#8
“Ugh… … ”
There was a chilling chill.
I have a chill to the level that I would mistake it for a shudder. It feels like being thrown into the middle of a snowy field in the northern continent that I’ve never been to before, without a single thread.
Maybe it was because he was frozen in the extreme cold, and his head didn’t turn well.
what am i doing right now where the hell is this I couldn’t figure out anything.
Just like an endless hell, a black, black space. There is no visibility at all, so I can’t tell what the hell is.
I barely lifted my trembling eyelids and looked around, but I couldn’t find anything special. A feeling for the first time in my life. I feel like I have completely lost my sight. It was terrifying and terrifying.
“who… No one?”
It’s cold too, but my head hurts a lot. It’s like pricking your temple with a sharp needle. That feeling continued for a while. Thought of dying like this, I barely raised my voice and tried to call someone who might be around, but no one appeared in this all-black space.
I don’t have the energy to think of something. He groaned in succession and tossed and turned his body. It sounds like it’s making a clicking noise, maybe it’s an auditory hallucination. My five senses were not perfect.
For example, you may think that you have ‘turned your body half a turn’ as before, but you don’t know if you actually turned it or not-.
‘–Huh?’
right then
In the space that I thought was only black, an object with a distinct sense of alienation floated up. No, it sank.
under that water.
I see someone lying comfortably with my eyes closed.
‘That person… … ‘
I opened my eyes.
long body. gray hair. A face you don’t get used to even if you see it every day. Its appearance was exactly like someone else’s.
—That’s right, it was me.
A terrifying goose ran down his spine. Why am I ‘over there’? Am I ‘here’ now?
I deny reality so much, but no matter how much I look at it, it was me.
I am so different from before. 17-year-old Ezio Cranil. Even after going through countless things, he didn’t get to his knees in the end… …
“Turn it off.”
My head felt like it was going to explode. Looking down at the body that must have been me, I grabbed my head as if torn apart. A terrible pain, as if the scalp was being pulled out, exploded, and the eyes flashed and immediately turned white.
Then the cold that had wrapped around his body suddenly stopped like a lie. As if immersed in a cozy cradle, it gradually warms up gradually and faintly.
It was so comfortable that I wanted to leave everything like this. The cold and the pain were all gone. My body seemed to sink to the bottom of the water, but my body was getting farther and farther away from my view.
A feeling of floating in the fleeting air. My body is pulled upwards to the point where the end is unknown.
at that time.
“Hey, don’t lose your mind. At the most, my soul is awake, but I can’t let it go back to sleep.”
A voice that pierces the brain.
Shuuk—
The figure I thought was getting farther and farther away suddenly enlarged, and I held that sleeping body in front of my nose.
telling you not to lose your mind.
It seemed that he had to keep his word.
Even though the turbulent son-in-law was very confused, I endured the cold and pain that began to creep in again, with my eyes open desperately.
“Ughhh… … ”
It was definitely a terrible experience, but it wasn’t to the point where I couldn’t stand it at all. This is just enough. It’s funny enough to make you laugh unintentionally.
Because, this was nothing compared to what I’ve been through so far-.
… … what happened?
what?
Before I even answered the questions that arose on my own.
“You’re welcome, Ezio. You always surprise me.”
That voice resounds in my mind.
“Now, it’s time to come back.”
I lifted my closed eyelids.
“-!”
I was surprised for a while.
immediately after-
The world turned around.
#9
“… … Kahak.”
As if to vomit out everything in my throat, immediately after waking up, I pounded my chest and took a deep breath.
Just what was it?
It felt like I was having a bizarre nightmare.
As soon as I woke up, I was greeted with an unpleasant dampness that made my face frown. His whole body was drenched in cold sweat.
If you don’t calm down right away, you can feel your heart beating like it’s about to explode inside. He put his hands on his chest and shook his head one after another.
“Heh heh, heh heh… … ”
His vision was blurry as if a smoke screen had been cast. It was pitch black as before, but there were lights everywhere. I was able to confirm the silhouettes of objects that were clearly revealed through it. It’s not a dream, it’s reality Feeling alive and taking a deep breath, I finally came to my senses and looked around.
