CH 17

[Two Guilty Parties Tried and Punished Together]

“Now then, next is you.”

“Y-yes.”

Leaving Sakurai who was completely frozen while his gaze kept staring into empty space, Iris turned the spearhead to Higaki.

“A person you are aiming for is more interested in someone other than you, and that someone is proceeding ahead of you. It is not strange at all to be jealous of that.”

“Right!”

“But why that led to killing each other, stupid!!”

“Ouch!?”

Higaki, like Sakurai, was hit on the head somewhat strongly and tears came to her eyes along with the pain that came late.

Iris’s rod was a special weapon that directly impacted one’s soul; not many people were accustomed to the pain of the soul, no matter how accustomed they were to physical pain.

“‘I want to be regarded as special by the person I admire, so I want to be the best. Hence, I trained hard every day, but why is this guy!’ …It is not strange to feel that way, and it cannot be helped you feel that he is unforgivable. However, to direct that flame of jealousy at others is disgustingly disgusting! What you did was like smearing mud on your sword and your teacher who taught you the sword, you know!?”

“T-that is nonsense!”

“Is your sword meant to kill someone you do not like? Did your master make a name for himself in that way?”

Being questioned by Iris, Higaki was lost for words.

As expected, even Higaki did not think that the Sword Saint Sanuki Shoichiro never swung his sword out of his own self-interest.

However, as she said, the Sword Master’s sword had never been used to slay the people he didn’t like; it was because he saved people from the threat of monsters with that sword that he was praised as a ‘Sword Saint’.

It was precisely because Higaki was also saved by that sword that she longed for the Sword Saint. That flash of his drawn sword was still engraved in her heart without fading.

“Then, then what should I do!? Every time I see Sakurai’s… his sword, I feel like I am going mad like earlier! I cannot stand it!”

“In that case, why don’t you rouse your passion and train, you stupidd!!”

Cutting off Higaki’s lamentation, Iris hit her head with her strongest power yet with a pokon!

Higaki, whose spearhead of seething flame of jealousy was crushed, was silent with an expression as if having swallowed a bitter bug.

Seeing that, Iris let out a small sigh and spoke with an admonishing tone.

“Are you fine with it, Higaki-san? As I learned from talking to him, he has devoted all his time to training except for sleeping and eating. Even as you were sitting happily together with your family, even as you were laughing with your friends, even as you were studying diligently. Looking at his appearance, it made me think that he has been that hardcore since he was aware of his surroundings. The time you spent with sword physically is different, you know.”

“…”

“I do not want to say this in front of him… but… I am sure he is far inferior to you in terms of talent. By casting away anything and everything and putting his all into training, he finally stands at the same place as you. But neither acknowledging nor praising his effort, you reject it… of course, even he would be furious, don’t you think? Or rather, to be unreasonably robbed of the sword he inherited from his teacher, there is no way he wouldn’t be furious, right? I think even you, exactly because it is you, should understand that feeling though?”

“I-I… I…”

“Aren’t you fellow disciples? He is your senior disciple brother, right? Isn’t what you have to do not ‘to attack’ but ‘to learn’ from him? If your teacher only two disciples who inherited his swordsmanship are killing each other, his swordsmanship will end up vanishing from the world. No one wants something like that to happen, I think.”

Saying that, Iris crouched, met Higaki’s eyes and smiled.

That smile was soft and warm, but the words she spoke were weighing on Higaki’s gloomy heart. Higaki, who could be said to be sensible as long as ‘Sword Saint’ was not involved, could clearly understand what she said and also her own fault.

On one hand, a person who stiffened while being in a daze, one the other hand, a person who hang her head and was silent.

Iris clapped her hands lightly to get the attention of the two, and gave the final conclusion.

“First of all, this case will be settled with you getting a strict warning and a week’s ban on entry to the ‘Tower’. Also, tomorrow I will have you spend the day in a separate reflection room. Spend the day on self-reflecting, so that you can talk to each other properly. If something happens, call me, Iris Niflheim, and I will come immediately. That is all, you get it, right?”

She said that and ended the talk.

Then, while looking at the backs of the two who were taken to different places the personnel on standby, she remembered the ‘heat’ they emitted.

“If I don’t watch over the owners of that much ‘heat’ and they head in a strange direction, it will be bad, isn’t it…”

I can’t leave them alone, can I? – so she grumbled to herself while letting out a little sigh.