Chapter 35 – The Unextinguished Ember (Five)

Aaaaah──!!

The scream that began from the direction of the infirmary approached rapidly, accompanied by furious footsteps.

“Wh-what’s that?”

“G-god!”

As the children scattered back, the previously blocked line of sight cleared.

Cedric was seen running towards them, his face twisted in rage.

“H-he must have woken up in the infirmary!”

“In his hand! S-something in his hand!”

Raaaaay───!!

A venomous shout echoed in that instant.

Everyone present flinched.

In Cedric’s hand was a scalpel, likely found in the infirmary.

As the children gradually backed away, no one remained between Cedric and Ray.

“R-Ray-nim. We’ll block him─.”

“It’s fine. Step back.”

Ray made Cedric’s gang, who were about to step forward, retreat behind him.

Thud thud thud thud thud!

In the suffocating silence, Cedric’s hysterical footsteps drew closer.

Everyone looked anxiously back and forth between Ray and Cedric.

It was obvious to anyone watching that Cedric would charge and swing the blade.

But Ray just stood there, defenseless.

“Wh-what’s happening now? Something else?”

“It’s not his bare hands, it’s a knife. It’s too dangerous. We should all block him together….”

“No. Ray-nim told us to stay back.”

Cedric was now right in front of them.

The children fidgeted nervously, but Ray still didn’t move a muscle.

“Diiieee──!!”

Cedric, having arrived directly in front, swung the scalpel towards Ray’s face.

Screech──!

Cedric’s gang, gritting their teeth, rushed forward in a panic.

‘Damn. It seems too late to block it.’

‘Why, why is he just standing still?’

From the gang’s perspective, Cedric was an unpredictable person.

But Ray was no less so.

“Huh…?”

The gang members who had rushed out stopped.

The threateningly slashing scalpel had halted right in front of Ray’s face, unable to advance any further.

“You… I’ll kill… I’ll kill you….”

No one had blocked it.

Ray hadn’t used Magic either.

Cedric had stopped the scalpel himself.

His hand holding the scalpel trembled violently as he spat out fragmented sentences in a shaking voice.

“Weren’t you going to slash my face with this? Go ahead and do what you were going to do.”

Ray grabbed Cedric’s wrist firmly and pulled it towards himself.

Startled, Cedric shook off Ray’s hand and stumbled backward.

“You…! This…!”

Cedric glared at Ray, his lips moving for a while, but ultimately couldn’t utter a word.

Then, in an instant, he reversed his grip on the scalpel and tried to stab his own throat.

Swish──!

But he didn’t succeed.

Thud!

Ray, moving with much faster reflexes, closed the distance and snatched his wrist.

“Grhk…!”

As Ray tightened his grip, Cedric groaned and dropped the scalpel.

Clang!

Ray’s foot immediately kicked the scalpel far away.

Meanwhile, Cedric, having shaken off Ray’s hand, clutched his wrist and took fearful steps backward.

Ray followed.

Thump!

Finally, Cedric’s feet tangled and he fell backward, landing hard on his rear.

Ray looked down at Cedric.

The king of Sector 49, who had reigned as the terror of the streets by wielding overwhelming violence, was no longer here.

All that remained was a small-framed boy, the venom he harbored completely drained, returned to his original frail impression.

“…….”

Ray had known from the start.

The fact that Cedric wouldn’t be able to swing the scalpel all the way.

“Get up.”

From the moment he came running from afar, Cedric’s Vessel hadn’t contained a single drop of Red Mana.

“We have a lot to talk about.”

Ray’s hand reached out towards Cedric, who was slumped on the ground.

Philip’s office.

A table where three boys sat.

“Sorry. My mistake. I should have cleared all the blades from the infirmary.”

Ray shook his head at Philip’s self-blame.

“It’s fine. No one got hurt. I didn’t get hurt. The hotel kids didn’t get hurt. Cedric didn’t get hurt either.”

Ray said, glancing at Cedric seated in the middle.

Cedric had a dazed look, as if his soul had left his body.

“…….”

“…….”

“…….”

A brief silence.

Anyway, the stage for conversation was set.

Philip, moving his lips as he wondered what to say, cautiously addressed Cedric.

