Chapter 7 Luke's dilemma
Luke stood frozen, a chill running through him as the sewer alcove suddenly felt much smaller. The girl's voice echoed in his mind, soft yet tinged with desperate relief.
"Brother?" she repeated, her wide, unblinking eyes searching his. She was covered in soot, but her delicate features shone through, especially those amber eyes that flickered in the faint candlelight. She looked at him like a drowning person might look at a piece of driftwood—hopeful and terrified.
"Who is she?" Luke thought. "If she's calling me brother… she must be Rook's sister." The resemblance was striking; they shared similar features, suggesting she was indeed Rook's twin.
As she stepped closer, the worried tremor in her voice made his heart ache. "I thought you were dead."
"Dead?" His eyebrows shot up in surprise.
She nodded slowly, her eyes full of emotion. "Yes. Everyone was talking about it. How you offended the Joker gang and how you were captured. Nick heard the rumors—he was kind enough to let me know."
Luke listened intently, drinking in every detail. "Was it true? Did you really offend the Joker Gang?" Her voice trembled with concern.
He hesitated, weighing his response. Finally, he nodded. The girl's eyes widened in shock, and she let out a shaky breath. Awkward silence fell between them as her shoulders tensed.
"You..." Her voice wavered, thick with emotion. "Why do you always take these kinds of risks? Do you even know how worried I was?"
Before he could answer, she knelt beside him, wrapping her thin arms around his waist, burying her face in his chest. Her small body trembled as she clung to him. Luke was taken aback by the unexpected embrace.
"Don't ever scare me like that again."
He found himself nodding, still trying to make sense of the situation. He considered revealing his true identity — the fact that he wasn't Rook at all, but someone else inhabiting his body. But uncertainty clouded his thoughts. Right now, what he needed most was knowledge about this world, and she seemed to be his best chance of getting it. Not to mention, he had no clue how she would react to the truth.
When she pulled away, her amber eyes were filled with questions. "How did you even escape?"
"I…" Luke hesitated, scrambling for an answer that would suffice. After a moment, he opted for simplicity. "I got lucky."
"Lucky?" She frowned, clearly unconvinced but chose not to pry further.
"Anyway, what matters is that you're here. Now we can save Melissa."
"Melissa?" he echoed, puzzled.
She nodded, her expression turning serious. "A lot has happened while you were away. Today I saw Nick getting chased by a group of vagrants from the North. It made me worry about Gloria; no one would dare attack Nick in her territory. And with that in mind… I feared for Melissa. She might be in an even worse situation."
Luke nodded, trying to show he understood the weight of her words, but inside, he felt overwhelmed.
"Great, of course there's a Melissa. Can't I just catch my breath for a moment? I just transmigrated, for crying out loud!"
He turned to his supposed sister, feeling the pressure of the moment. She was watching him closely, concern etched on her face.
"What's wrong? You seem a bit off," she said, her voice gentle yet probing.
Luke felt his expression stiffen. Keeping up the act was proving more difficult than he anticipated.
"It's tough to pretend when you're looking at me like that," he admitted with a sigh.
"Pretend?" she asked with a raised eyebrow, curiosity piqued.
Taking a moment to gather his thoughts, he said, "I didn't say anything because I didn't want to worry you."
Her brow furrowed deeper in confusion, so he added quickly, "Something happened while I was with the Joker Gang."
Rin's heart raced, genuine concern flashing across her features. "What happened?"
Luke chuckled softly, trying to ease the tension. "Well, here's the catch—I can't seem to remember."
"Huh?" She looked bewildered.
"Whatever happened caused me to lose most of my memories. Not just a few, but nearly all of them. Just a few moments ago, I didn't even recognize you. Thankfully, some memories have started to come back, allowing me to recall you a little."
Rin's eyes widened in surprise as she processed this.
Her eyes locked onto his face, trying to ascertain whether or not this was one of Rook's pranks.
Luke maintained a sheepish expression as he faced her scrutiny.
At this point he began to suspect that his lie wouldn't work.
Fortunately, Rin seemed to believe him.
After a while, Rin released a weary sigh. Luke's brows couldn't help but raise as he didn't expect her to react this.
"Not this again?"
Luke's expression nearly faltered as the corners of his mouth twitched.
"Again? " he asked.
Rin face-palmed herself as she continued.
"Silly me. Of course you don't remember. "
She turned towards him, and then said seriously.
"I think l know the reason why you don't remember anything. "
"You do?" Luke asked in genuine surprise.
After, all this talk was nothing but a fabrication of his, to hide the fact that he was not Rook.
"Yes" Rin nodded.
"This is definitely not the first time you lost your memories. You see you have this head injury that results in your loss of memories whenever you hit your head. "
She smiled towards Luke, and said.
"So l suspect that you either hit your head again, or one of the Joker gang bashed your head, causing you to temporarily lose parts of your memories."
When Luke heard Rin's speculation he was completely flabbergasted.
As the shock hit in, he couldn't help but make a speculation.
"Wait? Could the reason why I could only remember bits of Rook's past, be because of this head injury. "
As the thought of the speculation, Luke felt that this might've been what happened.
"To think that my lie was actually not a lie to begin with'
Luke shook his head at the absurdity of it.