Chapter 06: “The Crumbling Sanctuary and the Guidance of Healing”
Morning light swallowed the chilled air‚ repainting the world into a merciless white.
The radiance pouring through the window no longer gently caressed my retinas.
Whether it was punishment for weaving a lethal dose of poison behind the scenes of the “official history” overnight‚ or divine judgment upon a “Corrupter” who had stolen a glimpse of the laws of the world‚ the edges of reality trembled finely at the corners of my vision like delicate glasswork.
“...Ahh. The ringing in my ears is too loud.”
A shrill‚ unpleasant tone‚ like needles stabbing directly into my brain‚ raged deep within my eardrums.
A runaway spiritual vein caused by excessive magical power. I had poured too much poison capable of rewriting the world into this defective vessel. The rampant magic expanded my blood vessels and hammered against the inside of my skull like an iron mallet.
When I looked at my fingertips‚ pitch-black ink that would not wash away had invaded my skin like a cursed mark.
Yet somehow‚ this burning pain felt more comforting than anything else.
I sank deeply into the chair and exhaled hot breath from my clouded lungs.
From the empty box on the desk drifted the lingering sweet scent of lemon. The feverish warmth of that girl who had disappeared‚ led away by Kyle. The sinful heat from the moment my stained fingertips trespassed upon her translucent skin. The weak‚ fragile pulse I felt when I grabbed her wrist‚ desperately clinging to life――.
The price for swallowing the weight of her life was now battering my brain like this. Merely to keep that weight in the palm of my hand‚ I had stained the “correct answer” of this kingdom.
It was the worst‚ and the greatest‚ morning as an invader.
The smell of boiling ink pierced my nostrils‚ and the outlines of the world began sharpening further. The unnecessary noise called color peeled away‚ exposing the distorted framework composing reality as it creaked ominously and bared its fangs at my nerves.
What I chose was not lonely records‚ but beautiful ruin.
Just as I tried to regrip my pen with trembling fingers――
Deep within the roaring tinnitus‚ a cold metallic clicking rang out‚ like the winding of gears.
As though painting over the silence pregnant with dissonance‚ a faint lavender fragrance drifted from behind me.
A scent far too out of place in this room filled with the stench of old paper and burnt ink. Clean‚ and yet somehow carrying the unfathomable peace of something that had thoroughly sterilized even the traces of “death.”
“...You’ve been shaving away your soul quite spectacularly. It seems you’ve already gone too far to return to the observer’s seat‚ Louis-kun.”
Before I could even turn around‚ the density of the air behind me thickened.
Standing there was Sera‚ the healing magic instructor. A woman impossible to pin down‚ resembling both a compassionate holy mother and a grim reaper coldly recording a patient’s “final numbers.”
Perched upon her shoulder was a familiar crafted from intricate clockwork and thin glass――the “Glass Bird (Ether Eye)‚” winding itself with unpleasant regularity.
“...For a doctor’s house call‚ this is awfully forceful. This place is supposed to be a refuge for truants. Entering without permission hardly seems proper for an educator.”
“A refuge? No. Right now‚ this place is the bottom of a cauldron of magic power whose spiritual veins are about to reach critical mass.”
Sera brushed aside my sarcasm effortlessly and closed the distance without hesitation. As I tried to stand and escape‚ her white hands pressed down hard on my shoulders from behind‚ forcefully pinning me back into the chair.
“W-what are you――”
“Don’t move. It’s time for your examination.”
I had no chance to resist. Her fingertips slid unhesitatingly onto my feverish neck from behind.
The cool yet strangely elastic softness unique to a woman’s fingers forcibly pressed against my abnormally pounding carotid artery.
At this close distance‚ her breath brushed against my collarbone‚ while faint body heat and the soft sensation beneath her neatly arranged white coat scraped even harder against my overloaded senses.
Her slender fingers lifted my twitching eyelids slightly as her deep eyes peered into the depths of my retinas. From behind my ears to the line of my jaw‚ her fingers crawled slowly‚ almost stickily‚ yet with clinical coldness‚ as though tracing the shape of my skull. Each touch made it feel as if every scrap of information called “life” was being extracted from me‚ sending a chilling sense of taboo down my spine.
