怪獣の放出 / Kaijuu no Houshutsu / Unleashed Beasts

第５章 (Chapter 5)

There was a lightswitch right next to the foot of the stairs. Kirai flipped the switch and the lights flickered on. There were many shelves of books, and there were unlit candles everywhere. Some candles were very small, the smallest being a height of around 3 cm and a diameter of about 2 cm, and some were very big, the largest with a height of roughly 200 cm (around 7 feet) and 5 cm in diameter. 

Kirai looked around. The books... they were all written in the Shler'heihn language. Kirai looked through many books, and none of them had Japanese or even Roman characters. Some of them had some illustrations though. They looked very similar to the ones in the book Kirai had. It was odd. The illustrations depicted a beautiful landscape. There was one single moon in the sky of the image, but that moon was massive. Kirai thought that this must be some kind of extraterrestrial planet surface, and it must have life, because there was grass and trees and flowers on the landscape.

She closed the book and put it back. She sat down and crossed her legs and rest for a few minutes. Bored, she grabbed one of the candles and looked at it. There were inscriptions running down the side of the candle. Again, the language.

After a while she stood up, and left the basement. She went back outside and left the house. It was time to finish up the day. Kirai was deciding to go to the local restaurant tonight. She wanted to eat some ramen.

But it was still only noon. So she went back home.

When she got home, she packed some light travel supplies into a bag. Snacks, drinks, and tools useful for hiking. She also packed the Shler'heihn amulet. It was nearly the afternoon when she was done. She set out to travel through the nearby forest for a few hours before heading back. She was almost hoping to encounter another chousen.

In the forest, Kirai felt refreshed. The forest's vegatation wasn't grown tightly together, and there was a lot of breathing room. Trees were plentiful but spaced comfortably. It was almost perfect for her travels. Every now and then, Kirai would take out a foldable rod from her bag and set it in the ground as a marker for the returning path.

At one point, she came across a part of the forest that was almost a perfect circle without trees, flowers, or any other kind of vegatation besides short grass. There was almost no sound except for the sound of the breeze. There wasn't even the sound of birds chirping or insects. It was a rather cool day out, and the temperature was soothing. But the lifeless circle was unsettling.

In the center of the circle, there was a patch of ground without grass. On the ground, a faded illustration in the dirt could be seen. Kirai looked at it and compared it to the likeness of fictional "alchemy circles", which were rumored to be used by witches in older Europe and England. It was supposed to have magical properties.

Kirai took a look at the engravings, and it appeared to be of Shler'heihn writing. But it was faded, so it was hard to tell what it was. Still, it was intriguing to see such out in the middle of nowhere. She moved out and left the treeless circle.

Suddenly, a sound behind Kirai made her turn around. It came from the direction of the circle. Kirai looked toward the circle and couldn't see much, as though there was a fog. Which was strange, because she had just come from there and could see it perfectly fine.

Moving back toward the circle, Kirai noticed that it began to rain. It was only light, but it was raining nonetheless. As she got closer, a repeating droning sound, like that of a huge mechanical rod bending, became more present. When she arrived in the circle, there was another sound, that she hadn't heard outside of it.

It was the ticking of a pocket watch.

The droning kept resounding throughout the environment, and the ticking kept going. The rain began to come down even more. Kirai put her bag over her head and got closer to the magic circle.