Bonus chp (3/3)

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  "You really are…"

  Sonoko trailed off, unsure of how to put her thoughts into words.

  But she couldn't deny it.

  Looking around at the setup of this house, it was clear that under normal circumstances, rent for a pce like this would cost several huhousand yen per month.

  Yet, Ren aying only 10,000 yen, with free water aricity included.

  It was ridiculously cheap.

  From that perspective, both Ren and Ran seemed to be quite frugal.

  But Ren was obviously in a more difficult financial situation than Ran.

  Based on the information she had gathered, Ren had grown up in an orphanage.

  After the orphanage shut down, he had been living alone, always scraping by and managing a tight budget.

  Living frugally robably sed nature to him.

  She recalled that his life seemed to have improved signifitly over the past year.

  And, thinking about it, that ge seemed to cide with him renting this… problematic house.

  So that was it, because he barely had to spend money on housing, his financial situation had stabilized.

  "Then, do you ever pn on buying a pce of your own?"

  "No."

  Ren had no i in owning property.

  "Renting is more ve."

  "Besides, real estate here is absurdly expensive. Even if I rent for years, it wouldn't e close to the cost of buying."

  "And on top of that, utilities aren't cheap either."

  "Getting free water aricity just from renting? Sounds like a good deal to me."

  Well, most people wouldn't sider living in a house where someone had died to be a good deal.

  But given Ren's circumstances, Sonoko could uand why he thought differently.

  Still, what ied her more was something he had mentioned earlier.

  "You said you 'cleared up' the trouble in this house?"

  "Did you hahat before I got here?"

  "Yeah."

  Sonoko let out a small breath of relief.

  In truth, she wasn't fond of dealing with supernatural things.

  It wasn't like regur dahose, at least, you could see a to.

  But things that were invisible and untouchable… those gave her the creeps.

  She walked over and switched on the heater.

  If the problem with this house before had been something else, then the only issue now was how cold it was.

  As the warmth spread through the room, the lingering chill faded.

  Sonoko could feel it, the eerie cold wasn't as intense anymore.

  As long as the room stayed heated, it was manageable.

  She found a seat on the coud settled in.

  "Amamiya, sit here."

  Ren g the couch before carefully sitting on the far side, putting a deliberate amount of space between them.

  Sonoko immediately noticed.

  Without hesitation, she slid closer.

  Leaning toward him.

  "Hehe~"

  "e on, Amamiya. Just talk already."

  Snap!

  A snap of his fingers.

  And then.

  A flood of gold s suddenly poured out from a swirling mass of gray mist.

  The sight was nothing short of spectacur.

  Fifteen thousand maple leaf gold s rained down, spilling onto the floor.

  "…"

  Sonoko sat there, utterly speechless.

  All she could do was stare, watg as an overwhelming number of gold s cascaded ience.

  She instinctively tried to track where they were ing from.

  But no matter how hard she looked, there was no visible source.

  Nothing she could see, nothing she could grasp.

  The s simply… appeared.

  It was almost as if logic itself refused to allow such a thing to happen.

  In mere moments, a mountain of gold s had formed in front of the sofa.

  "So this is how you hid them?"

  "It feels like they're stored in some kind of separate space…"

  She had never seen anything like it before.

  This was her first time witnessing something so… unreal.

  It was her first glimpse into something truly beyond the ordinary.

  "You could call it a separate space," Ren replied.

  "But I 't expiails, it involves one of my trump cards."

  "And before you ask, it's better not to know too much about my abilities unless you're prepared for it."

  Sonoko tilted her head slightly.

  "Why's that?"

  "Knowledge and awareness aren't always good things."

  "Some things… the more you know, the heavier the burden bees."

  "This is one of the biggest dangers of the path I've chosen."

  "Too muowledge be a form of ination, it drive people insane."

  Sonoko's eyes widened slightly.

  She sat up straighter and, without warning, grabbed Ren's face, pulling him close.

  "Then what about you, Amamiya?"

  "Are you okay?"

  "…!"

  The sudden movement caught Ren pletely off guard.

  "I'm fine."

  "But that's because of… special circumstances."

  "I was able to avoid the effects of knowledge ination, but I 't guarahe same for others."

  Sonoko exhaled, finally releasing his face.

  As long as Ren was ued, that was what mattered.

  She leaned back against the couore accurately, she leaned her head lightly against Amamiya's shoulder.

  "Some things sound really scary when you put it like that."

  "It's hard to imagine knowledge itself being dangerous."

  For most people, it was difficult to prehend.

  But that didn't mean she couldn't try.

  "Actually, it's not that hard to uand."

  "Really?"

  "Yeah. If you read Lovecraftian literature, it'll make more sense."

  "The power I use has a bit of a Lovecraftian aspect to it."

  "If you're curious, you should read some books from that ge might help give you a frame of reference."

  "Then I'll pie up today."

  Sonoko didn't push further.

  She had already experienced something uling firsthand.

  Wheried to find the source of the p gold, it felt… wrong.

  She could see it, but she couldn't perceive it.

  Her mind blurred when she focused on it too much.

  That robably the kind of "ination" Amamiya was talking about.

  She suddenly felt the o study those books carefully.

  "By the way," she said, shifting the topic, "how did you even find the location of these maple leaf gold s?"

  "Even the remaining members of the rang are still searg for them."

  "They had loarkers and everything, so how did you find them without any of that?"