Please Answer Me - Chapter 92

Rosetta knew very well what she looked like without needing a mirror. Her entire body was marked with the traces he had left. In fact, when she pulled back the blanket to get into the bathtub, even Benny was shocked, and Rosetta herself was astonished by her naked body. She hadn’t realized it was this bad.

“Look, there’s even a bruise here!”

Benny pointed to a bluish bruise on one side of Rosetta’s neck, raising her voice. It was where Rashid had bitten her, trying to subdue her when she kept trying to touch him.

“Why would he bite perfectly good skin like this?”

Rosetta didn’t know how to respond to Benny’s innocent question. Just a few days ago, Rosetta herself wasn’t much different from Benny in this regard.

“…Because it feels good.”

“What?”

Rosetta sighed softly and then spoke louder, “Benny, when someone you like bites you, it feels good.”

Benny tilted her head, still not understanding. “Biting feels good even though it hurts?”

“It hurts, but it also feels good.”

“How is that possible? I love dogs, but when they bite me, it only hurts.”

“……”

Rosetta rubbed her forehead. She suddenly understood the struggles her mother faced when answering her childhood questions like ‘How are babies made?’, ‘Why do people kiss?’, and ‘What do men and women do at night?’

So, Rosetta decided to use her mother’s solution.

“Benny, you’ll understand all of this naturally someday.”

Benny didn’t seem satisfied with the answer but fortunately didn’t press further. “Anyway, I see that meat pie was quite effective.”

“Meat pie?” Rosetta questioned, surprised by the sudden mention.

Benny looked a bit embarrassed and quickly averted her gaze. “Yes, the meat pie you made for the Riga. It wasn’t actually rabbit meat.”

“If it wasn’t rabbit meat, then what was it?”

“Well, you should ask the Riga directly!”

“How would he know what I, the cook, don’t?”

“I’m sure the Riga knew. He ate it knowing it was made by Rigaina.”

“So, what kind of meat…”

“I’ll go get some rinse water!”

Benny quickly stood up and dodged the question. She couldn’t bring herself to tell Rosetta that it was a male bear’s genitals.

After the bath and a meal, Rosetta fell asleep again. Whether it was the aftermath of the events in the Monster Forest or the exhaustion from the past three days, she still looked very tired.

Thelma had said it was better for her to sleep a lot now. It would help her recover from the trauma of the forest. Although Rosetta claimed nothing significant had happened in the forest, there would still be some lingering effects.

Benny carefully cleaned around her and left the room. As she walked down the corridor, thinking that she should prepare some nourishing food for Rigaina, she recalled Rosetta’s earlier words.

“When someone you like bites you, it feels good.”

So, if I bite someone and they feel good, does that mean they like me?

Thinking back, she remembered seeing the Riga smiling at his bruised fingers in the hallway today. At the time, she wondered why he was smiling, but now she realized he was looking at the bite marks from Rigaina.

“Hmm.”

Benny’s eyes lit up with a sudden gleam. She had always been curious about Sika’s true feelings. Did he have no thoughts at all, or did he perhaps have some feelings for her? What was going on in his mind? Now, she had a way to find out.

Benny went straight to the kitchen and filled a basket with food. After covering the basket with a cloth, she ran to the backyard.

At this time of day, Sika would be done with his training and resting alone. After training, he always lay down under the large tree in the corner of the yard to take a nap.

As expected, Sika was lying sprawled out under the tree. Even with Benny right next to him, he continued to sleep soundly, reminding her of memories from their childhood.

Five years ago, the foreign boy who followed the Riga was very small for his age. She had heard that the Katan tribe members were generally larger than the Arden people, so it was surprising. The boy, who couldn’t speak a word of Arden, was like a cat bristling its fur, wary of everyone around him.

Benny had approached him with food. Sika, still cautious, slowly began accepting and eating the food she offered.

Over time, they grew closer. The boy who once couldn’t speak a word of Arden became fluent, and his height suddenly shot up, surpassing Benny’s within a year. For the past five years, Sika had always been by her side.

[Wake up. I brought some food.]

At her words, Sika’s eyes snapped open. He had always been quick to wake up at the mention of food. Sika quickly sat up and reached out to her with both hands.

[Wow, I was starving after training. What did you bring?]

Benny opened the cloth covering the basket. Inside were bread, smoked pork, apples, and various cheeses.

[All my favorites. Thanks, Benny!]

As Sika began to stuff food into his mouth, Benny watched him quietly. She still couldn’t figure it out. Did he like her, or just the food?

There was only one way to find out.

Benny grabbed Sika’s unguarded left arm and bit down hard, leaving teeth marks on his forearm.

Crunch!

Sika, who had been happily eating meat, froze. His gaze shifted to Benny, who was biting his arm.

[Aaaargh!]

A scream burst out after a moment. Sika frantically shook his arm and shouted, [What are you doing? Are you a monster? Why are you trying to eat my arm?]

Monster.

The word pierced Benny’s heart. A monster. And his horrified reaction only made it worse.

[What’s wrong with you? If you’re hungry, eat this food with me, not my arm…]

Suddenly, Benny snatched the piece of meat from his hand. She stood up, fuming, and grabbed the entire basket.

[I don’t like you either! I really hate you, so don’t ever talk to me again!]

With that, Benny stormed off angrily.

Sika, left alone, muttered in bewilderment, [What did I do wrong?]

***

Rosetta sat at the table, scribbling on a piece of paper. Initially, she intended to practice her handwriting, but gradually, her jumbled thoughts began to spill onto the paper in written form.

Masha.

After writing that name, she stared at it for a long time. Rosetta began to trace the vision she had seen in the Monster Forest.

What was it? What did I see then?

The memories were too vivid to dismiss as mere figments of imagination. Moreover, the underground she saw in the vision was a place she already knew—a place she had accidentally stumbled upon while playing hide and seek, a place she was not supposed to see in the temple.

Rosetta knew her childhood memories were not entirely intact. Her recollections started from the age of ten, with little to no memory of the years before that. She had found it curious when Tanit and Arman could recall events from before they were ten, but she never gave it much thought, assuming she simply had a poorer memory than them.

However, as she organized and wrote down her memories, she realized that wasn’t the case. Her memories from around the age of five or six were clear. She remembered entering the temple underground around that age, climbing a tree to avoid the maidservants only to fall and cry. She also remembered bringing her mother many strange things as gifts.

But there was a complete gap in her memory from that time until she turned ten. It was as if there was a blank period in her mind. Her memories suddenly skipped to her being bedridden every day. Then she met Allen, and after two years, she regained some of her health.

If the vision she saw in the Monster Forest was true, it must have occurred during that blank period. Could that event be related to her lost memories?

Why was it that place? On the day she was caught sneaking into the temple underground, her father had scolded her severely, and she vowed never to go there again. Did she break that promise and go back?

Magic Stone.

The moment she wrote those words, she immediately blacked it out with heavy strokes. Her eyelashes drooped wearily.

The Magic Stone was Lysa’s darkest secret.

As a child, when Rosetta descended into the temple underground, she found an empty box and crawled inside, thinking no one would find her there.

She drifted off to sleep. When she woke up, she opened the box lid and witnessed a strange scene. Something glowing filled the space around her, like fireflies from a picture book. Or were they really fireflies? As she pondered this, she heard voices from one side.

“We must get the Magic Stone, no matter what!”