Chapter 30: Location of Dreams(Bottom)

“Is this your ideal world, Itsuki-kun?”

I couldn’t respond to the suddenly serious question from the theatrical troupe actor.

… What is this guy talking about? He’s been goofing off the whole time, and now he brings up something so serious. I was slightly taken aback.

Or rather, isn’t an “ideal world” supposed to be a more fantastical place? I don’t know what this theatrical troupe actor is thinking, but the current world feels dull, or whatever you want to call it. Can we even call this ordinary world “ideal”? Well, but can a world without any change also be considered ideal?

As I pondered aimlessly about such things, the kettle’s water had come to a boil. I halted my thoughts and prepared tea for two.

Come to think of it, do theatrical troupe actors drink beverages? I was wondering as I turned around when…

“Huh?”

The theatrical troupe actor had disappeared.

Just a moment ago, he was so noisy, and now he suddenly vanishes.

I haven’t even answered his question yet, and I was expecting him to say something more.

“What was that?”

I complained to the absent theatrical troupe actor, but received no response.

Well, I decided to carry the tea and return to my room.

“Itsuki, welcome back.”

“Yep, I’m back.”

Returning, there was no sign of the theater troupe actor anywhere.

Where could he have gone…?

Thinking about it in his mind, he twisted his neck. However, he didn’t want to actively search for his whereabouts, so he decided to cut off thoughts about the theater troupe actor.

Until 6:00 PM, Hina and he played cards together. When it was time, the two of them left. For some reason, he felt an inexplicable compulsion to “escort her home,” but Aya-chan assured him, “I can go home alone!” so he held back.

It would be strange to insist on escorting her when she had already said that.

With nothing else to do, he watched TV. His father returned from work, and finding it unusual, he went to greet him at the entrance.

“Dad, you finished work early today.”

“Hmm? Isn’t it always this time?”

“Oh, um… Is that so…?”

With a puzzled look, his father lifted him up.

Hmm? Did something like this often happen?

As Itsuki pondered this, they sat down as a family and ate curry. However, there was no sense of discomfort. They bathed together, and there was no sense of discomfort there either.

Once he finished his bath, he went back to his room and did his usual stretching routine. Stretching the muscles of his lower body and then stretching the muscles of his upper body. When that was over, all that was left was to sleep. It was an ordinary routine, and it felt too natural.

Yet, for some reason…

Itsuki couldn’t shake the powerful feeling of something missing when he wasn’t doing “something.”

He felt a discomfort akin to guilt for spending his time in such a peaceful manner.

Something was definitely missing.

His current feelings were very similar to the feeling of loss during days when he slept all day on his day off, a sense of wasting time. This feeling was strangely similar to that time.

But this is what’s normal. He knows that. He knows it’s normal.

Itsuki turned off the lights in his room and lay down in his futon. Then, he closed his eyes.

He thought that If he falls asleep like this, maybe the feeling of anxiety will subside.

He thought that, so he tried repeating deep breaths.

But of course, the feeling remained.

Something was… missing.

The sense of incompleteness was as if there was a hole in his heart.

He sighed and sat up.

He threw his futon aside and opened the sliding door with his pajamas still on.

Moonlight was shining into the hallway, making it very bright.

He quietly opened the closed window so his parents wouldn’t notice and went out to the verandah.

He put on his slippers and headed to the edge of the garden.

A large building located far from the house.

It’s too big to be considered a warehouse, but a little too small for people to live in it.

But strangely, as he approached it, he felt calm.

He had a feeling that “something” was waiting for him out there.

“…Yeah.”

He opened the door of the “annex” with one hand.

Once he opened it, the theatrical troupe actor was sitting on the wooden floor inside.

“Hmm. Yeah. I see. So you came, huh? This is your happiness.”

The theatrical troupe actor kept nodding with an unchanged expression on his stuffed animal face.

His behavior seemed overly dramatic.

“You’ve been here, haven’t you, Theatrical Troupe Actor?”

“I’ve always been here. Because this was what you were looking for!”

With that said, the theatrical troupe actor spun around.

Within the “training ground,” he spun around.

“Itsuki-kun, do you understand what this building is?”

“It’s a training ground, right? A place for practicing magic.”

“Exactly!! That’s it!”

Speaking the words “magic practice,” they settled deep in Itsuki’s heart.

That’s right.

He hasn’t practiced magic at all today.

If he hasn’t practiced, there’s no way he can sleep.

“My name is Theatrical Troupe Actor. The guide to Wonderland. The one who shows dreams to children.”

Itsuki wove his magic power.

In his hand, “Guiding Thread Silvate” is created.

The familiar sensation of “Thread Technique” fills the void in his heart.

“So I made the world that everyone wished for. You too, Itsuki-kun. A world without monsters, a safe world without magic. The world you wished for, your own world.”

The Theatrical Troupe Actor stops spinning.

The bear’s arm points at me.

“But, but, but, but, but! Your greed is like nothing I’ve ever seen before! Wishing for a world without monsters, but wishing for a world with magic!”

At that moment, the training ground burst open.

Like a paper-made toy house, it opened on its own.

And then, with a loud bang, the walls dropped to the ground, and at that moment, the house that had been behind Itsuki disappeared like an illusion. The moon that had been floating in the sky also disappeared.

Everything disappeared.

And in the blink of an eye, he was standing right in the middle of an amusement park.

He remembered everything that had happened here.

“It’s a strange story, isn’t it? Even though you don’t want to die, you wish for a world without monsters, yet you wish for a world with magic! That’s a contradiction! You’re contradictory. It makes me itch.”

“It’s not a contradiction.”

Itsuki extended the “Guiding Thread Silvate” toward the Theatrical Troupe Actor. He grabbed him.

“Because when magic disappears…”

He set the Theatrical Troupe Actor’s body on fire.

Within my “Guiding Thread Silvate,” the Theatrical Troupe Actor turned into charcoal.

“Everything I’ve worked so hard for will be gone.”

Slowly turning into black mist.

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