Ryuu Kusari no Ori

This chapter was brought to you by the collaboration between PolterGlast and Saekano Translations.

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Volume 2 Chapter 4.2

Those Who Once Fled, Those Who Still Struggling Part 2

Translator : PolterGlast

After finishing his report regarding the sightings of the demonic beasts, Nozomu left the guild and headed toward the library.

His objective was to find Grisden Harantide's book about spirits, which he had found the other day.

However, the sun had already begun to tilt to the west when Nozomu made his way to the library due to the request he had received at the guild.

Walking through the library, which was beginning to turn vermilion, he ran his eyes over the bookshelves, searching for the book he was looking for.

However, the book was not there. Wondering if it was on another shelf, he was about to move away. It was then that he was called out by a voice.

"Huh? Nozomu-kun, have you been in the library again?"

It was Tom Dale who called out to him. He had an armful of books piled high.

"Y-, yeah. I'm just doing some research."

"What are you looking for?"

"Well, I'm looking for Grisden Harantide's book ......."

"Grisden? Ah, I know those ones, but that's unusual. What are you researching on?"

Tom, who had placed the books he was carrying on a desk close at hand, asked Nozomu again.

"It's about spirits, wait- ....... What do you mean by unusual?"

"Well, Grisden Harantide was an alchemist and a researcher who studied spirits, but apparently, he was a rather peculiar person. His books are quite famous though......"

Apparently, Grisden Harantide was an alchemist and researcher, just like Tom.

"That's right. If you're interested, I know someone who knows a lot about Grisden's research. Shall I introduce him to you?"

"Really? But is that okay?"

"Yes. You helped Shina the other day when she got tangled up with Karanti, right? Come, follow me."

Tom urged Nozomu to follow him as he picked up the books he had placed on the desk.

Following Tom's urging, Nozomu followed him, and together they quickly made their way out of the library and down a passage in the back of the building.

A passage that even Nozomu, who has lived in Arcazam for a little over two years, had never seen before. As Nozomu looked doubtful, Tom, sensing his puzzled look, turned around.

"This is a passageway that connects the library to the Gloaurum Institution. Whenever I need to borrow materials from the library for research or other purposes, I always use this passage."

"Hee ...... -wait, the Gloaurum Institution? Am I allowed to even go there?"

"The institute is divided into a number of blocks according to the level of secrecy, and the lowest level is safe to visit. Besides, the results of research conducted at the Gloaurum Institution would be disclosed regardless of the country."

Before long, they arrived at their destination.

A white building surrounded by a five-meter wall. It is the research facility of the Gloaurum Institution.

The area of the site is almost the same as that of the Solminati Academy. It is a scale rarely seen on the continent.

The Gloaurum Institution is a highly reputable research institution.

Its achievements are also remarkable, systematizing magic and Qi-jutsu techniques that were scattered all over the continent, and contributing greatly to the technological development of the entire continent.

There is no back entrance to the research facility. After walking around the front gate along the outer wall, he was taken to the reception desk.

After Tom had a brief exchange with the receptionist, Nozomu was handed a list of outside visitors from the receptionist, a list used to keep track of those entering and leaving the facility.

Of course, no one can enter the facility without filling in their name.

When Nozomu filled in his name on the list for the time being, he was given a plate indicating that he was an outside visitor.

A cord was attached to the plate so that it could be hung from the neck.

Nozomu looked at the back of the plate and saw two magic circles engraved on it.

"A magic circle for identification and for noise. And is this Mithril?"

"Yes, an alarm system made of mithril, which easily channels and stores magic power. It is a part of it. Make sure you wear it properly. If you try to remove it, it will set off the alarm."

While nodding to Tom's advice, Nozomu followed him into the Gloaurum Institution's facility.

On both sides of a pure white stone corridor with no superfluous ornamentation, massive black-painted doors stood side by side. It seemed to be a place where the latest research regarding magic was being conducted, and it exuded a more sophisticated atmosphere in a different sense than the facilities at the Solminati Academy.

Nevertheless, Nozomu did not go around the vast research facility and arrived at his destination shortly after.

"Where are we?"

Nozomu was led to a wooden door, slightly different in color from modern research facilities. A plate on the door reads, [Torgrein's Laboratory].

"The laboratory of my mentor, Torgrein Harantide."

"Harantide?"

"That's right. Sorry, Nozomu-kun. I have my hands full. Can you open the door?"

"Ah, sure......."

Just as Nozomu put his hand on the doorknob, a faint voice came from behind the door.

"As I thought, not working, huh?"

