Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 3 Chapter 3

Status: Incomplete

3/5 parts completed

   

Chapter 3 – The Silver Girl and the Plan of Darkness

Part 1

A scene of two people in a sharp fall. However Kazuki didn’t regret it at all.

…If he didn’t do this, Koyuki who currently couldn’t use magic power would simply die for sure.

But as long as the defensive magic power worked, a pure physical impact wouldn’t even be a problem. The impact of the landing would be eradicated in its entirety due to the magic power’s reality distortion.

That was why setting aside his own safety, he embraced Koyuki strongly.

He had to turn himself to be the one that was pinned in the bottom side of this free fall without fail.

And then after they continued to fall for several seconds―Kazuki and Koyuki crashed to the bottom of the hole.

A large blue magic power shined. But the lack of pain that he felt was a normal matter.

The defensive magic power was unperturbed against a mere physical impact that didn’t contain magic power. This was the reason that made the scientific weapons of this era powerless without a doubt.

“Hiakari-san, are you okay?”

Kazuki had embraced Koyuki so tightly until he couldn’t feel his own arms.

“H, here is…?”

Koyuki leaked out a frail voice inside Kazuki’s arms.

“I’ll say it from the start, but this is not the heaven.”

Koyuki’s awareness had flew away from the impact, she was blinking her eyes in wonder.

“Hell…?”

“Hiakari-san is not the kind of person who will fall into hell.”

Koyuki’s pupils were regaining their focus gradually, she was staring fixedly at Kazuki. And then perhaps from finally feeling that her life had been saved for real, she gripped Kazuki’s clothes in his chest tightly.

“…Was Kazuki the one who saved me…?”

While confirming nervously with upward glance, a heart mark flew from her chest.

Kazuki continued to embraced Koyuki tightly just like that. They fell into silence together with their body laying against each other.

“U, uhmm, I’m fine already so can you release me?”

“I also want to do so, but…because I hugged you too tightly from before, my arms are numb and cannot be moved.”

Though of course he didn’t use Enchant Aura, so he didn’t embraced her so strongly that her delicate body would be crushed. But because he felt a strong nervousness in their fall, his muscles were stiffened too much.

“Eh? …Eeeeehh!?”

Koyuki’s face turned bright red while being embraced tightly against his chest like a doll as it was.

“P, please loosen your tension quickly, this makes me troubled!”

“That’s, when I think that I am hugging Hiakari-san so tightly, it makes my heart beat too much, perhaps I should say my body totally cannot calm down, how troubling.”

“Stupid! Being excited by something like me, what kind of lies are you saying!”

“It’s not a lie, Hiakari-san is cute, so no matter what kind of man it is, so when embracing Hiakari-san because of an act of god like this, of course he would get excited without fail.”

“What kind of stupid thing are you saying with a serious face like that!? Anyway, can you just slacken your arm loose!?”

Koyuki said with a troubled face, so Kazuki felt a little mischievous.

“If Hiakari-san chanted a spell like [Throb throb fly away~, chichin pui-pui nya nya nya nya~n☆] while patting my head gently, I think the strength could be drained from my entire body.”

“Wh, what, that spell sounds so stupid…”

It was the influence of a certain idiot little sister. Because he always set out together with Kanae and messed around.

“Because it sounds so stupid that it could drain the entire strength from the body! Now, hurry!”

Kazuki said strongly making Koyuki’s gaze wandering around in fluster.

“E, errr I’m sorry, how did you say it again?”

“[Throb throb fly away~, chichin pui-pui nya nya nya nya~n☆] while Hiakari-san also patting my head gently.”

“Thr, Throb throb fly away~, chichin pui-pui nya nya nya nya~n…”

Her small hand were going pat pat on Kazuki’s head with utmost effort, and Koyuki chanted the spell with blushing red face.

“Uwa―, how calming―”

Kazuki said in monotone while unfastening his hands.

The truth was that his nervousness had already slacked down from a while ago.

While Koyuki raised her body slowly, she watched Kazuki resentfully with some heat still left behind in her cheek.

“…Recently, you have no hesitation any more about toying around with me aren’t you? For that reason you are telling lies without even batting an eyelid. Are you misunderstanding me as a certain fumbling character?”

“I want to see Hiakari-san’s various faces even against my better judgment.”

“It’s fine for my face to stay just like this. I don’t want to expose any kind of strange face.”

Koyuki turned her face to the side with a ‘puih’. But an angry face like that was also very cute.

“Hiakari-san, there are dirt on you.”

