Chapter Pr
Seiken Tsukai no World Break – Volume 7 – Prologue
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Thus, dragon and flame have the chance to meet――
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In this way, the little girl was assessed by the old woman, the slave boss.
“A gloomy young girl who almost never says something and that never smiles”
“Although everyone hates to bring food to the dungeon of the cursed tower and take care of the monster sealed by the King…. This bad feeling increases more and more, she wants to do voluntarily”
“Perhaps something bad is possessing her”
And――
The very little girl was aware that she went through that many times while being backbitten.
The little girl descended on a dark, cavern-like spiral staircase, carrying food equivalent to livestock food three times a day.
The reliance was the candle in her right hand.
The range being illuminated was of no importance, she had to descend all the way into the darkness, a place so dark that she couldn’t see through it.
The real darkness, as if a monster opened its big mouth and tried to gulp her down.
An ordinary human wouldn’t be able to move, they would be terribly afraid while not advancing satisfactorily.
This seemed to be also the case for the little girl the first time. She was beaten by the whip of the slave boss, and so went down in tears.
But it was different now.
The thought of wanting to deliver it quickly put the trembling feet forward.
Every time she carried it with great care so as to not spill a drop of food, a lamp seemed to be lit in her chest.
When she imagined he would be delighted, her feet accelerated of their own accord.
The warm feelings and expectations were more than the fear of darkness.
She kept walking, holding them――and the bottom was in sight at last.
An abyss similar to a jet-black darkness that heavily precipitated.
A thin light was lit in the back.
A fleeting, charming and calm light like a bonfire of the realm of the dead.
Going towards that brilliance, the little girl accelerated her walking even more.
Then she arrived in the dungeon.
The charming brilliance was a mysterious phosphorescence that filled the jail.
– ――It’s time for food again?
An annoying, scornful laugh could be heard from behind the iron bars.
– Your body keeps turning into something like the one of a dead person, which tells me you’re hungry, aren’t you? How ironic.
There were also sounds of chains and creaking sounds mixed with a dry voice.
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Confined in solid iron bars, the one with his limbs restrained by who knows how many chains was――
A young man emaciated to just skin and bones.
Loathed as a monster by the King, the man had been imprisoned for nearly five years.
She wasn’t able to normally see his real face due to the loose and disheveled hair, it stretched so much that it reached the floor if he sat cross-legged.
The glossless jet-black hair produced a presence in this room filled with an obscure phosphorescence.
And the girl knew that the glint in his eyes that sometimes peeked through the gaps of his hair was penetrating and had a young spirit.
(I am sorry to keep you waiting)
The girl tried to apologize as she approached the iron bars.
But what came out of her mouth was,
– … keep… ting.
She said in no more than a thin voice.
She wasn’t able to speak well even though she felt like trying to talk properly.
Thanks to that, she was shunned by the adults around her.
But this young man,
– Don’t worry. I’ll be pretty busy with this. Besides, there are so many things to do as much as I like.
He shrugged his shoulders with an arrogant attitude while making a bad joke.
She grasped the meaning.
(You? Who is imprisoned and restrained?)
– Even a bird in a cage can dream of the wide open sky.
(An awfully brazen small bird…)
– How disrespectful. You see me like this, but I’m a hakoiri that was comfortably raised in the castle. *
*TN: Hakoiri is a person (mostly female) sheltered from the world.
This young man was truly intelligent, he was able to guess a simple conversation of this degree with a quick thinking.
Now, the girl could decently come to a mutual understanding with――the young man who was supposed to be called a「monster」.
Naturally, this didn’t mean she always got to understand him.
(… I heard of it before. That the sparkling castle built on the hill was actually yours…. And that the current King stole it from you…)
– Wait. I don’t know now. It’s been too long.
What should she do in a moment like this?
He moved his seemingly heavy body and crawled towards the iron bars.
This was the best he could do, even if he mustered the strength of his whole body due to his emaciated limbs that look like dead trees because of malnutrition and inactivity.
Every time he crawled, the chains restraining his limbs made heartbreaking sounds.
Those were chains of a mysterious material.
The phosphorescence flicked as if pulsating, becoming a weak light source for this room.
It was said that magic power had been squeezed out from this man, making impossible for him to use magic, and that this chain-shaped magic tool was used as the King’s power. She heard so from this young man.
A「monster」placed in a much harsher situation than a slave.
He came in front of the girl and held out his left hand through the gaps in the grating.
His rough and bony hand looked like the one of an emaciated and weak old man. A dry palm.
The girl lay the candle aside and wrote characters on his palm with a finger.
She communicated by writing.
