Chapter 33: “Wait for Me Once More in Your Dreams”
Nagi: Morning light was streaming in through a gap in the curtains like a single white thread.
The light spilling from the inn’s window was usually softer‚ even carrying a faint sweet scent like candy.
Birdsong echoed‚ and from downstairs came the clink of dishes.
Someone’s laughter—just an ordinary‚ peaceful morning.
—Or so it should have been.
On the bed‚ the girl’s fingertips twitched slightly.
Nagi‚ sitting in the chair beside her‚ jerked her head up as if struck.
Next to her‚ Miria‚ holding her harp‚ caught her breath.
Neither of them made a sound.
The long-sleeping Serina’s eyelashes trembled slowly—then her pale blue eyes opened.
Serina: “……”
For a while Serina simply stared into empty space.
As if groping for something precious.
Or as if she had already resigned herself to finding nothing at all.
Eventually her gaze slowly slid across the room.
The window.
The wall.
The wooden chair.
And Nagi and Miria.
She must have recognized the two people staying close by her side‚ yet no words left her cherry-pink lips.
Nagi: “…Good morning‚ Lady Serina.”
Nagi spoke gently‚ in her usual calm voice.
Serina: “……”
Nagi: “You slept well.”
No reply.
Nagi lifted the corners of her mouth just a little so the anxiety in her chest wouldn’t show.
Nagi: “Two days.
You were asleep the entire time for two full days.”
Serina: “…Two days?”
Her voice was terribly thin.
In that sound there was not a single fragment of the innocent brightness that used to light up this inn in an instant.
Nagi: “Yes.
The whole time.”
Serina: “…I see.”
Serina murmured only that and shifted her gaze back to the window.
A clear blue morning sky stretched outside.
The old her would have looked up and said‚
“Today’s weather is so nice!”
with a full smile and stretched her arms high.
But.
Today’s Serina said nothing.
From the depths of those blue eyes‚ that pure light had completely vanished.
Miria felt a pain as if something deep in her chest were being ripped away.
Still‚ she forced a smile as best she could.
Miria: “…It’s morning‚ Serina.”
Serina: “…Yeah.”
Miria: “What would you like for breakfast?
Shall we have freshly baked bread?”
Serina: “…I don’t want any.”
Miria’s smile twisted with a hint of sorrow.
Miria: “Then… would you like a morning bath?”
Serina: “…No bath either.”
Nagi: “…I see.”
Nagi said nothing more.
She didn’t force her to eat or force her to smile.
She simply accepted the fact that Serina had awakened to a cruel reality and stayed by her side.
She knew all too well that was all she could do right now.
A heavy silence ruled the guest room for a while.
Then Serina parted her small lips.
Serina: “…Where’s Louis?”
Nagi and Miria exchanged a single painful glance.
Nagi: “Lord Louis is doing well.”
Nagi answered in an especially bright tone‚ trying to reassure her.
Nagi: “He’s out in town with Reiga right now.”
Serina: “…Town?”
Nagi: “Yes.
They’re buying a few things you’ll need after waking up.”
Serina: “…I see.”
Serina’s slender fingertips clenched the edge of the blanket so tightly they turned white.
Nagi: “I’m sure they’ll be back soon.”
Serina: “…Yeah.”
Even though she affirmed it with words‚ no relief appeared on Serina’s face.
Rather‚ the fact that her beloved Louis was not here right now only made the enormous hollow of guilt in her chest feel more vivid.
Serina: “…I…”
Serina’s dry cherry-pink lips trembled.
Nagi: “Yes?”
Serina: “What… should I do…?”
Neither Nagi nor Miria could find an answer right away.
Serina didn’t look at their faces.
She only kept her gaze on her own knees and dropped heavy words onto the floor one by one‚ as if coughing up blood.
Serina: “The more I wish… the more I wish…”
Nagi: “……”
Serina: “The world turns into sweets and breaks.”
Her voice trembled with fear‚ so faint it seemed about to disappear.
Serina: “Louis… because of me… will break…”
Miria couldn’t help lowering her eyes in pain.
Nagi simply watched Serina’s profile.
Nagi: (…It’s only natural.)
That morning two days ago.
The fresh tomatoes that mutated into grotesque chocolate‚ the entire space forcibly painted over with sweets—that tragedy.
And the reality that‚ as the price for sealing that rampage‚ the precious original of Louis’s youth—“Ichinose”—had been permanently erased from his mind.
How special that name had been.
What he had sacrificed.
Even that‚ Louis himself could no longer perceive.
Serina‚ who now knew everything‚ could no longer smile innocently the way she used to.
Because she had realized that “wishing for something” itself was a weapon that carved away the person she loved from the inside.
Nagi: “…Sacred power is something that…”
Nagi opened her mouth carefully‚ choosing her words.
Nagi: “is extremely strongly influenced by Lady Serina’s emotional ups and downs.”
Serina: “……”
Nagi: “So… telling you ‘don’t think about anything’ is probably an impossible request.”
Serina lifted her face‚ listless and vacant.
Serina: “Not thinking… I can’t do that anymore…”
Nagi: “Yes.”
Nagi nodded deeply‚ as if enveloping her.
Nagi: “So you don’t have to force yourself not to think.”
Serina: “…Huh?”
Nagi: “Just don’t sink too deeply into thought alone.”
Nagi spoke gently‚ completely discarding her cold stance as a recorder and showing only the face of a worried adult.
Nagi: “Don’t carry everything by yourself.”
Serina: “……”
Nagi: “We will somehow manage it.”
At that firm declaration‚ Serina’s clouded eyes wavered slightly.
Serina: “…But…”
Nagi: “We will absolutely not let Lord Louis push himself any further either.”
Nagi stated it clearly this time.
Nagi: “As adults‚ we will never again force Lord Louis to carry everything alone the way we used to.”
Serina: “……”
Nagi: “We’ll all think about it together.”
Serina didn’t answer.
Yet—just a little‚ the tension in her delicate shoulders melted away as if thawed by a faint warmth.
Not missing that subtle change‚ Miria gently reached for the crystal harp she had been holding.
Miria: “Serina.”
Serina: “…What?”
Miria: “Would you listen to my music for a little while?”
Miria gently placed her slender white fingers on the transparent silver strings.
And then—
Plink.
A cool first note rang pure and clear in the morning quiet.
Then another.
A soft melody melted into the air of the room that had been stagnant with despair.
It was never aggressive music that insisted on itself.
It was a prayerful tone filled with tenderness‚ as if gently layering another thin‚ warm silk membrane over the slightly cool morning air.
Serina simply listened in silence to the soft lingering notes.
Then—the frantic vanilla scent leaking from Serina’s mental unrest that had constantly lingered in the corner of the room gradually changed into a calm stillness upon touching the ripples of Miria’s music.
Nagi calmly observed that definite sign of change and let out a small breath inside.
Nagi: “…As I thought‚ there’s no mistake.”
Miria: “Is that so?”
Without stopping her playing‚ Miria smiled gently.
Nagi turned to face Serina once more.
Nagi: “Miria’s harp has the effect of gently neutralizing and soothing the rampage (leakage) of Lady Serina’s sacred power.”
Serina: “…Really?”
Nagi: “Yes.”
Serina looked at Miria with desperate eyes‚ clinging to the last thread of hope.
Miria nodded firmly while continuing to play‚ as if embracing her.
Miria: “So it’s okay‚ Serina.”
Serina: “……”
Miria: “It won’t completely eliminate the bug… but I can make the world a little calmer.”
For a while Serina simply listened to the pure harp tones filling the room.
Then—
Serina: “…I see.”
Just a little.
The cold freeze that had clung to the bottom of her voice melted softly‚ as if thawed by a warm patch of sunlight.
Nagi finally smiled with true relief from the bottom of her heart and lightly clapped her hands.
Nagi: “Then it’s decided!”
Serina: “…What is?”
Nagi: “Our new morning routine from now on!”
Nagi held up one slender white finger playfully.
Nagi: “When we wake up in the morning‚ first go to the open-air bath on the rooftop.”
She held up another finger happily.
Nagi: “And have Miria play the first harp of the morning here.”
Nagi smiled with the most reliable adult face.
Nagi: “That way‚ let’s tune the sacred power that leaks from Lady Serina at the start of each day as gently as possible!”
Serina thought for a moment.
The old her would have said‚
“A bath first thing in the morning?! Let’s go‚ let’s go!”
and jumped out of bed innocently.
But it was different now.
She had learned how terrifying a weapon the divinity inside her was to the person she loved.
Even so.
Serina: “…Yeah.”
She nodded small but firmly‚ as if shaking off her hesitation.
Serina: “Let’s do that.”
Miria stopped playing and her expression lit up with pure delight.
Miria: “Then starting today‚ every morning—it’s a promise!”
Serina: “…There will be a tomorrow‚ right?”
At the heavy mass of fear clinging to those words‚ Nagi held her breath for an instant.
The bottomless fear that if she greeted tomorrow‚ she might unconsciously wish for something again and carve Louis away.
Yet Nagi turned the most reliable adult smile toward Serina so she would never notice.
Nagi: “There will be! Of course there will—tomorrow‚ the day after‚ forever!”
Serina: “…I see.”
Serina slowly shifted her gaze back to the scenery outside the window.
A clear blue morning sky.
Thin white clouds drifting.
The peaceful-looking streets of the royal capital stretching into the distance.
And—somewhere in that scenery‚ her beloved Louis.
She still hadn’t seen him since waking.
It was still terrifying enough to make her instincts tremble.
That she might unconsciously wish for something again.
That her selfish desire might forever erase the precious previous life (Origin) inside him.
She was so scared she couldn’t help it.
But.
Even so‚ right now—
She was no longer completely alone.
That tiny yet absolute fact alone continued to remain as a faint true warmth in the frozen depths of the god’s heart.
When they stepped out of the inn‚ the morning air was colder than expected and sharply pricked their cheeks.
The lively voices of people passing by.
The regular sound of heavy cart wheels striking the stone pavement.
The savory aroma of freshly baked bread drifting from shop fronts.
It was the same beautiful‚ bustling morning streetscape that existed everywhere‚ unchanged from usual.
Yet—looking at Reiga’s large profile walking beside him‚ Louis was caught by a slightly strange sensation.
The world hadn’t changed at all.
And yet he alone felt as if he were standing alone in a transparent place where his feet couldn’t find solid ground—a peculiar floating feeling different from yesterday.
Reiga: “Still though…”
Reiga let out a deep white sigh that didn’t match his sturdy build.
