Chapter 25 – The Terrible Master and Disciple (8)

The Terrible Master and Disciple (8)

“Sit down.”

With a lifeless trudge, she approached, and a single phrase was hurled at me. It didn’t hurt. It was a familiar sensation. It just stung a little.

Master seemed not to care that she couldn’t see, and as soon as she heard me sit down, she came straight over to me.
I carefully placed one of the letters from my bosom, an orange one, beside me. In case the master dies, I need to check what becomes of the letters.

“We’ve already saved this world. Isn’t it enough that we caught the Demon King? What more do you want, to do some charity work?”

“Be quiet, I need to concentrate.”

“200 years old might be an age for cobwebs in the ears, but I really didn’t expect it to be true.”

I felt a hand on my back. The hand resting on my shoulder slowly slid down to my side.
And then it stopped.
A hot sensation slowly spread from both sides of my waist. The heat flowed through my veins. Especially, my eyes felt an intense heat. Then I felt as if my arms were burning, and lastly, a piercing pain as if my heart was being seared with a hot iron passed through.

Enduring such pain for a moment, master dusted off her hands and stood up.

“What will it be this time? Last time it was the eyes.”

“Everything essential. Your body is robust but your insides are lacking, you need too much.”

I dusted off my pants, which were covered with dirt and moisture. The damp soil clung to the clothes and wouldn’t fall off easily.

“I’m truly sorry for that.”

As I straightened my clothes, I looked at master. Her face, with a faint smile and blood running down, was like that of a madman.

“Yes. With this. With this, I can finally reach it.”

Ignoring the thick blood, she reached out to me.

Like someone who had given everything to harvest the forbidden fruit, her empty eyes suddenly filled with desperation.
It was obvious what would happen to the one who ate that forbidden fruit.

“Now, give it a try. Let out a swing.”

I threw a punch into the air.
I didn’t really think about anything. I just extended my arm forward. Because of that, nothing changed. The fist just flew forward,

A clear failure.
There was no way I would hear the sound of my fist cutting through the air.

“It’s a failure. I don’t feel anything.”

“Are you going to be like this until the last moment?”

“There’s just nothing. Nothing at all. No magical power wrapped around my fist, or enveloping my body, nothing like that. Except for the Mind’s Eye I first received.”

To prove my point, I reached out my hand to master. As she carefully caressed the extended arm, I wrapped it with magical power. Even if I squeezed out a tiny bit of strength, the vessel was still empty. There was no change, except for the ability to open the Mind’s Eye.

From the very beginning, I was inherently different from them; it’s strange to think I could wield the same power they do.

Between us, Troka has an undeniably unique constitution. It was only through the medium of the goddess’s power that he could manipulate the forces of this world. It was never a power meant for humans from another world to endure. Moreover, in this world, only the chosen ones can wield the blessing of magical power.
It’s a power that someone like me could not, should not, nor desire to use. It’s nothing but an illusion, a mere fantasy.
And the master is holding onto such vain hope.

“This cannot be… No, now that the vessel has been created, all that’s left is to fill it. It must be so.”

At that moment, a mass of blood poured out. It was a significant amount. For a normal human, it would have been enough to cause immediate death from hemorrhagic shock.
Could someone who has lived for 200 years survive even after spewing out so much blood?

I concentrated all my mind on my body. There was no particular sensation to be felt.

“The potential that once overflowed in my vessel has already dried up. I am satisfied with my current state; there’s no need for it to rise again.”

“No, that can’t be. Like Troka, you too…”

“Didn’t I tell you already? It’s impossible.”

Master lost her balance and collapsed to the ground with a thud, likely because she had transferred all her strength to me.
In her rush to hasten her death, she had neglected her own physical state to achieve her goal.

I knew this would happen. Yet, I said nothing.
I’m not sure why.

“It can’t be.”

In the end, Master was left with nothing.

From simple things like power, fame, and wealth.
To life’s driving forces like family, disciples, and children.
And even the goal she had so desperately wanted to achieve.

The price she paid for expelling Troka was a bit harsher than she deserved.

“The reason for expelling Troka. Now I understand. It was to stimulate ambition, wasn’t it? Because just striving to kill the Demon King wouldn’t have been enough to fulfill your purpose.”