(I’ve heard that the castle built on the hill is actually yours)
– To be precise, it’s my father’s castle. It was stolen from me before I succeeded him. Well, more importantly――
The left hand of the young man was placed on the head of the young girl.
– Your reading and writing are already perfect.
And patted her.
She was happy, she felt like she was ascending to heaven.
But she was unable to show him a smile. From the day when she encountered slave hunters and was separated from her parents, the young girl couldn’t talk well and her facial expression froze.
Exactly like a Noh mask.
So she transmitted her joy with words――and characters.
(I franticly remember anything that you teach me. Please keep teaching me more things from now on)
She wrote so on his palm.
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– I don’t mind. Material to waste time is my favorite food.
The young man used such bad words, but the girl was so much happy that her heart seemed to be emotionally moved.
However,
– Let’s do so next time, but will you help me to remember that I’m hungry in a corner of my head?
Following his words that gave an air of a joke, the girl wished to disappear.
The meal similar to livestock food was a mix of millet and slices of vegetables then boiled until it was thick.
The same meal every day, both for the little girl and the young man.
After she wiped and cleaned the right hand with the clothes, the little girl scooped up directly from the bowl and held it out between the spaces in the grating to feed the young man.
This was the only way to do it. No matter how trivial an object was, there was a rule to not hand anything to him in the jail. That was why there was no spoon prepared and the bowl had a size that didn’t pass through the grating.
– Even a little bird in a cage eats something like pet fodder by itself.
He said sarcastically, but she understood his feelings very well.
On the other hand, the little girl was actually not against it.
The girl was afflicted with unidentified light twinges every time his cracked lips touched her hand and her fingers with the meal on them was held in his mouth.
These feelings about feelings sorry for him became more and more immorally sweet.
To make him eat like this three times every day――
– Thank you for the meal. Tell the head chef that it was a wonderful treat today. ――Alright, shall we start?
Three times a day, they performed a secret only known to the little girl and him.
They faced each other across the iron bars and kept the tip of the index finger close to the index finger.
They matched gaze and gaze at point-blank range.
– A review of yesterday. Do you remember?
(I, I’ll try)
The little girl nodded with a nervous look.
As she went along with his fingertip, the little girl slowly moved her right index finger.
As if writing characters in the empty air.
Moreover, those weren’t just characters.
The written characters of the language that the girl used every day were very short and simple. But now, the characters that the little girl was desperately writing couldn’t be written accurately without overlapping many complex and fine curves.
– Wrong. That’s not the first rank of ice.
He immediately pointed out.
As he kept it close to hers, this time he carefully moved his left index finger.
That way, the little girl was able to trace the correct spelling.
Magic characters used to exercise magic.
The nobles taught the hidden mysteries.
The little girl was excited, seeing his fingertip moving slowly and carefully but without hesitation and feeling the warmth transmitted from the places he touched.
He had to necessarily write mirrored characters to teach the little girl from the opposite side, but the young man tried to do it extremely easy.
He made the little girl pay attention, saying「Go for it!」.
(… Is this correct?)
– You’re almost there. After all, you do have talent. It won’t take too much time for you to learn it.
Seeing the young man nodding so coolly, the little girl felt strange.
She suddenly couldn’t believe that a slave like herself could really use the mysteries allowed to nobles only.
But listening to his words full of confidence made her pay attention.
The fact of the matter was…. She could be calm, without having her heart broken in such a cruel situation because a man like him said so.
– Since you could learn it, should I get you a reward?
He told a joke like that, but she looked dazzling even in the depths of such darkness.
The little girl wanted to write on his hand and he held out his left hand.
(Can it be any reward?)
– Yeah. Take what you want here.
The young man in the empty prison said something lavish.
The little girl understood that he simply kept joking.
But the little girl pleaded seriously.
(Tell me your name)
She wanted his name, which he hadn’t given not even once.
The young man immediately raised an eyebrow.
– You’re an unusual person, huh. You’ll hear the name of a dead person, then what?
Was this something that unexpected for him?
Yet, this was that urgent for the little girl.
There was no reason to not wanting to know the name of the person you like.
– Give it a miss. You’ll get nothing by knowing my name. On the day it is leaked out to your surroundings, it’ll result in even you being oppressed, you know?
(Secrets are my specialty)
– But…
(I told you what I like to be given!)
She stared at him with intense concentration.
She glared at the young man with a troubled face.
In the end――he scratched his head with the hand he withdrew.
– Okay, okay. It’s not like I was given an impressive name from my parents though. I’m embarrassed even if you have a lot of expectations for it as a reward. I’ll tell you right now so turn your hand to me.
Being told so with a bitter face, the little girl excitedly presented her right hand through the gaps in the grating.
The tip of his index finger touched her palm.
– Only once. Alright?