At that moment‚ the Glass Bird on her shoulder clicked‚ and the magic stone of the True Eye glowed.
“――Assessment. Target’s spiritual veins approaching collapse. Detecting lethal-level dissonance in heartbeat. Confirmed magical capacity exceeding critical threshold by three tiers.”
The utterly emotionless “mechanical curse” ruthlessly exposed the screams of my body that I had desperately concealed‚ turning them into inescapable truth.
“Your pupils are completely dilated. You’ve driven your magic power berserk to the brink of burning out your brain.”
“...It’s just excitement after pulling an all-nighter. A common result of diligent academic pursuit.”
“You’re a terrible liar. Those fingertips of yours... can you still say that after seeing them?”
Sera forcibly seized my right hand. The dark ink stains that refused to wash away.
“――Repeating. Detected component: aberrant forbidden magic formula. Detecting ‘causal backlash’ from rewriting the world within the target’s magical waveform. Forgetting of color recognition domain――Fourth Tier. Collection of compensation has already begun.”
The Glass Bird’s declaration sliced apart the bravado of my “invader” self‚ vividly and mercilessly.
“Forgetting colors... The world is beginning to lose its color to you‚ isn’t it? Louis-kun‚ that ‘poison’ you created is a self-destructive salvation that burns using your own existence as fuel.”
Cold magical power seeped in through the wrist she held. The icy sensation of her skin conveyed the chill of “death” with an unnervingly sensual intensity within my overheated consciousness. I could not push her away. Before the gaze of a medical scalpel exposing every ugly secret within me‚ I could only remain motionless like a specimen strapped to a dissection table.
“...Don’t analyze me on your own. This ink‚ this colorless vision――they’re weapons I chose myself. I never asked for salvation.”
I tried to wrench my wrist free‚ but despite the slender elegance of her fingers‚ they carried an inescapably solid magical path‚ like ancient roots tightening around stone.
“Weapons? No‚ they’re merely armor that has become too heavy. You can no longer bear the karma you carry‚ and now your spiritual veins are on the verge of self-destruction.”
Sera smiled quietly. That calmness alone nearly stopped my breathing for a moment.
She gently stroked the head of the Glass Bird on her shoulder with affection.
Click‚ click‚ click.
The inorganic bird’s neck rotated at an unnatural angle‚ and its thin glass wings unfolded beautifully and sharply like a fan.
“...What are you planning to do?”
“The first step toward healing your wounds. According to the diagnosis‚ your heart has hardened into something terribly distorted. Ether Eye‚ lock focus. Converge the light of healing.”
“――Acknowledged. Using the True Eye magic stone as catalyst. Forming magical barrier lens. Initiating direct retinal projection.”
The True Eye magic stone embedded within the Glass Bird’s eyes snapped open‚ and the invisible lens projected from it instantly captured my field of vision as I tried to flee.
“――gh... A-A-AHHHHHH!”
Explosion.
It felt like a meticulously constructed castle of logic being blown apart from the inside into splinters.
The monochrome world of white and black spell formulas that I had protected as my sanctuary until now――into that world‚ Sera’s “healing magic” violently surged through the Glass Bird’s barrier lens with overwhelming force.
My vision burned. Colors flooded into the monochrome scenery like a raging torrent.
The raw red of flesh‚ the poisonous yellow of pulsing organs‚ and the blue of boiling blood smeared my black-and-white world from within like mud.
“Stop... erase it! These... these filthy living colors are unnecessary for my truth!”
“No. Look. This is the true nature of the ‘life’ you’ve rejected‚ Louis-kun.”
Sera’s voice echoed like dissonance directly clawing at the tiers of my cognition. My thoughts turned muddy from the overwhelming magical influx‚ and the ends of my nerves began numbing. Cold sweat dripped down my jaw and onto the floor. Even those droplets looked like cursed jewels radiating grotesque colors to my eyes now‚ provoking violent nausea.
My knees buckled‚ and a dry scream escaped my throat.
Shutting myself within a black-and-white world had been my “preservation treatment.” A safe prescription to reject change‚ numb pain‚ and live merely as background scenery. But the colors Sera forced into me washed away that preservative and violently pried open my rotting wounds.
