Episode 23 – The Mine (2)

The Mine (2)

…10 minutes ago.

Soliette Arkne was walking alone in the mine tunnel.

The dim corridor was heavy with the dampness and mana-infused dust that fluttered about. All manner of filthy substances clung to her body. As dirty and unpleasant as it was, her expression remained unchanged.

She was silently advancing through the tunnel.

By the time her red hair was thoroughly coated in dust, she reached a dead-end wall.

“…Hmm.”

Without a word, Soliette gripped her pickaxe. Red magic surged from her hand, adhering to the pickaxe.

She swung it with all her might.

Thud-!

She embedded it in the wall and detonated it.

——Boom!

The area was devastated by the deeply channeled magic.

All sorts of rubble were shattered, and she was picking up only the magic stones rolling out from within when—

—Hey, is someone there?

A voice came from the other side of the blocked path.

“Yes, someone is here.”

—…Soliette?

In just two words, he recognized who she was. Soliette slightly furrowed her brow.

“Who is it?”

—It’s Shion Ascal. Do you remember me?

“Yes. I remember.”

Shion Ascal. The subject of her swordsmanship report.

—Really?

Thud! At that moment, a hole was made in the wall.

Soliette took a few steps back. An eyeball appeared through the small hole.

“…We meet again.”

It was Shion Ascal. He gave a smile with his eyes and then completely broke through the wall.

Crash—!

Beyond the collapsed wall, he looked at her and spoke.

“Thank you.”

“…”

Soliette tilted her head.

What was he thanking her for?

“I was trapped. The wall suddenly collapsed. You saved me by breaking it.”

He pointed behind him. The path was buried in rubble.

“I see.”

“And also, that time.”

Shion scratched the back of his neck and slightly averted his gaze. He seemed somewhat embarrassed for some reason.

“That time too. I was grateful you showed me the way.”

“…The way?”

“The girls’ dormitory wall. I accidentally climbed over it.”

“Oh, so that was you.”

So, that pervert was this guy.

Looking at the magic stones in his basket, Soliette spoke.

“You’ve mined quite a lot?”

“Oh, this? It’s easy if you know the trick.”

“The trick?”

“Yeah. You just need to find the core of the magic stone by eye. Want me to show you?”

“No, thank you.”

Soliette declined.

“No, I’ll show you. Let’s see….”

Ignoring her refusal, Shion looked around.

“There are points in the mine too. The core of the mana vein. If you just strike there with a pickaxe, like this—!”

Then he struck the wall with his pickaxe.

Clang-

A sound like striking metal echoed.

“…?”

That was it. There was no special change or trick, and Shion raised both arms in confuShion.

“Ah, this seems a bit hard. Just a moment.”

He pulled out the pickaxe and struck again.

Clang—!

A slightly louder sound resonated.

That was it.

Shion wiped the sweat from his temples and spoke.

“It’s quite hard. This is, like hitting a moon rock, isn’t it?”

Soliette crossed her arms. She looked at the wall with slightly narrowed eyes.

“…It feels ominous. Are you sure that’s okay?”

“It’s fine. Just one more hit should do it.”

Shion swung his pickaxe down again.

Thud——!

Shion was confident this time. He smiled.

“Phew. It’s done. Now…”

Suddenly, his words were cut off. His once beaming face hardened. He turned to look at Soliette, his neck creaking.

“…Wait a minute. What did you just say?”

“Pardon?”

“What did you say?”

“I said, ‘Is that okay?'”

“No, before that.”

Soliette answered obediently.

“I said, ‘Something feels ominous.'”

Gulp- Shion swallowed his saliva. He licked his lower lip and asked again.

“Is that true?”

“I’m not sure if it’s true or false yet.”

“I mean your feeling, your intuition.”

“Yes, it feels ominous.”

“Ah, damn it-”

Shion hastily pulled out his pickaxe.

That was the moment.

—————!

Something exploded within the wall. Soliette immediately grabbed Shion’s arm and deployed a magic circle. The magic took the form of a fabric, wrapping around the two of them.

It was a high-level magic circle, 「Defense Magic: Guardian Veil」.

