Chapter 129
Steps leaving the hall.
The sky was dark.
It was a background where night was starting to fall before they knew it.
Two people crossing the dim scenery.
Just then, there was a garden near the building, so we moved there to avoid the students' attention.
The garden without a single flower blooming to welcome winter was quite bleak.
Instead, the snow piled up little by little added to the mood.
Though it didn't hold vitality, it was a season where even death was beautiful.
We just walked.
"......"
A calm silence.
The woman in my arms didn't say a word.
I only felt her existence from the skin and body heat clinging to each other, and the thick body scent.
The flowing breath bloomed long white flowers and shattered.
A part suddenly touched my chin.
That faint heat was particularly hot.
I gently asked a question.
"Aren't you cold?"
"...I'm fine. I was just surprised."
An answer returning calmly.
I felt needless awkwardness.
Perhaps because it was attire with some exposure, soft sensations touched here and there.
I didn't usually pay attention to such aspects but.
With unfamiliar perfume and the woman's scent mixing in a mess, that seductiveness was something that made consciousness blank.
I held silence unlike myself at the dizziness spreading from the tip of my nose.
Of course.
The drunkard wasn't different either.
Was she equally awkward?
Though I had been seeing her for over half a year, it was the first time seeing such a clear reaction of wavering.
Her red eyes couldn't look this way at all.
Her posture was still stiff, her lips showed no signs of parting, and earlier she had even rarely stumbled over her words.
Bewilderment.
Perhaps it was because another's warmth was unfamiliar.
We just walked through the winter garden.
"There's a seat over there."
Before long.
We took a seat on a suitable bench.
Hands carefully setting down the woman.
As it was late and the weather was chilly, I placed the outer coat I had been wearing on her shoulders.
Afterwards, I knelt on one knee and examined her injured ankle.
Selena said.
"I'm fine."
"It's no use saying that while limping. I'll take a look, so please relax your strength."
A woman unable to push away at the firm tone.
I took off her shoe from her foot.
The instep gradually became naked. Beyond that, snow-white skin and ankles were visible.
Perhaps because it was sprained, soft swelling had bloomed.
The snake extended his hand.
"Ugh..."
The drunkard shrinking her shoulders at the same time.
The touch landed delicately.
I massaged that foot properly.
The sensation of the smooth toes particularly wrapped around my hand.
The lukewarm heat of her sole, and the coolness of hands chilled by winter, temperature going down stickily while mixing little by little, the sense of blasphemy stemming from dirtying that.
Shadows gently blooming covered her slender ankle.
The snake stroked carefully.
"Uu, ugh... haa..."
Though faint breathing sounds were heard.
I consistently pretended not to hear.
Even while doing so, the darkness that had seeped in subsided the swelling.
When even the pain remaining in her ankle disappeared cleanly, eyes that had become slightly disheveled looked down at this side.
I smiled gently towards the blurry focus.
It was an innocently fabricated smile.
"It shouldn't hurt anymore now."
"......"
"Master?"
"Ah... thank you."
The drunkard belatedly came to her senses.
A short deep breath returning.
She muttered as if watching this side's mood.
Only bitterness was reflected in her blood-colored pupils.
"I'm sorry... it seems I've become a burden."
"Not at all."
"But, I couldn't match the banquet Student Yuda had hoped for."
"Hmm."
Was she worried about that aspect?
It seemed she may have wanted to respond to expectations since the disciple side had sent a partner request.
A woman holding her own warmth though she always seemed stiff.
I shook my head and spoke.
"I'm rather happy."
"What...?"
"Because I was able to be of help to you even a little."
"I don't understand."
"I was usually in a position of only receiving help, but though it was trivial, I returned that help, so that fact is very meaningful and joyful."
"......"
"I'm fine. Please don't mind."
"...Is that so?"
The woman answered a beat late.
The atmosphere sank.
Was she suffering from complicated thoughts as usual?
She who hadn't been able to open her mouth for a while soon unconsciously muttered to herself.
It was a lamentation.
"Student Yuda... is really a good person."
Or lingering attachment.
I returned the drunkard's words as they were.
"Well, because I'm the disciple of a good person."
"Thank you even if it's just flattery."
"I'm speaking sincerely. Where else is there someone who looks after a student acting selfishly like me?"
"I didn't particularly have thoughts of helping though."
"That too is proof. Proof that though indifferent on the outside, a warm heart lives inside."
"You're praising me too much."
"I'm just reporting what I've observed."
I came to know while watching.
Your kindness.
Lessons given while pretending to be indifferent but doing your best, meticulously maintaining each textbook, and finally an attitude never prickly towards children.
Evaluated from an objective viewpoint, Selena was quite an excellent educator.
Except for her chronic alcoholism.
'You are.'
Quite a good person.
I wanted to convey such encouragement that wasn't encouragement, but Selena only shook her head with a hollow laugh.
Only one adult existed in her cooled pupils.
It was a terribly lonely atmosphere.
"I... wasn't like that. It's just the result of following my own greed from start to finish."
"Everyone lives for greed."
Everyone would be the same.
Humans cannot live without clinging to greed, and that's why the adjective 'lowly' is attached before their name.
I wasn't different either.
