53. A Shadow Cast Upon the Wind (5)
The relationship between humans and Darkkin is a one-way street. As a matter of fate, it is not a difficult sentence to understand.
“Humans can become Darkkin, but Darkkin cannot become human.”
It was a very simple proposition, and also an absolute, immutable law.
The word “human” above includes most of the races in this world.
Elves, beastfolk, dwarves—every being that possesses intelligence, can use magic, and has emotion and reason.
If a being can use magic, then even if it is nothing more than a squirrel or a puppy, it can make a contract with the hidden world, offer up its heart, and dye its mana black.
In exchange for offering up their heart, a mage can obtain power and knowledge far beyond their own talent, and also become assimilated into an unknown world and gain the ability to understand such things.
There is even a famous story about a mage who had been researching Persona Gates, but could not overcome his curiosity and made a contract with a powerful Persona. He failed to withstand it, and in the end lost all of his knowledge, his magic, and even his reason.
However, when mages gain that great power, it is not only their hearts they surrender.
It was common for them to surrender not only their emotions but even their reason, and on top of no longer being able to live like humans, they also became bound by the condition that they could survive only by consuming the hearts of “the race they belonged to before becoming Darkkin.”
If they were Darkkin who had originally been elves, then elf hearts.
If they were Darkkin who had originally been human, then human hearts.
There were, however, a tiny handful of exceptions.
It was said that children born between Darkkin and another race, with the horrific probability of 0.000001%, could survive without consuming hearts, and might even be born possessing both Darkkin abilities and human abilities in exceptionally strong measure…
But that story was nothing more than a legend. No one had ever actually seen such a being.
Because Darkkin were incapable of reproduction.
And even if such a being did exist, it would die the moment it was born.
Darkkin had no desire to admit into their society a weak Darkkin that had bred with something as lowly as a human.
“That is the racial trait up to this point.”
The King of Witches.
Or the Sorceress of the Seasons.
Or the Worst Witch.
Or the teacher of the Pale Green Tower Lord.
Or… the “Scarlett Maiden.”
She, who bore a bloodthirsty title completely at odds with her appearance of milky white hair and golden eyes, slowly chewed over and searched through the knowledge stored in her mind.
Every race has its own “racial traits.”
Elves preferring vegetarian food, dwarves being skillful with their hands, humans inevitably forming groups.
But these were not absolute, and could shift fluidly depending on the individual.
For example, thanks to one unusual elf who came to enjoy meat over the past century, many young elves had begun to enjoy meat as well. There were dwarves who never bothered to train their craftsmanship and were hopeless at it, instead devoting themselves solely to magic. There were also humans who shut themselves up inside their homes and never engaged in society at all. Depending on surrounding circumstances and personal inclinations, racial traits could always change.
But there was one thing—and only one thing—
that did not change.
“The fate of a race.”
The Mauro tribe was born with a genius-like racial trait: every single member entered the world with magical power of at least Class 3 or higher.
However, that trait had one flaw.
They could never reach the realm of Class 8 or above, and if, by the year they turned fifty, they had not reached Class 7, they would oxidize into mana and scatter into the air.
Because the Mauro tribe was born with the power of Class 3 from birth, they once flourished. But as time passed, fewer and fewer among them were able to reach Class 7, and in the end, they were exterminated five hundred years ago. Now, nothing but traces of their civilization remained.
That was the fate of a race.
An absolute, immutable law that no lifeform walking upon the earth could ever change, no matter what methods they used.
“…What is that supposed to be?”
Scarlett stared at Anella, unable even to think of smoothing down the hair that had risen all over her body like soft fur.
Patter!
“W-what…!”
“W-wait, wait a second…”
The first-year Stella cadets disguised in the appearances of villagers stumbled backward, even dropping their staffs.
Were they frightened?
Half right, half wrong.
“She… was human…?”
The hideous, black mass of liquid wrapped around Anella began to peel away, revealing the figure of the young, lovely girl hidden inside.
