When I woke up, Dahlia was dumped in cold cobblestones.
A gray wall and a strange purple round stone float in front of me.
Dahlia shrugged reflexively against a place where no one was.
"... What is this place?
I wasn't expecting a reply.
But after a while, from the direction of the round stone, the answer is returned by an inorganic voice.
"This place has been cut off from the world you know. It's another world, so to speak."
"... who?
Look around.
But I can't find anything but that floating stone.
Once the stone rocked irregularly, the voice was heard from that direction again.
"This way. I'm not in this place but I am."
"Are you talking? The... stone?
"It's not a stone, it's a 'demon nucleus'.... now enclosed in the brave guy, though he's getting smaller"
"Demon nucleus,?
"The Devil's Nucleus is fine. Now, where do we start…"
The Devil's Nucleus slowly approaches her.
She remembered something as she was following it with her eyes.
"... Huh! Michelle Ha!?
"That kid would be dead. If they get away with it, there's no chance you'll see them."
"... what do you mean?
"In the years since then, the brave man has acquired the skill of putting his magic power together in one stone. Multiple stones were placed on the edge of a world where no one was present and separated from this world with unaccompanied children as watchdogs"
……
"Well, it's sealed, in short. I don't think it's a clap-free story."
The demon nucleus was right.
Gathered magic into something called the Demon Nucleus and cut it off from the world.
Fairy tales and illusions are not strange.
"Then, when we convert to that world time... right, it's been abandoned for hundreds of years"
"... sooo, hiccup!?
"I was bored while you weren't awake. To play, incomplete, but this is enough for me to be selfish."
"Well, Michelle..."
"Michelle, on the contrary, even the brave would be in the dirt. But somehow you don't grow old. It has something to do with the Daiwa, the spell created by the brave."
"Can't we go back to the original world?
"If I can, I can."
The end that the stone answer points to is clear.
... she will be left in this world for good.
"... why"
"Hmm?"
"Why am I here?
"Well.... but do you already know what his identity is?
……
"Placing people near me. If it means anything in itself, someone who believes in him will run for it. But I chose you. Why? It's simple. Because you didn't have a family other than Michelle and you didn't deal with anyone. Without you, I can satisfy his desires without distrust of the brave, except for Michelle."
"Oh, no."
"Eyes when you get out? But you can't argue with that?
She leans in regret and becomes silent.
The Devil's Nucleus keeps talking without distracting from her like that.
"Don't be so unfaithful. I was just a little confused when I was able to talk to him. I haven't had a conversation with anyone in thousands of years."
"Thousands of years...?
"That's right. I am a collection of magic. Then every piece of magic that forms my consciousness today is me. You may not know, but magic has its own self. That's why I know more about you."
"So you can have a conversation with Michelle's magic powers?
"I'm sorry you had to expect me to, but I can't find it among my personalities who are multiple. Besides, it's not Michelle herself, so to speak of Michelle's magic. There's a good chance it's immature magic you can't even talk about."
"... what"
Dahlia turns her gaze toward the nucleus of the demon as if she had been disappointed from the bottom of her heart.
But the target is stone. I couldn't even read the expression, so I didn't even know if it was conveyed to her.
"Well... what do you want to do now?
"What do you say?
"For revenge, come with me? Or do you want to spend the rest of your life here, even tomorrow?"
"For revenge... but we can't get out of here."
"Exactly, I can't get out. But give up hope only when you or I run out of lives."
……
"If you don't give up hope and you mean to fight, get me close to that chest. Only then will you gain no less power than that brave man."
"... me, ha"
"Decide. Here and now"
"I..."
"I don't want to hurt anyone."
That was her refusal to speak clearly.
There's no way her own heart could allow her to rely on magic for revenge, etc., when she was deprived of her family by magic.
Does the Devil's Nucleus accept even that, or keeps floating in front of her.
"... a boy named Michelle is such a concern"
"No, Michelle. Ha...!
"Doesn't matter? Hmm, makes me laugh. He was sweet, anytime, anytime. It was so unrelated that it could be said that it was violence at all. Perhaps, a young man who only smiles in front of someone. You were attracted to him."
Pushed by the momentum of the Demonic Nucleus, she clasps her mouth.
But there was no decline in the momentum of the other demonic nucleus.
"But what you had with him was no love, not such inferiority.... I guess you were 'respectful'?
"... no"
"He took me for anything. Whatever failure he made, he comforted me personally. But I'm not. I've always hated it. Magic, magic, those who use it. Everyone involved in the cause of killing my parents hated me."
"Stop it!
"Why can't we forgive people when they're the same people? I've been dragging that thought all along."
"Stop,..."
She stares at the nucleus of the demon in front of her, suppressing her emotions.
But the next word that Demon Nucleus put out was such a predictable or unexpected word for her.
"... I'll show you an understanding like that. It would have been hard."
"Huh...?
"I killed your parents. It's the very cause. But even magic is conscious."
……
"Dahlia,... I'm sorry"
Somewhere in the nucleus of the demon that speaks so, Dahlia felt like a 'he' shard.
From him like that, I've always wanted you to say, words of understanding.
'It would have been hard'.
With just that one word, I felt as if the hatred that was obsessed with me was going away.
"... I'm just magic. There's nothing I can do but express my gratitude to you. But if you can still help me, I want you to take it."
……
"Please."
That way, her mouth, which was rap, is shut.
It was Dahlia who broke the silence for a while.