"Yes, the spirits did not answer my call......"

A familiar, soothing voice. However, the tone of the voice was somehow tinged with discouragement and disappointment.

"This voice......"

Nozomu's hand that was reaching for the doorknob suddenly stopped. Spirits, calls, not answering. Those words hinted that the person behind the door was the elf girl he knew.

"Hey Shina, you can't even sense it?"

"Yes......"

From behind the door, he could hear not only Shina's voice, but Mimuru's as well.

"Nozomu, is something wrong?"

"Oh, no, it's nothing."

Perhaps Tom did not hear their voices, he tilted his head behind Nozomu and implicitly urged him to open the door as soon as possible.

Nozomu made up his mind and opened the door. With a rattling sound, all eyes in the room turned to Nozomu and Tom.

"Ah......."

Upon seeing Nozomu's figure, Shina's gaze tinged with surprise, which was followed by a look of dislike.

Why does she hate me so much? The question that has been nagging at him since he met her began to swell.

It might be true that Nozomu has been the target of abuse from some heartless students, but the majority of the students looked at him with indifference.

Most of the time, those who made fun of him, like those in the tenth class, did so to make themselves feel superior, and only a few students, such as Lisa or Camilla, would look at him with such apparent dislike as Shina did.

And Nozomu had never met Shina until recently.

"Sensei, I brought the books you asked for! Oh, Shina is here too."

While Nozomu and Shina were facing each other, Tom came into the lab carrying the books.

"Yeah, just leave them there. Anyway, Tom-kun, who's that person over there?"

Tom's voice was answered by a man in his mid-thirties wearing a white coat.

Although tall, he had a thin body frame. He had a pipe in his mouth and was puffing smoke, blowing it into the light as it rose.

He looked to be in his thirties, but he had a younger appearance than one might expect, so young that he appeared to be in his late twenties to some people.

"He is an acquaintance of mine. He has some questions he wants to ask Sensei regarding Sensei's great-grandfather."

"Hello, my name is Nozomu Bountis."

"Nice to meet you, my name is Torgrein Harantide. I am conducting research on alchemy here. Oh, sorry for the smoke. I was just burning some reagents to see how the spirits would react".

The man in white extinguished the incense he was burning and began to put away his pipe. His clattering hands were somewhat dangerous.

"When you say 'Great-grandfather', do you mean Grandpa Grisden?"

"Y-, yes. I heard that he had been researching spirits, so I was looking for his books......"

After clapping his hands and finishing putting away his instruments, Torgrein once again asked Nozomu what he wanted to ask him about.

"There are a few books written by my great-grandfather, but to be honest, very few of them remain."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah, it has been quite a long time since he wrote them after all. I don't think there are any books of my great-grandfather's left, except for the ones in the library."

Nozomu's shoulders slumped in disappointment.

"I'm sorry I couldn't help you."

"It's okay, thank you very much. By the way, what were you doing earlier?"

"Oh, this smoke is made by drying and burning a kind of grass called spirit grass. This grass is favored by spirits, and it reacts to the source elements in the air, in other words, it reacts to the movement of the spirits......"

At that moment, Torgrein's gaze turned to Shina, who was standing next to him.

"Ah, right, if you want to talk about spirits, you can ask her-......."

"Excuse me, Torgrein-sensei, I just remembered something I have to do, may I be excused for the rest of the day?"

Before Torgrein could finish his sentence, Shina cut him off. The tone in her voice was still one of strong rejection.

On the other hand, Torgrein, who had been cut off, looked at Nozomu with a somewhat helpless expression on his face and said he was sorry.

"Ah, it's all right. Sorry, Shina-kun, for not being able to help you."

"No, I appreciate your help, sensei. I'll see you later......"

Shina bowed her head and walked out of the laboratory without looking back. An awkward atmosphere filled Torgrein's lab.

"Did something happen between you and her?"

"N-, no. I have no clue what's going on myself......"

Indeed, it was understandable, since Nozomu had nothing to do with her. However, it was also true that Nozomu was somehow bothered by it.

"Umm, I heard that Shina-san can't use spirit magic......."

"It's true. She has lost the ability to communicate with spirits, the power that makes an elf an elf."

"I see......"

Upon hearing Torgrein's words of affirmation, Nozomu's face took on an indescribable expression.

Nozomu, too, was a person whose potential had been closed off in a way that he had no control over.

"She lost her ability 20 years ago. It was during the Great Invasion."

Nozomu was surprised for a moment upon hearing the word "twenty years", but then he recalled that elves have a long lifespan of several hundred years compared to humans. From their perspective, 20 years is only a few years in terms of the human experience.

