Early Release!!
Chapter 6 PAST 4
Translator : PolterGlast
On that day, when Nozomu, Lisa, and the other students
came into the school, the first-year atmosphere was strangely restless in the
morning. Even after the morning assembly was over, the restless atmosphere did
not disappear. Lisa and the rest of the class tilted their heads at the strange
atmosphere.
After parting ways with Nozomu, Lisa and the others
entered their own classroom and found that the atmosphere was still the same.
Lisa called out to the classmate who was closest to
her.
"Hey, what's going on? Somehow everyone looks
strange ..."
"Um, Lisa-san. Actually ..."
After Lisa's classmate calmed down, she took a deep
breath and opened her mouth.
"Actually ... Nazwel and his friends died during
a request in the forest..."
"Wha!?"
Ken's and Lisa's faces were dyed in shock.
Nazwel was one of the most talented students in the
first year. Although he was not a student of this class, he had shown Nozomu
and the others that he was in good health the day before.
It's hard for Ken and the others to believe that the
story of his death was true.
"I-is that really happened?"
"Y-yeah. Because someone from the same party as
Nazwel-kun was able to come back. It seems that person rushed towards the guild
for help. But the others are ......."
When Ken and the others heard the story, they were
very surprised. From the way she spoke, there was no way she was lying. There
was no reason for her to do that. So this story must be true.
"T-tell me the details ......."
When Lisa leaned forward to ask for more information,
the teacher in charge of the morning class came into the classroom.
"Okay, everyone, please take your seats. Class is
about to begin."
Lisa and the others hurriedly came back to their
seats. When the teacher stood in front of the class and was about to open her
mouth to start the class, the girl who had just been talking stood up.
"U-um, sensei! About Nazwel and the others
......"
"Oh, so everyone already knows about that story
....... It's true that yesterday, a party of first-year students who were
carrying out a request in the forest met with a demon beast and were attacked
by it. All but one died."
Everyone in the classroom was rendered speechless by
the teacher's affirmation of the rumor.
"The demon beast they encountered was a C rank.
In this school, we teach our students not to explore the forest or fight
against higher-ranked demon beasts, but it seems that they thought they could
win because they only had one opponent, so they went into battle."
The teacher's indifferent voice was the only sound in
the quiet classroom.
"I am sorry to hear about the students who died,
but you must understand that there is always the danger of death outside the
city. Otherwise, you will end up losing your life just like them. Now let's get
back to the lesson. Please open your textbooks to page 40..."
Despite the presence of deceased classmates, daily
life in Arcazam continued as usual.
On that day, the classroom remained shrouded in a
gloomy atmosphere.
================================
In a boy's dormitory
where the darkness of night reigns.
In one of the
rooms, a boy was holding his knees with a blanket over his head.
He looked
like a frightened child. In fact, his body was shaking like an old man
shivering in the cold, and he was breathing wildly.
The moonlight
from the window illuminates his blond hair and the figure peeking through the
shadows of the blanket.
"He is
dead, that Nazwel..."
The sun had
already set, but the temperature was not that low. However, Ken felt as if all
his blood was about to freeze.
He shrank
back and rubbed his arms, desperately trying to warm his freezing body, but the
death of his classmate and the worst possible future that could come from it
quickly took away the heat.
"His
ability is as good as me and Lisa ....... If it was us who were in the forest
yesterday..."
What came to
his mind was her figure, he could see her slumped over, covered in blood.
In Ken's
eyes, the sight that had cast a shadow on his heart from an early age was more
clearer than ever before.
"No, I
don't want that to happen! But if it stays like this then..."
Nazwel and
his party, who was just as good as him and the top students in the same year,
were almost completely wiped out. This fact contributed to his impatience and
drove him to the point where he couldn't control it anymore.
If he didn't
do something about it, Lisa would be in danger.
Driven by
this impatience, he desperately tried to find a way to protect her.
"If
Nozomu continues to stay by Lisa's side..."
Ken then
remembered about Nozomu, who was currently dragging Lisa down the most.
With his
Ability Suppression, Nozomu couldn't get any stronger. This would only be a
shackle for her in the future, when she may go to places even more dangerous
than the Arcazam Forest.
"But Lisa
chose Nozomu. But if Nozomu were here, Lisa would be..."
Ken didn't
want Nozomu to stay by her side. But Nozomu was the one who supported her the
most right now.
When Ken
thought about it, he felt an irresistible urge to scratch the inside of his
chest.
"~! Why,
why does it have to be Nozomu who stays next to Lisa..!"
His body,
which had been frozen due to the fear that he might lose Lisa, heated up at
once as if he had been bathed in scorching magma.
(Why can't it
be me? I can become even stronger in the future.)
(I would
never drag Lisa down, whose talent was blossoming more and more. Even Nazwel
said the same thing to me.)