“I heard about the situation. That you tried to take your own life. You weren’t really trying to die, right? That’s it, isn’t it?”

A moment of silence.

Cedric parted his lips.

“No. I meant it.”

“Why…?”

“Because I lost the Duel. Now everyone will think I’m weak. They’ll despise and mock me.”

The sentences spat out without a hint of hesitation left Philip looking quite shocked.

He soon collected himself and spoke hurriedly.

“No. That’s not it. You can’t win every time. You can lose too. And if we’re being precise, it’s not that you’re weak, it’s that Ray is too strong─.”

“What do you know!”

Bang!

Cedric slammed the table and stood up, breathing heavily.

Mana of various colors violently swirled into and out of his Vessel in a fierce manner.

Proof of an unstable emotional state.

But the problem didn’t end there.

‘…The speed at which the Mana is draining is abnormally fast.’

Mana addiction was the first thing that came to mind.

Could it be a side effect of prolonged exposure to Red Mana?

Ray recalled the conversation he had with Veronica about the red gem.

「What kind of gem is this? Hmm… this is like a Charging Stone. A Magic tool that automatically Purifies and stores Atmospheric Mana.」

Veronica had added.

Depending on the Charging Stone’s performance, high-quality Mana could be stored, but there was a fundamental limit.

Ultimately, since it doesn’t undergo as perfect a Purification as the Ring’s Mana, one cannot completely escape the risk of Mana addiction.

Ray felt strong curiosity.

Seeing Cedric’s current state, it meant that even the Ring’s Mana, which had shown such high efficiency, was the result of incomplete Purification with clear side effects.

…Then just how high a purity did the Ring’s Mana boast?

He thought that asking about the method of making a Ring should be his top priority the next time he visited the Bookstore.

Thud.

Cedric slumped into his seat as if collapsing, and soon a listless voice flowed from beneath his deeply bowed head.

“I’m finished… I’m finished now. Why did you save me. Why did you save me. Why didn’t you just let me burn to death in the fire.”

It was another sudden emotional shift.

Philip cautiously reached a hand towards Cedric, but it merely hovered in the air, hesitating, unable to make any comforting gesture.

In the end, Philip, unable to do anything, withdrew his hand and spoke.

“You’re my friend.”

Cedric jerked his head up.

This time, he poured out words in an extremely angry voice.

“Friend? Are you making fun of me? I tried to kill you. Not just that, I beat up the hotel kids on sight and chased them off the streets. You know that. And you call me a friend?”

Cedric’s voice grew heated.

It seemed like he would rush at Philip and swing his fist any moment.

But no Red Mana was visible in his Vessel.

‘He’s pretending to be angry.’

Ray watched the situation without intervening.

Philip also flinched momentarily but didn’t back down.

“I think there must have been some reason. You’re not the type to do that without a reason.”

“Philip. Stop talking nonsense.”

A back-and-forth argument ensued.

In Cedric’s Vessel, emotions other than anger swirled in and out with even more violent intensity.

“Even if the same situation comes, my choice won’t change. We’ve been friends for almost our whole lives.”

“I said stop talking nonsense!”

Cedric looked terribly distressed.

With each of Philip’s words, he clutched his head and thrashed.

The emotions in his Vessel also fled as far from Philip as possible.

“I think there’s a reason you hated us. Tell me that first.”

“Nonsense….”

The storm of emotions seemed fierce at a glance, but its intensity was clearly weakening at a definite pace.

“Cedric. Please. We’re friends.”

“…….”

Finally, the storm disappeared.

Only a few colors of Mana remained in the Vessel, making it possible to clearly identify his current emotional state.

Guilt and self-loathing.

And regret and remorse.

At some point, the conversation had stopped.

Cedric stared blankly into space with a vacant expression, not opening his mouth like someone who had forgotten how to speak.

Philip and Ray likewise waited silently without a word.

How much time passed like that?

The Mana of various colors slowly clumped together and finally merged into a single emotion.

“I’m sorry.”

Finally, Cedric opened his mouth.

The completed emotion was sadness.

A single hot tear was flowing, wetting the boy’s cheek.

Cedric cried for a long time.

