One Full Moon Night
A cloudless night sky. The round moon and full of stars in the night sky. It is not an unusual sight in this world. There are no tall buildings to block their view, no lights of buildings to block the brightness of the stars, and no dirt to make the night sky hazy. It is a sight that can be seen as long as the sky is clear.
Even so, many people gaze at the night sky. They are drawn to the beauty of the moon and the brightness of the stars. This is especially true if you have a special attachment to the night sky.
"…………"
Rin is silently looking at the night sky. Today is a full moon. A full moon is supposed to make Rin's heart beat wildly, but right now, as she gazes up at the night sky, her heart is still and silent.
It is not just today. It has been that way ever since she and Ren got separated.
It's not that her heart hasn't been stirred at all. Ren may be gazing at the moon in the same way that she is now. The thought of that makes her heart ache. She wants to go back to Ren's side.
But she can't go back. she hasn't done anything yet. Then there's no point in leaving Ren's side.
It's just stubbornness. That's what she thought at first. In fact, she thinks she did. But now it is no longer just a matter of her feelings.
"...Mila-sama"
A voice hesitantly called out.
"Are you ready?"
"Yes. Everyone is here."
"I see. Then let's begin."
Rin started walking. The demons waiting to train with Rin. There are demons of various races and tribes.
They are not the strongest among the demons. Rin intends to train them into great warriors. To gain the power to protect their future.
It is not an impossible task. Rin, too, was not strong in the past. But now she is able to fight with the best of many different tribes and races. This is thanks to her training. And Rin will teach that training.
"Then I will teach you how to use the sword today."
"Sword?"
The demons, which rely on their own physical abilities to fight, rarely use weapons. The races that do use weapons often only wield heavy weapons with extraordinary strength. They do not possess such skills as swordsmanship or spearmanship.
"I told you to change your mindset. We are the weak. The weak must acquire skills to compensate for that. The sword is one of them."
"...Yes. I'm sorry."
Demons are strong. But not all demons are strong. Even demons that are strong compared to humans will lose to other stronger demons. A strong person is one who never loses to anyone. Otherwise, they need to work hard to win. That is what Rin has been telling them.
The first step in training them is to change their mindset. They need to change their false perception that they are the strong ones. Even if they can't win now, they need to believe that they can win with hard work.
Rin keeps telling them this over and over again. Sometimes she shows the results of her efforts.
"Well then, I'll show you an example first. But it's just a form. Please feel it."
Rin takes a stance with her sword raised above her head. She then stepped forward and swung down with her sword. A sharp wind-slashing sound echoes around her.
Rin's movements don't stop there. Rin kept swinging her sword one after another. It is as if she is dancing. Even the demons, who are amateurs with swords, could see the magnificence of her movements. The sharpness of the swords being swung. They recognized the greatness of Rin's swordsmanship.
It was only natural. Rin had been training together with Ren. Rin is also a disciple of the Sword Saint.
◇◇◇
Ren wielding his sword under the moonlight. He has always done this on full-moon days since Rin disappeared. When he recalls the full-moon nights she spent with Rin, his heart gets excited. Even if Rin is not there to make it do it, it still happens.
Sword training is what he does to calm his noisy mind.
Even when he is moving violently, the only sound echoing around him is the sound of his sword cutting the wind. In the stillness of the night, that is all that reaches his ears. As he did so, his mind calmed down.
"...Don't disturb me."
But tonight, there was someone who interrupted that.
"I'm sorry. But I didn't mean to disturb you."
Looking at Ren, Shizuku apologizes.
"...I won't do it."
"I didn't ask for it!"
"Then what?"
"I was just looking at Ren's sword to calm myself down. And yet, to say something like that ruins the moment. Ren is a jerk."
Ren wielded his sword as if dancing under the moonlight. There was no ulterior motive there. She just wanted to immerse herself in the mystical atmosphere.
"...Isn't the least unnecessary?"
"There are times when I want to calm down, too. I feel comfortable when I'm idling under the beautiful night sky of this world without doing anything. I don't need unnecessary emotions there."
"I'm sorry about that."
"Why is that?"
"What?"
"I used to like the blue sky. It's not that I don't like it anymore, but I like the darkness of the night and the moon in the darkness much more now."
"...That's because you're the moon, right? Quiet moon."
"It's just a name"
That shouldn't be enough to change your likes and dislikes. Shizuku thinks so, though.
"You shouldn't take it lightly, just because it's just a name. It is said that words have power, so names have power too."
Ren was different. With a serious expression on his face, he chided Shizuku's thoughts.
