Death should be etched into our memories—no matter how it comes, who brings it, or who it’s brought upon. Along with those wrong actions, it turns into scars, constantly reminding us just how fragile we “humans” really are.
And yet, it seems that compared to all that, enjoying the present moment and claiming the highest, most special, and most comfortable benefits for ourselves is what people nowadays clearly choose to focus on.
For the sake of those benefits, people couldn’t care less about bringing disaster or charging headlong into death. You could even say that people pursue those benefits with a sense of conviction—they do it, they go for it.
But here’s the thing: everything comes down to a kind of “balancing force”—
If you do something, you’ll definitely get something in return. That “something” could be unfortunate, or it could be fortunate. And the outcome of that “action” will always land on your head, whether it’s unfortunate or fortunate, no matter how hard you try to avoid it.
Just like humans—they destroy, but they also bring blessings. They annihilate, but they also bring disappointment.
Sometimes I wonder: those people who died under humanity’s great blessings, or under the beliefs they lived their lives for—what were they thinking at that moment? Did they think they’d achieved glory and success? Did they think they’d be remembered as immortal heroes?
Probably not, right? Didn’t they also hope to keep on living? Otherwise, after doing so much, was it all just for the sake of dying?
Who can save someone who’s been killed? A doctor? The whole purpose of medicine is to heal wounds. But if the people who create those wounds are still around, then what’s the point of medicine? What this world needs isn’t doctors.
Lie after lie, clever tactics, backed by the guarantee of false testimony…
Look—a perfect act of fraud has been completed…
To be honest, killing someone isn’t something to be proud of…
If you leave the body there, it’s evidence. If you get rid of it, the empty space is also evidence.
But you seem pretty relaxed about it all. Care to teach me how you manage to sleep so soundly?
————
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Name: Hanazuki Tōru (Hanyue Shiling)
Age: 12
Status: [Wanted—Vague] [Wanted—Mission] [Normal]
Form/Status: The wanted / girl / caster
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Switches: [Sanction] [Injury Escape] [Scholar’s Brain] [Elemental Fury] [Growth Boost—Random] [Blood Boil] [Time-Space Ability—Mode] [Sage’s Blessing]
Enhanced Attributes: [Eternal—Beyond Boundaries·Level 1—Serious Mode] [Spatial Will·Level 1—Serious Mode] [Mysteries of Magic—Impression Fracture·Level 1—Serious Mode]
Innate Abilities: [Lock On·Vigorous Energy] [Time·Forced Rewind] [KRYY’s Blood·Omni-Purpose] [Healing Recovery·Superpower] [Tea Farmer Eater]
Weaknesses: [This attribute cannot be used in Serious Mode] [This attribute cannot be used in Serious Mode]; [Mental Resistance Lv.2]
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Newly Added Innate Ability:
[Balance·Free Domain] — An active ability that allows the user to freely adjust their own strength according to the opponent’s level. The minimum value is twice the opponent’s strength. (This ability is disabled in [Serious Mode] and above.)
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[Serious Mode in progress]
…
You know, life in the investigation team is actually pretty comfortable.
Watching the pairs of people playing cards at the next table over, I felt a strange itch inside me. I rubbed my fingers together and scratched my arm.
I’d already finished my bread, but the other three were still enjoying their meals…
Well, not exactly “meals.” Although Feltro serves as a trade route connecting the different亚人 races, certain crops are still pretty scarce—rice, for example. Vegetables, though, are plentiful. Kaelan loves eating veggies, while Mia’s bowl was almost all meat. As for Xiong Xin, I never saw him eat anything.
I propped my chin on my hand and rested my elbow on the table. I was bored out of my mind, so this was the best I could do. I didn’t care how goofy my face looked squished like that—the real problem was how boring everything was.
I couldn’t dream, and it was too late for daydreaming anyway. If I remembered correctly, based on the last time I fainted plus the fact that we were eating now, it was probably already past five in the afternoon. But even if I wasn’t sure, one look at the darkening sky outside told me enough.
As my mind wandered, I suddenly heard Mia ask me a question.
“Hey there, little girl, how come you always wear that hood? Doesn’t it make eating kind of a pain?”
I shook my head, but I didn’t cling to my hood like my life depended on it. Doing that would only make people want to see what’s underneath even more—that psychological reaction called “the ironic rebound effect,” where the more you say no, the more someone wants to do it.
All I had to do was show that I didn’t want to take it off, not that I was hiding something. That way, no one would get curious.
“I’m a bit shy around strangers. I like having something that protects me.”
And if you throw in a slightly pitiful reason, no one’s going to question you or try to expose you. That’s what I thought, and that’s what I did. But no matter how well I pulled it off, Kaelan—who already knew who I was—wouldn’t just stand by and let things go south.
Or maybe she trusted me, so she stayed out of it.
After going through a few rounds of reasoning, my excuse felt pretty solid. The anticipation on Mia’s face immediately turned into understanding. She stopped focusing on my hood and turned to face me, wanting to chat.
“Hey, hey, little girl, can we properly get to know each other?”
