While the Mind Reader Sleeps

One morning, Shay opened her eyes.

It was the first time in a while she’d slept so deeply without tension. A pleasant languor enveloped her. A dull ache throbbed in her shoulder blade, and her whole body was sore from muscle pain, but because of it, this slumber was all the more sweet.

It was time to get up. Awakened by her body’s alarm, Shay suddenly noticed a presence beside her and turned her head.

Hugh was asleep, facing her.

Is it because he is the King of Humans? His face is handsome, without a single sharp edge. There’s a slightly slick feeling, but that’s just an atmosphere Hugh intentionally creates. A strategy he employs to adjust the distance between his body and heart from others. Something only he, who reads minds, could do.

However, when he is asleep, he cannot exude that atmosphere. A fact Shay had learned from watching him for a long time, and a subtle difference that Hugh himself hadn’t noticed until he read Shay’s heart.

Shay silently savored the sight of him sleeping, smiling with long-held longing.

He is kind. Because he understands hearts. But he is ruthless. Because he also understands the hearts of others, not just mine.

Perhaps the two are like sides of the same coin. A characteristic he inevitably possesses as the King of Beasts… The reason he couldn’t give Shay his heart entirely must be because of that.

Even so, Shay’s heart belonged to him. It had been that way through countless regressions.

I want to embrace him. I want to cover his lips with mine. I want to fall asleep embraced completely. I want to be touched. I want to share the same breath. I want to be comforted. I want to reveal everything, and have my heart read.

However, that wish…

Stop, Shay.

The Heavenly Mirror whispered to her. As energy coursed through her body, her emotions, memories, and longing gradually became numb. This overwhelming feeling fades.

Hugh refuses to reveal his mind-reading ability. To respect the thoughts of others. Because if people know their thoughts are being read, they will fear thought itself. Something the King of Humans never wants.

So Shay too, whenever she meets Hugh, seals her memories. She had to return to the weak and precious Shay of the 14th regression, when she first met Hugh. The Shay who often raised her thorns, had many regrets, and was foolish and insincere.

But, it didn’t matter.

Because this was Shade Shay, the 14th iteration with sealed memories.

Surely.

We would reach the same ending.

*

‘What? What’s going on? Why? Why is Hughes sleeping next to me?!’

Ugh, so noisy. Who keeps talking in their head like that? I can’t even sleep.

I woke up to the clamor of thoughts in my mind. Opening my eyes, I saw Shay, still asleep, eyes closed.

No, Shay was pretending to be asleep. Having woken up, she was startled to see me, then closed her eyes and remained still.

‘How did this happen? Why didn’t I notice until he was in my bed? No, why did Hughes crawl into my bed?! Could I really have been so tired that I fell asleep without realizing anything?’

You’re the one who grabbed me and forced me to stay. You still haven’t noticed that you’re holding onto my sleeve? Huh, unbelievable. How long will it take for you to realize it yourself? Annoying.

‘Should I get up? Should I hit him? Or should I just slice him with a Thousand Cherry Blossoms? Uh, what should I do?’

Hit me? Slice me? No, your thoughts are way too extreme!

Nearly caught out while sleeping, I deliberately stretched. Shay’s hand, still gripping my sleeve, was involuntarily pulled upwards with me. Only then did Shay sense something was off.

‘…? Why is my hand? Holding Hughes? Huh?’

Not me? You know! To put it nicely, you’ve become so close that you subconsciously rely on me.

Anyway. It’s your fault I ended up sleeping here against my will. To eliminate any possible misunderstandings, I hammered it home with a remark to myself.

“Hmm? Shay-ssi hasn’t woken up yet? Still holding onto my sleeve. What kind of grip strength doesn’t weaken even while sleeping?”

“…Uhm.”

‘O-Okay. I don’t know what’s going on, but. If I loosen my grip…’

The strength in her hand gripping my sleeve slowly began to fade. She’s pretending not to know and trying to slip away, huh. Too bad I’m not going to let her off so easy.

“Well. There’s no way the grip she’s had on me all night would weaken now. Unless Shay-ssi is awake. I wonder when she’ll wake up.”

“….”

Her grip tightened again. She must think it’s strange herself, right? Good. While I’m at it, I might as well completely dispel Shay’s doubts.

“Still, it was kind of cute when you were lying down and said, ‘Eung, Hughes. Sleep together….'”

“I never said that!”

Shay shouted, leaping up. Tch. Guess I couldn’t bend the truth that far. I pretended not to know anything and asked again.

“What? You were awake?”

“I just woke up! And there’s no way I would say something like that!”

“Huh? How can Shay-ssi be so sure?”

“Sure, ‘sure.’ I know myself! I’m not one to say things like that!”

True. She hadn’t *said* those words exactly. But what if I fabricated it?

“Then, who was it clinging to my sleeve, refusing to let go?”

“Th-that…! I wouldn’t know!”

“If you don’t know, who would?”

I can’t make heads or tails of her. Her affinity seems to have gone up quite a bit, though. Reading her thoughts, I don’t get the feeling she’s particularly conscious of me. And yet, she grabs my sleeve again?

Feels like I’m being played a little. Difficult, so difficult.

“Shay-ssi, I’m not one to stop a woman who comes, nor chase after one who leaves.”

“…? But you’ve abandoned plenty of women, haven’t you?”

“Why is that coming up now?”

Couldn’t she call them beautiful farewells instead of abandonments? Anyway.