When Kazuki wiped the dust on her white cheek softly, Koyuki’s face turned red again and she looked down.

“…Well then, rather than that kind of thing, this situation is more important. Hiakari-san, by some chance, are you unable to use magic now?”

After joking around a little, they returned to the reality once again.

Koyuki’s expression clouded gloomily.

“…Yes. Somehow I cannot knead strong magic power very well right now. I can barely perform the Access, but standard magic and chanting Summoning Magic are…”

When he watched her carefully, her Magic Dress was also different than the usual.

Originally the Diva’s contractor was decorated with appropriate majestic appearance, but her appearance now was lacking in one part, it only looked like a mere white school swimsuit.

Even that minimum part that was covering her body, at times it was wavering like a disordered mirage.

“Since when you were like this?”

“I think it was from when I woke up from the magic intoxication.”

When he thought about it, as expected, perhaps the origin was from that time. Magic intoxication induced a change in the state of the heart. After collapsing for two days from magic intoxication, it was not strange that there was some kind of after-effect that was still left behind.

Everything would be fine if this was only temporary like someone who was just half awake, but….

“Even when I cleaned my body, I couldn’t use magic skillfully, at that time I noticed the abnormality, but….”

“If you noticed it, why were you accompanying us until here then?”

Kazuki didn’t intend to criticize her, but Koyuki’s shoulder jolted in shock, her gaze turned astray like she was trying to find an escape.

―There was no way to escape.

She recognized her own careless action, and that she couldn’t avoid to face Kazuki.

“…I cannot, I who is an elf couldn’t, couldn’t come to believe that I cannot use magic. I whose only worth was just my magic…to not be able to use magic and become useless in battle, that….”

Koyuki who talked by straining her voice continued with “I’m sorry.”

Kazuki thought that he could understand that feeling as well. He also relied on his pride of his own kenjutsu. If he lost it out of nowhere, there was no doubt that he would want to run from reality with [I don’t want to believe it]. Then if such an escape became a source of trouble for someone else, for certain he would receive a shock that he could never recover from.

That was why he mustn’t condemn Koyuki. I must protect her till the end!

“It’s okay Hiakari-san. If this is because of magic intoxication’s influence, then surely this is just temporary. A person’s heart is formless after all, it’s not like the flesh body that cannot be healed once it got hurt and wrecked. It only depends on one’s frame of mind, after a little bit of some kind of impetus, it should return back to usual for sure.”

“…You are not angry?”

Koyuki watched Kazuki intently with eyes that looked a bit scared.

“No such thing, I’m not angry. Just thinking that Hiakari-san want to help me, just that feeling of yours is enough to make me extremely happy.”

Her sad appearance because of being in the way of others was the proof that she cared about Kazuki. Even more than something like the number of positivity level, such nonchalant act and appearance made him far happier.

“…Although, we must find some way to escape from here safely somehow.”

Kazuki said while looking around.

They were in the bottom of the trap hole. But the space where they were at was not a closed room, the walls and floor that were made from concrete were organized forming the whole level, a road was continuing ahead in their path.

Even the electric lamp was turned on properly.

When they looked over their head, there was one hole that was opened up in the ceiling from where they fell. If they could ascend through this hole, it looks like they would be able to return to the former level.

The exit and entrance to the surface ground was only located at the upper level, that’s why first they thought about going through this hole rather than advancing forward through the path.

“Couldn’t Kazuki use Blazing Wings to fly through this hole?”

“The hole is too narrow. If there is no space to even flap the wings, we won’t be able to use wings to fly.”

Even for the firebird Phoenix, if he couldn’t flap his wings then he wouldn’t be able to do anything.

Kazuki didn’t only have Mio’s magic, he could also use Lotte’s magic up to level 5.

There was still no chance to use it until now, but Lotte’s level 5 magic made it possible to fly to the sky. But that magic equipped the user with a large armament, so it wouldn’t be able to slip through the width of this hole.

The hole became narrower the deeper it went, it was easy to fall and hard to climb. They could feel the wickedness of this clever disposition from the person who prepared this trap.

It seems it was impossible to escape through this hole with the current magic Kazuki had in hand.

“…If only I can use magic,”

Koyuki whispered in a subdued tone.

“If I summon a tsunami here and manipulate it…no, the amount of the water might not be enough for this depth…”

Filling this space with ocean water and swimming inside it to rise to the surface, was that what she meant?

“What if I use the same magic and the amount of the water is doubled?”

“Now that you mention it, the ability of Kazuki’s Diva is copy magic right? However it looks like you are unable to copy my magic. Is there a condition to that ability?”

