LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 29 - The Way the Spiral Advances☆ (1)
It was one day a few months after I came to the academy city.
By then, I had become not embarrassed to wear the female student uniform.
With a slightly more student-like appearance, after passing through numerous wildernesses and other schools overnight, I could see three seniors waiting for me in front of the school gate early in the morning.
I greeted them:
“I’m back―☆”
“Welcome back!”
On mornings when I returned after spending the night outside, the three seniors would take me to their old hideout full of memories. Sleeping together in that dusty space had become part of our routine.
An empty classroom where many students once spent time, now become a hideout for three girls. Lying down on a few old blankets roughly spread out there, you could see the cracked and shabby ceiling. And new breaths of memories fill in the scratches that had witnessed countless growths.
The breaths of the seniors lying beside me.
Gradually falling asleep listening to the occasional bursts of laughter.
Daydreams passing like shadows within eyelids settled in quiet darkness.
After the sweet nap time passes.
I open my eyes again.
“…”
Time that had passed in a flash, as if someone had hidden the minute and second hands of the clock.
The faint morning sunlight was now rushing towards the finale of noon. The midday wind blowing. Because of that, the faded curtains flutter back and forth, urging the awakening of the girls fallen into an untimely deep sleep.
Shadows created by faded gestures in a silent performance.
Turn your head in that cool shade and there is peace.
Suu―
Phew…
“…”
Nina and Selma.
The quiet breathing sounds and mumbling lips leaking from the two seniors sleeping on either side. Those pink lips blooming on their white faces move, tasting the sweetness in their dreams.
“Ehehe, I can’t eat anymore…”
“Mmm… The reincarnated princess draws an SSS-grade magic sword… No… It’s crude…”
It seemed they were thoroughly enjoying writing and tea parties in their dreams.
I blankly watched that sight.
‘…Senior Frida isn’t here.’
And with the very slight drowsiness remaining in my head, I get up from my seat.
Leaving behind the warmth and silence of noon settling in the empty classroom. Walking through a corner of the school grounds overgrown with weeds due to lack of maintenance, I could see Senior Frida sitting in a flower bed, not minding her skirt getting dirty.
I quietly made my presence known from behind Senior Frida.
She turned towards me as she was doing something sitting in the flower bed.
“…?”
“Senior Frida―♪”
“Huhu, it’s Clara.”
In Senior Frida’s hands as she turned around were a small sketchbook and pencil. On those small pages were recorded the appearance of numerous flowers blooming just before early summer.
A girl’s record engraving the beauty of passing time and seasons.
Some lines were deliberately drawn crooked to reveal the liveliness of thorns and stems, while some lines left only faint traces to express the fragility of ephemeral petals. Even to me, an outsider to art, they seemed like drawings with considerable skill and care.
‘…She really draws well.’
I looked closely at that sketchbook and said:
“Could Senior Frida’s dream be to become an artist? I think it would suit you very well―☆ Perhaps…?! Could Senior Frida be born with the talent of a genius beautiful artist♪”
“Huhuhu… I’m still inexperienced. I just drew a lot and ended up like this. You’d be surprised if you saw the drawings of people with real talent?”
“Is that because they draw worse than Senior Frida―♪”
“What are you saying… Huhuhu.”
But perhaps pleased by my praise.
The movements of Senior Frida’s pencil as she drew seemed to become a bit more cheerful.
“…”
“…”
Frida drew well.
Selma wrote novels all night.
Nina loved eating and cooking.
‘…The seniors had their own lives.’
All three seniors were not simply extras in the game, but ordinary students advancing with their own favorite dreams. I felt guilty that these three seniors were always conscious of me and waiting.
‘…Why do they always wait for me?’
When the three seniors do what they like, they spend time alone without interfering with each other. But when I do what I like… going out and becoming stronger, all three make time to welcome me back.
“…”
I was inwardly becoming troubled by that.
Not because they were bothersome… but because I felt like I was becoming a hindrance.
Because I felt like I was disturbing their peace and daily lives.
So I quietly revealed my thoughts to Senior Frida drawing pictures in the quiet flower bed. That I no longer wanted to be a disturbance to them.
“…”
Senior Frida stopped her hand for a moment when she heard my words. Then she soon fell into thought, and drew a few lines in her sketchbook.
Swish―
One was a straight line crossing the sketchbook.
Another was a ‘spiral’ curving outwards and going around.
Senior Frida pointed to those and spoke:
“…Yes. It’s true that we’re spending less time alone while being conscious of Clara. And there are often times when we can’t do everything we originally wanted to do.”
“…”
“Our daily lives of each pursuing what we like were like clean straight lines. But since meeting you, it’s changed like this spiral. Even an efficient and clean path that would advance in a straight line becomes much more roundabout and twisted.”
“…”
“But…”
Senior Frida spoke while adding lines little by little around that spiral:
“You know what, Clara?”
Sketch sketch
“Among the beautiful flowers existing in this world, there are none that bloom in a straight line.”
Sketch sketch
“All flowers overlap their petals in spirals, blooming while turning little by little.”
Senior Frida showed me the completed drawing again.
The lines added little by little around the spiral became petals. Petals curving, twisting, and irregular. But they bloom following one spiral to become a flower bud.
And the straight line crossing the screen had become a stem firmly supporting that flower bud.
Past and present.
What changes and what doesn’t change.
Everything comes together to become memories.
“…”
To me, that flower looked like… a beautiful single rose.
Senior Frida held that rose drawing and said:
“What do you think? Does this picture look ugly, or like the spiral has become a hindrance to the straight line?”
I shook my head at those words.
