Two People from Another World
The world was hazy, as if shrouded in mist.
Everywhere I looked was blurry, and I couldn't properly identify anything.
‘Where am I?’
How had I ended up here? Sugar tried to recall the events of moments ago, but her memories refused to surface.
‘It felt like I was doing something important.’
After pondering for a long time, she eventually gave up.
There was nothing to be gained by staying here like this. So she decided to go somewhere and began walking wherever her feet led.
It wasn't exactly walking; she floated and moved through the air like a child playing in the sky, savoring the floating sensation.
Then, the background gradually sharpened.
Rocks, trees, and all manner of natural elements floated and swayed in the air. A reddish glow spread across the gray sky. As she focused, the speed of clarity accelerated until the entire world took on this form.
A dreamlike space that didn't feel real. Yet she had a memory of seeing something similar somewhere.
Right in front of her hovered a person-sized water droplet, which was strange, so she tried to approach for a closer look. But for some reason, she couldn't advance. It felt as if she were blocked by a transparent wall.
When she listened carefully, she heard voices, so she turned toward the sound.
Far away on a large rock stood two people.
One was a girl with completely white hair and white skin.
Unlike the surrounding natural elements, it was too alien, making her wonder if something had stolen its color.
The other was a tall man.
He looked down at a girl sitting demurely, his blonde hair fluttering in the wind.
“... Even in this... holding... Are you out of your mind...?”
The words he spoke couldn't be heard clearly; it was too far to make out here.
Feeling uneasy, she pressed herself as close as possible to the transparent wall and watched the two of them.
“Well... Even if it's like that... Alive... but without a mind...”
The man finished speaking and raised his hand. A book suddenly appeared in his empty palm.
The pages opened by themselves, which was odd.
The quiet, mysterious atmosphere suddenly reversed.
Shadows stretched and shrank across the space. An ominous voice filled the air.
Sugar suddenly lifted her head.
Her eyes widened, and cold sweat poured down. Her entire body stiffened, unable to move.
What was there was a massive, pitch-black thing she didn't even want to name—
Then she woke up.
When she opened her eyes, she found herself in a dimly lit room. Outside the window, it was dark, suggesting dawn was approaching.
‘... A dream?’
Although the faces were distant, it was probably those two—the original Sugar and Ryly from the story.
She had imagined it. Recreated the image. Dreamed of the scene where they ended. She had reinterpreted the part she experienced in the game as a dream.
Somehow it felt familiar.
She didn't know why she kept having such dreams. It wasn't like some provocative “this is your future” line.
Feeling uneasy, she tried to drink something, but her body wouldn't move.
“... Huh?”
Her fingers couldn't even twitch.
“Why is this happening...”
She tried to twist her body, but there was no movement. It seemed like she had no senses at all.
What she could move were only her eyelids, mouth, and tongue—three things in total.
A chill ran down her spine. She wondered if this was how she would live forever.
Like the ominous dream she had just had, and recalling how the original Sugar's body had ended, it naturally made her anxious.
Currently, Sugar hadn't been caught by the cult yet, but in some worlds she had experienced such a fate, so this anxiety lingered.
‘Still, her limbs were fine... But without sensation, she couldn't move on her own, so what was the point?’
Although it seemed peaceful, she was having serious thoughts of her own.
Footsteps sounded from below. It was the light footsteps of a young child. At this hour, only one person would come here.
“... Tommy!”
With a small voice mixed with joy, she greeted him. The sound of fingers snapping followed, and the room brightened as if candles had been lit.
And the face of Tommy she saw was full of fatigue.
“Why does your face look like that? Is something wrong?”
“It's because of something wrong with you...”
“What?”
“Did your memory disappear? I expected short-term memory loss...”
“What are you saying?”
“You. How long have you been awake?”
“Hmm... About five minutes? But why? I don't know what you're talking about since earlier.”
“First, the procedure... I guess I should call it a procedure. Anyway. The plan to reach the point just before magic overload. Success. The fact that I'm talking to you now is proof of that.”
Sugar's expression was bewildered. She didn't know if her expression was proper, but such a reaction must have reached Tommy.
“The basic condition for mages. You said you would do it to achieve stage 1. Don't you remember?”
“Ah... Ah... Ah!”
When she was reminded, it clicked.
Clearly, she had been injected with magic power. While feeling something filling up, she had been babbling nonsense until at some point she felt nauseous and couldn't breathe.