The room was neither too big nor too narrow.
It was in the form of me lying on a bluish court, and ominous black coffins were lined up around it.
It was probably because of this that my vision was blurry. An unknown smoke filled the room. The smoke seemed to rise from an unidentified urn in the corner.
It is difficult to get a general sense of what the room is for. But I couldn’t help but feel a strange feeling for some reason.
In a quiet room so cold that I felt chills on my back, when I came to my senses, I rustled and woke up.
“Are you awake?”
A fairy-like woman with her eyes closed while sitting in the middle of it licked her lips.
After a while, the woman slowly opens her eyes. Starlight eyes that fell from the Milky Way were deeply engraved into my vision.
someone i know It was a familiar face, but it was not easy to recall the name at once. Grasping my head, which was starting to feel pain, I nodded my head for a moment.
“Yes Yes… … ”
“How do you feel about the situation? Can you move?”
I suddenly saw a woman asking that question.
dripping, dripping.
A light was shining from the back of her hand.
Bright red blood was also dripping down.
“Blood, blood… … ”
“Ah, this one.”
When I looked down, there was light from the pattern drawn on the back of my hand, but it gradually faded from the end after a while. The light was disappearing from the back of the woman’s hands, including mine.
But the blood gushing from the back of the woman’s hand remained the same. With the other hand, I block it with the other hand.
“… … don’t mind. Because this is a light payment for some breach of contract. It’s my fault for not helping you properly.”
In response, he said, “Kulk,” and spewed a little blood from the corners of his mouth. I immediately tried to move my body to help, but my muscles didn’t listen.
“You are there. Don’t move yet.”
“… … ”
“It will take some time before I can move my body properly. I had been lying in one place for a long time, and it was quite difficult for the soul, which had escaped for a while, to settle back into the body. In that sense, we will take measures for stabilization, so please lie down for a while.”
It was only then that I was able to recall the identity of the woman resembling a fairy in a fairy tale.
While my head felt like it was going to break, the fragments of my last memory slowly floated to the surface. Akasha’s Star. stigma. and contract. Received help from someone who can be called a benefactor. The things they brought and offered to me at the end of the day, risking their lives for me. After inhaling it… …
“Ugh.”
For a moment, he was staggering in the distant mind, but after barely maintaining his balance, he wrapped his hand around his forehead.
Countless scenes intermingled in the shaking vision. Just thinking about the very brief memories made my stomach churn, and I felt nauseated enough to vomit. He covered his mouth and bowed his head. It was an indescribably terrible feeling. What are these memories… …
It’s so confusing. Breathing became sharp.
… … I was able to get it only because I wanted it.
Even though that was truly what I had hoped for, I could never be happy.
Memories of moments that will never be forgotten are gradually imprinted in the mind. I wondered how I could have forgotten this.
Aside from those memories of the past, some blurry scenes still remained.
what is this
It’s like something I can’t remember… …
“Still, as long as you wake up earlier than expected, there are things you must check. Let me ask you a question for a moment.”
The woman who wrapped the back of her hand with a bandage from somewhere—Tetra Crowley approached me as I sat on the floor at an angle and opened her mouth quietly.
“The stigma has just dissipated and the contract is over. This must mean that your request has come true. I thought there would be no more hope if I didn’t disappear from here, but I’m fortunate. Now you just have to work a little harder. Anyway.”
Through the smoke, you stand tall in front of me and me.
With a face that only faintly shone in the light of the germinating light beneath me, Tetra looked down at me and spoke again.
“Did you find everything you lost?”
initial request.
Since the contract has been successfully concluded, prove the outcome with your mouth as the contractor, Tetra said.
what i lost
I wanted to get it back.
I thought I was missing something very important, so I asked Tetra for help to overcome the aftereffects of the last incident. If there was no other way, I was going to live like that.
But contrary to my expectations, it was.
way.