Then Senior Frida smiled with satisfaction.
“The time we go around and change isn’t inefficient or useless. It becomes beautiful memories like a flower blooming from you and I meeting.”
“…”
“Leisurely looking back at each other’s faces we wouldn’t have seen if we advanced in a straight line, changing little by little… You don’t know how much joy that is for us.”
“…”
Senior Frida’s smile.
Memories in the flower bed full of earthy scent.
She spoke again with a gentle smile:
“So Clara, if you come to treasure these memories someday. Perhaps you too can become a senior who can leave beautiful memories and teachings for someone else… like this beautiful spiral.”
* * *
“…Senior?”
“…Yes?”
I emerged from my reminiscence.
Under the dark sky, in front of an ominous dungeon gate, Alvit was looking at me with worried eyes.
Kiaaaaa―!!
Shaaaah―!!
The sounds made by numerous larval chaos insects passing under the large rock where we were hiding. All three juniors seemed disturbed by the sounds made by those disgusting maggots.
“…”
Bell, who had been fondling her crimson dagger in the distance, glanced this way and said:
“…Don’t worry. This cute secretary will protect your junior kids well.”
Was it guilt for excitedly blabbering about [Faded Spiral] in front of everyone? Somehow I could feel Bell’s attitude had softened considerably.
‘Or is it because she was cowed after nearly becoming a roast by Eir.’
I burst into laughter recalling Bell’s appearance whining while holding out
“Hehehe―☆”
“Wh-What! I’m talking seriously here!”
“Yes―♪ If our
“Huh? What are you saying! Why am I the pink-hair’s junior?”
“Hmm? Then who was it that claimed to be a
“Ugh?! Th-That was…! Ugh…!”
Bell’s face instantly turns red.
If this were a manga, there would probably be a ‘Poof!’ sound effect. It was visible even in the darkness of the night.
‘She’s just like Guan Yu.’
Was the true Guan Yu not Kara but Bell?
Both trying to maintain face in front of others, and being secretly narrow-minded…
‘No, strictly speaking, she’d be Yuan. With the face of betrayal.’
I nodded my head, recalling Bell’s desperate declaration of intent to change schools.
-Look at this tracksuit!! I’m a
A disgraceful display that could only be called a black history no matter how you look at it. Recalling that miserable memory, Bell couldn’t say anything and hung her head.
“…I-I had no choice.”
Bell, who wanted to look strong in front of others. That desperate appearance of her begging for her life was probably a humiliation she would never experience again. At that, the three juniors who had been tense all along also let out low laughs.
“Pfft…”
“Kuku…”
“Puheh.”
“D-Don’t laugh―!! I really won’t forgive you if you spread rumors anywhere―!!”
“Oh my―♪ That sounds just like foreshadowing for spreading rumors―☆”
“Don’t―!! Please, I’m begging you, don’t spread rumors anywhere―!!”
Rub rub rub rub―
Bell comically rubbing her hands like a fly. Seeing that sight, the three juniors finally start trembling with laughter.
“Puhuhehe…! Ah really…!”
“Hehehehe…”
“Kuhup… Pfft…!”
The juniors laughing quietly like sobbing while holding onto their last reason. The pressure they had been feeling from the abnormal situation until now. It seemed to have disappeared far away now.
Finally, the laughter subsided at the scene.
Bell and I returned to our seats, keeping silent again.
“…”
“…”
I conveyed a grateful look to Bell watching her like that. Then Bell, who had slightly raised her head, winked one eye and gave a wordless answer.
-Just trust this cute secretary!
Understanding each other at a glance.
She really looked like a capable secretary.
Seeing that appearance, I raised my evaluation of Bell.
‘Both her strength that wouldn’t lose to anyone except the Five Colors, and this perceptiveness. Looking at her usual abilities, it seems she’s not a
She has her own perceptiveness, knows how to lead students who follow her. Above all, I wanted to give big bonus points for keeping a benevolent heart.
‘But that concept act and easily flustered personality…’
As my evaluation of Bell was being moderately adjusted like that.
A large magenta-colored flame rose near the horizon in the distance.
Whoosh―!
And more than several kilometers away on another horizon, red ether sent by the
Whoosh―!
The signals we had decided on.
I spoke while looking at those:
“Yes―♪ It looks like Eir and Sigrun’s sides have arrived too―☆”
“Haah… Now we’re starting.”
Tremble tremble…
Alvit’s hand was shaking so much that the scabbard she was holding made noise hitting the ground.
“Alvit is so cute―♪ You’re so tense~ Should this senior give you a hug if you’re scared―☆”
“…”
I playfully stretched out my arms towards Alvit and waved them.
It was just a joke to relax the nervous junior’s heart.
But surprisingly…
“Oh my―♪”
“…”
Hug
Alvit really came into my arms. Her shoulders were trembling like a child’s, and cold sweat was beading and falling from her nape and forehead.
‘As expected, experiencing a dungeon for the first time in such an abnormal situation still feels like great pressure.’
I patted Alvit’s back like that.
“…Can I do it?”
“Yes―♪”
“…Is that something you know because you’re [Faded Spiral]?”
“No―♪”
I also held the cold hands of Kara and Rota who had come to my side before I knew it.
“I know because I’m your senior―☆”
“…”
“…”
“…Senior.”
“We can definitely do it♪”
The way to overcome fear together that [Pink Spiral] who became strong alone couldn’t teach. As [Faded Spiral], I held their hands and taught them that.
That method was endless trust in each other.
“…”
I recalled the words Senior Frida had told me once in the flower bed.
‘May this… be the spiral-like memories and teachings the senior spoke of.’