༺ Awakening ༻
Irina, who was in a daze for a long time, muttered under her breath.
“T-This memory…? Why did I forget…”
Kania, who was quietly staring at her, sighed and asked.
“Ms. Irina, you were the one who noticed the Young Master’s false evil deed, weren’t you?”
Irina, who was in a befuddled state, slowly nodded her head and clenched fists when she heard her words.
“Then… Frey, while he was trying to protect me… his mother…”
“I didn’t expect you to regain your memories this way. I had to infiltrate Young Master’s subconscious to learn about my true memories.”
“Ahhh…”
“Is it because your memory was manipulated in a different way than mine and the Young Master’s? Even when I entered this room, I couldn’t remember anything.”
As Kania spoke calmly, Irina plopped down with a crestfallen look.
“I didn’t want to know the truth…”
“Me neither. Even now, I feel so guilty. I want to confess everything to Young Master and beg for forgiveness.”
Seeing her like that, Kania, who sat across from her and began speaking in a hushed tone.
“However, this shouldn’t be known to Young Master until everything is over.”
“Uh, that’s…”
“Young Master always says he’s fine, but… from my perspective, his mind seemed to have reached its limit. Since you’ve been with him for a day, you also know that.”
Upon hearing her words, Irina’s expression darkened when she recalled Frey’s face. Kania heaved a deep sigh as if she knew this was the case.
“Besides, there are still many ordeals that he will face in the future. Only the first ordeal is coming to an end… I’m honestly afraid of what will come next.”
“…Ugh.”
Eventually, when Kania mentioned the term ‘Ordeal’, Irina lowered her and trembled.
“… Ms Irina, can you listen to my request?”
“What…”
Kania, who was staring at her as if ashamed to make this request, pleaded in a hushed tone. Upon hearing her request, Irina replied in a despondent voice.
“Please don’t resent Young Master too much.”
“Huh?”
Kania pleaded as such with a sorrowful expression on her face. She sighed deeply and continued speaking.
“There is no one as pitiful as him in the entire world. So, please don’t resent him too much.”
“…Hah.”
In a situation where begging for help wouldn’t seem out of place, watching Kania pleading for her to not resent Frey too much, Irina realized how lonely and long their battle truly is
“Tell me everything you know.”
“Yes?”
And that’s why she finally replied as such.
“I want to know everything. The entire truth.”
Only time will tell if she will turn her back on them after learning the truth, or accept it and become their strength.
“It’s not going to be an easy road. Every moment will be painful, and sometimes there will be impulsive thoughts.”
“I don’t care.”
“Really? Are you ready to fight with us?”
Looking at her, Kania asked her over and over again.
Since she knew quite well how much pain she would feel after learning about the solitary path that Frey desperately walked on till now. The path that no one knew about. She implicitly expressed a sense of sympathy and compassion.
But Kania already knew.
“Tell me.”
Irina, who has a determined look in her eyes, will never change her mind.
“Sigh…”
Hearing Irina’s confirmation, Kania heaved a sigh blended in both relief and resignation, then looked straight at Irina, whose visage overlapped with her own when she discovered the truth, and began speaking.
“Well then, let’s get started.”
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“Ha… What else is it this time?”
After following Aria, I lost consciousness as I grabbed my throbbing head in the room. When I woke up I found myself in a dark enclosed space that I truly despise.
“Uh… I don’t like it, I don’t like it.”
I laid down on the floor, and soon let out a laugh and muttered while smirking.
“Still, it’s good for mental training.”
In the past, when I would enter such a space, my hands would tremble and had trouble breathing properly.
However, over time I was able to train my mind by watching other horrific scenes, like the scene from my birthday, the scene where I met my mother.
Looking at it that way, the purpose of this ordeal given the system is to make me stronger…
“F-Frey…”
“…Ugh.”
I was trying to compliment the system, but before my eyes, the figure of my mortally wounded mother appeared. The system is definitely a piece of trash.
Thanks to that, I felt a little uncomfortable, but the system can’t affect my psyche just by merely showing me this scene. First of all, isn’t it just an illusion?
“Help me… Frey…”
“My mother never asked for help, you idiot of a system.”
Having said that, I pushed away the illusion that trying to reach out to me. I then sighed and fell into deep thoughts.
“By the way… I need to find out who the hell noticed…”
I still haven’t figured out who discovered my secret, so I’m starting to get a bit nervous.
At least, I found out that Irina and Clana were ‘suspicious’ of me with my ❰Mind Reading❱ skill, but that’s not even close to enough.
