11.Light at the end of the tunnel

Editing/Standardisation: Medicine Melancholy
Original Translation: Medicine Melancholy

Iris/Yanagi

Very little memory remained of the incident.
All I could remember was my parents getting stabbed when trying to
protect me and my sister, by a robber to suddenly broke into our home,
then I myself was stabbed, as the final line of defense for my sister.
The targeting was just a coincidence, apparently.
Later on, the police told me that the assailant had lost himself in
drinking and gambling and just happened to rob a house he saw.
For such a reason… I had my most important thing taken away from me
because of “bad luck”. I could never accept such a thing.
The next time I woke up, the lower half of my body had become
immobile. It seemed that the blade had injured my spine.
Since that day, whenever I saw a stranger, I began to fear that I might
be attacked the next moment, and eventually I was unable to continue
going to school.
The only place I could find solace was the game.
But that dreamlike realm had become my new reality.
“Yo, finally awake huh, ‘Sleeping Princess’?”
“…Eek!”
I was instantly woken up by a dirty face right in front of me and the
choking smell of boozy breath.
I instinctively raised my leg to shoo the man in front of me away, only
to be stopped by the metallic rattling sound and the feel of a metal ring
around my ankle.
For some reason, I was unrestrained except for my legs, but my arms
didn’t move at all when I tried to push the man’s body back.
“Hey, act more like a prince, will ya?”
“Then how about this? Princess, I’ve come to steal you away.”
“That’s no good either, dumbass. Look, our Princess here is so scared!”
I was completely surrounded by the sound of the men making gleefully
at their own stupid and crass jokes.
With my head in turmoil and my vision unable to move as much as I
would like due to my prone position, I looked around and see the worst
of the situation: I had been brought into what looked like a worn-down
room somewhere.
The smell of dust, mold, sweat and male odor was unbearable to my
nose. I was lying on what looked like a low table, covered with stains I
didn’t even want to touch, surrounded by filthy men, who looked like
bandits no matter how I looked at them. All of them were looking at me
with lustful eyes, as dirty as the rest of their appearance.
Looking back at myself, I was not wearing my cloak, which might have
been stripped off when I was unconscious, and the way my legs were
chained made them spread a little. I was almost relieved for a moment
to see that the rest of my clothes was still intact-
“Alright guy, let’s get started!”
“I’ve been waiting for this!”
“Good lord, I’ve been barely able to contain myself. Just look at her, I’ve
seen anyone like that before!”
Looks like they were fired up after their boss’ words.
“What do you mean by ‘get started’?”
That was, the most stupid line ever, to be spoken in such a situation.
Immediately, I regretted saying it. It was obvious, wasn’t it? I was now
in the form of a pretty girl, different from the world I was in before.
However, I wasn’t thinking straight anymore, and just said it because I
had an impossible desire to see it not happen to me.
“Ahahaha, what are you talking about? Is this your first time or
something?”
“It should be a given, right?”
“Come on, guys, cut her some slack. She’s just a naïve princess.”
Amidst the clamor of the men, the ringleader stroked my cheek with a
disgusting hand. The touch made my back foam and I felt nauseous.
“Actually, I was going to sell her off somewhere else.”
The word “sell off” made my shoulders tremble.
Slave trading, a word I probably had no connection to in my former
home in Japan, flashed through my mind.
Around my stomach, my robe was being unbuttoned slowly by the
ringleader, one by one.
“Surely, this girl would fetch us a high price… But you’re a high-ranking
healer, am I correct, girl? Soooo, we’ve decided what we would make a
much better profit if we just enjoyed ourselves right here, then keep
you as a slave and ‘sell’ your ‘service’ to whoever asks for it… Sounds
reasonable enough?”
The front of my robe, with all its buttons undone, was opened,
revealing the blouse and skirt underneath. Suddenly, amidst the cheers
of the enthusiastic group of bandits, the man’s hands were placed on
the collar of the blouse and…
How many hours had passed since then?
It did not take long for the torment, which was initially inflicted as a
punishment for fighting back, to change to the point that it became the
purpose of admiring a slender girl’s body and opening her wounded
heart, using “she could heal it anyway” as an excuse for hurting a
treasure that would normally be untouchable.