Reiga: “That Nagi is pretty rough with people.”
Louis: “You think so?”
Reiga: “Sending two guys out shopping first thing in the morning?”
Louis: “Serina’s waking up‚ so we need the things‚ right?”
Reiga: “Well‚ that’s true.”
Reiga shrugged clumsily.
Reiga: “That’s why I can’t complain.”
Even as he grumbled‚ his profile looked soft and somehow happy.
Louis was drawn in and smiled his usual undistorted smile.
Louis: “What were we buying first again?”
Reiga: “Nightclothes.”
Louis: “Ah.”
Louis nodded calmly.
Louis: “For Serina?”
Reiga: “Obviously.
Or were you planning to buy matching nightclothes for you and me?”
Louis: “Oh‚ right.”
Reiga snorted in exasperation‚ yet fondly.
Reiga: “You really…”
The two stepped into a clothing specialty shop on the main street.
Colorful fabric products were packed tightly inside.
Light summer dresses‚ soft-looking loungewear‚ and many high-quality cotton nightclothes.
Louis looked around the shop for a while—then stopped dead in front of one shelf.
Louis: “……”
Reiga: “What’s wrong‚ Louis?”
Reiga turned around.
Louis: “No…”
Louis stared at the neatly folded pile of women’s nightclothes and slightly furrowed his brow.
Louis: “…There’s no way I would know Serina’s clothing size‚ right?”
Reiga: “…………”
Reiga stopped walking and stared hard at Louis’s face.
An unusually sharp confusion resided in his eyes.
Reiga: “You.”
Louis: “What?”
Reiga: “You’re saying you don’t even know your own lover’s clothing size?”
Louis: “…Huh?”
Louis’s thoughts completely froze at that moment.
Lover.
That ordinary word alone stuck unpleasantly deep in his ears like a foreign language he refused to understand.
Serina.
Long silver hair.
Innocent‚ always laughing‚ loves sweet things‚ and always runs to his side whenever something happens—that girl.
She’s precious.
I must protect her even at the cost of my life.
That much I understand.
The cold system in my brain also answers that it is the “highest-priority correct answer.”
But—“what kind of history of relationship I have spun with her until now.”
Only that core was terribly vague and white‚ as if the center of a jigsaw puzzle had been roughly torn out.
Serina says she likes me.
I know that as knowledge.
But whether that “like” was as a lover‚ or like family‚ or something else twisted—
I simply cannot remember anymore.
Reiga: “…Well.”
Seeing Louis fall silent‚ Reiga scratched his head roughly.
Reiga: “Just ask her yourself.”
Louis: “Her nightclothes size?”
Reiga: “That’s the surest way.”
Louis: “But she might still be magically asleep.”
Reiga: “Then ask a clerk.”
Louis: “Isn’t the hurdle pretty high for a guy to ask a clerk about a girl’s nightclothes size?”
Reiga: “What are you getting embarrassed about at this point?”
Louis: “No…”
Louis thought for a moment and answered honestly.
Louis: “I’m somehow not used to these everyday things.”
Reiga said nothing more.
Instead he called a clerk‚ conveyed approximate height‚ and had them select a few candidates of skin-friendly materials.
Louis stood beside him silently looking at the merchandise.
It was strange.
Would the previous me have chosen her clothes without hesitation?
Or do I no longer even know what kind of person the previous me was?
Reiga: “Next.”
Reiga said after finishing payment.
Reiga: “Sweets.”
Louis: “Sweets?”
Reiga: “Nagi asked us to get something she can put in her mouth when she wakes up‚ right?”
Louis: “Ah.”
Leaving the shop‚ the two headed this time for a sweets shop with a sweet‚ savory aroma.
At the front‚ colorful sweets were neatly arranged like jewels.
Crispy baked goods‚ cookies dusted with white powdered sugar‚ brightly colored chocolates.
Just looking at them‚ the previous me would surely have felt my heart leap.
—The previous me.
That phrase caught again like noise deep in my brain.
Reiga: “What’ll it be?”
Reiga asked.
Louis: “Anything Serina can eat is fine‚ right?”
Reiga: “That doesn’t help us choose.”
Louis: “Then… sweet things.”
Reiga: “Do you even intend to choose?”
Reiga said with genuine exasperation‚ so Louis let out a small laugh.
Louis: “Because that girl loves sweet things‚ right?”
Reiga: “……”
Reiga’s feet stopped dead on the spot.
But the current Louis didn’t even notice and walked on toward the display shelves.
One.
Then another.
He followed the lined-up products with inorganic eyes lacking any human heart-throb.
And then—
Louis’s right hand stopped in front of one package‚ as if drawn by something lost.
Louis: “…This.”
He murmured softly and picked it up.
It was an ordinary bar of chocolate with no special decoration.
Reiga: “You’re going with that?”
From behind‚ Reiga peered over with worried eyes.
Louis: “Yeah.”
Reiga: “Does Serina like that?”
Louis: “……”
Louis stared at the sweet on his palm.
I know the name.
I can logically imagine the taste.
But no specific “memory data” that Serina liked this comes up no matter how deeply I search the index in my brain.
Louis: “…I don’t know.”
Reiga: “Then why did you choose it?”
Louis: “……”
Louis thought for a moment.
Even he had no idea why.
But—if I hand this over.
If we put this in our mouths together‚ the scene of her smiling next to me in exasperation yet truly happily softens—
flashed vividly for an instant not in the brain’s log‚ but deep in a human chest.
Louis: “Just somehow.”
After saying that‚ Louis tightly gripped the ordinary package.
Louis: “…This feels like the best one.”
Reiga fell silent.
He started to say something‚ then clenched his back teeth hard and swallowed the words.
And then—
Reiga: “…Then let’s go with that.”
He said only that in a low‚ suppressed voice.
Louis: “Yeah.”
Louis nodded calmly and hugged that ordinary chocolate bar to his chest as if it were a fragile treasure.
The great hero Reiga continued to watch that delicate back for a while with a pained look.
But he said nothing and only narrowed his eyes a little as if holding back tears.
◇
Next the two headed to an old established specialty shop dealing in high-quality tea leaves‚ just off the main street.
Reiga: “Nagi told us to buy some herbal tea too.”
Louis: “She said to drink it after the morning bath.”
Various tea leaves from different origins were lined up packed in simple hemp bags on the shelves.
While checking the aromas‚ the two selected a few.
Ones that wouldn’t chill the body to the core.
Ones that wouldn’t burden the stomach even after a deep sleep.
Ones that weren’t too stimulating for a waking head.
Louis silently listened beside Reiga as he seriously discussed those conditions with the clerk.
Louis: “This kind of thing feels ordinary‚ somehow.”
Reiga: “What does?”
Louis: “Shopping while thinking about various things for someone else like this.”
Reiga: “Of course it is.
That’s normal.”
Louis: “…I see.”
Louis stared at the tea bag.
Normal.
That word soaked a little warmly into the hollow deep in his chest.
Normal.
How many ordinary days for someone else like this had he spent in his previous world?
Searching the bookshelf in his brain‚ he still couldn’t remember anything.
But—for some reason‚ it didn’t feel bad at all.
At the last small sundries shop they stopped at‚ they bought the various daily necessities Nagi had specified.
A ribbon for tying hair.
A small wooden comb.
Handkerchiefs.
Socks.
Fragrant soap.
Louis: “We’ll need this too.”
Louis gently picked up a pale-colored ribbon from the shelf.
Reiga: “Buying that too?”
Louis: “Because Nagi asked for it.”
Reiga: “Well‚ true‚ but…”
Louis stared at the ribbon’s decoration.
Not too flashy‚ with a small ornament.
The image of Serina tying it in her silver hair rose extremely naturally in his mind like a beautiful painting.
Louis: “…This.”
Reiga: “What?”
Louis: “I thought it would look really good on Serina.”
He murmured.
Reiga said nothing.
Louis himself didn’t know why he had such a groundless impression.
Even her hairstyle was only recognized as knowledge corrected by the system right now.
But.
It suits her.
This is definitely the one.
He was strongly convinced beyond reason.
Reiga: “…Just buy it.”
Reiga made an unnatural sniffing sound and looked away.
Louis: “Yeah.”
Louis gently put the ribbon into the shopping bag.
◇
By the time they left the shop‚ the shopping bags the two carried had grown quite full.
Nightclothes.
Sweets.
Tea leaves.
And various daily necessities.
Reiga looked down at the bag in his large hands.
Reiga: “It sure increased a lot.”
Louis: “Because they’re necessary.”
Reiga: “…Isn’t this a lot more than the original plan?”
Louis: “Was it?”
Reiga: “It is.”
Louis: “Well‚ it’s fine.
That just means there were that many necessary things‚ right?”
Reiga: “You really…”
Reiga gave an exasperated wry smile and forcibly took half the bags Louis was carrying and slung them over his own shoulder.
For a while the two walked side by side in silence.
Once they left the main street‚ the lively morning hustle of the town gradually faded.
Eventually Reiga‚ still facing forward‚ opened his heavy mouth.
Reiga: “Hey‚ Louis.”
Louis: “What?”
Reiga: “You… if it’s to protect Serina… you’ll use that magic (sealing formula) again‚ right?”
Louis showed not a millimeter of hesitation.
Louis: “If necessary.”
It was an immediate answer.
Reiga’s feet stopped dead on the spot.
Reiga: “…Don’t.”
His voice was low‚ as if crawling on the ground.
Reiga: “Don’t brush it off with the single word ‘necessary.’”
Louis also stopped walking.
Louis: “……”
Reiga: “How much of your own contents (Origin) you’ve carved away to maintain that twisted little garden.
We learned everything last night.”
Louis: “But if it’s to protect Serina—”
Reiga: “There it is again!”
Reiga stared straight into Louis’s face with eyes filled with quiet anger and deep sorrow.
Reiga: “If it’s to protect Serina‚ you don’t care what happens to yourself.
Right now you’re making a completely emotionless doll-like face.”
Louis: “……”
Louis didn’t answer.
He couldn’t deny it either.
The system (Ciel) in his brain told him that was the one and only correct choice.
When weighing the world and her life‚ using himself as fuel was the most efficient‚ and the only method.
So.
Louis: “…If necessary‚ I’ll use the formula again.”
He repeated it once more in a completely flat‚ businesslike voice with no emotional fluctuation.
Reiga exhaled a long‚ heavy breath that had accumulated in his lungs.
He didn’t look angry.