"What do you mean by power?"
"It's called Kotodama, right? That kind of power."
(TN: Kotodama, "word spirit/soul". It refers to the Japanese belief that mystical powers dwell in words and names.)
"Surprisingly… you believe in that kind of thing, Ren?"
"Surprising? It's surprising that you think so. That sounds like me."
"……Certainly."
It is no surprise that Ren believes in spiritual matters. He has been in contact with the spirits themselves for a long time. Shizuku had forgotten that.
"Well, I didn't actually see or feel the power of words. But denying that kind of thing feels like denying myself."
"Have you been talking to spirits lately?"
She hadn't heard these talks from Ren recently. This is one of the reasons why Shizuku forgot the connection between Ren and the spirits.
"I mean, we're talking... It's kind of a little bit sloppy."
"Yes?"
"No, somehow, I don't feel the same familiarity or distance that I used to feel."
"...I don't understand."
Shizuku does not understand the distance between him and the spirits.
"It's not like we are friends. It's like I'm talking to a subordinate."
Ren felt lonely about that. That's why he stopped talking to others about spirits.
"…Ren has become a great man, too."
"No, you're talking about the world of the living. It doesn't matter to them whether I'm the Emperor or not."
"No, no. They were originally alive. They can't be friendly with the emperor."
"Is that so?
"Yes."
It is not. But right now, the two of them wouldn't know the real reason.
"I see. Clau seems to have been raised in some kind of a good family."
Good upbringing. After all, she was raised as the princess of the most powerful country on the continent.
"Why does that name come up there?"
Frustration spreads across Shizuku's face at once. Shizuku knows that Claudia exists. Just in terms of having less to hide, Shizuku is treated much better than the others.
"Clau treats me normally. I wondered if she was in a position not to care about my status as the emperor."
"What do you mean by not caring about your status as the emperor?"
Emperor. Claudia's attitude has nothing to do with her past position, though.
"...Anyway, I feel like Clau is a friend."
"A friend. That should be enough."
"Huh?"
"If a spirit likes you, won't it kill you?"
Shizuku suspects that his relationship with Claudia will not end as a friendship. She also feels that she should be jealous of the spirit and what it does, but she wants to nail Ren to the wall since the conversation has turned out this way.
"Look. Why would you kill someone you fell in love with? They would want the person they love to live a long life. They should think so."
"That's right, but there are also romantic feelings that are not like that."
"In the first place, no romantic feelings are born"
"Why not?"
"Why not? I can't explain why, but I know."
In Claudia's heart, there is a strong feeling for someone. It's too complicated for him to feel everything, but Ren thinks that as long as she has that feeling, she won't fall in love with anyone else.
"...Is that true?"
"It's true. I can't lie about something like this."
"I see. Then let's not talk about it."
She didn't want to end her time with Ren while talking about Claudia. Now that her suspicions had faded, she wanted to talk about something more uplifting.
"Do you still want to talk?"
Ren wanted to train, not talk.
"It's fine. You should go out with me on a night like this."
"...What kind of night is it?"
"A night with a beautiful moon. A night like my name."
"Ah... a quiet moon."
A full moon in the sky in the stillness of the night. The night in this world is always like this when it's clear, but when he says it like that, it feels like it.
"What does a quiet moon look like?"
"Huh?"
"Not the moon in the sky, but me. If there is power in a name, what kind of me am I who calls myself Shizuku?"
"That's what you mean... just like that, right? The moon floating in the sky will continue to illuminate the darkness no matter what happens on the ground."
"……No way?"
A compliment. She wanted him to praise her, but she didn't expect it to be expressed so well.
"...You don't waver. You do and say a lot of insane things, but you have a core in the midst of all that. I think that's a good thing."
"It's a little scary when Ren praises me."
"Because it was terrible before. You are worried about people's eyes, hiding your true feelings, and just drifted along."
"...Shizuru. I see, the name."
(TN: Shizuru, "静流", 静, means quiet and calm. While 流, means flow and stream.)
The name before calling herself Shizuku. Shizuku thinks that she is indeed that kind of person.
"Yeah, come to think of it, that's right."
"I have one question."
"What?"
"If you value the meaning of names like that, why did you give the children random names?"
Ai, Mai, Mii, Kai, Sai, etc. The names Ren gave to the orphans can only be thought of as a lazy choice.
"If the name has a meaning, it might ruin the potential of the children. That's what I thought."
"……I knew it."
"What is it?"
"Ren is capable of loving people. At least you love the children."
"……Me?"
He can't love people. That's what bothers Ren. He didn't think anything of it before, but now that he has more people around him, people he cares about, he thinks so.