It was not exactly copying actually, but he explained it to Koyuki like that before this.

“The condition so I can copy magic is to raise the positivity level of the girl.”

“…Ha? You are lying again, are you planning to toy around with my reaction?”

“No, this is the truth. That’s why I can use Mio’s magic the most, and the next is Lotte, Kaguya-senpai’s magic can also be used a little.”

Kazuki was the strongest at using Mio’s magic in the first place was because Mio’s positivity level was plainly the highest. Koyuki was flustered at feeling the persuasiveness of that fact.

“Is, is that really true? That kind of stupid ability…”

“It’s the truth for real. What do you mean by stupid, it’s not stupid.”

At Kazuki’s side, the one who bestowed the aforementioned stupid ability, Leme appeared and talked.

“You have heard the story between Leme and Futsunushi no Kami, don’t you? The story that you haven’t been told is something quite hard to swallow but, Leme is the King of Solomon 72 Pillar. In the same way Leme is accompanied by 72 Pillar, if Kazuki also makes the contractor of the 72 Pillar accompany him then he would be able to use that ability skillfully.”

“Accompanied…by that you mean positivity level?”

“That’s right, if the King couldn’t get the hold of human’s hearts in his hand, then he wouldn’t be able to use that authority.”

Koyuki comprehended the explanation with a complicated expression. Kazuki asked Koyuki once again.

“…If we could climb the hole, could Vepar’s magic smash the ceiling? That ceiling was not made from adamantite, but only made from concrete after all.”

While in the middle of falling down, Kazuki had confirmed that the trap hole had been blocked once more.

Not only climbing up the hole, but they also had to smash the ceiling apart to escape.

However Mio and Lotte’s magic were not suited for physical destruction.

If they tried to melt the ceiling with magic flame, the large amount of the melted concrete from the heat of the magic power wouldn’t have any place to escape and it would pour down on themselves, washing them away again until the bottom of the hole.

“If we could climb the hole, we could pulverize something like concrete with Ice Buster.”

“Using ice to destroy concrete, could it be done? It feels somehow absurd trying to imagine it though.”

“Concrete’s hardness diverged depending on the material used, but it’s around 4 until 5. This unit to measure hardness is called Mohs’ hardness. The hardness of ice at 0 °C is around 1.5, but the more the temperature is lowered, the hardness will increase along with its transparency, at minus 100 °C, the hardness will become more than six times.”

“...Ice is really awesome.”

“O Our King, this kind of knowledge that will be useful in battle should be learned more habitually you know.”

Thereupon, it means things like this.

“If Hiakari-san’s power of magic returned, on top of that if I raise Hiakari-san’s positivity level, then we will be able tor return to the former level!”

“...A, are you serious? Raising positivity level in this kind of dungeon?”

Until now he had to raise positivity level in order to defeat a strong enemy.

However this time, he had to raise positivity level in order to escape from this closed space!

“Raising positivity level in this kind of situation , moreover while both of us are being aware of each other, even for me, I don’t really know what is a good way to do that, but…well, for the time being let’s just follow down this path.”

But I’m also worried about Mio and Lotte…

Though it was a silver lining in the dark cloud that those two could make a compatible combination with Lotte as the vanguard and Mio as the rearguard.

{Kazuki, I don’t want Hiakari Koyuki to know about this so I’m telling you through telepathy, but if it’s some way to confirm the safety of Amasaki Mio and the others then you have it.}

…Really?

{The first is obvious, but you could check it from the positivity level. The appearance of their name and number are proof that the link between your minds are still preserved.}

Kazuki charged his ring with magic power and it displayed the positivity levels.

Amasaki Mio―134 Lotte―110 Hiakari Koyuki―59

I see, when Leme said it, it’s really obvious. A death person’s positivity level wouldn’t be displayed.

{Next there is one more…because you also had conquered Lotte, Leme had grew considerably, Leme had recovered one more of her power.}

…Which reminds him, before Leme said that [My ability is by no means only this much]. Does she meant that one part of her power had been liberated?

{Kazuki, charged the Solomon Ring with magic power while thinking about Mio and Lotte strongly, try to grasp their hearts and see.}

Just as he was told, Kazuki held the ring with his hand and pray silently about perceiving Mio and Lotte.

Thereupon…he felt a sensation like his heart was connected with Mio and Lotte’s heart by a line.

About how long the line was and which direction it was going to, he could perceive that line spatially.

A new vision floated up in front of Kazuki’s eyes. This time it was not a graph of the positivity level.

