Watson and Holmes, Chapter Three.

"Wait a moment. Are you saying that you received an invitation....

"Yes, of course I received an invitation. But I did not want to use it in the ordinary way, so I  covered it in gold and engraved your private information around it. When you entered the library,

during those few seconds, I released my ability to remove the gold I had added and restore my

own information to the invitation. By then I had issued the new decision inside the library, so myinvitation became an independent person. The moment you left the library, a message arriveddirectly in my mind asking what kind of book I wanted."

"I understand that. But under this theory, each of us should have received a book of our own. Sowhy do you have two? Did you add another command?"

"It is very simple. Normally, the library gives you a book equal in value to your invitation. Butbecause this was an unprecedented case, I chose a book of the lowest value. You could call it abad book. In that situation, however, the condition of equality had not been fulfilled. So thelibrary chose a second book by the same author to give me. But the author of that bad bookwrote only two books in his entire life, and the second book was certainly worth twice the valueof my invitation, or perhaps more. Thus I defeated the library's system for the third time in thisshort period. What do you think? Am I not amazing?"

She said this while raising her fingers in a victory sign and smiling innocently like any ordinarygirl.

 "There is still something bothering me. How did you copy my invitation? No, how did you obtain

it in the first place? I do not remember giving it to you."

"That is because you have not yet realised who gave you the invitation this morning."

Wendy used her ability to take the form of a postman's hat and sunglasses. When Yol saw herlike that, he remembered the person who had delivered the invitation to him that day, when hewas injured.

"I cannot believe this. You were in the King's army and worked as a messenger? You have beenplanning this since then?"

"I am glad you finally noticed my presence. But you are wrong about one thing. That was not thebeginning. You are bad at understanding what is happening around you. It began exactly two years ago."

"Two years? That is impossible. How could you know I would receive an invitation two yearsago? Receiving an invitation from the tree is rare. What do you think the chances of thathappening were?"

Wendy began laughing loudly. Suddenly, her gentle gaze became cold and sharp, while a broad smile spread across her face.

"You really do not understand anything, do you, Haizaki? You are still looking at me as thestrange, cheerful girl I was a little while ago. You still think I am lying somewhere, don't you?Unfortunately, everything that happened to you during these two years was already under mycontrol. Everything I did led to this point. Your becoming the Third Commander of the King'sarmy and somehow surviving every battle.

 Your relationships with people and your losses. I was part of the reason behind all of them. The deaths of your comrades near the Pine Forest were

unexpected. Who could have imagined that we would meet someone like the King of War on ourway?

 But fortunately for you, I was able to protect you from that explosion because I had

prepared for the worst. Thanks to that, I nearly died in the battle because I had to protect youfrom the explosion. In other words, I saved your life."

Yol clenched his fist and restrained himself from exploding with anger at the way she spoke."Then what? Was everything you did during those two years meaningless? Did everyone whodied because of you and your plan die for nothing?"

Wendy's tone quickly turned angry."Nothing is meaningless. Deceiving you, killing that man in the morning and accusing someoneelse of the crime, deceiving the library's system, even explaining all these things to you. None ofit is meaningless. Your mind simply cannot comprehend all of it. You probably will notunderstand everything that happened or everything that will happen, because your mind is notyet intelligent enough."

"Then finally, [why] did you do all this? What was the purpose of what you did? Do not tell me itwas really only for these books."

"No, you are completely right about that. Everything I did was to receive three books instead ofone for my invitation. I bet you think what I did was evil and that I should be punished, so let meprove it to you. All the evil in this world comes from a person's selfish desires. They are trivialand worthless. But once you know that you are capable of doing whatever you want, you cannotstop yourself. Is that not incredibly foolish?"

Yol's eyes had stopped looking at her. Perhaps if he had looked at her, he would have realisedthat she was lying again. Even so, he overcame his anger towards her and raised his head oncemore. There was no irritation or hatred on his face, as though he had forgotten everything shehad said about him and returned to speaking with the girl named Wendy."You said a moment ago that even explaining these things to me had a meaning. Can you tellme what that meaning was?" 

"Since you are carrying the book I want, I needed something that would make you give it to me

yourself. After all, I cannot simply take it from you."

