I Am the Weakest of the Four Heavenly Kings but the Demons Are Obsessed With Me

20 – A Night Aglow with Stars

Once again today, I failed to apologize to the professor.

Hugging Brown in my dormitory bed and pouring out my complaints was all I could manage.

“Brown… I’m such a fool…”

Whether the timing wasn’t right, or I was worried about bothering the professor and couldn’t steal his time.

Despite the numerous excuses I could make, in the end, I lacked the resolution. I felt unworthy of the Primrose name that I had inherited from my father.

Primrose is the most courageous flower. It blooms first in spring, teaching the other flowers that spring has arrived.

Hesitating to do even what one must was utterly unlike the primrose.

“…Maybe I should just swing a sword around.”

When one’s mind is cluttered, it’s best to move the body. With plenty of time left until the evening roll call, the training grounds should still be open.

She set down her book, Brown, and changed into more comfortable clothing.

Stepping out of the dormitory, she was greeted by the still-chilly wind brushing against her skin. Taking in the cool air seemed to ease the tightness in her chest a bit.

As she was about to head towards the training grounds.

“…Professor Plum?”

“Ah, Miss Rose. Good evening.”

She had unexpectedly run into Professor Plum.

Taken by surprise at such an unfortunate time, her mind went blank. What should she do?

No, what was there to do, really?

She needed to apologize immediately.

“Are you heading to the training hall?”

“…Well, the thing is, Professor Plum.”

“What’s the matter?”

“I’m sorry!”

“Hmm?”

“I was terribly rude on the first day! I assure you it will not happen again!”

At last, she apologized.

Had her message come across properly? Would he think it was just an apology for show?

Still, having spoken her mind, she did feel a slight relief. The tangled worries in her head seemed to unravel like thread.

Now, all that was left was to wait for Professor Plum’s response.

Waiting nervously for his reply.

“Pffhah – .”

Professor Plum’s reaction was nothing like what she’d expected.

As she stared blankly at him, erupting with laughter, he cleared his throat loudly before composing his face and smiling again.

It was the same gentle, kind smile as always.

“Pffft, ahem. Oh, I apologize. Seeing Miss Rose speak so formally… I couldn’t help but laugh.”

“Huh…?”

“You can be more comfortable with me. You shouldn’t worry about what happened on the first day.”

“Well, um, I’m sorry…”

“It’s really okay, Rosa. So, you don’t need to be so tense. I want to be friends with you.”

“Friends…?”

“Because you’re my precious student.”

His attitude was so kind and friendly it made me feel silly for my hesitations.

I couldn’t believe it and found myself questioning him.

“…Even though I said some harsh things, you’re not angry…is that it?”

“Harsh things?”

“That, well… about being a cursed tribe, a demon race….”

“Ah, yes. Hmm, I’m used to hearing such things. I stopped caring about them a long time ago.”

“….”

“However, if you’re regretting speaking so rashly, I’d appreciate you being more cautious in the future.”

“Of course I will─”

“Not only when dealing with me but also when dealing with others. There are many people in this world who are discriminated against.”

“…Yes, I’ll remember that.”

“hehehe, you don’t have to answer so formally.”

Every time I’m in front of this professor, I can’t help but feel tense.

It wasn’t just because of my own grating words. Rather, it was the faint magical energy emanating from him that gave me chills. I had to repress an instinctive hostility engraved in my soul.

This person is not a bad person. He’s kind and good, my mentor, my father’s friend, and the one who forgave my mistakes.

Despite knowing this.

I was afraid that if I relaxed, I would inadvertently spit out harsh words again and then regret it.

All I could manage were stiff and predictable responses.

“By the way, Rosa, weren’t you going to go to the training hall?”

Fortunately, Plume didn’t appear to care very much about my attitude.

He might not have been aware that my guilt had been making me dither.

Or maybe he really wasn’t bothered, as his soothing voice made everything seem tranquil.

“…I was feeling confused and thought I could swing my sword a bit.”

“You thought you could?”

“It’s been resolved just now.”

“Ah, you were concerned about what I said to you.”

“…Yes.”

“Miss Rosa, you are kind.”

“Me…?”

“Not many people know how to apologize for their own mistakes properly.”

I’m not sure.

If I were truly a good person, I would not have created a situation to apologize for in the first place. I wouldn’t have dismissed someone based on prejudice or discriminated against them by race.

I’m just impulsive, that’s all.

“Miss Rosa.”

“Yes, Professor Plum.”

“If you’re all right with not going to the training hall, could we have a little chat?”

“A chat?”

It was a proposition I did not fully understand.

But it wasn’t something to particularly refuse, nor was it a strange request.

Hesitant for a moment, I nodded.

The sun was setting.