* * *

I opened my eyes. The first thing I felt was a headache.

“Ugh…”

Holding the back of my head, I got up and looked around. Fortunately, Soliette was nearby.

“…Huh.”

She looked just as groggy as if she had just woken up.

She looked at me and asked.

“What happened?”

“Sorry. My mistake.”

“What mistake?”

I should have paid attention when Soliette first said ‘it feels ominous.’

It seems that her ‘intuition,’ which was like a ghost before the regression, is still accurate even now in her teens.

“Look at this.”

I pointed to a piece of magic stone that I had split in half. The magic stone, devoid of the color and texture of steel.

“It seems this was a ‘Strong Magic Stone.'”

Not all magic stones are the same.

Strong Magic Stone, Water Magic Stone, Synthetic Magic Stone (which are illegal), Fire Magic Stone, etc…

Among them, the Strong Magic Stone is particularly dangerous. Because the magic nuclei are very strongly bonded, if you forcibly strike it, it explodes like just now.

Soliette shook her head.

“That’s impossible.”

“What is?”

“Don’t you know why a Strong Magic Stone is strong? Unless you wrap a strong force around the pickaxe, it won’t break.”

“……”

She’s right, in terms of magic.

Unless I had strengthened the pickaxe with 「Perion」, and hit the magic nuclei precisely without a single error using 「SZX-9500」.

“…Yeah. It must have exploded on its own then.”

It’s my fault, but there’s no need to stubbornly correct her when she’s saying it’s not my fault.

Soliette leaned against the wall and closed her eyes.

“Rest. The rescue team will be here soon.”

“Aren’t you going to mine? There are plenty of magic stones here.”

It seems like we fell to the bottom of the mine—a dump-like place, but the blue dots are clear all around. That’s why it’s not dark at all even without a single ray of light.

It’s a paradise of magic stones.

“Yes. I’m not mining.”

Soliette took out a cigarette from her pocket and lit it. As soon as she put her fingers to it, it caught fire.

She seemed indifferent to the grades.

I mumbled, looking up at the gaping ceiling.

“Well. You’re not interested in college anyway.”

The ceiling is very high. It seems like we fell about 30m, but there are no special injuries. It must be thanks to Soliette’s magic circle.

“…Why do you think I’m not interested in college?”

Soliette asked dryly. It was a somewhat irritated tone.

I lowered my gaze slightly. Her eyes were sharply narrowed.

“College Board, it’s something the family forced upon you, right?”

“……”

At this, Soliette’s expression grew icy. Through tightly clenched teeth, smoke from her cigarette flowed out like a frost.

“I seem to recall saying the same thing when you broke into the girls’ dormitory that time……”

After taking only one drag from her cigarette, Soliette crushed it underfoot and said spoke.

“Don’t push it.”

Her voice was laced with hostility. A clear warning not to cross the line.

It seemed I might have misspoke a bit.

“……Heh.”

I couldn’t help but smile.

It had been so long since I’d heard her speak like this. Her unchanged tone and voice, as pleasing to the ear as ever, almost brought tears to my eyes.

Soliette furrowed her brow.

“What are you grinning at? Have you lost your mind?”

I shook my head in denial and retorted.

“What does it matter? Let me ask you, do you like your family?”

Soliette Arkne.

Before her regression, she had ranked second across the entire College Board continent, but she didn’t enroll in any university. Instead, she mysteriously disappeared.

Her sudden vanishing, after spectacularly conquering the year-end exams, was quite a shocking deviation.

“……”

Soliette didn’t answer. Instead, she clenched her fist. Thump-thump- her neck shifted from side to side, making a threatening sound.

“No, right?”

Now, I was trying to cross that ‘line’. To trample it defiantly.

To Soliette, who was much more raw and sensitive than her future self, and from a guy she’d only met twice.

I couldn’t help it. I’m not exactly sociable, having lived my life with revenge as my only goal.

“Your family is shit.”

The purpose of this life given to me is only to complete retribution. Everything else—especially interpersonal relationships—are nothing more than worthless trash.

But.