My body, which had originally been in a state of frenzy despite my lack
of physical strength, was now exhausted from the exertion, and I
remained limp, unable to move except for the occasional jerking of my
limbs, which I would sometimes do regardless of my will.
My innocent white skin, which used to be so beautiful, was now
painfully swollen with cruel scars all over my body, my shining hair was
tangled and unraveled in some places, and there were even bruises on
some parts of my body where I was beaten for fun.
The last defense of my barely untouched innocence was stripped away
just a few minutes ago, and at this rate it will only be a matter of time
before it was taken away from me… But that no longer mattered now.
I’m so tired. The will to resist of my battered body had been mercilessly
crushed.
This was just painful, agonizing, sickening, and painful. Wouldn’t it be
easier to just give up consciousness, let go of everything, and become a
doll? Yes, I should do that. There was no way that I could fall asleep
here and wake up in my usual room, back to my usual everyday life…
Come to think of it, I wonder how Ayame and Reiji are doing…
Did they get sent to this world as well…?
If that’s the case, I dearly hope that those two will never get hurt,
because if they get hurt in this world, I can no longer be around to fix
them up anymore…
I.Can.Never.Meet.Them.Again.Anymore…?
…I hate it.
Hatehatehatehatehatehatehatehatehatehatehatehatehatehate!
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!”
Tears welled up in my eyes, and my throat, which I thought was dry,
screamed again.
All this time, I was thinking.
That I was only getting in the way of the two of them.
Both Ayame and Reiji were very talented at their age, and I’d always
thought that if they were freed from the burden called me, they would
be able to fly even higher.
But it wasn’t until I was in this lousy situation that I finally realized that I
really didn’t have to give up like that.
I wanted to go back. I still wanted to be with them.
No matter how I did it, I just wanted to get out of this situation.
In response to such a will, a dazzling light shot out from my back in an
almost reckless way. The brilliance of resistance, restored at the last
minute, instantly turned the room white. It burned the eyes of those
who had just been staring and grinning at me a while ago, and the
feathers of light that danced around the room soaked into my
exhausted body when they touched it, and although I was far from my
full strength, I felt a slight revival of strength in my body.
As a last stand, I pushed away the man who was just about to climb on
top of me. The hand accidentally pressed on the ringleader’s face,
which was on my chest, and the ringleader, blinded by the sudden light
and caught off guard, was unable to evade it… With a squishing sound, I
felt my fingertip punctured and crushed something soft and moist.
“Gyaaaaah?! My eye, my eye!”
It seemed that my finger accidentally struck the eye socket and crushed
one of the ringleader’s eyes. Faster than I could recognize it, I
reflexively gouged it out. A sickening sensation followed my finger, but
there was a slight gap between the ringleader, whose body was pulled
back from me by the pain, and the men around him, who were frozen
by the sudden event.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!”
I just wanted to do whatever’s possible for me at the moment. Driven
by fear, I poured all my magical power into summoning “Divine Spear”.
My head ached like a cancer, my nausea was terrible, and my body was
losing strength like water in a bucket with a hole in it, but I unleashed
the spears with all the strength I had, knowing that if I did not do it
now, I would only meet despair for the rest of my life.
The countless spears of light that radiated in all directions without
aiming, even ignoring the limitations of the game, pierced the men,
rendering some of them comatose, but…
“This damn bitch!”
Unfortunately, none of them hit the ringleader, who was closest to me.
I was hit in the face with great force. My mouth started tasting blood,
as if the inside had been cut open. The pain and shock almost knocked
me unconscious, but I clenched my lips and held on.
…This world had already become my new reality.
I was helplessly a girl now, and if I gave up here, it would surely go past
the point of no return.
More than anything else… those two would regret not staying by my
side.
Especially Ayame… she usually had a strong bravado, but deep down,
she was ridden with regrets because of my injuries. I didn’t want her to
feel that pain anymore.
Besides, even if I disappeared here, I was sure those two would try
desperately to find me. Surely, those two would eventually form a
strong relationship together.
