At this moment, he looked quite vivid.
You don't have a fever, do you?" he muttered softly. Under Gin's slanted gaze, Heine lost all his backbone and surrendered: "I didn't say anything.
While defending himself, Heine also cooperatively raised his hands in a gesture of surrender, his eyes and brows filled with a relaxed smile.
This guy didn't care at all about the look of panic on his Subordinate's face when he witnessed this scene.
Gin had no interest in these trivialities. He cast a glance at Madra, who appeared calm and indifferent but was actually distracted, then took the initiative to assign one of Heine's subordinates: "Go act as her Driver."
That short European man glanced at his Boss with a hint of panic.
Heine curled his lip and briefly repeated Gin's request in Italian, then added, "Listen to him."
Then the blonde-haired man paid no attention to the subordinate he had assigned, instead turning his head to cast a half-smiling gaze toward Gin. "You, you clearly know Italian, don't you?"
Gin gave Heine an indifferent glance, clearly conveying that he was too lazy to bother responding.
Heine's shoulders slumped wearily. "So, not only do I have to hand over my subordinates for you to assign, but I also have to be your translator?"
The blonde-haired man looked up and rolled his eyes. "Give me a break."
At least I could be considered someone with high status and power? Whether it's in the Black Organization or the Italian Mafia—
So you've fallen to the miserable state of working for someone for this long?
Gin sneered, raising his hand to tap his Friend's forehead, leaning slightly toward this man who was not doing his job properly in his daily life: "Since you're already a translator, why not be a Driver as well?"
He calmly withdrew his hand and gestured with a slight nod of his chin. "Drive the car back for me."
Heine was so exasperated by his self-righteous manner that he let out a laugh. She raised her hand to her forehead, shaking her head repeatedly, as a smiling sigh escaped her lips.
Then, he raised her eyes to study Gin with her blue eyes, the corners of her mouth curling slightly as he let out a helpless, light chuckle. "You certainly know how to assign people."
Gin tilted her head.
"After you~" The blonde-haired man completely surrendered, feeling that his surrender just a few minutes ago was practically a self-imposed curse.
Heine made a frivolous and flamboyant ceremonial gesture, his exaggerated performance causing several dark lines to appear on Gin's brow. That person's mouth twitched as he followed his Friend into the car.
Heine opened the car door and sat in the driver's seat.
..
By the time he returned to her own home, it was already a silent Night, with the moon setting and crows crying.
Gin stood still at the Entrance, raising her hand to press against her slightly throbbing brow, then switched on the light.
The light from the incandescent lamp flooded the entire living room in an instant, the sudden glare made even Gin feel a slight discomfort.
He closed his eyes for a moment, gradually adjusting to the light in his home, then slipped off his shoes, changed into slippers, walked into the Living room.
The Villa, empty of everyone except herself, felt even more desolate and lonely in the Silent night. The Villa was so large that, for a moment, it almost created an illusion of vast emptiness.
Or perhaps, it was not an illusion.
When he didn't hear the usual flapping sounds from the Owl, Gin was slightly startled, but he quickly remembered that he had already sent it away.
And so, in this Villa, there was really only him alone.
He should have been used to it.
But perhaps it was because the Owl was too noisy; after finally obtaining the quiet he had dreamed of, Gin found himself feeling somewhat unaccustomed to it.
He lowered his eyes slightly, feeling that he must be exhausted today.
He should get some good sleep; there are still things to do afterward.
However, unconsciously, a sentence Madra said during the day surfaced in his mind.
—"Someone once gave me a book with a sentence in it that I found very profound."
—“'I believe there is a soul after death, because I am the one who killed you, so please, come find me, so that we can be together again.'”
She knew that these words were from Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights.
Gin suddenly remembered some things.
Before Akai Shuichi's defection, there was a time when he visited his house, holding a beautifully packaged copy of Wuthering Heights, looked at him with a heavy gaze.
I didn't expect you to buy a book like this specifically.
So he said.
And—
—"Because I saw some annotations on here.. they don't look like your handwriting."
Who would write annotations on it?
The answer was becoming clear.