There are two things that let me know she gave me her power.
The fact that she used Troka as atonement for her sins.
And the fact that she tried to use me after Troka’s death.

Greed, once it starts to grow, cannot be stopped. At first, she must have thought of me as just a child with some talent. Eventually, she believed that I could complete her martial arts, and that’s when her gaze towards Troka began to change.

She must have thought it a waste to let such a gem rot. If only that power had been granted to him, she could have achieved her goal!
But this is the result.

“After all, to you, Troka was nothing but a tool, wasn’t he? An interesting tool. Just one of the many you used for your own dreams.”

Blood continuously flowed from Master’s mouth, like a broken faucet at a watering station. The gradual loss of color from her face seemed eerily surreal.

“Ultimately, wasn’t it you, Master, who cast him out, mistaking that his goals would align with your own, and expelled him to stimulate his ambition because he had nowhere else to turn to?”

“…Flan, think about it carefully. It may seem impossible now, but it can be completed! It can be filled!”

The blood that had been flowing began to slow. It wasn’t that the bleeding had stopped; rather, there was simply no more blood left to come out.

“I held neutral feelings towards you, Master. But now, I’m not sure how I feel. Perhaps it’s best to part ways before we hurt each other any more.”

One must open the letter to return home.
Yet, to resolve the lingering questions, one must gamble.

“I have learned much during this time. Thank you. Farewell.”

Picking up the letter from the ground, I opened the gate. The fog was light. What happens when the owner of a letter dies? I didn’t want to confirm it in front of Master’s corpse.

Thus, I hastened my pace away from the dojo.
Master, my ties with Rekke end here. Now I have settled all remaining ties.

“Ah, no. Flan, if you, surely you will, ah…”

Master stopped speaking. As I glanced back subtly, she looked at me silently with unseen eyes and then slowly crawled back into her room.
The vivid bloodstains left behind gave me a boiling feeling.

In the end, I couldn’t protect even the last one.
It seemed like such words were heard. Lost among the fog, they couldn’t be heard again. Surely it was just my imagination. Yes, it must be.

I don’t quite understand my feelings right now. With such meaningless sentiment, I began to climb down the mountain.

The descent was eerie. If something were to jump out, it would surely be something far more dangerous than the likes of Benten.
To be precise, I was the one approaching.

It was during my cautious trek down the dark mountain path. Crack, a sound along with something breaking in my pocket. It was a familiar sound.

I casually opened my pocket, and of course, there were letters.

Various splendid letters irritated my eyes. I picked up the non-shiny letter and placed it on the ground. Three letters in total. Their owners were Aliana, Lumen, and…

Huh?

And an orange letter. Master’s.

…

Ah, so that’s what happened. In the end.
I had been expecting it, given her fragile condition and all the energy she had expended. It was an inevitable outcome that couldn’t be avoided.

What were her last words? It’s slightly regrettable that I didn’t hear them. I’ve become too accustomed to the death of those close to me. Despite the death of a fairly close person, there was no significant emotion.

Perhaps I didn’t want to witness the death of one of the few close to me once again. It felt like adding more stimuli to an unstable mind would lead to irreversible consequences, just like in the past.

But why am I here… Ah, the letter. Right.

Still, there was a gain.
Not a key condition for opening the letter, but a new method.
The fact that a letter opens when its owner dies.
Not the most useful information, but what can you do? At least I’ve gained that much.

There’s still a lot I don’t know. But this one fact has opened up a slight path to resolving my questions. After all, the remaining women are all chillingly repulsive to me. If I’m unlucky, I might have to use the method I’ve just discovered.
My hands have only just been washed, but once tainted, no matter how much you wash them, they never become completely clean again. Let’s save this as a last resort. I haven’t completely abandoned my humanity yet.

This method, only as a last resort.

So, what was I thinking?

Ah.
Yes, the last resort.

I felt a single tear trickle down.

When I wiped my face, there were no tears. Looking up at the sky, it was full of dark clouds. It must have been the drizzle that had touched the corner of my eye. I had to move quickly before the downpour started.
If I don’t move fast, unpleasant raindrops like the ones before will run down my face. Really, really unpleasant raindrops.

The journey ahead seemed quite treacherous.