chapter 18
18 – Falling Death (1)
People are so stupid. How long the painful journey had passed, when even the fresh air of the forest felt like choking. I’m in the city for a few days, so I miss the clearness again.
You might say that some idiot would miss that sh*t in the woods, but I’m that idiot, so don’t argue.
I am currently located in Solusio, the city where the 13th division branch of the Tsushima Special Police is located. I was sitting in a quiet cafe in that city that Innis had recommended I go to often, staring blankly at the window.
Solusio is called the city of solitude. Just like its name, the shadows in dull suits across the street form a group, but they are spaced a little apart. And when they crossed the road, they spread like ghosts. The group seen on this street refers to other people whose paths coincidentally overlap. A city that does not approach other individuals because it respects the individual.
People in this place resemble grains of sand. At first glance, they are united, but when you look at them again, they are all separate grains. And images that are just as dry.
This city was made up of the smell of smoke that flowed from burning mana and the solidarity between people that was whiter than that smoke.
But the population is so large that a dizzying crowd stops across the street every minute.
“I want to cut the city’s population in half…”
“Iva, you know you’re officially a monster, right? Please refrain from saying things like that… Huh?”
“Oh, are you here?”
I heard a voice talking to me, so I glanced to the side. There, Innis was approaching my table holding hands with Lilia. Innis smiled today as well and waved his hand at me. As the wind blew through the window and touched her blonde hair, Innis seemed to show off her eye-catching beauty even in this city of individualism.
When Innis’s eyes met mine, she let go of Lilia’s hand. She mischievously wrapped her hand, which she had shaken just before, and ran towards me.
“How are you?!!!”
Then he hugged me and frantically stroked my hair, which was snugly in his arms. It was very annoying and suffocating, but I let it go because I liked it so much. No matter what Innis does to me, money won’t come out, and no one will die. How nice it would be if someone could be happy by enduring the annoyance. Let’s go utilitarian.
“Then it was fine.”
My hair got messy and even my voice was shaken by the vibration. I answered very calmly. You have to answer calmly. If you don’t show any reaction like this, you will soon get tired of it and get away from me.
I like the warmth of people. I also like the soft curves unique to women and the subtle scent of perfume. But if you go through that a few times – and even if you know that the other person is a lesbian – it’s not that happy. Rather, it feels burdensome.
After escaping from the forest, Innis cares for me like another little brother.
It’s already been three weeks since we killed the demon and escaped the forest, and I still can’t forget the look on their faces when they saw me.
Lilia was startled as if she had seen her ghost,
Inis stayed dazed for a while, then ran over and hugged me like a puppy meeting its owner. I remember very vividly that the inertia was so strong that it almost knocked me over.
The sobs of joy, the tears they shed, were buried in my heart, and the voice stammered around my ears like glass marbles bouncing on the floor.
It was that voice that was remembered more than all the body heat that was there, the weight of the tears, the touch of the clothes or the ground on bare skin.
‘I’m glad… I’m glad…’
Her voice was crying sadly, as if she was trying to cool the burning ground with her own tears.
It still hangs in my ears.
That’s why I won’t take care of Innis’ favor. How could he get rid of the person who cried so much for me.
She promised to protect me like a cop, but how miserable she must have been for joining the plan to sacrifice me in the end.
That’s why I, who proposed the plan, was a nuisance, but I couldn’t get rid of Innis.
Of course, the fact that being hugged by a pretty girl isn’t so bad also played a role.
“Iva, let Innis go now.”
“You’re still blind, Lilia. Can’t you see who to let go now?”
Lillia seems to have adapted now, and her jealous gaze has faded. She, Lilia, smiled lightly as well, and she was looking at us. At a joke that was a little bit incomprehensible, Innis pulled me out of his arms and sat down next to Lillia, across from me.
Time is such a scary thing. Sometimes emotions are strongly condensed, and sometimes they are lightly diluted.
It must have been the former for Innis, and the latter for Lilia.
Innis’ love for me deepened, and Lilia’s love for Innis must have been diluted.
I completely distorted the original.
As someone who has read the Lily novel, I know very well how terrible this situation is now that a man has entered the lily couple and the relationship has been twisted.
Even if I lose my temper and go wild, I will be less treated as a villain by readers than I am now.
