CGBTS Chapter 45

Chapter 45 – Farewell

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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Yoshikawa had died of cardiac arrest on his way home after leaving the drinking gathering alone. Even then, Shuu had been the only one there, having gone out to see him off.

“That was a gamble—a fifty-fifty chance. At that point, I had absolutely no proof that Yoshikawa-san’s body would really return to his original world. …That was the first time I ever prayed to Odamaki-sama.”

And Shuu’s wish reached Odamaki-sama. Yoshikawa was found floating in the lake on Mount Hinashi, and the discovery was widely reported in the news.

Everything that happened after that was easy to understand without even having to explain it. Once Yoshikawa’s body was discovered, Natsuo decided to search for Shuu, and ten years later, he set foot on Mount Hinashi again. When Natsuo casually approached the lake, the village chief――Shuu――used the power of the mask to summon him over.

To see Natsuo again.

So that he would never have to be separated from Natsuo again.

―――He had planned everything――for that sole purpose.

“…I’m… sor…ry…”

The anger at being suddenly dragged into a world like this. The loneliness of being unable to see his family and friends anymore. The sorrow of realizing he had been deceived all this time. So many emotions were tangled together, swirling chaotically inside his chest, yet what escaped his lips was a sob.

Because――because the reason Shuu had been forced to do something like that all alone――

“It’s my fault…”

“Natsuo…”

“Because I let go of your hand back then… you had to go this far…”

The tears that dripped down his cheeks, drop by drop, soaked into the ground and left dark stains.

If Natsuo had wandered into Odamaki Village with Shuu ten years ago, Shuu would at least not have had to sink the village chief and Yoshikawa into the lake all by himself, nor would he have had to pretend to be the village chief. How painful and difficult must it have been to live a life where he could not share his secret with anyone?

“……Thank you, Natsuo.”

Shuu smiled and took Natsuo’s hand, which seemed as though it might be crushed beneath the weight of his regret. He gently brought it to his lips and kissed it affectionately.

“I thought that if I could live together with you, I wouldn’t care even if you hated me or resented me. But even after learning everything, you still want me. ……Now, I have no regrets left.”

“…! …What are you talking about……”

It sounded almost as if they were saying a final farewell――just as an ominous premonition pierced through him, Shuu’s tall body suddenly tilted unsteadily. Before Natsuo could hurriedly catch him, Shuu managed to steady himself, but sweat had begun to bead on his forehead, and his face was deathly pale.

“……Let me see!”

Natsuo suddenly realized what was happening, rushed over to Shuu, and pulled open the outermost kimono he was wearing.

A groan escaped him involuntarily. The kimono layered underneath was stained red with blood seeping out from the place where Kazuo’s dagger had pierced him. He might have injured a major blood vessel. It must have been extremely painful, and even remaining still would surely have been difficult, so how had he managed to rush all the way here?

“Why……why did you――!”

Suffering a serious injury in a village without a hospital or doctor was practically the same as losing one’s life. He knew that, so why had Shuu done something like this?

“To let you escape to your original world.”

“Wh……at?”

For a brief moment, he could no longer sense either the drifting scent of blood or the fresh, green scent of the plants and trees.

…That was a statement that completely overturned the ‘common sense’ they had known ever since wandering into this village. Once someone wandered into Odamaki Village, they could never return to their original world. That was precisely why Shuu had given up on returning and instead tried to call Natsuo to his side, wasn’t it?

“If you drink this and enter the lake, you should be able to return to your original world.”

To Natsuo, whose lips were trembling, Shuu handed him a small bottle he had been carrying inside his robe. It was sealed with a cork and filled with a purple liquid.

“This color… could it be made from the sacred flowers…?”

“That’s right. It’s something made by processing the sacred flowers according to the village chief’s secret method. Drinking it will temporarily put you into a state of suspended animation.”

“………”

Natsuo immediately understood why Shuu was offering him something like that.

―――Megumi Lake had judged Yoshikawa’s corpse to be a foreign object and expelled it back into the original world. If so, perhaps Natsuo, too, would be able to return to the original world like Yoshikawa if he were put into a state of suspended animation. Shuu must have heard what happened to Yoshikawa from Natsuo and come to that conclusion.

……But even Shuu couldn’t have expected Etsuko-chan to do something like that today.

The reason he had been carrying around such a dangerous thing as a drug that could induce suspended animation was――.

“……Get him!”

“There’s a trail of blood. He ran this way!”

Just as Natsuo was about to question him, excited shouting could be heard from the direction of the residence. Accompanied by the sound of numerous footsteps, they were approaching this way without hesitation. Yet no one except the village chief was supposed to be allowed to enter Megumi Lake.

“……They came sooner than I expected.”

“Shuu, those are…”

“It’s Etsuko. She must have gone around telling anyone and everyone that I had been impersonating the village chief. The villagers who heard that… came here to kill you and me.”

Shuu said it calmly, but Natsuo couldn’t believe it. The villagers had trusted Shuu as the acting village chief and treated him with respect. Etsuko, on the other hand, had once been sentenced to death at trial, and after breaking out of prison, she had even turned against her own younger brother. For the villagers who had taken part in the trial to swallow Etsuko’s claims without question and then come here to kill Shuu and Natsuo was simply unbelievable.

“They regularly ingest the components of the sacred flowers during their drinking gatherings. Now that the village chief’s true identity has been exposed, Odamaki-sama’s divine will is probably at work.”

“Divine will… meaning… the one that keeps this village in the exact same state forever…”

“That’s right. …By calling you here, I have already gone against the divine will. It’s not as though you had no attachment to your original world, nor was it that you didn’t want to return.”

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Next update: 2026.11.15

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