I nodded and agreed without any trouble. It wasn’t a bad thing for me, either. The more I learned, the more room I’d have to negotiate for myself in the future.
“Yay! My name is Mia Kaelrite! You can just call me Mia, okay?” I already knew that—you guys just said it. And all that other stuff you said, yeah, I already knew that too.
“My name is Hanazuki Tōru… Unfortunately, I don’t have any family who shares my blood. Or maybe I just haven’t met them yet. I have a magical constitution, and I can use simple things like Mage Hand, some space magic, and a bit of fire magic.”
“Oh, I have a magical constitution too, for real! But for me, it’s mostly elemental control magic, plus a little bit of my own creativity here and there.”
Hearing that, I suddenly got interested. I wanted to see what Mia meant by “creative” magic. She probably meant spells she’d created herself. Compared to NPCs, players really don’t have enough imagination, do they?
——-
(—Currently available information: All spells are born from someone developing them first, and then others continuous improving them. The premise is that someone creates a spell capable of producing effects that are relatively different from other similar spells of the same era…)
(—That means: No matter who you are, as long as you have the ability, the perseverance, and the courage to take action, you can create—even change—spells that follow the laws of nature and logic.)
——-
Maybe I could learn some unexpected spells naturally, just like when I encountered the fake Alek in Maletes. Well, that might be a bit too conscience on my part. To make a brand-new spell work properly, the creator must have put in a huge amount of effort and sacrifice. And then some stranger comes along and learns it effortlessly one day—how would that make the creator feel?
I don’t have that kind of hobby—watching the looks on their faces at a moment like that.
Mia seemed really happy, almost like she’d found a kindred spirit. Or maybe I was reading too much into it—her expression felt like it was missing something.
She was expecting something. There was a hint of hesitation mixed in with her expression.
“…Miss Mia, do you want to show me your magic? But I’ve heard that magic is a big taboo in Feltro. It’s like magic brought some kind of disaster here in the past.”
Hearing my words, Mia paused for a moment, then burst out laughing.
“Ahaha, little girl, with your cute and pitiful appearance, I thought you were some homeless kid Kaelan had picked up from who knows where. But now—yeah! You’re right, I do feel the urge to show you my magical talent… I still do, actually. Seeing a ‘kindred spirit’ makes me feel a lot better.”
“The way you say that makes it sound like you’ve been looked down on.”
As soon as I said that, Mia went silent. The excitement in her face faded, and her expression dimmed. I really wanted to slap myself. I really live up to my title of “Conversation Ender.”
Kaelan whispered a few words to Xiong Xin, then shot me a look—like she wanted me to leave for a bit—and sat down next to Mia. I got the hint, so I stood up and left the cafeteria. Xiong Xin followed me out.
Waiting outside, I kept glancing inside every now and then to see if Mia had regained her energy. But every time, I just saw her sitting there, her back hunched and gloomy.
“Mia… back before she joined our investigation team, she lived with her mother. Things were it’s okay. Everyone knew she was a descendant of some family, and no one said anything. But then…”
“Later, her mother passed away. She was left all alone, lost the protection of her family, and became the target of everyone’s anger. Or maybe her family fell from grace after some incident, and her mother became the sacrifice to put out the flames of rage.”
I calmly pieced together the rest of the story, barely even paying attention to what Xiong Xin was saying next. I just wanted to cover my head, find a hole somewhere, and bury myself inside.
That feeling was awful.
“Sigh… kid, looking at you, it seems like you’ve been through some things too, so I won’t ask too many questions. Anyway, Kaelan told me to keep an eye on you. She’ll comfort Mia, so don’t worry.”
I didn’t answer. I just leaned against the wall, not wanting to do anything—and unable to do anything, either.
Watching the investigation team members come and go—some rushing around like they had urgent business, others happily chatting with their companions—I felt a bit complicated. It wasn’t exactly bitterness, but it wasn’t indifference either. I cared, but I didn’t know what to do about it.
“Someone! Anyone! Someone’s been killed!”
Hearing that, I jolted. I spun around and wanted to follow the sound to see what was going on, but Xiong Xin grabbed my hand.
“Kaelan told me to keep an eye on you. If something happens to you, I can’t—”
He wasn’t holding on too tightly, so I easily broke free and ran toward the panicked young man up ahead. Then I blended into the crowd of other members gradually gathering around and cast Universal Hidden Technique.
“Hey! What happened? Philte? What’s got you so worked up?”
“I… the, the archives room… there’s a horribly mutilated corpse in there… I…”
I slipped past the three people blocking the entrance to the archives room and went in first. There I saw what he meant by a horribly mutilated corpse… from the chest down to the waist, everything had been hollowed out. All that was left was skin and ribs. And if I had to guess, his skull was probably empty too.
Yeah, pretty ordinary stuff, honestly. But the smell—that was nauseating.
“A corpse? What are you talking about—This is! Riseth! Are you okay?! You… what am I even saying.”
Yeah, if you could actually see a living person with all their internal organs missing, that would be a fantasy—the kind of thing the medical and biological fields would chase after forever.