Rather‚ he looked like he was alone worrying about how to save the life of a too-clumsy child standing before him.
Reiga: “You.”
Reiga lowered his voice a little.
Reiga: “…What did you forget yourself?”
Louis blinked inorganically.
Louis: “…What do you mean?”
Reiga: “I’m asking what you’ve lost of yourself up to now.”
Louis: “……”
For a while Louis tried to access the archive in his brain.
But—there is no “answer” there.
What has been forgotten cannot even be remembered.
Only the “cold outline” of the fact that it is missing exists there; the contents are complete void.
That is the absolute horror of paying (losing) memories to the system.
Louis: “…I don’t know.”
He answered the plain fact honestly‚ stripped of emotion.
Reiga: “…I see.”
Reiga didn’t pursue any further cruelly.
The two simply started walking again in silence‚ and around the time the roof of their destination inn came into distant view.
Reiga: “Then I’ll ask something else.”
Louis: “What?”
Reiga: “You… how do you really feel about Serina right now?”
Louis thought again.
Serina.
He pictured the name.
A golden smile.
A cheerful voice.
Too-close distance.
The way she happily eats sweets.
The voice that calls his name.
I must protect her.
I must cherish her.
That alone is an absolute truth that won’t change even if the laws of the world collapse.
The definition of the human-like emotional word “I love you” has been completely deleted from my dictionary (system)‚ though.
Louis: “…She’s precious.”
Louis answered as if gently embracing the last small ember that remained deep in his chest.
No more emotional words would come out of him now.
Reiga said nothing.
He simply heard that plain yet soul-squeezed answer—and seemed to soften his stern adult expression just a little.
◇
As the entrance of the inn drew near.
Louis suddenly slowed his pace.
Louis: (…Ciel)
Without speaking aloud‚ he called the system only in his heart.
Ciel: “Yes.”
Instantly‚ a cold yet endlessly sweet system voice resounded in his mind.
Louis: (Is Serina really okay?)
Ciel: “Please rest assured.
She is currently in a stable sleeping state thanks to Lady Nagi’s magic.
No abnormalities in life activities are observed.”
Louis: (That’s not what I mean.)
Ciel: “……”
Ciel fell silent.
Louis stared at the shopping bags swaying in his hands.
Louis: (That girl… after she wakes up… will she really be okay?)
For a while there was no reply.
Whether it was spending time on logical calculation or deliberately choosing words.
Eventually.
Ciel: “…Lady Serina is terribly afraid.”
Louis: (Of what?)
Ciel: “Of her own existence itself.”
Louis fell silent.
Ciel: “And—”
Ciel’s voice sank a little lower‚ as if tinged with a human-like emotional fluctuation.
Ciel: “She fears to a horrifying degree that Lord Louis will be hurt any further.”
Louis: “……”
Louis raised his face and looked up at the dazzling morning sky.
It was an endlessly deep‚ far too blue sky.
Louis: (Ciel)
Ciel: “Yes.”
Louis: (Can I protect Serina?)
A brief‚ short silence.
Ciel: “…Yes.”
Louis: (Really?)
Ciel: “Yes.
Without fail.”
That was all.
An extremely cold and absolute assurance that even if Louis’s life were carved away like firewood in the process‚ only the result was perfectly guaranteed.
Yet—hearing Ciel’s reply‚ Louis let out a small breath of relief.
Louis: “…I see.”
At the murmur that slipped out‚ Reiga walking beside him glanced over with a slightly suspicious look.
Reiga: “What’s wrong‚ Louis?”
Louis: “No.”
Louis shook his head a little.
Louis: “It’s nothing.”
—Exactly then.
Reiga: “Hey‚ Louis.”
Louis: “What?”
Reiga: “That ‘Ciel’ inside you…”
Reiga continued in a low voice‚ a little wary of the surroundings.
Reiga: “Is it still properly there?”
Louis: “It is.”
Ciel: “Yes.
I exist here.”
Louis’s real voice and Ciel’s system voice in his brain overlapped almost simultaneously and cleanly.
Reiga raised one eyebrow suspiciously.
Reiga: “…Did you just hear that thing’s voice?”
Louis: “No.”
Louis answered.
Louis: “Just now Ciel answered the same way inside my brain.”
Ciel: “That is correct.”
Reiga: “Convenient‚ your insides (system).”
Louis: “You think so?”
Reiga snorted a little—then returned to the sharp‚ cold expression of a battle-hardened hero who had survived many death lines.
Reiga: “…Then there’s just one thing I absolutely want to ask your insides.”
Louis: “What?”
Reiga: “Besides forcing Serina to sleep like that‚ is there really no other fundamental solution at all?”
Louis didn’t answer with words and turned his consciousness deeply inward to the inside of his brain.
Louis: (Ciel)
Ciel: “……”
Several seconds of terribly heavy silence.
And then—
Ciel: “—There is not.
It is the optimal solution at the present stage reached at the end of logical calculation.”
Seeing Louis shake his head in front of the inn‚ Reiga lowered his eyes in pain.
Reiga: “…I see.”
He said only that in a suppressed voice.
The two started walking toward the inn again in silence.
For a while neither spoke.
Only the lively morning hustle of the distant town passed emptily between them.
Eventually—just before putting his hand on the old wooden door of the inn.
Reiga‚ still facing forward‚ said in a voice like a ground rumble.
Reiga: “Then.”
Louis: “…?”
Reiga: “From now on we’ll just have to desperately search for a method other than ‘putting her to sleep.’”
Louis didn’t answer.
The system in his brain asserted “there is none.”
That is the absolute truth (log) of this world.
Yet—
Only those far too muddy‚ tenacious words of resolve spat out by the adult called a great hero continued to catch with a definite‚ unerasable heat deep in Louis’s cleanly emptied chest.
White warm steam lazily melted into the clear blue sky.
The open-air bath set up on the inn’s rooftop.
The sky before noon was endlessly calm‚ the clouds thin‚ and there was almost no early-summer breeze.
Shio‚ immersed up to her shoulders in the bath‚ was dazedly gazing at the high distant sky with half-lidded eyes.
Nearby‚ her partner the small dragon—Nigari—was perched on a dry rock‚ avoiding the damp steam.
Shio: “…………”
Shio closed her eyelids.
What she recalled was the night three days ago.
On this rooftop she had faced the completely unknowing Serina head-on.
She had deliberately chosen not a single kind word.
Instead of gently admonishing‚ she had simply thrust cold facts at her like a sharp blade.
Shio: “You’re the one breaking Louis”—she had said.
She had to know.
If she didn’t know the truth‚ that god would just smile innocently again and endlessly repeat the same cruel error in this little garden.
Shio: “…With this.”
Shio muttered bluntly‚ as if blowing a faint breath onto the water surface.
Shio: “That idiot god should properly understand her own unconscious sins now.”
Nigari: “Keh keh.”
Nigari laughed in agreement from deep in its throat.
Shio: “Yeah.”
Shio: “…………”
Shio opened her eyes again and looked up at the sky.
Shio: “Well‚ even if she understands… it doesn’t mean everything is over.”
—Exactly then.
The old wooden door leading to the rooftop opened with a modest creak.
Nagi: “Miss Shio.”
It was Nagi.
Behind her followed Miria lovingly holding her harp.
And.
Serina: “…………”
Serina was standing there.
Shio’s sanpaku eyes were naturally drawn to that small figure.
Shio: “…Hoh.”
Compared to the night two days ago‚ the atmosphere was clearly different.
She wasn’t crying loudly.
She wasn’t panicking or losing control either.
Just—terribly quiet.
The overwhelming innocent divine aura that rewrote the world had completely subsided‚ and deep in those blue eyes resided a color of intense fear‚ as if instinctively afraid of the “too-powerful omnipotence inside herself.”
Shio: “…So you came.”
Serina: “Hello…”
Serina bowed her head slightly in a voice about to disappear.
There wasn’t a fragment of the previous cheerfulness.
Even so‚ she wasn’t trying to run away from this place.
Seeing that‚ Shio deliberately didn’t pursue further.
Nagi gently sat on the edge of the bath.
Nagi: “Let’s rest here a little while feeling the breeze.”
Serina: “Yeah…”
Miria removed the waterproof cloth and placed the crystal harp she had brought on her own knees.
Miria: “Serina.”
Serina: “…What?”
Miria: “May I play a little here again?”
Serina: “…Yeah.”
Miria gently placed her slender fingertips on the transparent silver strings.
A cool melody flowed into the clear morning space.
Plink.
Plink…….
Soft ripples of sound drifted gently through the white rising steam.
Then the “sweet vanilla divinity (bug)” that had been violently wavering around Serina gradually thinned and changed into stillness.
The tense air regained composure‚ and Nagi let out a breath of relief inside.
Nagi: “…Good.”
Miria also smiled a little in relief.
Miria: “Today she’s much more stable than before sleeping.”
Serina: “Yeah…”
Serina also relaxed her shoulders a little and lowered her gaze to the water surface.
But.
Shio: “…………”
Only Shio continued to watch the scene coldly with her sanpaku eyes sharply narrowed.
Nagi: “…What is it‚ Miss Shio?”
Noticing the extraordinary sharpness of that gaze‚ Nagi furrowed her brow.
Shio: “This alone doesn’t suppress a single fundamental thing.”
Miria: “Eh…?”
Miria’s fingertips stopped in surprise.
The beautiful harp sound cut off‚ and heavy silence returned to the rooftop.
Shio stared straight at Serina standing on the other side of the bath.
Shio: “Nothing’s changed from before.
You’re just temporarily injecting painkillers and quieting the surface.”
Serina’s delicate shoulders twitched and she lowered her head even deeper.
She must have thought those cold words were punishing her again.
But Shio mercilessly threw the words.
Shio: “In the first place the root is wrong.”
Nagi: “…………”
Nagi blocked the gaze as if protecting her and asked.
Nagi: “Then what do you say we should do…?”
Shio: “In the first place.”
Shio said bluntly while looking at her own slender hands floating in the bath.
Shio: “Something as grandiose as sacred power isn’t the kind of thing people can do anything about.”
Nagi: “…People?”
Shio: “Yeah‚ that’s right.”
Shio’s sanpaku eyes now pierced straight through Serina.
Shio: “It’s not a cheap story like humans handling magic power‚ skillfully throttling the output valve‚ neatly assembling formulas‚ and saying ‘control complete.’”
Serina simply remained silent like a stone.
Nagi: “Then…”
Nagi continued further.
