Chapter 261 – 16.15 When the Flowers Fall
The chairman looked as if he had been betrayed by someone he trusted.
It is heartbreaking to know that the target of that sense of betrayal is, of course, me.
“Uh, why… Why do you say that, Knives?”
The chairman grabs my clothes as if grabbing me by the collar.
“If only Knives could help, I might be able to save my mother. Why do you hate it! Why!”
The president screams as if blaming me.
I know the president’s heart so well that it hurts.
The two did not have a typical mother-daughter relationship. However, the two were intertwined with a strong bond. It was a relationship that could not be established without mutual recognition.
The chairman has always tried to be recognized by his mother. And the chairman of the board has always been strict with such a daughter so that she does not become lax.
The reason why the chairman was strict with her daughter was because he believed that if it was Kyoko, she would be able to overcome that level. The reason why the chairman followed his mother’s way even though he always grumbled was because he was admitting in his heart that the way was actually right.
I held the excited chairman’s hand and spoke as if to soothe him.
“Kyoko. Was that a decision made with the mind of the chairman and the heart of the mother in mind?”
The hand of the chairman who held it was fragile as if it would break.
My heart hurts.
The chairman raised his teary eyes and looked up at me.
“My mother’s… Mind?”
“Yes. How do you think Mother used the Revive rune on her father?”
The president’s eyes twinkle.
Big teardrops spilled from her eyes, which were already welling up with tears.
“Mother… She said she would keep the man she loved alive. She didn’t care what was right or wrong, she just said that as a woman, she wants to save the man she loves…”
Crying quickly turned into wailing.
“It’s a choice that overturns everything you’ve learned so far. Even so, she said she wanted to keep the man she loved alive.”
I hugged the crying president and gave him a hug.
The chairman buried his face in my chest and cried endlessly.
“Kyoko. Do you think your mother regrets that choice?”
“No. No…”
A mother who gave her own life to save the man she loved.
If there had been even the slightest hesitation, Mizuki Ryoko would not have made such a choice.
“My mother made a noble choice. No one else should interfere with that choice. It insults her mother’s choice. That way, even if her mother survives, she and her mother will never be happy.”
The president’s crying didn’t stop.
My heart hurts.
If the choice is up to the chairman, the sadness is up to those left behind.
There was no way I could share the president’s sorrow.
Furthermore… It wasn’t just the president who cried.
“Hey… Heh heh… !”
President Ichiro Mizuki, who had fallen, began to cry in that state.
He pretended to faint and was listening to what we were saying.
“Ryoko… Ryoko… !”
A song that makes even the listener’s heart break.
Hearing that sound, the president’s cries grew even louder, and I had to work hard to calm my excitement.
Is this the cry of a man who lost his partner?
In that state, Ichiro Mizuki crawled up and grabbed my crotch and said,
“Spare Ryoko, save her wife! I’ll do anything I can! Please spare her wife!”
Does this old man know what she means?
You know Because she knows, she tried to kill me.
Her loving wife gave her life to save her own.
The only way to save such a wife is to be embraced by another man.
I couldn’t even imagine how he would feel asking another man like that.
I had to say
There is only me.
I was the only one who could bring him back to his original place after he strayed from the right path.
I looked down at him and said.
“Ichiro Mizuki. Are you really going to tarnish her wife’s choice?”
Hehe…”
“That would not save her wife, and even if she did, Ryoko Mizuki would be the one who would end her own life. You’re a husband, don’t you know that?”
Mizuki Ryoko is a person who can break but does not bend.
Even if I forcibly hug her and prolong her life, she will not place any value on the life she has earned.
Mizuki Ryoko, who has lived her whole life looking only at her husband.
Pure love
That would be the word itself that expresses her life.
It was her job to kill her twice, in her true sense, to force her to be held by her other man.
Even if that way of her could definitely save her, I wouldn’t.
If anyone else does, I will stop it.
To protect Mizuki Ryoko’s pure love.
“Ichiro Mizuki. You won’t be here crying. See off her wife on her last way, so that she can close her eyes with a smile. Even now she is looking for you in a dark room.”
“Hey… !”
Mizuki Ichiro gritted his teeth.
Fast. There was a sound like teeth breaking.
