764 Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing? (1/2)

Chiaki's eyes instantly lit up upon hearing this.

”But…” Seiji forced himself to say this word despite Chiaki's hopeful expression. ”Even if that's the case, that doesn't mean that it'll be possible to recover those who have been spirited away. There will still be all sorts of problems—where the spirited away people are, what type of condition they're in, whether they'll be able to return to our world, what will try to stop us, will we need to fight against the gods… problems such as these. Entering the realm of the divine is just like taking the first step. There will be hope of recovering her, but that's all.”

Chiaki's eyes dimmed after she heard all this.

Although it wasn't nice to dash her hopes like that, he still had to tell her the truth. Seiji inwardly sighed.

”Can't we try?” Mika couldn't help but speak up. ”We could try and find Chiaki's mother… maybe that will be possible?”

”I didn't say that we shouldn't try,” Seiji stated. ”We just need to understand the situation clearly.”

It was only his guess that the Realm of Cherry Blossoms was actually a divine realm. And even if his guess was proven right, there would be all sorts of problems regarding how to find and bring someone back. Things weren't optimistic at all.

Seiji felt that it would be bad to be overly optimistic. Taking reality too lightly would typically end in reality teaching you a harsh lesson. For instance, an adventurer who thought they could easily defeat a goblin might be defeated, killed, or even worse.

Too much optimism was no good, but that didn't mean that Seiji wanted to give up because of some difficulties.

”The first step will be to try and find Chiaki's mother in the Realm of Cherry Blossoms…” Seiji looked towards Natsuya. ”Is there any spell that can be useful for this?”

Chiaki gradually calmed down as Seiji and Natsuya began discussing magic spells.

She felt that Seiji was correct about needing to see the situation clearly.

Although there was hope, that was all—just hope. There was no guarantee of being able to find her mother… in fact, it could be said that it would be normal to be unable to find her. It would be a miracle if they could actually find her mother.

Seiji would definitely try his hardest for her sake. All she needed to do was believe in him.

The knight order members all arrived.

Seiji opened up the portal to his Spirit House and had everyone, including Chiaki, enter.

Not only was Chiaki going to enter the Spirit House, she was also going to attempt Visualization.

Seiji didn't know how she would react to the Spirit Image as she wasn't an Awakened or a spiritual ability user.

After learning all the potential results and consequences, Chiaki insisted on trying.

She wanted power… even if simply raising her spiritual power by a little might be useless, she still wanted to try.

Her desire to try became even stronger after learning about the possibility of finding her mother!

Seiji was somewhat worried about her. But after he saw how adamant she was, he could only let her try.

Everyone entered the dojo of Seiji's Spirit House.

After their previous experience, everyone didn't immediately look at the Spirit Image. This time, they all sat down beforehand and prepared themselves before looking at the Spirit Image.

It was the same for Chiaki. When she entered the dojo, she avoided looking at the giant watercolor painting hanging from the wall across from the door. Only after she sat down next to Mika did she look at the Spirit Image.

While looking at that incredibly realistic painting of the three individuals' backs… Chiaki felt a wondrously subtle sensation.

The woman wearing Sakura Island attire and holding a paper umbrella gave her an especially profound and indescribable sensation.

The painting enlarged as the figures appeared to become closer. The colors brightened as everything became real… Chiaki entered a state of Visualization without her realizing it.

The wind was blowing many cherry blossoms around in the air.

Chiaki was now walking down a path in between a grove of cherry blossom trees that were in full bloom. The falling cherry blossoms were amazingly beautiful.

Chiaki was charmed by this moving beauty and admired the scenery as she walked down the path. She didn't regain her senses until a red torii appeared in her field of vision.

'Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing?'

Chiaki was confused as she couldn't recall the answer to any of these questions.