Ryuu Kusari no Ori -Kokoro no Uchi no 'Kokoro'-

Chapter 7.17

Arcmel Continent, Cremazone Empire.

A man was in a tavern in a certain town in this country.

He was dressed in black-feathered clothes. He was drinking alone at the edge of the tavern.

"Kuu~! As I thought, a drink after work is so exceptional, isn't it~?"

A man in black with a big smile on his face, drinking from a bottle of sake.

His light tone contrasted with the gloomy clothes he was wearing.

It was not unusual for cheerful voices to echo in a tavern. But for some reason, the only voice coming from this tavern was that of this black-feathered man.

That was expected. Every single person in the tavern was lying on the floor.

There were about ten of them. The red liquid flowing from their bodies clearly showed that the lives of the dozen or so had already been taken.

"Everyone seems to be in a hurry, but you need to take your time. Calm down and take a rest... Oh, you've taken a rest now!"

All of the fallen people were dressed in ordinary clothing, but everyone who saw them could tell that had well-trained bodies.

The tavern was filled with a strange atmosphere. There was no doubt that something was going on here.

At that moment, the door creaked open and a well-dressed man entered.

The man took one glance at the corpses lying on the floor and the black-feathered man drinking happily in a pool of blood and squinted his eyebrows uncomfortably.

"Looks like it's done."

"Yes, yes, it's done~! Even so, you're making your underlings work this hard to clean up the pests, and do you even work as an executive~?'

"That's why I hired you. I have nothing else to say. Take out that "thing"."

They were secret agents who had infiltrated the Cremazone Empire.

The man in black took out a sealed book from his pocket and tossed it to the client.

The client, not seeming to be particularly concerned, took the book, put it in his pocket, took out a sack in exchange, and tossed it to the black-feathered man.

When the black-feathered man received the sack, he heard a heavy clatter. From the mouth of the bag, a colorful jewel peeked out.

Looking at the jewel, the black-feathered man smiled broadly and waved to his client.

"Thank you every time~. I look forward to working with you in the future~."

"I don't want anything to do with you. The corpse hunter "Corpse Raven"."

The client glanced at the Corpse Raven who smiled while surrounded by corpses, looked utterly disgusted, and left the tavern early.

"Eh? He hates me again. Even though I did my job well~~."

With a look of deep confusion on his face, the man called "Corpse Raven" lowered his hand.

The request he received was to eliminate secret agents and recover a sealed book. The client had confirmed that he had not seen the contents of the sealed book.

"Well, I don't mind! Make a mess by cleaning the pests ... That's why I can't stop being a mercenary! Now, let's see what the next job is ..."

At that moment, a jet-black bird entered the room noiselessly through the window, which reeked of death.

Just like the blood-stained floor of the tavern, the eerie bird with crimson glowing eyes perched on the table where the Corpse Raven was and opened its mouth with a snap.

(Can you hear me?)

"Gosh, that voice is older sister Mekria, isn't it? What do you want, I wonder~?"

Mekria's voice, who was supposed to be in Arcazam, echoed from the mouth of the raven.

The Corpse Raven responded with an aloof tone, not questioning the fact that he could hear Mekria's voice, who should be far away.

“Corpse Raven, you have no reason to call me older sister. More importantly, I need to talk to you."

On the other hand, Mekria spoke plainly, as if she had no intention of making unnecessary conversation. However, at the edges of her tone, there was a hint of discomfort that she could not hide.

Did he sense a hidden danger in her tone, or was he simply uninterested? The Corpse Raven immediately returned to the main subject.

"Oya oya~, what in the world is such a lady need to talk to a vagabond such as myself?"

Surrounded by crimson and jet black, with the smell of iron drifting in the air, Mekria continued to talk to the Corpse Raven.

An eerie man and a raven talking in a room full of corpses. Combined with the man's clothes, it was an eerie scene that seemed out of this world.

For a few moments, a suspicious conversation was going on, unfolding amidst the crimson devastation.

"Since you already understand the story. Then, I entrust it to you."

