Volume 4 Chapter 7.2
Seeds of Rekindling Part 2
Translator : PolterGlast
Lisa trudged along the
street to the academy like a tortoise. She stopped again and again, feeling
guilty as if someone was pulling on her back, and each time she would start
walking again and again to shake off her self-loathing. Eventually, the school
building of the academy drew nearer.
As she entered and
proceeded down the corridor, the eyes of the students who had already arrived
at the school simultaneously turned to her.
"Hey, that
senior......."
A student who saw Lisa
pointed at her with a dubious look on his face.
It had been several
days, and the incident that Ken had caused was already known throughout the
school.
A large-scale
deployment of guards for a major arrest. There was no way it could be kept
hidden, and everything but the most classified information had already been
made public. The fact that a considerable number of people were injured in the
process also became public knowledge.
"Huh? What's
going on? As I recall, didn't she commit an assault? Why is she still in the
academy?"
"Wasn't her
boyfriend the one who committed the crime? Well, maybe she's not completely
unrelated."
"How can she
still come to the academy? Shouldn't she be expelled?"
"No, she should
be banished from the city as a criminal."
Harsh and blunt
gossip. Unwitting malice. Considering that she is allowed to come to the
academy, one should be able to guess that the city's public safety organization
has judged her to be innocent.
However, people judge
others' characters based on vague impressions they have of them.
Lisa was judged to be
as guilty as Ken, simply because she was the closest to the culprit, without
regard to her true circumstances.
It wasn't my fault.
Such words were almost bursting out of her throat, but she bit her lip and
swallowed down the words that kept welling up in her mouth. She knew that even
if she tried to argue, the people around her would not listen to her. She knew
that very well. After all, she herself was one of them before.
Of course, she had
been deceived by Ken's schemes, but she was equally blind to the truth.
Some sort of distorted
perception. But even though she understood her own distortion, she could not
refute it.
Even after entering
her own classroom, the malicious stares from those around her did not abate.
Although, as expected,
they did not say anything as bluntly as the underclassmen, the piercing stares
made Lisa's heart clench even more than the words themselves.
When she raised her
gaze, she saw Irisdina staring at her.
When their gazes met,
she abruptly averted her gaze and headed for her seat. As if to escape the
gazes of those around her, Lisa took her own seat and, turning her head
downward as if to escape, simply waited for the time to pass.
†
*Scritch, scritch*.......
The teacher's voice and the sound of quill pens scraping paper echoed through
the third-grade, second-class classroom.
While taking her
morning classes, Shina's mind was elsewhere.
To his place, which
would be in the hospital room at the Gloaurum Institution.
Unlike the anxious
Irisdina, she kept her composure relatively calm.
(The path to
Nozomu-kun has not been broken. Everything is still okay......)
The magical path that
was linked to stop him from going out of control during the battle with [Cracked-Crown
Giant Centipede] is still intact. Normally, that path should have disappeared
long ago, but Shina kept pouring magic power into it, little by little, so that
the people around her would not notice.
The path opened little
by little, absorbing the magic power like withered plants drinking water. As
she did so, color faded from Shina's vision, the sound faded, and then she fell
into a pitch-black, silent space.
A darkness that would
make a normal person feel uneasy. She proceeded through it without hesitation.
Eventually, a faint
light appeared from the depths of the darkness.
It was the entrance to
the magical path. She gently expanded it, as if she was opening a closed flower
petal. The first thing that reached her was Irisdina's emotions which acted as
an intermediary.
Longing, frustration,
and self-loathing toward oneself. Shina involuntarily pressed her chest as she
caught a glimpse of the negative emotions that had been piling up since he fell
into a slumber.
(I knew it,
toward him, Irisdina-san is-......)
For a moment, Shina's
heart ached when confronted with Irisdina's emotions, but then she switched her
mind and headed further down the magical path.
Thump, thump, thump.
...... Her heartbeat raced. And the darkness pulsating in tandem with it.
Eventually, with the sensation of breaking through the clouds, her vision
cleared at once.
What caught her eyes
was the azure sky and the mirror-like shining surface of the lake. In the
cloudless blue sky, several strands of lines were running in a fan shape.
She followed the lines
cutting through the sky and walked along the surface of the lake, aiming beyond
the horizon. As she kept moving forward, trailing the ripples that emerged with
each step, the shape of the lines in the sky soon became clearly visible.
Chains with a dull
luster. It was a network of chains that stretched to the end of the sky without
any support.
The chains, which were
growing denser and denser, were stretching toward a point on the horizon.
Upon closer inspection,
she could see that the chains were also extending beneath her feet before she
knew it. Heavy, dull, and shiny, yet somehow not overbearing. She headed toward
the end of it.