"Just one thing, there's a condition"
"What?
"I want you to tell me your name."
"... I don't have a name"
"I can't take a hand with someone whose name I don't know"
The Devil's Nucleus rocks like trouble.
I fell out of her mouth as if I had been thinking about it for a while, pounding and zeroing.
"... with Dahlia, you can call me that"
"'Dahlia'? That must be your name."
"Yes. The name of the flower comes from, my name. Today, we're going to be Dahlia."
"... right"
Dahlia.
The origin of her name, the flower of Dahlia, had flower words.
Beautiful, above all it means gentle and warm.
The demonic nucleus that sensed her intentions gently approached her chest.
... Thanks, Dahlia.
One of them snapped like that.
When the gray walls were crushed using magical powers, the white flower gardens were spreading.
Forests, lakes and mountains in the distance.
Much of what is called nature, this world was made up.
In that, they lived for decades.
"... one thing, can I ask?
"What?
When I leak the question, I hear an inorganic voice in my head.
She understood that was the voice of the Demon Nucleus.
"When you get back to the original world, what are you going to do?
"What to do, …. Anyway, I want to make sure that I have a home where I have nothing to do with anyone and a meal where I don't feel hungry"
"What about vengeance?
"Revenge, huh? If a brave man is alive, he will."
"You were the one who told me to take my hand for revenge."
"Right. At first I thought the brave men were immortalized, just like you. But the more I think about it, the thinner it gets."
"Why?"
"It's unbearable in humans, such as living a perpetual heist. Besides, he's a light. Some cannot live in the light of it. I can't imagine him sitting down forever in that world where those who said so spread."
"... uh, succinctly"
"If you're right, trouble is synonymous."
You know what I mean or not, Dahlia nods slowly.
After a while like that, her hand stopped.
"I could do it!
"Flower crown? You're doing great inside."
"Once upon a time, Michelle made me. On the return of the day I first went to the battlefield."
"... you're so sweet"
"Yeah."
She nods and wears it on her head.
That was a little bigger than her head, more like a necklace than a crown.
I can hear her laughing like that from somewhere.
……
"What's up?
"Uh, did I say something?
"No, I didn't say anything. Aren't they empty ears?
"... well"
Dahlia rises up and returns to the gray box where she was.
The laughter was echoing, as if to laugh at her hindsight like that.
Then there was another decade or so.
The laughter, it's still ringing.
Dahlia, confused at first, had also become so used to it.
But still, her spirit is wearing off steadily.
"... Shut up"
"What?
"Shut up! How come you always laugh at me!? That funny about me!?
"Calm down. No one is laughing at you. Besides, we're the only ones here."
"... what!
Towards the void, she tries to argue.
That's when she realized.
"... Hey, 'Demon Nucleus'"
"What?
"Are you sure you're there?
"... what?
"The truth is, am I not crazy? You're my made imaginary friend. Isn't that what it is?
"When you came here, you saw me. That's the truth."
"No. My memory, too, I'm sure someone..."
That's when she realized.
Not even, to fictional reality.
"Michelle..."
"What?"
"Michele did this to me..."
"What..."
"That's right. Yes, it is. A brave man came to help me from Michelle. I've been telling him..."
"I won't tolerate any more. He was trying to escape you until the time of his death. It wouldn't be so stupid that you don't know what that means."
"No. No, no! A brave man, because he had a brave man...!
"Come on, man!
That was an angry voice, far from the usual inorganic voice.
To a sudden reprimand, Dahlia becomes silent.
"He tried to protect you, from start to finish! Even from the hands of the brave men who trapped you!
"... yeah, right. Sorry, I messed up."
"What the hell is going on, all of a sudden"
"It's ringing. All the time, in my head. Someone's talking and laughing..."
"... No way, are you hearing me?
Dahlia nods.
The demonic nucleus begins to speak in an inorganic voice, as it did earlier, after a little silence.
"Perhaps what you are hearing is the voice of one magic at a time, in me.... sorry. I should have told you in advance."
"Yeah. But... can't you stop it?
"People can't stop thinking completely. Even if it happens, people can't help but feel it."
"... uh, that's ours then... uh, well? is someone laughing?
"It's hard to be self. Someone suffers, grieves, jealous, angry. Some people are happy to see the negative emotions they say."
"Are you having fun?
"I don't want to know or want to know about the pleasures of others, etc. Michelle would have had a hobby of looking at people through the window, too, wouldn't she?
"There it is. But I'm not sure."
"... he had an admiration for the outside. I admired the freedom not to be suppressed by anyone, not to be distressed by the consciousness of sin. That's why they were replacing free people with themselves."
"Of sin, consciousness?
"Battlefield fishing. Even the body over there had a life. I had a family. I had a lover. He understood that some people would have something as a amulet to go to battle with. Sell it yourself to eat, even sin."
Dahlia gets annoyed.
I guess she had that thought, too.
That's when the gentle boy's voice echoed around him.
- That's why you don't have to carry it.
Dahlia was familiar with the voice.
It's not a demonic nucleus, it's not my voice, to that voice.
Turn around as if you were bounced.
There was Michelle.
"... sorry I'm late"
"Mike, ru...?
"I'm here to help.... Let's get out of here."
With that said, he rips the space with a dagger, from which the world from which they were formerly located glances at him.
It's obviously not a human business.
But such a thing was somewhat terminal for Dahlia, who approached his side as she was told.
That's how she left behind a world trapped for hundreds of years.