Nagi: “What should we do? Is there no other method…?”
Shio left a slightly frustrating pause in the steam.
Shio: “—That idiot god herself has to control it herself.”
Serina: “…………!”
Serina’s blue eyes shook violently with shock.
Serina: “Me…?”
Shio: “Yeah.”
Serina: “Myself… something like that…”
Shio: “That’s right.
You’re the one who has to do it.”
It was an endlessly cold and strict declaration.
Yet—it was clearly different from the pure despair accusation of the night two days ago.
Shio was no longer saying it to corner Serina into a dead end.
She had entered the stage of making the girl who had become aware of her own unconscious sins search for the “answer” ahead with her own feet.
For a while Serina remained silent‚ staring at her own small white palms.
And then—
Serina: “…I don’t know.”
She murmured in a hoarse voice that seemed about to cry.
Serina: “What even is sacred power…?”
No one answered.
No one could answer.
Serina: “Why is something like this inside me…?”
Heavy silence filled the rooftop.
Serina: “I still don’t really know how to suppress it either…”
Serina pressed her hand hard against her chest as if about to tear it open.
Serina: “But…!”
She raised her face a little as if shaking off hesitation.
Serina: “If there’s a way to suppress it‚ I truly want to suppress it right now…!”
Shio‚ still immersed in the bath‚ simply listened to her words without speaking.
Serina: “And also…!”
Serina’s voice now began to tremble violently with clear emotion.
Serina: “The memories Louis lost… and the memories with me‚ I want them all back…!”
White warm steam slowly flowed between them as if blocking the way.
Serina: “If…”
Serina made her blue eyes beyond the film of tears shine straight.
Serina: “If by wishing from the bottom of my heart it would all come true…”
For just an instant‚ that dazzling light from her previous life resided in those eyes.
Serina: “—I’ll wish as much as I want.”
Of course.
If she could regain the memories of the person she loved.
If she could return the person she had hurt to normal‚ she would wish any number of times.
Even staking everything of herself.
Thinking that is only far too ordinary and normal for a human.
But.
Serina: “…But.”
Serina lowered those blue eyes as if enduring pain.
Serina: “I realized.”
Shio’s sanpaku eyes narrowed even more sharply.
Serina: “I… probably…”
Her cherry-pink lips trembled white in small motions.
Serina: “—can only break things.”
Shio: “…………”
Serina: “The more I wish… the more I break Louis’s life up to now from the inside.”
Every time she put it into words herself‚ that strict fact stabbed deeper and deeper into the depths of her chest like a sharp thorn.
Serina: “So…!”
Serina drew a small but painful breath into her throat.
Serina: “I can’t wish easily anymore.”
Shio closed her eyes once.
She understood that the curse-like cold words she had thrown in anger two nights ago had finally reached the core of her soul after two days of sleep.
At that moment it had looked like she had only mercilessly hurt an omnipotent god.
But she hadn’t ended with just being hurt.
She had properly suffered‚ properly been afraid.
And—“the omnipotent power (bug) inside herself” she had correctly begun to doubt as an object of horrifying fear.
Serina: “…Ciel told me in my head.”
Serina continued words little by little as if confessing her previous arrogance to a god.
Serina: “If I wish for something while I’m still this unstable… Louis will really completely break from the inside.”
Shio: “…………”
Serina: “So wishing for something itself… isn’t always the correct answer (route)—I finally understood.”
Hearing those words.
Shio‚ beyond the steam‚ loosened the corners of her mouth just a little in satisfaction.
Shio: “…You’ve started understanding things with your own head a bit.”
Serina raised her face with a start of surprise.
Serina: “…Eh?”
Shio: “The you from two nights ago would never have said something so obvious.”
Serina: “…………”
Shio: “Until now you never doubted that overwriting the world with sweets by granting wishes was always absolute ‘good.’
You were that kind of naive idiot god.”
Serina couldn’t retort to that sharp point.
Shio: “But it’s different now‚ right?”
Shio pierced Serina’s wavering blue eyes straight with her sanpaku eyes.
Shio: “Granting a wish itself doesn’t necessarily truly save someone.”
Serina nodded deeply and slowly as if holding back tears.
Serina: “…Yeah.”
Shio: “Then next‚ search with your own feet for a method other than ‘just wishing.’”
Serina: “A method…”
Shio: “Yeah‚ that’s right.”
Shio shrugged clumsily in the bath.
Shio: “How to handle that omnipotent power sleeping inside you with the correct discipline.
Think of that answer yourself with all your might this time.”
Serina remained silent for a while in the space where the harp’s lingering notes drifted‚ turning her thoughts.
Eventually—
Serina: “…Yeah.”
Once more.
This time lighting a definite fire of will in the depths of those previously weak eyes‚ she nodded small but firmly.
Nagi watched over that change as if embracing it.
Nagi: “In the end…”
It was a terribly gentle voice.
Nagi: “Right now we have no choice but to receive treatment with Miria’s harp without rushing‚ and search for a clue together.”
Serina: “…………”
Serina was silent.
Yet—this time she didn’t lower her gaze as if running from reality.
She simply stayed quiet.
Serina: “…Yeah.
That’s right.”
And nodded straight.
—Exactly that moment.
Shio: “…………”
Shio’s boyish expression stiffened unnaturally with a snap.
Shio: “…True enough.”
Nagi: “Miss Shio…?”
Sensing something extraordinary‚ Nagi turned around.
Shio’s sanpaku eyes were no longer looking at Serina and the others.
She was staring fixedly beyond the sky—at a twisted dimensional fissure even further beyond this sweet little-garden world.
Shio: “But you know…”
An unsettling low voice dropped onto the rooftop as if crawling on the ground.
Shio: “The trigger for this world’s collapse (bug) doesn’t seem to be only the sacred power of the idiot god in front of us.”
Nagi: “…Eh?”
Nagi’s eyes widened.
Serina also raised her face with a start.
Nagi: “What do you mean‚ Miss Shio?”
Shio: “Exactly as I said.”
Shio moved her nose sensitively like a wild beast‚ as if about to rise from the bath.
As if confirming the components of the air with her instincts.
Shio: “…Tch‚ the worst.”
A deep‚ ominous wrinkle formed between her brows.
Shio: “—This is a terribly unpleasant smell.”
Miria: “Smell…?”
Miria asked anxiously while tightly hugging the harp she held.
Shio: “No… ‘scent’ might be closer.”
Shio narrowed her sanpaku eyes with more disgust than when she had smelled the stench of cacao death.
Shio: “Something that endlessly forcibly expands the fear and hatred sleeping inside humans…”
Nagi: “…………”
Shio: “—The worst smell that absolutely never existed in this deceit-filled little garden until now.”
A lukewarm wind suddenly blew across the rooftop.
The sweet smell unique to this world that reminded one of freshly baked sweets.
Mixed uncannily with it—though only a little‚ something so bitter it made the root of the tongue tingle was definitely riding the wind.
Shio: “It’s oozing out little by little from all over the world.”
Nagi: “All over the world…?”
Nagi’s voice sank low toward a bottomless abyss.
Nigari: “Really…”
Nigari snorted irritably on the rock as if shuddering.
Nigari: “It tastes bitter and disgusting‚ hey.”
At her partner’s words‚ Shio nodded heavily in silence.
This was absolutely different.
It was completely distinct from the bug when Serina’s sacred power ran wild.
That idiot god’s power was endlessly excessively sweet and soft.
And it forcibly rewrote the molecular structure of the world itself into sweets.
But—what was drifting now was pointed in the completely opposite worst vector.
This one seeped like a snake into the shadows of the human heart.
Fear.
Hatred.
Anger.
It was the kind that swelled those negative emotions like sludge and made them run wild.
Miria: “…What on earth is about to happen?”
Miria asked in a trembling voice.
Shio: “I still don’t know.”
Shio answered.
Shio: “But…”
She sharply gazed to the end of the distant royal capital sky.
Shio: “—Something worst is definitely beginning.”
Serina hugged her delicate body as if afraid of her own omnipotence.
Serina: “…It’s not… my fault…?”
Shio: “No.”
This time too.
Shio declared immediately without a moment’s hesitation.
Shio: “This isn’t your doing.”
Serina: “…………!”
Shio: “The vector direction is completely different from the error you’re causing by breaking this world.
So you don’t need to blame yourself for this.”
Serina let out a small breath of relief as if exhaling the heavy air that had accumulated deep in her chest.
The world was beginning to decisively break because of someone.
That cruel fact itself hadn’t disappeared.
But at least—not everything was the fault of her sin.
Just that alone made the lump in her throat ease a little and breathing easier for her.
Miria: “…What should we do…?”
Miria murmured.
That lovely voice already had an undeniable color of unknown fear thickly seeping into it.
Nagi gently turned toward her.
Nagi: “It’s all right.”
Her usual slightly absent soft tone.
Yet the light residing deep in those jade-colored eyes was more serious than ever.
Nagi: “I and Mister Reiga are still here like this.”
And—
Nagi: “Besides‚ in the home country there are six reliable friends… the famous ‘Sages.’”
Miria: “…The six Sages.”
Miria murmured as if suppressing the trembling of her shoulders.
Nagi: “Yes.”
Nagi nodded firmly as if guaranteeing the future to the girl.
Nagi: “There’s no need anywhere in this world to carry it alone!”
Shio‚ listening to the adults’ conversation‚ smiled a little ironically yet dependably.
Shio: “Then… I should get moving soon too.”
Nagi: “Miss Shio?”
Nagi raised her eyebrows.
Shio: “I’ll go talk directly to that stubborn old man the ancient dragon Xeno.”
Serina raised her face with a start.
Serina: “Xeno…?”
Shio: “Yeah.”
Shio nodded in the bath.
Shio: “A reptile who’s lived damn long might know something useful at times of world bugs like this.”
Serina: “…Does he know something?”
Shio: “Who knows.”
Shio shrugged clumsily.
Shio: “But if we don’t go ask‚ we won’t know a thing‚ right?”
Nigari laughed with a throaty “keh keh” on the rock.
Nigari: “Keh keh! That high-and-mighty lizard king might know something!”
Shio: “Right?”
Shio also smiled thinly as if agreeing with her partner.
But—that boyish smile vanished in an instant the next moment.
She looked up again at the high distant sky.
Blue.
An ironically calm blue sky.
A sweet world.
A kind world.
The false world Louis created solely to save someone (Serina) and keep her smile connected.
In a corner of it.
An abominable bitter smell that should never have existed until now was uncannily mixed in.