It was a book left by Shiratori Midori.
It was also her annotations.
Gin had not looked at this book for a long time. As if possessed, in this silent late night, immediately after a clash with a troublesome enemy, he walked into his study, his eyes searching for this book.
The moment his fingertips touched the book's cover, he thought of Akai Shuichi once again.
Almost unconsciously, he recalled a conversation with this entangled opponent, his Nemesis.
On the night his identity was exposed, when this FBI undercover went to the Bar alone for an invitation, he once asked him a question.
["That book.. did you ever flip through it afterward?"
Which one?
“Forget it..” That person summarized simply, "Forget it."
Akai Shuichi.. just what is he trying to say?
With a sense of inquiry, after many years, Gin opened this book once again.
..
In this desolate and cold night, within the empty Villa, he found a secret that had once been within reach, yet had been silently concealed for many years.
First to catch the eye was the girl's delicate and beautiful handwriting.
"I want to stay in that brilliant world, where there are no worries forever—not looking at it through hazy, tearful eyes, nor pursuing it with a painful heart, but truly being with it, being within it." (1)
He transcribed the famous quotes from the book word by word, as if she were pouring out his heart.
And through countless Riri Yeye, the agony of struggling.
"In my life, he is my strongest longing. If everything else is destroyed but he remains, I can continue to live; if everything else remains but he is eliminated, this world will become an extremely strange place to me. I will not be a part of it." (2)
Gin fell silent for a moment, then silently closed his eyes.
These words look like they have been around for many years, just like this book.
Several words in the middle of the sentence were slightly blurred, as if someone's tears had smeared them, making them no longer clear.
Perhaps, on some quiet afternoon, while the Girl was reading this book, a certain sentence touched the depths of his soul; she wrote these two sentences in a daze, then, in a daze, she let his tears fall.
This was perhaps the reason why the Girl later made his final decision?
If you are no longer here, this world will no longer be the world I know.
When he opened his eyes again, Gin's gaze had returned to its usual calm.
His gaze shifted toward another, entirely different handwriting.
That handwriting was not the delicate and beautiful script of a girl, but rather a style that was sharp, clean, possessed a vigorous, forceful elegance.
Gin recognized it as the handwriting of Akai Shuichi.
The Black Organization undercover, who could still be called 'Rye' at that time, made further annotations after the first two sentences written by the girl.
"I cannot control my eyes; I cannot help but look at him, just as a person with a parched throat.." (3)
That sentence was only half-written before the man struck it out with such force that the pen nearly tore through the paper.
It was as if he were using reason to strike through those wild, growing emotions deep within his heart.
Immediately after, he wrote another sentence behind it:
Perhaps for some people, they would not fear the Dark without seeing the Sun, they would not fear Loneliness without experiencing Laughter.
But I want to give him the Sun.
And—
Only one can save oneself, I know this truth, but I want to give him a hand.
Even if it means being mired in the mud.
..
Gin closed the book.
He silently placed the book back on his bookshelf, his green eyes staring vacantly at the spine for several seconds. For a moment, he felt a surge of countless emotions welling up in his heart, yet every single one was obscure and difficult to understand.
Some emotions that had always existed, yet had never been faced by him directly, presented themselves before him in a completely unexpected way.
They had always been there, just like this book, so close that they could be reached with a mere stretch of the hand.
But he had never reached out to touch them.
Now he sees it.
-----------------------
Author's Note: (1) and (2) are both quoted from Wuthering Heights
(3) A sentence from Jane Eyre, which Akai Shuichi crossed out halfway through writing; the full version is as follows:
I could not control my eyes and could not help but look at him, just like a person with a parched throat who drinks even though they know the water is poisonous. I had no intention of loving him, I had once tried hard to nip the budding feelings in the bud, but when I saw him again, the love in my heart was resurrected.
Chapter 165 Chapter 149 Can you reveal something to me..
When Sheila pushed the door open and entered, Gin was drinking alone.
Before him was a bottle of Le Pin that had been opened not long ago. The expensive dry red wine showed a magnificent color under the Light, just looking at it would make any connoisseur of fine liquor yearn for it.