Author: 唇亡齿寒 / Lips Gone, Teeth Cold
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Interlude 5
Dear Figaro,
It’s been a long time since I last wrote to you. How have you been lately? Ever since you mentioned that special mission in Neo Athens, we haven’t seen each other or heard from you. I heard from Kepler that you and your family moved to the Unfallen Star, but who knows if that’s true. You know, that guy’s words are never reliable.
I’m sending this letter to your old mailbox. I don’t know if you can still receive it. Maybe you stopped using this it long ago. May the Lord bless you to see it.
Damn you, you bastard! How long have we known each other? We’ve been on more missions together than you’ve had sex with your wife, so how could you disappear without a word? I almost thought you had died in Neo Athens! No matter how classified the mission was or how inconvenient it was to tell us, you shouldn’t have cut off all contact! Oh, Lord, you son of a bitch, I really want to tear you apart and feed you to Jack!
Jack’s little girlfriend gave birth to a litter of puppies. Kepler and I each took one to raise. That clumsy idiot Kepler definitely won’t be able to keep his puppy alive! Lord, I really shouldn’t have given him the puppy! But it’s too late now. It would be harder to take that thing back than the diamonds off the Queen’s crown.
Do you know, Nana got married last week to that stupid and dumb bar owner. (What’s so great about him? Nana marrying him is like a flower stuck in manure!) I was her bridesmaid, my second time being one—the first was at your wedding. They say if you’re a bridesmaid three times, you’ll never get married. I’m really worried and hope it’s just a superstition.
Most of our old comrades have settled down, and many have quit. I’m also planning to wash my hands of it and open a casino with my current savings. Casinos make money. Remember when we teamed up to steal that famous painting “Empire Sunset” from that casino owner? That’s when I thought I’d open my own casino someday, filled with famous paintings. But I won’t let them be stolen! I’m the best thief, who could steal from me? (Kepler says he could guard the casino and lend money at high interest. That guy!)
Figaro, it’s been over ten years since our first mission together. Thinking back to our meeting in the underground market of Olympus feels like it was just yesterday. Back then, we were young and ambitious, thinking we could do anything as long as we had comrades. We believed we could overcome any difficulty, and even if we got hurt, we would eventually heal.
Now I’m thirty. One by one, my comrades have left. Some I still contact occasionally, some, like you, have vanished, and some I’ll never see again. Only now do I understand that some things, once lost, can never be found again. At my age, I’ve come to see things clearly, which inevitably makes me cautious and calculating.
I wish I could go back to the past. As long as you’re young, you can be fearless with your youth. But I’m no longer that young person. Now I’m like an old woman, stuck in past glories.
Sometimes I wonder what my life would be like if I hadn’t chosen to be a thief. Maybe I’d have gone to college, met a shy boy, fallen in love, dated for years with constant quarrels and reconciliations, eventually realizing we were perfect for each other. We’d start a family, have children, a cat, and a dog, and buy a seaside house with white walls and red tiles, with a small garden. I’d tend to the garden while my husband taught the kids to weave fences. Maybe he’d be a high school teacher or an office worker, and I’d become a housewife. Our kids would grow up, rebel, and turn the house upside down. They’d grow up, fall in love, get married, and have children. One day, I’d grow old, collapse while pruning the flowers, and never wake up. That might be my life: a bit dull, not exciting, but fulfilling.
Sometimes I secretly dream of such a life because ours is filled with danger and rarely peaceful moments. But I have no regrets. I have never regretted meeting you all, never regretted walking into that underground market on that rainy day, seeing Nana and Kepler bargaining, and you standing in the shadows, looking into the distance, giving me only a blurry side profile.
Thank the Lord for letting me meet you all at that time and place. I thank Him for bringing us together. I thank Him for this path. Though it’s rough and bloody, I believe it’s the best path because I have you all with me.
This letter is coming to an end. Kepler is urging me to book the tickets (he can’t do it himself?). I’ve never liked saying goodbye, and this time is no different. I won’t waste ink on a sentimental farewell. If we meet again, then no goodbyes are needed.
Give my regards to your wife and son (though I’ve never met the little rascal, I wish him well and hope he becomes as excellent as his father).
Yours faithfully,
Jolene Cavendish
Standard Date May 27, 1393
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