A Depressed Kendo Player Possesses a Reckless Aristocrat

A World Without You

-Next weekend… there’s supposed to be a memorial service for the victims of the last incident.

Victims, and a memorial service.

When Golden Sun spoke those words, the fogged-over corners of my mind snapped into focus.

It was like someone had delivered a sharp blow to the back of my head.

Following the stinging pain was a brutal dose of reality.

Had I been so focused on my own misfortune for so long?

I had forgotten.

That a tragedy, one worthy of the name, had occurred here too.

-The number of students injured in this invasion is 138, and the number of students killed is 5……

Students had died.

Five of them, children.

During the invasion, they’d gone out to block the monsters pouring through the back gate.

A sudden intrusion, and Rekus lopped off their heads.

They were said to be promising talents, even among the academy’s best.

Well, with skills like that, it makes sense they’d step forward to protect others, even in such chaos.

Except for one thing.

They were strong enough to put the weak behind them, but not strong enough to protect themselves from the strong.

A cruel paradox.

“Haa…”

A sigh escaped my lips.

An indescribable feeling lingered.

Lost in thought, a scene buried in the corner of my memory flickered before my eyes.

– *Shick…*

The slicing sound of flesh being cut, echoing.

Followed by a dull thud.

A sound like something heavy falling to the ground, and when I looked up, there were five heads, cleanly severed.

Death, swift and instantaneous.

Back then, stopping Rekus was the priority, so I pushed it aside.

But the crimson blood that stained the floor that day, it was an undeniable tragedy.

My stomach churned.

Unable to bear the dizzying feeling, I deeply inhaled the death-herb I was holding in my mouth.

“Haaa…”

I had forgotten.

The original story was a tragedy.

A tragedy where countless people died with each passing incident.

This world was by no means kind to us.

I had already experienced that.

I lost my mother before my eyes, and I lost my master, the only adult I could rely on.

My teeth clenched involuntarily.

“…Idiotic.”

Having lost things so precious, how could I have been wallowing in such a foolish sense of security?

A wave of self-loathing crashed over me.

I rubbed my face dry, trying to shake off the grogginess.

A wave of melancholy washed over me, but I forcefully pushed it back.

This wasn’t the time to wallow in weakness.

Simple self-reproach wouldn’t solve anything.

Like with my mother, like with my mentor, I wouldn’t stand by and lose someone again, not so helplessly.

I needed strength.

I needed the means to protect those within my circle.

I put out the withering weed I’d been smoking and hauled my body up from the couch.

“…Guess I need to move the plan forward.”

A low murmur, a soliloquy.

There was much to prepare.

To overcome the enormous wave that was coming, I had to build a breakwater strong enough not to crumble under the trials.

I opened my mouth, which had been clamped shut.

“Rachel. Could you get my coat?”

“You’re going out?”

“Yeah, there’s someone I have to meet.”

I replied with a faint smile.

To see my plans through smoothly, there was a mountain I had to climb.

“…Corn.”

Corn Ronnezia.

The principal of Reynolds Academy, a war hero who ended the civil war ten years ago.

And also, my mentor’s lover.

I needed to get her on my side.

*

-Whishhh…

The sound of a biting wind crept in.

Outside the tightly closed window, white snowflakes poured down like a storm.

Even though spring was just around the corner, the day was unusually cold.

The season raged fiercely.

It was as if this was the last snow of the winter.

Even in such a venomous climate, a woman lay submerged in darkness, showing not a single flicker of interest.

“……”

The woman’s name was Korn Ronezia.

She was a woman with captivating crimson hair and golden eyes.

She lay on the bed as if dead.

Not a single candle existed in her surroundings.

Only pitch-black darkness swirled around her.

In a space where it was difficult to see even an inch ahead, Korn was frozen as if time itself had stopped.

A faint, trembling breath.

That alone was the element that signaled she was still alive.

-Master, it’s time to wake up.

-No amount of whining will help. Today is the day of the faculty meeting, remember?

The woman was recalling a scene.

A past that was now tragically shattered, no longer able to be held in her arms.

Her chest ached.

A pain as if thousands of heated needles were piercing her heart surged, but Korn did not resist.

