LVL Chapter 159

Zky15-19 minutes 04.06.2023

[Before the Storm]

While Sakurai, Ethel, and Iris were on their way back from the Elf Territory.

In and around the Adventurer’s Academy, peaceful days continued without Sakurai around.

“Oh, Amanai-kun! Here, this way!”

“Hello, Franklin-san. I came for the luggage transport request.”

“The goods are in the boxes inside this warehouse. I’ve got a large contract and I need to have all the goods here moved to the buyer’s warehouse.”

“There are so many of them it makes the place cramped, I see. With this being the case, we can’t bring in haul equipment… looks like this will take a lot of manual labor.”

“Sorry about this, our young ones are out doing other jobs. If I was a little younger, I would take care of it myself, but these days my back is killing me.”

“It looks like it will take quite some time, so I’ll get to work on it right away. So, all I have to do is bring the goods out and sort them out, right?”

“Oh, yes. I have people who will deliver them to the buyer later, so you just bring them out and sort them out by type roughly. I’m counting on you.”

Amanai Hayato, for example, spent his days doing unprofitable chores that many adventurers avoid, as well as requests related to problems that were closely related to the lives of the people of the city.

It was to learn more about the people living in this world, which he had told Sakurai before his departure to the Elf Territory.

During the school festival—his methods and purposes aside—Sakurai had beat the corruption, which had been festering in his mind for so many years, out of him and broadened his horizons.

It could be said that the experience had let Amanai be born anew, in a sense. He interacted with many people, felt ‘life’ in their daily lives, and spent his days with radiant feelings.

“Hayato, good work. I brought you lunch.”

“Thanks, Reika. For making lunch for me every day… um…”

“Oh, quit being so shy about it. It makes me cringe. I do it because I like it, so just thank me and be done with it!”

Akano Reika, Amanai’s comrade as well as childhood friend, was supporting him.

Through the school festival, she learned Amanai’s secret about being a reincarnated person, and she came to treat him with deep affection—completely different from her puppy love toward him had been.

The revelation at the school festival might seem to have dispelled Amanai’s strong feeling of obligation to be a ‘protagonist’, but it was possible that the feeling was still smoldering somewhere in his heart.

Just in case it flared up again.

So that he wouldn’t be burned and crushed by it and to affirm that he lived and existed in this world, Ayako was determined to ‘become stronger’ as his mental support.

Her determination to support him sublimated the girl’s puppy love into true love. She found happiness in the peaceful and little moments when she sat by his side with their shoulders pressed against each other.

The absence of their other party member, Ethel, could be cited as a factor in this accelerating change.

Not to say she had been in the way until now, it was just that her absence had increased the amount of time the two alone together…

“What do you plan to do in the afternoon? To the academy dungeon again?”

“No, I’m going to meditate and have a mock battle with Julia-san. I want to increase my maximum amount of magical power, improve the duration of ‘Thunder Sovereign’, and gain more experience in fighting against other people.”

“Oh yeah, Knaust-san is still staying in this town even though the school festival is over. Is it okay for her to not go back to the Military Academy? Does she still have some business here?”

“I heard that she is still planning to have a preliminary meeting in regard to the Military Academy’s exercise outside the wall in the near future and to inspect related facilities including the Adventurer Academy as a member of the royal family.”

“Hmm… can I come along? I mean, training by myself is kind of boring.”

“I think there’s no problem. Despite how she behaves, she is lonely. I’m sure she’ll be happy with more people around.”

“Then I should bring some gift… hmm, but I feel like no matter what I give her, it’ll be disrespect to her.”

Amanai involuntarily smiled at Akano thinking about what to give Julia, a royalty, with respect but not fear, and when she sensed his gaze, she lightly hit his shoulder with “What are you smiling about~?”

While apologizing with a smile, Amanai gazed at the warmly colored world and became even more determined to acquire the strength to protect those he wanted to protect.

—

If you were to ask who was affected the most by Sakurai’s absence, it would be Higaki Aoi.

Along with Iris, she had always been caught up in whatever troubles Sakurai created and thus had resigned from the disciplinary committee. And now that Sakurai was not around, she suddenly found herself with more free time than she could ever have before.

“…Haaah.”

And more free time meant more time for her to reflect on what she did in the past.

Naturally, Higaki remembered everything she had done because of her obsession and fanatism and had been spending the past few peaceful days reflecting on it.

Depressed, she cleaned Iris’s place and when that was done, she began taking care of the sword Sakurai kept in his room.

