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Last Embryo Volume 6 Chapter 2 Part 4

There was no doubt in Ayato’s mind that You must have had only the best of intentions in her mind, but because of that, the confusion between Asuka and Ayato only got that much greater, with Asuka now mass producing the question marks above her head because she still not fully understood who exactly Ayato was supposed to be now, and Ayato blushing furiously due to her secret being outed in the worst possible way imaginable and her being unsure of what to say now and how to proceed further without making things even more uncomfortable for the both of them. Thankfully, her rescue (for real this time) came in the form of Uesugi Kenshin, who was obediently staying on the sidelines up until now without interfering, but now she raised her hand in order to get the attention of the other three before she cleared her throat and spoke:

「*Ekhem!* Miss Kasukabe, I am sorry bto be telling this to you in such a direct manner, but apparently your explanation of Lady Ayato’s situation to Miss Asuka is missing some of the most crucial pieces of information.」

「Most crucial pieces of. . . . . . . . information?」

「Yes. Mainly. . . . . . . . Miss Asuka, do you know what happened with your deceased sister two years ago?」

「. . . Well, I did hear rumors that since she was Queen Halloween’s subordinate, she got sent to the Outer World by her.」

「Yes, that is exactly her, reincarnated in the Outer World with the same name and surname as the Kudou Ayato that you knew, except this one is a completely different person. I am also inclined to believe that she returned here to Little Garden only because she got dragged into the trouble that have descended upon Saigo Homura. If it were not for him, she probably would have never returned here of her own volition, not after finally achieving her aim of being reincarnated in the Outer World.」

Asuka and Ayato both thought back to to the exchange that they had with each other two years ago.

「A reincarnation without retaining her old personality」, that is definitely what she said she was going to go through.

「. . . . Yes, thinking about it now, she said something like that, she definitely did say something along those lines. So, does. . . . does that mean that Miss Ayato, does not possess any of her memories from when she was fighting as The Queen’s Knight, Faceless?」

「Yeah, about that. . . . .」

Uesugi said while doing a quick glance towards Ayato’s direction, subtle enough so that Asuka herself would not have noticed it, and when she saw Ayato furiously shaking her head to the sides while looking like she was about to cry and making a cross mark with her hands with all her might, indicating that she did not want that detail of her reincarnation to be outed as well she sighed quietly and told Asuka:
「It would seem that she did not retain any of those memories, nor any of the ones related to Little Garden. It seems that the only things that she does remember from her previous life are the memories related to the martial arts that she studied and the spear and bow training that she went through.」

「. . . .I see. So I guess that means that the Queen’s Knight who fought side by side with us against the Demon Lords really does not exist anymore, huh?」

When Asuka looked down with an incredibly pained expression, Ayato could not help it but to feel a little bit sorry for her. Apparently she really was still feeling regrets over having killed her own twin sister, and Ayato felt like concealing the truth from her might have worked in the same way as pouring salt on her wounds. . . . but no matter how much she might have wanted to do it, there was no way for her to play family with Kudou Asuka. After all, right now, Kudou Ayato. . . .her current self, had a different mother than Asuka who carried her under her heart and gave birth to her, and a father who gave his all to raise her into a proper lady without ever thinking about her as an inconvenience. Needless to say, she loves her current parents more than anyone else in the world.

It was not Queen Halloween’s order that pushed her into becoming interested in the research of The Star Particle Bodies and hiring Saigo Homura as their main researcher. She wanted this project to succeed not because somebody else wished it so, but because it carried with itself the hopes and long-cherished dreams of the entire Kudou clan. That is why it would seem unreasonable to throw all of those bonds and people whom she loved away just so that she could come back to deepening the bonds with the family that she was a part of during her previous life, who were now essentially the same as complete strangers to her.

(But even so. . . . . maybe I should not keep everything about me a secret from her? Maybe there are some things that I could tell her without everything turning into a complete disaster right from the get-go?)

Ayato squeezed her hand into a fist and raised her face so that she could look Asuka directly in the eyes. Doing so for the first time since they have run into each other without looking away in fear, she then called out her name.

「Miss Asuka. . . . can I call you that, or would you preferred if I actually called you by your surname?」

「Y-Yes, of course. I am fine with you calling me Asuka.」

「Well than, Miss Asuka. When it comes to my previous life, I remember everything about it. Both what my origins were. . . . and how my life ended.」

When Ayato was done saying that, Asuka’s expression immediately stiffened, and she had a very good reason for doing so. After all, even in Little Garden, a situation where you would meet up with a reincarnation of a person whom you have killed in their previous life surely could not have been described as entirely normal now, could it? And yet, there they were, Asuka, the one who killed Kudou Ayato when she was still Faceless, and Ayato, the one who died by her blade, standing face to face. Asuka was certainly not afraid, but she did brace herself for what she assumed that Ayato would want to say to her now that she has decided to come clean about her identity.

She made a decision that even if she would throw the vilest of curses her and would resent her for killing her, she would still face them head-on, because that was her responsibility as the one who has emerged victorious from the duel to the death between them. Seeing her all tensed up like that, Ayato began thinking that perhaps outing herself like that might have been a mistake after all, but the doubts overcame her for only a short moment, because she shook her head and spoke her next words slowly, almost as if she was carefully picking up each one of them.

「I think I know what you might be thinking right now, but let me tell you that I. . . . that she, Faceless, The Queen’s knight does not feel any kind of resentment towards you, and she considered every conflict between you to be thoroughly settled. She also felt immensely grateful to Queen Halloween for giving her a chance to be serving her as her Knight, and to the person who stained her, for tuning her into someone who could wear the title of Queen’s Knight with pride. That is why you do not have to worry about her anymore, and you definitely do not have to worry about me. I realize that whenever you are going to be looking at me you are probably going to see the reflection of your sister’s face, but even if do look like her, I am definitely not faceless, but an entirely different person, and I would be very happy if you could find it within yourself to recognize me as such as well.」