“Iyaa, that was load off my shoulder. The feeling of being liberated sure is great~.” (Sakurai)
Sakurai was walking in the middle of the city while stretching his arms and shoulders to loosen his stiffness.
He, who had a cheerful smile on his face, had no leather bag on his back; the leather bag, folded neatly, was carried by Iris who walked side by side with him.
Now, the only items in the leather bag were what Sakurai dubbed as the ‘Three Sky Series’, not to mention the bankbook that had a lot of money in it, even the cheques that could be used to withdraw money from it had gone.
“Hey, Sakurai. Are you really okay with it? It’s a lot of money, you know?” (Higaki)
“Don’t care.” (Sakurai
At the question of Higaki who walked behind him and Iris, Sakurai answered immediately without turning his head.
Walking further back behind them, Luisina, who wore a cloak to hide her appearance, recalled Higaki’s perplexed expression as she talked when they had returned to the hospital room.
Sakurai, the key figure that made use of Black Sword’s plot to loot lots of money from their base in order to repay his debt.
After paying off his debt with the money he got, he said that the rest was ‘in the way’ and used up all of it within the same day.
Moreover, the way he used it was not normal, it wasn’t for his own pleasure or investment for the future, instead, he ‘dumped’ that large amount of money on Amanai, Akano, and Ethel, who could hardly be called his acquaintances.
“But why did you give them such a large sum of money even though you just met them?” (Higaki)
“I had them suppressed one of the bosses; as the helped side, I naturally had to give them adequate quest reward.” (Sakurai)
Sakurai had skillfully browsed the list of inpatients at the reception of the hospital, and when he confirmed that Amanai and others were receiving treatment at the same hospital, he claimed to be ‘one of their party members’ and paid for their treatment costs on the spot.
He then gave them 3 million cheques each, and he left Ethel Tyner’s rosary with a note in the lost-and-found corner while he was at it.
Moreover, he forcibly gave the remaining still-large amount of money to Iris and Higaki, and now what was left in his hand was only a small change enough to have a little extravagant dinner for the week.
At Sakurai’s apathy or maybe, indifference toward money, Higaki and Iris, who were given bankbooks, ended up repeatedly confirming it with him unconsciously.
“If I raise my level in dungeons, I will naturally collect the money I require, and I have no use for such a large amount of money anyways.” (Sakurai)
“But Sakurai-san, shouldn’t you save money for the future?” (Iris)
“There are absolutely people who will come flocking to you if they hear you’ve saved up a lot of money, I just don’t wanna deal with them.” (Sakurai)
To those words, Luisina, who had become an ex-diva, nodded deeply on the inside.
While she was working as a diva, just how many people there were coming at her with hidden motives when they learned that she was single woman who had lots of money and status.
The lot, who were so many it was even bothersome to count, were persistent in many ways, sometimes, there were even the likes of noblemen who went as far as using drugs to try to rape her.
Of course, the level of drugs that affected human bodies were harmless to Luisina, a demon-kin.
The people who did reckless actions to her were turned into puppets with ‘Blood Mist’ or she simply killed with her physical strength.
Luisina had not an ounce of guilty feelings toward that kind of people, rather, she felt she had done good deeds by killing them.
She was disgusted by such people who was so dazzled by money, appearance, and status, so she strongly sympathized with Sakurai’s dislike for them.
“Well, if you say so, I’ll hold on to the money for the time being, but…just say it if you need it, okay?” (Higaki)
“You could just use it as you like, though.” (Sakurai)
“Sakurai-san. People who won’t be confused when given a large amount of money by someone else just because ‘they don’t need it’ are a minority, you know.” (Iris)
“That makes it sounds like I’m a part of that minority, so please stop.” (Sakurai)
“Then put away those knitting tools that you took out. Most people do not knit while walking, and it is dangerous, isn’t it?” (Higaki)
Sakurai, who reluctantly put away his knitting tools at Higaki’s pointing, started walking as though it couldn’t be helped.
He started to walk, but…the way he walked was eerie, as though he danced a queer dance; the eyes of the surrounding pedestrians were visibly turning frigid.
However, Sakurai ignored them and kept walking like dancing.
Rather – perhaps because he gradually began to enjoy it – he started to increase his pace, which made the surrounding people immediately moved away from the place.
