Chapter 08: “The Mad Conductor and the Cruel Hourglass”
Kotone’s analysis room is always filled with a dry‚ ozone-like smell and the low hum of rotating cooling fans.
Normally‚ that steady mechanical sound would give me an intellectual sense of security grounded in theory. But not now. That constant “Bwooooo…” noise sounds to me like the ticking of a gigantic second hand‚ shaving away Iris’s life.
“…Aria-kun. Your complexion still looks like the daikon we simmered yesterday. Didn’t Rinne’s soup work?”
Kotone pushed up the bridge of her silver-rimmed glasses and pierced me with her gaze through the sterile hologram monitor.
At the edge of my vision‚ red digital numbers blinked mercilessly.
‘89 days 20 hours 02 minutes 44 seconds’
Tap tap tap tap.
The fingertips drumming on my knees were dragged by impatience‚ beating an irregular rhythm that ignored my pulse.
“…The soup was enough to physically reboot my brain. More importantly‚ Kotone—tell me the analysis results. The ‘score’ we need in order to win.”
Kotone let out a deep breath and tapped the keyboard once.
What unfolded in the air was the massive rulebook of the Academy Tournament. One specific page was highlighted.
“The tournament uses a complete deduction system. Speed‚ precision‚ waveform purity— for Soran-kun’s ‘Perfect Silence‚’ it’s just a stroll. Aria-kun‚ with your current ‘unpleasant noise‚’ you’d destroy the judges’ ears and be disqualified within three seconds of starting.”
“I know. That’s exactly why I came to you.”
“Yes. And that’s exactly why I rummaged through the rulebook’s ‘trash can.’”
What Kotone pointed to was an old special clause written in the corner‚ half fossilized with age.
—‘If measurement becomes impossible (error) due to complete destruction (overkill) of the target (pseudo-residue)‚ technical scoring will be disregarded and the stage will be cleared unconditionally.’
“Drive in a volume so massive that the system can’t finish calculating it‚ and freeze the measuring magic device. In the history of theoretical magic‚ no one ever chose this ‘barbarian’s solution.’ …That is the true form of our 0.03%.”
“…You’re aiming for a processing error?”
“That’s right. If Soran-kun pierces through with a ‘perfect single note‚’ then we’ll ‘paint the entire space with sound.’”
Kotone’s eyes carried a strange heat beyond the coldness of an analyst.
It was the madness of someone attempting to destroy‚ with her own hands‚ the limits of the theory she had always believed in.
The Fourth Training Ground was wrapped in a bizarre heat‚ mixed with the smell of burned magic power‚ men’s sweat‚ and miso drifting from somewhere.
At the center stood Cross with his greatsword on his shoulder‚ and Liam holding up his enormous shield. Their sounds were still fighting each other like stray cats in the middle of a storm.
“Lord Aria! Preparations are complete! My shield shall become a ‘Sanctuary’ that allows nothing to interfere with the sound you conduct!”
“Haha! My latissimus dorsi are ready too! Aria‚ come crash your soul into us anytime!”
I looked around at their faces and gripped the pocket watch at my chest tightly.
Behind the lens‚ the red second hand ticked‚ urging me onward.
“…Nagi. Start it.”
Nagi‚ sitting on the edge of the spectator seats‚ narrowed her jade-colored eyes and looked down at me.
The blood vessels running along her neck absorbed the world’s dissonance‚ glowing with a disturbingly deep blue.
“Alright. …Aria. If you connect them‚ that means you’ll also open the circuit of ‘that girl’ connected to your heart (core). …Don’t forget that.”
“…Yeah.”
I began tapping a rhythm on my knees. “Tap‚ tap.”
Nagi’s slender fingertips flashed through the air like a conductor’s baton.
In that instant‚ my vision turned pure white.
“—!”
Cross’s heavy bass‚ Liam’s bell-like tone‚ Kotone’s metronome.
The torrent of individuality surging from three directions—I forced them together into one by opening my magical circuits to their limit.
The numbness from last night’s “tuning” surged through my brain‚ and I abandoned thought (logic)‚ transforming into a pure ‘instrument of rhythm.’
(—Now. Hold the rest… one beat… strike it!!)
The golden rhythm turned the scattered dissonance into a single ‘giant iron hammer’ for just an instant.
DOOOOOOOOM!!
The air in the training ground exploded.
A vibration beyond the concept of volume itself‚ shaking space as a whole.
At the epicenter‚ I saw the familiar gentle golden particles—the fragments of her life itself—scatter into the air like dust‚ shining sharply as they dispersed.
The moment one of those golden fragments brushed my cheek‚ pain twisted deep inside my chest. In my ears‚ Iris’s little “kyun” echoed like a faint scream. It wasn’t a physical sound. It was a cruel auditory hallucination my brain produced out of guilt when it couldn’t withstand the overload. Yet it gouged my heart far deeper than any real scream. The light I wanted to save—I myself was feeding it into the flames as fuel. That guilt spread like poison from my cold white fingertips through my entire body.
