“So, these two blobs of black liquid are actually the cores of those two Shadow Beasts?”
After listening to Pandora’s lengthy explanation, Blazing Flame bent down, pinched Pandora’s cheek, and asked her.
“Yep! Anyway, you Magic Girls can’t use these things. Why not give them to me and help me recover my strength?”
Pandora was forced to look up at Blazing Flame. “Trust me, I never lie!”
“Is that so? But why do I feel like you’re hiding something from me.”
Blazing Flame raised her eyebrows and let go, feeling that something was odd about Pandora’s words.
“Don’t worry, I won’t do anything bad.” Regaining her freedom, Pandora stood up and shook herself off.
“Go sit down, you should absorb the Purification Shard now.”
“…Why do I still think what you just said is suspicious.”
Although she felt something was off, Blazing Flame still followed Pandora back to her seat and began absorbing the Purification Shard she obtained yesterday to enhance her own strength.
Meanwhile, Pandora lay on the bed, injecting a pitch-black glimmer into Blazing Flame’s Greatsword.
As she watched Blazing Flame’s eyes filled with trust toward her, guilt welled up in her heart and she turned her head away, whispering softly to Blazing Flame.
“Sorry, Blazing Flame, now is still not the time to tell you the truth.”
“Please wait patiently, and keep hope in your heart.”
“One day, I’ll tell you everything.”
At exactly eight o’clock that evening.
In the brightly-lit ring-shaped Shopping Center, a boy around eight or nine years old was running down an Escalator, trying to get to the second floor on his own before the moving steps could carry him down.
The feeling of walking downward with the pull of gravity felt so new to the boy, he thought his body was almost floating.
Could this be that legendary space gravity?!
“Zizhen, don’t run around after eating or you’ll get indigestion.”
Just before the Escalator arrived, Zizhen managed to get off safely on the second floor, and ran around excitedly on the smooth floor, even jumping up to wave at his parents.
His parents, still on the Escalator, obviously had no idea what was going through their child’s mind. They only watched his mischievous way of riding the Escalator and tried to advise him with worried voices.
Even if they could guess what he was thinking, they’d probably just sigh and say their child really does have a wild imagination.
“I won’t! I barely ate, just drank soup, how could I get indigestion… uh… hic…”
The child called Zizhen tried to explain, but as soon as he opened his mouth, he felt a bit of liquid rising in his throat, tasting just like the Fungus Soup he had just drunk.
“Even if it’s only soup, your stomach still fills up with all that soupy stuff.” The woman who got off the Escalator bent down and rubbed his belly.
“Alright, let’s walk back slowly. Help your tummy digest.”
“Ugh… okay.”
Hearing his mother’s explanation, the boy immediately fell silent, losing the urge to run around.
He felt regretful. Why did he drink so much Fungus Soup earlier? If he hadn’t, he’d be free to run wild now.
But after walking a few hundred steps with his mother, he remembered the taste of those Fungus dishes he’d eaten.
His classmate really hadn’t lied—this shop’s Fungus was truly delicious!
Even though he had to wait forever with the Timer before eating, which made him really impatient, just thinking of that taste made him forgive the shop for all its rules.
If only there were Fungus in the world that didn’t require so much waiting and tasted just as good.
Just thinking about it made his mouth water.
As the boy reminisced about his dinner, his mind wandered off the road ahead, simply following his mother’s steps forward.
“Zizhen, you need to pay attention when walking. Otherwise, you might trip over a Curb Stone or bump into a Car and get hurt, you know?”
The woman holding the boy’s hand sensed his distracted state and kindly reminded him.
“I know!”
Having heard his mother say this a hundred times, the boy replied with slight impatience, then turned away to continue daydreaming about the Fungus.
Seeing this, the woman could only smile helplessly, knowing her child wasn’t taking her words seriously.
But that was fine—at least she was by his side, and she could watch the road for him.
With that thought, the woman gripped her child’s hand more tightly, led him to their Car, and got in with him.
Her husband checked the rearview mirror, made sure both mother and son had their Seat Belts on, inserted the Car key into the Steering Wheel Lock, turned the key, and drove them home.
The past week had been especially busy, and it had left him both mentally and physically exhausted.
Luckily, his child was fairly well-behaved, not like his colleagues’ kids who were always raising a racket.
Otherwise, he’d really worry he’d go mad one of these days.
The man rubbed his eyes, pulled himself together, and drove steadily.
He was a skillful driver. Even when he hit a Red Light, he’d decelerate smoothly, so that his wife and son would feel the Car slowly rolling to a halt, rather than slamming to an abrupt stop and being thrown forward by the sudden force.
While waiting for the light to turn Green, the man glanced at his wife and son in the backseat, the corners of his lips lifting in a faint smile.
He felt very fortunate.
To have found someone who loved him, and to have such a lively, kind child.
Though work was stressful, having a family like this was a dream come true for many people.
He smiled softly, and when the Green Light came on, he pressed the accelerator and drove on toward home.
But none of the family noticed that, near the intersection by the traffic light, a man in a black jacket was watching them leave, a faint smile playing on his lips.
The look in that man’s eyes as the Car drove away was just like a hunter watching prey fall into a trap, a dangerous gleam flashing in his gaze.
Back at home, the family of three got busy with the remaining chores of the day.
As ten o’clock approached, the man lay on the sofa playing with his phone.
When he saw his son, who had finished brushing his teeth and come over, looking at him with eager eyes, he smiled.
“If you want to play on the computer, just go to my room. The password is still the same.”
“Yay!” the boy cheered.
“But you have school tomorrow, so you’re not allowed to play until midnight. It’ll mess up your sleep.”
The man glanced at his phone. “You can play for an hour. By 11:15, you have to be in bed and get ready for tomorrow’s classes.”
“Mm! I got it, Dad!”
After listening, the boy dashed into his father’s room, skillfully entered the password, and launched his favorite shooting game.
The man watched his son’s back and chuckled, then looked down at his phone to pass the time.
Soon, midnight arrived.
The man yawned, got up from the sofa, and walked to his room to get ready for bed.
His wife had gone to sleep around 10:30, and his son had sneaked out of the room at 11:30 to return to his own bed.
This child really was playful.
But at that age, it was normal to love having fun…
“…Huh?!”
Just as his left foot stepped into his room, the man sharply sensed something was wrong.
Even with the lights off, it shouldn’t be so dark that everything was shrouded in mist, leaving him unable to see a thing!
A ghost?!
He wanted to turn on the light, but as soon as his hand touched the switch, his whole body went limp, his eyelids heavy, as if he was completely overcome by drowsiness.
“Leave… my family… alone…”
Before collapsing, the man saw a dark shadow appear in front of him, smiling down at him.
He was powerless to resist, and had no idea how the other had snuck into their home without a sound.
All he could do was beg, plead for the intruder to come at him instead, not to hurt the innocent.
“Thud!”
The man fell straight forward, closed his eyes, and sank into sleep.
The figure hiding in the darkness looked at the fallen man, a satisfied smile on his face.
“How interesting. Just three insignificant humans, yet because they have each other, their happiness overflows so completely.”
“They really… helped me out!”
“With the happiness you’ve stored up, I’ll turn it into a Nightmare Demon that will bring nightmares to others!”
The shadow murmured in a low voice.
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