Chapter 8 (1/2)
Chapter 8 – Hour of Awakening＊
[‘When she awoke’]
Beyond the clear material of the Capsule slept a young girl without a breath, possessing an almost sculpted looking face, so beautiful that she didn’t seem real.
She had silver hair, almost transparent white skin, and fine and slender limbs.
Her age seemed about the same as Luru’s right now, and her face was young enough that you could say it was cherubic.
However, none of that mattered.
To Luru, what was important was that she her features conformed with the characteristics of the race now called the ancient demon race.
The extreme mana conductivity of the ancient demon race dyed their hair silver.
That was the most important feature of the ancient demon race.
Humans didn’t possess this kind of hair.
It seemed that modern people didn’t know about this fact, but of course Luru did.
He knew that this appearance was that of the ancient demon race.
That’s why he knew that the girl before him was of the ancient demon race.
And, what was even more important, was that he knew very well who this girl was.
There was no way he could forget.
It was the girl he was worried about during his fight with the hero.
The face that appeared in his mind when he regretted being eternally unable to celebrate her birthday.
The daughter of Bacchus Taesnola who had long ago been the Demon King Luruslia Nord’s trusted friend.
“…Iris…”
Muttered Luru.
Gran peered into the Capsule as well from behind Luru, and when he realised that what was laying there was a girl, he raised his voice in shock.
“…Oi, why the h.e.l.l is there a person in there!? Are they alive?”
With those words, Luru confirmed a second time that as expected, the characteristics of the ancient demon race weren’t pa.s.sed on to the people of this era.
To gran, she was nothing but a human.
In fact, excluding her hair, the girl’s – Iris’ appearance wasn’t different to a human’s whatsoever.
You could feel that she had a little bit more mana, but even so, the reason it felt like she was still a human was probably because she had been continuously sleeping for so long.
The long term sleeping system required a lot of mana to operate, so diminished mana during the sleep was one of the side effects of its use.
When Luru was the demon king, the effect of this was large enough that it couldn’t be ignored; enough that if one slept for 100 years, all of their mana would be used up. As a result, it wasn’t able to be put to practical use.
Since then, technology had probably progressed, and it had been reformed so you could sleep for even thousands of years without issue.
If it was using just a little bit of the mana within the body, then the ancient demon race could do so without problem at all.
Once their woke up and began moving about, their mana would return to levels befitting of the ancient demon race once feared by the humans, after all.
There were no major problems with the machine outside of that side effect after all, and being case, it meant that Iris was now safely sleeping.
That’s why Luru replied,
“I don’t know why but… she’s alive, isn’t she? There’s no way to check except by opening it up”
“Even if you talk about opening it up… how are we supposed to open this thing, anyway? I’ve never seen something like this before. There’s someone inside, so I can’t b.l.o.o.d.y well chop it open either.”
Gran spoke with a troubled expression.
The transparent Capsule that covered Iris was also made from ancient demon race technology, and not only had it survived thousands of years without a problem, you could imagine that even if you cut at it, it would be fine just like the doors from a while ago.
That being the case, they had no choice but to open it the way they were meant to.
In the doors’ case, what seemed to be the management system’s artificial voice had spoken when Luru touched it.
What if he touched it as well, this time…?
Thinking this, Luru slowly and quietly brought his hand to the Capsule.
It was a machine that had probably allowed a living being to sleep without dying for many, many years.
Because he was afraid of breaking it by handling it roughly, he had ended up touching it the way he did.
Though he comprehended that it wasn’t made of anything so brittle, this was a matter of the heart.
And then, Luru’s hand made contact with the Capsule.
And when it did,
『……suspend……long……ing equipment……number……?』
resounded the blurred artificial voice, once more. Thus, Luru replied,
“Please suspend it! With the life of the person using the equipment as priority!”
It would be trouble if all that happened was that the system shut down.
They had to wake make sure she woke up safely.
That’s why Luru said what he did.
The artificial intelligence created long ago via mage technology[/arts] had been created with the ability to obey these kinds of vague instructions in mind, so as long as there wasn’t some kind of flaw that developed as a result of the few millennia that had pa.s.sed, it would do as he intended.
And truly, the artificial voice said.
『……Understood……』
and began preparing to suspend the long term sleeping equipment.
Some kind of mist-like medicine or something was being sprayed inside the Capsule before their eyes.
What happened after was that the blood gradually began to return to Iris’ pale face.
Her chest that had been completely still up until now began to slowly rise and fall, and you could tell that she had begun to breath.
It was probably to wake her up.
“…Seems she’s alive, huh.”
Muttered Gran, as he watched over these events.
From his point of view, he probably couldn’t understand what on earth this Capsule was.
Even Luru couldn’t understand the details of this, even if he knew that Iris was being woken up.
It was unreasonable to expect the people of this era to understand.
How long pa.s.sed by after that?
It didn’t feel like too long had pa.s.sed, and it also felt like it was just an instant. When that time had pa.s.sed, a line suddenly appeared down the middle of the capsule, and after that, the Capsule opened, and the two halves of the transparent Capsule were stored in each side.
At last, Iris had awoken.
Thinking this, Luru approached the sleeping Iris with resolve.
Looking at her face up close, Luru felt a profound feeling of nostalgia[/longing].
He recalled the joyful face of his friend who had just had a child.
The many times he had celebrated her birthday.
Iris’ smiling face as she ran up to him to be spoiled.
And the happy expressions of her parents who watched this.
All of those revived in him when he saw her face.
Aaah, she was finally waking up.
Even though he had expected her to have died after his fight, she managed to survive safe and sound, and even reunited with he who should have died.
He felt deeply moved by this.
In the past, in the height of the war with the humans, when they resolved themselves to die, soldiers would say to their sweethearts before heading to battle,
『Even if I fall in battle, let’s meet again in the next life. The cycle of rebirth will definitely allow us to meet again.』
They were words of faith, of temporary comfort, and of consolation.
They believed in this in the depths of their hearts, but that didn’t mean that they truly expected to be able to meet again.
Despite all of this, Luru was now seeing such a miracle.
It was just a little, but he felt that he couldn’t believe it.
However, it was reality.
He who had become a human, and the daughter of his old friend, separated by thousands of years, met each other.
This was reality.
Like that, Luru gazed at her face as he stopped his emotions from leaking prematurely.
And then, the girl opened her eyes.
Slowly, and majestically.
Both Luru and Gran were for an instant entranced by that beautiful sight.
However, it was only for an instant.
The one who noticed first was Gran.
“…!? Luru! That kid is dangerous!! …Guah-!!”
Together with his scream, Gran was sent flying without reason and crashed again the wall.
The shocked Luru returned to his senses, and with eyes wide, he saw that the now awakened and upwards facing Iris had the palm of her right hand pointed towards Gran, with smoke rising from it.
Luru understood that Iris was the one who had sent Gran flying.
“…What are you…!?”
Shouted Luru in panic, but the rising Iris suddenly smiled, her soft gaze became sharp and she glared at Luru.
Her glittering red eyes burned with hatred and anger.
“…Human. Die.”
It was a dark voice, colder than a glacier.
A voice smothered in all despair.