Memoirs of the Returnee

Chapter 340: Price (6)

In the past, Soliette had etched herself into the continent with just a single war. It was a heroic stage known as the 'Monster Front?

At some point, the monsters that had been nurtured by the association began to overflow, as if they had been waiting for Theia's death. They surged out of the underworld and spread across the entire continent.

Despite Layla—Mila's desperate efforts, Trick City was the first to be occupied, and the monsters became a plague throughout Edsilla.

Thafs when the swordsman named soliette stepped forward.

She resolved the war single-handedly. For her, resolution meant annihilation.

She calmly advanced to the front and sliced through countless monsters like nothing. In just one night, she killed thousands of monsters. Chopped flesh and dark red blood formed an ocean, and soliette herself sat atop a mountain of corpses, whistling…

It was a legendary true story.

Her localized wars continued afterward, but no one truly witnessed them. They took place in battlefields filled with monsters and ended in moments.

Soliette cut through every space swallowed by monsters. Eventually, the monsters hid from just one person, Soliette, like mice into holes.

Thus, she became known as the First Sword of the Continent.

It was a very natural title.

However, historians felt that this alone was insufficient and added the modifier 'ancient and modern* in front of it.

The Greatest Sword.

The best across both past and present.

In other words, there was a 'consensus* that the swordsman named soliette was the pinnacle in human history, in the world of humans.

Therefore, after soliette's suicide, the people of the continent thought they would never again witness a single person, a single human, transcend an entire species.

Until, just half a year later, someone else caused a similar shock, not with a sword but with bare fists.

“…ShouLd I just keep standing?”

Soliette, with a puzzled face, asked.

“Huh? Oh, yeah. Just keep standing.”

Still within the shadows, I continued to place magical particles on soliette's head, like scooping up clouds.

“Soliette?”

I kept calling her name, trying to reach the soliette from before the regression.

“Yes.”

“Answer me.”

“I did answer.”

“…”

Well, it's not working.

I stared at the magical particles placed on soliette's essence and shouted.

“Answer!”

“7”

Soliette blinked and tilted her head.

“Answer me.”

I continued to move the magical particles.

Through the SZX-9500, it Looked like her head was piled high with snow-Like magical particles.

“Soliette. Try answering.”

“…'Answer.'”

“…”

“Shion. I'm asking because I'm worried, but have you gone mad?”

“…Sigh.”

I sighed and slumped to the ground.

Honestly, I thought it would work, but it was a shaky plan from the start.

Analyzing the properties of magical particles without any equipment and just guessing by eye to overlay them on soliette's head to bring back the soliette of the past?

What a load of bullshit.

Thinking about it now, it seems pretty stupid.

I pulled a tent out of my bag.

“…Let's take a break.”

“Oh, Shion. You brought a tent?”

“Yeah. And not just a tent.”

An expansion backpack I carry around just in case of that 1% chance. Inside, there's not only a tent but also emergency rations, cooking equipment, and other survival essentials. It means I could survive for more than a month without resorting to cannibalism.

“Let's eat something.”

“Yes. That sounds good.”

I set up the tent. I placed a burner on the ground and Lit a fire. Then, I put a pot on it and started cooking stew.

As the bubbles boiled, Soliette licked her lips.

“lt's ready.”

I served the food on a plate and handed it to soliette. As soon as she took a bite, her face lit up with amazement.

“Wow. This is delicious. How do you do it?”

“Everything tastes good when you're hungry.”

She devoured her food greedily. I wasn't particularly hungry, but I ate anyway.

After finishing the stew, we went inside the tent.

As I was spreading out two sleeping bags, Soliette suddenly asked.

“…Shion. Can we get out of here?”

“Of course.”

My assertion seemed to puzzle soliette, but I was more confident.

“I trust you. With a week, or at most a month of practice, you'U be able to slice through shadows. Your talent is limitless Like the sky.”

The only problem is time.

Soliette smiled at me.

“Thank you for believing in me.”

“Let's get some sleep now. I'm tired.”

“…Yes.”

I crawled into my sleeping bag. Soliette lay down too. We both became like caterpillars, and soon, the sound of soliette snoring filled the air.

I, too, fell into a deep sleep like soliette.

——Soliette had a dream.

It was a strange dream.

It was today yet not today, the past yet not the past, the past and today, today and the past.

In a confused state of mind, she stood in front of a bathroom mirror.

There she was.

Soliette Arkne with red hair. Her face and body marked with scars, herself.

She was there.

But lately, the world seemed black and white to her. It felt as if many parts were fragmented and disconnected. She had been sensing this strange feeling for some time now.

Soliette closed her eyes.

——Soliette.

A voice calling her.

——Answer.

A demanding echo. A familiar tone.

Shion AscaL

Soliette opened her eyes and gripped the sink. It broke under her grasp. It was her own bare hands that had snapped it.

“Damn it…”

As she muttered, a breeze seemed to whisper in her ear.

——Respond.

A dream-like reality. A reality-like dream.

She thought of this as 'the phenomenon of her consciousness severing itself.' She considered it a process of becoming a phenomenon herself.

But then.

——Soliette!

At that loud shout, Soliette closed and then opened her eyes.

In an instant, the space around her shifted.

She was inside a sleeping bag, and right next to her was Shion AscaL

Again, a reality-like dream.

I woke up. I looked groggily beside me, but soliette was not there.

“What the…”

I scratched my messy hair and got up.

Soliette was standing outside the tent, staring up at the sky as if counting the shadows.

“When did you get up?”

No reply.

“What…”

I approached her. I Looked where she was looking. There was nothing. Just the same shadows.

“What about it?”

“lt's the shadows.”

“What do you mean? Of course, they're shadows.”

I yawned. My mind was still foggy with sleep.