Iris and Higaki, who were accustomed to it, did not say anything in particular despite making bitter smiles and dismayed expressions, at most, they pulled Sakurai whenever he was about to bump into something occasionally.
“Hey, black hair. What’s that strange dance he’s doing? It’s creepy.” (Luisina)
“The name’s Higaki. Higaki Ao. …What he’s doing now is practicing some sort of movement technique. He’s doing it quite slowly now, but when executed properly, it’ll be a skill called ‘Remnant Flash of Fire.” (Sakurai)
“Skill, eh.” (Luisina)
Come to think of it, when she was fighting Sakurai at the opera house, he was saying about skill this and skill that, so Luisina remembered.
Sakurai was surprised that she hadn’t mastered any skills, but looking at this circumstance, it was precisely because he always devoted himself to train his skills that he was surprised at her who had power but couldn’t utilized it properly, so she convinced herself.
Although it was only a few days since she first met him, or just a few hours according to the time she spent in his company, Luisina had begun to realize that Sakurai was an unrivaled training lover.
And him abandoning his shame and doing whatever he wanted to do without being tied to the society made him closer to ‘freedom’ than any human she has ever seen.
Luisina Mateos lived in pursuit of ‘freedom’.
And now she had been released from both the role of ‘a member of Black Sword’ and ‘a Diva’, she gained a way to live just as a person, an individual.
She had a lot of money, which she got as a reward, and she also had a prospect of a temporary housing.
The necessities for life were all in order for the rise of the curtain to her second life, that was no doubt the ‘freedom’ she had been seeking for.
However, Luisina lacked outlook of what was beyond this ‘freedom’, which could be said to had come to her out of the blue.
What should she do from now on? What could she do? What did she want to do?
She was someone who could make an effort to reach her goal if she had one.
It could be tell by how she honestly kept treading on the path to becoming a diva, and succeeded to becoming one with flying colors, despite it being something she was ordered to do.
However, most of her goals in life to date had been given by Black Sword, and therefore she had not been able to develop ability to find a goal on her own.
“Yo, hap, hoi, ow.” (Sakurai)
Sakurai, who tripped on his legs and fell on his face, stood up and began training again without paying any heed to the giggling voices from the surroundings.
Every time he failed, he would slowly started over from the beginning, sped up as he got used to it, and continued to start over it again and again.
His eyes were as serious as when he was counting money in the hospital room.
Despite there being few people, she didn’t support his act of training on the street in the middle of the day, but as a person who glorified ‘freedom’, she thought he could be a reference.
By keeping an eye on him for a while, she might want to review what ‘freedom’ was to her.
With that in mind, Luisina quickly pushed through Iris and Higaki, grabbed Sakurai by his arm, and dragged him away.
“Huh, hey!? What’re you doing!? I’ll fall over! I’ll fall over, I said!?” (Sakurai)
“You’re being a bother to other pedestrians. And we’re going to go shopping for my daily necessities now, so don’t dawdle around.” (Luisina)
“I haven’t heard of that! Rather, hold on, it hurts! I’m gonna fall! Let my hand go! You, hey!?” (Sakurai)
“Stop struggling. Hey, Blue (Higaki Ao), lift this guy’s legs. Tan (Iris), take his other arm.” (Luisina)
Luisina inserted magic power into her voice and purposely spoke in strong commanding tone.
Iris and Higaki, who were startled by her sudden action, fell into a ‘fascinated state’.
“It can’t be helped.” (Higaki)
“I understand.” (Iris)
“They’re ‘fascinated’!? Luisina, What are you up to!?” (Sakurai)
The two who had heart marks on both of their eyes, as though to express that they were in a fascinated state, began to restrain Sakurai as they were told.
Sakurai, who was the only one having a skill to invalidate fascination, began to resist, but was powerless against Higaki and Iris as he had been in a collapsed posture in the first place.
The suppression technique that Iris cultivated in ‘Netherworld’ worked particularly well on the rampaging Sakurai, and in the end, he was taken to the downtown area without any meaningful resistances.
———
Akano Reika saw off the back of her companions as they grew distant from the window of her hospital room.
Amanai Hayato and Ethel Tyner.
It hadn’t been a month since the two who were walking side by side met, yet it was no exaggeration that their relationship was unmistakably that of companions.