She simply accepted it calmly.

-Master! Are you busy with work?

-The menu at the faculty cafeteria looks good today, would you like to go together?

-I think I’m tired from sleeping too late last night. If you hadn’t clung to me last night saying, “Let’s do it one more time”… Ah! Oof! Why, why did you hit me!

-The weather is nice. Shall we go for a walk together?

A soft voice lingered in her ears.

Korn quietly closed her eyes.

It was a time that melted away like the sweetest candy in the world in her mouth.

-I love you, Master.

A sweetness that she wished would last forever.

But it did not take long for that kind of moment to be spilled upon with pitch-black ink.

-Hello, Master.

-The fact that you are seeing this record… means I’ve probably left this world.

Just like happiness, unhappiness, too, suddenly found its way into her life.

-I don’t know how my end will be, but I’ll apologize in advance.

-I wanted to be by your side forever, teacher… I guess wanting isn’t enough.

-Please forgive your incompetent disciple, teacher.

Was it because I spent too many days weeping?

Now, even tears won’t come.

In the lightless golden eyes, only a sticky resignation remained.

-Please, even if I’m gone, I hope you won’t grieve for too long.

A single phrase, piercing his lungs, made Korn exhale a ragged breath.

It was a brutally cruel thing to say.

It was his disciple’s last request, but he couldn’t bear to grant it.

She didn’t know how not to grieve in a world without the person she loved.

The purple rose was quietly wilting.

Korn harbored a wish to disappear just like that.

Light and sound, smell, texture… every fragment forming the world felt utterly meaningless.

“…The world is so ashen without you, Lucas.”

It was a painful name.

A relentless sense of loss continued to drag her down below the surface.

Her bloodless lips quietly muttered.

“I’m tired.”

The will to live no longer ignited within her.

It had been like that ever since you left.

But that doesn’t mean I didn’t try.

As you asked in your last words, I tried to turn my eyes away from grief, desperately clinging to academy work.

I pushed my broken self.

I kept staying in the headmaster’s office until I was on the verge of fainting every time.

But even that didn’t last.

In the end, I couldn’t even protect the academy.

There was an invasion three months ago.

The students were hurt.

The students were hurt.

The students she loved, the ones her beloved had loved, were hurt and killed.

In the end, she hadn’t been able to protect a single one of them.

“I want to stop now… forgive this helpless teacher.”

Korn mumbled, burying her face in her palms.

The fragments of her heart, so desperately gathered, shattered uselessly in the cold winter wind.

She had resolved to give up on life.

The woman once praised as the pinnacle of magic, was now a wreck, rotting away in the corner of a room.

She wished to be forgotten.

She wished no one would find her.

She just wanted to wander the blissful fields of the past, slowly drowning in the sorrow she loved so dearly.

It was in this state, swallowed by the darkness, that it happened.

-Knock knock…

Someone was knocking on the locked front door.

The strange sound reaching her ears furrowed the woman’s brow.

A moment of irritation flared, the feeling of her solitude being invaded, but she barely managed to suppress it.

Few people knew where Korn currently lived.

At most, only a few faculty members.

She hadn’t left this place for the past three months, so rumors had even spread that she was missing.

The woman hauled her heavy body up.

‘……Is it Professor Sharon again.’

It was about time for Professor Sharon to come by with a meal.

If she didn’t open the door, she would just keep knocking for hours like last time.

It was better to just show her face quickly and send her away.

Korn let out a short sigh.

She stumbled slightly as she got out of bed, but quickly regained her balance and approached the front door.

-Click, screech…

Her limp hand pushed open the front door.

“I keep telling you, Sharon, please don’t come by like this……”

Korn’s voice was laced with coldness.

But she soon found herself unable to continue, her lips frozen.

“Headmaster.”

It was because an incredibly unexpected person was standing outside the door.

Hair like the night sky, eyes with a hint of fatigue, even the dark circles that evoked a strangely decadent beauty.

Korn mumbled the boy’s name, dumbfounded.

“Student Raiden…?”

“It’s been a while.”

As their eyes met, the boy bowed politely.

The child who had followed Lucas as his mentor, was now standing right in front of him.