{If until now it was a positivity level of galge, this time it is an action selection map stage. When you see this map, you will understand in a glance who you could meet at where you are going to, see?}

The vision that was floating in front of Kazuki’s eyes was a three dimensional map.

Three lights were blinking on top of that three dimensional coordinates. One is himself. Then on the fairly above direction was two lights that were in moving. There was no doubt that these were Mio and Lotte.

It was not a map of the path of these underground passages. Rather than a map, there were three lights floating inside a cube where he could make a distinction of their position and distance, something like a radar.

{By the way, this light will only appear when the other party are latently wishing for Kazuki. For example if Amasaki Mio enter a toilet, her state of mind will latently work that she doesn’t want Kazuki to perceive her whereabouts, the link of magic power will be cut off and you will become unable to know where she is. Solomon 72 Pillar had even take into consideration the privacy of our contractor, aren’t we a really friendly Diva?}

After informing him until that point, Leme cut off the telepathy.

“…Kazuki, why did you suddenly became quiet?”

Koyuki asked dishearteningly towards Kazuki who had gone quiet for fairly long.

“No, it’s nothing. Leme was telling me various things inside my head. We will go back above for sure, so let’s advance to uncover the secret of this place!”

Kazuki stood in front of Koyuki, he advanced ahead while looking around with deep caution.

The current Koyuki who couldn’t use magic power was an extremely brittle existence. With only one hit of attack reaching her, she wouldn’t even fall into magic intoxication and might lost her life instantly.

The passage of this level was also long and narrow, it was the most suitable place to protect Koyuki while fighting.

“…Somehow it feels suffocating here.”

Damp moisture and moldy smell mixed in the air, the air conditioning was not working at all making the air hot and humid. Kazuki glanced back for a second.

“What is it?”

“No, Hiakari-san’s atmosphere is refreshing, so.”

Just by seeing the girl in a glance, his chest felt like it became less crowded. A cooling sight.

“…Kazuki, I have a request though.”

“What kind of request?”

“When we are in a time that is really emergency, please abandon me here. The me right now is just a baggage. Someone who cannot be useful in the battle has no value whatsoever to be protected.”

…Why is she proposing such self-torturing thing until that far?

“What kind of stupid thing are you saying? I’m not deciding a person’s worth only by how useful they are. Even though Hiakari-san cannot fight, but you are still very valuable. I will protect Hiakari-san’s life!”

Koyuki made a wondering face from Kazuki’s words.

“Please stop it. You are just thinking to raise my positivity level by saying that. Why can’t you focused on your own survival, stupid.”

On the contrary of those dishonest words, relief was mixing inside Koyuki’s tone of voice.

Perhaps she wanted to hear the words of [I will absolutely protect you], maybe that’s why she proposed this kind of thing. Surely she was feeling uneasy with the current situation, it couldn’t be helped.

“…Are you really, planning to raise my positivity level from now on?”

Again, Koyuki asked him with a nervous feeling.

“Regarding that, it’s also not good to put yourself on guard too much, let’s just do it naturally. Rather than that, what’s important is to protect Hiakari-san first.”

After keep walking for a while, the passage was divided into two.

Kazuki peeked out his face from the turning point and examined the situation in the left and right. At that moment, a black shadow leaped out from the corner of passage in an ambush.

Enemy attack!

Kazuki immediately took a back step while a beam of light streaked from the mouth of his sheath. The principle of Iai was originally a counter attack technique in an instant of time. Kazuki’s first and second slash carved up the black shadow roughly into pieces.

‘beshari’, with a wet sound, the thing that was cut by Kazuki fell on the floor.

“…What is this?”

Kazuki spontaneously groaned when he saw the dead body of the thing that attacked him.

The thing that was ceasing to function there was a grotesque organism that was hard to describe.

He couldn’t possibly believe that this kind of organism existed in the ecosystem of earth.

If he expressed it strongly, this organism was a lot of tentacles that were bundled together like a bouquet of flower. It resembled an octopus. The tentacles were attached with countless suction pad for the sake of capturing its prey. The root of this thing was a bloodshot eyeball, rough breaths were released painfully from its tusked lips.

It resembled an octopus, but it looks slimy in pink color, its size was around the size of one person. It was a disgusting organism that made him feel like he would lose his sanity just by looking at it.

The sliced organism was wriggling about for a while, and then it disappeared by turning into blue light of magic power.

It was a Demon Beast.

“…What kind of Mythology had that kind of Demon Beast, what a bad taste. Come out here the Diva that’s in charge.”

