Chapter 68
Chapter 68
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 68
Chapter Title: At the Summit (2)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Shirone knew that so-called experts often went to such places only to lose the shirts off their backs. Of course, with Iruki’s Servant ability, no one could beat him at probability calculations, but there was a reason people called it gambling. Probability was just that—probability. To win at gambling, you needed the disposition of a player who could sense the tide of victory. He could perfectly picture Iruki winning bit by bit, only to lose it all in one fell swoop.
“I’m not going. You guys go. I don’t do things like gambling.”
“You don’t have to gamble. They say there are pretty women who pour you drinks and give you shoulder rubs. You really not gonna go?”
Hearing that made Shirone want to go even less.
“Ah, sorry. I’m just really tired. I should get back to sleep. Have fun.”
Once the word ‘sorry’ left Shirone’s lips, there was no changing his mind. When you thought about it, Shirone was the one who had accumulated the most fatigue while preparing for the presentation. Nade and Iruki were also short on sleep, but their work had been divided between physical and intellectual labor.
Shirone, on the other hand, who had to raise his photon output, had to continue a high-level training regimen that drained both his body and mind simultaneously for a month. On top of that, he had poured out his mental energy by entering the Immortal Function at the very end, so it was only natural for him to be physically and mentally exhausted.
“Alright, I get it. Rest up, then. Anyway, we’re gonna go, so just know that.”
“Okay. Win big and buy me something nice.”
“Hahaha! Don’t you worry! By the time you wake up, we’ll have magically become millionaires.”
Hearing the door close, Shirone buried his face in his bed again.
*They’re already rich, what’s with all the fuss…*
Shirone fell back into a deep sleep.
***
That night.
“Hnngh. Heuk.”
Shirone tossed and turned in his sleep, drenched in a cold sweat. The nightmare that hadn't visited when he’d passed out from exhaustion was now resurfacing as he caught up on his sleep.
“Hnngh…”
Shirone scrunched his face, shaking his head from side to side. In the vastness of the cosmos, a human was nothing. That hollow sense of deprivation enveloped him like a powerful shock.
This time, too, the nightmare was being sucked into a single point. Time flowed backward, reaching the beginning of the universe. He saw a light, and that light became a vibrating string, then transformed into bubbles that filled his vision. There was only light. And in the next moment, a powerful explosion erupted from the empty space of nothingness.
“Haaahk!”
Shirone shot up in bed. His wide-open eyes were still fixed on the afterimage from his memory. Only after the dampness of his sweat-soaked pajamas registered did he slowly turn his head toward the window.
It was morning, and the chirping of birds could be heard.
“Phew. I thought I’d gotten away with it for once.”
As expected, he’d had the nightmare. A strange sensation wrapped around his entire body, and he shivered.
But Shirone was no longer afraid.
He had heard the cause from Armin, and on the day of the presentation, he had even managed to escape the Immortal Function of his own will.
Now that he had gained some control over his power, Shirone calmly observed the phenomena happening to him.
‘The universe I see in my dreams. It’s definitely a scene depicting the beginning of the universe. And Gauge Symmetry.’
Although he had no logical information, he felt like he was slowly starting to grasp it. It was probably his subconscious mind organizing information. Thinking of Armin, who had said he would come to realize it on his own, calmed his heart, and the supernatural sensation faded.
Shirone went into the bathroom. He felt quite good, having slept so deeply that he’d lost track of how many days had passed. As he brushed his teeth, he tried to recall his memories and realized Iruki and Nade seemed to have stopped by.
‘Was it a dream? Or did they really go?’
The faces of the two, vowing to hit the jackpot at a casino, surfaced faintly in his mind.
‘I should have gone with them. Now what am I supposed to do by myself?’
Shirone, who had left the bathroom while brushing his teeth, suddenly stopped and looked back at his bed. Small specks of dust floating above it were rotating. The window was closed, so it wasn’t a convection current.
Forgetting to brush his teeth, Shirone ran over with his mouth full of foam. Looking closely, he could see they were definitely moving. He reached his hand toward the center of the rotation. The moment he thought he felt nothing, the supernatural sensation struck him with incredible intensity.
“Hnngh!”
Shirone bent over, spitting out toothpaste foam.
What on earth could it be?
It was like touching an exposed nerve where a tooth had been pulled—the feeling of confirming something he already knew for the first time.
‘This is it! Something I already know but don’t have a name for. But what is it?’
Shirone waved his hands frantically in the air, but the strange sensation was gone. Calming himself, he went back into the bathroom, washed himself with hot water, and came out. All the while, he kept thinking about the phenomenon he had just discovered.
‘It’s not wind, not air pressure, and not temperature. So how can the dust be moving?’
It wasn't just floating. It was clearly moving with a rotational force generated by some power.
After being lost in thought for over an hour, Shirone grew frustrated, changed his clothes, and went outside. It was the middle of class, so there wasn't a single student outside the building.
Feeling a sense of novelty, Shirone headed for the main gate. He had a week of suspension, which meant he was free to do whatever he wanted for the next four days. Since the milk was already spilt, Shirone decided to use this time as a period of rest after his intense training.
‘But where should I go?’
The first thing that came to mind was his home. The thought of his parents’ faces made him want to go there dearly.
‘No. That’s a ridiculous idea.’
