Hyouketsu Kyoukai no Eden

Chapter 22

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“Monica-senpai……are you really quitting as an apprentice Priestess?”

The room with all personal items completely removed. Only silence filled the desolate s.p.a.ce.

Two girls stared at each other. Each of them was wearing a plain vestment.

“Senpai, why didn’t you tell me!”

The girl with an innocent and adorable face raised her voice. Her jade eyes were teary and her long, off-gold hair reflected the ceiling lighting dazzlingly.

“……It’s true, isn’t it.”

“…………”

Contrasting that was the girl with sakura-colored hair tied into one lock who wasn’t saying anything.

With her slim and pet.i.te body, her apparent age was in the mid-teens. Contrasting with her dignified and calm face, her bluish grey eyes housed loneliness somewhere within them.

“Why……didn’t you tell me?”

“It’s not like I haven’t told anyone. It’s just……that I didn’t tell you.”

Unable to bear her kouhai’s accusatory gaze, Monica turned her face away.

“I’ve made it to the last test for a Priestess. I have no regrets already. So I thought I’d end it off here.”

A Priestess — the girls that protect the barrier of this floating continent. Employing the use of miracle wavelength called Shinryoku, there were only three of these rare arts users.

For the sake of becoming the fourth, Monica had been practicing as an apprentice Priestess for a long time.

From the age of seven when she became an apprentice Priestess to fifteen years old, it had been nine years. She had been frozen in ice while alive and sunk to the bottom of a deep body of water. While undergoing that cruel training that bordered on lunacy, her Shinryoku developed.

She lasted until the final test……but Monica didn’t become a Priestess.

“It’s a relief for you. An apprentice Priestess like me leaving means that you have one less rival.”

“…………Senpai.”

“I know, I’m joking. ……But I’m sorry. I was just teasing.”

Consoling Ymy who was staring at her wordlessly, she urged her towards a chair. Shall we sit and talk? —But the kouhai paid no attention to that.

“U, um……Monica-senpai. I think if it’s you, you can definitely become a Prelate! Since an apprentice Priestess that can reach the final test is rare.”

“Teaching the newly enrolled apprentice Priestesses the basics of Shinryoku, that instructor job?”

“Y-yes!”

Looking happy, Ymy nodded un, un with sparkling eyes.

“With that, you don’t have to move out of this room……I want to learn more from senpai just like until now.”

In contrast to that kouhai.

Monica quietly told her with her grey eyes downcast.

“I think I already have nothing left to teach you. The rest depends on you.”

“…………That can’t be.”

“It’s not like I’m being cold. It just means that you’ve progressed. I’m praising you.”

This time, Ymy hung her head with a dejected expression.

“…………You’re really going, aren’t you.”

“Yeah, it’s something I decided before taking the final test. That if it wasn’t good enough, it can’t be helped.”

“We can’t……meet again?”

She would cease to be an apprentice Priestess. That meant that she would vacate this room and leave the tower.

Usually that would be the case, however—

“That’s not the case.”

“Eh?”

“We might meet in an unexpected place, you know?”

“……That,”

What do you mean — Ymy who wanted to say those words was cut off,

“See you, Ymy, I’ll be cheering you on to becoming an outstanding Priestess.”

Placing the baggage at her feet on her shoulder, Monica waved to her kouhai.

And then three years later.

At this time, these two had no idea that they would happen across each other at the tower once more.

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