It was little by little.
Yet steadily spreading beyond every boundary throughout the world.
This isn’t only a problem of Serina’s sacred power alone.
Nor is it only a problem of Louis who continues sealing it.
In the system of this world (little garden) itself—
a “different intense fray” completely separate from Serina’s wish is beginning to be born right now.
Shio muttered bluntly in a voice too small for anyone’s ears.
Shio: “…This is turning into a damn hassle.”
Nigari laughed happily beside her.
Nigari: “Keh keh! It’s a bit late for that‚ partner!”
Shio: “…Well‚ yeah.”
A lukewarm‚ sweet sweets wind suddenly blew.
Within that excessively kind fragrance.
Just a little.
The worst bitter smell that prickled the tongue’s mucous membrane continued to mix thickly and linger.
Past noon.
The heavy wooden door of the inn opened with a modest creak.
Louis: “I’m home.”
The first to enter was Louis.
Behind him followed Reiga easily carrying the large amount of luggage from shopping.
Reiga: “Good work.”
Nagi: “Welcome back‚ Lord Louis.
Mister Reiga as well.”
Nagi‚ who had been doing miscellaneous desk work at the dining table‚ raised her face and calmly welcomed the two.
Flare also peeked out from the back of the kitchen with the aroma of freshly baked bread.
Flare: “Welcome home‚ Lord Louis‚ Lord Reiga!”
Louis: “Yeah.
I’m home‚ Flare.”
Louis‚ still holding the bulging shopping bags in his arms‚ looked around the dining room.
And asked before anything else.
Louis: “…Has Serina woken up already?”
Nagi nodded deeply in a way that reassured him.
Nagi: “Yes.
She’s resting quietly in the room upstairs again right now.”
Louis: “I see.”
Nagi: “She’s still not quite in top form‚ or rather not energetic‚ though.”
Louis: “…………I see.”
Louis’s frozen expression softened just a little‚ as if stubborn ice were melting.
It was truly only that tiny change.
Yet Reiga standing beside him certainly didn’t miss that subtle nuance‚ as if watching over his son’s growth.
Miria: “In the morning we all went into the rooftop open-air bath together.”
Miria said proudly while lovingly caring for the harp strings.
Louis: “Really?”
Miria: “Yes!”
Louis raised his face with a start.
Miria: “I also played the first harp of the morning here for Serina.”
Louis: “…How was Serina?”
Miria: “She listened quietly and gently the whole time.”
Miria bloomed a lovely smile a little happily.
Miria: “But at the end… she said ‘I want to listen to Miria’s sound a little more.’”
Louis: “…………”
Louis said nothing.
Just—
Louis: “…I see.”
He exhaled the heavy breath that had accumulated at the bottom of his lungs.
It was an extremely deep sigh of relief‚ as if saved.
Probably an unconscious relief from the bottom of the soul that had been left uncarved‚ so unconscious he himself didn’t notice.
Louis: “Then… that’s truly‚ truly good.”
Murmuring that‚ Louis gently placed the shopping bags he had been holding onto the table.
Nagi: “Ah‚ those are the things I asked for.”
Nagi approached with light steps and peeked into the bags on the wooden table.
Nagi: “…Nightclothes.”
Louis: “Yeah.”
Nagi: “Sweets.”
Louis: “Yeah.”
Nagi: “Tea leaves… and then hair ties…”
Nagi carefully took the daily necessities out onto the table.
Nagi: “…You bought quite a lot.”
Reiga snorted in exasperation.
Reiga: “This guy arbitrarily increased the things he wanted.”
Louis: “Because they’re necessary.”
Reiga: “More than necessary.”
Louis: “…Was it?”
Reiga: “It was.”
Seeing their somewhat absent exchange‚ Miria couldn’t help letting out a small laugh.
Miria: “Fufu…!”
Louis: “You don’t have to laugh that much.”
Miria: “I’m sorry‚ Louis.”
Miria hid her mouth with a slender hand and smiled elegantly with a soft chuckle.
Nagi took a commercial sweet out of the bag onto her palm.
Nagi: “This looks like something Lady Serina would really like.”
Louis: “…Yeah.”
Nagi: “Why did you choose this among so many?”
Louis: “…………”
Louis stared at that ordinary sweets package.
It looked familiar somewhere‚ or maybe not.
He had thought Serina would like this.
That was all.
Louis: “…I don’t know.”
Nagi: “…You don’t know?”
Louis: “Yeah.”
After turning his thoughts a little frustratedly.
Louis said while gently tracing the outline of the sweet with his fingertip.
Louis: “Just… this felt like the best one.”
Nagi and Miria‚ at that moment‚ both started and stared at Louis’s face for an instant.
Yet—neither of them said anything more.
Or rather‚ they couldn’t.
In place of the previous-life memories completely erased from the index (data) in his brain‚ deep in him as a human there still pulsed a definite “trace of someone precious.”
They keenly felt that warm yet far too cruel remnant of a miracle.
Louis‚ unable even to notice the meaning of those meaningful gazes‚ simply slowly returned the ordinary sweet to the bag.
Nagi: “For a while from now‚ I’m thinking of continuing the rooftop bath and harp in the mornings.”
Nagi said as if declaring.
Nagi: “While watching Lady Serina’s condition‚ little by little and carefully‚ though.”
Louis: “Then I can rest easy.”
Louis nodded honestly.
Louis: “Yeah.
Thank you‚ Nagi.”
Hearing those words of heartfelt appreciation‚ Nagi smiled a little troubled yet fondly and gently.
Nagi: “Not at all‚ I’m an adult after all.”
A calm atmosphere slowly returned to the dining room.
For just a short time—it was a peaceful afternoon scene as if nothing in the world were broken.
But.
Louis suddenly turned his gaze‚ as if drawn by something‚ toward a dim table at the back of the dining room.
Louis: “…………”
Shio was there.
Their gazes crossed.
Shio said nothing and simply looked back coldly with her sanpaku eyes.
Louis thought logically for a moment and then walked toward her.
Louis: “Shio.”
Shio: “What?”
Louis: “Got a moment?”
Shio: “Yeah.”
The two moved to a dim seat by the wall slightly away from the dining room’s noise.
Louis opened his mouth in a lowered voice.
Louis: “About two days ago.”
Shio: “…Yeah.”
Louis: “What do you think about Serina?”
Shio raised her thin eyebrows suspiciously.
Shio: “What do you mean?”
Louis: “That girl is right now strongly convinced and terrified that she’s the one breaking the world.”
Shio: “…………”
Shio remained silent for a while.
Shio: “Well.”
Eventually she responded as if spitting it out shortly.
Shio: “She’s become a bit aware of how bad the bug she’s causing is‚ right?”
Louis: “I see.”
Louis nodded.
Louis: “Then…”
After hesitating a little‚ he cut to the main question.
Louis: “What should I do from now on?”
Shio: “Don’t ask me that kind of thing.”
A cold‚ instantaneous answer without a second’s hesitation.
Louis: “…I see.”
Shio: “I don’t understand all the specifications of this world either.
Even if I can see through sacred power to some extent‚ I have no idea how to save you.”
Louis: “…………”
Louis simply remained silent.
And then—
Louis: “Even so‚ I want to protect Serina.”
Shio’s thin eyebrows twitched with a show of disgust.
Shio: “…Tch‚ that again.”
Louis: “Yeah.”
Shio: “How many times do I have to make you say the same thing before you’re satisfied?”
Shio’s displeased voice sank low as if crawling on the ground.
Shio: “You seriously think that if it’s to protect Serina‚ you don’t care even if you yourself completely break‚ right?”
Louis lowered his gaze to his own fingertips a little and looked down.
Louis: “…If it’s ‘necessary.’”
Shio: “Stop that way of thinking right now.”
The words flew straight like a sharp blade of ice.
Louis: “…………”
Louis raised his face and met her sanpaku eyes.
Louis: “Why?”
Shio: “Don’t give me ‘why.’”
Shio spat the words onto the dim floor as if disgusted.
Shio: “Don’t brush it off with a cheap single word like ‘necessary.’”
Louis couldn’t retort.
Shio: “You’re incorporating yourself breaking without a trace into the ‘natural options’ from the start.”
Louis: “…………”
Shio: “What I hate most is that self-sacrificing act of yours.”
Shio looked at Louis with an intense gaze that seemed to pierce to the depths of the soul.
Shio: “Honestly‚ you two are so similar it makes me want to vomit.”
Louis: “…Me and Serina?”
Shio: “Yeah‚ that’s right.”
Louis blinked a little in surprise.
Himself and Serina.
Where on earth were they similar?
Personality‚ thought processes‚ the environments they were born and raised in—all seemed quite different.
Shio: “From my view‚ you’re the spitting image.”
Shio layered words as if suppressing anger.
Shio: “—That idiot god is trying to protect this world by breaking herself and falling into deep sleep.”
Louis: “…………”
Shio: “—You’re trying to protect that idiot god by breaking yourself and losing your memories.”
Louis remained coldly silent.
He couldn’t deny it.
Or rather—the logic (resource) itself to deny it couldn’t be found anywhere even searching the system in his brain.
Protect Serina.
Seal the world’s bug.
If it’s for that‚ I don’t care if I burn myself out like firewood in a fireplace.
That itself was the absolute “correct answer (clear condition)” in this little garden (game) that he had believed without doubt until now.
At least until this very moment.
Shio: “In the end‚ what you’re doing is exactly the same.”
Shio’s low voice dropped quietly into the hushed wall side.
Shio: “Both of you…”
A terribly frustrating pause of just an instant lay between them.
Shio: “—haven’t included your own existence in the calculation from the start.”
Louis: “…………”
Those words.
Pierced strangely sharply and deeply into the depths of his chest that should have been flattened by Ciel’s optimization patch (logic).
Haven’t included your own existence in the calculation from the start.
Now that she said it‚ that might indeed be true.
Louis had been trying with all his might to stop Serina from blaming and hurting herself so she wouldn’t break the world.
Yet—regarding himself being carved and hurt (losing precious memories from the world) to protect Serina.
He had never once tried to think about it the same way she did.
Louis: “…………I…”
Louis’s voice cut off there.
The continuation wouldn’t come out no matter what.
He no longer knew what excuse he should make.
Shio didn’t pursue him any further cruelly.
She simply lightly tapped Louis’s delicate shoulder as she passed by.
Shio: “…Think a little.”
Louis: “…………”
Shio: “About your own life (life) too.”
