Vol 2 Epilogue (2/2)

“Her wish that I ‘live on as a person’ were her final words to me. As well as my dream.”

“And that dream… has it come true?”

“Yes. She taught me how to laugh, what happiness was, how to help others – as well as the pain of loss. The pain that wracked my heart as I took her life was the final proof that I had indeed become ‘human.'”

He laughed, but the laugh never reached his eyes.

“She really was someone precious…” Tina murmured.

“Anyway, what happened after that you know. Old Man Boris picked me up, I entered the training school, and lived as I do now.”

Monstrous power, priceless Reliquia, even celestial Dragon Fang weapons had lost their meaning. Aside from the MorsBlack Death Seax, the symbol of his sin, he had discarded it all.

“I had originally planned on simply living like this for the rest of my life.”

“…’Originally’?”

“My plans have changed thanks to the appearance of a certain someone. ——Anyway, let’s open shop.”

Yuuki tussled the small s.h.i.+nki’s hair and made his way to the store.

“Good morning.”

Franka was visiting as usual.

“Good morning,” Yuuki replied in turn.

“…Did you two have a fight?” Franka asked, looking at Yuuki and Tina’s expressions.

“Franka!”

Before Yuuki could answer, Tina threw herself at Franka with tear-filled eyes.

“The opponent’s too much. I lost without ever having a fighting chance. And I feel worse and worse. What do I do? What do I do?”

“Ah…”

Franka sighed.

“I get it now. …Accepting everything takes an open heart, hard as that may be.”

“I have no idea what you two are talking about, but getting along as you do, you sure look like a pair of sisters.”

At his words, the two looked at him with complicated expressions carrying just a hint of reproach.

During the incident a few days before, Franka had brought Selim and Edgar safely home. She’d run into her brother, whom had been investigating the situation, and he’d seen them home.

“By the way, I ran into Nii-san on the way. He’s apparently decided to form a new party and continue his work in the Legion.”

The siblings had once walked different roads, but that gap seemed to have closed just a little.

“It seems like he’s run into a bright young girl and a quiet one. A support specialist and a cleric, I think? I introduced them to this store, so you might meet them later on.”

“I’ll keep an eye out, but I don’t expect too much,” Yuuki replied with a bitter laugh.

Recently, their store had had some new customers.

Edgar and Selim visited whenever they had free time. That said, they only came over to play, and never bought anything, so it was hard to call them customers.

Next were Kaya and Jahar. He’d formed a pact with them aside from the truce. Jahar would bring Reliquia and Yuuki would share intel with them as well as advise them on how to deal with the other s.h.i.+nki, forming a united front.

When it came to Kaya’s relations.h.i.+p with her Duelist, she was as polite as ever though she now seemed capable of making her position known. Her former cowardice had not reappeared. Jahar, on the other hand, didn’t seem to know what to make of Kaya now. Indeed, it seemed her sneak attack and the hole she’d left in his chest had left him with a healthy respect for his master.

Alfred was the same as always, and came and went as he pleased. Even now that his ident.i.ty as an observer had been exposed, he hadn’t changed in the least. Yuuki wasn’t sure if he was just slow or if he just really didn’t care. That said, Yuuki had no intention of blaming him for anything, and so it didn’t matter.

Tina conversed with Franka as she organized the store inventory.

Yuuki had noticed how she couldn’t help but compare herself with his former master, Muriel.

He pondered inwardly whether he should tell her that there was no need for such things. He was pretty sure that she wouldn’t listen if he said as much, though. What should he do?

He’d never had to worry about such things during his time with Muriel. His relations.h.i.+p with Tina was quite different. It was pretty unfathomable.

(——”This s.h.i.+nki, Albertina, declares that ‘even if I die,’ I trust him!”)

Yuuki thought back on Tina’s words.

She had likely noticed that he’d overheard her. It had been thanks to that sentence that he’d finally managed to free himself of his tortured past, and had had the resolve to once again take up that which he had once sealed, the MorsBlack Death Seax.

Muriel had been his savior. And now, with great force, Tina dragged him ever forward.

When a s.h.i.+nki died, another would be born in their place. When the Serpent of Demise perished, another took its stead.

What had caused such a situation?

Was there another path that bypa.s.sed all this death?

This, above all else, he wanted to have made clear. In order to repay those two.

“Master! The price tag on this sword’s fallen off – how much is it?”

“Give me a moment. I’ll take a look.”

Yuuki made his way to the side of Tina, gesturing exaggeratedly, and Franka, smiling faintly.

Yuuki Takamigahara was unable to protect this world. However, from the bottom of his heart, he wanted to protect this scene.

The difference between a “tool” and a “person” came in whether or not you could feel pain.

Yuuki wished to never again have something stolen from him by this system that had been constructed by some unknown force, and operated for some unknown reason.

And so… with these two hands, he’d change this world.

Translator notes and references

None.

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