But then.

“lt feels like a dream.”

Her voice had changed significantly, and my ears perked up.

“Tt's hard to distinguish this moment.”

I looked at her belatedly. Her expression was foreign. Her face was soliette's, but the soul contained within was different.

“Soliette?”

I called her name. Soliette casually raised her eyebrows.

“Yes.”

Had my call reached her?

I was about to grab her sleeve but hesitated.

“Did you hear my voice?”

“Yes. It was loud.”

I checked her essence with the 'SZX-9500.' The magical particles had already dispersed.

“Tt's not just once or twice. I always hear your voice.”

“Always?”

Soliette continued softly.

“Yes. Like dreaming.”

A fireball seemed to roll through my mind. A shiver ran down my spine. A hypothesis spread like a web.

This meeting might not just be because of the magic space.

“Dreams…”

Soliette, the swordsman, a person who severs everything.

Perhaps, a person who has severed everything.

Paradoxically, a person connected to everything.

The only being who could sever and connect my regressions.

“Shion.”

Soliette called me.

“Huh?”

“Do you want to leave this place?”

I swallowed hard and asked back.

“Is it possible?”

Soliette silently extended her hand. With a somewhat overwhelmed heart, I grabbed it.

“No1”

She slapped my hand away and frowned.

“Sword.”

“…”

“I need a better sword.”

“Ah, sorry.”

I handed her my sword, the renowned blade slathered with 'Gether' that Grawl had gathered.

It was a treasure that even soliette covertly coveted.

“I'U go right away.”

“Uh”

Before I could even respond, the sword shot up. To me, it seemed as if mountains were being carved into the air.

Thick sword strokes. It split the shadows straight through. The split shadows vomited out all its contents.

Kururururu——

Within the breaking shadows, I took a step back.

And then, it was the outside.

The external library.

“Shion. Its not over yet.”

“Not over yet?”

“Yes.”

The current soliette knew things I did not, saw things I could not.

Tadadadada——

Following that, the presence of more enemies intensified. They arrived emitting a sinister magical power.

I saw their murderous intent through the doors that flung wide open. Most were Chasers, but a few were Balancers.

Powers that that current me, and soliette, could never match.

Soliette swung her sword.

A straight line tore through space. A part of reality was severed. A three-dimensional reality was destroyed by an overly flat line. Dozens of Chasers and Balancers touched it and were simply split. Their upper and Lower bodies separated and they died.

It was over.

“……”

The flattening of dimensions.

Staring dumbly at the absurd Severing Sword, I belatedly turned to look at soliette.

After finishing the job, Soliette covered her mouth. Cough. She coughed a few times, then stood up straight.

“Ptoo—1”

She spat out a thick clot of blood. Stepping on it, Soliette spoke,

“Shion. If this is reality, then there shouldn't be many occasions to call upon me in the future.”

I looked at her.

“This body is still too inferior compared to me, and aLso…”

“…Because you'll end up killing soliette?”

“……”

Soliette quietly nodded.

“Yes.”

Then she smirked from one corner of her mouth. It was the smirk I used to see often.

“As you know, I am a fragmented person.”

“……Sorry.”

“What are you sorry for?”

“Just. It feels Like I've summoned you too forcefully.”

This accident was entirely my fault.

Because of my greed, I was trapped in the shadows, and due to the pressing time, I had done wrong by both the current and the past soliette.

“Don't talk nonsense. There's absolutely no need to be sorry.”

Yet, she casually smiled from the corner of her mouth.

“We are close enough for this.”

With those words, she closed her eyes. Then quietly, she leaned toward me.

She had fainted.

I held her in my arms.

Soliette woke up.

When was I… Where had I been?

She muttered blankly as she got up. She Looked in the mirror in front of the bathroom.

Soliette was still there.

Soliette Arkne, with her red hair. Her face and body riddled with scars, herself.

The memories that seemed real in her dreams quickly became ethereal again.

She had been with Shion, that much was clear, but the content of their conversation were blurry, like a broken thread.

Ding-ding-

Just then, her phone rang. She opened it.

—Yes. Shion.

Shion AscaL

To him, who existed here and there, Soliette asked.

—Are you okay?

She was worried about his physical condition.

Soliette woke up, tossing and turning, then yawned, but suddenly felt a jolting sensation.

Her body was bouncing up and down.

“……?”

She looked around curiously and realized she was inside a truck. There was a stranger in the driver's seat.

Soliette quickly shouted.

“Who are you!”

“……lt's me, damn it.”

Shion turned to look at her.

“Ah.”

Embarrassed, Soliette casually looked out the window.

Not inside the shadows, but outside, in the world.

“What… What happened?”

“lt's over.”

“Over?”

“Yeah. We escaped. It's probably chaotic in Libra now.”

The duo who destroyed the shadows and massacred the Balancers and Chasers.

It is unknown what Libra will think. A huge ripple effect is likely.

“……”

Then soliette looked at me anew. I asked her.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes… I didn't do much.”

“You did a lot.”

Shion drove on an unpaved road.

The truck rattled, but they easily bypassed the encirclement. Or rather, there was no encirclement at all.

Thanks to Libra not anticipating that the Balancers and Chasers would be massacred.

“Shion. I'm sorry. While I was asleep…”

Soliette scratched the back of her neck and muttered. Shion chuckled.

“Hey. We don't need to be sorry. No need to be thankful either.”

I said, looking back at her in the rear seat.

“We're that close, aren't we?”

That close.

At his generous heart, Soliette smiled contentedly.

“Yes. You're right. No, it's much more than that… Ouch!”

Thump!

She hit her head because of the rising truck body.

“Hahaha.”

Shion laughed at her own situation, and soliette playfully glared at him and laughed along.