Her head spun, and consciousness cut off right there.
Then it seemed like it happened just now.
“I remember. Clearly... Suddenly my mood became weird, and I tried to say something.”
“You passed out right after saying ‘ah’. Before that, your demeanor was strange, so I somehow cut it off.”
“As expected...! I believed in you! You're the best... You're number one...!”
“Stop. The problem is what comes next.”
Since there was still more left, Sugar stiffened. Her body was already stiff, but it felt like her heart was stiffening too.
“This is something you have to endure completely. After regaining consciousness, about 5 to 10 minutes. When this time passes, severe pain will come rushing in.”
“... Why?”
“Of course, because your body is right before bursting. Since you just regained consciousness, it takes a while for the senses to return.”
“... So?”
“I will extract the magic power again. Don't pass out from the pain and feel it properly. Feel how the pain flows. That is your magic passage.”
While sweating, Tommy calmly finished the briefing and took out a wet towel from the bucket he brought and placed it on Sugar's forehead.
Next, he pressed her soft cheek firmly to force her mouth open. There, he stuffed a dry cloth.
‘... It's over.’
There would be screams that would need to be muffled. This action was like implying that.
Somehow, the whole body started to itch a little.
“By the way, the reason your body isn't moving is because I fixed it. I don't want you to flail around and mess up.”
What a clean friend. If only he had cast some ‘magic that doesn't hurt’ or something, but this was greed.
Whether such magic existed or not, even if it did, since it was ‘awakening the magic passage through pain’, it wouldn't be useful.
Sugar, half-giving up, closed her eyes.
She wanted to accept the pain. If just a little pain could bring her closer to the path of magic, that was what she desired.
Once she was a man.
She hadn't been beaten anywhere, her senses hadn't disappeared, only magic had exceeded the limit.
This wasn't much.
While trembling, she braced her mind and prepared for the approaching pain.
At the time when the sun was rising, in the attic, a girl was writhing, extracting tears.
She tried to open her mouth to spit out the pain, but what came out was only hot breath and saliva mixed with it.
Even if she screamed, it would be muffled by the cloth, but since she was in too much pain, she couldn't even make such a sound.
Tommy, whose heart was pounding with emotion, tried to maintain composure while gripping the hand on his stomach.
‘What is this magic power...’
Due to greed and curiosity, this emotional state was maintained.
Clearly, she had to extract Tommy's own magic power from Sugar, but what was coming out was completely different magic power.
Sugar's magic power. Tommy's was gone and completely changed.
But it flowed into Tommy's body and melted instantly. It was an enormous usability without any rejection reaction.
Imagining such magic power.
Pure magic power without impurities.
Unbelievable.
It was a product that required refining refined magic power. Who would have thought that someone with such basic magic power existed.
- There are people who don't get affected even if they touch that magic power lump.
I wonder what kind of person that is.
It's strange that they have such magic power properties, and they can't even achieve mage basic condition stage 1, yet they understand their own magic power properties.
Based on that, they make strange plans and get involved in them.
They talk nonsense about whether you trust her or not to people who are thinking of killing her.
Really, there's no answer.
“... It's almost over.”
Feeling that the extracted magic power was recovering somewhat, it was time.
The throbbing of the heart felt through the hand calmed down a bit. The irregular breathing became organized and slowly found its place.
“Huu... huu...”
“The magic passage is spread throughout your whole body. Think of it like blood vessels. Imagine magic circulating based on that.”
“Huuu...”
“... Do you feel something?”
Sugar moved her head up and down with difficulty.
“Huu...”
A sigh of relief came out.
Then, her watery eyes looked at Tommy.
With eyes full of tears from being in a lot of pain and difficulty, she smiled slightly, as if to say she was grateful to Tommy.
Right after, something mumbled. Listening to the nuance, she roughly understood what he wanted to say.
- Am I strong?
The expression that followed was that of a mischievous kid.
Even in this situation. Really.
“... Yeah. You're strong.”
With that feeling just a little, she answered honestly, and a vibration was felt through the hand pressed on Sugar's stomach. Hoo. Weakly smiling, Sugar gently closed her eyes.
Tommy quietly took out the cloth wet with saliva from Sugar's mouth and wiped the sweat from her face.
This was something he could do. It would be too heartless to abandon her and just leave.
It wasn't like his heart was moved by this helpless girl in any way.
Anyway, he was just glad that things were going well.