The wailing stopped. No more tears were shed.
Mizuki Ichiro stood up.
There was no weak man who had lost his wife.
There was only the face of a man who had made a serious decision.
“… Kyoko. See your friend off.”
He glanced at me with bloody eyes, then turned and left the room.
Chairman Mizuki still wept in my arms.
*
As a result, this incident was not Mizuki Ichiro’s own play.
It was really the terrorism of the opposition to kill Ichiro Mizuki, and the director himself activated the rune to save her husband.
Their purpose to defeat the rune holders failed.
Ichiro Mizuki didn’t die, and he didn’t do much damage to the academy either.
In addition, public opinion will completely turn over to this side with this incident. The criticism towards the opposition will be more intense, and the next Prime Minister’s shoulders will be put on the shoulders of pushing the rune holder.
However… There was no one here who could truly be happy about that.
“Chairman.”
After the president’s tears subsided, I went out into the backyard with him.
There was a garden in which flowers and trees were in full bloom.
“Yes. Knives.”
The chairman was still sobbing, but calmed down enough to have a conversation.
“Do you resent me?”
The chairman looked at the small white flower at the end of the branch.
“No.”
Caress the flower fleetingly.
Looking at the unhealthy flower sadly, the chairman continued.
“I’m glad it was Knives who said it. I almost committed irreparable filial piety to her mother.”
“Chairman…”
The chairman accepted it, but my heart was still as tight as a thorn.
Maybe there is another way I haven’t thought of. Maybe there’s something I can do right now.
That thought lingered in my head the whole time.
“… I’m sorry.”
But nothing came to mind.
It seemed that the way the chairman said was the only solution.
What will happen if the president uses runes?
The chairman writes the revive rune again on the chairman, and I inject magic power into the fallen chairman.
But it was too risky. Unlike the president, the chairman served in the army even in the face of a major disaster, and since he has a level that much, his basic magic is incomparable to the chairman. There was no guarantee that he would not die right away like the chairman who saved the husband of an ordinary person. Moreover, it was just a hypothesis that he could recover with that magical power injection.
The cost was too great to gamble on the odds alone. Even Mizuki Kyoko couldn’t make her cross the dangerous bridge.
“Knives.”
The president took my hand.
It was a hand that was so weak that it seemed like it would disappear like this.
“Will your mother be happy?”
The president barely smiled.
“I can tell. The heart of a mother who gave her life for the person she loves. Your mother will surely be happy.”
“Chairman…”
I firmly gripped the president’s hand.
“If the same thing happens to me, President, please never let me live.”
The chairman laughed.
“Why? If Knives comes back to life, you can give me magic again, right?”
“I can’t guarantee that the president will end up in the same condition as my mother.”
My magic power is stronger than the chairman.
There was no law saying that even if I failed to save myself and the president would lose his life, a situation should not occur.
“Promise me you will never use it. If you don’t promise me, I won’t let go of this hand.”
Weak for a threat, I firmly grabbed the chairman’s hand.
“Can we keep holding hands like this without making a promise?”
A drop of tear fell under the mischievous laugh.
And the chairman came back into my arms.
“Nives. Knives, please don’t die.”
I quietly hugged the chairman.
“If you don’t, I will also save Knives.”
“… All right.”
It was a very scary threat. I couldn’t help but follow.
“I will never die. So don’t save me, President.”
“If Knives doesn’t die, there’s nothing to save him.”
The chairman complains with a tearful laugh.
If it’s the chairman, he might really try to save me.
Still, if Shinoshino was by my side, I would stop the president. Let’s ask Kunokuno-senpai for insurance.
Probably the best thing is if I don’t die.
“Black… Mom…”
I hugged the chairman who started sobbing again. I looked up at the sky without a word.
Had I been in the same situation, would I have done the same?
If the woman I love can live only if she is embraced by another man, could I ask another man as Ichiro Mizuki did?
I don’t know.
Maybe it will, maybe it won’t.
You won’t know if that happens.
The most important thing is to make sure that doesn’t happen.
Don’t die don’t lose
Then you won’t be forced to make that choice.
“Kyoko.”
I hold the girl in my arms tightly once more.
Keep No matter what.
I swore so once again.
