Mushoku Tensei — Chapter 165 - If8 — Tears Unshed

[This if-route was something I'd only ever thought about before — now I have to finish it within these few chapters, so just read it for what it is.]

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Half a year passed just like that.

The magic research... might be going fairly smoothly.

It's just that there had been almost no real success. Only the feeling that success might eventually be possible.

Half a year.

More than three hundred people may have died by my hand...

But the rate had been decreasing.

Gradually, the test subjects stopped dying the moment I cast the spell. Instead, they lasted a few days. Long enough for me to observe them before they died...

"Lord Rudeus! This one holds the highest survival record so far! A full eight days!"

"Yes... very good."

Most of them died from mental derangement.

The ones who didn't go insane became like wooden dolls — blank, unresponsive, no different from being dead.

Those who could still speak normally were rare. They might manage it at first. Then after a few days, the symptoms would start.

"Lord Rudeus! Today's experiments are done, right?"

"Yeah."

"I want steak!"

"Fine."

I turned to look at Nanahoshi.

"Nanahoshi, are you coming?"

"Yeah... fine. I'll join you this once."

The three of us left the laboratory and walked toward the dining hall.

Along the way, Aisha chattered about what she'd noticed today.

How the ones who lost their minds all shared one thing in common at the end: they smashed their heads against the wall until they died.

How the wooden-doll ones weren't actually dead. Some of them could even speak. They just couldn't move.

"Lord Rudeus, you're truly amazing!"

"Why do you say that?"

"Half a year ago, when I first watched you run experiments, the test subjects didn't survive even a single second... and now they can live for several days!"

Huh...

When she put it that way, it really was progress.

I reached out, instinctively wanting to pat her on the head...

No. She's not Aisha.

I pulled my hand back. But I caught the look on Aisha's face, that quick, unmistakable flash of disappointment.

Don't make that expression with Aisha's face.

My resolve softened anyway. I reached out a second time.

Nanahoshi coughed.

As if she'd read my mind, she cut in before I could follow through.

"Rudeus. We're here."

"...Yeah."

Good thing.

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Inside the dining hall, Aisha quickly claimed a seat and dropped into it. She patted the chair beside her.

"Lord Rudeus! Sit here~"

"Yeah."

I sat down next to her. Nanahoshi took the seat across from me.

We ordered. Nanahoshi and I talked through the experiment data while we waited.

Every so often I glanced over at Aisha. She was just resting her chin in her hand, watching me.

I genuinely had no idea what was going on in that girl's head.

Was she angry too?

Tied to my side simply because she looked like my little sister...

No — no, no, no. She was a slave before this. She was a slave.

How could she possibly dare to be angry at me?

How could she dare.

If only she didn't look so much like her.

But if she hadn't looked so much like her... I would have killed her back then.

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After dinner, Nanahoshi walked Aisha back to the dormitory.

I stepped outside alone, tilted my head up at the stars, and started the walk home.

➤ Next: If9 — Heartbreak