It was a well-used, old-fashioned sword that was given to Sakurai by the ‘Sword Saint’ Sanuki Shoichiro.

Polishing the blade aside, but regularly adjusting the grip was also essential because it absorbed sweat and blood and deteriorated over time.

Additionally, the condition of the nakago or tang, the part of the blade that went into the handle, also had to be repeatedly checked.

For many years, this sword had been enduring the enormous power of the ‘Sword Saint’. No matter how durable it was, it was only natural it would accumulate wear and tear.

If a problem arose in the part that joined the grip to the blade, that meant that the sword was at the end of its lifespan.

With a sense of duty to make this sword lasted even a second longer until it fulfilled its role as a sword, Higaki put all her knowledge and skills to maintain it.

She cut a proper swordswoman figure as she did so, very unlike Sakurai, who was the type to throw away his swords after they became damaged. According to him: “Any sword will do as long as they can cut.”

“……”

She tightly pressed her lips against each other and swallowed a sigh about to leak out of her mouth.

Every time she touched the sword, she felt both joy and guilt, which, in fact, surpassed the former. At the same time, Higaki realized that, for better or worse, the troubles caused by Sakurai had been taking her mind away from it.

(I should take a short walk outside. I feel like I’ll waste my time pointlessly if I stay here all day.)

After she carefully returned the sword to the shelf and bowed towards it, she left the house with a training sword.

The peaceful days didn’t mean she could enjoy happiness.

For a person highly conscious of their debts of gratitude and faults like Higaki, the absence of Sakurai, the person she should be making amends to, was stressful in its own way.

—

“Welcome~. Oh, it’s you, Blue.”

“…Luisina Mateos, what are you doing here?”

“I’m playing bakery’s poster girl. You’ve come in, so buy something.”

Higaki came across a bakery on a deserted street, and wondering, “Was there a bakery here?” she entered.

She was welcomed by Luisina Mateos, a former diva who had been freed from the clutch of the ‘Black Sword’.

Luisina’s characteristic beautiful, curly, blonde hair hid her pure white triangular bandage. That plus her sickly white skin, which was even whiter than its original color, and her crimson eyes made an exquisite combination.

She had a sophisticated beauty that reminded you of high-class white porcelain, so being a ‘bakery’s poster girl’ didn’t really suit her.

However, Higaki kept her mouth shut because her intuition—forged through her relationship with Sakurai—warned her, “Don’t say unnecessary things.”

Then Higaki bought one sweet bun from the trays lined up.

Although she felt quite uneasy about Luisina’s bakery’s poster girl ‘playing’, she thought that she might end up stirring up trouble for herself if she treaded recklessly.

For Higaki, Luisina was someone who could hardly be described as an acquaintance.

She freeloaded at Iris’s place, but she often was out and acted as she pleased.

It wasn’t rare for her to go missing for several days without going back.

In fact, in Higaki’s mind, she was more like a guest who occasionally came to stay over.

That said, when she was at home, she would observe Sakurai closely, play pranks on him, and tease him, but she almost never showed interest in Higaki, so Higaki wasn’t quite sure how to interact with her.

Therefore, it was only natural that Higaki would try to leave the bakery as quickly as possible.

However, Luisina, who had too much free time, stopped her.

“Wait a minute, Blue. You, tell me an interesting story or something.”

“Huh? Why should I?”

“I’m bored. If Tōru was around, I would have killed time just by watching him, but he had gone off somewhere without my permission. So you should entertain me in his place.”

“I heard he would be back in a day or two.”

“But he’s not here now.”

“I can’t entertain you, I’m notSakurai…”

“But Brown said you’re as ‘hot’ as Tōru.”

As if Luisina had no intention of letting her escape, she extended a long, thick third arm from her back to shut and block the entrance door.

What Iris meant by that was likely the intensity of the heat of Higaki’s will that she could sense with her Magic Eyes.

Will (obsession) as strong as Sakurai’s ‘training (leveling)’. There was only one thing that came to Higaki’s mind.

However, this caused her to recall the mistakes she had made and cast a shadow over Higaki’s heart.

The shadow in her heart clouded her expression slightly, and Luisina, an actor, picked up on it and her interest was piqued.

“Hmm, I smell some interesting story here.”

“No, I have nothing interesting to talk about.”

“Oh, I’m sure you have. There’s something you feel guilty about, isn’t there? Very well, that should do to pass the time, come on, spill it.”

