this fellow wanted to say.
It was nothing more than trying to use yesterday’s matter to draw out Leticia’s sympathy and then achieve her own goal.
Unfortunately, this had no effect on Leticia at all. Probably.
“Save it.”
Leticia said irritably, “If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have encountered that kind of thing either. In the end, wasn’t it still your fault?”
“How can you say that!”
Ilo shouted, her eyes filled with resentment. “What a harsh person. I was clearly acting out of kindness, and I even helped you hide the bad thing you did. In the end, you actually repay me like this...”
“I say...”
Leticia turned toward Ilo with a pair of dead-fish eyes. “Where exactly did you learn words that can make people this nauseated?”
“Mm? It actually didn’t work?”
Covering her eyes with a grin, Ilo circled around Leticia. “You really are an interesting person. So tell me your name, okay? Hey, hey, say it, say it!”
“What exactly are you trying to do? Why are you so obsessed with knowing my name?”
Leticia tilted her head. “Is this very important to you?”
“Ah, important? I suppose it doesn’t count as important.”
Ilo thought about it, then answered very straightforwardly. “It’s just that if you know the other person is hiding some unimportant little secret, generally speaking, you get curious and want to know, right? Of course, if it were truly some big secret, I wouldn’t be interested in getting myself smeared in that mess.”
“That’s true.”
Theoretically, there was nothing unreasonable about it. Emotionally and logically, it was quite sound.
But Leticia still felt that something was wrong. So...
“In that case, there’s no harm in telling you.”
After a brief silence, Leticia nodded. “My name is Evelyn. I have no surname I can inherit. If I put it that way, you understand, right?”
“Of course, of course.”
After obtaining the answer she wanted, the smile on Ilo’s face bloomed like flowers in a secret realm. “But I’m a little surprised.”
“Why?”
Leticia, who had fabricated another name, did not blush or pant. “Is there anything surprising about that?”
“Mm... It’s just that judging from Evelyn’s usual conduct, not having a surname is the strange part, right?”
Ilo said this.
It was not that there was anything wrong with Ilo’s question. It was just that in a world where only slaves had no surname to inherit, a girl whose detailed behavior carried an almost innate elegance actually having no surname to inherit was truly something unimaginable.
“There are a lot of reasons.”
Leticia waved her hand and brushed it off directly. Mm. While she was at it, she also wove a look in her eyes that she believed to be melancholy. Of course, how it looked in other people’s eyes was another matter. “In any case, I already told you. That’s enough, right?”
“Mm-hm. Enough, enough~”
Looking at Ilo’s expression, Leticia knew that her clumsy eye-acting had likely produced a decent misleading thought in Ilo’s mind. At least, Ilo could not possibly imagine that the reason she did not mention a surname was because Leticia simply did not know what her own surname was...
She really did not know!
Her parents had already passed away, and her only relative was an illiterate farmer. There was nothing in the entire household that could speak of the family’s background. Even if she asked her uncle about her parents, she could only learn their names and not their surnames. Not to mention, this uncle seemed to have not the slightest sense of family honor and would never hang “our such-and-such family” from his mouth!!!
She had absolutely no idea!!!
Even Priest Marshall had never mentioned it!
Precisely because of that, Leticia had originally felt that a surname was completely unimportant, so she had never even thought of investigating it. Who would have known that today, she would have it brought up by such a little girl?
A miscalculation!
She secretly glanced at Ilo. That fellow was currently beaming, so she should not have noticed Leticia’s little thoughts at all.
Leticia immediately relaxed a little.
However, if this continued, she felt there would be even more risks. Who knew what question this strange, clever little girl would come up with in the next second?
Perhaps sincerity could move even metal and stone. Just as Leticia was thinking this, Ilo’s interested voice rang out beside her once more. “Then, Evelyn, can I chat with you a bit more?”
Can I say no?
Feeling as if the expression on her face had already stiffened somewhat, Leticia turned her face away with an extremely forced smile. “What else do you want to talk about?”
She was actually already rather impatient. This feeling was like a small ball of flame smoldering in her chest, slowly burning there, drying up the moisture inside her body along with her reason.
Although there was no direct sensation of her life draining away, Leticia could feel that inside her body, there existed something called “emptiness.” It made her increasingly sensitive to her own sensations, like the echo of a single drop of water falling in a deep underground cavern.
She could even use it to directly touch her own emotions.
She did not know whether this change was good or bad. Though from a broad perspective, there was nothing good about it and only harm.
Therefore, Leticia immersed both hands in the stream, letting the chill seep into her body and using it to calm her restless emotions.
She did not have much time left.
She had that premonition.
However, Ilo knew nothing about Leticia’s condition. This strange child merely smiled faintly, hugged her knees, and said:
“Evelyn, didn’t you really want to know why I wanted to go to the tavern, the chamber of commerce, and the brothel?”
Now, I want to tell you the reason.