“If you’re lonely, you can always say so. If Shay-ssi were a man, I’d refuse, but. You’re a woman now? That’s just barely within my permissible range, you see.”

“I *was* a woman from the beginning!!”

The little commotion from the morning passed without further issue. Whenever Shay met my gaze, she’d hiss at me like a cat, but it was only for a moment. Like the regressor she was, she remembered something else and soon stated her business.

“Hughes. We need to meet the Demon King.”

I hadn’t been able to read much of Shay’s most successful previous run, since it had been cut short halfway through. I was curious about her past life’s stories, but instead of reminiscing about a fuzzy 12th run, Shay focused on what was to come.

“There’s a calamity above the Floating City.”

And the moment I heard those words, I couldn’t help but focus as well.

“Huh? Above? Not the Floating City?”

“Yes. Higher than that. The star of great sin, ‘Pride,’ hangs there.”

The Floating City itself is a structure above the clouds and sky, no? The Floating City, floating higher than anything else on this planet, has something *above* it?

“‘Pride’ is the Floating City’s ultimate weapon. If the war intensifies, if the Floating City is attacked, the Magic Federation will drop ‘Pride’ on the Empire. That’s the Great Descent.”

Just recalling it made Shay shudder. A single scene appeared in her mind.

The Empire is in the northwest of the continent. Northwest is the name, but more than half is within the Empire’s territory, so the distance between the military country is undeniable.

But even in the military country, that immense destruction was visible.

A streak of fire crossed the sky, tracing a steep trajectory. Derailing from the path walked by stars and sun, it fell diagonally toward this earth.

Shay could only watch the fall of the star that desired the end of civilization, impossible to stop, impossible to avoid.

And the scream of the Great Earth Mother shook the entire continent.

Later, Shay heard that the Empire and the Holy See had resisted it, and succeeded to some extent. But even the aftermath brought terrible disaster. The military country, on the opposite side of the Empire, suffered from successive earthquakes and storms.

Shay finished the recollection she didn’t want to remember and continued.

“…Persuading the Demon King, or somehow preventing the fall of ‘Pride,’ it’s all for naught.”

Of course, Shade, and the Holy See too, had tried to prevent it as their utmost priority. And it seemed, in some iterations, they’d even succeeded. But the problem didn’t end there.

Shay bit her lip until it bled as she said,

“The King of Sin takes ‘Pride,’ and delivers a death sentence to the world.”

How could the King of Sin, merely a human, destroy the world? That was the lingering question.

But what if Shay’s words were true? There wouldn’t even be a need for the King of Sin, the Demon King alone could doom the world!

“We have to deal with ‘Pride’ to stop the world’s destruction.”

I’ve heard the story. Mmhmm, you must have been quite busy.

But you see.

“Shay-ssi. But how are you going to do it?”

What could I possibly do?

“From what I hear, ‘Pride’ is the ultimate weapon of the floating fortress, a last resort kind of thing. What are you going to say to the Demon King? ‘Abandon Pride and give up its power’? If I were the Demon King, I wouldn’t even give it a second thought. And they, indeed, did not.”

“…That is the problem, isn’t it.”

“If they *had* listened, that would’ve been a problem too. What if they executed you on the spot, thinking, ‘How dare a mere commoner…?’”

“…That is also a problem, isn’t it.”

I can’t even fathom the Demon King’s power. He surrounds himself with an immense space, making it impossible to get close. Yet, he easily nullified the Blue Tower Master’s unique magic.

Just how strong is he? Not even Shay or I can estimate. Navida would be the only one capable of fighting him, perhaps.

…However, is unique magic all the Demon King is? I wonder.

In the end, Shay couldn’t offer a proper solution either. The two of us sat silently at the desk, lost in thought.

“Hello. Good morning.”

The door swung open, and the Blue Tower Master burst in. Striding into the room with her long legs, she smiled lightly and handed me a top.

“The one I borrowed that time. Thank you, I used it well. I washed it thoroughly, so you don’t have to worry.”

“You didn’t have to wash it, though.”

“Don’t mind it. It’s a matter of maintaining basic etiquette, and a woman’s dignity.”

“No, a garment worn by the Blue Tower Master is far more valuable as a collectible.”

“Hehe. Should I feel happy, or displeased?”

Sitting across from me with a light laugh, the Blue Tower Master conjured a chair into existence. She hadn’t knocked, and we hadn’t invited her in, yet there was no awkwardness whatsoever. Her infiltration was as natural as breathing.

Shay, who was usually distant and aloof, seemed bewildered by the Blue Tower Master’s unreserved demeanor.

‘It’s strange… I’m the one who hangs out with Hughes, and I knew Elisha first. Yet, they both seem closer to her than me.’

Well. It’s because you’re… Never mind. What’s the point of saying it? Leaving behind the sulky Shay, I welcomed the Blue Tower Master.

“And Lankart?”

“Lankart has temporarily descended to the lower realms. For neglecting the investigation of the Tree of Depravity, you see. Bringing you here was a fine thing, but without objective data, there’s nothing to submit.”

“He is clever, but lacks finesse. A trait of geniuses, isn’t it? Incapable of explaining things to others.”

“I sent a few aides along to assist him. He’ll be fine.”

“You’ve already learned how to utilize Lankart, I see.”

“One picks it up naturally. In any case, with a few subordinates absent, I find myself with a moment of leisure. I was wondering if I might propose something to you two.”

The Azure Tower Master propped her chin on her hand, regarding Shea and me intently.

“You two. Wouldn’t you like to learn magic from me and ascend to the Dragon Gate?”