“That’s impossible…”
The magic Scarlett had used on them was not anything particularly special.
She had placed a “suggestion” over Anella’s eyes so that the Stella cadets would look like villagers, and she had inserted Baek Yuseol’s talisman into Anella’s heart so that only her “true form” would be shown.
In other words, she had suppressed things so that the Darkkin’s true appearance—normally hidden by dark-magic control—could no longer be concealed from them.
The Stella cadets, having never seen a Darkkin’s true form before, took Anella’s appearance for nothing more than that of a monster, and naturally tried to kill her.
But.
That hideous appearance of the Darkkin was shattering into fragments and scattering away.
Hair plastered to her cheeks with sweat. Small, delicate, adorable features.
As Anella’s angelic form—beautiful enough that anyone would praise her—emerged from inside the grotesque monster’s shape, the effect was magnified several times over, instantly causing the Stella cadets to lose all will to fight.
“My spell… came undone?”
No. That was not it. Scarlett shook her head. Her perfect spell would never unravel.
Rather, Anella’s “true form” had truly peeled away… and changed from a hideous Darkkin into the appearance of a human.
“That can’t be.”
Something was wrong.
The true form of a Darkkin could not take on the appearance of a human.
It simply—
could not happen.
Because the world had been set that way.
Snap!
The vivid sound of something breaking sharply rang in the witch’s ears.
It was not some figure of speech about the thread of reason snapping.
The world was composed of billions upon billions of gears. Each gear meshed with the others, creating stories. And among those countless gears, one of them had collapsed.
It was an extremely tiny law.
Important laws like “water flows from high to low” or “the world will be destroyed in ten years” had not changed.
Only the trivial law that “Darkkin cannot become human” had been shattered and fallen away from the framework that composed the world.
“H-ha, hahaha…”
Scarlett let her broom fall and covered her mouth with both hands as she laughed.
Goosebumps ran over her entire body.
It even felt as though a hole had been blasted clean through her head.
“A single human… really twisted fate…?”
Not even a Class 9 mage, not even one of the Twelve Divine Moons, not even a divine beast, not even a dragon, not even the Founding Mage himself could do such a thing.
And yet a single boy had not merely tampered with fate—he had shattered one of its laws from the roots.
“Where… is that child right now…?”
Only then did Scarlett find Baek Yuseol’s location. He seemed to have just arrived in the village, walking along a nearby lonely path with Hong Biyeon.
“You’re only getting here… now…?”
Baek Yuseol had surely checked the Guideline Message. If he had wanted to, he could have come here from the very start. That was what Scarlett had expected.
Yes, Baek Yuseol had certainly seemed to hurry at first. At that pace, she had thought he would arrive in at least three hours.
But, unexpectedly, Baek Yuseol still had not come even by the time the other first-year cadets arrived—and only after Anella had become human, after four full days had passed, did he finally reach this place.
At that moment, Scarlett felt blank.
“Could it be… he had noticed my existence from the very beginning…?”
She had prepared a small stage in order to test Baek Yuseol.
This Persona Gate itself.
And yet, the boy did not move according to Scarlett’s will. He moved slowly and leisurely, arriving at the exact moment only after all the events had already ended.
As though…
he were mocking Scarlett’s intentions.
“So you knew from the beginning that this would happen, Baek Yuseol.”
A hollow laugh escaped her.
For someone who had lived for centuries as a witch, someone who could even manipulate Class 9 mages like puppets, the fact that someone had escaped her chessboard and was freely running around outside it was a tremendous shock—and utterly unfamiliar.
“What happened here?”
“…Other cadets.”
Baek Yuseol and Hong Biyeon belatedly joined the place where the ten cadets had gathered, and the instant he saw Anella for the first time, his eyes widened in shock.
“Anella? Why is she here?”
He ran over in a panic, cut through the magic binding Anella with his sword, and pulled her into his arms, checking her pulse. He could feel that she was barely still breathing.