Like a faucet with a broken lock, he poured out endless tears, sobbing in Philip’s embrace.

“I’m sorry. Philip. I, I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. Don’t cry. Don’t cry.”

Philip’s eyes also reddened, and he finally couldn’t hold back and burst into tears.

The main emotion reflected in the two boys’ Vessels now was a faint pink sadness.

“…….”

It was an emotion Ray also knew.

He couldn’t not know it even if he tried.

For sadness, along with anger, was the emotion that left the deepest mark on the heart.

When he faced the deaths of Niles and the kids under the bridge.

The boy confronted the greatest loss and sadness of his life so far.

‘I can understand.’

Why Philip and Cedric were crying.

Because he too had memories of shedding tears, unable to control his own sadness.

Due to the shock of that time, traces of various emotions, besides sadness and anger, remained in the boy’s heart.

At another time, he might have touched the trace matching the emotion before him and retraced the memories and feelings of that time.

But this time, the boy did not do that.

‘Sadness is not helpful.’

Because sadness was an emotion that made people slump down and sink into depression and despair.

He felt that if he retraced the emotion of sadness, his will might weaken.

That was something he, who had to achieve the goal of revenge, must never allow.

The boy thought so.

Until he achieved his goal, he had no right to feel sadness.

Therefore, while Ray understood Philip and Cedric’s sadness intellectually, he did not empathize with it in his heart.

How much time passed like that?

Philip and Cedric disentangled themselves from each other’s embrace.

Philip’s eyes were swollen, and Cedric looked somewhat dazed but relieved.

In a tired voice, Cedric slowly began to spill his story.

“I hated myself. Because I was too weak. Why am I so small? Why am I so weak? Why was I born like this? There wasn’t a day I didn’t think such thoughts.”

He couldn’t bear himself, the thorough weakling on the streets.

Even after the hotel was established and life improved significantly, the explosive discontent sleeping in his chest didn’t diminish in the slightest.

“Being affiliated with the hotel meant I could work freely on other gangs’ streets? I thought it was just bowing and scraping, paying money to the strong guys.”

Even that wasn’t completely free from exposure to violence.

Because in relations with other gangs, the hotel was thoroughly in the subordinate position.

It was the early stages of the Contract, a time when the system wasn’t fully established, so disputes arose with much higher frequency than now.

Ultimately, the discontent Cedric harbored was of a nature that could only be resolved by himself becoming stronger.

“I exercised every day. I gained muscle. My strength increased too. I pictured scenes of fighting other gangs in my head countless times.”

He finally thought he was ready.

「Pretty comfortable, huh? Being able to work in our area. Want to have a little chat over there?」

A time when he was returning to the hotel after work.

He was caught by Jepper’s gang.

Normally he would have run away immediately, but this time, he couldn’t contain his pounding heart.

It was a chance to test the results of all the sweat he had shed in training.

「Sure, let’s talk.」

He confidently followed the gang into an alley.

And he was beaten miserably and had all the money he earned that day taken.

「Made a lot! Thanks! We’ll ask again next time too!」

Increasing his muscle and strength.

All the countless image training.

In the face of the difference in weight class and numbers, it held no meaning or use.

Cedric, his face covered in blood, collapsed on the ground and cried bitterly, then returned to the hotel when everyone was asleep.

「…….」

The hotel was quiet.

Moonlight seeped through the broken window.

The sound of light breathing came from between the endlessly lined beds.

Cedric clenched his fists.

He gritted his teeth until they might break.

How could they sleep with such peaceful faces?

Weren’t they resentful of a life where money was taken and they were beaten?

He couldn’t suppress the disgust.

The kids gathered at the hotel were the powerless weaklings of the streets, all sharing similar attributes.

At best, an average physique for their age.

Weak strength. Thin bodies. Timid personalities.

Cedric knew he couldn’t escape that classification either.

Mirrors reflecting his own weakness were spread out everywhere.

He wanted to shatter those mirrors.

「Ah.」

Cedric, who had been staring at the kids with a venomous gaze, suddenly realized something.

“I….”

Cedric’s lips, having moved, finally opened.

Ray listened intently.

He thought that understanding another’s emotions might be a clue to expanding his own emotional range.