The greed I had cherished in my past life was countless.
Greed wishing she would live.
Greed wishing her illness would be cured like a lie.
If even that couldn't come true... greed wanting to die in her place instead.
Though they were all wishes that ended up as lingering attachments.
At that time, such feelings made me live day by day.
So I think.
Greed isn't bad.
If lonely adults don't even covet greed, they will no longer find meaning in life.
This was our last self to exist as ourselves.
Though somewhat twisted.
"So... no one will blame you."
I wore a bright smile.
As if you hadn't done anything wrong yet.
"Please put away self-reproach."
"......"
The woman blankly looked down at this side.
Before long the dark clouds disappeared, and for a moment laughter burst on her face.
It was an expression as if the anguish weighing on her shoulders had been swept away.
She spoke.
"I really can't win with words."
"Huhu."
"Separate from saying you're a good person... Student Yuda should be careful not to get stabbed anywhere."
"I feel like I've heard similar talk a few times."
"Take it to heart."
"I shall do so properly."
A somewhat softened tone.
A lightened atmosphere.
Had the pain remaining like an afterimage in her ankle disappeared along with that short conversation?
The drunkard moved her stretched out leg.
Rustle-.
Her bare foot stepped on the ground.
The garden's grass leaves softly wrapping her delicate sole.
The uncomfortable shoes were pushed aside.
Selena staggered for a moment and found her balance, then turned to this side and held out her hand.
Her purple hair harmonizing with the moon and darkness was particularly beautiful.
Her lips spoke.
"Though we've come out of the banquet... if here is alright, shall we continue the rest of the dance?"
"You're not going back?"
"I feel like I'll sprain it again if I put on shoes."
"Then... it will be our own private banquet."
"Meaning is what you make of it."
Bushes where other people's gazes didn't reach.
A garden where stars and moon sparkled.
The scenery of a grass field crossed barefoot.
At the center of that, only a woman and boy were standing, so the two soon held each other's hands.
Body heat mixing lukewarmly erased winter.
"How is it?"
"I'll gladly accept."
The two moved slowly.
The distant hall.
Taking the faint melody coming from there as background.
One step at a time of a clumsy serenade.
And one step at a time.
We took steps.
"It's strange. I didn't know there would be a day in my life when I danced with a man."
"You've really never done it before?"
"To be precise, I had no will. I wasn't interested in anyone from the start."
"Then... does that mean you have no related experience at all?"
A superstition suddenly brushing past.
Content saying if pure men and women form pairs at the banquet, that love will come true.
Because that part came to mind, I ended up asking.
The woman answered with a subtle voice.
"Well, I wonder."
It was an expression I had never seen before.
A smile that seemed to contain very faint mischief, and therefore felt even more dizzying.
The drunkard placed her hand on this side's waist just like that.
She whispered in my ear.
"If it's true... will you take responsibility like the superstition?"
"Gladly."
"You don't even hesitate."
"If that's what you wish."
"You're saying dangerous words."
Of course.
She didn't accept.
"I'll pass."
"How disappointing."
"Just... I've already committed too many things to pass on my responsibility."
"Still, your words made me happy."
I wait too.
Until you escape from those dark circumstances.
Until you fully forgive yourself.
"Because someone's first time means it will remain special in memories."
So.
The fact that it would be remembered specially by you made me as happy as the starlight in this garden.
The drunkard laughed hollowly hearing such talk.
As if saying she couldn't help it.
"If other students knew... I might be quite hated."
"Huhu."
Hands intertwining fingers.
Amid the wind flowing in and stars, the last nocturne was ringing out.
Perhaps it was a melody weaving fate.
"......"
Silence settling.
We were fully concentrating.
Whatever meaning that had.
The shape of flesh squishing each time we pressed close, the chest that seemed to contain even that hot body heat, and the faint perfume scent captivating the nose, plus even my own figure reflected beyond the seductive redness.
The contours accentuated perhaps due to the dress drew the gaze.
Though it was a scene anyone would covet and envy, it was her appearance permitted only to me entirely.
A strange atmosphere flowed through our intertwined hands.
However.
No one opened their mouth.
Only wind brushed by in the background of the night sky and stars spread out.
Even that continuing silence was ecstatic.
Like that.
We spent the night.
***
Meanwhile,
Underground covered in pitch darkness.
There, people wearing dark red robes were gathered.
Blood was splattered all over the surrounding floor.
"The time has finally come."
The intruders prayed with one voice.
They all had distorted vocal cords.
Beyond the demons' chorus ringing solemnly, an ominous energy writhed and announced its beginning.
Magical energy scattering into pieces like broken glass.
It was the symbol of black magicians.
"Wash all lowly beings with young blood, and nobly burn complete hatred."
Meaningful sentences.
What was concluded at the end of that meditation was none other than a festival of blood and slaughter.
Documents about a certain academy were piled on the altar.
It was none other than Galimar Academy.
"The Lord commands to awaken the sleeping disaster."
The melody that had become more terrible filled the deep underground.
What filled their eyes was.
Only madness, thirst, and slaughter.
The combined words cried out.
"Convey the will to the traitor."
Like that, the world.
Into uncontrollable danger.