The things called Demon Beast were a lot in variety, they could discover the source of the Demon Beast among the numerous Mythology out there.

But he didn’t know about the existence of such eerie organism like this in the scope of the Mythology he had learned.

“Cthulhu Mythos…?”

Koyuki whispered in a low tone.

“Cthu…what?”

“Cthulhu Mythos…there is a Mythology that is called that. Monster that grow tentacles is a monster of this Mythology…Or perhaps I should say, it’s thought to be the feature of the evil god.”

“But I never heard about that kind of Mythology.”

“As far as my investigation go, there shouldn’t be any confirmation of the sighting of Demon Beast and Diva that is derived from Cthulhu Mythos until now.”

“…In short, this place is an extremely rare Haunted Ground?”

“…Strictly speaking, Cthulhu Mythos is an [original setting] that was created by an author named Lovecraft for the purpose of spinning a story. Lovecraft’s author comrades also shared this setting together and wrote their work using this setting, the world view of this work was developing rapidly, finally it turned into a large scale systematic world that was fitting to be called a Mythology. However in the end it was supposed to be nothing more than a setting for the purpose of literary creation. It’s rare, or, how should I put it…is this kind of thing even possible?”

“A story setting? That’s different from a Mythology, right? No, maybe Mythology too is something that look like a story.”

Kazuki didn’t understand how to measure the line between a story and Mythology.

In the first place, the concept of Mythology was still now well-understood. The relation of Demon Beast and Diva with Mythology still hadn’t came out of the realm of human’s own convenient hypothesis despite all the research that had been done.

In this world that had transformed into a place that overturned science, mankind was living while groping in the dark, being led around by the nose by grand beings of unknown nature.

While they were talking, ‘zururi’, ‘zururi’, they could hear disgusting sounds from both passages that were diverging to the left and right.

When they turned their head to the sounds, the eerie tentacle Demon Beasts were forming a group and crawling towards their way.

It was excessively disgusting with how the Demon Beasts crawled nearing them in strangely fast movement despite their size.

“Hiakari-san, fall back!”

While removing Koyuki to the back, Kazuki started to chant his spell.

Part 2

“I’m going to melt this concrete floor with Phoenix’s flame! Lotte, step back!!”

After Kazuki fell into the trap hole, Mio insisted in a great panic.

Toward Mio’s insistence, Lotte made an objection carefully.

“But, this concrete floor is quite thick. If this floor is melted and a hole is made, then a large amount of melted concrete will fall desu. Concrete that is melted with magic will be wrapped in the heat of magic power. If the end of this trap hole is a closed space then…”

“…If it’s Kazuki then he will do something or another using defensive magic. Though now that you said it, it certainly will be really scary for a large amount of concrete wrapped in magic power to come falling down.”

“It was only for just an instant, but the moment when Koyuki-oneesan fell into the trap hole, she was in the state that couldn’t use magic desu. I think there will be quite a risk if this floor is melted and fall.”

“Mu―. …Rather than taking an imprudent risk, we should going forward collecting information of this dungeon?”

“It’s really lonely that Kazuki-oniisan is not here desu, but let’s do that. I’ll be the vanguard desu.”

“…Thank you. I’ll also raise the speed of my chant with all my strength, I’ll protect you from behind.”

“Yes, let’s do our best!”

Lotte grasped Mio’s hand tightly. “Ehehe” she laughed.

“We are close friends aren't we desu?”

Lotte sensed Mio’s discouragement through telepathy. That’s why she behaved cheerfully to encourage Mio.

“Stop it already, it’s awkward. Let’s go right away!”

Although her mouth said that, Mio walked forward without releasing Lotte’s hand.

Without knowing what was lurking in their path, they faced toward the darkness of the labyrinth….

Part 3

Several numbers of tentacle Demon Beast was creeping near from the left and right paths.

The worst case was if they were attacked from both sides and he couldn’t protect Hiakari-san. With that thought, Kazuki returned back to the previous path, for a moment the Demon Beasts converged into one group.

“Hiakari-san, fall back just a little for now.”

It became a fight of one against many, but the disadvantage of number in this narrow passage was not that much of a concern.

Kazuki managed to drew away the Demon Beasts near enough, so he invoked his magic.

“Fire Wall!”

The foremost leading pack of the Demon Beasts that came rushing were swallowed in one go by the flame wall that burst forth from the ground. Blue light that was released when the Demon Beast vanished from this world was flickering in countless number inside the flame.