It was a half-day carriage ride, but he had no good reason to go. He couldn't just show up and say, "Mom, Dad, I got suspended." Visiting the Ogent family would be just as awkward, with both Rian and Reina gone.
“Ah, that’s right!”
Shirone snapped his fingers as a destination suddenly came to mind.
A bookstore.
Of course, the school library had more books than he could ever read, but buying a book from a bookstore was a long-held dream of Shirone’s.
A smile touched his lips as he suddenly remembered the joy he felt as a child over the old book his father had brought him.
He had been happy with that one book, but deep down, he had yearned to buy many more.
But now, he could. Thanks to the considerable allowance Temuran sent him every month, he had plenty saved up.
If he bought books in the commoner's district, he could buy them by the basketful even if he only used a small portion of his money.
‘Come to think of it, this is the first time I’m buying my own book.’
Borrowing from the library was fine, but as a book lover, Shirone had a strong desire for ownership.
Having made his decision, he quickened his pace. In no time, he passed through the noble district and entered the commoner’s district.
The street he had often visited on his father’s cart as a child was still there, unchanged. Shirone jingled his coin pouch and walked into the bookstore with a confident stride. The middle-aged woman recognized him. She remembered the boy who used to stand for hours just looking inside whenever he came to the city.
“Welcome… Oh my, aren't you Shirone?”
“Hello, ma’am.”
“My, you've grown so much. I haven't seen your father in a while, I thought he'd moved to another city. He always used to buy a book whenever he came.”
“He won't be coming anymore. That's why I'm here to buy one myself.”
“I see. You still love books. Go on, pick one out.”
“Yes. I'll take a look around.”
Shirone smiled contentedly and browsed the bookstore. Price tags were attached to the stacks of books, and from what he could tell, books in good condition were more expensive, regardless of their content.
Few commoners could read, but in a large city like Creas, the population was large enough for the business to be decent.
However, as expected, there were more novels with high sales volumes than academic books, and the few academic texts available only covered basic subjects. He realized the books in the Alpheas Magic Academy library were far more advanced than he had thought. Although there were no books related to his major, he loved all books, so he looked around and bought a novel with a magician protagonist.
It seemed to be quite a popular book, as there were several copies available, priced high, medium, and low according to their quality. With money to spare, Shirone chose the cleanest, newest book and held out a gold coin. The prices at a commoner's bookstore were cheap, but books were inherently valuable. Moreover, a new book cost ten times as much as one of the lowest quality.
“Oh my, you’re buying such an expensive one? Are you running an errand for someone?”
“No, ma'am. This is actually the first book I've ever bought for myself. So I wanted to splurge a little and get a clean one to read.”
“I see. That's admirable. Not many people spend money on books, you know. Anyway, read it well. That's how you get smart. You have to be smart so you don't make your wife suffer when you get married later.”
The woman, completely unaware that Shirone attended the magic academy, a cradle of geniuses, launched into a speech with the pride of a bookstore owner. But Shirone found even that pleasant, listening happily before leaving with his book.
‘This is my book.’
Not borrowed, not pre-owned, but his very own book. Just feeling its weight made his heart flutter like a child's.
“Huh? Isn’t that Shirone?”
Hearing his name, Shirone looked to the side. A group of kids was gathered around a cart. They looked somewhat familiar, and as he looked closer, his eyes widened.
“Huh? Altor? Martin? Lumina, too?”
They were the kids from the swidden village he used to hang out with.
“Whoa. It really is Shirone!”
The kids swarmed him. Most were his age, with a year or two difference at most. But in the time he hadn't seen them, they had changed beyond recognition. Altor, the leader of the swidden kids, had grown into a giant that even adults would find intimidating. Only Martin, who had always been small, was about Shirone’s size.
Altor put Shirone in a headlock.
“You brat! What happened to you? You didn’t visit once for years. We asked Mr. Vincent, and he just said you were living in the city.”
“Hahaha. Sorry. It just turned out that way.”
His head spun from their familiar greeting, but Shirone was just as happy to see them. Martin, with his rabbit-like buck teeth, looked over Shirone’s clothes and spoke in admiration.
“Wow. You’ve made it big. Anyone would think you’re a noble.”
“Really? I don’t know about that.”
Shirone was puzzled by the comment. He had never once thought of himself that way. But it seemed that living with the Ogent family and at the magic academy had unknowingly given him the air of a noble.
Lumina, the only girl in the group, said,
“Shirone always looked like a noble, though. Anyway, I'm glad to see you're doing well.”
“Yeah, thanks, Lumina. You've gotten pretty, too.”
Lumina’s face flushed red. The Lumina he remembered was a chubby little girl with lots of freckles. But now, though her skin was a bit tan, the freckles were gone, and she had slimmed down, looking every bit a young lady.
Altor burst out laughing.
“You’ve gotten better at lying, Shirone! Then again, no one could ever win an argument with you back in the day. How is this tomboy pretty?”
“Shut up! Who are you to call me a tomboy or judge me?”
When Lumina got angrier than he’d ever seen, Altor looked sheepish.
“Hey, I was just kidding…”
“Whatever. I don't want to talk to you.”
“Fine! Don't talk to me. I'm embarrassed to be seen with a girl like you anyway!”
Shirone felt a wave of nostalgia wash over him, and his spirits lifted. It might have looked like they were fighting, but this was just daily life for the kids from the swidden village.