Leaving only that‚ Shio disappeared first into the dim depths of the dining room.
Louis was simply left standing alone there.
From a little distance came the peaceful talking voices of Nagi and the others.
The dry sound of dishes clinking.
Someone’s calm laughter.
The usual inn.
The usual ordinary peaceful afternoon.
And yet.
Only deep in his emptied chest‚ one heavy word continued to resound as an inescapable aftertone.
—You haven’t included yourself in the calculation.
Louis lowered his gaze again to the shopping bags left on the wooden table.
Inside them were only the things he himself had chosen while hesitating at the clothing shop and sweets shop earlier.
Skin-friendly nightclothes.
The commercial sweets chosen unconsciously.
Tea leaves for after the morning bath.
A pale-colored hair tie.
Every single one of them was all.
So that she would never be afraid again.
So that she could smile even a little like those dazzling mornings of her previous life.
All bought solely for her.
Louis: “…………”
In that bag‚ ordinary things for himself—
Not a single one was included.
Louis said nothing and simply continued staring at that bag filled with empty kindness for a long time.
In front of the room door‚ Louis stopped his feet once.
In his right hand the strings of the shopping bags he had bought while touring clothing and sweets shops during the day dug in painfully heavy.
Skin-friendly nightclothes.
Unconsciously chosen sweets.
Tea leaves for after the morning bath.
A pale-colored hair tie.
He had gathered everything he thought she needed.
…Yet there was still not a single thing for himself inside.
Shio: “You haven’t included your own existence in the calculation from the start.”
The words Shio had thrust at him still heavily resounded like an unerasable curse deep in his ears.
As if hiding the nausea of realizing the far too vast emptiness that had opened inside him‚ Louis exhaled a small breath and knocked on the wooden door.
Louis: “Serina.
May I come in?”
Serina: “…Yeah.”
A faint reply about to disappear came.
Louis turned the knob and stepped into her room.
The interior was terribly quiet‚ enough to hurt the ears.
Afternoon sunlight slanting in through a gap in the window curtains stretched long and white on the old wooden floor.
Beyond that light—on the clean white bed‚ Serina was sitting quietly with her knees drawn up.
Louis: “I’m home‚ Serina.”
Serina: “…Welcome back‚ Louis.”
Serina didn’t smile.
Louis also didn’t force the usual undistorted savior’s smile right now.
He gently placed the bags he was holding beside the wooden table in the room without making a sound.
Louis: “I bought them.
The nightclothes Nagi and the others asked for… and a few sweets too.”
Serina: “…Thank you.”
Louis: “If you like‚ eat the sweets with Nagi and Miria.”
Serina: “…Yeah.”
A short conversation that only traced facts.
That was all.
In the previous everyday life.
She would have leaned out from the bed more happily and peeked into the bag innocently.
“What kind of sweets are they?”
“Hey‚ did Louis choose them?”
with a cheerful voice like rolling bells that would have sweetly filled the room.
But now the words after that simply wouldn’t continue.
Only quiet time with fine dust dancing in the light piled up silently between them like snow.
Serina: “…………”
Louis: “…………”
Eventually—Serina slowly raised her heavy face.
The depths of those blue eyes were painfully wet.
Serina: “Louis…”
Louis: “What?”
Serina: “I… have just one request.”
Her voice was so small it seemed about to snap‚ trembling in small motions.
Louis: “Yeah‚ what is it?”
Louis waited quietly for her words‚ stripped of emotion.
Serina tightly gripped the white sheets with both hands until her fingertips turned white‚ hesitated fiercely in her throat‚ then—
Serina: “Put me…”
There she drew a deep breath as if coughing blood.
Serina: “—to sleep with magic once more…!”
Louis’s formed expression stopped dead at that moment.
Louis: “…………”
For several seconds even the system in his brain fell silent and no words came out.
Louis: “…Why would you say something like that?”
The voice he finally squeezed from the back of his throat was lower and hoarser than he himself expected.
Serina lowered her head even deeper in a pained way and shrank her body.
Serina: “If I stay awake like this…!”
The fingertips gripping the white sheets turned white to the limit.
Serina: “I’ll wish for something on my own again…!”
Louis: “…………”
Serina: “I don’t want to wish for anything anymore…”
Those words.
Were of a kind the previous innocent Serina would absolutely never have spoken—something that must not exist.
If she wished‚ anything would come true.
If someone was troubled in front of her‚ if they were hurt and crying‚ she should just wish with all her might.
That itself was the kindness she was proud of‚ and she had believed without doubt that it was absolutely correct.
But—now it was far too different.
Serina: “I don’t want to turn the world into sweets and break it any further.”
Serina murmured with trembling lips.
Louis: “…………”
Serina: “I don’t want to break Louis’s life up to now… because of me anymore…!”
Louis’s delicate fingertips trembled slightly for a moment.
Serina: “So…!”
Serina raised her face as if deciding.
In those large blue eyes still smoldered a clear‚ raw flame of fear toward the omnipotent divinity sleeping inside her.
Even so—she was no longer running from reality.
Serina: “Until the time when I myself find the correct method to perfectly control the sacred power…”
Slowly.
One character at a time‚ as if chewing the pain in her chest.
Serina: “—I want you to put me into a deep sleep once more.”
Louis couldn’t return words right away.
In his mind the gruesome scene from two days ago flashed back.
The dining room that had begun collapsing from a bug.
Nagi’s calm judgment.
Ciel’s system instructions.
And the forced sleep magic that was released.
At that time Serina had by no means fallen asleep by “her own will.”
To protect the world‚ and above all to protect Louis’s life‚ the surrounding adults had forcibly shut down her muddled consciousness.
But.
Now everything was different.
The Serina before him was choosing that lonely and harsh path of “evacuation” with her own firm will‚ without being forced by anyone.
Louis: “…Aren’t you afraid?”
Louis asked in a low voice.
Serina: “I’m scared…”
Serina twisted the corners of her mouth just a little and showed a smile.
It was a terribly weak smile that seemed about to cry.
Serina: “I’m really‚ really scared…”
Louis: “…………”
Serina: “If I fall asleep‚ I won’t be able to be with Louis like this—that’s what scares me the most…”
Louis: “…………”
Serina: “When I wake up‚ what if the world has changed in some irreversible way…”
Serina gently placed her small hand over her own chest.
Serina: “But…!”
She exhaled a small trembling breath.
Serina: “Staying awake without understanding anything like this is even scarier for me.”
Louis simply listened silently to her monologue‚ stripped of emotion.
Serina: “Because…!”
Serina’s voice began to tremble violently with painful emotion.
Serina: “Every time I wish for something innocently‚ the most important thing in the world to Louis disappears from the inside!?”
Louis: “…………”
Serina: “Even though I already know that‚ for me to stay awake with a calm face… I absolutely can’t do something like that…!”
Louis lowered his eyes.
Deep in his emptied chest‚ those cold words Shio had thrust at him that afternoon in the dim dining seat revived far too sharply.
—Both of you haven’t included your own existence in the calculation from the start.
Louis: “…Serina.”
Serina: “What?”
Louis: “You…”
Louis desperately groped for human words from within his chest dominated by the cold system.
Louis: “You’re not wanting to sleep to protect yourself from being hurt‚ right?”
Serina: “…Yeah.”
Louis: “You want to protect me… protect my life‚ so you’ll sleep?”
Serina: “Yeah.”
An immediate answer without a second’s hesitation.
Louis: “This world too?”
Serina: “Yeah.”
And—after a slightly frustrating pause.
Serina: “…I also want to become able to properly protect Louis by his side someday.”
Louis slowly raised his face.
Serina was no longer crying.
Trembling her delicate body in fear‚ afraid of the omnipotent power‚ yet still standing dignified and facing straight forward.
Serina: “So… I’ll sleep for now.”
Her words of resolve were strangely quiet yet pure and lofty like glasswork.
Serina: “Until the time that correct method is known…”
Serina smiled a little fondly and gently.
Serina: “—I’ll wait once more in my dreams.”
Louis’s chest that should have been cleanly flattened suddenly ached a little.
Dreams.
At that sound‚ something invisible caught in the back of his throat.
Yet what memory aftertone it was for‚ the current Louis’s cold system (Ciel) could not analyze.
Louis: “…When that control method is found?”
Louis asked.
Serina tilted her head a little cutely like that morning in her previous life.
Serina: “At that time…”
She smiled softly like a large flower blooming.
Serina: “—Be sure to come wake me up.”
Louis: “…………”
Serina: “It’s a promise‚ Louis.”
Louis continued staring for a while at her blue eyes with a film of tears.
And then—
Louis: “…Yeah.”
He nodded firmly‚ small yet as an unshakable rule (rule).
Louis: “I promise‚ Serina.”
—Exactly that moment.
From the depths of Louis’s brain (system)‚ that familiar sweet cold voice rang high and clear.
Ciel: “…Lord Louis.”
Louis: (Ciel…?)
Seeing Louis’s expression change sharply in an instant‚ Serina tilted her head curiously.
Serina: “What’s wrong‚ Louis?”
Louis: “No…”
Louis vaguely averted his words and shifted his gaze from her.
Then he sank his own consciousness inward‚ deep into the bottom of the system log.
Louis: (Ciel‚ can you hear me…)
Ciel: “Yes.
I exist here.”
Louis: (Is putting her to sleep once more really the only method right now?)
The reply didn’t come immediately.
Just an instant.
Only that slight time lag unbefitting a machine.
Yet to Louis that absolute silence of an instant felt terribly long and heavy.
Ciel: “…In terms of logical calculation‚ at the present stage the only way to space-fix the error is to put Lady Serina to sleep once more.
…However.”
Ciel’s electronic voice sank a little lower as if glitching.
Ciel: “—Lord Louis.
There exists one other approach on a different route to resolve it.”
Louis: (…Eh?)
The depths of Louis’s eyes suddenly wavered.
Ciel: “—The deepest part of the World Tree.”
Louis: (The deepest part of the… World Tree…)
Ciel: “Yes.
There‚ the great existence that once properly tuned the balance of this world is still in deep sleep.”
Ciel’s voice was the usual flat one containing no noise.
Yet that resonance contained a heavy fact that could shake the very foundation of the world from the roots.
Ciel: “This world was never unilaterally maintained by the current incomplete Lady Serina alone in the original specifications.”
Louis: “…………”
Ciel: “In the original specifications (system)—this world required another separate existence indispensable for stabilizing and tuning the world itself.”
Louis allocated maximum resources in his brain and silently parallel-processed Ciel’s words.
