005 Personal Grievances
There are different kinds of grudges.
The feeling of anger and hatred towards an intolerable act. Resentment.
The feeling of dissatisfaction and inadequacy compared to others. A kind of spiteful grudge.
Since I have no connection with Higaki Ao, there shouldn’t be any resentment. So, it must be some kind of spiteful grudge… but honestly, I can’t think of anything.
In the first place, I’ve been throwing away human relationships and focusing on leveling up. So, apart from my parents, I don’t remember causing any trouble that would make someone hate me.
…Could it be something related to my parents? No, but… could that really be possible?
“Higaki-san.”
“What is it?”
“Um, actually, could it be that we’re long-lost siblings?”
“Huh?”
“I’m the younger brother, got a problem with that!?”
“Frankly, that’s creepy.”
Yeah, if I had a sibling like me, I’d be freaked out too.
“Then I really don’t understand. Why do you hate me? Have we ever met before?”
“We’ve never met directly. I just know about you unilaterally.”
“Unilaterally?”
“It’s that sword.”
Higaki-san pointed at the sword I was carrying at my waist.
I tilted my head, not understanding what kind of connection the old sword I received from Bonus Uncle could have, but she ignored my confusion and began to speak as if she were talking to herself.
“That sword belonged to my master, the person I admired.”
“Master? Admired…?”
“‘Sword Saint’ Sanuki Shoichiro. I was captivated by the sword he wielded, and I reached out to it.”
Higaki Ao began to speak. About how shocking it was.
“When I was young, I went outside the walls on a whim. I didn’t really understand what kind of place it was, so naturally, I was attacked by monsters. As I fled with the friends I had snuck out with, one by one, they were injured and fell… and then, I was saved by Sanuki-sensei.”
Her gaze was directed towards the ceiling. But her eyes were focused on the memories of the past, on that moment burned into her mind.
“Beautiful, exquisite, words alone can’t describe how that single strike slipped through my fear and stole my heart. It was beautiful… it was so beautiful.”
Her cheeks were slightly flushed, and her moist lips let out a voice that entered my ears with a sweet, melting heat.
She showed a ‘woman’s’ face that was unimaginable from her previously composed demeanor, and she began to hug herself as if trying to suppress the rising heat.
“Captivated by the Sword Saint, I took up the sword to reach that realm. I went to Sensei again and again, pushing myself to receive training as a disciple. How sweet and exciting those days were… Every time I swung the sword, every time I learned a new technique, my heart fluttered at the fact that I was getting even a step closer to that stroke of the sword I admired.”
“But,” she paused, and glared at me.
The heat that had been on her ‘woman’s’ face just a moment ago instantly cooled down. I was stared at by her sharp gaze, and I felt a chill as if the temperature of the room had dropped.
“One day, I learned of your existence. I learned that I was not the first disciple, but the ‘second’. Sensei said, ‘You have far more talent, so don’t worry about it. Teaching that boy was just a whim,’ but… I couldn’t help but worry.”
Not the first, but the second.
Even though I had bowed my head many times, that someone was taught techniques by Sensei himself.
Envious, envious, envious. And resentful.
“I wanted to be the first. I should have been the first for that person, but you demoted me to ‘second’. Your figure is reflected in the path I take to follow in that person’s footsteps! I saw the scars carved into the wall in the dungeon and suspected a fellow disciple, and when I saw the sword at your waist, I was certain! You, you stole that person’s first place from me! How could I not hate you!?”
Who could blame me for being overwhelmed by her sudden transformation and her menacing expression?
Certainly, in the original story, there was an episode where she was captivated by the Sword Saint’s single strike and took up the sword.
However, in the original story, she had confessed that as she swung the sword, she began to think that she wanted to be able to help someone like the Sword Saint had helped her.
To that end, she sought power and worked as a disciplinary committee member, but she gradually began to prioritize ‘rules’ over ‘someone’, and she became aware of this through her interactions with the protagonist, that was the Higaki Ao of the original story.
But, the woman in front of me is clearly ‘twisted’. To the point where I doubt her sanity.
How she took my bewildered reaction to her behavior, which was so far removed from the original character ‘Higaki Ao’, I don’t know, but she now spoke with a wry smile.
“I heard that you didn’t even remember Sensei’s name properly. You even gave him a nickname. So, you probably don’t know anything about me, and you’re probably not able to keep up with the fact that I’m showing you this ugly side of myself. This is my own selfish problem, and I’m truly sorry for getting you involved in it.”
But, but… she paused.
“That sword is mine.”
In that instant, I reached for my sword.
She was faster than me, diving into my chest.
I instantly switched my hand reaching for the hilt to a fist and swung it to strike her.
“――!?”
But she was not there at the end of my fist.
She had pulled the sword, scabbard and all, from my waist, and slipped behind me in a spinning motion.
With the impact that exploded on the back of my head, I lost consciousness.
I woke up in a room in the hospital attached to the academy.
Apparently, I had been hit on the head multiple times with considerable force, and a part of my skull was cracked. Even with recovery magic, I was told that I would have to stay in bed for several days.
As for the medical bill, it was covered by selling the monster materials I had obtained while leveling up in the dungeon, and in addition, part of the disciplinary committee’s budget would also provide assistance.
I couldn’t help but feel that this was a clear hush money, and I was also told that the crimes of trespassing and so on were being overlooked in combination with the disciplinary committee’s excessive crackdown.
After I woke up, someone who seemed to be an advisor came to apologize, but of course, Higaki Ao was not there, and I didn’t feel any better.
“…………”
Bonus Uncle was the ‘Sword Saint’ Sanuki Shoichiro.
And that by unknowingly getting involved with him, I had become the cause of Higaki Ao’s twisted feelings.
The former, it’s impossible to realize that a character who doesn’t even have a visual and is only mentioned in passing is that person. As for the latter, it was like an accident, and I don’t know anything about it.
No matter how many times I thought about it, I couldn’t find any fault of my own, I couldn’t think of anything. I was filled with anger at this unreasonable treatment. What in the world did I do? I was just diligently leveling up.
Certainly, I must have caused trouble for people.
If this treatment was an act of ‘public duty’, I could still accept it.
But that woman used ‘public duty’ to attack me with ‘personal feelings’ and steal my sword. And after that, she continued to beat me. It’s unreasonable, too unreasonable.
But, among all these unreasonable things, there was one thing that I couldn’t forgive—the fact that she ‘stole my sword’.
Honestly, I didn’t have much attachment to that sword.
Certainly, that sword that I received from the old man was an item that I had been using for a long time, and it had the best performance among the weapons I could currently obtain, so I had been using it regularly.
But in the end, an item is just an item, and I was fully intending to change to a better weapon in the future. I had no intention of throwing it away because it was a gift, but it was just an impression of a unique item that could be used in the early stages.
But, but. But.
“To steal an item that someone else has obtained from the side, that damn bitch!!”
You damn bastard! There wasn’t even a PK element or a PvP system in this game!!
Don’t screw with me, you damn bitch! It’s my item! You, a loser who couldn’t even trigger your own event, are using your disgusting, creepy feelings that you call love as an excuse to come at me, you shameless thing!
“If the original story is going to get involved with me unreasonably, then fine! I’ll do whatever I want too!”
I made a big fuss on the bed in anger. Because of that, the instruments reacted and the doctors came rushing in, and I finally regained my composure.