kscans

Chapter 962 - An Encounter Like the Blink of an Eye

And so, a few seconds later.

"""——————…"""

A few seconds after the light had blinked and moved.

In other words, a few seconds after it had become too late to hinder the mysterious ‘beast of light’s’ actions, whether by kicking off the ground, reaching out a hand, or swinging a sword.

"…………………………………………………………Huh? Wh…"

As our faces were about to flush with surprise, failure, and regret, we could only watch. At the center of the ‘situation,’ an unharmed Nia stood frozen, unable to move.

Surrounding her were the three of us, left behind in front, and,

——————————

The mass of light, once again silent and perfectly still, just as it had been before.

And,

『————……』

As if to say that where there is light, there must also be shadow.

Perhaps influenced by the clearly anomalous entity before them, or perhaps in response to it, I couldn't be sure—but from the shadows of two people, beasts of the starry sky had burst forth at a speed no less than that of light itself.

A ‘mouse’ and a ‘dragon’… that is, the mouse king, Veshna, who had appeared on her ‘master's’ shoulder, and the dragon king, Sapphire, who always receives orders from his master to know who to ‘protect,’ appearing behind Nia, were staring the beast of light down.

And so,

""""………………""""

『『『………………』』』

Four humans, and three others.

For about ten seconds, a silence born of both those with voices and those without continued—

"————…Oh."

"Ah…"

"…Mmm."

"Heh…"

As if to release not only its own tension but that of everyone around it.

Little Veshna relaxed its tiny body and flopped down on Nia’s shoulder, while Sapphire, who had been demonstrating his will to protect by embracing her with his massive form, quietly folded his great wings.

I don’t know why.

I don't, but… somehow, instinctively, we all sensed it.

This thing probably wasn't going to hurt anyone.

"…、…………"

A gaze was directed my way. The sender was indigo, and the receiver was me.

I could understand that Nia, half in tears from the lingering confusion even after her fear had subsided, was pleading for help. What is this, what is happening, what should I do?

And for good reason. Even if she hadn't been harmed in any way… from my perspective, the nose of the ‘dog’ was still touching her right hand.

Well then, if it were me, I’d think about how I would act—

"…、…、…"

What I offered was a heartfelt gesture.

"Tch…!? …、…!?"

What came back was a full-throated, back-and-forth shake of her head. The direction, of course, was horizontal.

Well, even if you refuse, I don't have any other ideas. Now that Veshna and Sapphire have lowered their guard… thinking about it from a meta perspective, the fact that our servants, who had manifested at a speed unheard of compared to usual, were showing some sort of connection to this thing before us…

Now that a certain level of safety could be inferred, the only thing left was to prompt the situation forward with an action.

So, you see—

Just try petting it, okay?

Nia’s gaze shifted to Asche. The Sword Queen nodded.

Nia’s gaze shifted to Sora. The angel… though it was unclear how the ‘person’ she saw was touching Nia’s hand, she nodded with a troubled expression.

…I’ll just imagine it's holding her hand respectfully. For my own sanity.

Anyway—one quiet step.

"………………"

————

One step. Then another. No matter how far I walked or how long I stared, the beast of light didn't move. As I did so, I came to stand beside Nia, took her left hand, and wrapped my other, free hand around her back.

"It's okay. I'm right here with you this time."

"Th… Mmm…"

I sent her my words along with a declaration that I wouldn't be caught off guard again—activating [Altera-Notis] and opening my golden right eye for [Eyes Oculus], accelerating my thoughts to five times their normal speed.

I flipped the switch on my intuition—my gut feeling—and accelerated my consciousness to read any premonitions.

And yet… even as I did all this, the beast of light still showed no signs of moving. After her gaze flickered several times between it and me, standing guard beside her,

"………………Hic!"

With a faintly mysterious squeak, Nia’s right fingertips lightly brushed against the ‘dog’s’ nose—or from her perspective, some part of the ‘rabbit’—timidly stroking it.

In that instant.

The number of those who were about to react to the light that filled the world was exactly zero.

Following a strange sense of understanding and trust that ran not through my head… but deeper, somewhere in the core of my body, I simply supported Nia and let it wash over me.

And then, a few seconds later.

The ‘light,’ which had gently embraced and filled the space without burning our eyes even with them open, began to fade—leaving six beings in its place.

That is to say, the ‘beast of light’ that had been touching Nia’s right hand had vanished without a trace.

And the ‘thing’ that remained was on her right wrist.

"………………………………………………………………Huh?"

In Arcadia, ‘objects’ are generally understood the moment you touch them.

It's a specialty of the Arcadia system that creates this virtual world: the in-brain installation technology.

Although you need to tap and open a window to see detailed properties visually, for the most part, you can grasp the basics of an item in an instant just by touching it.

So, of course—if you were to wear it.

Or rather, if you had been wearing it, then it was only natural.

"Wha… Whaaa…?!"

It was only natural for her to understand the thing her avatar was touching.

In other words, the single result brought about by this whole series of events, which had unfolded with its meaning and everything else left completely unknown, leaving us all, including the person involved, in the dust, was this:

"Ngh!? Wh-Whaaa…!!?"

Upon the crimson hue worn by the indigo-haired girl—the Crimson Rabbit jewelry I had once given her,

"The Te—rr…!!?!?!?"

—a new story had been bestowed.