Louis: (So we just need to wake that sleeping existence with our own hands?)
Ciel: “Yes.”
Louis: (How?)
Ciel: “Proceed to the sleeping sanctuary and directly awaken that consciousness.
And—”
Ciel‚ stripped of emotion‚ coldly stated the solution.
Ciel: “—Assimilate the awakened existence with Lady Serina.”
Louis: “…………!”
Louis couldn’t help catching his breath deep in his chest.
Louis: (Assimilate… you say…?)
Ciel: “Yes.
By performing that fusion (assimilation)‚ the possibility is calculated to be extremely high that Lady Serina will become able to completely control and dominate the vast sacred power sleeping within her by her own firm will.”
Louis: (…A possibility?)
Ciel: “In the current logs it is nothing more than an undetermined matter.”
Ciel continued arranging only the facts as system data indifferently.
Ciel: “The current Lady Serina cannot fully handle the far too powerful sacred power she holds.
Therefore‚ according to human-like emotional fluctuations‚ surplus output (magic power bug) leaks into the surroundings‚ unconsciously giving the worst influence of turning into sweets upon the world.”
Louis stared at the figure of Serina sitting alone on the clean white bed.
Even though she herself wished more than anyone not to hurt the person she loved.
She was crying alone‚ unable to do anything about the omnipotent power she herself feared most in the world.
Louis: (…Then)
Louis murmured small in his heart.
Louis: (If we go to that deepest part‚ Serina will no longer… have to be afraid.)
Ciel: “Yes.
There is a possibility she will become able to master and control the sacred power.”
Louis: “…………”
Ciel: “However—”
Ciel’s electronic voice sank one stage colder as if warning not to enter further.
Ciel: “There is a major problem.”
Louis: (…Problem?)
Ciel: “Yes.
Because the original tuner is in long sleep in the depths‚ the twisted frays that have arisen in various places of this world are not being properly repaired as a system.
And… the worst adverse effects from those frays have already begun to densely manifest on the surface of this world.”
Louis simply remained heavily silent.
Ciel: “—The 《Demon King of Calamity》 who once plunged the world into the abyss is beginning to regain his power once more.”
Louis’s eyes widened greatly in shock.
Louis: (…The Demon King of Calamity…?)
In the real time axis‚ only a few seconds had passed since he was stuck for words at Serina’s statement.
Yet her blue eyes looking up at his face anxiously from the bed looked terribly‚ almost eternally‚ like slow motion.
Ciel: “Yes.
If that unsettling Demon King’s power increases‚ all the humans‚ beasts‚ magical beasts‚ and demons living in this world will equally strongly receive the influence of that negative wavelength.”
Louis: (Influence… what kind of things will happen?)
Ciel: “Inner fear and desire will be endlessly forcibly amplified.
Along with that‚ hatred and anger toward others will also swell as if being torn apart.”
Louis finally completely caught his breath this time.
In his mind vividly rose the face of Shio who had been talking until earlier in the dim seat of the dining room‚ or who had been irritably moving her nose on the rooftop.
At that time she had instinctively smelled the air and clearly sensed some abnormality.
Saying “unpleasant smell‚” “a bitter smell that makes the root of the tongue tingle.”
Ciel: “And—”
Ciel continued reading the system log endlessly coldly.
Ciel: “The influence of the mental pollution by that Demon King will not necessarily stop at dirtying the emotions of living beings.
Sudden natural disasters‚ large-scale abnormal weather‚ and other unreasonable calamities… the possibility is calculated to be extremely high that various physical collapses (errors) will occur in the structure of this world itself.”
Louis: “…………”
Louis gently looked toward the scenery outside the window through the gap in the curtains.
An endlessly blue sky.
A calm early-summer breeze.
A precious sweet smell like freshly baked bread.
A beautiful little garden continuing to perform peace‚ unchanged from usual.
But.
On the other side of that deceit-filled reverse side.
Something was slowly yet steadily beginning to rot and collapse into sludge.
Ciel: “Until now.”
Ciel’s electronic voice spun facts indifferently.
Ciel: “The far too powerful sacred power (sweets world) leaking from Lady Serina’s unconscious had sweetly and gently covered and conveniently neutralized all the negative phenomena caused by that Demon King.”
Louis: “…………”
Ciel: “However—if Lady Serina remains as she is and falls into complete deep sleep by her own will.”
A beat of far too cruel electronic silence.
Ciel: “The shield that sweetly neutralizes those world collapses (bugs) will disappear‚ and there is a possibility that destruction will accelerate all at once.”
Louis completely lost his words.
If he put her into deep sleep once more like this.
Serina’s own heart could be perfectly protected from further hurt.
But.
If she slept.
The hidden ugly frays of the world would all be exposed‚ and the worst calamity might spread across the entire little garden.
Louis: (…That’s far too not simple.)
Ciel: “Yes.
As a trade-off (equivalent exchange) choice‚ it is an extremely difficult bug.”
And then—
Ciel: “Lord Louis‚ there is one more log I should report.”
Louis: (…There’s still more?)
Ciel: “If Lady Serina remains as she is and falls into deep sleep once.”
Ciel’s voice softened just an instant‚ as if discarding perfect mechanical discipline and whispering like to a lover.
Ciel: “—It will become possible to perfectly archive (protect) and supplement as a system the log of Lord Louis’s ‘precious previous-life memories’ that barely remain only inside Lady Serina.”
Louis: (…My memories as Ichinose that are inside Serina…?)
Ciel: “Yes.
Exactly so.”
Louis slightly furrowed his thin brows and turned his thoughts.
Louis: (But… that’s strange‚ isn’t it?)
Ciel had stubbornly kept saying until now.
Lost memories can never return.
That reconnecting the original of a life that has been settled and transferred to the archive back into a human brain circuit is absolutely impossible under the system’s discipline.
Louis: (Can you directly return the memories from Ciel’s archive… into my head?)
Ciel: “No.”
An instantaneous cold answer without a second’s fluctuation.
Ciel: “The approach is completely different from that.”
Louis: (…What’s different?)
Ciel: “It is not forcibly restoring and returning the 【original data】 permanently stored in Ciel’s main archive to Lord Louis’s living body.”
Louis: “…………”
Ciel: “—It is all the ‘memories of youth’ with Lord Louis that Lady Serina herself has carefully continued to hold in her own soul.”
Deep in Louis’s chest that should have been cleanly flattened‚ something small yet violently leaped with a thud.
Ciel: “The after-school times spent with Lord Louis that Lady Serina still vividly remembers.
The precious emotions Lady Serina felt beside him.
The memories of the life-sized boy named Lord Louis that barely remain only in Lady Serina’s heart.
…Those fresh colors will‚ in exchange for the system processing of her deep sleep‚ flow back into Lord Louis.”
Louis: “…………”
Ciel: “Not restoration‚ but 【supplementation】 by external resources.”
Hearing those words in his brain.
Louis gently placed his right hand over his own empty chest.
Louis: (…Then‚ that means)
Ciel: “Yes.”
Louis: (It doesn’t mean everything I’ve lost will completely revive exactly as before‚ right?)
Ciel: “—It will not return.
Not even a millimeter.”
Ciel clearly stated the cruel truth as the cold managing AI of a god.
Ciel: “It does not mean that all the original memories that were paid and lost will be restored within your own brain.
Nor that the personality optimization patch will be completely lifted and you will return to the original life-sized ‘Lord Louis.’
Nor that the originals in Ciel’s archive will be returned by breaking discipline.”
Louis: “…………”
Ciel: “Just—”
For just an instant.
The system voice resounding in his mind trembled small and fondly as if offering a prayer to a god.
Ciel: “The outlines of the most important memories and emotions that should be highest priority for Lord Louis… will‚ to a certain extent‚ flow back and be supplemented into Lord Louis through Lady Serina’s ‘viewpoint.’”
Louis slowly closed his eyes once.
He tried to remember.
…No‚ as expected he couldn’t remember anything.
Precisely because he couldn’t remember anything‚ he desperately groped for only the faint‚ fading heat that still clung to the edge of the cold hollow that had opened deep in his chest.
Serina.
Ichinose Serina.
Her name.
Her golden smile.
Her voice like rolling bells.
That commercial chocolate she loved.
Those precious everyday memories.
How many of them had he settled and lost to the world in the battles up to today?
And.
The girl beside him—how vividly‚ how carefully was she remembering those casual after-school times with him in her heart?
Louis: “…………”
When Louis slowly opened the eyes he had closed‚ there were Serina’s blue eyes peering at his face with deep worry from the clean white bed.
Serina: “Louis…?”
Louis: “…Yeah.”
Serina: “What’s wrong? You’ve been quiet the whole time…”
Louis: “No…”
Louis shook his head sideways.
Louis: “It’s nothing‚ Serina.”
The reappearance of the 《Demon King of Calamity》 that Ciel had informed him of.
The supplementation of previous-life memories that would flow back in equivalent exchange for Serina’s sleep.
What exactly would happen in this little garden from now on—all of it was still not completely clear.
Even so—inside him‚ just one definite rule (truth) that would never waver had been born.
This sleep she chose.
Is by no means a backward escape to flee from harsh despair.
It is an absolute sleep of hope so that someday the two of them will definitely wake bathed in the dazzling morning light.
Louis: “Serina.”
Serina: “Yeah?”
Louis: “…As promised‚ I’ll properly come wake you up.”
Hearing those words‚ Serina showed a best smile as if a warm light had been lit in her chest‚ like a flower blooming.
Serina: “Yeah!”
While staring straight at that precious golden smile he had wished more than anything in the world to protect to the end.
Louis murmured deep in his emptied chest‚ not swearing to anyone yet with an unerasable human heat.
Louis: —This time.
It’s my turn.
I’ll search with all my might.
For the true method to safely wake you from the bottom of dreams.
Without breaking this precious world any further.
You and me both.
Stepping over all the twisted sacrifices of not including ourselves in the calculation—I’ll definitely find with these hands a happy-end route where neither of us has to break.
Serina: “…Please‚ Louis.”
Serina repeated those words many times as if praying to a god.
Serina: “Put me… into a deep sleep once more.”
Louis said nothing for a while.
The girl before him feared more than anyone how cruel a tragedy the god’s omnipotence sleeping inside her would cause.
Even so‚ she was no longer running from reality.
Without being forced by anyone‚ she was choosing with her own firm will.
The “sleep” so as not to burn the person she loved any further from the inside.