"Yes~, yes~. Leave it to me~."

Mekria's talk lasted only a few minutes, a very short time.

After the call, the raven closes its mouth and disappeared again through the window into the dark night.

Without glancing at the raven, the man called the Corpse Raven slurped down his drink again, and thought about Mekria's proposal.

"Alright, what kind of person is this guy, I wonder~~?"

Despite his question, his face shone like a child who found a new toy.

However, due to the pitiful state of the room, combined with his tall and thin body, it was too much of a disaster.

The Corpse Raven gulped the rest of his drink, rose from his seat, and walked to the door.

"Either way, it's going to be a lot of fun."

With his mouth smiling, Corpse Raven left the blood-soaked tavern.

While giving off an inevitable smell of death on his back.

================================

As the sun was slanting to the west past mid-south, Nozomu was walking alone in the corridor of Solminati Academy.

Around him, students were walking back to their classrooms after the last class of the day, and when they spotted Nozomu, they pointed at him and began whispering to each other.

"Look, look, there's Nozomu-senpai."

"Hey, come on, go talk to him. You said you wanted to talk to him about a class you were planning to take."

"Eh!? B-, but wouldn't that bother him?"

The abusive words that could be heard before were almost nonexistent anymore. Instead, somewhat frivolous voices could be heard.

Nozomu was smiling at the 180-degree change in his environment, but he also had a somewhat vacant expression on his face.

It had been a week since his conversation with Victor. Nozomu was still unable to provide answers to questions regarding his future and returned to his hectic daily routine.

His training with Jihad was getting harder and harder day by day, and he continued to devote himself to his training and studies from early morning to late at night, but on the other hand, his relationship with Lisa had not progressed at all due to his daily busy schedule.

While feeling a little impatient with his relationship with Lisa, Nozomu also began to feel an indescribable feeling in the depth of his chest.

Ever since he heard Victor's words, something had been swirling in the back of his mind.

Victor's words were true.

He had somehow put his purpose of "supporting Lisa's dream" as an excuse before he knew it, and he continued to face his own escape. That was what Nozomu had been doing. But at the same time, it still tied Nozomu to the past.

Perhaps somewhere in his mind, he understood this. However, Nozomu could not see a concrete vision of his own future.

"What should I do, I wonder……"

These words naturally leaked out of Nozomu's mouth.

He was thinking about Lisa, about himself from today on, and about Tiamat, whom he had taken in. Things that should have been visible until recently suddenly seemed hazy.

Before he knew it, Nozomu was so lost in his own thoughts that he couldn't hear the voices around him. Perhaps that's why Nozomu didn't notice the familiar presence approaching from behind.

"Nozomu, what's wrong?"

When his name was called, Nozomu turned around to see Irisdina, Tima, Shīna, and the others standing there with textbooks and stationery in their hands.

Seeing Irisdina and Shīna from the first and second classes together, it seemed that they were returning from a joint class.

"Everyone .... When did you get behind me?"

"We've been here since a few minutes ago. It wasn't like you, Nozomu. How could you not notice it until a large group of people came so close to you?"

Nozomu had a bitter expression due to Irisdina's words.

They could see that he was in deep thought and wasn't aware of their presence until they were close enough when he could normally detect them.

"Are you having something to think about?"

"Yeah, just a little bit ......."

Irisdina came to look into Nozomu's face as if to check on him.

A beautiful face approaching in front of him. Nozomu felt embarrassed and awkward, so he quickly pulled away from her.

Irisdina frowned for a moment as if hurt by Nozomu's gesture and then looked at Nozomu with a strangely serious gaze.

"Did my father say anything to you?"

"Eh?"

"You have been acting somewhat strange since then..."

Nozomu's eyes widened at these words. It wasn't that he was hiding it, but he hadn't told anyone about his conversation with Victor.

"Umm ... I'm worried about that. My father may look like that, but he has a soft spot for me and Somia. As the head of the Francilt Household, he is by no means putting on air and capricious. He can be ruthless as the head of the family if necessary, and I think he probably knew about Nozomu quite deeply beforehand..."

