Chapter 07.5: "The Melody of Blue Blood or the Sin of the Tuner"
The world does not cease to ring‚ like a broken harp.
Midnight‚ the terrace of the medical wing at the Royal Magical Academy. Covering my ears is useless.
The sound vibrates each and every one of my cells directly as a distortion in space.
「……Noisy. Won't the world please be quiet?」
The corrosive sound drifting from the distant forest.
The creaking of the spell formations sleeping underground.
And the resonance of filth shaped by people's malice.
Every time I absorb the muddy flow of these dissonances‚ my blood vessels dye into a poisonously deep 'blue'.
The fingertips gripping the railing stiffened white.
The blue pulsation running beneath the skin turns into sharp ice needles‚ tearing the blood vessels from within and ripping my insides to shreds.
「……gh‚ ah……」
Clenching my back teeth against the intense pain‚ the remnants of dissonance cling to the edge of my vision.
I roughly wipe away the uncontrolled heat seeping into my jade-colored eyes with my fingertips‚ as if brushing off filth.
I will end it. Myself.
That's why I made up my mind to assimilate the 'key' that is him into my own flesh and blood.
――Suddenly‚ a strangely clear rhythm rose from the garden downstairs.
――ton‚ ton. ton‚ ton.
A physical pulsation‚ irritatingly precise‚ that doesn't exist anywhere in magical theory.
The moment it touched me‚ a single drop of complete 'silence' fell into the raging sea of pain.
「……You've come‚ haven't you. My imperfect savior (Aria)」
Uneven footsteps scraping the cobblestones approach‚ dragging a heavy shadow.
The sound weaves the form of a single boy under the moonlight.
At the depths of that noise‚ only the single 'ton ton' pulsation proved his unyielding resistance.
「Did I make you wait‚ Nagi?」
From the appeared Aria‚ there drifted clumsy salt particles piercing the nasal cavity and uncontrollable heat noise that disturbs my silence.
「……Is this a new magic that restrains people with viscosity? Well‚ whatever. Sit there. I'll start the tuning (tuning).」
「Yeah. I'll... leave it to you.」
You know nothing.
That this tuning is a process that invades and steals your soul‚
And that every time I crave you‚ someone's future is being eroded.
Instruments do not know pain.
That's why their sound remains clear no matter how far.
If I cling closely to Aria's back as if sticking to it‚ the boundary line vanishes with a sound.
My jade-colored magical power flowed directly into his imperfect circuits.
Independent of Aria's consciousness‚ my fingertips begin to carve pulsations on their own.
The intense pain that felt like my brain being stirred up calms down like a lie.
Suddenly‚ I dropped my gaze to my own wrist.
The poisonous blue is invaded by another's sound and discolors to the point where the other side becomes see-through.
A visual sense of wrongness as if my own blood is no longer mine.
「……Ahh‚ it's quiet. Your rhythm is making my poison transparent.」
What comes from the fingertips is a waveform of life that is violently pure.
With my melody‚ I overwrite his earthy sound and remake it into the desired 'key' shape.
「あ……ugh……！」
At the sensation of his brain being directly plucked by the harp's claws‚ Aria lets out a voice of agony.
I examine the 'defect' in his circuits.
The 'rhythm (ton ton)' that physically moves all creation.
The 'reverberation (powan)' that fills the soul.
The 'silence (shin...)' of reconstruction.
What he has is only the physical rhythm.
The magic circuits that should be there originally are the 'calculated blank' left by Reina.
Pour Iris's gold into there.
That is the only solution to complete the key.
The pain vanishes‚ and the world's noise calms.
The one being saved is me.
For me‚ who was imprisoned in a jail‚ this earthy rhythm was an irresistible physiological pleasure.
「……You mustn't break completely‚ Aria. The closer you get to completion‚ the more that child's reverberation wears out.」
My cold breath leaves a scent like a winter forest.
The jade-colored light erodes Aria's circuits.
I strongly locked his body so as not to miss his pulsation‚ until my own arm became transparent.
If I close my eyes‚ beyond the torrent of magical power‚ the waveform of a single girl becomes visible through.
Iris.
Her 'golden reverberation' spills like the sand of an invisible hourglass.
The life counter ticking at Aria's chest.
Every time the blood vessels quiet‚ that child's second hand speeds up.
I greedily consume the sound of its burning as comfort.
「……It's ironic‚ isn't it. The more I am saved‚ the more that child's fire extinguishes.」
The blue blood running through my wrist has now lost its former poisonous intensity and sinks into a terribly quiet color.
That resonance that was burning the blood vessels from the inside is gone now.
However‚ what spread in the place where the physical intense pain disappeared was not comfort‚ but a chilling emptiness.
I am the 'accomplice' who sharpens the blade to kill Iris.
Aria's heartbeat transmitted from behind his back.
He still doesn't know.
That each step he takes toward becoming a perfect conductor is driving the girl he loves to a flat death.
Aria's footsteps vanish‚ and a silence like death returns to the terrace.
「……gh」
I held up my left wrist to the moonlight.
My breath stopped.
The "pain that proved me" that should have been there is nowhere to be found.
The blood vessels are now completely transparent‚ as if they had absorbed the moonlight itself‚ reflecting the scenery on the other side without distorting it.
A transparent blue‚ quiet like the dead.
The world's dissonance has calmed‚ and my spirit is enveloped in an unprecedented serenity.
However‚ this perfect silence was the sound signaling the completion of the plunder.
「……Savior. Or my lonely resonator.」
「You mustn't break completely‚ Aria. ...If you become complete‚ I will be saved.
But if your sound disappears‚ whose sound should I listen to in order to live?」
Too selfish to call it a prayer‚
Too transparent to call it a curse‚ a monologue.
I threw myself from the terrace's edge without a sound.
My falling body dissolved into a single gust of wind‚ disappearing while leaving only the afterimage of white hair in the night's darkness.
The harp's final note burst cruelly at the bottom of the night.
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