The statue of the highest hardness‚ placed as the target‚ didn’t even get the chance to shatter—it vanished into “nothing” in an instant.
Right afterward‚ the measuring magic device screamed “KIIIIIIII!” and froze while spewing smoke.
The needle of the measuring instrument stuck to the far right beyond the limit value‚ physically bent out of shape. It was the moment when a device meant to measure numbers refused to recognize what was happening as “sound.”
It was the quiet collapse of theory before brute force.
“…Did we… do it?”
In the smoke‚ I looked at my own fingertips and fell silent.
Where had the heat from earlier gone?
My fingertips were white as ice‚ translucent‚ so cold they had lost all sensation.
It wasn’t like the muddy gray on Soran’s wrist that desperately resisted death. This was the ash-like side effect left after forcibly burning through her golden resonance—a hollow and cruel “white‚” as if life force itself had been scooped away.
And then—the pocket of my chest burned hot.
“Ah—hot…!”
The pocket watch was scorching my skin like a lump of red-hot iron.
I hurriedly grabbed it and looked through the lens. Inside the wavering dial‚ the red digital numbers flickered violently with noise.
What was displayed there was no longer the “89 days” that had reassured me until yesterday.
‘88 days 10 hours 05 minutes 12 seconds’
“…You’re kidding.”
All the blood drained from my body.
With that single strike. With just a few seconds of session.
Iris’s life—about eighteen hours’ worth—nearly an entire day—had burned away in an instant.
“…That’s the price for opening the ‘key‚’ Aria.”
Nagi’s voice came from behind me.
When I turned around‚ she had silently landed on the floor.
I gasped.
The curse-like density had faded from the poisonous blue veins that ran along her neck‚ draining into a terribly pale blue.
But that didn’t mean the world itself had been purified. The life of Iris that I forcibly drew out had merely blown away the local noise and temporarily ‘shouldered’ Nagi’s pain.
“…It’s quiet now. The amount of my pain that disappeared—her time disappeared instead.”
Nagi’s jade-colored eyes looked at me‚ stating the truth plainly.
“The more the blood in me that absorbs the world’s noise grows thin‚ the more her resonance is burned away… The scale will always sink on one side.”
My fingertips trembled violently‚ and the pocket watch nearly slipped from my white‚ frozen hands.
(…No. My sound is meant to save. It’s the sound meant to call her back. Then why—why are the numbers decreasing…?)
(…Am I the one killing her? With these hands that wanted to save her… her tomorrow…)
I couldn’t breathe.
It felt like being slowly dragged into the cold‚ dark bottom of a swamp. The world—or Iris. Faced with the cruel weight of that scale‚ I couldn’t endure it and nearly collapsed to my knees—
“—Here‚ Aria! If your brain is boiling over‚ cool it down physically with this!”
A violently salty aroma punched straight into my nose.
What was thrust before me had already lost the dignity of being called a liquid—dark matter: five-times-concentrated miso soup.
“Aria! Come back! You’re—not someone who conducts with that kind of face!”
Rinne smacked my back—BAM!—without hesitation.
That pain. The heat of the soup. Its violent thickness. And her shout binding me back to reality.
Deep in my nearly broken magic circuits‚ the “tap tap” rhythm that had almost stopped was forcibly restarted.
I’m scared. Conducting is terrifying. If it means shaving away more of her life‚ then it would be better if I died instead—but if I run away‚ she will never wake up again.
I’m scared. But I have no choice but to move forward while being scared. The trembling in my fingertips isn’t the trembling of someone running away anymore.
That’s right. I’m a conductor.
I don’t have even a single second to stand still.
If using magic reduces life‚ then there’s only one answer.
“…Nagi. Once more.”
I stood up and gripped the pocket watch tightly.
The burning heat was now the only certainty pushing me forward.
“I can’t wait leisurely for ninety days… I’ll finish this at top speed. Before Iris’s life runs out‚ I’ll overkill every stage and race all the way to the deepest part of the tower.”
The “tap tap” rhythm my fingertips beat was no longer the sound of hesitation.
Deep in my chest‚ someone’s small “ton” trembled.
—Don’t hesitate.
I’m no longer the one who follows the score of time. I’m the one who conducts time itself.
I can’t remain a merely kind conductor anymore.
That kindness couldn’t save her.
It was the fastest “prelude‚” chosen by someone who stepped onto the path of madness to bring back the girl he loved most.
“…That’s the look‚ Aria. With that kind of breaking‚ you might save the world. …But don’t break completely‚ okay? If your sound disappears‚ that would trouble me.”
Nagi smiled coldly‚ hiding the faded blue‚ and once again the sound vanished from the world.
Her voice was neither salvation nor threat—it was closer to a prayer.
But that prayer was surely directed not at the world… but only at Aria.
We stepped into a desperate battle to outrun the accelerating hourglass.
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