/p>

"That's fine, I know I'm the type who can but won't do things."

Layfon watched Felli.

"I don't find that despicable. That is my determination. It's a path I chose for myself. No matter what others think, I won't regret it when I die."

Layfon admired her determination. She tried hard to confront her fate, and she kept trying even though it wasn't successful. Her way wasn't bad either.

"But I hate myself for doing nothing and causing people to die, especially if it happens to senpai and everyone I know."

"Hm?"

"Even in Grendan, I tried to solve everything alone. I didn't care that others found my way base and despicable. On the contrary, I really don't understand why they had to say those things."

Had the people at the orphanage wanted him to do that? He didn't know. He had never thought to ask. He knew the answer even if he didn't ask. On the other hand, perhaps that wasn't the truth. Layfon had left Grendan to come to Zuellni.

He didn't hate them.

But even if he didn't earn money that way, he would have found similar means as he didn't want the orphanage Head and Leerin to worry about poverty.

He attempted to solve everything through his own strength.

"I'm really naive."

"You are."

"That's mean!"

"....Anyway, I dislike the traditional title of 'senpai'. Call me something else."

"Huh?"

"Don't your classmates call you Layton?"

Her sudden change of topic was perplexing.

"Yes, but....I don't think I'd be happy if that name got out, uh, how should I put it...."

"Then let me find something else to call you. Lay, Layton-kun, Layfon-kun, Lay-chin, Lay-san....Which is better?"

"Uh? Can I only choose from that list?"

"Have you got any other suggestions?"

"Hmm, it's hard to come up with a nickname for myself."

"Then I'll call you Lay-chin."

"....Please let me think on it more."

"Why? Isn't Lay-chin cute?"

"No, if there's a cooler way...."

Being called 'Lay-chin?' by an emotionless voice just sounded strange. Not that he wanted her to use it in a cute voice.

....Just thinking of that sent a chill down his spine.

"How about 'Lay the Flash'? Everyday, when I see you, I'll say "Good morning 'Lay the Flash', 'Hello, Lay the Flash', 'Goodnight, Lay the Flash.' In any situation when I need to use your name, I'll call you 'Lay the Flash'."

"...."

"Are you embarrassed?"

"If you know, then don't call me that!! But why Flash?"

"Do you want a word other than Flash?"

"That's not the issue."

"You're selfish."

"Me?"

"Oh well, I'll just call you Fon Fon."

"Wa, that's totally different! It sounds like the name of some rare animal."

"What does that matter? Fon Fon, do you want snacks?" she politely took out a wrapped up chocolate from her pocket. That action of hers totally depleted Layfon's energy.

"Am I a pet?"

"It's enough that you act like a pet."

"Wu...."

"You only need to be a pet, so you don't have to force yourself."

"Hmm?"

"....My brother's back," Felli turned around quickly, giving him no time to seek clarification.

"Sorry for making you wait. Actually, I didn't expect you to wait for me."

"You didn't say not to wait for you. Besides, you're pretty frail. It's dangerous for you to head back alone."

"Hahaha, what an extreme way of putting it. Sorry for making you guys wait, but I've got something else I must do, so I'll be heading off to the Student Council room. You can go back first."

"You should have told us earlier."

"Uhhh, it was my mistake. Sorry. Right, you must be hungry after all that exercise, Layfon. Because of me the schedule was pushed back so late. Felli, take him to a good restaurant and have something to eat," Karian said, and took out some bills from his wallet and handed them to Felli. Before Layfon and Felli could say anything, the Student President had already left them.

"Got it," Felli murmured to the speechless Layfon.

"Well, since this is a rare occasion, let's go to a lively bar. We can enjoy the night while drinking delicious wine. Please get a key to a decent hotel room."

"No, please don't say that as if everything's been decided. Besides, we aren't old enough to drink alcohol."

Moreover, that kind of atmosphere wouldn't suit Layfon and Felli.

Layfon wasn't solemn enough to have to go to a bar, and Felli's crisp and beautiful face gave off a feeling different from an adult's.

But if it was a place for Felli....

(A restaurant catering to families....)

A family restaurant with kids....Putting aside her beauty, Felli was like a child pretending to be mature.

Lips pouting, she was paying a lot of attention to the toys near the cashier.

(Ah, that would suit her too perfectly!)

Unfortunately, there weren't any family restaurants in Zuellni, but that didn't mean there weren't any toy shops.

"....You seem to be thinking of something weird," Felli said.

"Of course not!"

She held her suspicious gaze.

"Never mind, there's a restaurant close by that I often visit, and its open till quite late. Is it okay for me to treat you?"

"You don't have to worry about that kind of thing. Let's go, Fon Fon."

"....Wait, have you settled on that name already?"

"I've decided. Fon Fon, I'll leave you here if you don't hurry up."

With no room to resist being given a new nickname, he chased after Felli, feeling more tired than when he was practicing in the arena.

◇

After dinner with Felli, Layfon returned to the dormitory, had a shower and fell into the bed.

His body relaxed in complete exhaustion. As he slowly entered a state of false sleep, he thought back on what had happened to him so far.

He spent a lot of time focusing today. That image and those words distracted him while he was handling his sword.

"We'll stop training together for a while."

