Author: 猫夜叉 (Nekoyasha)
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“I’ve been thinking of maybe getting you to join Shadow Moon.”
“…”
“You don’t need to answer immediately. Think about it.”
That was the gist of the conversation I had had with Lloyd-senpai until just a little earlier.
It kept floating to the forefront of my thoughts, then disappearing again.
“…”
I walked through between the run-down, patchwork houses on my way back to the Flame Mansion.
It would only take a moment if I flew. However, I somehow felt like walking.
“Shadow Moon, huh…”
There’s so many things I need to think about.
Raising Athena to the position of supreme god, for example.
That was my goal and purpose.
With my victory in the tournament, her name was sure to have spread. I had also decided to join the student council. Depending on how I acted, I could make her stand out even more now. And if I raised her fame, her power would rise with it.
And, I can’t say for sure yet, but I feel like Athena’s going to go through some kind of change soon.
At first, she had become able to float. Then, she became able to emit that gentle light. Next would be––
“…I wonder?”
I’m looking forward to it.
An image of Athena saying “Yuno-san! Look!” appeared in my mind.
“…Nice.”
I’m really looking forward to it.
However, there was also worry standing in the way of me achieving my goal.
The goddess Astaroth, famous for being one of the hero gods, and the Stampede she had caused, making Fenrir… or, I guess, Pochi, now, step in to stop it. Thanks to that, Pochi is now quite disliked by the public. And then my sister, the sword saint, had been ordered to kill the divine beast, something that people surely should have found strange.
A famous goddess running amok, and the truth being twisted apart by a large number of gods, and their believers.
What the hell–– were the words I thought to myself.
They’re wrong.
Gripped by the vague feeling of unease that ‘something, somewhere, was wrong with this world’, I had created the mask of the evil god Noah for myself.
Because Athena had wanted me to save Fenrir, but even above that, for my own goal.
Noah had been created as a kind of purifying being out of the wish to save Fenrir and my not wanting to raise Athena up to the position of supreme god in such a rotten world.
And while I had thought there was a good chance that I would never use that mask again, I still somehow felt it would be necessary in the future.
It was all because I had gotten closer to the truth.
Lloyd-senpai told me everything he knew. No, actually, he might still be hiding things, but…
– well –
“Same goes for me.”
The name Zeus, written in [True・Revelations].
I hadn’t been able to say that it was the name of a god, and one I had made a contract with at that.
If I had, he would have been angry at me. I felt like I had a connection to Lloyd-senpai’s father’s death.
I sighed.
And if I try to tell Luna, all I’ll get in return is a cold glare.
It’d just be once. Really.
“…Whoops, I’ve gotta stop being so negative.”
I don’t want to return home with an unhappy look on my face.
I’m sure if Lloyd-senpai had been more normal, I wouldn’t have worried this much.
But, he’s talented. Frighteningly so.
So, I have to think properly about it.
We have the student me, the Yuno Astario who has a goal.
And there’s the Noah me, seeking justice.
Do I have enough time and energy to add a member-of-Shadow-Moon me into the mix?
That’s no good. Being Luna’s knight is important to me.
So many things that need doing. And I only have one me.
“…I wish I had a few extra me’s.”
Not that it’s possible.
No, wait, if I got a little serious––
“Hm?”
I had been walking down a dark, back alley, lost in thought, and something had just moved at the far end of it lit up by a sliver of moonlight.
Oh, it’s approaching me?
There came a light pitter-patter of footsteps, gradually growing louder, the sound somehow echoing along the otherwise silent alleyway, making it sound louder.
“…”
I stopped, deciding to let whatever or whoever it was pass, and stepped into the shade with my back against a wall, erasing my presence.
There was only one reason I hid.
I wanted the possibility of getting caught up in something troublesome stay as low as it could.
This wasn’t the royal capital. And Kanna wasn’t exactly known for its outstanding public safety either.
“…”
If I stay here, they should pass right in front of me.
I could hear their footsteps getting louder and louder, bit by bit…
“…They’re slow.”
No matter how long I stood there, they didn’t go past me.
Finding that rather strange, I moved to step out of the shadow, but before I could.
“––Eh?” I gasped.
A small girl stood in the moonlight in front of me.
I felt like time had stopped.
That was just how––
––slow her steps were.
S-slow…
But that wasn’t the only thing I had noticed.
The sight of her small figure lit up by the moonlight sent a shock through me.
She trotted on, stopped, looked around as if searching for something, then began moving again.
As she repeated the process, she gradually got further and further away from where I was hidden.
‘––Am I okay with this?’ was the thought that floated to the forefront of my mind.
‘The hell I am,’ I responded to my own question in my mind, and as I moved, I happened to step on a dried wooden plank.
The rather pleasant sound of hitting a dried wooden board rang out down the alleyway.
I slowly looked up.
““……””
Sure enough, the girl was staring straight at me.
“…Good evening,” I said.
“…”
No response.