"She lived in Nebula Forest, and survived after her homeland was destroyed by demonic beasts."

"It seems that Shina lost her family there as well."

Nozomu's expression sank in response to Tom's words. But as if to ease Nozomu's sadness, Mimuru smiled.

"It's not an unusual thing, you know. Everyone who survived that time experienced the loss of a member of their family. Even Tom lost his brother as well......"

Tom nodded his head in agreement with Mimuru.

The Sumahya Union was originally a gathering and restructuring of countries that had collapsed due to the Great Invasion. Hence, almost everyone has been affected, in one way or another, by the Great Invasion.

"I am one of them as well. Nozomu-kun, what about your family?"

"My hometown wasn't attacked by the Great Invasion, so I don't think anyone died there."

"I see, that's very good of you......."

Apparently Torgrein, too, was from the Union and had been a victim of the disaster twenty years ago.

His words of relief, while pushing aside his own mixed emotions, pierced Nozomu's heart.

"Couldn't the other elves restore her ability to sense spirits?"

"Well, about that. When she released her magic power to make a contract, for some reason, the spirits around her seemed to run away in fear, and the other elves who tried to bridge the gap were also puzzled by it."

Torgrein let out a heavy sigh as he spoke so.

"If only one of the High Elves had survived, I might have been able to figure out the cause......"

The damage Elves suffered in the Great Invasion was severe. The fall of the Nebula Forest caused them to lose much of the knowledge and experience they had accumulated over the years.

"Right now she can't even sense the presence of the micro spirits around her. There is no guarantee that even at this academy she will be able to regain her abilities."

"Even so, Shina still came to this city to grasp that straw."

The Nebula Forest borders the northern boundary of the Sumahya Union from the southern to the central part of the continent through a buffer zone. In terms of its location relative to Arcazam, it is just across the land of the Cremazzone Empire.

"After that, Shina lived in an elven refugee village until she came to Arcazam. But it must have been very hard for her. After all, talking to spirits is as normal as breathing for elves."

Shina has lost not only her family but also her connection with spirits. Her situation was similar to that of Nozomu, who had lost all the people he trusted and the emotional support he had because of the manifestation of his [Ability Suppression].

"Shina's power is gone now, but I heard that before, her power was sufficient to make her a High Elf candidate."

A High Elf is an elf who has made a contract with the spirit that resides in the great tree at the center of the Nebula Forest.

There are only about a dozen or so of them in a single era, and they are the ones who can directly use the power of the "Spirit of the Great Tree", which is the core of the Nebula Forest.

Their ability to sense the spirits is unmatched by other elves, and in the past, a few high elves who have contracted with the spirits of the Great Tree have been able to defeat the armies of major powers with only a few people. The High Elves, who have contracted with the spirits of the Great Tree, are truly the spiritual pillars of the Elves.

"And her older sister, who died during the Great Invasion, was also a High Elf."

When Nozomu learned of Shina's situation, he felt a heaviness in the back of his throat, as if he had swallowed lead.

"So, the reason she came to this city was- ......"

"To regain her connection with the spirits. And to reclaim her homeland, the Nebula Forest. The recapture during Operation Fructus has also been halted right at her hometown."

The forests of the elves, which once boasted an iron-clad defense, have become a breeding ground for demonic beasts.

Operation Fructus has been postponed indefinitely due to the exhaustion of many countries, but another factor that has contributed to the prolonged stagnation of the situation is the fact that the dense forest, which is constantly shrouded in fog, is clearly unsuitable for the deployment of a large-scale military operation.

"Nebula Forest was originally the land of the elves, and the fact that they still haven't been able to take it back has made them even more vulnerable."

"Even though it was not the fault of the elves alone......"

Certainly, the elves' initial response during the Great Invasion was not a complimentary one.

However, the invasion of the demonic beasts had begun even before the fall of the elven forest. It is not a problem that can be imposed on the elves alone, nor should it be.

In response to Nozomu's words, Torgrein made a complicated expression on his face, and then he slowly took out the pipe he had just been using earlier.

He took out the spirit grass, which had already burnt out, and instead put a cigarette in the pipe's mouth and lit it.

The aroma of sweet purple smoke filled the laboratory.

"Well, yes. And not all the people within the Union are blaming the elves. But people are weak. Some of them need to vent their feelings of frustration and stagnation on someone else."

Especially those who have not yet regained their homelands. ...... Torgrein said so and puffed on his pipe again.

