This is the story of my second meeting with Eve.
The night before I killed Toxin.
It was the 25th time we had met.
Lately, the ghouls had shifted their nesting ground, making it more convenient to meet near the [Error Space].
Adele, knowing about my connection with Eve, asked me:
“How’s it going these days? Getting closer to the witch?”
“Not really. Not good.”
I thought about it.
Our progress had been stagnant lately.
We’d meet, exchange greetings, she’d like it when I gave her a bell, and then we’d part ways.
She once gave me an apple—but that was about it.
“Can I come with you next time?”
Adele made the request.
After tagging along in the car for ten minutes every day, it seemed her curiosity had grown.
“Fine. But the target is wary and somewhat aggressive. Be careful.”
“Got it.”
And so, I brought Adele up the mountain with me.
She saw Eve for the first time.
Just like I’d warned, Eve immediately tensed up when she saw her.
But when Adele remained within the boundary I’d established, Eve gradually lowered her guard.
She still let me approach, which was no different from a wild animal recognizing one human but distrusting all others.
Adele crouched about twenty meters away, watching silently.
Then, when Eve slightly lifted the ragged hood over her head, Adele’s breath caught in her throat.
‘Whoa... what the...?’
Beneath what looked like a pile of trash—practically a ghillie suit—
Sky-blue bangs.
Deep blue eyes.
Unreal levels of beauty.
So beautiful it felt... not human. Like something of a different species entirely.
Adele felt the same way she had the first time she saw a newborn baby—a friend’s child, long ago.
Human, ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ yet not.
Sacred, somehow.
‘Now I get it.’
At that moment, Adele began to understand a lot.
Why even someone like Dante—usually emotionally stone-faced in front of women—came up here so often. (It felt like witnessing a devout encounter with a divine being.)
And why so many cadets had died near Starfall Mountain.
Even a glimpse from afar was that captivating—of course they got wrecked trying to get closer.
......
Then Adele quietly observed the brief exchange between me and Eve.
It was nothing elaborate.
Eve shook a pine cone.
I handed her a bell.
When I pointed to a star in the sky and said something, Eve tilted her head—probably trying to understand what I meant.
A simple misunderstanding, it seemed.
But to Adele, something else was happening.
Eve tilted her head, yes—but she never took her eyes off my fingertips or my mouth.
Her beautiful blue eyes tracked every motion, as if trying to decipher my gestures.
Eventually, Adele leaned over and whispered:
“Aren’t you actually... getting pretty close?”
“What?”
“You said you weren’t close yet. But to me, it looks like you’re already there.”
“...Really?”
Adele realized something then.
Dante had no sense for relationships.
A dense assassin who only knew killing.
So she figured—someone had to teach him.
“In my opinion... what was her name again?”
“Eve.”
“Right. Eve kinda reminds me of an elephant.”
“...Elephant?”
Adele motioned vaguely in Eve’s direction.
“Big, but completely non-verbal. A neutral animal.”
“Why an elephant?”
“Because she’s so... alien. I have no idea what motivates her. Like how humans find cats cute—elephants supposedly find humans cute, too. But in this case, Eve holds the upper hand in the relationship. So she’s the elephant.”
Then Adele explained her theory of the Elephant-Human-Cat dynamic.
Elephant (Eve) – Human (Dante) Human (Eve) – Cat (Dante)When Eve waves when Dante approaches—
That’s like a human petting a cat that rubs up against them.
When Eve offers a pine cone in exchange for a bell—
That’s like letting a cat knead your arm.
“......”
Dante’s eyes lost focus. His face went blank.
Elephant?
“Look at her again. She tilts her head slowly, right? That’s like a cat thinking, ‘Why is the human so far away?’”
“See that? She’s looking at the bell, then back at you. That’s a cat wondering if it should return what it just brought.”
“And that moment where she lifted her hood? That’s like putting on glasses to get a better look at her kitten.”
Blankly, Dante imagined it.
An elephant, a human, and a cat—drawn on a canvas in his mind.
“...I’ve never thought about it like that. But what made you interpret it that way?”
“Instinct. If you’ve ever dealt with a stray cat, the feeling just clicks. You’re just slow on the uptake, Professor.”
“......”
Eventually, it was time to leave.
“If you want to get closer,” Adele said, “you’ll have to communicate.”
“What do you mean, communicate?”
“Right now, Dante the cat is just meeting a human on the street.”
“So the cat has to be chosen by the human?”
“No, no. That’s just a saying. Really, humans choose the cat. That’s how they end up feeding them and getting played like suckers. Maybe one day, Eve will choose you too.”
I got the gist.
“...Truly a strange relationship.”
As we descended the mountain, I kept glancing back at the elephant.
Eve watched me go, her vivid blue eyes quietly following my retreating figure.
And that was the end of our meeting that day.