…Is she being wary of me? Well, I guess it makes sense. I am a boy who was hiding in the darkness in the middle of the night, after all.
“…Hmm.”
Not good.
She probably thinks I’m some sort of pervert.
She looked like some small animal glaring at an enemy as she narrowed her sleepy eyes at me.
I opened to my mouth to explain myself––
“…!”
The girl moved.
She slowly began running towards me.
Eh? W-what do I do now?
My heartbeat sped up.
I backed away… only to have the sensation of bumping into the wall behind me bring me back to my senses.
What am I even panicking about?
‘If she needs help, then I’ll help her, and if she’s misunderstanding something, I’ll just resolve that misunderstanding,’ I told myself. ‘Hah, come at me!’
She slowly made her way towards me.
Then, when she was only a few steps away from me––
A swoosh and a thud.
She fell face-first onto the ground.
Uhhh…?
“……”
She didn’t say anything.
“––––”
Neither did I.
S-she fell over?
My mind turned blank at the suddenness of it all, but I quickly gathered my wits about me again and immediately ran over to her.
“A-are you okay!?” I asked her, but…
“…”
No response. She doesn’t seem okay.
Grabbing her by her armpits, I picked her up to put her back on her feet.
““……””
Her legs swung through the air.
I somehow felt like I had caught a small animal.
She was quite short, after all.
I put her down on her feet and took a step back.
She turned around––
“–––”
Her skin was so pale it was almost transparent. And the left side of her face was sported a painful-to-look-at, red scar, which stood out even more with the light of the moon shining down on it.
That’s… a burn mark… I think.
The dirt from having fallen over covered her pretty face, burn mark included.
“…Excuse me,” I said, brushing the dust off her face with my hand as gently as I could.
…The godless city, eh.
That was the moment I really understood what that meant.
Anger bubbled up from the bottom of my heart.
Each time my hand passed over her face to wipe off the dirt, she narrowed her eyes as if it tickled.
When I finally managed to wipe off most of the dirt, she opened her eyes fully, staring at me.
“……” she moved her small mouth, tilting her head in a puzzled manner. Her voice was really, really quiet. Actually no, I didn’t even hear anything, but I did more or less get what she was trying to say by reading her lips.
––“Aren’t you scared?”
I hugged her.
“I’m not scared. I’m not scared at all.”
What a ridiculous question.
I didn’t feel even the slightest bit scared of her, but at the same time, I felt like I had a good guess as to what kinds of words had been hurled at her before.
“Not even a bit, okay?” I said, stepping back and staring at her again, and she made a slightly happy expression –– was what it felt like, at least.
“…What’s your name?” I asked, and she looked me straight in the eyes.
“…I don’t have one,” she said.
She had a really pretty voice.
At the same time, I regretted asking her what her name was.
“…I can heal that for you. Hold on a sec.”
I can do it. I’m sure I can.
Healing magic.
I’m sure that would––
“Excuse me,” I said, holding my hand over her face.
I want to heal her wound.
“––Heal.”
A dazzling golden light was emitted from my hand, slowly but surely causing the wound on her face to disappear.
Startled, she grabbed my arm, squinting from the brightness.
Her burn mark was disappearing.
But, just this––
“…is not enough.”
It might be slightly risky, but if I use a bit more power––
“Get away from Nemu, you lolicon!”
Lolicon––!?
“Huh!?”
A boy wearing black clothes suddenly appeared next to me.
His voice was high-pitched, and he was slightly shorter than me.
He stabbed a knife towards me.
I jumped back, dodging his attack, then landed on the ground.
“Nemu! This way!” the boy shouted, grabbing the little girl’s hand and trying to run away.
Sadly for him, the girl was rather slow, and he began to panic as he noticed that.
It was a really slow escape.
I sighed. That was my second sigh that day.
I watched in silence as the two’s backs slowly, very slowly grew smaller and smaller as they got further and further away.
Midway through, the girl’s light-purple eyes turned back to look at me.
I gave her a small wave.
“…”
While I was not happy in the slightest to have been called a lolicon, my worries did clear up a little.
“I see…”
You have companions. Then, there’s no need to hurry.
‘The next time we meet, I’ll get rid of the whole scar,’ I promised to myself as much as I did to her, then set off.
Not after them.
“…Kami-sama, Luna.”
The two silvery-white girls floated up to the forefront of my mind.
I really wanted to see them for some reason.
‘Am I feeling lonely?’ I wondered to myself, then immediately waved the thought away, having found the real reason.
“Haha. That’s not it.”
Athena was probably fast asleep catching z’s.
And as for Luna, given her personality––
––“It’s my self-defense dagger. I’m giving it to you.”
“…”
The scenery in front of me changed from one moment to the next as I ran beneath the full moon.
“I have returned, My Lady… hmm, no. I’m back! sounds better…” I murmured to myself as I ran onwards in the dark.
TN: this is the second to last chapter, and the series sadly hasn’t been updated in over a year
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