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Shigure Tendo was currently reading.
Although Seiji had told him that the book he was now reading was a “light novel”, Shigure actually had no idea what a light novel was. In fact, Shigure didn’t even have a very clear understanding of the term “novel”.
This was because Shigure had never read a single novel in his life before.
That was right, not a single novel. Shigure had never read a single novel, whether it be a great classic or the most popular trending novels. Nor did he have any understanding of novels.
The only books Shigure had ever read before were either about cultivation or related to his studies. With his low intelligence, just reading and understanding these texts took up all of his reading time. He had no free time to read anything else.
So, not only was “Brother Monogatari” the first light novel that Shigure had ever encountered, it was in fact the very first novel that he had ever read. Without a doubt, this opened the doors to a brand new world for him!
The story, characters, scenes, and drawings… Everything about the story fully sucked him in. The story wasn’t trying to teach him any knowledge like everything else he had read before. Instead, it was simply a story, a story about an adopted older brother from the viewpoint of an adopted younger sister.
Shigure felt like he was mysteriously personally experiencing the adopted older brother main character’s experiences. It was as if Shigure had entered a different world and was a different version of himself there.
This feeling… was quite fresh.
This was what interesting was.
Shigure faintly understood that this was interesting.
This all felt fresh, wonderful, immersive, good, fun, happy, delightful… This was the “interesting” that Seiji Haruta had told him about.
However, just being “interesting” didn’t have any particular meaning.
No…”interesting” was also meaningful. “Interesting” had a meaning that nothing else could replace.
Shigure quietly read the light novel as he felt these newfound feelings.
Right now, he had no idea what condition his physical body was in, nor did he know what would happen to him or if his family would be able to rescue him. For any normal person in his situation, that person would likely be highly anxious. However, it was as if Shigure had completely forgotten about his own dire situation. In fact, his lips even started arcing upwards without his realizing it.
Even if he was about to die soon, it was great that he finally understood the meaning of the word interesting… Shigure didn’t even think of this, but if he had to meet his death afterwards, he would accept it quite easily.
Footsteps approached.
Shigure didn’t even notice the footsteps with how absorbed in the light novel he was. Only when the other person walked right in front of him did Shigure finally notice and raise his head.
Seiji Haruta had returned.
“How do you feel?” Seiji asked him.
“It’s very interesting.” Shigure instantly understood what Seiji was referring to.
“That’s good, then.” Gaining another fan for his own work had been a success! Seiji was quite happy about this.
If Shigure had said that it wasn’t a good story, Seiji would indeed be displeased, but he wasn’t petty enough to allow that to affect what he needed to do next. Shigure Tendo’s opinion of “Brother Monogatari” wouldn’t influence Seiji enough not to want to save him. However, it definitely felt much better to save someone who enjoyed his story rather than someone who hated it.
“Someone requested that I save you. I decided to agree for the time being. However, I don’t know if I can accomplish it,” Seiji told Shigure. “According to the requester, your physical body is now somewhere deep within the Realm of Cherry Blossoms. Your body’s current condition is unknown. But, it’s certain that it will be highly dangerous and that both you and I might die at any moment there.
“In order to save you, the first thing that’s needed will be a spell that can locate your physical body. I’ve discussed this with the White Sakura Goddess who’s a good goddess that’s on our side. She agreed to help us by casting a spell on you that can locate your physical body. However, this will be dangerous to you and might cause your physical body’s death if it attracts the wrong type of attention.
“As I told you before, your family already knows that something happened to you. However, I don’t know what plans your family may have on how to save you.
“You can choose to believe in your family and continue waiting for them to save you. Logically speaking, the Tendo Family is far stronger than me and my companions. That would be the logical thing to do.
“However, if you believe in me and are willing to cooperate with the spell to locate your physical body, I will promise to do my very best to save you!”
Shigure fell silent.
Seiji waited for Shigure’s reply.
“Haruta-san, who is the person that requested you save me?” Shigure asked this question first after his silence.
“I can’t tell you.” Seiji thought back to his conversation with Yui from not long ago.