"That's ...~!?"

Nozomu, who could not say that Victor was even known him being a Dragon Slayer, had no choice but to keep quiet.

At that time, Nozomu noticed a piercing gaze staring at his back.

He turned around and followed the line of sight, a silver-haired beastman was glaring at him from the end of the corridor.

"That guy is ..."

A silver-haired beastman he recognized. It was Kevin Ardinal, the man who had been so involved with him during the special general training.

"Tch~! ……"

When he realized that Nozomu had noticed his gaze, his mouth distorted and he turned on his heel to leave.

Nozomu felt a strange sense of déjà vu in his expression.

"... Nozomu? What's wrong?"

Irisdina spoke to Nozomu, who was staring off into the distance, with a dubious look on her face. The expression on her face was even more anxious than before.

"Nozomu-kun, ..."

This time, Shīna, who was standing behind Irisdina, was about to say something, but before she could say anything, a person appeared and spoke to Nozomu.

"Nozomu-kun, there you are."

It was Norn-sensei, the infirmary nurse, who approached him.

She lightly waved her hand and broke into the indescribably delicate atmosphere without fear.

"Norn-sensei, is something wrong?"

"No, I just need your help with something. Do you have time after this?"

"Well, I've got a training session with Jihad-sensei..."

"I heard that Jihad-dono has a full day of work today. So, I don't think there will be a problem. All I need is for you to pick up some medicine from the store."

Currently, Nozomu trained with Jihad after school almost every day, but today, apparently, Jihad had something to do.

However, the school was not yet over. If he was going to accept Norn's request, he had to talk to his homeroom teacher, Anri-sensei.

And Nozomu was concerned about Irisdina and the others who were staring at his face next to him.

"Of course, since it's a formal request, you'll pay for it, right?"

"No, you don't have to worry about the price or anything of the sort..."

When Nozomu glanced sideways at Irisdina, she gave a small nod and turned on her heel, waving her hand to encourage Nozomu. She apparently told him not to worry about them.

Norn watched the backs of Irisdina and the others as they walked away with an apologetic expression on her face.

"I'm sorry to interrupt your conversation. It's a rather urgent matter. The people who will help me are already at the back gate, so I need you to go there right away. I'll make sure I talk to Anri, Irisdina, and the others in your stead."

"... I understand. I'll help you."

Nozomu tilted his head at the somewhat forceful tone, which was not normally typical of Norn, but he couldn't refuse now, could he? While thinking so, Nozomu and Norn headed for the back gate.

"I'm really sorry. The merchant would normally have brought them to the school, but apparently, the wagon was destroyed in an accident. It's quite a lot, so I've asked for help from others besides Nozomu-kun."

As he exited the school building and made his way through the path leading to the back gate, Nozomu asked Norn for the details of what he had been asked to do.

It seemed that the supplies for the infirmary were running out, but the items they ordered had not yet arrived.

She wanted to go and pick it up herself, but the number of students with minor injuries had increased due to the recent increase in the number of joint classes, and Norn was unable to leave the infirmary for a long time.

So instead, she asked Nozomu to pick up the supplies she ordered.

Nozomu had no reason to refuse a request from someone who always looked after him. He nodded his head in lighthearted approval, but .....

"I understand, so who is the person that will help you out together with me ... ?"

Nozomu's thoughts turned white the moment he saw the person waiting for him at the back gate.

Long crimson hair. Her eyes, which had been glancing around nervously, caught sight of Nozomu, and they widened like a full moon, followed by her mouth which was clenching tightly.

"Lisa ..."

Her name leaked out from his mouth.

Perhaps it was because Nozomu had made his voice louder than expected, Lisa reacted to Nozomu's words and her shoulders shook.

"She's here to help. I've told her where the store is, so please take care of the rest."

"Eh~ !? Wait ..."

Without a satisfactory explanation, Norn quickly returned to the school building, leaving behind Nozomu, who had stiffened up due to the unexpected situation, and Lisa, who was still casting her eyes down.