Chapter 46
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 46
Chapter Title: A Child Who Has Never Been Loved
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Among the Prismatic Eight, gray.
The position in the Magical Girl hierarchy granted the title of 'Silver' was always cold.
A noble color bordering on silence.
Reason took precedence over emotion, judgment over affection.
That gray position had been guarded by the Kurokawa family for a full millennium.
The seat of Silver passed only to the family's 'daughter,' and only to the girl who proved the greatest talent within the clan.
But that 'family' was not singular.
The Kurokawa house divided into main and branch families.
Centered not on blood, but on ability.
A ruthless meritocracy where the one who claimed the Magical Girl 'Silver' seat became the 'main house.' Today's main could become tomorrow's branch, and even a millennium-old main house could crumble from a single defeat.
This competition was a battle for power, a war for honor, and above all, a hell that shook the fate of every girl involved.
"One! Two! Three!"
The training grounds echoed.
Slippery orb floors, magic arrays floating in the air, evasion orbs testing reaction speed.
Kurokawa Ren.
The girl was gasping for breath today as well, barely keeping up with her mother's records.
Her mother, Kurokawa Matsuri.
Born of a branch family, yet a genius who claimed Silver's seat after three hundred long years.
Her emergence had plummeted the former main house straight into branch status.
A revolution within the millennium-old clan, and an aberration at that.
And now, Ren—that 'daughter of the aberration'—was, though no one said it aloud, known to all as little more than a 'mediocre' child.
The shadow of her genius mother.
A name inherited, but talents insufficient to bear it.
She always... fell one step short of her mother's records, receiving 'barely passing' verdicts in evaluations for the next Silver seat.
But the heavier burden wasn't the numbers.
Those hoping for the branch's victory.
Those awaiting the main house's fall.
Those eager to be disappointed in the successor to genius Matsuri.
The eyes watching her from every direction.
'If I fail, the main house seat Mother reclaimed will crumble again.'
Ren repeated this inwardly, holding her breath.
A sharp wind skimmed the training ground floor, and a silver ribbon swaying in it slapped her cheek.
The girl bowed her head and gripped her sword.
Her fingertips trembled, but her expression was firm.
That was the only countenance allowed her as one who bore the Kurokawa blood.
And... it was the near-surefire way to earn the rare, brief praise that slipped from her mother, who always gazed down at her coldly—or so young Ren believed.
She wanted proof of love, even that way.
But beneath that belief, the weight of the family always crushed her.
"Since you were born bearing the Kurokawa name, feel its weight."
Words her mother repeated like a mantra.
The only one among the Prismatic Eight Magical Girls who hid nothing of her identity, maintaining dignity in public and private alike.
Her mother, Kurokawa Matsuri.
Young Ren knew that weight, too.
But back then, she was just a small child starting elementary school.
Was that why?
Ren always yearned for her mother's smile.
Ordinary families she saw outside the clan.
Holding hands on walks, laughing together, calling each other's names.
All of it was, shamefully, something she a little 'envied' as Silver's heir.
'If I surpass Mother... if I claim the next Silver name and become head of the house... will Mother someday smile like that?'
She believed it.
But reality was cruel.
"Ren. You truly disappoint me."
"I'm sorry."
"I'm ashamed to have borne you."
"I'm sor... ry..."
Each time those words flew at her, it felt like her heart was being torn out.
Yet she believed even that was for her own good.
She hated swinging the sword. Magic studies, muscle-tearing training—all hated.
Sometimes she wanted to play with friends.
But Ren convinced herself it was just Mother's bluntness, that it was love deep down.
A clumsy expression of affection she should be grateful for.
And in the year she graduated elementary school.
On the day of the trial deciding Silver's seat, Ren unfurled her magic array with trembling hands.
She didn't reach her mother's record, but she endured to the end.
A cold voice rang from the judges' dais.
"Kurokawa Ren, Magical Girl name 'Serenity.' You inherit the Silver title."
The scoreboard flashed, curtains fell, and applause filled the arena.
But Ren stood frozen, fingertips quaking.
A moment of blessing.
The position she'd awaited since childhood, finally succeeding her mother.