"You don't have to think about it. It's not logical. Because I, and not just me, but everyone, is in no hurry."
She doesn't have to force him to love her. If she forces it, something may be distorted. That is the only thing that should not happen. She can't break Ren.
"...Hey, do you really like me?"
"I love you. I love Ren. I love you so much that I can't look at anyone else but you."
Normally, she would be embarrassed by this question, but now she can honestly say how she feels. Shizuku felt that the atmosphere of the night might have made her do so.
"……I see."
Shizuku looks straight at him and says she likes him. At those words, Ren felt his heart flutter. Is this the power of words, or――.
◇◇◇
Luna on a full moon night is active. However, for today, she doesn't go out anywhere, and she's leisurely looking at the moon in the night sky. With her cheeks puffed out, with a grumpy face.
"Those who get in the way of people's love paths should be kicked to death by horses."
"…………"
"Pretending you can't hear me. You're a bold woman."
"...Eh? Could it be me?"
Hearing Luna's words, Claudia let out a voice of surprise.
"Who else but you?"
"I thought it was her."
Shizuku is talking to Ren. Claudia thought that Luna's words were for Shizuku.
"If it's Shizuku, I would say it so when she can hear me. Right now, you're the only one here."
"I'm not getting in her way."
"Your very existence is a hindrance."
"That's terrible……"
Claudia also puffed up her cheeks at Luna's cruel words.
"It's not terrible. Even if I want to be alone with Ren, you're always there. Peeping is in bad taste."
"I'm not peeping."
"But you are."
"That's...... because, well, I can't help it."
Claudia does not like to get in the way either. She doesn't think she is interfering, but she is not acting in a way that would make it seem that way.
"You should go to heaven as soon as possible."
"I can't. I can't leave."
"...Why? The person you cling to should have died a long time ago."
That person can't be alive. The time that Claudia has spent exceeds the life of a demon, let alone a human.
"If I can get away with that, then I would have ascended to heaven a thousand years ago."
"You're a vindictive woman. Men don't like women like that."
"That's wrong... No, it may not be wrong, but it's not like that."
The word vindictive cannot be completely denied. But it's not about being hated by men or anything like that.
"Then what is it?"
"I'm trapped in a grudge."
"...That's a common story."
By dying with a grudge, the spirit remains in this world. It's not an uncommon story.
"That's not it... at first it was anger at the unreasonableness of having to sacrifice myself and end my life as a human being."
"Hmm?"
"That feeling of anger invited madness, and I was violated by that madness."
"That's……"
It was not about Claudia herself. Luna felt that way.
"I let someone I cared about get hurt and die. Anger at the unreasonableness of the world. It assimilated with the madness that was already there."
This is not about Claudia herself. So what is the cause of Claudia's captivity?
"......What have you sacrificed? Or did they hurt someone you care about?"
Luna asked that.
"I...... I sacrificed others and hurt people I care about. I am the one to be resented. And yet......."
Claudia speaks with a painful expression. Even though it was an event in the distant past, it remained vivid in Claudia's memory.
"Even though I've found a place to belong. Even though I can be by the side of someone important to me. Theresa had always been by my side, taking care of me."
"……Is that so"
Luna doesn't know who the person Theresa is. But now is not the time to ask that.
"I didn't even know that... By the time I found out, Theresa was no longer the Theresa I knew... Even though I knew it was my last chance... I had no idea how to express my gratitude. I didn't."
"Do you regret it?"
"Of course."
"But it's not resentment, it's regret."
It's a grudge that Claudia is being held captive. If that's the case, what she just said wasn't the reason why Claudia couldn't ascend to heaven.
"...Yes. This is not a grudge."
Claudia also admitted it. But she refuses to put it into words. She wouldn't talk about what caused her to hold a grudge.
Claudia looked up at the night sky. The side of her face looks much more grown up than usual.
"...Luna is still a child, so I don't know, but how does it feel to live a thousand years?"
Seeing that grown-up expression, Luna somehow wanted to ask this question.
Luna, who is a spirit, also has a long life. She may live for a thousand years ahead. However, as a spirit, Luna, who could be said to be a child just born in this world, the feeling of a thousand years was unknown.
"...Do you know what hell is?"
"...It was in Ren's memory."
But it is only a word. She had no idea what hell actually was.
"That's it."
"...Is it?"
She doesn't understand this at all. But Luna couldn't ask any more questions. Claudia smiled. Seeing her cold smile, which was completely devoid of emotion, Luna felt as if her heart was being exposed to that coldness.
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