“It hurts‚ doesn’t it? Of course it does. To heal a wound that has hardened into distortion‚ you must first break the bone and reconnect it. Healing has always involved that kind of cruel destruction.”
At the edge of my vision‚ the hem of her white robe shimmered beautifully and terrifyingly like a boundary melting from crimson into deep blue.
“...Break the bone? That’s not healing. That’s abuse...!”
“Oh? Is it really? Surely someone who ‘examined’ Elina while looking down on her as defective should understand. What you’re trying to do to this tower and to this kingdom’s official history is fundamentally the same. You began this invasion called destruction because you wanted to perform surgery upon the world――or upon yourself. Isn’t that right?”
Sera’s words drove themselves into the shattered fragments of my reason like sharp wedges.
My urge for destruction. The poison I created to save Elina. Was it not mere rebellion... but a treatment upon this distorted world‚ an extension of the “diagnosis” I performed on that girl?
“...Shut up. Don’t beautify my despair however you like.”
“I’m not beautifying anything. I’m simply rewriting the dissonance your soul plays into the proper medical chart. Come now‚ Louis-kun. Don’t fear breaking.”
The torrent of color intensified further. The tiers of my perception were forcibly dragged upward‚ exposing the spiritual framework of the world clothed in raw flesh before my eyes. My consciousness blurred as overloaded kaleidoscopic daydreams completely drowned out the tower’s silence.
The vivid afterimages burned into my retinas slowly yet surely eroded the defensive walls of my sanity. My vision still flickered violently with unpleasant magical flashes‚ but instinct already understood that I could never return to the “clean‚ inorganic monochrome world” from before.
“...Heh... breaking bones‚ huh? You perform rather rough healing‚ teacher.”
“Oh my‚ it seems you’ve finally gained enough composure to digest my diagnosis into words.”
Sera relaxed her elegant lips as she looked down upon me kneeling on the floor. On her shoulder‚ the Glass Bird clicked its gears. Even that cold mechanical sound now felt to me like “the signal that the story (system) had begun moving.”
With trembling hands‚ I used a nearby bookshelf for support and stood. Before me were five years’ worth of “observation records‚” perfectly categorized with flawless precision. Crystals of loneliness I had piled up in order to flee reality and maintain my safe spectator’s seat.
“Isn’t that ‘sanctuary’ already too cramped for you?”
“...Yeah. Just as you said‚ teacher. It’s hardened into something so distorted I can barely breathe.”
Without hesitation‚ I reached for the top shelf. Bundles of parchment abandoned their resistance to gravity and collapsed onto the floor like falling rubble. The dull crash echoed as though shattering five years of time.
“Oh my...”
“I told you. I’ve already snapped the pen that merely recorded the world from a safe audience seat. Starting with my own ‘deception‚’ I’ll destroy everything thoroughly.”
I grabbed the remaining ink bottle from the desk and deliberately hurled it at the scattered mountain of records. The sharp sound of shattering glass rang out. Overflowing black liquid mercilessly stained the pure white margins and the records I had painstakingly built.
Across the floor‚ the black ink mixed with the cold shadows cast by the Glass Bird‚ while remnants of crimson healing magic lingering there tangled through it like threads. Black and red. The sight of my orderly domain staining itself into muddy chaos was nauseatingly vivid――and beautiful.
I moved to the window and forced the heavy frame open. The creaking shriek completely buried the silence.
What flowed in was not some radiant blessing brought by the royal knight Kyle. It was the smell of rain-soaked earth‚ wagon tracks striking stone pavement‚ and the muddy scent of everyday human life.
“...The air tastes good. Much better than the smell of dead paper.”
“...I really don’t want to treat a patient guilty of treason.”
Behind me‚ Sera let out a distorted sigh blending an educator’s exasperation with the delight of a grim reaper witnessing the completion of a supreme poison. I let the outside wind tousle my messy hair and gazed proudly at the ink stains remaining on my fingers.
Before this deadly poison burns that girl’s throat‚ may it become the blade that severs the chains of fate binding her. Even if leaving this sanctuary means losing all the world’s colors‚ I will never again return to the safe yet dead version of myself I once was.