“Sigh… Should I buy the ❰Mind Reading Skill Lv2❱? No, the ❰Life Force Recovery❱ skill is much more important than that.”
Even if I push the points I have earned into the investment system, it will be quite a serious loss to buy a skill that is worth tens of thousands of points.
There are indeed pros and cons, so I’ll have to think a little about this part as well…
– Spark!!
“Ah, great.”
While I was engrossed in such thoughts, I started hearing a noise in front of me.
“Ugh…”
When I wondered what kind of hallucination, the system would show me this time, I saw my mother running through the forest holding something.
“…Now it’s even making up stories.”
The system, which thought I would tremble due to the trauma of my mother’s corpse, seemed to have prepared something else when I handled that situation calmly.
“Ugh.”
My mother, who was running with wounds all over her body, hurriedly radiated stellar mana and flung herself aside when dark mana was shot at her from behind.
“Ugh…”
My mother, who barely dodged the dark mana, continued to run.
“I can’t… as long as it’s like this…”
My mother, who had been running for such a long time, suddenly looked down at something she was holding in her embrace and said
“Ummm… Mom?”
“…Shh.”
Only when I heard the voice of a child, I realized what she was holding in her embrace while running.
“My dear Frey, would you like to play hide and seek with your mother?”
“Yes! I want to play hide and seek!”
When my younger self answered brightly, my mother said with a subtle smile.
“All right, then, Mom will be the seeker.”
“But I want to be the seeker?”
“You’ve already done it once before.”
Upon hearing that, my younger self looked disappointed. Seeing him like that, my mother smiled and said.
“Instead, I’ll let you be the seeker as much as you want from now on.”
Then, as he smiled upon hearing her words, my mother put him down and opened her mouth.
“I’m going to change the rules this time, Frey.”
“Change the rules?”
“Yes, my clever Frey will understand the rules immediately, right?”
As he nodded his head with a twinkle in my eyes, my mother quickly began explaining the rules.
“Mother will be counting to 100 here, so Frey will run away during that time. Did you understand so far?”
“Of course!”
As my younger self shouted confidently, my mother continued speaking while stroking his hair.
“By the time I’m done counting to 100, you must stop moving around and hide. And you must never reveal yourself.”
“Yes!”
My mother, who was still looking at my younger self, who was still answering brightly, suddenly closed her eyes and she hugged him tightly.
“Mom, why are you suddenly like this?”
Seeing her action, when he inquired with a smile, my mother, who had been silent for a while, answered in a quivering voice.
“The game ends only when Mom finds Frey and hugs him tightly like this. Did you understand everything?”
“I understood everything!”
“If you resist with a wooden stick like last time, I’ll come and eat you up!”
“Hehe.”
I smiled brightly at those words, and when I tried to run, my mother stopped me by holding my arm for a moment. She then added a few more words in a sorrowful tone.
“I love you, my son.”
“I love you too!”
With those words, my mother, who stayed behind as my younger self ran away, concentrated stellar mana in her hands and muttered as she trudged to the opposite direction.
“…So you must survive.”
And the next moment, my vision was blurred, and I was back in the dark room again.
“Fuck.”
Having witnessed a fairly plausible scene, I frowned and muttered.
“…Well, it’s just an illusion anyway.”
I suddenly remembered the scene where I saw Irina as a child in my last dream and told her that my mother had instructed me to remain hidden.
If that’s true, it might explain why my memories were manipulated into thinking that I was playing hide and seek.
In fact, there seems to be some truth in that scene.
Anyway, that’s just an illusion. The ‘illusion’ that the system shows to annoy me and inflict mental pain.
So, seeing an illusion created for such a frivolous purpose doesn’t hurt me at all.
For sure.
“Frey.”
As I was thinking about it, my surroundings suddenly became blurry and I started to hear someone’s voice.
‘Ah, it’s about time I wake up.’
At the same time, when I felt my head clear up, I quietly opened my eyes after realizing that it was time to wake up from the illusion.
“Good morning?”
Then, someone who was looking down at me sullenly came into my sight.
“Ugh… my head.”
For some reason, while looking at the unknown being, I felt a pang in my head as I scanned my surroundings, then muttered with a grin.
“Is this an illusion as well?”
“What do you mean?”
When the person tilted their head at my words and asked as such, I pointed over there and said.
“You know Irina is over there wearing Kania’s clothes, right?”
“Yes.”
“Although, I think she should loosen her up clothes a bit. It seems to be too tight for her… pfft…”
I smiled while pointing at Irina, who had her head lowered in silence for a long time, then realized that Kania, who was next to her, was saying something to Irina.