Nozomu naturally bit his lip with an uncomfortable expression on his face.

(Tom said that for elves, making a contract with spirits is as natural as breathing.)

For an elf to lose her spirit magic is equivalent to a bird falling to the bottom of the water.

At that moment, his eyes suddenly caught sight of Mimuru and Tom.

"Come to think of it, how did you two come to be friends with her?"

How did Tom and Mimuru become friends with Shina, the elf? In response to the frank question, Tom's downcast expression turned into a wry smile and he pointed to Mimuru.

"Oh, that's because Mimuru was messing with Shina right after she enrolled."

"Messing with Shina, you say......."

Yeah, she wasn't exactly bullying Shina like Karanti and the others did though. Rather, she was pestering her to take classes with her and to go out on the town with her. Well, half-forcibly."

Tom let out a chuckle as he recalled those days.

Tom's words made Nozomu involuntarily turn her attention to Mimuru, who was sitting in a nearby chair.

"Because, at that time, Shina was wearing a tense, sullen expression on her face at all times. She was able to enroll in such a wonderful school, so I thought she should have enjoyed her time in it."

Mimuru leaned back against the chair and swayed her body.

"Umm, you mean, like, to make yourself feel better at first?"

"Yes, that's right. Well, being an elf, she's still a little uptight, but lately, she's been reacting in a funny way whenever I tease her~~.

Tom let out a sigh as Mimuru grinned and smiled mischievously.

"Mimuru, please keep it in moderation. Just the other day, you got scolded for putting unnecessary things in Shina's bag at school, remember?"

"Unnecessary things?"

"Yes, instead of a textbook, she put in a romance novel. Of course, it had a lot of sexual scenes and illustrations."

"It's not a romance novel then, it's an erotic one......"

"Then Shina turned all red and pulled my ear, you know? Isn't that terrible?"

"No, it's you who's terrible. At least I know she's the victim here......"

As Nozomu made a retort to the nonsensical words and actions that came out of Mimuru's mouth one after another, Tom was shrugging his shoulders with a bitter smile on his face, as if it couldn't be helped.

It was the same when they met at the library the other day, but it seemed that the most important reason for this catfolk girl's behavior was whether or not it would amuse her.

"Well, this is what Mimuru is like. For better or worse, she is self-centered or rather egocentric ....... I guess I find her attractive because she's so open and honest."

"Attractive? Tom, did you just call me attractive!? Hi~yahhou~~!"

"I guess you didn't hear the first half of the sentence, ......... -wait, don't cling on to me!"

Mimuru leaped up from the chair she was sitting in and pushed Tom down to the floor.

Embracing his head as hard as she could, she rubbed her cheeks against him and further entwined her legs with his. Her brownish-tiger patterned tail was wagging.

Perhaps Mimuru was so aroused that her face was turning vermilion and beginning to exude an alluring charm.

"Good grief, Mimuru-kun, you are the same as always."

As expected, Torgrein, perhaps troubled that they were going to make out in the lab, stood up and then pulled Mimuru away from Tom with a wry smile on his face.

Tom patted his chest with a relieved expression, while Mimuru's mouth twitched in dissatisfaction.

On the other hand, Nozomu, after finding out about Shina's situation, looked sideways at the door of the lab she had left to.

Mimuru smiled meaningfully at him.

"Are you worried about Shina?"

"Eh?"

"Well, it's understandable~~. Being an elf, Shina's appearance is quite attractive, isn't it?~~. How could one not be concerned when it comes to a beautiful girl in distress?~~. Or perhaps there's another reason why you're concerned about her?"

Mimuru spoke in a teasing tone. But the glint in her eye shone piercingly.

"That's ......"

Why do I worry about Shina? Nozomu could not answer that question well.

He was surprised at Mimuru's sudden sharp gaze on him, but that alone was not enough to make him falter.

However, an indescribable feeling was swirling in the depths of his chest.

Mimuru, on the other hand, retracted her piercing gaze upon seeing Nozomu go silent, and this time, her mouth relaxed into a quiet smile.

"Shina has such a personality, you see. She wouldn't want anyone to feel sorry for her."

(I'm sure she does......)

Judging from that attitude of hers, it was natural to understand that she did not want sympathy.

At the same time, while Nozomu admired Shina's way of being, he guessed that she might be pushing herself too hard at some point. He had been running away from reality by engrossing himself in training, so his hunch was even stronger.

"...... Thank you very much. I will take my leave then."

Nozomu bowed and left Torgrein's laboratory.

Tom and Mimuru watched Nozomu's back with curiosity.

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