What can I do? If I mess with you, I’ll blame the guy who threw me away.
Well, even if the butterfly effect is caused by this and the world collapses, isn’t it my fault? I just did my best to fulfill my responsibilities as a human being in order to live on my own.
Anyway, I am proud.
I didn’t go crazy and twist the ends of the main characters, but at least I twisted the development of the original story.
What.
Anyway, the power of time is great, and the change brought about by one human action is enormous.
Three weeks after escaping in the woods, we have done several things.
I looked at Innis, who was sitting across from me. Then she laughed and cried out.
“Hey hey ba~! Congrats! This damn cleanup is finally over, isn’t it?”
“Did you do that in 3 weeks?”
Sometimes I thought about it, but Innis is also quite talkative.
Well, since I was killing all sorts of terrible monsters from a young age, being quiet is more amazing. Even the seniors are all individualists, so there is nothing to help them.
Anyway, during these three weeks, Innis reported what happened in the foggy forest, investigated and reported on the damage that had occurred, helped restore the destroyed forest, and was cut, cut, and cut… Anyway, he was very busy. .
Innis was really crazy about this base ship, skipping most of her subjugation procedures and going out to subdue the devil worshipers. In the midst of such a major accident, she finally caught the body of the devil. Things got a lot more complicated. There had to be a punishment and a reward for killing the devil at the same time. He even used [Sunset] Twice to decimate the territory of the forest as a policeman…
It will be very difficult in many ways.
Innis, who manages to get rid of so much clean-up within three weeks, is rather amazing.
“Now I can get some rest~!”
Innis stretched her body and relieved her accumulated fatigue a little.
Lilia looked at Innis happily, then she glanced at me.
“What.”
“Whoops.”
The colorful eyes were bent like crescent moons. I had a foreboding feeling about that eye smile, so I frowned.
“What is it really?”
“Unlike Innis, we’ll be busy from now on.”
“Us?”
Lilia pointed at herself and at me with her slender finger.
Ah, I thought of it because I was fingering it, but Lilia also faithfully received rehabilitation for the magic circuit for these three weeks.
Her condition was worse than I thought. While hiding her wounds, she got lost in the forest, so her treatment was delayed, and she used her magic more than usual, so it could be said that it was natural.
Somehow, I thought I didn’t use my own magic, but it wasn’t that I didn’t use it, it was that I couldn’t use it.
She said that she finished her rehabilitation yesterday, so now Lilia will no longer fall helplessly behind.
Lillia continued her words as if she were humming, waving her fingers gracefully.
“You and I. We’ve asked for something before.”
At those words, I put on a sinister eye smile, just like Lillia did. She couldn’t help it. It was spontaneous. It’s because I feel longing for this kind of eye smile through my spinal cord reflex.
With that eye smile, I took a quick glance at the coffee on the table and a line in the newspaper next to it.
An article I had been reading until now passed by in my eyes.
[Last year, in a survey of less than 10 challengers in the Sage’s Trial… The Witch of the Lake “Because the young people lack courage”]
The Trial of the Sage.
The 5 trials that give you the key to meet the sage.
The ordeal is different for each individual, and the location of each ordeal is also randomly placed. Even the contents of the ordeal can be known only when you arrive at the place.
Thus, in order to complete all of the trials of the sage, you must travel around the world to check the places of the trials, check the contents, and overcome the trials.
As for the contents of the trials of the sage, it is judged that each ordeal has the difficulty level of inferno, judging from the cases recorded in the past up to now.
Literally a waste of life. Breaking a rock with an egg, not knowing how long it will take until the end is in sight.
It’s romantic because it seems impossible.
Because it is romantic, it takes courage.
It was a natural challenge for the witches of the past, but now it’s just a symbol of old-world foolishness.
The Trial of the Sage.
To challenge the sage’s ordeal…
“Witch Association. I’ve got permission to take you there.”
You must declare that you are challenging the ordeal from the top of the tower in the Witches’ Association.
“With the status and achievements accumulated so far, I have received all the abuse of power, so be grateful.”
“Oh, that’s gracious. I’m sure she’s the Archwitch of Lilia. Even her broken personality is charming. I’ll never forget this grace!”
“No. Just shut up.”
I was told to thank him for that, so he thanked me. Why the f*ck?