Seeing Baek Yuseol’s reaction, the other cadets asked in confusion.
“B-Baek Yuseol. You know her?”
“Uh… yeah, I do. She was the exchange student who came during summer break.”
“What?”
“No way, why would a real person be inside a Persona Gate?”
“When we went in, it was only us, so how could she…?”
Separate from the other students’ shock, Baek Yuseol was horrified for an entirely different reason.
“What is this…?”
[At present, all traces of “Darkkin energy” have been completely removed from the state of “Anella.”]
[Race: Human.]
[Confirmed 99% human.]
Her appearance had not changed in the slightest. It was only that the dark power had drained away, and Anella’s condition had completely turned human.
It was not supposed to happen yet.
The process of restoring Anella to humanity was supposed to be an arduous one, something that required an enormous amount of preparation and time.
Right now, he had been too busy and had no choice but to give her no attention at all.
And yet in the time Baek Yuseol had done nothing, Anella had turned herself back into a human.
“…Was this a butterfly effect too?”
As he blankly brushed Anella’s cheek, her eyelashes trembled, and her eyes slowly opened.
“…Ah.”
A faint smile formed at the corner of Anella’s lips.
“Hello…”
“W-wait. Don’t talk. Just hold on.”
While Baek Yuseol searched for a healing potion, she lost strength again and fainted, and as if someone could not bear to watch any longer, someone behind him tapped his arm.
“Commoner, move.”
“Huh? Why…”
“Emergency treatment kit.”
“Oh…”
As Hong Biyeon lifted a pure white first-aid box and spoke, Baek Yuseol spread a care blanket with restorative properties on the floor and laid Anella down on it.
Then Hong Biyeon began treating her, and not only the other students, but even Ban Diyeon, who had been quietly watching from behind, came running over to urgently help heal Anella as well.
Fortunately, there were no fatal wounds. She had lost a great deal of blood, but it was still at a level she could recover from if treated properly.
Once the cadets had finished treating Anella, wiping away their cold sweat as they got to their feet, the Guideline Message of the Persona Gate appeared in the air.
[The girl who wished to become human spent many nights weeping alone in the forest because of her hideous appearance.]
[The girl longed for the love of the villagers so that she could become human, but all that returned to her was abuse and hatred.]
[In the frozen winter night, unable in the end to achieve her dream, the girl breathed her last beneath fallen leaves and snow in a place no one would ever know…….]
That was the original story.
[Congratulations!]
[You have successfully conquered “A Shadow Cast Upon the Wind” by adapting it into a beautiful story!]
[May the girl who achieved her dream of becoming human be happy in that world.]
[The world is now ending.]
The sky darkened, and space itself slowly began to fade.
The complete termination of the Persona Gate.
They had safely and perfectly conquered the 3-Risk Persona.
Baek Yuseol met Hong Biyeon’s eyes and gave an awkward smile.
“In the end, we took it too easy and didn’t really do anything.”
“…Sorry.”
“There’s nothing to be sorry about. We still had a good time, didn’t we?”
Shrugging his shoulders, Baek Yuseol spoke as if it were nothing at all and flashed a grin. Hong Biyeon smiled as well and nodded.
In the end, she swallowed the words “me too” without ever saying them aloud.
Because for now…
she still did not have the courage.
“Let’s go.”
And as Baek Yuseol left the Persona Gate carrying Anella in his arms—
the witch lamented, watching her own form fade away together with this world.
“Ahh~ so this is as far as it goes this time.”
Her real body could not move, so she had been moving through a summoned illusory double. But after creating a tiny Persona Gate and tampering with the talisman, she had consumed far too much mana and completely run out of strength.
“I’ll go back today, and come again next time~”
Smiling softly, the witch watched the back of Baek Yuseol carrying Anella in his arms until the very end.
“A person who can change fate.”
If he could change not only small fates,
but great ones as well—
“…then I like him even more.”
Before long, together with the Persona Gate, the witch’s form too vanished completely.
[Read only on MugenCodex.]