Maybe today, that stern face would finally crumble before her eyes.
"Could it be, this time...!"
The girl slowly raised her head.
Would she stroke her hair?
Or hug her for the first time?
Her score was a bit low, but now she was a full Prismatic Eight Magical Girl.
She bore the name Silver Serenity.
With a pounding heart, she looked up at her mother.
And... what she saw was.
Beyond the applause, beyond the bright lights of celebration, a cold, immense shadow over her.
As always, the emotionless face of the family head.
"It was only natural."
Those were her mother's first words—and her last.
Only her wordless retreating back lingered long in the girl's eyes.
"......"
Ren quietly closed her eyes and drew a breath amid the applause.
No hands of blessing reached out.
No smiling eyes.
And soon, thick droplets trailed down her cheeks.
Tears streaming down her trembling shoulders—ones she didn't want anyone to see, but they wouldn't stop.
"Never... been loved?"
"Yeah."
"You bastard... what do you know to spout that crap?!"
Kim Taegon's single line.
One sentence.
It stabbed Ren's heart like an ice blade.
She thought her heart had stopped.
Her thoughts halted.
Never been loved...?
"......"
Her mind went blank.
The childhood years enduring blood-bursting, bone-cracking training, all for one scrap of praise from that cold mother—just to be acknowledged, to be loved.
'If I fail, the main house seat will crumble.'
'It's okay if she doesn't smile. She's watching me.'
All those self-deceptions to endure, shredded by one phrase.
As always, reason had to suppress emotion, feelings buried so they wouldn't hinder the goal.
Normally, she'd ignore Taegon's taunt, use him as a stepping stone to drag down Lumina.
...But not now.
"Shut... up."
Zing.
The sound of a frost-laced blade drawn.
Ren's fingertips shook, hoarfrost blooming at the sword's tip.
"Love? Of course I haven't. Because it's all an illusion anyway!"
Kwaaang!
The sword cleaved the air, freezing the floor as pillar-like ice screamed upward.
"You dare, you villain scum... pity me? I'm a Prismatic Eight Magical Girl, Silver 'Serenity'! Heir to the Kurokawa house! Swordsmanship successor! Pureblood lineage! ...And you pity me?! Hahahahaha!!"
Her shout boomed like a hammer, her slashes ravaged like a beast.
But that blade wavered.
Emotion-driven strikes were powerful.
But equally blunt, off-balance, precision evaporated.
Exposing too many openings.
"Haaaa!! Die!!"
Thwack!
"Guh?!♥♥"
Taegon's fist sliced through the air, smashing dead-center into Ren's abdomen, right above her womb shield.
That one blow made her womb thump!, shock rippling inward.
Love juices squirted out in a tzurrrr, her thighs instantly slick between.
The tongue-curling "Nnghoooook♥" wasn't climax—it was a convulsive wail as her body broke.
"...Uhk! Ugh... haaak♥"
The impact tore her Magical Girl outfit with a rrrip!, her ample breasts bouncing free.
Spilling over her thin bra, nipples perked stiff.
Ren clutched her belly, knees buckling to kneel.
Unbearable pussy nectar splashed the floor, her face twisting into a vulgar mask of shame and pleasure.
Taegon looked down coldly.
"Pitiful. I meant to just kill you at first, but seeing that broken face... I can't bring myself to."
"N-no... I-I'm...!♥"
"In all your life so far, has your womb ever throbbed like that? Women who know love feel this peak at least three or four times a week, more like twice a day if they're lucky—and they call it happiness. The true bliss a female craves is this filthy, honest climax you just showed."
For Ren, this climax was a first.
Her womb boomed, walls clenching on their own as nectar tzurrrr♥ sprayed the floor.
Thighs gleamed slick, tide dripping from her knees.
A virgin body ignorant of love or cock, only ever poked at her clit.
That treasure forcibly unlocked for the first time, squirting like a fountain.
Her upper body glistened with sweat and tears, face shamefully warped.
Lips trembled wet with drool, nipples stood in the cold air.
Then a dark hand descended.
Her near-fainting body, slick thighs quivering between like a tamed bitch, sticky and shining.
"I'll introduce you to the one who'll teach you love."