Chapter 57
Chapter 57
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 57
Chapter Title: Gauge Symmetry (3)
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“Shina! Open your eyes! Snap out of it!”
“Brother! H-Help me…!”
Shina was in no state to calm down. And there was no way the two children could cross the river with their physical strength alone. Armin realized he had to do it himself.
‘I just need to make it to the Delphons region. It's a delta there, so the water level will be lower. At this speed, it should take about twenty minutes.’
Twenty minutes? It felt like an eternity. Could he survive for twenty minutes in these rapids while carrying a dazed Shina?
‘Stupid. I have no choice.’
Armin steeled himself. The scene before him felt like it was grotesquely distorting. Broken logs were rushing downstream. He twisted his body with all his might. Even when murky water splashed into his eyes, when giant rocks loomed over him, when sharp branches cut his skin, he pushed through reality and kept moving.
‘Just a little… a little more!’
He felt Shina's tiny hand pinching his waist. The feeling of a fragile life depending entirely on him was miserable, but an even greater sense of duty awakened his spirit.
After what felt like an eternity in hell, their destination began to appear far downstream. But the path to it was blocked. A tree had broken and fallen toward the river, obstructing their way.
“Shina, listen carefully. We have to avoid that. To do that, we have to go underwater. I'm going to push you down. Hold your breath and endure it, then come back up. Got it?”
“Brother! I'm scared! I can't do it!”
“You have to. You can do it. Trust me!”
“Brother! Bro—!”
As they entered a spot where two whirlpools converged, the current's speed more than doubled. Facing this unexpected situation, Armin clenched his teeth. With only his head above water, the flood's debris rushed at him like monsters.
Armin kicked his legs so hard they cramped. Sharp objects scraped past his body. He was losing consciousness from continuous blood loss and dropping body temperature. In the midst of it all, they reached the tree blocking their path. Even from up close, it was clear the only way past was to go under.
“Shina! Here we go!”
Armin glared at the approaching tree, timing his move. Then, just before impact, he pressed down on Shina's shoulders.
“Now!”
Shina's screaming voice was submerged in the water. As he pushed Shina down, the sharp, waterlogged bark of the tree trunk loomed large in Armin's vision. But all his focus was on the hand pushing Shina down. The moment she passed under the trunk, he released his grip.
‘It worked! I did it!’
Armin smiled faintly as he watched the tree trunk bearing down on him. He was just glad he could save Shina. And even in that final moment, he did not close his eyes.
“Brotherrrr!”
Shina's voice, carried away downstream, reached him faintly.
Shina's story ended there. The boys bowed their heads in solemn silence.
“I was swept away to the Delphons region and rescued by the villagers. Since we were out of the forest, there were no more dangerous obstacles, and Armin, who had passed out, was washed ashore near me. People from the school came and treated him, but the diagnosis was permanent eye damage. He lost his sight after that.”
“I see. So that's what happened to you two...”
“He taught me how to overcome fear with his own body. Thanks to him, I was able to overcome my Overflow. But he lost the light. The greatest talent in the school's history... was stopped just like that.”
Shirone's heart felt heavy. For a human, losing one's sight is almost like losing everything. You can't read books, and learning magic is inevitably restricted. He could imagine how disappointed and tormented Armin must have been.
“I heard he'd moved here three years ago, so I came to see him. He said he was developing a style of painting with light. That's why I volunteered to be his model.”
“I see. We didn't know any of that and jumped to the wrong conclusion...”
Misunderstanding their relationship as an affair was disrespectful to them both. Just as the mood was about to turn somber, Armin came in with tea and snacks.
“Did I interrupt something? It's rare for Shina to bring up the past.”
“Brother.”
“Have some tea first. It's nothing fancy, but it's made with my wife's secret touch, so I think you'll like it.”
“Ah, thank you. We will.”
Shirone and his friends accepted the teacups with a sense of awe. He may have become a painter, but this was a man who had shown genius-level talent in magic twenty years ago. They could lament his unfortunate fate, but as aspiring mages, they couldn't look down on Armin.
Armin returned to his canvas and gestured to the seats behind him.
“Well then. I should get back to work. Could my guests wait over here?”
“Ah, yes. Of course.”
The three of them awkwardly moved to the side, teacups in hand. As Shina took her pose on the bed, Nade glanced around and asked tentatively.
“Um, I'm really sorry to ask, but... you're not painting a nude, are you?”
Now that they knew Armin was a painter, it wasn't their place to interfere with his art. But he figured it would be awkward for Shina to do so in front of her student.
“Hahaha! Even if I'm blind, I wouldn't make such an unreasonable request of my dear little sister.”
“But I thought I heard you ask her to take off her clothes...”
“Ah, that was about this. Shina, would you show them?”
Shina opened the wardrobe and took out a coat made of silver foil. The light it reflected was so dazzling it was hard to even look at. Shirone shielded his eyes with his hand and said.
“Whoa! That's really bright.”
“I can't see things clearly with the Spirit Zone alone. So I have people or objects wear something luminescent so I can feel the light. In that sense, the silver foil coat is an excellent tool.”
“That's unique. Painting by feeling light.”