When the flame wall was extinguished, Kazuki carved up the following Demon Beast group that was still left.

However all the Demon Beasts were not looking at Kazuki, but at Koyuki.

They had completely seen through the opponent that couldn’t fight back instinctively.

One Demon Beast that Kazuki had let slip tried to make its way from his side.

Even in the worst case, he mustn’t allow an attack to Koyuki.

Kazuki threw his body in front of the Demon Beast and covered for Koyuki. The Demon Beast immediately captured Kazuki with its tentacles, then it opened its big mouth with tusks lining inside it against him that whose movement had been sealed. However, at that instant―.

“This hand reach out to the height of Babel, now this hand grasped the thunder of god! In accordance with my life, o lightning, whirl in my command! Collider Field!!”

He broke out a barrier of electricity barely in time. All the Demon Beasts around Kazuki was baked from the inside through the electric shock, their nerves were paralyzed.

Kazuki slipped out from the restraint of the tentacles and cut away all the paralyzed Demon Beasts at once.

The Demon Beasts still hadn’t stopped coming in waves to attack.

“Roar! Civilization grant humans destruction! The howl of wisdom scorch thy body, break, shut all dignity under the rubble!! Mitrailleuse!”

Kazuki used the gatling gun to stop the advance of the Demon Beasts, then,

“Fire Wall!”

The place where all the Demon Beasts had gathered was burned away in a flame wall once again.

“…So it’s really true that you can use other people’s magic skillfully. There is even a remarkable difference in chanting speed compared to the time when you had a duel with Amasaki-san…”

Koyuki’s eyes became wide open seeing Kazuki using Mio and Lotte’s magic so well.

“Fuu, anyway first the wave had been settled…”

“Are you okay, Kazuki? You got hit with an attack because of me just now.”

“The damage is not really significant see? Rather than that, which way should we go, left or right?”

“…Kazuki, the spirit here feel it, this way.”

“Eh? Spirit you say?”

<Spirit>. The existence with many puzzle, it was said that only elves with their altered magic power could sense their existence. They had no flesh body, the being of different dimension.

Kazuki couldn’t sense their existence. As expected, it seems elves had a different sensory organ that was different from a normal person. Though they became the target of discrimination as a consequence of that difference….

“Kazuki too is different from normal, that’s why I thought maybe you too could…as expected, you can’t sense them.”

Koyuki dropped her shoulder in loneliness. She felt a considerable disappointment.

“Sorry…spirit, what kind of existence is it?”

Spirit couldn’t be sensed except by elf, because those elves had received discriminatory treatment for a long time, research and investigation of spirit was not done at all.

Spirit was shrouded in a lot more mystery even compared to Diva and Demon Beast.

“Spirit’s existence could be sensed in the Haunted Ground, there are many cases like that, but it is different with Demon Beast in that it doesn’t bring harm to people. They nearly don’t have any influence in this world. They exist in Astrum, at times they come to talk with use, elves, using telepathy. They are just a whispering existence.”

The aspect where they were the resident of Astrum who didn’t have physical body in this world was the same with Diva. But in contrast with Diva who was an existence with large power and will and its own objective, spirit was a really small existence.

“Even though I was saying that they talked to me, the language that they uttered to me was not clear. What they transmitted to me was only vague feelings. If the strength of the telepathy is increased then I could sense more detail, they might explain something.”

“The spirits that is in this place right now, are they telling something to Hiakari-san?”

“Yes. I think they are giving us a warning that it’s better not to follow this path.”

Koyuki quietly pointed to the right path of the diverging route.

“But the thing that we are looking for is located ahead in this path, that’s what I think they are saying.”

“Then we cannot follow their warning after all. Looks like Spirit-san cannot guess too far, that we don’t have any place to go back to from here.”

“…That’s so. Though it makes the situation a little uneasy.”

Kazuki took Koyuki’s hand gently.

“Wh, what is it…?”

“No, because it is quite uneasy, I thought we can walk while holding hands.”

“Are you stupid? Intentionally blocking one of your own hand, what are you going to do if enemy come suddenly?”

“There is that, but before this we had defeated a fair number of them, so wouldn’t it be fine for a while I wonder―, that’s what I thought.”

“Then, only until the next corner.”

…Eh, she unexpectedly folded so easily?

Koyuki whose face was looking down, her small hand clutched his hand back tightly.

A heart mark was flying to him. It’s only a trivial thing, but it made her happy.

“Which reminds me, I have been thinking of this for a long time but, is it okay for me to call Hiakari-san by your given name?”

