Ryuu Kusari no Ori -Kokoro no Uchi no “Kokoro”

Chapter 4 Part 22
 

"... Fuuh. Finally, it's over ..."

"Well, it can't be helped, Mimuru. We need to do this and that"

Nozomu and the others who defeated the black demon beast immediately returned to Arcazam in the afternoon and reported to the school about the black demon beast.

As a result, the school side, which emphasized this matter, immediately gave a detailed explanation on this matter in the office of Jihad Roundel.

After finishing the report, Mimuru who came out of the office sighed as if she was tired, and Tom smiled at the situation. A bandage is wrapped around his right arm, and his arm is tied with a sling.

After finishing the report about the demon beast, Jihad gave his word of gratitude to Nozomu and the others, and Jihad urged the school to research and keep it a secret until it was ready to be published.

"Well, based on Shīna's story, that demon beast seems to be related to the demon beast that destroyed the Foskia Forest, so that's why she is so cautious."

After their battle, in the forest on the way back to the city, Shīna confesses her past to her friends.

Her hometown, Foskia Forest, was destroyed by the demon beasts invasion, and her family was sacrificed to let her escape from the demon beasts.

While her loved ones were killed, she couldn't do anything and could only escape. She couldn't forgive herself and decided to become stronger and came to Solminati Academy.

She was so caught up in it that she became distant from the spirits. When the demon beast appeared in front of her, blood rose on her head and she forgot about herself.

Naturally, she was also talking about the black demon beast. Even though it wasn't the same demon beast that invaded her hometown, it didn't seem irrelevant as it wore something similar like atmosphere, black miasma, and myriad red eyes on the surface of its body.

Nozomu remembered what he was doing when he was reporting about that demon beast.

When Nozomu and the others entered the office for a report, the owner of the room, Jihad, was sitting at the desk where he was working, and next to him was Nozomu's homeroom teacher, Anri-sensei, and Shīna's homeroom teacher, Inda-sensei who was waiting for their report. 

Inda-sensei is a very serious woman, has very good etiquette and work attitude, and is very talented, but she is also known as an inflexible teacher.

She is so obstinate, due to Nozomu's rumors, which is having an affair with Lisa. She is one of those who doesn't think much about Nozomu, who is said to be the lowest student, and she thinks Nozomu is not suitable as a student in this school.

Due to her competence, she sometimes takes charge of first-class lessons instead of Jihad, and she also told Irisdina not to approach Nozomu.

When she noticed Nozomu beside Shīna, she wrinkled her eyebrows from the beginning until the end.

"Black demon beast?"

"Yes. We encountered the demon beast in the suburban part of the forest, which has many similarities with the demon beast that destroyed my hometown, Nebra."

Shīna talked about the characteristics and dangers of the black demon beast, and the demon beasts she saw 10 years ago that destroyed her hometown, including her family.

"I see……"

"Hmmm ..."

*sniffling* 

Jihad folded his hands on the desk and looked down with a sad expression, and when the story reached Anri, she cried.

"I understand what happened. It is safe now. I'll let the guild and the guards know about this demon beast, but you guys don't talk about this unnecessarily."

"... Is that because the beast is very similar to the one that destroyed my hometown?"
"That's right. The wounds from that great invasion are still deep-rooted. If you talk unnecessarily and incite anxiety, it will cause confusion."

Certainly, the scars caused by that disaster have not been healed. The proof is this Solminati Academy, which is one of the reasons why each country is eager to find human resources.

That is not all. The fear of the demon beast's invasion has penetrated the general public.

"As far as I've heard, the demon beast you've encountered seems to be a little inferior to the demon beast that destroyed Nebra. In addition, considering that there are not multiple sightings so far, this demon beast is probably alone. It is necessary to investigate and collect information for a while. We will investigate from various directions, including the magic stones you brought back and the corpses of the demon beasts left in the forest."

After Nozomu and the others defeated the demon beast and its body collapsed. Meat chunks mixed with bones twisted into a mess, and what was called a huge magic stone remained.

Some of the flesh and bones had the characteristics of a four-legged beast like a Wild Dog, but most of them were messy and elusive, and it seemed as if it was made by multiple different types of demon beasts.

As the name suggests, magic stones are a general term for stones whose magical powers reside or gather and crystallize in ore form, and the magical power within them can be used for various purposes such as alchemy and ceremonial magic.

Among the demon beasts that have magical powers, there are demon beasts that can produce these magic stones within their bodies, and as for the magic stones that normally exist and circulate are gathered from nature, but some of them are produced by demon beasts.

