251 – A girl’s past
“Franken… “Do you know who it is?”
Unlike before, Sharon was unable to give an immediate answer to my question.
I waited patiently for her, not urging her on as I couldn’t easily take her mouth off her hesitation.
There was no answer yet, but just by looking at that reaction, one could be sure that she knew something about Franken.
A mysterious man to whom no clues have been obtained so far except his name.
If we can find out who he is, many of the questions raised so far will surely be resolved.
After a while, Sharon finally struggled to stop her from speaking.
“···It must be my father. Maybe.”
I frowned slightly at the answer that was difficult to understand.
Luckily, she didn’t seem to notice because she immediately managed her expression, but it was a strange answer that made her look agitated for a moment.
I was certain that Franken was related to Sharon.
She even had a rough guess that she might be very close to him.
Juliet’s words were also a crucial hint.
She told Sharon that it was time for her ‘father’ to return and that she should come with him.
However, the expression ‘probably’ added later was a completely unexpected variable. Why is she, who is not her third party and is her own party, so uncertain and adds such ambiguous words?
Of course, that one sentence alone did not solve the question at all. Rather, if it ended like this, it would only lead to further confusion, so a more detailed explanation was needed.
“Tell me in detail.”
“Okay. Last time I asked you to tell me about my childhood. That will be the answer.”
When I thought about it, it was like that. The reason today’s meeting was postponed was because Sharon asked for a few days in response to my request.
“Actually, I have almost no memories of my childhood. “What I vaguely remember is only a fragmentary recollection of the scene at that time, like a photograph.”
According to the Count’s words, Sharon is a created being. She may have been created the way she is now without ever having had a childhood, or she may have grown up very quickly and had a shorter childhood than others.
No matter what, it must have been a difficult environment for her to grow up like an ordinary girl. In that case, it would be natural for her to not remember her childhood properly. In the worst case, even the remaining memories may be artificially manipulated data.
“The clearest memory is… It’s about my father. He was wearing a white coat and glasses like a researcher. “They called him Dr. Honcia.”
Honsia.
The name was none other than Sharon’s last name. An unfamiliar name that I had never heard of in the original work.
I understand that the man in my memory is Sharon’s father, but is it true that he is the same person as Dr. Franken?
It bothered me that everyone called me Dr. Honcia.
The title of the magic engineering developer known to the world was Dr. Franken.
Maybe even her daughter Sharon wasn’t sure about that fact, so she added the word ‘probably’.
For a moment, I thought I should make it clear, but I knew that cutting off the explanation midway would only be a distraction, so I decided to stay quiet until the story was over.
“Father said I would set the world to rights.”
Correcting the world…
It didn’t sound like an ordinary story. It was too grandiose for something a father usually says to his children.
‘They are the key to destroying the human world.’
Why do I suddenly remember what the Count said at this time?
It was an unrelated story, but coincidentally, it was pointing in a completely opposite direction.
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“Actually, I wasn’t with my father that long. “Even when we lived in this house, my father was always concentrating on something and would stay in the study.”
There was a loneliness in Sharon’s tone that could not be hidden.
Can those vague emotions really be manipulated and imitated? No matter how much I thought about it without prejudice, it was difficult to accept.
At least Sharon herself truly missed her childhood with her father.
Even if it’s a blurry past that I can’t even remember properly.
“Then one night, when she woke up to a sudden commotion, she realized that a burglar had broken into her house.”
She lowered her head slightly and clenched her fists tightly, as if recalling her past days.
“I didn’t know it at the time, but looking back now, it wasn’t an ordinary robber. “The man was clearly targeting his father.”
How can we be sure that the purpose of the robbery was to kill the doctor?
“When the robber entered the house, he shouted Dr. Franken over and over again in a desperate voice.”
It was only after hearing her words that I could roughly understand it.
Not only did Sharon decide that the robber was targeting him, but also why she assumed that Dr. Honcia was Franken.
“···Actually, I can’t remember how things went from that moment on. “I was so scared that all I could do was hide in the closet and shiver.”
In her younger days, a distortion that looked like a self-mocking smile appeared and disappeared on Sharon’s face, as if she felt sorry for herself.
“I’m not sure, but it seems like the two had a brief conversation. Maybe they knew each other. And the next moment the world became quiet.”
I had a little idea of how this story would end.
That is definitely not a good direction.
“After a while, when I went out of the closet, there was nothing. As if nothing had happened. As if it was all just a fleeting dream…”
I don’t know exactly how old Sharon was at the time, but if you think about when her records on official documents began, she was definitely a young child who needed the help of a guardian.
“That’s the first page of memories I can recall clearly.”
“······.”
I didn’t know what to say.
At first, I just came and listened to her story to solve my doubts, but as her past continued, at some point she became immersed in the story and began to think deeply about the girl’s situation.
Up to now, my greatest desire was to comfort Sharon.
Perhaps this is a natural reaction. We had been close friends for a long time, and hearing about the unfortunate past history of a friend she liked was more painful than I thought.
But before that, she opened her mouth again and continued her story.
“Having said this, I cannot be certain that my father is Franken. After that, I searched the house alone, but I couldn’t find any information about his father. “I don’t know if the robber stole everything with my father, or if there was never anything like that in this house to begin with.”
Everyone called Sharon’s father Honcia, but the robbers who attacked him the night he went missing called him Franken, not Honcia.
It seemed clear that this long story contained clues that I had been searching for and did not know about. However, unlike what I expected, it seemed like a very complex twisted code, so it seemed like it would take quite some time to interpret.
First of all, the priority was to thank her for sharing her inner life, which would have been difficult to reveal now.
“···Thank you for saying this. And, I don’t know how to say it, but what happened to you…”
“Yes.”
Sharon smiled softly as she interrupted my rambling speech.
“You asked me this before on the cruise. “Why did you become a detective?”
When I heard that story, I remembered it all over again.
It was a school trip with a lot of talk and hardships, but the moment when Sharon and I shared secrets on the deck that day remained as a fresh and warm memory in my memory.
“I’m looking for the robber. Even now, several years later. “The reason I first became interested in you was because I suspected that a phantom thief could do such strange things.”
“Ah…”
“Of course I trust you now. “Because you’re not the kind of kid who would do something like that.”
I see. That’s why Sharon was so desperate…
It felt like all the puzzles about her were being solved. I feel like I’m one step closer to a girl named Sharon.
“I’m just telling this to you.”
For some reason, the words whispered in a low voice were not bad.
“Father said I would set the world to rights. “I don’t know if that’s what he meant, but I swore that as a detective, I would set things straight.”
As if all her introductions were over, Sharon looked straight at me with her will burning in the corners of her eyes.
“So now it’s your turn.”
“···Huh?”
“The questions you asked me after returning from the field trip. Juliet, magic engineering, apostle, goddess of time… And even Franken.”
“What on earth are you looking for?”