*

In the realms they lump together and call art—literature, art, music—stars were symbols of the soul. The flame of the soul was like the flame of a star, and the gleaming light of inspiration was like the light of Polaris guiding wanderers.

There were as many beautiful souls as there were stars, and noble values shone like stars.

This was common sense in the arts.

And in the 21st century, South Korea was a place where such common sense didn’t quite apply.

“Even though there’s still a bit of twilight left… you can see the stars. It’s a bit amazing every time I see such a scene. My hometown is a place where you can hardly see any stars.”

“Are you talking about… the demon world?”

“Maybe. It’s too long ago. I don’t remember well.”

There aren’t as many stars as there are stars. Only Polaris and a few zero-magnitude stars can assert their presence faintly through the light pollution of the forest of buildings.

If stars were just twinkling rocks or the product of nuclear fusion.

Then, much like our souls, the stars could only be eternal when they shone in the night sky.

The constellations called zodiacs, the Milky Way said to flow like a river, they couldn’t survive in the pollution of the city, they were just buried in the darkness. The quiet and holy darkness, buried in the night.

The night sky in my memory was nothing exceptional. A glance upward had never been beautiful enough to seize my mind utterly.

“Every time I saw a sky without stars, I truly wondered. Why is the nocturne so romantic and sweet? Why are poems written on stars so lyrical? The attempts to depict stars, why do they captivate the human soul so…? What exactly did these artists see in that night sky? No matter how much I imagined and pondered, I couldn’t understand.”

“Professor Plum, you… are more sentimental than I expected…?”

“Ha-ha, do you think so? I used to write in the past.”

That’s why I could never understand the night of the ancients.

I couldn’t comprehend the nocturnes, the nights of counting stars, the starry nights, and the twinkling little stars.

Even if I were to travel to some remote countryside, set up a tent, and look up at the night sky seemingly pouring down with stars.

The stars weren’t just the appearance of the night sky; they could only be called the unearthed appearance of the night sky in the country. To lift my head and see the twinkling flames of the soul still shining there was something I dared not empathize with nor express.

The starry sky was neither eternal nor immutable.

It existed in the memories of my childhood, within the fragrant countryside unfamiliar to me, as stars in textbooks millions of light-years away, as mere beautiful symbols in works of art.

That’s what stars were. That was what the night sky was.

The starry firmament was just that unfamiliar to me.

“I faced quite a lot of discrimination from a young age because I was considered only half-human, half-horse. Oh, and I’m not bringing this up to blame you, Miss Rosa.”

“…I’m sorry.”

“Really, there’s no need to apologize. It’s all in the past.”

“…”

“Uh, when I was younger, I suffered a lot because of that discrimination. There were days I thought death might be better… Still, on the day I was beaten as usual and thrown outside the stable, shivering in the cold, when I thought maybe I could just die then and there…”

“…”

“The night sky was truly beautiful. So beautiful that for a moment, it made me forget the bone-chilling cold and the painful stinging of my flesh.”

That night was not the first time I had seen the night sky in this world.

Nor was it the first time I had marveled at the stars that filled the night sky.

That night must have been just an ordinary one, like any other. Discriminated against as usual, shivering as usual, struggling and living just as always…

It just happened to be one of those ordinary days when I suddenly lost strength in my body and blankly looked up at the night sky.

And, while gazing at that ordinary yet beautiful night sky.

“Strangely enough, when I reached out towards the night sky, the magical energy and mana flowing through my body began to move.”

Only then did I truly feel that I was living a new life.

It was not the sensation of life after a miserable death, but rather the feeling of life after a new birth that I could feel.

“That night, for the first time, I used magic. I didn’t know anything about magical theory or structure, but I was able to freely conjure that one spell. Looking back, it seems it was incredibly dangerous… Well, I didn’t know that at the time.”

Just like the first time I used magic.

I reached out toward the night sky.

I moved both mana and magic at the same time, recreating the single spell I had used before.

Perhaps the world’s most pointless magic, usable only by the half-kin race, unrivaled by any other in this world.

A magic so inexplicable that even I, the user, can’t fathom how it’s possible.

A ridiculously inefficent spell which siphons most of the magic and mana left within me.

I recited the chant needed to complete this magic.

“Stars are truly stunning, aren’t they?”

In my hand that had reached out to the night sky,

a lump of star candy was grasped.

With the thought that it was indeed an inexplicable spell, I handed Rosa a piece of star candy.

As soon as I put the star candy in my mouth, Rosa furtively followed suit.

She murmured something similar to a sigh.

“They were so plentiful…”

“I got smacked when I was caught stealing these.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Well, being a child of the poor district is just like that, isn’t it?”

As I responded with a mischievous smile, Rosa gave me a bewildered stare and then…

She burst out laughing.

It was a star-lit night.