And, many of the magic stones produced by demon beasts were of higher purity and better quality than those produced in nature.

However, demon beasts with high purity magic stones were often strong, and not every powerful demon beast produced magic stones.

It's not that magic stones can't be made artificially, but it takes time and effort to make them.

This was because the only way to crystallize magical power that had no clear form was to condense it with tremendous pressure or slowly pour magical power into the catalyst over time and wait for crystallization.

A magic stone that came out of the black demon beast this time was something that was rarely available in the market in terms of purity and the amount of magic power it possessed. As consideration for handing over the magic stone to the school, it was decided they will receive money for additional income.

In other words, it can be said that “the school bought it at a high price”. 

"I have one question to ask. Does Jihad-sensei know about that demon beast?"

Shīna asked a question to Jihad-sensei and went one step further into the story. A question that, if we think about it normally, cannot be answered. But even Shīna couldn't withdraw on this matter.

“………………..”

“………………..”

Shīna and Jihad clash with each other. With his stern expression, Jihad sent his glares, but Shīna receives that glare without taking a step back.

"... I don't know everything. There are too many uncertainties about that demon beast. All I know is that there are multiple sightings during the invasion. There is information on sightings of that demon beast in the countries destroyed by the great invasion."

Perhaps he realized that Shīna had a strong will, Jihad was opening his mouth while feeling heavy.

"However, the shape and nature of that demon beasts at that time are all different and do not have a fixed shape. Sometimes they appear in the form of beasts, sometimes birds, sometimes plants. However, they are black. And the miasmatic body surface and the myriad of red eyes are their similarities. "

As far as the story goes, it seems that Jihad doesn't know the details of the demon beast.

"Once again, don't tell the other students about this." 

Jihad reminded them.
His judgment is reasonable because the content is related to the great invasion, they have to be careful.

No matter how much they tried to hide it, as long as humans handled the information, the information about the demon beast may eventually leak out, but at least they want to earn the time required for the investigation.

As he talked to the guild and the guards, Jihad planned to be able to deal with the demon beasts in case of an emergency. Even Nozomu and the others were truly sorry for the panic caused by them.

They are just students after all.

As long as they are still socially inexperienced, they had no choice but to nod if they were told by Jihad, who belongs to the Knights of the Silver Rainbow.

After that, the four of them left Jihad's office, escorted by two homeroom teachers, Anri and Inda.

Nozomu remembers when they reported about the demon beast, but something slightly surprising happened in front of him. 

"Ah, wha..."

 "U, umm ..."

"You had a lot of pain ... I know it was hard ~~. Uu, what a good girl !!"

"Kya!"

When Shīna left the room, Anri-sensei, who was weeping after hearing Shīna's past, hugged her. Looks like, she was touched by Shīna's past story.

Shīna was flustered and screamed in a cute voice. For her, who had lost her family and pursued only revenge and regaining her hometown, this skinship had not been felt for a long time. It seemed that her head wasn't working well because of the sudden event.

"Anri-sensei, stop it."

"Hi ~yau!!"

Inda, who was next to her, tears Anri off from hugging Shīna.

"You are a teacher of this Solminati Academy. If you are a teacher, please have dignity and behave like one."

Inda understands Anri's character well. She scolds Anri, the same teacher, with a resolute attitude.

"You guys had a hard time. It seems that you had a lot of trouble, but more importantly, you're safe and sound."

"No, it was because he helped me."

Shīna looked at Nozomu. Mimuru and Tom also smiled and turned their eyes to Nozomu. On the other hand, Nozomu was surprised to hear it suddenly. 

"Him? ..."

Inda-sensei frowns and stares at Nozomu. She clearly felt suspicious.

"Yes. He saved me when I met that demon beast and was enraged and endangered my friends."

"... I can't believe it even if I heard it myself."

Inda-sensei gives her frank opinion on Shīna's words. She wouldn't believe that Nozomu, the very representation of the students who can't keep up in school, helped the honor student, Shīna.
"It's true"

"That's right ~~. Nozomu is a very good boy ~~"

"A, Anri-sensei ..."

To Inda-sensei, who turned her suspicions towards Nozomu, Shīna clearly emphasized and Anri also covers Nozomu up. However, due to Anri-sensei's atmosphere, the slightly tense air in the place loosened up, and the atmosphere that didn't fit the serious conversation caused everyone in the place to drop their shoulders.

"... But given his grades in this school, I don't think he was able to do that. I knew it would trouble Shīna and the others, but as far as I can tell, It would be difficult for even a veteran adventurer to escape from that demon beast alone. Even if it could be done, he would have been very lucky. Probably he couldn't do it for the second time. "

Inda-sensei started talking to correct her words.