Kazuki asked that while feeling her warmth from one hand. When he called Mio and Kaguya-senpai by their first name, he had a feeling that the distance between them shrinked a lot. If he want to suggest this then now is the chance, that was the feeling he got.

“It doesn’t really matter, isn’t it fine to call me whatever you like? As for me about the matter of Kazuki, I have called you Kazuki near from the start.”

“Now that you mention it, that’s true isn’t it? Since when it became that Hiakari-san is calling me by my first name again…?”

At first she called Kazuki as [Rank-E person].

“…You were looked down by everyone in the class, but didn’t you duel with Amasaki-san to protect the honor of your important kenjutsu? Since then, I reconsidered my opinion on you a little…”

Koyuki answered him with some difficulty. For some reason even this side also became feeling a little itchy.

“I see, Hiakari-san had recognized me properly as a human from a long time ago.”

“Not really, I don’t care whatever happened to you anyway…”

While murmuring such thing, Koyuki’s hand that was connected with his hand became a little hot.

“Thank you, then without reservation, Koyuki. This is quite awkward for some reason. Koyuki. Koyuki.”

“I don’t really care even if you call me by my name, but please don’t call me repeatedly without any meaning!”

Koyuki got angry while pulling Kazuki’s hand strongly.

“Something trivial like a name, it’s all the same however way you are using to call me. You are only doing stupid things in this kind of situation.”

From the chest of Koyuki who was saying such things with a sullen face―a key that was shining with light was floating up.

That key was absorbed into Solomon’s ring which was Kazuki’s Magic Dress.

The key that was received from Koyuki, the proof that her positivity level had gone over 65….

The proof that a definite link was formed between their heart.

Perhaps he ought to call her by her given name far more earlier than this.

“Just now, I became able to use Koyuki’s magic you know?”

“…!?” With a jerk, Koyuki suddenly stopped walking.

It seems she received a terrible shock from the fact that was apparent in the meaning of those words. She hung her head down looking like she was trying to desperately suppress the feeling that was seething inside her heart, she shut her eyes tightly.

She separated their connected hand forcefully.

“Even though…even though I had decided not to get involved with anyone already. Even though I planned not to fall in love with anyone. Why are you getting inside me like this…slithering inside…”

“Koyuki…”

An obstinate solo player. But inside her heart, for a long time she felt the crushing loneliness, this girl named Koyuki.

―She was imposing some kind of restriction against herself, bounding her own heart tightly.

―She was bearing a feeling of guilt toward herself who was thinking that she wanted to get along well with someone.

Kazuki could see all of that from her.

“Why Koyuki, are you trying to continue isolating yourself inside the loneliness of your own making don’t you see? It’s regrettable that you went through a lot of painful thing in the past, but like this you will only reject other people.”

Why was she doing this kind of foolish thing, when he was confronting her like this, he could feel her indignation from her way of life.

“It’s fine already for Koyuki to not live in such a lonely way anymore. Even though something happened in the past, it’s okay to not fear anymore. Because I’m thinking of Koyuki as someone absolutely important to me. It’s fine to forget all the painful things.”

“Forgetting…?”

Koyuki stared at Kazuki with eyes that looked completely like the eyes of a lost child.

When Kazuki thought how frail of an existence this girl was, he hugged her tightly.

Can he became an existence that brought her a peace of mind?

Koyuki’s body stiffened and she was trembling. She was so small that he was afraid he will break her if he hugged her with all his strength. Kazuki embraced like he was wrapping her up inside his hands, he stroked her back that was bare by the design of the magic dress.

“Until Koyuki calmed down, let’s take a rest from walking to the next corner for a while, okay?”

Koyuki returned his embrace tightly while keeping her quiet.

He felt that she finally accepted him. An affectionate feeling was welling up inside him.

“…Kazuki. please call my name one more time.”

“Koyuki.”

“Except for you and Kaguya-senpai, there is nobody else that had call me by my name in this 13 years.”

“13 years ago, that was still a time when Koyuki were a little child wasn’t it?”

The preposterous period before this, this girl was supposed to be still [an existence that had a need to be called by her name and to be loved].

“…Why! Why didn’t I get called by my name!?”

Suddenly Koyuki raised her voice and she pushed her face in Kazuki’s chest. In that chest of his, he gradually felt the tears that soaked his uniform.

The one who was in front of Koyuki right now was not Kazuki, she was facing someone else and cried.

“Papa…, Mama…! Why, why didn’t you look at me!? Why…just because I became an elf!!”