“No means no!”

If there was one delicacy Luisina wouldn’t let go of other than Sakurai, then that would be ‘something others wanted to hide or didn’t want to say’ as well as ‘the pleasure of exposing them’.

It was one of the joys she awoke to while she was working behind the back of ‘Black Sword’, the chain that bound her. Luisina further increased her pressure to force Higaki to open her mouth.

To be specific, she harassed Higaki by repeatedly telling her to “Spill it, spill it, spill it” while pressing her face against hers and surrounding her with the many hands she had created.

Luisina could liquefy her body thanks to her power as a demon-kin.

Which meant, it would be difficult for Higaki to break away from her through simple violence. Her fist went through her head when she tried to punch her in the face. Her only option was to kill her with ‘Flame Sword’, so she gave up and decided to confess.

Higaki talked about how, out of jealousy-induced resentment, she robbed Sakurai of his sword and injured him, how they both ended up in Netherworld, and how, as a result of all that, her master, the ‘Sword Saint’, practically cut his relationship with her.

Luisina continued to listen to the story with a straight face, and when Higaki was over, she said with a leisurely tone, “Well, that was good to pass the time, indeed.”

“Really? That’s good. Then, I’m going back.”

“Wait, Blue. I will enlighten you as thanks for killing my time. Be grateful.”

“Oh, that so. Thanks.”

“The reason you’re feeling ill at ease is that you still don’t know whom you want to be forgiven by.”

Higaki fell silent at Luisina’s words.

Luisina turned her cold, condescending gaze toward her, and she continued indifferently. “I’ve played many different characters in opera. Some of them have committed mistakes in the past, just like you. Their end varies: some got their just deserts and fell to ruin, some ended in regrets even after trying to redeem their mistakes, and some managed to turn over a new leaf and found happiness… from playing them, I figured out what differentiates them.”

To put simply, the ones who fell to ruin believed that they were guiltless, the ones who ended in regrets failed to redeem their mistakes, and the ones who found a happy end received forgiveness.

“You, lady, are well on your way towards the second ending,” said Luisina after listening to Higaki’s story, “Since you’re still feeling guilty, that means you feel like you haven’t done enough to atone for your guilt or that you are doing it all wrong. And the cause is…”

“I still don’t know whom I want to be forgiven by?”

“‘Who’ here can be a specific individual, or it can be a large group such as your friends, or society at large, even. It’s just that people (characters) who think ‘I want to be forgiven’, ‘I have to atone’ without a clear sense of purpose mostly take the wrong way.”

Luisina deemed atonement as a means to gain forgiveness, and the means must be accompanied by a purpose.

Turning the means into the end was wrong, and meaningless.

Thus, without knowing ‘whom you would like to be forgiven by’, how could you even begin to think of how to atone to them?

“In the first place, it seems that Tōru just let it be bygones because he couldn’t care less about it. In any case, Blue, if you want to dispel your guilt, you first have to reconsider whom you want to be forgiven. Talking about it with Tōru may be a good idea. He’s a concerned party, after all.”

“…How should I put it? A part of me feels like your words make sense, while the other part doubts them.”

“Well, since a part of you says they make sense, that means that part of you finds them worth considering, right?”

“Maybe so. And I will carefully consider it… still, you color me surprised. You don’t seem interested in anyone other than Sakurai, so I never imagined I’d receive such a take from you. Did you have a change of heart?”

“Not really, I just expressed my opinion on what I’d heard from you as a thank you, that’s all. As for what you’ll do afterward, I don’t really care.”

For Luisina, it was just like expressing her impressions of the book she had just read, and once that was done, she lost interest in Higaki, as she had served her purpose as a way to pass the time for Luisina.

Seeing Luisina begin to snack on the bread that she was supposed to sell, Higaki released a sigh.

“Whom I want to be forgiven by… huh?”

Higaki stood still and reconsidered her feelings.

She could affirm that Sakurai, who was the direct victim, remained the one to whom she should be making amends. That was why Higaki had decided to keep on accompanying and helping him in whatever he did.

Wasn’t that enough?

No, if that was the case, why would she keep on feeling guilty?

With that suspicion as the starting point, Higaki began to draw the outline of the ‘person she wanted to be forgiven by’, whom she had unconsciously averted her eyes from and didn’t want to think about due to the collision of her own shame and reason.

But immediately after, her thought was suddenly interrupted by the shaking of the ground and she lost her balance.