Chapter 259 – 16.13 the Life of a Loved One

* * *

The time goes back to last night.

A large hospital that is currently drawing the attention of all Japan due to a certain incident.
The elderly surgeon came out to see his guardian without taking off his bloody scrubs.

“Mrs. It’s unfortunate, but the president has already…”

Why did he bother to wear a dirty surgical gown? Is it to show the guardian that he did his best?

At least, no one would think that the surgery was done carelessly, even after seeing the bloody appearance.
The patient’s death could not be prevented even by the doctor’s efforts, and the guardian would have no choice but to accept the fate.

“It doesn’t matter.”

But upon hearing her husband’s death sentence, Ryoko Mizuki did not lose her firm attitude.
While even her branded kimono, which covered her body, had lost its luster to blood and dust, Mizuki Ryoko answered with an upright attitude that still maintained her dignity.

“Huh, but…”
“Please continue the operation as I said. Remove all fragments from the President’s body. As long as you protect that, I won’t care about life or death or damage to organs.”

The doctor was sweating profusely. As if dealing with a guardian was more difficult than having surgery.
That much, her request was beyond common sense, and she had a dignity that compelled her to comply.

“Ah… All right.”

Eventually, the doctor gave up. The doctor went back to her operating room without even thinking to wipe the sweat from her brow.

“Mother.”

A person approaching from behind Mizuki Ryoko, who was left alone in front of the operating room.
She was her daughter, Kyoko Mizuki.

“Mother. What do you plan to do?”

Her daughter, Kyoko, asked with a dignified attitude as if she had taken her mother away.
Her weeping in front of her dying father seemed like a lie.

Ryoko faced her daughter with her eyes narrowed.

Her own daughter. And the daughter of the man he loves.
Kyoko has grown up beyond the couple’s expectations. Faced with her now grown-up daughter, Ryoko felt a rush of emotions that were not like her.

“When her husband leaves her seat, her wife keeps the empty seat so that her family will not be shaken in the meantime. That would have been her wife’s duty.”
“Will using the mother’s rune keep her father’s vacancy?”
“That’s right.”

At her mother’s seemingly insignificant reply, her daughter was moved.
However, Ryoko continued speaking in a plain tone.

“Ichiro-san is someone who cannot be replaced by anyone else. He is not only the father of Kyoko, but the father of all the people of this country. It is something he cannot lose at any cost.”
“Isn’t it my mother who taught me not to use runes under any circumstances?!”

Her daughter’s cry finally gave way to her weeping, and Ryoko felt a tinge of loneliness in her.
This will be the last quarrel with her daughter. Ryoko left her final teachings to her daughter with her mother’s heart.

“Kyoko. Listen carefully. Everything I said now is just an excuse.”

Kyoko was confused by her mother’s words with her mischievous smile.
Her tone made her feel like she was a different person from the mother she knew.

“There comes a time in a woman’s life when she has to make a choice that overturns everything she has been taught. And for me, now is the time.”

She didn’t know what her mother was talking about.
Because the mother Kyoko knew was not the kind of person who would say such a thing.

“It doesn’t matter what is right or wrong. Just–“

Ryoko placed her hand on her chest as if searching for her heartbeat.

“──I want to save the man I love. As a woman, I just made that decision.”
“Mother…”

I just want to save the man I love, without any gain or loss or right or wrong.
Ryoko, who had lived her whole life as her mother-in-law and adoptive wife, made her selfish choice as a woman at this moment.

“The time will come for Kyoko to understand what I am saying now. Certainly.”

Kyoko realized.
That her mother’s determination was already firm.

Now, Kyoko realized that no matter what anyone said, even if her father woke up and stopped her, she couldn’t change her mind.

“Kyoko. You alone must never use runes. Never. Do you understand?”

Hugging her daughter one last time, Ryoko left behind the most contradictory teachings in her world.

“Mother…”

Caught in her mother’s arms for the first time, Kyoko burst into tears.

And that night.
Ichiro Mizuki, who had crossed the threshold of death, was revived.
It was the point at which everyone who participated in the operation judged that there was no hope.

The old doctor who conducted the operation simply explained that a ‘miracle had happened’.
And there was no leaking of the details.

* * *

A villa owned by the Mizuki family on the outskirts of Tokyo.
After an operation late at night, Mizuki Ichiro and his family moved from the hospital to this villa in the utmost secrecy.

“Ryoko…”

Ichiro calls out to his wife, who is lying in bed with a pale face.
However, Ryoko shows no reaction.