And finally, Shina
reached the source of the countless chains.
"A sphere ......
made of chains?"
A huge sphere of
chains, perhaps a dozen times bigger than Shina's body.
A cluster of steel
rings, overlapping one another, layer upon layer. A faint light was leaking
from deep within.
She touched the sphere
of chains. A warmth, unlike that of metal, was felt in the palm of her hand.
"You're here,
after all......"
She could feel
Nozomu's presence at the end of the chains. Shina looked up at the chain sphere
once again.
"Fine, I'll wait
for you. But at least let me stay here."
Shina closed her eyes,
letting the warm yet cool sensation on her back soothe her.
She could see his
heart through the gap between the chains. Sensing Tiamat's presence and danger
in her soul, what she feared most was that Nozomu's spirit would be devoured by
the giant dragon.
But Nozomu's spirit is
safe. It is just sleeping. She breathed a sigh of relief at this fact.
However, the warmth of
the chains on her back made her feel lonely.
She couldn't touch him
even though he was near. He won't look at her, and he can't hear her voice.
At the same time, an
irresistible desire welled up. Even if he doesn't answer her, she wants to stay
here forever. ...... She can't get his smile out of her head.
"Ah......."
At that moment, the
words of her best friend resurfaced in Shina's mind.
(Shina, if you
ever find someone you love, you'll understand. You want to be with that person
all the time, and you want to be needed by that person.)
Ah, I see. Does Mimuru
and Tom always have this kind of feeling? And is this how Tima-san always feels
when she looks at Mars-kun?
It was the first time
Shina became aware of her love for him. It was the moment she realized the
small flame flaring in the depths of her heart.
At the same time, that
small fire burned even more in Shina's heart.
A reply that never
came. The frustration of not being able to touch his heart even though he was
close by.
"What are you
doing? Hurry up and wake up......"
In the magical path
where silence reigned, the weak muttering voice eventually turned into sobs.
†
A silent space filled
with humidity. A young man was lying on a platform in a dark, dimly lit room
lit only by candlelight. It was Ken, who had been swallowed by the raging
waters of the previous incident and had gone missing.
His face was pale and
he looked like a corpse. However, his chest, which was rising and falling
slightly, showed that he was still barely breathing. A shadow looked down at
him.
"I was able to
retrieve him, but it was surprising. I never thought he would be still
alive...... I see, he wasn't anything special, but he was fortunate to have
been under contract with a spirit for so many years."
The shadow was
supposed to have already lost interest in Ken. But then, in the depths of its
glassy, inorganic eyes, lit up with interest at the slight possibility that Ken
had shown.
"If that is the
case, I think it is fair to say that he has a certain level of ability."
After saying so, the
shadow pulled out a box from his pocket and placed it on the table.
It was a black, hard,
seamless, square box.
A special item
prepared to seal the core of a demonic beast, which blocks not only magic power
and Qi, but also the source elements.
The shadow gently
traced the top surface of the box, where the boundary between the upper lid and
the lower box was not discernible, with a finger lit with magic power. At
first, he moved his finger slowly in a circular motion, then swiftly moved it
in a second time. Then, a letter resembling a [ト] appeared, and the top surface opened like a blooming
flower to reveal a brilliantly colored stone.
A magic stone. A spoil
of war left behind by a powerful demonic beast. One of the few crystallizations
of pure magical power in this world.
But that is only a
superficial understanding. Very few people on this continent know the true
nature of this stone.
The shadow picked up
the stone, which radiated an extremely colorful radiance.
*Zu-zu-zu*, the
fingers that touched the magic stone were eroded by the poisonous rainbow
light.
The shadow pressed the
stone against Ken's chest and smiled with satisfaction at the sight of the
stone as it greedily consumed the Qi, magic, flesh, and soul of the dying Ken
in front of him.
The colorful stone
sunk into Ken's cold body. The stone ate through his skin and ribs, and when it
was halfway into his body, Ken, who had been in a comatose state, opened his
eyes.
"A,
......argh!?"
His eyes were bloodshot,
his mouth was foaming, and he started convulsing violently.
However, despite Ken's
resistance to the foreign object entering his body, the stone was able to
burrow deeper and deeper into his flesh. Like a parasite devouring the flesh of
its host.
Eventually, when the
stone completely entered his body, the convulsions suddenly stopped.
Flesh swelled up from
the wound, sealing the hole in his chest.
"Now go. The one
who betrayed you is still wandering in this underground labyrinth, unable to
escape. Devour it and become the new you."
The shadow turned on
his heel and left the room without a sound.
As the door slammed
shut behind him, Ken's body, which had been lying on the table, jerked up.
His eyes, like those
of a beast, were dyed a deep crimson.
†
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