She believed in Shīna, but not in Nozomu's ability.

"This time, to be clear, you were lucky enough to be saved. Not everyone here would have been able to come back to this town. Don't waste this luck and aim for the future. "

Inda decides that Nozomu's survival is luck, and she certainly didn't see Nozomu's power with her own eyes.

After Nozomu escaped, a quarrel between Shīna and Mimuru broke out in the hut, and then Shīna ran ahead, so the details about how Nozomu escaped from the demon beast had become unknown.

At the time of the fight with the demon beast, Nozomu and Mimuru earned time for Shīna to sign a magic contract.

Anri, who knows Nozomu well, nodded, but Inda-sensei looked suspicious.

Jihad was staring at Nozomu, but Nozomu could not read the thought behind Jihad's eyes.

The prejudice against Nozomu is still deep. As long as he wasn't wielding his sword in public, it seemed difficult to overturn his reputation for his ability right now. 

"And talking about student interaction may be out of my scope as a teacher, but I don't recommend being with that Nozomu Bountis. You guys should already know why, right?"

Anri and Shīna tried to say something to Inda who one-sidedly slandered Nozomu, but before they said something, Inda turned her heels and left.

"Huft! Nozomu is not such a bad boy ~ !!"

"Ha ha ha ..."

With her hands on her hips and her cheeks inflated, Anri was angry and a bitter smile escaped from Nozomu's mouth.

"Ha~a ... I'm sorry Nozomu-kun. Inda-sensei isn't a bad person either ..."

"It's okay. I know what others think about me in this school."

“………………”

Shīna's expression became clouded by Nozomu's words. Tom and Mimuru also looked apologetic.

Shīna looked down, but she raised her face as she made up her mind, and she faced Nozom again.
"Once again, thank you for your help at that time. And I'm sorry until now. I said something terrible to you ..."

"I also want to say thank you. Thanks to Nozomu, I’m still alive. Thank you very much."

"That's right. Thank you! Nozomu-kun. I also got a lot of help from you."

Shīna, Mimuru, and Tom once again thanked Nozomu. Nozomu became embarrassed by their pure gratitude, but at the same time, he felt guilty.

"No, I am ..."

Nozomu gets stuck in his words and averting his eyes off. When he encountered that demon beast, he couldn't release his Ability Suppression because of his anxiety about Tiamat and his fear of it. That makes Nozomu's heart tightens once more.

Nozomu looked at Shīna again. Until now, she had been walking on thin ice. How hard and fragile her life was, but now she felt the tenderness she had never felt before.

It was her change that made her move one step further with her friends and the result of showing her true intentions and reasons with her friends.

It was so dazzling that makes Nozomu happy for her, and at the same time, he was envious of her for being able to move forward.

"Nozomu-kun ... ummm ..."

"Nozomu! Are you okay !?"

"Ah……"

Nozomu was acting strange and when Shīna was about to talk to him, a black-haired girl and her friends came from the back of the corridor. It was Irisdina, Tima, and Mars.

Irisdina shouted in a loud voice that wasn't like the usual her. Perhaps she was hearing from Mars about the Nozomu's condition yesterday. 

"It looks like you were going to Jihad-sensei's office, what happened? And they are ..."

"Y, yeah. There are a lot of things happening in the forest ..."

When Irisdina came near Nozomu, she asked.

Jihad forbids them to talk about the details, so when they were wondering what Nozomu was talking about, Anri sent out a rescue ship.

"Ah, it's already past noon ~~. Today is sensei's treat, so let's eat together ~"

It seemed that there were various things they wanted to hear and talk about, but they were encouraged by Anri-sensei's voice and started walking towards the main gate.

Nozomu also moved his feet forward, but his footsteps were still heavy.

He stole glances at Shīna who was walking beside them over his shoulder.

Nozomu has fallen into darkness. But as they walked, He was able to laugh again. That fact warms Nozomu's heart,  albeit slightly.

This time, he turned his gaze to Irisdina, Mars, and Anri who were walking beside him. When Nozomu turned his gaze to Irisdina and the others, Irisdina and Anri turned their gaze like Nozomu did, and they asked.

"? What's wrong?"

"Is something wrong～?"

"No ... nothing."

He couldn't say anything to the worried girls. He was almost overwhelmed by the growing anxiety and fear, but now that they're worried about him, he found that he is not alone, which wipes away that anxiety and fear, albeit slightly.