He didn't think Nina's words had that much of an impact on him, but he might be wrong.

"But it's probably different from a mental impact."

It felt more like....A bad premonition. Irritation was more like it. At that time, he thought he had seen the clear face of the feeling that he got from Nina....It looked similar to irritation, but he had yet to grasp hold of its true form.

"Yeah, it feels familiar."

In the wake of impatience and anxiety, his will to sleep had gone off somewhere.

In one swift moment, he thought he understood it, but then it slipped away. That was frustrating.

"Uuu....Aaah!"

He moaned and tossed on the bed and accidentally fell off it. He was too relaxed, so he didn't have time to protect himself from the fall.

"Wu...." He climbed back up, pressing his nose with a hand, and he saw his wrist.

White dots scattered around his wrist, like injuries caused by scalding heat.

They were traces left from his contact with pollutant. When Layfon was being treated in the hospital, the doctor said the scars would fade given enough time. Yet even now, he could still find traces of their existence.

He thought his injuries were nothing, but he started doubting that when he saw the reaction of Nina and the others.

It would be good if people looked at his scar and didn't think they were responsible.

But the scar Layfon was gazing at was another one. A black scar that stretched from his wrist to his elbow. It was a scar that would never fade, a scar left after the injury had healed. This was also one part of Layfon's past.

As long as one searched for it, one could find traces of injuries on his body. Injuries made in training, in matches, in fights against filth monsters. Not only that, but also the cuts he got on his knee and upper forehead when he was little, running around and crashing into walls. These two scars were lighter.

"This wound was really painful," he murmured, sitting on the bed and looking at the scar on his wrist.

He got this injury when practicing with the steel threads.

When he had become a Heaven's Blade successor, he learned ways to fight filth monsters from the other Heaven's Blade successors.

The Heaven's Blade successor who used steel threads was Lintence Savoleid Harden.

At first, Layfon trained with just one thread. At that time, he already knew how to extend his Kei into his weapon and feel the weapon as part of his nervous system.

But that wasn't enough to control the steel threads.

Lintence said not only the nervous system, but the weapon had to become his muscles too. Layfon thought that was Lintence's excuse, but after watching him groom the trees of the palace yard with his countless steel threads in one breath, Layfon had nothing to complain about.

While suffering for not being used to this way of fighting, he gradually learned how to control the steel threads as he pleased. One thread became two, two became four, four became eight, eight between sixteen....The number of steel threads increased.

Yet, it was only the number of threads that was increasing. He was still a great distance away from being able to control the threads as if his own arms had extended, as if they were really a part of his body.

....With the Layfon now, he would have understood, but back then, he didn't get it.

He shouldn't have seen that technique.

Filth monsters at a more mature stage than the ones that attacked Zuellni not long ago assaulted Grendan at the time when Layfon managed to control more than 100 steel threads.

Lintence defeated them all.

Layfon couldn't help but imitate him, thinking he could also manage that technique. The Lintence watching him practice, as if putting him under surveillance, gradually faded from his vision.

He tried the technique when he was alone....Cut by his own steel thread, he had fainted through intense pain and blood loss.

When he came to, he was lying on a hospital bed.

"Are you a moron?" was what he heard from Lintence when he opened his eyes.

"Would spiders stick to their webs? Then do those spiders that do have a right to live? A spider that's not a spider wants to become a spider. You need a thousand times, a million times, a billion times more practice than a true spider to become one. Moron! You're worse than a newly born tiny spider. It's too soon to want to weave a spider web when you don't even know how to emit silk. Go and start practicing from the very beginning!"

Layfon got quite an earful.

"His speech was over the top."

Rather than anger, a strange feeling rose in him as he thought about the past. Gazing at the scar, he laughed dryly.

Nothing had changed from then. The only condition to become a Heaven's Blade successor was to keep on becoming stronger, so he didn't have time to be scared of the weapon. He had then continued to practice with the steel threads alone. Lintence had also fallen silent, interrupting only when needed.

Every Heaven's Blade successor knew it was a lonely journey to reach the top by competing with each other. Young Layfon also had to satisfy that condition. He didn't have to be asked to satisfy it, because he was already fulfilling it.

But he had become more cautious.

He knew an uncontrollable power could harm its user, so before he managed to fully control that power, he decided to seal it inside himself.

Lintence hadn't taught Layfon anything beyond the basics of the steel threads. The duty of a Heaven's Blade successor was to become strong himself, not to help another become strong. Lintence had already broken that mutual rule by teaching Layfon the steel threads technique, so Layfon continued to practice without any complaints.

He hadn't sustained an injury as deep and severe as that one since then, but he still got many other injuries. Those injuries had all healed, disappeared, leaving many scars.

Every time a new scar appeared, he knew more of his weaknesses. He would correct that weakness before the wound healed. And by repeating that process, he finally managed to control the steel threads.

"Ah, perhaps...."

Why was he thinking of it? Why did he recall it? It was neither a painful nor a warm snatch of memory.

Without thinking, he was projecting his feelings over the feeling he got from Nina. He had experienced the uneasiness and incomprehension he felt from Nina.

Did Nina want to become strong alone?

Was she forcing herself to become strong through loneliness?

If that was the case, then....At this thought, a dull pain flared in his chest.