That’s why, in this harsh world of reality, if they were to get hurt in the
midst of it. If their lives were in danger. Just thinking about it sent chills
down my spine. I wish I would be with them at this moment.
Remember it, me! What was the most important thing in a recovery
job?! Wasn’t it to never give up, more than anyone else, until the very
last moment?!
“Hey, you’ve got some interesting properties here, for a mere
‘merchandise’… After messing you up as hard as I can, I’ll be sure to
make you a slave until the day you die… What the?!”
The man moved again to attack me, but this time, his fist was blocked
by a small barrier… “Solid Ray”, a formation of hexagons, conjured by
my will.
“Impossible… not even a chant?!”
“I won’t lose… to the likes of you!”
My exhausted body was barely held together by sheer force of will.
The desire to disappear quietly, somewhere out of the way, had always
been in a corner of my mind. But now…
“We would adventure together, right…?! We made a promise, didn’t
we…?!”
It was a simple promise.
But with those words as support, a strong desire burnt within me. I was
afraid, my wounded heart was still screaming endlessly. But more than
that.
I wanted to go back. To that place. Between the two people I cherished.
My back was burning hot. Something was meshing in my body, the
knowledge that was avalanching into my brain.
“’Sanctuary’… deploy!”
Instantly, the wings fluttered around me connected the light to form a
dome-shaped geometric pattern. The nearby men were repelled by the
newly-formed dome.
“What the hell is that?! Quickly, surround and tear it apart!”
“It’s no use! Nothing we do gets through it!”
It seemed I managed to keep them at bay… However, this was by no
means an attack, and even while I was buying time like this, my
remaining magical power was dwindling by the minute. There’s not
much time left to maintain the barrier. If it broke, I would have no
power left to resist, for real this time…
Don’t worry, just keep it going to the limit.
As my consciousness began to fade, I thought I heard a voice. I thought
I saw something white at the edge of my vision, but I was too busy
trying to maintain the barrier.
One minute… two minutes… This was the end. The feathers on my back
lost their luster and melted into the air as particles, and the “Sanctuary”
fleetingly vanished.
“Heh, hehe, what a shame, now I’m sure you aren’t going to pull
another trick on us again.”
My body, which had lost its protection, was once again held down by
the table. I stared at the ringleader, who had lost one eye and focusing
his entire hatred on the remaining one, with determination not to give
up until the very end.
The door to the room’s exit… no, the entire wall along with it, was
blown open before my eyes with a roar, as if a cliff had collapsed in
front of me.
“Just in time… Well, not really, considering what I’m seeing here.”
Emerging from the cloud of dust was a tall young man with fiery red
hair… a figure I knew really well.
“Who on earth are you?!”
He half-dodged sideways to avoid the attack of a bandit who leapt at
him angrily, grabbed his head unceremoniously, and, with a soggy, wet
sound, slammed it to the ground to silence him.
After a strange moan from the downed bandit, there was no signs of
movement again. The remaining men backed away from the newcomer
as if frightened by a horrific sight, though it was impossible for me to
tell what happened to the first bandit, since he was lying out of sight.
“This girl’s my close friend, so stop whatever you’re doing to her, okay?
I don’t really like these bruteforce situation… but I’ll pay you all back for
this, with great interests.”
The very familiar voice, aloof but with an anger inside that I had never
heard before. And the figure that seemed so familiar to me, even
though we parted only a short time ago.
“Sorry, we’re late… But it’s alright now, just rest easy.”
“Ah… what took you so long… idiot…”
My friend, whom I’d shared countless adventures with in the game,
whom I relied on more than anyone else… After hearing Reiji’s voice, I
was overcome with relief, and my consciousness sank into darkness,
feeling one last drop of water on my cheek.
(Author’s Note)
“Sanctuary”
This is the so-called trump card skill of the Lightwing race, boasting a
cooldown of several days.
It’s the ultimate protection magic, completely shutting out malicious
opponents, and deploying a barrier around a 3-meter square area that
heals the injuries and magical power of others inside at a tremendous
rate. However, the amount of magic power required to maintain it is
terribly high.