And the “future” so that someday the two of them would definitely greet a dazzling morning.
Louis: “…I understand.”
Louis nodded slowly as if accepting her resolve.
Louis: “I promise‚ Serina.”
Serina showed a small smile as if the ice in her chest had melted‚ like a flower budding.
Serina: “Yeah.”
Louis gracefully sat down beside the clean white bed.
Louis: (Ciel)
Ciel: “Yes.”
Louis: (—Let’s begin.)
Ciel: “Beginning expansion of logical calculation and application of the space-fixing patch.”
Deep in the brain‚ quietly yet precisely‚ countless glowing formulas were parallel-expanded.
It was clearly different in essence from the usual cold “seal” that forcibly rewrote the world and twisted bugs into submission by force.
It was a cradle-like magic of love to gently‚ endlessly gently guide her wounded soul into the peaceful abyss she herself truly desired.
Louis gently wrapped Serina’s small trembling hand in both of his warm hands.
Louis: “It’s okay.”
Serina: “…Yeah.”
Louis: “There’s no need to be afraid of anything.”
Serina: “…Yeah.”
Louis: “When you next open your eyes‚ let’s meet first thing again.”
Serina closed her eyelids slowly as if truly relieved from the bottom of her heart.
Serina: “…I’ll keep waiting in my dreams the whole time.”
With those last words of promise that seemed about to disappear yet carried definite warmth.
All strength cleanly left her delicate body.
The breathing that until a moment ago had been shallow and fast like a scream changed into regular‚ calm sleeping breaths.
All color of tension vanished from the stiffened expression‚ and Serina fell into a deep‚ deep bottom of sleep that no one could invade.
Louis: “…………”
Louis simply continued staring fixedly at her peaceful sleeping face.
Quiet sleeping breaths.
A calm expression.
What was there was an all too beautiful scene of an innocent girl who knew nothing of the world’s unreasonable cruelty simply entrusting herself to a carefree doze.
—But.
At that moment.
Louis: “—!?”
Louis’s body leaped greatly as if struck.
Louis: “What… is this…!?”
Deep in his head‚ something snapped cleanly with a sound.
Small yet definite particles of light carrying human heat.
Through the palm still strongly connected to the sleeping her‚ they flowed directly into Louis’s brain like a muddy stream.
Louis: “…………Ah.”
The next moment.
Another one.
And yet another.
Louis: “…Wait‚ Ciel…!”
Louis couldn’t help pressing hard with his free left hand against his forehead that was throbbing violently.
He was seeing something vivid.
Yet—whether it was a landscape he himself had once seen‚ or a landscape someone else had been gazing at‚ for an instant the distinction completely vanished.
An after-school school building of the previous life burning gently orange.
A long‚ long linoleum corridor faintly carrying the smell of wax.
Fresh slanting sunlight streaming through the window.
Carefree laughter of two people echoing in an empty classroom.
The smell of simple chocolate with nuts they had shared on the roadside.
Louis: “…This is…”
I don’t know it.
In the system archive (data) of my brain‚ no such unnecessary logs should remain after being carved away.
And yet—my soul is screaming that it knows it intensely.
The hollow deep in my chest that should have been ice-cold and cleanly emptied begins to carry a warmth so precious it makes tears come out.
One after another‚ one after another.
A torrent of dazzling memories comes flooding in‚ breaking the dam.
Serina is smiling softly.
Walking right beside me.
Chattering away machine-gun style about something happily.
Eating one sweet and laughing together over really silly things again and again.
The school road dyed madder red‚ two precious shadows stretching long and long while clumsily measuring distance side by side.
Louis: “…………Ah‚ ah…!”
Louis swallowed a breath like a voiceless scream.
The flood of light can no longer be stopped by anyone.
One.
Then another.
It was—the world that Ichinose Serina’s eyes had gazed at most preciously in the world.
The dazzling time Serina had definitely felt beside him.
The precious‚ precious original (original) of “me‚ just a clumsy boy (Ichinose)” that had been protected from the end of the world and remained only in her heart.
It was flowing back into Louis one after another.
Like a flood that broke the dam.
Forcibly and vividly pushing aside the inorganic system calculations that had dominated his brain‚ it was pressing in upon him as a human.
Louis: “…Stop… it…!”
He clutched his head hard.
Yet—truthfully‚ he didn’t want to stop that torrent even a little.
Even though the brain felt like it would burn out from the emotional heat volume too vast to process.
Even though it was painful enough to choke.
He absolutely‚ absolutely didn’t want to let go of those particles of light.
There was what he himself had coldly forgotten.
The irreplaceable time he had settled to the world and lost‚ that should never return.
And above all—the heat named “emotion” with blood flowing through it that had been thoroughly stripped away by Ciel’s optimization patch was definitely pulsing there.
Louis: “…………”
She’s smiling.
Serina is smiling softly and cutely from the bottom of her heart‚ truly happy.
Just recognizing that dazzling smile in his mind makes the depths of his chest tighten as if being ripped away.
It hurts.
And yet‚ it’s so happy he can’t help it.
Unbearably nostalgic.
Ah—I cherished that girl this much.
The empty character strings that should have completely lost meaning.
The inorganic symbols that should have become cold empty labels—are now returning into me as a human with waves of dazzling multicolored emotion at tremendous speed.
Louis: “…Ah…!”
His vision warped with a squish.
Plop.
From the eyes of the savior Louis whose emotions should have been erased‚ a hot single tear overflowed and fell to the floor.
Louis: “…So that’s how it was…”
I.
This crybaby clumsy girl.
Louis: “…………”
From the bottom of my heart‚ staking all of my life‚ cherished her.
Only that pure emotion deeper and hotter than any words lined up was clearly reviving inside him with a temperature so vivid it seemed about to burn.
What he ate that morning in the previous life.
Where he went.
What childish conversations they had.
The accurate past data (records) had by no means all returned.
Neither the concept of surnames nor the logs of specific events—the originals collected into Ciel’s main archive had not been restored as is.
Even so.
Into that blank place that had grown cold‚ definite warmth with blood flowing through it was flowing back like a reverse current.
Serina had remembered for him.
About me.
Those casual after-school times spent with me.
How preciously she had been gazing at the human named me.
Louis: “…Serina.”
He called that name aloud.
Just a little more than until now.
That precious sound felt as if it were in the closest special seat of his own heart.
Louis: “…………”
The tears simply wouldn’t stop.
Sad.
Happy.
Painful.
Nostalgic.
Precious.
Cherished.
I didn’t want to lose it no matter what.
Those far too ordinary twisted emotions for a human came surging into the depths of his chest in no order or discipline‚ messily.
From the gaps torn in Ciel’s optimization patch‚ uncontrollable hot feelings were overflowing as if a dam had broken.
For the current Louis it was utterly impossible to neatly organize them.
He simply cried.
Because burning and losing them with his own hands was unbearably sad.
Because the existence named me had definitely remained inside her was so happy he couldn’t put it into words.
Because he could feel it vividly once more with a human heart was so painful it felt like his chest would be ripped away.
—Even so.
To the point that tears dried‚ he was happy right now.
Ciel: “…Lord Louis.”
Deep in the brain‚ Ciel’s cold yet somehow calm voice was heard.
Louis: “…What is it?”
Ciel: “The lost previous-life memories have not been completely restored.”
Louis: “…Yeah‚ that’s right.”
Ciel: “Nor have the originals of life stored in the main archive been returned to you.”
Louis: “…I know.”
Louis roughly wiped his own tears with the back of his hand.
I know.
It’s not everything.
It’s not complete.
Not a single thing has returned to how it was.
Even so—
Louis: “…Just this is more than enough for me.”
Ciel: “…………”
Louis: “Because Serina kept remembering me the whole time.”
Louis gently gazed at the face of the girl who had fallen into peaceful sleep.
Louis: “I… can think this from the bottom of my heart once more.”
That she’s precious.
That I don’t want to lose her no matter what.
That I want to protect her to the end with these hands.
Not choosing a twisted self-sacrifice (patch) calculated coldly from the premise that I myself will break without a trace.
But as one human named “me” with blood flowing through me‚ that I want to stay by her side forever.
Louis: “…………”
On the cheeks of the deeply sleeping Serina floated a calm‚ gentle smile.
She must still be dreaming.
Surely that casual autumn after-school dream.
Light dyed orange.
An empty after-school classroom.
The clumsy boy walking beside her.
Simple chocolate with nuts.
Meaningless carefree conversation.
And a golden smile.
That was—for her‚ the time filled more than anything in the world with the mass of happiness.
Louis continued staring fixedly at that sleeping face as if burning it into his retinas.
A tear fell hot again‚ soundlessly onto the white sheets.
Louis: “…Just wait a little‚ Serina.”
There is no reply.
Of course—right now she is in a deep bottom of sleep that no one can invade.
Even so‚ Louis definitely told her in his own voice.
Louis: “Wait.”
Those words once more.
This time clearly‚ as if deeply carving them into the deepest part of his own soul.
Louis: “—I’ll definitely find the true correct answer (route).”
The correct method to safely wake Serina from the bottom of dreams.
The true method to save this world that has begun going mad from the roots.
Myself and her both.
Without excluding each other from the calculation‚ a path to a dazzling tomorrow where neither of us has to break.
Louis: “So…”
Louis once more gently gripped the small hand of the sleeping Serina.
Louis: “—Wait for me in your dreams.”
The hushed guest room.
Serina’s regular‚ calm‚ gentle sleeping breaths.
And Louis‚ with a face swollen from crying yet smiling with definite hope for the future in his eyes.
A little distance away‚ in a cold dimensional gap.
The managing AI Ciel continued staring fixedly at that twisted miracle of the two.
Ciel: “…………”
Ciel understands everything with that clear logical calculation.
That this is by no means a clean happy-end curtain fall.
Rather—
That from here on is the true unreasonable “beginning” in this little garden.
The World Tree.
Its deepest part.
An absolute inviolable sacred domain that no one has ever set foot in.
There‚ the great absolute existence that once properly tuned the balance of this world is still in deep sleep.
And—
Somewhere in this deceit-filled world.
The 《Demon King of Calamity》‚ still unnoticed by anyone‚ is beginning to regain his terrifying power of destruction in the darkness.
In a corner of the excessively sweet and kind little-garden world.
The worst bitter smell that prickles the tongue’s mucous membrane‚ one more.
Still known to no one‚ melted into the cold night wind and disappeared.
(Chapter 23: “Wait for Me Once More in Your Dreams” · End)
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