It was an
explosion of jealousy that Ken had suppressed until now.
Nozomu, who
is not as strong as him, gets the woman he wants the most.
It was the
moment when the dark feelings that had been nesting in his chest since
childhood and gradually accumulating overflowed.
Once the
negative impulse exploded, it easily swept away his friendship and feelings for
Nozomu.
"Yeah,
right. Lisa is in danger if Nozomu stays by her side. I have to separate her
from Nozomu somehow..."
Ken mumbled
to himself. His eyes were black and muddy, without the gentle light he used to
have.
=================================
Ken carried
out his plan on the day that Nozomu once again tried to go to his secret
training session without telling Lisa.
Lisa, who was
worried about Nozomu's reckless daily training, told Nozomu to take a break,
but he hadn't changed his mind that he had to train.
The Ability
Suppression that had manifested and the fact that he kept dragging Lisa and the
others down kept coming back to him.
Being
prompted by the dark impulse that springs up from within him, Ken had been
trying to figure out how to separate Nozomu away from Lisa.
But the two
of them had spent so much time together. They've known each other since they
were children. Nozomu has always been the one for Lisa, and she has always been
the one for Nozomu. It would not be easy to break that.
Ken was
desperately thinking about a plan. Just then, the devil whispered something in
his head.
"Ah
right. If only something happened that made Lisa resent Nozomu..."
Impact that
enough to separate those two. The kind of crack that reversed one's feelings towards
the other person. The idea was to make Lisa herself resent Nozomu.
That way, the
stronger Lisa's feelings for Nozomu were, the more hatred she would feel for
him.
"Right,
Lisa has noticed that Nozomu has been disappearing from time to time. Then I can
make good use of that..."
Lisa was
aware that Nozomu was training without telling her.
However, she
had no idea where he was training. Sometimes he trained in the academy,
sometimes in the outer edge of the city, sometimes in the dormitory garden.
Ken had been
training with Nozomu for a while, so he had some idea of what he was doing, but
Lisa didn't know that much yet.
She often
told Nozomu to take a break from his reckless training.
It was true
that Nozomu had a tendency to train excessively after his Ability Suppression
appeared, and she was worried about that.
But secretly,
she was happy that Nozomu was willing to work hard for her.
Ken decided
to take advantage of this. Having spent most of his time with Nozomu since
arriving at the school, Ken was well aware of his behavioral patterns.
All he had to
do was to prepare himself.
One day,
after seeing Nozomu off to his training, Lisa came to see him.
"Hey,
Ken. Where's Nozomu?"
"Hm,
Nozomu went into town. Maybe he's doing what he always does?
"I see……"
She was half
angry and half happy that her suggestion had been disregarded by Nozomu. Lisa's
cheeks puffed up slightly in displeasure, holding 40% of joy and 10% of sadness
in her heart.
While
admiring her face, Ken puts on a somewhat mysterious expression, trying to
suppress his rising jealousy.
Lisa tilted
her head and frowned at Ken's expression.
"What's
wrong?"
"By the
way, I think I heard that Nozomu and a girl we didn't know were seen walking
together recently..."
"……Eh?"
Lisa looked
dumbfounded. She looked as if she had just heard something strange and was
stunned, but she immediately shook her head and denied it.
"What
are you talking about? It can't be true. Ken, are you really believing that
rumor?"
The rumor was
that Nozomu had been seeing a woman other than his girlfriend, Lisa, in town.
Ken was the
one who started this rumor. Ken started this rumor as a preparation to separate
Nozomu away from Lisa.
"No, of
course not. I just heard that Nozomu was walking with a girl in the commercial
district last week, but I know that he wouldn't do that."
Ken said he
believed Nozomu, but he dared to hint at the rumors, stirring up Lisa's fears.
Currently,
Nozomu was training at the outer edge of the city. There, no one with him, and
no one will be able to prove his innocence after Ken framed Nozomu.
"... If
you understand that, that's fine. I'm going home for today, so tell Nozomu to
get some rest."
"All
right. See you later."
Lisa turned
on her heel and ran off. At first glance, she acted as if nothing was wrong,
but Ken noticed that Lisa's eyes were shaking as she talked to him.
This would
definitely make her want to find out what was going on.
He watched
her disappear into the hustle and bustle, and then took immediate action.
He made
excuses in the depths of his mind as he told himself that this was for her
sake.
===================================
Ken went to a
stall in a corner of the commercial district.
Originally,
it was a place where traveling peddlers spread out their tents and set up
temporary stores there.
Ken, who had
put Nozomu's face on his own with the [Reflective Water Surface of the Heart
Mask], made his way to one of the dozens of tents. In the tent, he was facing a
girl who was moving around busily.
She was a
girl in her mid-teens, perhaps from the south, with tanned-brown skin wrapped
in linen.
