Well, I knew it. I knew it all along. I had some hopes for a one-in-a-million chance though. But yeah, makes sense. If someone were to fall for him after yesterday’s duel commotion, it’d naturally be Touji. I was just being chased around by a shark the whole time. Thanks to that, both my legs are sore, damn it.
“Hey Yukiharu… do you know the cause of this condition? The reason for this mysterious palpitation that happens when I see Touji…”
…Now then, what should I do? It feels wrong for me to honestly say [That’s love!] here. This kind of emotion should definitely be nurtured until she can realize it herself.
So, I decided to deflect with an appropriate lie while wearing a purely innocent smile.
“I’m not really sure, but maybe it’s murderous intent?”
That was my answer, squeezed out with one part goodwill and nine parts jealousy.
Jumping into a new environment, meeting a heroine, when problems arise, being central to solving them. And finally being admired by the heroine for a happy ending. The ideal fictional development I’d fantasized about countless times—in this world where magic and supernatural powers exist, it wasn’t me who realized it, but my friend.
“Something’s off.”
During lunch break that day, I sat alone on a bench in the academy’s courtyard and muttered.
In this incident, thinking of it as a story, Touji is definitely the protagonist, and I’m at best the comic relief. What the hell, being chased around by a shark on land.
Well, even after the trouble was resolved, I was dissatisfied enough to keep grumbling like this.
However, there was definitely a part of me that accepted it somewhere. I thought, maybe that kind of guy becomes the protagonist.
Having something in his past, possessing extraordinary talent, a passionate personality, not calculating like me, genuinely diving into trouble for someone’s sake, and above all… that coolness of standing back up no matter how battered he gets, no matter how many times he’s beaten down. All things I don’t have—
Realizing that somewhat self-deprecating emotion had emerged after thinking that far, I shook my head as if to dispel those thoughts, then stood up.
What am I being so weak for? It hasn’t even been a month since I entered this academy. So what if it didn’t work out this time? Magic to the right, supernatural powers to the left. In such an interesting and amusing world, chances to play an active role like the protagonist must be rolling around everywhere. That’s right! My battle starts now—!
Just as I was psyching myself up, I suddenly felt like my eyes met with a woman’s.
I say [felt like] because there was some distance between me and that woman, so I couldn’t be certain our eyes actually met.
Her hair reached her shoulders, and unusually for this academy, it was ordinary black hair, but she wore something like a military uniform, and her beauty—a different type from Akane’s that somehow felt ephemeral—attracted my gaze and wouldn’t let go.
Then at that moment, a sharp pain ran through my head, and memories that shouldn’t exist began flowing into my mind. While a massive amount of information poured into my head all at once, I understood. This is… a past life’s memory—
—is something that obviously didn’t happen, ending with just the impression [She’s a really beautiful person…]. I looked down once, then raised my face again, and the woman’s figure was already gone.
However, witnessing a woman who could be called a peerless beauty without exaggeration, my previously down mood skyrocketed for who knows how many times now.
[I’ll do it!] I resolved once again in my heart to play an active role like the protagonist.
Unfortunately though, such a development never came to pass. After this too, my first year of high school life ended with me just watching from a distance as Touji was naturally at the center of incidents, as Touji kept increasing his heroines at every turn. The end.
[To think you’d fall behind mere outsider students, I’m disappointed, Kaneaki.]
“That’s not it, Father! That was because Akane intervened—!”
[Then are you going to go explain that to each person who misunderstood? Tell them one by one that there were reasons I lost?]
“Th-that’s…”
[…Earlier, the Akabana family formally notified us that they’re nullifying the engagement arrangement.]
“What…!?”
[The contract stated that if someone believed to be an Arahitogami’s awakening was confirmed, the engagement would be dissolved. That’s precisely why we needed to urgently proceed with matters and complete the ceremony before an Arahitogami appeared. Despite that, I never dreamed you yourself would help with the awakening. And in front of such a large gallery at that—we can’t even use cover-up measures.]
“…………”
[That’s enough, I’ll give you instructions again when needed. Until then, stay quiet. Listen, I won’t be disappointed in you any further. You understand what that means, don’t you?]
With those cold words, the call ended.
“…Damn it!”
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT LOCALIZERMEERKAT.GITHUB.IO
The person who received what could be taken as words of abandonment over the phone—Narumiya Kaneaki—slammed the smartphone he was holding onto the ground in raw emotion.
One night after the duel, just as Yukiharu and the others’ positions had changed greatly, Narumiya’s position had also changed greatly.
Until now, Narumiya’s tyrannical behavior was tolerated to a certain extent by those around him because of his family background and high ability level. That somehow maintained the balance of the scales.
However, being defeated by Touji, an outsider student, shattered that balance. When he set foot in the classroom this morning, the gazes directed at him were mocking. Even the lackeys who had been obedient until then were keeping an unnatural distance today.
Abandoned by his father, his authority at the academy fallen, having lost everything, Narumiya wandered aimlessly through the academy like a ghost.
And he happened to arrive at the academy’s courtyard. There was one of the two people in this world he most wanted to kill. Catching that person in his vision, Narumiya felt unstoppable murderous intent overflow from the depths of his heart.
“…I’ll kill you.”
The leaked words were a simple murder declaration. At this point, no rational thought remained whatsoever.
Narumiya generated a large amount of poison with his ability and shaped it into the form of a spear.
[Spear of Deadly Poison]—that was the secret technique of the Narumiya family’s ability. That spear, which would lead to death with intense suffering from just a graze, Narumiya tried to unleash toward his target without hesitation.
“Die…!”
The target was sitting some distance away from Narumiya and hadn’t noticed Narumiya’s presence. Just as he was about to throw the spear at that defenseless back—
—the spear Narumiya was holding vanished.
“What!?”
An unpleasant strange sensation, as if he’d been bewitched by a fox. However, Narumiya remembered this sensation. Yes, it was—the exact same sensation as the [power to nullify supernatural powers] used in yesterday’s duel.
“Watagaya Toujiiii!!”
The other half of the people he wanted to kill is behind him. Convinced of that, Narumiya vigorously turned around while shouting. However, it wasn’t Watagaya Touji who was there.
“…Who are you?”
A [black woman]—something that could only be described as such was there.
Something wrapped in a haze-like substance all over, something like a human shrouded in darkness. From the vaguely recognizable hairstyle and body shape, he could barely tell it was a woman, but beyond that, he couldn’t obtain a single piece of information.
Recognizing such an incomprehensible existence, Narumiya felt an intense sense of wrongness. An inescapable sense of foreignness, as if something that shouldn’t exist was there as a matter of course.
“What… are you?”
That was the last word uttered by the individual known as Narumiya Kaneaki.
Truly, I wished he could have lived without knowing anything. Not knowing about the existence of magic or supernatural powers, just living healthily, freely, and happily.
However, [If things continue as they are, his existence will eventually become public. When that happens, living without knowing anything will be difficult. Even if he himself is safe, his surroundings will inevitably change]—it was my sin to have introduced him to that person, taken in by such devilish cajolery.
Then, to make this choice the correct one, I shall dedicate my all and make that lifetime a blessed one. May there be light in that life.
The great debt I once received is still deeply carved into my heart. To repay even a little of that debt, I shall sweep away all the sparks that rain down. And all those insolent ones who try to take that life—
—I shall annihilate them, down to their very souls.
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