CGBTS Chapter 44

Chapter 44 – One Truth After Another

Novel Title: あの夏から戻れない (Can’t Go Back to That Summer)

Author：宮緒葵 (Miyao Aoi)

Illustrator：笠井あゆみ (Kasai Ayumi)

Translator: K (@kin0monogatari)

Protagonists: 櫛原夏生 (Kushihara Natsuo -MC) & 四辻柊 (Yotsutsuji Shuu -ML)

*Please read at knoxt.space, the original site of translation. TQ*

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“The village chief is sleeping in this lake. …He has been down there for more than three years now.”

“Wh…?”

“Sacred flowers produce various effects depending on how they’re processed and how much is consumed. In your case, it was an aphrodisiac, but if they’re processed using the method passed down through the village chief’s family, they produce a powerful sense of euphoria and a sedative effect that numbs the central nervous system in the brain……Yes, the resulting substance is much like a narcotic.”

Unlike drugs such as marijuana and stimulants in Natsuo’s original world, however, it was only mildly addictive, and unless abused, it did not cause significant physical or mental harm. But it apparently had the effect of diminishing the human ability to think normally and making people more obedient.

The alcohol served at the weekly drinking gatherings was mixed with a generous amount of the substance. It was meant to strip the villagers of any will to resist and make them easier to control. The sacred flower was likely a poison that Odamaki-sama had made bloom in order to keep Odamaki Village exactly as it was, without allowing it to either progress or decline.

“That’s precisely why the village chief alone was never supposed to touch the sacred-flower liquor. But the village chief began drinking to escape the pain of his chronic illness, and before long he became addicted……Three years ago, he died right in front of me. Just like Yoshikawa-san, he must have suffered cardiac arrest.”

When the real village chief suddenly died, Shuu was the only one beside him. The real village chief was also tall for someone from Odamaki Village, and his build was not much different from Shuu’s. Once he put on the mask and the thick ceremonial garments, impersonating him would not be difficult――the moment Shuu realized this, he put the idea into action. He stripped the mask and clothing from the village chief, attached weights to him, and sank him into Megumi Lake.

And from that day onward, he began playing both roles: the village chief and the acting village chief.

If Shuu, in his role as acting village chief, said, “The village chief has entrusted his duties to me because of his advanced age and chronic illness,” no one would question it. The village chief’s extreme dislike of people had also worked in Shuu’s favor. He never allowed any of the other villagers into the residence, so whenever the village chief absolutely had to show himself in public, all Shuu had to do was put on that mask and those ceremonial garments and go out in his place.

There was no way to disguise his voice, but the sacred flower proved useful here as well. If he took a very small amount of crushed flower petals, his voice would become hoarse for a short while.

“…Why… did you…”

Natsuo forced the words out through his trembling throat.

“Why would you switch places with the village chief…? He was the person who looked after you, wasn’t he…?”

Even though people swept here were treated favorably, the reason eight-year-old Shuu had been properly raised by the Sawada family at the time was surely because the village chief had acted as his patron.

“………You know, Natsuo. Fifteen years ago… ten years ago for you. What do you think the difference between you and me was?”

Shuu did not answer, but instead asked him a question. His voice was still slightly hoarse, but it was gradually returning to normal.

He must have taken the sacred flower immediately after parting from Natsuo in front of the residence.

“The difference… What d’you mean?”

“Yes. We entered Mount Hinashi together, yet I was the only one who wandered into Odamaki Village from that lake. What do you think caused that difference?”

Natsuo had spent all ten years thinking about it too, but he had never found an answer. Shuu, however, seemed to have reached one.

“I wanted things to stay this way forever. I absolutely did not want to return to my original world, where the reality of having to part from you was waiting for me. …That was what I wished for with all my heart. That was the difference between you and me.”

“……Shuu…”

“So I came up with a hypothesis. I thought that perhaps Odamaki-sama calls people over to this side when someone like me—someone who has no attachment whatsoever to their original world and whose wishes do not go against Odamaki-sama’s will—approaches that lake.”

There was no need to ask why. It was to dilute, even if only a little, the increasingly concentrated blood of the villagers in this village that was practically a closed-off miniature world――to keep that miniature world exactly as it was.

“After subtly asking Yoshikawa-san about his circumstances, I became convinced that my hypothesis was correct. Yoshikawa-san had accumulated so much debt in his original world that he could never repay it, and after being pursued by loan sharks, he fled into Mount Hinashi and eventually found his way to Odamaki Village. The village chief while he was still alive also said that it was precisely because Yoshikawa-san was that kind of person that Odamaki-sama called him here.”

“The village chief did? Why…?”

“The mask the village chief wears was given to him by Odamaki-sama, and it contains Odamaki-sama’s power. …The power to summon people who approach the lake on the other side over to this side.”

“……! Th-then ten years ago, the one who summoned you to the village was……”

“That’s right. ……The village chief.”

It was precisely because he summoned people from other worlds for Odamaki-sama that the village chief was likely Odamaki-sama’s priest. The people who had gone missing on Mount Hinashi over the years had all been summoned in this way by successive village chiefs.

How had Shuu managed to face the very person responsible for separating him from his original world for more than ten years? There was no way to tell from his expression, which seemed devoid of emotion. As Natsuo clenched his teeth, Shuu stared intently at him with his green eyes.

“That’s why I thought about it. I wondered if, somehow, I could get you to come to the lake on Mount Hinashi again, and then use the power of the mask to summon you over to this side.”

“…! No way… Yoshikawa-san…”

“Yeah. ―――I sank him into Megumi Lake.”

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*Translator’s Note: Sounds obsessive, if you ask me. -K

Next update: 2026.11.14

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