Holding the hand of his unconscious wife, Ichiro bit his lip hard.
Hot tears flowed from his eyes.

“Why… Why… !”

Never use runes.
It was a promise the two made before becoming a couple.

‘I’ll make you a status that no one can ask for your life.’

Ryoko in her youth trembled in fear that one day her own runes would take the place of someone’s death.
The young Mizuki Ichiro proposed and took Ryoko as her wife.

Ironically, however, she sacrificed her life in place of her husband, Ichiro.
Ichiro, who came back from the dead, was not alive even though he was alive. Waking up in his operating room, he vomited blood from his lungs and cried out his wife’s name.

“I’d rather, I’d rather let them die…” … !”

Ichiro could only express his resentment towards his wife for making her foolish choice, even though he shared that life with him. Tears flowed incessantly from the man’s eyes.

Just then, a thin voice came from outside the Jangjimun.

“Father. I have something to tell you.”

It was Ichiro and Ryoko’s daughter, Kyoko.

“… Kyoko. Didn’t I tell you to sleep for today?”

Ichiro swallowed his tears.
Even if it was parting with his wife, he could not show tears in front of her daughter as a father.

However, even though Ichiro expressed his intention to refuse, Kyoko did not back down.

“Father. It is important.”
“Go back.”
“Maybe there is a way to save my mother.”

Ichiro’s eyes opened to the repeated eupso.
Kyoko seemed to accept the silence as her consent, and opened her long paper door and entered her room.

“Father.”

Kyoko sits quietly in front of her parents.

Ichiro was confused.
Her own daughter, Kyoko, Ryoko’s daughter, was not a child to act so boldly.
Before she could hear an affirmative answer, she entered the room. That alone was surprising, but the content of the story that came out of her mouth was even more surprising.

“Father. Do you remember the Rune Holder Lab’s ‘Homunculus Plan’?”

The Homunculus Plan.
It was a plan that started from the absurd theory that even a rune holder who died once could be revived and active if only the magical energy inside the body was maintained.

However, even though it is an absurd theory, a huge budget was invested thanks to its effectiveness, and a successful case finally came out after many experiments.

The case of that success was Akane Tsukimiya.

However, the plan was buried in the dark due to the complex intertwining of ethics and political interests.
Even for Ichiro Mizuki, a pro-Rune holder faction politician, the homunculus plan was a huge risk. It was none other than Mizuki Ichiro himself who led the burial in darkness.

“… Kyoko. Are you saying you want to make your mother a walking doll?”
“Father. That’s not it.”
“I hate to hear it. Get out.”
“The principle of the homunculus is to create an artificial magic bowl inside the body of the rune holder and forcibly fill it with magic power.”
“Kyoko!”

Despite Ichiro’s repeated defeats, Kyoko did not back down.
Kyoko continued the story without blinking an eye.

“Father. Now her mother’s magic vessel is cracked from a strong impact. And even now, like water leaking from a cracked bowl, her mother’s magic is seeping out.”
“…”

Unlike mother and daughter Ryoko and Kyoko, who are rune holders, Ichiro, an ordinary person, does not know about the flow of magical power.
However, the flow of the story made it clear what Kyoko was trying to say.

“A rune holder whose magical power has been drained from the vessel will eventually stop working and die. The bowl will break completely. However, if you fill it with strong magic power from the outside before all your magic power drains out, you may survive until your mother’s magic vessel is restored.”

You can prolong your life. Can recover
The words she wanted to hear came out of her daughter’s mouth.

Revive Rune. A miraculous rune that can revive the dead.
However, that rune is a rare rune with very few holders worldwide, and due to the restriction that the caster dies instead of reviving the dead, proper research could not be conducted.

However, the only thing that was revealed was that everyone who used the Revive rune had died.

“Father. Are you going to let your mother die instead of your father? If so, I will never forgive my father.”
“Kyoko…”

Her daughter’s words pierced her father’s heart.

If Ryoko could be saved instead of dying himself, Ichiro would have chosen that option without hesitation.

However, he does not have the same special abilities as Ryoko. All he can do is blame the gang for killing him and thus killing his beloved wife. Mizuki Ichiro had never felt so acutely his powerlessness.

I would sell my soul to the devil if I could save Ryoko.
With that feeling, Ichiro eventually listened to her daughter’s story.

“… Magic… What is the way to fill it, Kyoko?”

Ichiro had to ask.
Without dreaming that it would be more painful than selling your soul to the devil.