Hearing those words, Yol realised something that had not occurred to Wendy's brilliant mind. Heburst out laughing in front of her, leaving Wendy slightly confused."What is funny about that? After seeing how intelligent I am, you must think I deserve to receivethis book and complete my achievement. You are kind enough not to think too much about it."

Yol wiped tears of laughter from his eyes and answered her."You are exactly right. I had been thinking of giving you the book from the beginning. But Icannot believe you are really that foolish. No, perhaps you simply do not trust anyone at all.Most likely, you never had friends you could rely on in your life, or perhaps your situation was athousand times worse. So even though you knew perfectly well that I was this kind, you couldnot simply ask me for it. You did all of this because you were afraid to ask me for help."

Wendy looked down, tightening her grip on the books. She blushed slightly and said, 

"That is not true."

"I believe you. I know that what you did was still terribly wrong, and I cannot think of any reasonthat would make you do such things for a few books. Perhaps you are right. I cannot understandmatters as simply as they appear, and I am not intelligent enough to understand what you did.But I choose to believe that you are not that bad."

"You believe someone who lied to you even about her name. Perhaps that is why you will neverfind salvation. If you believe lies this easily, you will never reach the truth."

"You may be right about that too."

Wendy turned towards the pile of books and took out a match. She struck it, set it alight andthrew it onto the pile. The books began to burn.

"What are you doing?"

"I told you earlier that I explained everything so you would give me the book, but that was a lie. Iexplained it so I could say these words and make you believe me. You are searching formeaning in your life, aren'aren't you? Then leave the King's army at once."

"Wait a moment. What are you trying to say?"

"If you want to find meaning in your life, then join me on my journey. I will search with you, and Ipromise you will find it in the end. You live in a very small world, so let me show you the worldyou want."

Yol stepped in front of the flames and saw a book beside the fire. The flames had begun toconsume its edge. He picked it up and put out the fire on its side.

"If I give you the book I brought from the library, will you let me take this one?"

"I have no problem with that, but this novel is a little bad."

"That is fine. I do not mind."Yol gave her the book he had brought."As for what you told me earlier, I agree to go with you. But on one condition.""What is it?"

"I want you to tell me your real name."

"Oh, certainly. My name is Cleopatra."

"I said your real name. Why is this so important to you?"

"If you are that interested, why not investigate it?"

"No. Why would I do that? It sounds very troublesome."

"Then what about a prize? If you can discover my name, I will answer any question you want."

"Oh, all right. I do not mind. This time, I will call you Mr Holmes."

When Wendy heard the name, she made a disgusted face in response to his taste in names.

"I bet you thought Sherlock Holmes was famous for being very intelligent, so you decided to give me that name, didn't you?"

"How did you know? You really are frightening."

"Idiot. Do not compare me to a boy with a good mind for deductions. That is an insult. Theperson before you is the most intelligent creature on this earth. It is not as though I am trying to praise myself. I am only stating the truth."

"Yes, I know. That is why you have to tell me your name, or you will become nothing more thanan old man with communication problems."

"That is fine. My name is Reem. Are you happy now?"

"Another lie. In fact, I think calling you Holmes in the middle of a crowd would be fun, so I willkeep doing it."

Sparks flew between their eyes during the conversation, while the fire of books beside them litthe darkness of the sunset.

"You are an irritating idiot. In that case, you will have no problem with me calling you Watson."

"Wait. Who would be the follower of someone as conceited as you? Besides, I already have aname, and you know it."

With a mocking look, she replied,

 "You are right. Perhaps I should simply call you by your name,Haizaki."

Yol grew angrier and said,

 "Wrong. My name is Yol. Stop using that name."

A guard saw the great fire in the middle of the alley. Then he saw the girl and Yol around it andblew the alarm whistle to report a fire. The moment they heard it, the girl quickly gathered herbooks and began running out of the city.

 Before Yol understood what was happening, he was

running after her, with soldiers pursuing them from every direction.

When he saw the girl's injured face as she ran in despair, and saw how she laughed withoutstopping, he could not help bursting into laughter as well.

 Somewhere in his heart, he felt that

his life had begun to move for the first time.