After he’d made up his mind to accept the mission to rescue Shigure Tendo, Seiji called Yui again. She had only told him that Shigure Tendo’s physical body was currently somewhere deep within the Realm of Cherry Blossoms.
Yui also told him that she was giving him this mission in order to make up for Soul Society’s mistake in getting Shigure Tendo involved, along with other factors. However, she didn’t explain what those other factors might be. She also forbade Seiji to tell Shigure anything about her.
“Haruta-san, why do you want to save me?” Shigure asked a second question.
Although the two of them had cooperated before during the Bloodwine Ritual tournament against Kanzaki, a common enemy, that was only because of the circumstances. Currently, neither owed the other any favors… no, if Shigure wanted to be pedantic, he owed Seiji because Seiji had “gone easy” on him without killing him in their previous battle.
And Seiji had also given him such an interesting book. Thus, he owed Seiji two favors.
Not only had Seiji previously gone easy on him when they should have been mortal enemies, Seiji was even willing to enter deep into the Realm of Cherry Blossoms to save himself. This would obviously be greatly dangerous. Shigure felt that there was no need for Seiji to take such risks for himself. He didn’t understand why Seiji would want to do this.
In fact, if Shigure had the chance, he would kill this Seiji Haruta who was right in front of him! That was because this was an order from his father to take revenge for his deceased older brother.
Although Shigure didn’t really care about this order, an order was still an order. If he really had the opportunity, he would indeed attack Seiji.
Shigure didn’t have any feelings of hatred for Seiji. So, they didn’t count as true mortal enemies. But because Seiji’s older sister had killed Shigure’s older brother, Shigure and Seiji were indeed “mortal enemies”.
Shigure figured that Seiji would understand all of this.
That was why Shigure didn’t understand why Seiji would want to save him.
“Because the requester offered me great rewards… is the excuse that I wanted to tell you, but I want to tell you the truth,” Seiji explained as he understood why Shigure wouldn’t understand. “The real reason why I agreed to save you is actually quite simple. I don’t think that you are a bad person. You helped me during the Bloodwine Ritual tournament… Although you were forced to help me due to the circumstances, you indeed helped me to the best of your abilities, and kept everything about your promise to me, helping me to win that tournament in the end.
“Your actions back then made me feel friendly toward you as I felt like you were a good person. Of course, this is a very subjective opinion and I still know very little about you. However, the fact that the requester wants to save you is more circumstantial evidence that you’re probably not a bad person. If you were an evil person, not only would the requester probably not ask me to save you, that person would likely request for me to kill you.
“Still, even I don’t know why the requester wants to save you. Maybe that person isn’t considering your moral character. Maybe there’s some specific reason that you need to be saved. However, I want to believe that you really aren’t a bad person.”
At this moment, Seiji then glanced over at the “Brother Monogatari” book in Shigure’s hands.
“This novel that I really like is something that you also think is interesting… Perhaps we can even become friends.”
Friends… this was a very unfamiliar word to Shigure.
Of course, he knew what the word “friend” meant. However, he had never personally experienced having any friends.
But at this moment, Shigure felt like he faintly understood what the word friend meant.
“Your older sister killed my older brother. We’re mortal enemies.” Shigure ended up saying this out loud before he even realized it.
He didn’t even know why he said this. It was as if his own mouth wasn’t under his own control.
“I know that. Still, it doesn’t seem like you hate me because of that.” Seiji smiled. “I won’t apologize for that incident, because I can’t represent my older sister. But as myself, I’m sorry for your loss. We are indeed supposed to be mortal enemies. However, you don’t hate me, and I don’t hate you. We even have common interests like this novel. That’s why I think we have the potential to become friends.
“In novels, this type of situation is usually known as a ‘mutual understanding’. Oftentimes I think that this type of ‘understanding’ isn’t very realistic in real life, but it can still indeed happen.
“I don’t know why it seems like you don’t hate me. But since you don’t act like I’m your so-called mortal enemy, I’m willing to reach out to you. As for whether you’re willing to take my hand or not, that’s your decision to make, Shigure Tendo.”