(Y-yeah)
The young man wrote on her palm.
Without omitting a single character, the little girl concentrated all her nerves and followed the handwriting.
And she read and understood.
(Thank you…)
She grasped her right hand tightly as if reflecting upon it.
She pronounced the characters written there.
Even if she couldn’t voice them properly, she slowly, as if tasting them.
(Shuu… Saura…)
There, the little girl’s dream came to an end and Urushibara Shizuno opened her eyes.
Along with the fading sleepiness, the sensation of the little girl quickly became distant.
All that was left was her right hand which she grasped tightly.
– How regrettable.
She stared at her right hand in the form of a fist and muttered really gloomy.
She wanted to be immersed in sentiment for a moment, but unfortunately, the situation didn’t allow her.
Shizuno now remembered where she was.
In the food section on the underground department store in front of the station.
Shelves were mowed down and food was scattered as if a storm had swept over the store. If Moroha were to see this, he would make a scene and have an hemorrhage, saying「what a waste!」.
But she thought this wasn’t that bad for the traces of such fierce battle.
The Magic Association「Cradle of the Sun」, the core of the French Division. Attacked by two high-ranked knights, Shizuno fought making free use of the power she had to repel the enemies.
There were no customers, the vicinities fell completely silent.
Besides, there was――Momochi Haruka laying her head in Shizuno’s lap.
She was injured in the middle of the battle and fell into a comatose state.
Shizuno thought that if she performed Healing on her, she would wake up soon.
But she spent all her time treating her without having time for resting after the mortal combat, so, as expected, she got tired and ended up dozing off.
– How long have I been asleep?
Shizuno asked, turning to the face next to her.
– A little more than 20 minutes. The teachers are already rushing here.
The reply came promptly.
The owner of that stiff tone of voice was Leshya.
She herself defeated a strong enemy and came to rescue them before anything else with a returning sword.
She now was watching the surroundings with her cursed sword still manifested and stood watch, throwing down at her feet the two high-ranked knights that Shizuno had defeated. The knights were still fainted, but if they were to wake up, Leshya would deal with them right away.
– Shizuno can really sleep anywhere. That’s a special skill of yours.
Leshya said as she constantly delivered a blade-like sharp gaze everywhere.
– Ara? Is it because you’re here, I wonder?
It was quite impossible to find a reliable bodyguard like her around the world.
Yes, she came running after the battle, but she could focus on healing Haruka because Leshya was there, and after that she could doze off.
– I’m happy to have good friends.
– I-if you like, sleep a bit more, I don’t mind.
Leshya suddenly blushed and showed enthusiasm.
Her reaction was pure, or more precisely, cute.
Since something like this was shown by her, she couldn’t believe at all that she was “man-eater”.
Well, this was why she was the favorite of Moroha.
Shizuno could sympathize with him, and as her rival in love, she was extremely「simple-minded」, so it wasn’t really a problem.
She asked mixed with a yawn as she thought that there was no such absurd thing.
– I guess so…. But haven’t you heard anything from Moroha yet?
While she gave treatment to Haruka, she felt relieved to hear from Shimon Maya who was with Moroha that he repelled the French Division Head Charles.
More than 20 minutes had passed since then, she was worried because there was no further news….
– Have you tried contacting them, Elensan?
– Of course. However, I can’t connect to neither Moroha’s nor Shimon Maya’s mobile phones. But I was able to confirm the safety of the rest of Strikers’ troops.
– I have a bad feeling…
Shizuno dropped the tone of her voice and took out her smartphone to try contacting him herself.
And――
Right there, a call from Satsuki.
– Hello?
『Urushibara…!』
As soon as she answered the phone, she heard the crying voice of Satsuki. She wasn’t her usual self.
The bad presentiment became stronger and stronger.
『Moroha is… Moroha is…』
The dispirited Satsuki. She was in a state she didn’t want to put it into words.
– Calm down and tell me, alright? Can you do it?
Shizuno tried to understand the situation by soothing and humoring Satsuki somehow as she felt that her stomach became increasingly colder.
Although Satsuki was so shocked that a conversation was quite out of the question at first, Shizuno very patiently let her calm down and she finally was able to catch hold of herself.
– Moroha… is…?
Even she almost ended up dropping the smartphone unconsciously.
Her body began to tremble of its own accord.
– What’s wrong? What happened to Moroha?
Leshya asked with an anxious face.
Shizuno shut her eyes, without replying immediately.
She persuaded herself in her heart.
(Calm down. Didn’t you say that to Ranjou-san now? If I also end up panicking, it will be the end…)
Her trembling finally stopped and opened her eyelids.
And replied, turning to Leshya.
– Moroha was forcibly taken to the Japanese Division…