Koyuki clung to Kazuki strongly because of her pain that couldn’t be protected by any defensive magic power. Raising her voice to the limit, Koyuki’s thin arms turned white from all the strength that she pushed into it.

“aAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”

Koyuki wept.

She decided in his heart that she would live alone, how much tear she endured inside her whole life until this point of time.

All those things she bore inside obstinately for a long time, Kazuki accepted all of those silently in his chest.

But she finally stopped holding all of it alone. He finally became a partner that this girl could spill her heart to, that was what he thought.

The time passed like that for a while, ‘guzu’ Koyuki sounded her nose.

“…I’m sorry to expose my disgraceful figure so suddenly. But, just a little more like this…”

Koyuki finally started to recover her calm. However….

“Koyuki, something with magic power is approaching here.”

“…!”

The feeling of nervousness from being inside a Haunted Ground returned and her whole body stiffen.

“I want to be like this together with Koyuki for a long time and I don’t want to ever arrive to the next corner, but looks like it won’t come true.”

Koyuki separated her body from Kazuki with reluctance. Kazuki too, while feeling the lingering affection toward the fading away warmth, he concentrated his consciousness toward the magic power that was approaching.

The reaction for the magic power was unusual. It was different with the weak wave of magic power that Demon Beast emitted just by existing.

It felt completely like a magician that was chanting a magic, a complex whirlpool that swirled around.

It couldn’t be, that was not a Demon Beast but a human that was approaching…?

Kazuki walked to the passage corner. Even if a Demon Beast came attacking suddenly, possibly even magic could come flying, that would be fine, he chose a defensive magic and prepared to chant the spell.

He finally arrived at the passage corner, there he faced a body in the middle of the path.

―What the hell is this guy!

Something that was even more strange than the Demon Beast from before was standing there.

A living thing that looked like a flesh-colored muddy slime .

Its size was around the size of an adult human, ash colored hair was growing everywhere on it.

There were no eyes and nose, but a large lips was protruding, it was wriggling around like it was trying to mumble something, leaking out a moan that was impossible to decipher.

It looks completely like a human that was melting into undefined muddy form….

“unu, guruo…ugo, ugo, urugua…”

What the large lips was mumbling was a spell. The skin-colored monster that looked like sticky flesh mud was shining with the light of magic power, beside it an avatar of Diva was floating.

…Summoning Magic!?

“URUGUO!”

At the same time with the monster’s voice, a large globe of flame was created and flew to Kazuki.

If he evaded it Koyuki will be hit!

“Fire Wall!”

Kazuki astutely invoked his prepared magic.

The globe of flame was swallowed inside the flame wall and it was negated.

“Mitrailleuse!”

Kazuki equipped the gatling gun and poured on a storm of bullet.

“IGI!? IGI! IGI!”

Even while being protected from the bullet by the blue defensive magic power, the monster’s body was distorted like a jelly ‘gunyagunya’ from the shock of its smashed magic, it raised an eerie scream that he couldn’t bear to hear.

Just from looking at it, just from listening at it, he felt like it would harm his sanity.

Kazuki held a shirking feeling, that he didn’t want to challenge this opponent in close-quarter combat.

“Barrett!”

He shot the monster with a flame bullet. The defensive magic power of the monster was used up, the flame bullet was sinking into the mud-like body. The flame bullet that sank inside its body burn its insides to a crisp.

While the monster writhed around in agony, it….,

“Th, thank…”

After spinning a sound that sounds like a word with its lips for the last time, it stopped moving with a twitch,

…Thank you, is that what it tried to say?

It chilled Kazuki’s spine with its mysterious eeriness.

But even though this thing was so eerie, it didn’t disappear and scatter into the light of magic power even though this monster’s life was already snuffed out.

The skin-colored dead body was clinging to the ground with a splat, it continued to remain in that place.

…It didn’t become a light and disappeared, does this mean this thing was not a Demon Beast…?

No wait, if it was not a Demon Beast, than what in the world was this organism!?

Koyuki who chased him until the passage corner was giving the dead body of the monster a glance, then she came to cling at Kazuki’s arm with a tight squeeze. He thought whether she was scared by the grotesqueness of the monster, but―that was not the case.

“Kazuki...please look.”

She noticed an even more terrifying matter.

“This living thing’s ears”

In that dead body that ceased to function in the floor with a splat, he overlooked it in the middle of the fight but, it had ears attached even though it didn’t have any eyes and nose. Those ears were, pointed ears that lengthening sharply.

“This is…no, she is, an elf. A thing that was an elf before.”

Translator's Notes and References

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