Even if my purpose is only that, I don’t want to miss the ‘opportunity’ in front of me.

“Did that shitty family of mines send someone like you?”

Soliette’s tone became serious.

“No. Would the Arknes hire someone like me?”

“Well.”

She nodded without a doubt. It was a strangely convincing acceptance.

“So why do you keep acting tough? Do you want to die?”

I looked at Soliette, whose words were becoming increasingly harsh. The wall she was leaning against was studded with gemstones, which brightly illuminated her.

The blue light spreading in her red hair. Her transparent eyes like jewels, and her lips tightly closed with determination and resolve.

“You know…”

I once loved the beautiful figure before me.

Her existence was like a star to me, and I never failed to think of her whenever I looked up at the sky.

It was such a trivial, fleeting emotion.

“Just.”

But to confess this feeling, to live loving someone, the time given to ‘us’ is far too short.

“I need money.”

I pulled out a flyer from my pocket and handed it to her.

[At Your Service]

Soliette laughed in disbelief.

“……Was it you? The so-called ‘expert’?”

“Well, yeah?”

I’m a quasi-expert. An expert who’s been rolling around in the underground world where laws and ethics don’t exist, in that crazy society. Delivery, cleaning, driving, background checks, stalking, searching… come to think of it, they’re all odd jobs, but still.

“Get lost. If you keep running your mouth without knowing anything, I might just kill you.”

Whoosh— Soliette burned the flyer. The ashes blew into my face.

“I do know, actually.”

I replied, nonchalantly.

“Why do you keep trying to distance yourself from the family?”

“…Shut up.”

Soliette put a finger to her lips. Her gaze was sharp as a blade, and the air turned icy.

“Watch your mouth. This is your last warning.”

This was the limit.

One more step from here would be crossing the line.

It didn’t matter.

Whether it was the last warning or not, we were running out of time.

Soliette was wearing out even more severely than I was.

She was already, to some extent, worn down to the point of destruction.

I didn’t want that.

I didn’t want her to die.

Even if recovery was too much to hope for, I at least wanted her self-destruction to stop.

The ‘regression’ I experienced was the chance to save her.

So…

I said it.

“It’s because of the Knightmare, isn’t it?”

With that single statement, the atmosphere shifted drastically.

Uncontrolled mana flowed from her body, shaking the cave, and Soliette expressed her anger in the most explicit terms.

“—This fucking bastard.”

She rose to her feet, her eyes burning like flames as she glared at me.

Her threatening demeanor didn’t scare me. It was rather cute, but one thing bothered me.

Our eye levels didn’t match.

I was still the shorter one.

“I’m not teasing you. I’m saying I can help.”

I was sincere, but Soliette’s complexion turned cold. She even began to gather magic in her hands.

Is she going to attack me?

Whoosh——!

Soliette shot a mass of magic upwards. It stretched out like a harpoon and stuck to the ceiling.

“Rot here for the rest of your life.”

She spat out the words and shot upwards, like a rocket.

“…Wow.”

I mumbled, staring blankly upwards.

“That’s about 30 meters.”

To pull out 30 meters of magic and use it like a wire. She’s truly a monster.

“…”

Left alone, I scratched the back of my head and bit my lower lip.

I had acted impulsively, but now I was a bit worried.

Did I do the right thing?

Can my efforts move Soliette Arkne even a single step?

“…I should pray.”

At some point in the past, someone said my presence brings misfortune. That they became unhappy because of me.

Thinking back now, it might’ve been true.

People from my past life that I liked, loved, or admired.

Those who liked me, helped me, thought of me.

Everyone who was with me for whatever reason got hurt or died.

Soliette was one of them.

Before my regression, she pitied me and showed compassion. It was no different from how one treats a lost dog or cat, but I was okay with it.

Because I loved her.

Because she allowed me to.

…Was that why?

Soliette Arkne.

Seven years from now, she would commit suicide.

“—Oh my.”

Suddenly, a voice echoed in the darkness of the mine, interrupting my thoughts.

“Oh dear.”

Feigning surprise, she looked at me with exaggerated gestures as if to draw my attention—