I sipped my now cooled coffee and glanced at the newspaper again.
Different language system from where I live. Letter.
Time is so great. Bring about several changes.
It was the same for me.
A newspaper gave me enough time to study.
Even I can buy twice as much time compared to others. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage.
I don’t sleep. You shouldn’t sleep. That’s why the night when people fall asleep and the owl wakes up, and the daytime when the cricket sleeps and Daisy wakes up is also my time.
It’s been about a month since I came here.
Maybe I couldn’t sleep.
A month had passed.
**
We moved to the Witches’ Association by carriage.
Even though it was called a carriage, it did not move to the land.
It is said that a certain country has succeeded in breeding Pegasus and has increased rapidly in recent years. What a dog
However, I don’t think it’s recommended for people with severe motion sickness because it rattles more than a normal land carriage. The last time I saw Innis, it seemed like he had severe motion sickness.
In the first place, most people who can use magic will fly around on broomsticks or carpets, so it doesn’t really matter.
By the way, Innis still had things to do, and she couldn’t come here because only I had permission to enter the Witches’ Association. There are still a few traces of her crying that she left on my shirt this morning.
She’s already been missing for hours since she thought being so clueless as a person was a burden to her.
“I want to see Innis…”
Lilia muttered lightly to see if I wasn’t the only one who thought so.
“It’s going to be finished in one day anyway, or in three days, right? Hold on.”
“It’s because you don’t know. The people of the Witch’s Association are a bunch of old people… Do you know how sad it is that there’s no one to heal me among those frustrating b*tches?”
“Can I heal you?”
“It sounds like you’re f*cking.”
We killed the freedom of movement by exchanging cheesy jokes.
“…But I’m not kidding. How frustrating the Witches’ Association is.”
“There are only those who have dedicated their lives to research and those who will. There’s nothing you can do about it.”
“It’s not like that.”
Lilia resolutely denied it.
“Magic isn’t just a study. A witch isn’t just a scholar either.”
The Witches’ Association is not an innocent society, an ignorant people who simply dedicate their lives to studying.
Of course I know because I read the original. But she was shutting up because pretending to know wouldn’t do any good.
Magic is both a science and an illusion. Fantastic and ideal at the same time.
Could there be a normal person among those who pursue a fantastic ideal?
“Welcome to a place where high blood pressure is an epidemic. Iva.”
As the Sky Chariot lowered us to the ground, Lilia gracefully bowed her back and said:
I laughed out loud.
Crazy b*tch.
“Guide me quickly.”
So I got off the wagon.
Witch Association. The city floating in the sky of another horse, ‘Kyle Devoutier’.
The most human-like city where ideals and obscenities are united, condensing the essence of magic technology.
I’m excited to be in a fantastic place that I haven’t been to in my previous life. I reached out cautiously, like a man leaving his first footprints on the moon.
Now then.
-Piririririri!!
A loud alarm sounded as if it would tear your ears apart.
What the f*ck.
“Lilia. The customs of welcoming here are quite peculiar. How closed-minded these bastards must have been to welcoming.”
“…Huh? Hey, why does this work?”
“Yes, from your reaction now, I know that this is not a welcome custom. So, what is this alarm sound?”
Lilia didn’t even think of turning her stiff head to me, and was silently immersed in contemplation.
“Did I mention it earlier? This place is completely blocked.”
“Yes.”
“That’s why I’m very sensitive to outside intrusion. That’s why I had a hard time getting permission from you.”
“So you finally got permission.”
“Yeah, but… But yah, did you know that the witches’ association has detection and alarm systems all over the city in case the barriers and rules fail to stop the foreign enemy?”
The alarm sound still hit my ears, and Lilia’s voice was distinctly small in contrast. Subtle eyes. Clouds close enough. A comfortable temperature set artificially. When everything feels strange and disjointed, like a landscape in a dream, and it’s unpleasant.
“And there is only one foreign enemy that is preparing for that.”
Like bullets in a battlefield, countless brooms cover this sky. Lilia’s words were over.
“The devil.”
The alarm sounded like crazy, and the reason the magicians on broomsticks embroidered the sky was revealed.
I am the devil.
It seems that my identity has increased by one without my knowledge.
In this way, I am not a s*xual minority, but an identity minority. f*ck.