“…That’s everything that Young Master has been through so far.”
“Ahhh…”
Seeing that, I rushed to the two of them, who were sitting at the desk with an appalled expression.
“I’m sorry… Frey.”
Her eyes were bloodshot, her nose was red, and there were tear stains all over her face.
The moment I noticed that, I grasped everything that had transpired so far.
An enclosed space that seemed familiar, Kania who behaved differently different that usual, Irina who was wearing Kania’s clothes. The forest filled with memories with Irina when she was a child.
“Haha…”
I quickly grasped the truth because of my head was needlessly working too fast, and soon began to laugh.
“Haha… Ahaha…”
After laughing for a long time, I asked Irina, who had her head lowered, in a low voice.
“Were you the one who noticed my false evil deed two months ago?”
“Frey, I… I was wrong… uh…”
However, she just kept crying as tears rolled down her eyes.
“No, you don’t have to feel guilty…”
I reached out to comfort her, but…
“…What?”
For some reason, my hand passed through Irina’s shoulder.
“W-What’s going on?”
In panic, I quickly withdrew my hand from her shoulder and tried to clasp my hands together. As it turned out, the hands passed through each other instead of intertwining.
“…Did I die?”
“Who knows….”
Just as I was staring at her in a daze for a long time while muttering in a dismal tone, I heard someone respond to my words and turned my gaze to the side.
“W-Who are you?”
However, it was impossible to figure out who it was because their entired body seemed to enveloped in a halo of light, so when I inquired with a frown, the being slowly opened its mouth.
“First, take a good look at what’s going on.”
And as soon as they finished speaking, Kania opened her mouth, so I looked back and observed the two of them at the desk.
“Irina, are you really going to do that?”
“…Yes, that’s the only way to cure the ‘curse’ and help Frey.”
“Yes, I understand. Then…”
As Irina, who had already stopped crying, spoke with a resolute expression on her face, Kania carefully raised her hand.
“Ugh…!”
Then, the immense dark mana in the ceiling began to be sucked into Irina’s body.
“Ms. Irina, I’ll say it again… This method is to forcibly infuse dark mana into a mana circuit that has been dried and twisted by mana exhaustion. So it will be painful…”
“Whatever it is, I’m sure it will be less tormenting than the pain Frey had to bear.”
“Then, please endure it.”
After a while, Kania, who once again warned Irina, soon began infusing dark mana into Irina.
“Ugh…! Ugh…”
“I apologize. It would have been a little less painful if I had infused my own dark mana.”
“With the dark mana you possess… it’s not enough even if I accumulate it for years. I need at least that much of dark mana up there, in order to succeed.”
After absorbing black magic for a long time, Irina eventually collapsed on the desk and began to tremble.
“Maybe… before the mana exhaustion period is over, she is filling her mana circuit with dark mana in order to deceive the system?”
As I watched the scene, I realized their plan and opened my mouth wide in astonishment.
Even if it’s Irina, whose natural in managing her mana, she is still suffering from mana exhaustion and something can still go wrong.
If that black magic ritual fails, the mana circuits in Irina’s body might get permanently damaged, rendering her mana useless.
Mages fear the possibility of not being able to use mana even more than death itself.
“Aaarghhhh!!”
“Hold on a little longer, Irina. It’s almost done.”
While I was immersed in such thoughts, Irina, before my eyes suddenly burst into terrifying screams.
In shock, I tried to rushed towards her, but as soon as I looked down at my hands, which still passed through each other, I realized that I couldn’t be of any help and began to quietly observe the situation.
“Argh…ugh… ugh…”
“Are you all right, Ms. Irina?”
After a long time had passed, a black aura began rising from Irina as Kania cautiously inquired.
“This is… nothing.”
Then, the mana circuits all over her body slowly turned black and became visibly prominent like veins. Irina exhaled a rough breath and answered.
“…A perfect success.”
Then Kania sighed and settled down on her seat. She wiped the cold sweat from her forehead and replied.
“Now then, the Young Master and the Young Lady…”
The two of them held their breath for a while, then turned to the bed where both Aria and I were lying, but…
– Whoosh…
“…What?”
I started to panic when the dark mana that appeared from somewhere began to seep into both myself, who was still lying in bed, and Aria, who was sleeping soundly.
“Wh-Why can’t I control it?”
Confused at that sight, Kania hurriedly stretched out her hand, but for some reason when she couldn’t control the dark mana, she began to panic and rushed to the bed.
– Whoosh!!
“…Ha!”