When the girl
noticed Ken approaching, she shouted in surprise.
"Hmm,
what's up? I wasn't told you were coming today..."
"Because
I have free time. Am I... getting in the way?"
"No!
That's not true!"
Ken spoke to
the girl with a troubled expression on his face. The girl didn't seem too happy
that he had asked her out of the blue.
She was
originally a servant to a merchant who traveled from city to city doing
business. She had been in Arcazam for a while and she met Ken when she was
beginning to get used to the city.
At that time,
Ken was walking around the city disguised as Nozomu, looking for a woman who
might be the key to his plan. It was then that he met her.
A girl who
originally didn't stay long in Arcazam and was close in age to him. She was a
perfect match for the kind of person Ken was looking for.
When Ken
approached her, the girl did not pay much attention to him at first. However,
when he spoke to her in a polite manner, she gradually broke the barriers in
her heart.
That girl
rarely stayed in one city for long and travels day and night with her group.
She hadn't been in a big city in a long time, and she was expecting a lot of
things to happen, so it wasn't too difficult to make progress once she got into
a good mood.
"Do you
have a minute? Actually, I broke some tablewares the other day ... I've found a
few possible replacements, but I was wondering if you'd like to help me
choose?"
A blatant
invitation for a date. When the girl saw Ken scratching his cheek somewhat
shyly, she decided to accompany him on his shopping trip with high
expectations.
They both
said a few words to the shop owner and started walking together. Ken didn't
want to continue this relationship for a long time, and the girl understands
that it won't last.
Still, they
indulge in their temporary encounter.
The girl wore
a fake mask to drown the boredom of her everyday life, and the boy wore a fake
mask to fulfill his selfish wish.
In the middle
of their date, Ken glanced behind him and saw a red-haired girl. At that
moment, Ken felt an indescribable bitterness in the depths of his throat.
A slight
creaky sensation. He wondered if it was guilt over her or hesitation over what
he was about to do.
They kissed
for the last time that day and parted. The girl was leaning close to Ken as if
she was regretting something, but at the last moment of their separation, she
was smiling naturally, as if she had decided to leave him.
Ken had no
idea what was going through her mind. It was no wonder. Their hearts had never
really intersected at all.
But the
moment he saw the girl's last smile, Ken felt his heart creak slightly again.
But the pain
was quickly overshadowed by a dark sense of satisfaction.
Lisa had been
staring at them the whole time they had been on this date. And at the moment of
the last kiss, Ken could clearly see his childhood friend, Lisa, who was in a state
of shock.
And before he
knew it, he was naturally thinking, "With this, Lisa and Nozomu can be
separated ..."
Ken was
intoxicated by the muddy satisfaction that filled his heart. It was the most
satisfying moment he'd ever had.
But it wasn't
enough. There was still one last thing left to do.
===================================
"Hey,
Lisa! What's going on! Answer me!"
In front of
Lisa's room in the girls' dormitory, Camilla was banging on the door while
shouting. The sound of banging and her loud voice echoed through the hallway,
but there was no sign of anyone gathering around.
It was
reasonable. They were in the middle of school time, in the middle of lunch
break. The students were at the school, and there were hardly any people in
this dormitory.
It had been
three days since Lisa had locked herself in her room. No one had seen her since
the first day when she took a day off from school because she was sick.
When Camilla
had visited her on the first day, Lisa had replied to her, though in a forced
way. However, since the second day, she had hardly replied at all.
She sensed
that something was wrong, and thus called Lisa's name out loud in front of her
room, but there was no sign of an answer at all.
At that time,
Ken's voice suddenly rang in Camilla's ears.
"Camilla!
What's wrong !?"
"Ke-Ken?
This is a girls' dorm, you know!?"
"Forget
about it! Hurry up and tell me!"
Camilla was
surprised by Ken's sudden appearance in the girls' dormitory, but Ken overheard
Camilla's words and kicked down the door.
"Wha!
Don't do something unreasonable suddenly... eh?"
Camilla was
upset by Ken's sudden action but was rendered speechless by the sight that came
to her eyes the next moment.
The curtains
were closed, and Lisa was sitting on the bed in a dimly lit room even in the
daytime. Her eyes just stared at the floor, and she didn't move a muscle.
"Li-Lisa?
What's wrong with you?"
Camilla
rushed over to Lisa and shook her by the shoulders. However, Lisa's eyes
remained colorless, and Camilla's voice did not seem to reach her.
Ken closed
the door behind him and slowly approached the girls.
A small
amount of sunlight shone through the curtains. It reflected his mouth, which
was slightly distorted.
He crouched
down beside them and showed the fake smile that had been plastered on his face
for almost ten years. This was his final touch.
"Lisa,
are you okay?"
Ken began to
speak to Lisa gently as if reaching out to a drowning person. Driven by the
dark impulse.
