Volume 4—Chapter 114: The Weight of Perception
Reality is the sum of everything that exists.
The world we see, the things we can touch, the laws that shape them, and even the truths that remain, whether anyone notices them or not. It is the state of things as they truly are, not as imagined, not as wished for.
Yet reality is also tied to perception. Each person carries a version of it shaped by memory and awareness. A life built on what they believe has happened.
My world is no different.
I remember dying.
And yet I am alive.
Not as the person I used to be, but as someone else entirely. Miyazaki Irana. That is who I am now.
My reality.
But every time fragments of those old memories surface, I hesitate.
Were they even real?
They feel distant, like scenes from a story I once read but never lived. I know they belong to me, yet they do not feel like my own. The more I try to remember, the more uneasy I become.
Part of me believes that if I ever remembered everything, something inside me would break.
Maybe that fear is pointless.
Why should the past matter so much?
Shouldn’t it be enough to live in the present?
But even that thought feels hollow.
Because I have already made mistakes here, too.
I got a mission. An important mission I was told was necessary to keep the world safe. Is such a grand mission on paper.
But what I actually need to do is to keep watch on my Onee-chan. Such a mundane mission, watch her and keep her from ever awakening her power.
That was all.
A task that sounded almost trivial.
And I still failed.
Now the world is falling into chaos. Cracks in the sky, monsters crawling out of places they should not exist. Cities turning into battlefields.
I do not even know if all of this is truly because of Onee-chan.
But I cannot shake the feeling that it is connected.
When did things start to go wrong?
Was it when that girl, Ariana?
Or did it begin earlier, with Syena’s disappearance?
The pieces never quite fit together in my head.
And now…
“Syena Fiolera? Where have you been?”
She was standing right in front of me.
Beside her stood another woman I had never seen before. Silver hair, strange clothes that looked almost like a witch’s attire.
“Um… hello,” Syena said, lifting a hand in a small, uncertain greeting.
I stared at her longer than I meant to.
“Hmmm… what is that look?” the silver-haired woman beside her said, tilting her head.
Her eyes studied me with open curiosity.
“Is that hatred?” she continued. “For what reason?”
“Huh? Hate?” Syena blinked in confusion and glanced between us. “Why would Irana hate me?”
Why would I hate you, Syena?
To be honest… I didn’t know.
But something inside me twisted when I saw her standing there so casually. After disappearing. After everything that had happened since then. It felt unfair, like a missing piece suddenly returned while the rest of the puzzle had already fallen apart.
“Well, we can untangle personal feelings later,” she said. “Right now, evacuation is a higher priority.”
The distant sounds of fighting and collapsing structures made her point clear.
“Right…” I nodded quickly.
My chest tightened with embarrassment. Whatever I was feeling right now, this wasn’t the time for it.
“I’m sorry,” I said to Syena, lowering my gaze for a moment. “I’ll properly apologise later.”
The words felt hollow even as I spoke them.
Deep down, I knew I was just pushing the problem aside. Shifting blame to someone else.
But there were more important things happening.
I forced myself to focus.
“Can you both help me evacuate people to the safe area in the school basement?” I asked.
“Sure,” the silver-haired woman said with a bright smile. “You can call me Amelia.”
As she spoke, a sword appeared in her hand.
A sword?
For a moment, I just stared.
With the way she dressed, with that witch-like outfit and calm attitude, a sword never came to my mind.
Before I could question it, the air behind us tore open again.
Another dimensional crack spread across the ground like broken glass. From inside it, a pack of monsters crawled out, goblins, twisted wolves, and something larger behind them.
They barely had time to take a step.
Amelia swung once.
Just once.
A pale arc flashed through the air. The monsters vanished instantly. They simply ceased to exist. But the slash didn’t stop there. A long line appeared across the gym building behind them.
For a split second, nothing happened. Then the entire structure slowly separated along that line. The building slid apart.
“What the heck are you doing?!” I shouted.
Amelia blinked.
“Oh… oops.”
“Oops?!” My voice almost cracked. “You could’ve killed people! No, you probably did!”
Inside the building were evacuation routes, storage rooms, and maybe even students who hadn’t made it out yet.
And she was smiling.
“Hahaha… sorry,” Amelia said, scratching the back of her head. “I’ll be more careful next time.”
“You’re laughing?” I stared at her in disbelief.
Then she snapped her fingers.
A flash of green light spread through the area.
I froze.
The monsters she had erased reappeared exactly where they had been a moment ago. The gym building slid back together as if the slash had never happened.
My mind struggled to catch up with what I was seeing.
How in the world…
Amelia adjusted her stance again, lifting the sword casually.
“Let’s try that again.”
She swung.
Another arc cut through the air.
This time, only the monsters disappeared. The building remained untouched.
Amelia lowered her blade and nodded to herself.
“Alright,” she said with satisfaction.
“Now that’s the right strength.”
“You’re seeing this too, right?” I asked, turning to Syena.
For a moment, I thought maybe I had imagined it. That the chaos and exhaustion were starting to get to my head.
But Syena was staring at the gym with the same stunned expression.
“Uh… yeah,” she said slowly. “That was… time rewind.”
“Ehehe, surprise?” Amelia said cheerfully.
She rested the sword on her shoulder as she had just performed a small party trick.
I looked between the perfectly intact gym building and the empty space where the monsters had stood only seconds ago.
Rewinding time.
Actually turning things back.
That kind of ability was… unbelievable.
But even as the thought crossed my mind, another distant crash echoed somewhere across the campus. A monster’s roar followed it.
People were still out there.
Still in danger.
I shook my head and forced myself to focus.
“This isn’t the time to be impressed,” I said, taking a breath. “Let’s save people first.”
Syena nodded immediately.
“Right.”
Amelia tilted her head, then gave a light shrug.
“Lead the way,” she said.
The three of us turned toward the campus, where more monsters were beginning to pour out from the spreading cracks.
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