Ryuu Kusari no Ori -Kokoro no Uchi no 'Kokoro'-

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.

"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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