On the way home, I mumbled the words Adele had left behind:
“The elephant holds the upper hand in the relationship...”
And for a brief second, Adele’s gaze lost all focus.
“...Which means I’ll just have to wait. Since I’m neither cute nor good at being clingy, like a cat.”
“Sorry—what?”
“Hmm?”
“What did you just say?”
“About the elephant.”
“...Elephant? What elephant? What does being clingy like a cat even mean...?”
“......”
It was only then that I realized something important.
‘So this... is what the Curse of Forgetting feels like.’
***
After killing Toxin, several unusual things began to happen in my life.
First—Gray stopped auditing my lectures.
‘She vanished all of a sudden. Why?’
Probably just her being fickle.
It was a good thing.
Her presence constantly kept me on edge.
Someday, I would have to put a bell on that cat’s neck—but there was no need to rush it now.
Second—a sudden reward appeared.
┃ Main Quest: [First Accomplishment]
┃ Reward: Starlight Fragments × 20
Just like that, I was handed twenty Starlight Fragments, and I was baffled.
‘What kind of accomplishment...?’
Well, I wasn’t going to complain. But I didn’t understand it.
Twenty fragments was a lot.
< Owned Starlight Fragments: 114.5 >
An “accomplishment” in this context must mean a cadet’s achievement.
But I hadn’t trained anyone directly yet.
No one under me had shown that kind of growth.
‘...Is this a bug?’
Judging from the [Error Space] in Starfall Mountain, bugs clearly existed.
Might as well take the win while I could.
I just hoped they didn’t try to take it back.
Anyway, it was time to go see Eve.
Our 27th meeting.
The season had fully turned to autumn.
It was one of those days with a sharp, cold wind.
Eve’s cheeks were slightly red from the chill.
“A few days ago, I sent a letter to the Baron Lemontree household—your family name. This morning, I got a reply.”
“......?”
“Want to see it?”
I pulled out the letter, just in case she could read.
But it seemed she didn’t know how to read.
“To summarize, they were very suspicious. Asked who I was, and told me to go away if I was after money. Said the Lemontree family was already ruined.”
“......?”
“I haven’t mentioned you yet. But I intend to keep corresponding. I’d like to find a clue. About who you are. Why you’re here.”
Still that same tilted head.
In frustration, I gently pinched her cheek.
It stretched easily. Her skin was cold.
She didn’t avoid it. Just stared at me quietly.
“...Also, I might not be able to come here for a while. A major crisis is coming to the Academy. It probably has nothing to do with you, but I’ll be busy. And if things go badly, I might get injured. I might be gone for quite some time.”
Strangely—this time, she reacted differently.
Eve didn’t tilt her head.
But the corners of her eyes... sagged a little.
“......”
She might not have understood the words,
but she clearly sensed this was different from usual.
Maybe because I’d spoken more than usual.
I was trying to convey something.
And Eve—had picked up on that effort.
“...The moon’s bright tonight.”
I looked up at the sky.
Eve looked up too.
It wasn’t actually the moon. It was the largest of the 33 stars known as the “Transcendent Constellations✯.”
The ancients thought it was different from the others, and passed the idea down through generations as “the moon.”
As I gazed up at it vacantly—
—I felt a faint weight settle on my arm.
The unfamiliar sensation made me glance down.
And I was a bit surprised.
“......”
A few days ago, Adele said Eve was like an elephant.
That Eve approaching me was like an elephant approaching a human.
It sounded ridiculous—but the thought had stuck in my mind ever since.
Eve (Elephant) – Me (Human)
Eve (Human) – Me (Cat)
Just as Adele said, the dynamic between us had always been one-sided.
I had never seen her fight, but her potential rating of [3.0] guaranteed overwhelming power.
If she rejected me, I’d be left completely helpless.
Just like a cat before an indifferent human—or a human before an indifferent elephant.
So then—
What was she thinking now?
Why had this “elephant”... leaned her head on me?
In silence, I slowly lowered my hand.
Then carefully tried to place it atop the ragged hood covering her head, to help her rest more comfortably—
—but something stopped me.
It was Eve’s hand.
I thought she was rejecting my touch again.
But no.
Eve took my hand and guided it to her cheek.
The night air was wintry. Her cheek was cold.
But maybe my hand was warm.
She moved her small face slightly against it, feeling the warmth evenly.
It was unfamiliar.
The firmness of her jawbone under my fingers.
The tip of her nose brushing my thumb.
And the softness that occasionally touched my palm—was that her lips?
All of it—was new to me.
And at the same time, it was remarkable.
From the first time I saw her, watching from afar...
To when I broke the scope.
To giving her a bell.
To receiving an apple.
To her learning a wave.
To sitting at her burial mound and watching the stars.
After 27 meetings—
We had come this close.
***
Eve quietly watched “the human.”
Until he had walked far enough to vanish from sight.
“......”