Chapter 26

"Huh? What do you mean that we can't be friends anymore?" Koyori asks in shock. Still refusing to face Koyori, Hisashi answered.

"We cannot be friends anymore. It's a simple language." After saying so, he starts to walk back into the field.

"Stop! You can't just leave after saying that! Why can't we be friends anymore? Do you hate me?! Give me a reason why!" However, despite her displeased reaction, Hisashi didn't face her to explain. She took a step but…

"Don't. Just stop. If you take one more step…"

"What if I take one more step?! Are you going to get angry? Are you going to push me away?" Koyori said but she didn't take another step, waiting for his answer.

'If you don't stop, I might take back what I said.' Hisashi thought to himself as he bit his lips hard. So hard that he started bleeding.

"Ryuya, take her away. Please." He requested before he starts to walk away again. Then, Ryuya, who was watching everything happen, stood up from his chair. Koyori saw this and knows that Ryuya is doing what Hisashi said.

"NO! Ryuya-dono! WAIT!" However, her plea is useless as Ryuya didn't stop. Seeing this, she starts to run toward Hisashi. But then, a wall of dirt appeared in front of her preventing her. At the same time, Ryuya taps her back, telling her to stop.

"Let me talk to him more! He can't just do that! OI! Hisashi! You can't just leave me here!" She tried to look for another way but Ryuya just prevented her.

"Why are you even following his orders? Aren't you his supervisor? He's supposed to be following you!"

In her fury, she dropped the honorifics while addressing Ryuya. Hearing this, he just thought for a while before saying, "Yeah. But he didn't order me as his supervisor. He requested me as a friend."

"But why are you preventing me from talking to him? I just want to talk to him! Can't, can't I do that as… as his friend?!" Koyori said loudly. However, she starts to break as she said her last sentence.

"I also hate to see you two like this. However, I know that he won't be doin' this without a reason. If you want to, why don't you talk to 'im again after everything cools down?" Ryuya said, apologetically.

However, Koyori didn't understand what he meant and got even angrier.

"Without a reason? Why is he acting like he should be doing everything again? I'm his friend too! And he can't even trust me to tell me what he's thinking?!" Koyori's tears start to fall out of her eyes. She was about to walk out with Ryuya when she stops.

"You don't have to come with me. I know my way home! Also, tell him that if he doesn't want to… then I don't want to be friends with him again anymore!"

Hearing her words, Ryuya watches her leave. When she was finally out of his sight, the wall crumbled revealing the crying Hisashi standing just behind it.

"Wha'chu think? You did the right decision?" Ryuya asks as he sits down on the chair.

"I- I don't know…"

"You know that she's right, right?"

"About what?"

"About everythin'. Like how you act like ye'r doin' everything yourself. And how you can just tell her your reasonin'. It didn't have to go this far."

"I have to do this. I can't make her suffer because of what I did."

"Is it about the 'Devil Child' thing? I think that she wouldn't mind."

"Yeah, she certainly wouldn't. But I would. Why does she have to suffer with me?"

"…" Ryuya can't help but stay silent on that. He knows that if it's all about stubbornness, Koyori stood no chance to Hisashi.

"It's also not just that."

"Then what is it?"

"I feel like… No, I know. I know that if I didn't do this, one day, because of me… she might…"

"Get in danger?"

"Die…" What he said surprised Ryuya. After all, Hisashi wouldn't say what he doesn't mean.

"What do you mean by that?" Ryuya asks. Hisashi hesitates for a bit but decided to tell him.

"Remember the book I used to write? About the boy with no yoryoku or sorcery. And Big Brother was even there."

"Yes, I remember. It was good. I don't even know why you stopped writing it. I think that was before they fight the other kingdom right? Spede, no, Spade! Spade kingdom."

"It's not that I don't want to, it's just that I can't. Last year, I stopped dreaming about it. I've told you before that I get the material from my dream right? So I stopped."

"Then?"

"Then, months ago, I started to dream about the village getting destroyed?"

"Destroyed? How?"

"I don't know. All I know is that... Only four people survived. Ichika, Brother, You… and me."

"Why are ya worried? It's just a dream isn't it?"

"That's what I thought too. But then, a week ago, I saw the possibility of it being real."

-----

"Doc, what're these books?" Hisashi asks Jeimi.

"Every book here is written by me. Decades ago, I fully learned about the sorcery of our continent so I tried exploring the others. There, I saw that there are the same but also different sorcery systems."

"Really?"

"Yep. Oh, and I remember something like your dreams. I think it was called the Continent of Suites. Compared to us in the Orient, they have a larger quantity of yoryoku. Because of that, most of them use large-scale attack spells. Since what we have is a different quality of yoryoku, we thrive more in a short burst of spells. We also specialize more in body enhancement and incorporating our sorcery into our martial arts and weapons."

"Then? Is my story real?"

"That's what I don't know. I still don't know whether your dreams are caused by your special sorcery or just normal dreams. However, what is uncanny is the accuracy of your dreams to the details."

-----

"Say, I have an idea," Ryuya said after the long silence.

"What is it?"

"Why don't ya go to the capital and train as a samurai?" "Huh?"

"I mean it. Although ye'r too young, they can always make an exception. As far as I admit, ye'r more talented than me."

"I don't know about that."

"You don't have to decide in a hurry. You still have three more weeks to finish yer job and before I come back the capital." Ryuya said before he jolt up remembering something.

"Speakin' of that, Koyori-chan left early so I wasn't able to talk about the dungeon situation. What should I do 'bout that?"

"Why? What's the matter?"

"You see, I was able to make a deal with father. I said that there was a dungeon 'ere but there wasn't much. I told 'im the contents you told me except for some. He said that I can have it as long as I take all the gold out no matter how little it was."

"Really? Is Goshu in crisis? Why does he want the gold?"

"I 'unno. There's somethin' he ain't tellin' me. But when the shogun does this, it's either an upcoming crisis, emergency… or a war."

"The key's on Koyori… You also have to tell it to her so that she knows."