Liana＝Heim Arc
Prologue
“How boring……”
In a pitch-black room that not even the sunlight reaches, the imprisoned Magician, mutters.
Both hands restrained with chains.
Years of not drinking even water.
Neither ageing
nor dying.
Amidst his train of thought,
occasionally, he thinks back on the past.
Although he’d forgotten
exactly how long ago was it.
If it is ever possible
I want to hug you tightly, one more time.
While thinking about something like that.
The Dark Magician quietly closed his eyes.
＊
＊
＊
“Fuu……here we go”
Like a craftsman who finished his task at hand, the black-haired youngster makes a light-hearted smile. He’s sweating on his forehead, and his thin robe is pure-black with soot and dirt. His cheeks have filth stuck on them as well, dyeing them grey, but his beautifully-featured face that retained its youthfulness, doesn’t show even a hint of gloominess.
“Oops……it ended up getting quite late huh”
The sun has completely set, and the howls of an owl reverberate ominously. When he was in front of the shoe rack of the empty school building, quickly getting ready to go back,
“What are you doing, Asch＝Dahl―――――!?”
along with a fiery retort, a flaxen-coloured long hair beautiful young girl, grabbed onto his collars. Her blue eyes are gleaming glaringly, expressing her anger.
“Li-, Liana! Why are you here……ah!”
With the impact of him being slammed towards the shoe rack, several shoes fall……
……and a ton of thumbtacks scatter on the ground from within.
“Aah! I went through all the trouble……”
Disappointed.
“Ho-, how can you make such an innocently disappointed-looking face, at such an insidious prank!”
“Fuu……my belief is, an eye for an eye”
Proudly, and with crystal clear eyes, Asch looks straight at Liana.
“……normally, if you’re going to pay back, you do it from the front, right? There’s a limit to how despicable you can be……haa. I’ll help out, so let’s tidy it up together”
Sighing loudly, she turns the shoes around, one by one.
Swishー……Swishー……Swishー……Swishー……Swishー……Swishー……Swishー……Swishー……Swishー……Swishー……Swishー……Swishー……Swishー……Swishー……Swishー……Swishー……Swishー……Swishー……
・・・
“How many thumbtacks did you stuff inside!”
“……I gave it my all”
“The direction you gave your all in is completely and thoroughly wrong!”
Despite reprimanding him as such, she does her utmost taking the thumbtacks out. Looking at the sight of such her, Asch also reluctantly, starts tidying up.
“In the first place, there’s nobody who will wear it if it’s filled with so many thumbtacks”
“It’s fine! Look at this”
Asch pointed at the school gate happily, and a complicated crest was emitting a black light.
“……what’s, this?”
“I put up a magic circle and placed a curse so that they’ll be forced to put the shoes on. That’s why, it’s fine!”
“The way you use ‘it’s fine’ is totally not fine! After we’re done with this, we’re going to immediately tidy that side up as well!”
“Eeh! Even though I went through the trouble and got covered in mud for the sake of putting that up. I don’t wanna do it no matter what”
“We’re tidying it up!”
“I don’t wanna!”
“Listen to me!”
“I don’t wanna!”
“……if you keep on being stubborn, I’ll tell Otou-san1”
“Wha-……that’s despicable!”
“……Asch is the last person I want to hear it from”
However, perhaps those threats worked, he starts tidying up several times snappier than before. Despite feeling slightly amused, thinking, ‘he’s quite scared of that person huh’,
“But……something needs to be done”
Liana mutters whisperingly. Asch＝Dahl, the individual hated throughout the prestigious Lessenar Magic Academy. The hatred for him, doesn’t stop with just the students. Even the teachers hate him, every single one of them.
“Fuu……it’s due to their jealousy towards my talent combined with looks, magic, and brains. Good grief, not just their faces, they’re hideous all the way down to their hearts”
“……”
‘It may be hopeless’, she thinks in her heart.
“In・any・case! Smile more regularly! Be kind to people! Got it?”
“Is there any point to a disingenuous kindness?”
“Geez!”
“Wah, you gave me a surprise!”
He ends up bending backwards unconsciously because their distance is overly close, but she moves her face closer, making up for it.
“Why are you like this, Asch!?”
While staring at him with reprehensive eyes, she pouts her endearing lips.
“I-, I got it”
Softly touching her fragile shoulders, he distances his face in any case. The person herself doesn’t realise it at all, but it’s dangerous to look directly at that small and endearing face of hers for long.
“Do you rea―lly, get it?”
When he’s stared by those big eyes of hers with a worried-looking expression, his heart just ends up becoming restless no matter what.
“I got it! I said I got it”
“……really? Promise?”
Liana, brings her pinky close to Asch’s fingers.
“……un”
He mutters softly. When he slightly touches her pinky, Liana satisfiedly entwines their fingers and makes a smile.
“Then, good”
“……”
A shy Magician who, expressionlessly, faces down and starts picking up the thumbtacks.
“……ah, Asch. Look up!”
He looked in the direction she pointed, and a full moon was glowing in the night sky.
“Hmm……three hertz huh”
“……can’t you just honestly say that it’s beautiful or something?”
“By the way, do you know why the full moon glows? It’s generally said that it’s emitted by the magic power on the moon’s surface, but I don’t think so. This hypothesis, is an original of mine――”
“……”
While listening to Asch’s argument with a taken-aback look, Liana stares at the moon.
・・・
“And, the observation made here is extraordinarily interestinーー”
In the middle of talking, Asch’s shoulder suddenly becomes heavy. ‘Suーu……suーu‘, he can hear her breathing in her sleep.
“……”
He stopped talking right away. A shy ill-natured Magician who stiffs up and can no longer move his body, he is.