“The preparations are complete. ...Now then‚ teacher. Shall we go examine the next patient?”
Within the library tower polluted by chaos‚ I felt for the first time the solid sensation of my own feet firmly pressing against the ground‚ savoring it with joy.
“...Are you satisfied now? Having discarded the mask of the recorder‚ you finally wear a properly ugly human face.”
Avoiding the ink-stained parchments scattered across the floor‚ Sera walked toward the exit. The Glass Bird on her shoulder fell silent‚ as though finishing its final winding. Folding away its inorganic glass wings‚ the cold light from the “True Eye magic stone” in its eyes quietly sank behind its eyelids.
“...I was always human. I’d just spent too long sitting in the comfortable chair called ‘background scenery‚’ and my legs had gone numb.”
I inhaled deeply the scent of “life” blowing in from the window――wet soil mixed with human existence. Sera placed her hand on the door and spoke without turning around‚ her voice calm like a prophet’s.
“Pay the price‚ Louis-kun. Before all color completely spills from your eyes‚ decide what must be saved. ...Once you surpass the Fourth Tier‚ ‘color’ will never return.”
“――Oracle. Forgetting of the color-recognition domain detected advancing to the next tier. Little remains before the vessel’s spiritual veins reach their limit.”
As they departed‚ the Glass Bird’s inorganic declaration cruelly forced upon me the future where my vision would rapidly collapse into black and white.
The door closed‚ and the library tower sank once more into silence. Yet it was no longer the dead silence from before. Evening darkness crept through the window‚ while the ink I had spilled spread across every corner like shadows with a will of their own.
Alone in that space‚ I chose to leave this place not with a quill pen‚ but with my own feet.
One step onto the stone floor. The spiral staircase that had been nothing more than a “corridor” for five years now looked like exposed fangs leading toward the mire called reality. Step by step‚ I descended while feeling my own weight beneath my soles.
My knees trembled‚ and my vision shook violently from magical overload‚ but that very “pain” was the only anchor binding me to the world as someone directly sinking his fangs into its throat.
Just as I stepped into the dim corridor outside the library tower――beyond the evening darkness‚ a small trembling figure hid in the shadow of a stone pillar.
“...Mina?”
Even to myself‚ my voice sounded surprisingly low and sharp. Standing there was Mina‚ Elina’s best friend. Usually she looked at me with mocking disdain‚ but now she stood pale-faced‚ desperately clutching something to her chest.
“Ah... L-Louis. You came out of the tower...?”
“There’s no school rule saying background scenery can’t take a walk. More importantly‚ what are you holding――”
Suddenly‚ my “Analytical Eye (Magic Vision)” caught an ominous fluctuation of magic leaking through her fingers. Within my monochrome world‚ only that emitted a murky color resembling unnatural “death ash.”
When I forcibly peered into Mina’s hands‚ I saw a grotesquely twisted “shell of prayer’s compensation medicine.” The remnants of a royal elixir used to forcibly burn a shrine maiden’s emotions and spiritual power in order to barely prolong her life.
“...Where did you get that?”
“Just now... I saw Elina throw it away like she was coughing up blood...! I couldn’t tell anyone‚ not even Senior Kyle‚ and I didn’t know what to do... before I realized it‚ I’d run all the way here... She’s been using more of these lately... Louis‚ I’m scared. It feels like she’s going to disappear while smiling...!”
Mina’s trembling voice perfectly aligned with the “bug in the world” I had analyzed all night.
The empty magical shell rising from the medicine remains. It was the cruel magical truth that Elina’s “hourglass of life” had already begun showing its bottom.
My ink-stained fingertips clenched tightly‚ almost welcoming the pain. Behind the sacred doctrine worshipped by Kyle and the others‚ a single girl had been worn down this severely. The countdown toward salvation was ticking far faster――and far more cruelly――than I had imagined.
“...Understood. That’s enough‚ Mina. From here on‚ I’ll shatter this insane causality myself.”
Within the evening darkness‚ I passed by her and stepped toward the battlefield called reality. Behind me‚ the tower quietly sank like a ghost that had fulfilled its role.
Chapter 06: “The Crumbling Sanctuary and the Guidance of Healing” ―― End
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