In the end, Sparkle still exchanged contact information with Nero. There was no helping it, "Aha's private photos" were just too tempting. Sampo had mentioned them before, but he had never shown them to her or anyone else at the Tavern.
Nero seemed to enjoy sharing "Aha's private photos" with anyone interested or anyone who knew some of the inside story. The moment they finished adding each other, he immediately found the relevant photos and sent them to Sparkle.
Sparkle excitedly opened them.
It was a series of photos showing what Aha was doing.
First she saw several masks, then a pitch-black humanoid figure lying face down on a bed.
Beside it was another pitch-black humanoid wearing a mask. They poured a strange, psychedelic-colored liquid onto their hand. Inside the container holding the liquid was something that looked like an insect's limb segment.
Sparkle kept scrolling.
The masked black figure placed a hand on the one lying down and began rubbing it. There were even more photos after that.
It looked like... the God of Elation was getting a spa treatment...
At the same time, aboard the Astral Express drifting through space, Little Aha, a red cat cake sitting on the train's sofa, quietly put on the eyeless mask.
Then he smacked his own head with his tail.
"Meow meow... I can't bear to look..."
That little ancestor was too much. Why did he show everything to other people?
Thinking it was amusing, the real Aha, who was possessing Little Aha, had been observing the whole time and had just watched Nero show someone else Their "private photos."
'Idrila?'
'Could you do something about him?'
'You're the one closest to him out of all of us. Do something!'
'What have you been doing?'
'Don't tell Me you've just been praising him the whole time?'
'Good grief, that's terrifying. What the Aha.'
"Myu nyu myu nyu~ Isn't this fun?" Little Fuli leaned over beside Little Aha and said.
"Meow meow~ It is. Very fun. So you old geezer are here too. What the Fuli!"
———
"Hahaha, there's actually something like this!"
Beside Nero, Sparkle let out a string of crisp, bell-like laughter. She was laughing freely and quite happily.
Then she turned to Nero.
"Where did you secretly take these photos? Trying to fool your big sister Sparkle?"
Nero rolled his eyes.
Pretty much everyone who knew him took less than five minutes before they started taking advantage of him.
"I didn't secretly take these. Aha sent them to me! I'll show you the chat history."
As he spoke, Nero had already pulled up the relevant chat and handed the phone to Sparkle. While showing it to her, he said, "It's always this account. The IPC has warned me more than twenty times that this account has been banned, but every time it's still this one."
There was a possibility that someone else was impersonating Aha, but Nero didn't think Sparkle would come to that conclusion after seeing it.
She was a Fool, after all. She should be familiar with the God of Elation's power.
This phone, this account, and this chat history had all been tainted by far too much of Aha. Even a random passerby would point at the phone and say, "This damn thing is Aha!"
Sure enough, after looking through Nero's phone, Sparkle froze where she stood.
Although Sampo had left out quite a bit of information related to Nero when he briefed her, everything he had mentioned about Nero had now been confirmed through her own experience.
'What the Aha.'
'This kid is actually calling the God of Elation his brother.'
'And Aha isn't even the only Aeon involved!'
Nero took his phone back from Sparkle.
"See? I wasn't lying to you."
As soon as he finished speaking, Nero suddenly blinked and looked toward the distant crowd. He seemed to have caught sight of something that flashed past.
"Ah, I think I just saw someone I know. Hold on... If we get the chance later, let's chat again. I'm going to go check on that person first!"
Nero was quite concerned about the figure he had just seen. After calling out to Sparkle, he immediately ran after them.
Only then did Sparkle finally recover from the shock of Nero's unbelievable background.
She quickly stood up and reached out.
"Hey, wait! Don't go just yet..."
But she obviously failed to stop Nero.
A moment later, Sparkle lowered her hand and let out a breath.
"Forget it."
The girl raised a hand and lightly patted her cheeks as she muttered to herself, "Sparkle, Sparkle, how did you suddenly let your guard down? That's not right.
"Well, it's fine that he left. It looks like he has something else to do."
The girl blinked, and the expression on her face changed. It was as though a veil had fallen over it, making her unreadable again.
She glanced in one direction, then turned and walked the other way.
———
After Stelle ran out, it didn't take her long to find Firefly. The girl seemed to have deliberately waited for Stelle to catch up, so she hadn't gone very far.
Hearing the approaching footsteps, Firefly could tell from the stride and the weight of each step that it was Stelle running toward her.
The girl took a deep breath in, conflicted and nervous, then slowly let it out. Finally, she turned halfway around.
She knew Stelle was already behind her, but she avoided meeting her gaze, looking only toward the distant street.
After a long while, Firefly finally turned back.
Looking at Stelle, with a trace of sorrow and sadness between her brows, she spoke softly, "...I'm sorry."