Was it due to Ethel’s bright personality or was it due to Amanai’s serious personality?
In any case, there were dark feelings that could not be ignored swirling in Akano’s heart looking at the backs of the two.
“…………”
She had no resentment to the person called Sakurai Tōru, but Akano unconsciously crushed the cheque he sent.
The swirling feelings were not jealousy. They were just pure regrets.
Each member of the party led by Amanai had a distinct role.
It was assigned by Amanai, who knew the ability of Akano and Ethel as ‘characters’, with their abilities in mind; the girls, convinced by him, accepted their roles.
Amanai Hayato acted as a front liner, guarding the entire party by attracting the attention (hate) of the enemy.
Ethel Tyner, like a mainstay, was in charge of healing and support, and sometimes wield her two-handed rosary.
And as a rearguard, Akano Reika would fire high-firepowered magic attacks to rout the enemies when instructed.
She was proud that Amanai stood out as one of the most talented students enrolled this year due to his ability to give accurate instructions while fighting on the front lines.
However, on the other hand, she felt she was ‘inferior’ compared to Amanai and Ethel.
It might seem a bit misguided to feel inferiority complex when their roles in battle were very different, in the first place.
However, it was precisely because Akano Reika was a mage who had excellent qualities that she got inferiority complex.
An outstanding mage had the ability to perceive the magic power that filled the world and the amount of magic power that a person had.
And this world where all living things had magic power more or less, it was generally accepted in the mage community the more magic power a being had, the ‘stronger’ they were.
Speaking in game terms, it referred to the inevitable phenomenon that the higher the level of a character, the higher their magic power value (MP, magic points, etc.) would be, so it was a generally correct perception except for some event characters with special circumstances and settings.
Regardless of whether a character used magic power or not, when their Lv1 and Lv10 stats were compared, the latter would naturally had a higher magic power value.
And outstanding mages often had the ability to perceive this magic power.
Akano Reika was also a main character in the original game, ‘an existence whose qualities were guaranteed’, so she had also acquired the ability of ‘magic power perception’.
That was why, she could perceive and compare her own magic power with the magic power of the two.
That was why, she noticed the fact that she was far inferior (lower leveled) than to the two.
Even before Akano aspired to be an adventurer, Amanai had been training for his future enrollment at the academy.
Ethel had also said that she was born in a big church, so the education she originally received might be of good quality.
The two had a proper reason for being better than her, Akano herself too understood that.
Therefore, Akano had always felt anguished at the fact that she was seen as ‘equal’ to the two.
It wasn’t like Akano wanted to be under the two.
Of course, she had no thought of wanting to stand above them.
What she wanted was to be on an ‘equal footing’ with them as friends or as companions, and in fact they treated Akano that way.
So the problem actually lied in the fact Akano herself could not admit that ‘Akano Reika was a person on equal footing with the two’ due to her inferiority complex.
And because she herself knew that, she spent her days looking away from her inferiority complex without confiding in Amanai and Ethel.
“…Only me.”
In the incident that occurred at the opera house.
Akano was the only one who fell to the poison during the incident; she couldn’t do anything while Amanai and Ethel were fighting the perpetrator of the incident for their lives, she couldn’t even stood on the ‘battle stage’.
“Only, me…”
She heard that the poison disseminated in the opera house had little effect on the strong ones among the guards and the knights who came later, as well as those attending the Adventurer Academy such as Amanai and Higaki.
It was equivalent to being thrust with the fact that Akano Reika, who also went to the Adventurer Academy but fell to the poison, was distinctly weaker than her two companions.
Strength filled her hand crushing the cheque.
The large sum of 3 million given to her, which was the same amount as the ones given to Amanai and Ethel, cornered her further.
Why, just why was she, who couldn’t do anything, given the same thing as the two who were fighting for their lives.
She couldn’t understand it.
She didn’t want to receive it.
However, she couldn’t refuse Amanai, who handed it to her with a gentle smile and said it was natural.
“…I want to become, strong.”
The feeling of inferiority lying in her heart became greater and heavier.
That, coupled with the regret that arose in her shook the ‘core’ of Akano Reika.
“I want to be, strong…”
Tears filled her eyes that were looking out the window.
They gently flowed down her cheeks and fell to the floor.
Silence was the only reply to her mutter which continued to echo as though to torment her in the dimly lit hospital room.