“Um… I guess you wouldn’t have any.”
Still hugging her knees, Sera vacantly stared at Riley’s face from the side while he did not answer.
“I have them.”
Sera steadily gazed at the bonfire and mumbled.
“I have quite a few of them.”
Tadak!
The piled-up firewood fell to the side of the fire and flew up sparks.
“Not just about dogs, but many other things. So, I always try to be careful, but… when it comes to dogs, I am still not very good at it.”
While listening to Sera, Riley thought about her cold eyes toward the pickpockets that came at them when they were at Solia last spring.
“Is Lower Solia one of them?”
Riley agonized over it for a while, thinking it might be a question that didn’t need to be asked. Unable to stand the curiosity, he asked anyway. Sera had a bitter smile on her face. She picked up a wood stick laying around her.
“Yes.”
She used it to poke and move around the firewood inside the bonfire which were burned completely. She nodded and asked,
“You knew?”
“Not completely. During last spring, at Solia… I saw your eyes turning scary cold. So, I thought it might be related.”
“Ah.”
Sera smiled awkwardly and turned back to bitter smile.
“You saw that.”
Tadak. Tadak.
It seemed the smell of firewood was bothering Sera. She touched her nose as she said,
“My nose…”
“Um?”
“The reason why my sense of smell is a little better than others… Have I told you before?”
Riley’s ability to recall things had deteriorated severely lately. He shook his head as if he was not sure. Sera said,
“It’s a little embarrassing to tell you this because it was from a long time ago. I used to live at the Lower Solia for a time. I am not sure how long I was there, so I am not sure if I should call that place my second home. Still, it was for quite a long time.”
Riley thought Sera came from the Left Solia. With a surprised look on his face, Riley looked at Sera’s face.
“For a time? You mean?”
“When I was a kid. When a was very little… It’s a memory I do not wish to remember. I am not sure how old I was, but I think I was around 10 years old.”
She said she lost her parents through an accident. She poked at the bonfire with the stick and continued.
“Struggling here and there, begging to people here and there… At the Lower Solia, calling it desperate would not be enough. I lived with grit, clinging to life like that.”
Sera brought up absolutely horrifying things that were difficult to mention. She glanced at Riley who was keeping silent as she continued.
“Anyway, my nose became good while living there. It’s because one cannot survive there without good sense of smell. Others who didn’t develop their sense of smell were eaten by other people or survived by using their sense of hearing.”
She then continued the stories about the Lower Solia. When the stick she held broke, she added that her sense of smell was not the only thing she got from there.
“When a man’s hand is coming toward me, the sound of steps on a puddle, echo at a dark, wet place, sealed off places… Although there are a few other things.”
Folding her fingers, she told Riley about her traumas. Sera eventually buried her face on top of her knees.
“Well, I know you are not going to change your attitude just because I told you these things, but… Now I’m embarrassed to having told you these things. I feel like I’m becoming sentimental.”
Riley looked at Sera with respect.
He was being honest.
Riley always thought it was impossible to tell one’s own trauma to people who were close.
“Hey, Sera.”
Riley called Sera in serious tone. Sera lightly lifted her face from her knees and looked at Riley.
“Sera, by any chance… did you overcome those traumas?”
His voice sounded more serious than ever. Sera placed her forehead at her knees and shook her head.
“No.”
Her answer was, ‘I did not overcome them.’
“…”
“You saw earlier, right? The dogs earlier… I mean the wolves. I was shaking just from looking.”
There was not even an ounce of confidence in her voice. Riley also had a bitter look on his face.
“Is that so?”
Could it be that Sera realized his bitter voice? Sera looked at Riley again and said,