So, with a small hope inside, I sincerely confessed to Tetra what I wanted.
“… … ”
therefore,
I… …
“Yeah… … All right, I think.”
Now that I wake up, I really don’t know what to do… He just nodded his head in reply.
“I see. I’m glad.”
Tetra said briefly.
“Are there any other special features? Is it hard to feel the touch, or something like that?”
“… … I do not know.”
The body seems to be fine. There was nothing wrong with it except that it was a little bit cold and shrill.
“Then do you remember all the stories I told you in the office?”
“… … Yes. I remember that.”
I also remember what Maru told me.
Thinking about it now, it must have been a story that had a lot to say, but it was not necessary to say it right now.
“Hmm, there is no confusion about the original memories. It’s not that much of a problem. Can this be considered a success? … ”
Tetra murmured.
“You did well, Ezio. Your psyche is also extraordinary. If it were a normal human, it might have taken years instead of two weeks as it is now. Maybe he never woke up.”
“… … yes?”
“Even so, it’s true that I wasn’t more careful, so I sincerely apologize to you. Ezio. It was all my fault that this happened. Sorry.”
Facing Tetra, who bowed deeply and apologized to me, I waved my hands in confusion.
“Oh, no… … Tetra doesn’t need to apologize. In the end, everything went well… … I’m more concerned about Tetra’s physical condition. You just bled… … ”
“Who are you worried about? I’m okay. Because this is only a few years of life span. Other than that, no problem at all.”
“Yes?”
life… what?
“No, what did you just say… … ”
“Anyway.”
After Tetra cleared my doubts lightly.
“Uh, huh? Tetra-”
“Stay still. You said you’d take action. You are still unstable. It would be better to completely eliminate the risk that you might not be aware of.”
“No, uh… … ”
After I forcibly lay down my body, which I couldn’t even control myself, I sat down with my crotch folded on top of the body, and carefully lifted my head with both hands. Then I put the back of my head on top of his thigh.
For a moment, the supreme softness that could not be felt even on human skin was conveyed for a moment.
The body wrapped in the robe is really thin. Tetra, with a fairy-like face that was not humiliated even when I looked up from below, reached out a hand as white as snowflakes and gently brushed my bangs.
“Poor thing… After all, a shadow has settled in the corner of your eyes. It’s really sad.”
“… … ”
Tetra’s voice was really comfortable to listen to, but somehow I couldn’t help but feel complicated.
I wanted to get back what I had lost.
so–
I was able to finally get what I wanted, though.
It seemed that something was lost in return.
In the end, that’s it.
I couldn’t get everything back.
But even with this… … I knew enough. However, the questions that had been full of curiosity were solved, but rather than being cool because they succeeded in scratching the itchy spots… … Rather, it was the opposite.
nothing became known.
I don’t know what the right answer is anymore.
just… …
A little, I regretted it.
Not only that.
I feel something has changed. myself too.
“Forget everything for now and close your eyes. I will just caress your soul.”
Tetra reached out again.
It gently wipes my forehead, and mumbles something in a timid voice as if casting a spell.
It seemed that the round legal circle beneath me gradually increased the intensity of the light accordingly, but I could not confirm whether that was the case in the end.
“──. ─. ──… … ”
Along with the sound of words, a sultry suma came rushing in.
“… … ”
I looked up blankly at the Tetra from my half-closed eyelids, before my consciousness fell again to the surface.
‘ah.’
Tetra’s eyes are clear and transparent.
and-.
… … My face, reflected like a clean mirror, was so mineralized that I was inadvertently afraid of myself.
#10
Exactly two weeks have passed since the mysterious disappearance of Ezio Cranil, a student in the Epic Class of the Imperial Frontier Academy.
So, on the same day that the first midterm exam of the first semester starts on the following Monday.
“Emergency breaking news! Urgent breaking news oh oh oh-!!”
Sasha Elne ran through the wide open space, clasping her hands and shouting.
“The missing person who made the campus buzz was found breathing today—! Breathe in and get out!”
Ezio Cranil.
He returned to the Frontier.