“In exchange for my sight, I can paint things other artists can't. But today is the last day I'll be painting Shina. A good patron has appeared, and I have to move in a few days. So I wanted to capture Shina's natural essence. The coat seems to diminish her beauty.”
Shina's cheeks flushed slightly.
“Brother, honestly... don't say such silly things.”
“Haha! What's wrong with it? In my mind, you're still a nine-year-old kid.”
“I get it, so just hurry up and paint. You won't be able to work once Keira gets back.”
Shirone and his friends fidgeted with their fingers and toes, feeling the subtle, ticklish atmosphere. They were clearly like brother and sister, but they weren't blood relatives. Perhaps the reason Shina had reacted more strongly than usual to the accusation of an affair was that she still harbored some lingering feelings for Armin.
“Alright, I'll start. I'm just going by feel, so it should be done sooner than usual.”
As Shina demurely struck a pose, Armin picked up a piece of charcoal and began to sketch a rough outline. Watching from behind, Shirone and his friends were amazed by his skill. It looked like he was just sketching casually, yet the lines perfectly traced Shina's silhouette.
“Wow! That's amazing.”
“Shh.”
Iruki raised an index finger to quiet Nade. Being blind was a fatal disadvantage for a painter, so he would need more concentration than usual.
But Shirone tilted his head. Something was really strange. Even without the luminescent coat, Armin was accurately transferring Shina's detailed features onto the canvas.
‘How is this possible? Is his Spirit Zone that dense? Even so, this level of detail...’
If a Spirit Zone had sufficient density, it might be possible to create a detailed drawing through synesthesia. The principle was similar to how a footprint is left in mud. But as far as he knew, not even Etella, a Zoner, had reached that level.
The drawing grew even more precise. Shina was wearing a beautiful smile rarely seen at the academy. Armin used a piece of bread like an eraser to perfectly capture that smile on the canvas.
Shirone exclaimed inwardly in admiration. He had heard that lips were one of the most difficult things for an artist to express. The feeling changes with the subtle shifts in the corners of the mouth.
‘I see. This is impossible.’
No matter how dense his Spirit Zone was, it made no sense for a blind painter to capture such details. As he thought this, goosebumps rose on his skin, and his extrasensory perception flared up again.
“Um... Mr. Armin.”
“Yes?”
Armin tilted his head slightly with a smile. Shirone hesitated for a moment, wondering if he should ask such a question. If he was wrong, it would be a great discourtesy to him.
“Mr. Armin, are you perhaps...”
But he couldn't bear not asking. The cold chill of his extrasensory perception was seeping into his very bones.
“Able to see?”
Still smiling, Armin's hand froze in mid-air. He calmly set down the charcoal, turned to Shirone, and said.
“Yes. I can see.”
Shirone was speechless. He can really see? But then why didn't Instructor Shina know?
Armin turned to face Shirone completely and untied the cloth covering his eyes. Countless scars were etched around his closed eyes.
‘He's clearly injured, so how can he see? No, he had his eyes covered from the start, didn't he? So what does it mean that he can see...?’
“You must have many questions for me. I'll show you directly.”
As Armin slowly opened his eyes, Shirone's breath caught. There were no pupils. Instead, his empty eye sockets were filled with a brilliant light.
“N-Nade, Iruki! Do you see that? Huh?”
In his urgency, Shirone slapped Nade's thigh. But the sensation that came through his hand was strange. It was hard, like touching an object. He turned to look at his friends and shot to his feet, his face a mask of horror.
“No way! How?”
Nade wasn't moving at all. Iruki was also frozen, a smile on his face as he stared at the canvas. He rushed over to check on Shina, but she was the same. She was just there, frozen like a wax doll. Armin approached the bewildered Shirone from behind.
“It's been a long time since I've had a guest in my room.”
“Don't tell me, is this…?”
“Yes. That's right. It's a magic called Stop.”
Shirone turned around, dumbfounded. Stop was a spell only usable by mages who could wield the speed of light, and throughout history, only a handful had ever reached this level. In other words, he was experiencing the absolute pinnacle of time magic.
“Please, sit. Let's talk calmly. We have plenty of time.”
“Haha…”
Shirone laughed awkwardly. Indeed, if time had stopped, one could say they had an infinite amount of it.
“To be honest, I was on edge even while painting. I wasn't sure when you would enter this time field, Shirone.”
“How did you know I would notice?”
Armin pointed to the light embedded in his eye sockets.
“The organ called the eye receives light and reconstructs it into visual information. But without eyes, I perceive the world through light itself. It's quite a horrifying experience. The forms of objects that normal people perceive look completely different to me.”
“The Idea, you mean.”
There's no guarantee that human senses perceive the truth. A brick might be as soft as jelly. Fire could be cold, and a lover's sweet kiss might bring pain.
“Let me introduce myself properly. I am Armin of the Luminous Eyes. Among those who know me, I am a mage called the Eternal Introspector.”
“But Mr. Armin, when you were young, your magic…”
“Yes. It was an unfortunate accident. After leaving the Olipher School, I wandered the world aimlessly for fifteen years. A world of nothing but darkness.”