However, Aria suddenly got up and began radiating stellar mana from her hands. Kania who saw that scene came to a standstill and asked in a tense voice.
“Young Lady? Why are you acting like that?”
Then Aria, who briefly stared at her, raised the corners of her mouth as if to form a lopsided smile and…
– Swoosh, whoosh!!
“Ugh!!”
Soon after, she began emanating flashes of stellar mana and shot it towards Kania indiscriminately
“Wh-What’s going on?”
And at that moment, everything froze in its place as I looked around in confusion.
“Lingering will.”
“What?”
Then the being who was standing quietly next to me until then, spoke.
“The lingering will of the two people who died in an accident while exploring a foolish truth were blended with the dark mana, and the moment the dark mana finally disappeared, they bared their fangs.”
“Well, that’s…”
“Even if it’s their lingering will, it seems that their greed hasn’t disappeared yet. And now they’re eyeing you and your sister as hosts.”
“Ah…”
Having roughly grasped the situation at the words, I said with a sigh.
Having understood the situation roughly upon hearing those words, I sighed and said.
“Then am I dead?”
“No, now you’re just losing control of your body.”
“I see.”
As I silently nodded and stared blankly ahead, the existence next to me asked a question.
“Do you want to give up?”
When I heard her question, I frowned and looked to the side, as the existence began speaking gently.
“From now on, it’s your choice.”
“My choice?”
“Yes, everything will change depending on your choice.”
Saying so, the existence came right before me as I inquired with a composed look.
“What will happen if I give up here?”
“Eternal rest. It might even feel pretty good.”
“I see.”
As I nodded quietly, the existence continued speaking gently.
“No one will blame you. You did your best, and you earned that right…”
“What if I keep moving forward?”
But when I cut her off and asked another question, the existence answered in a grave tone.
“It will be a path riddled with hardships and adversities.”
When I heard that, I closed my eyes as the existence urgently added a few more words.
“You may end up in an even more absurd and worse situation than now… You may meet your end without being able to make such a choice again. Still…”
“That’s enough. Just give me a hug.”
I cut the existence off mid-sentence and said with a smile.
“I’ll be the seeker.”
Then the light that flashed in front of me spread out in all directions and illuminated the entire room.
“…How did you know?”
And soon, with a twinkling light emanating from her, a woman emerged in front of me. She tilted her head and asked me that question as I slowly approached her and answered.
“The ceiling is completely painted with dark mana, and the light slightly illuminating the room means that there is something more powerful than that dark mana…”
I hugged my mother, who appeared in front of me in her complete form, and ended the conversation with a bright smile.
“More than anything else, you loved me so much, how can I not recognize you?”
“You grew up just fine.”
After holding my mother for a long time, I muttered quietly as I felt the warmth of the light radiating from her seeping into my body.
“I will definitely survive.”
Then my mother, who slowly turned into a fragment of light, penetrated my body and replied with a benign smile.
“Of course. Whose son would you be if you didn’t?”
After saying that, my mother completely permeated my body with the mana of the stars that had filled the ceiling, and immediately after that, a system window appeared in front of me.
The 『First Ordeal』 has ended! 『An alternative condition has been met—』
“Shut up.”
Having swiped away the system window that popped up in front of my eyes, I muttered under my breath as I felt the scene gradually changing in front of my eyes.
“…Don’t you dare try to take credit for this…”
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“Young Master! Young Lady!”
When I returned to my senses, a rather gruesome scene was unfolding before my eyes.
“Argh…”
“Calm down! Please!”
It was because Kania and Irina were lying on the floor of the half-destroyed room, and Aria was approaching them while wielding a mass of dark mana. Meanwhile, my body was swathed in sparkling stellar mana.
“Please…! Please…!”
“Kania.”
Kania looked desperate as she tried to stop me and Aria. At that moment, I called out to her in a serious tone.
“Did you know?”
“Huh?”
When I, who had been relentlessly attacking her till now, suddenly asked her calmly, Kania panicked as a myriad of expressions flashed across her face.
“I…”
As I stared at her, I stretched my hand and finished speaking with a smirk.
“…I’ve always wanted to try magic once.”
And the next moment, the scintillating sparks of light radiating from my hand engulfed everything besides Kania and Irina in its wake.
– Whoosh…
As the dark mana spread throughout the room was purified in an instant, and Aria, who had been approaching Kania and Irina, lost consciousness and collapsed on the floor.
– Schwiiing!
Then, a dark sphere flew out of Aria’s body and began flying towards me as fast as a bullet. I swathed my sword in stellar mana and simply slashed it in half and finally said.
“Still, I prefer the sword.”
