Vol 2 Chapter 13 – Reality【Vol 2 — Youth in the Midst of Calamity】

Right in the middle of the main street, Lucas and I stood facing each other, both frozen in shock.

“Wh-Why are you in a place like this…?”

“Hey, that’s my line. I’ll ask you again, Will. What are you doing here? Weren’t you supposed to stay home with Elena while we were away? So how the hell are you out here, casually wandering around the royal capital?”

There was obvious anger on Lucas’s face.

As a father, he was scolding a son who had done something reckless.

That much, I understood.

Even so—

I was supposed to be eloping with Sophia right now.

So why was my father here?

He should have been one of the people who would have opposed that.

—Should have?

Why wasn’t I sure?

Why had Sophia and I eloped in the first place?

There could only have been one reason.

Someone had opposed our relationship.

But who?

…Who?

Something was wrong.

Something was definitely wrong.

Then why was Lucas here?

What he was saying made perfect sense.

My parents had gone to the royal capital, and I had been left behind to watch the house with “――――.”

I see.

Then Sophia and I must have run away while my parents were gone.

If that was all, then it fit.

…No.

That wasn’t right.

If that were true, there would have been no reason for us to run all the way to the royal capital, where my parents already were.

None of this made any sense.

“W-What are you talking about?”

“Hey, Will, are you even listening to me? More importantly, if you’re here, does that mean Elena’s in the royal capital too? Don’t tell me you left Elena home alone. Did you?”

“Huh? Who did you say? Who did I leave home alone?”

“Huh? Elena. Elena. She’s your little sister, isn’t she?”

“Elena”…?

Who was that?

I had never even heard that name before.

And he was saying that person was my little sister?

What was he talking about?

To begin with, I didn’t have a little sister—

No, wait.

A little sister?

That’s right.

I did have one.

Then what was her name?

My little sister’s name was…?

I couldn’t remember.

No—

That wasn’t it.

I didn’t know.

“W-Wait… my little sister’s name is… Elena?”

A violent throb ran through me.

My head.

My brain.

My body.

My heart.

Everything creaked, twisted, and warped.

“AaAAaAaAAaahhhhhhhhhhh――――!!”

It hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts.

Something inside me was breaking apart.

Collapsing.

Warping.

Vanishing.

No—

Changing.

My thoughts creaked.

Cracked.

Came apart.

“――――AaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaahhhhh――…………”

“Hey, Will!? What’s wrong!? Hey, Will! Get a hold of yourself! Hey!! Will, ――――――”

◯

—First, something split open inside my head.

It felt as if fingertips had plunged straight into my brain.

My insides were churned into a mess, and my very shape kept changing, changing.

It hurt.

It hurt so much I wanted to cry.

And yet the sensation was strangely clear.

Even though it hurt, my mind felt bizarrely clean.

Like pure water was being poured straight through me, washing every trace of filth away.

That was what it felt like.

◯

I woke up.

It felt like I had been dragged up from the bottom of deep, dark water.

The light was painfully bright.

Sunlight poured in through the window, the kind of harsh brightness you only got around midday.

“Oh, you’re awake.”

I was lying alone in an absurdly lavish, oversized bed.

The first thing I saw was Lucas’s face.

“…Ngh. …Where am I…?”

“We’re borrowing a room in Sophia-chan’s house. Hell… seriously, what the hell did you get up to while I was away from home for a little while, you little shit?”

“…Huh? What do you mean…?”

Maybe because I had only just woken up, my head was still hazy, and I could not grasp the situation at all.

“Two forbidden cursecraft spells had been cast on you. You still had enough will left to resist them, so I managed to do something about it. If you hadn’t, I don’t know whether even I could have broken them cleanly. And that wasn’t all. There were also three instances of sensory-theft magic on you, the kind of thing that’s practically a forbidden art on its own. With something like that attached to you, it’s no different from having someone stand at your shoulder and watch you every second of every day. And there were three of them.”

“W-Wait a second. What exactly was done to me?”

When I hurriedly asked him to repeat himself, Lucas let out a sigh.

Then he lifted his head and looked at me with grave eyes.

“Fine. I’ll put it simply. A forbidden technique called cursecraft twisted your memories and even your mind out of shape. On top of that, someone had been watching you around the clock.”

“…Huh? B-By who?”

“How the hell would I know? But doesn’t that remind you of anyone? Magic like this takes work, and whoever cast it has to come into contact with the target at least once.”

Wait.

I needed to sort this out.

What exactly had happened to me?

“Wasn’t there anyone who approached you in a way that felt unnatural?”

“…”

I searched through my memories.

At the very least, I could still recall the days when I had been living normally.

My parents had gone to the royal capital, leaving me to watch the house with my little sister, Elena.

At the very least, about a week should have passed without anything happening.

So what came after that?

Right.

I remembered.