TBITW Chapter 30

Chapter 30 – Confided

Main Story 2, Chapter 5

Novel Title: 獣はかくして交わる (The Beasts Intertwine This Way)

Author：沙野 風結子 (Fuyuko Sano)

Illustrator：小山田 あみ (Oyamada Ami)

Translator: K (@kin0monogatari)

Protagonists: 鹿倉 陣也 (Kagura Jinya -MC) & ゼロ (Zero -ML)

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

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Leaving the Tokyo Metropolitan Police headquarters, Kagura Jinya headed southwest along Sakurada Avenue. He paused briefly by the entrance leading to Hibiya Line’s Kasumigaseki Station, but continued down the sidewalk without descending the stairs.

If he took the train, he’d likely miss his stop at Kamiyacho again and end up all the way in Nakameguro.

“My maternal grandfather was on a death row.”

Zero’s voice, dark as the night, echoed in his mind.

Kagura hadn’t investigated who that criminal was. Nor was he interested in the heinous crimes Zero’s grandfather might have committed. Knowing such details wouldn’t lessen his attachment to Zero, nor would it bring him any closer to understanding him.

―――…A foothold.

That word had been stuck in his chest ever since.

He couldn’t shake the feeling that he had missed a crucial connection tied to Zero’s story that night about his birth.

At an intersection, a red light brought him to a halt.

He sighed and cast his gaze around the area. This was an administrative district, so despite its central location, the sky seemed wide open. A break in the rainy season had brought a cloudless sky today.

He looked back over his shoulder and up at the northern sky. Kagura narrowed his eyes.

A faint constellation, nearly washed out by the city lights, took the shape of an overturned ladle.

―――…The Big Dipper.

Zero had once called the last star in the handle, Benetnasch, his mother. In Arabic tradition, the ladle’s bowl is seen as a coffin, and the three stars in the handle represent the three daughters pulling it while weeping for their father. Benetnasch is the eldest of the three sisters.

And Zero identified with the nearby Alcor, the ‘death star’ lying next to the central star of the handle.

Alcor means ‘something faint’, ‘forgotten’, or ‘rejected’.

Now, only Benetnasch among the three sister stars was clearly visible, while her two younger sisters were barely discernible. Alcor couldn’t be seen at all.

―――…I see.

Finally, Kagura felt that the foothold Zero had given him was taking shape. He fully understood at last.

“This is a family photo.”

Zero had shown him an image with the three stars in the bowl missing and described it that way.

The eldest daughter weeping as she pulls the coffin is his mother.

Zero, who was repeatedly considered for abortion by his mother and, even after his birth, was never truly seen by her.

And within that unseen coffin would be his grandfather, the condemned criminal. Referring to him as ‘a death row criminal’ implied that the sentence had already been carried out. Most likely, Zero hadn’t come to terms with his grandfather’s existence.

An unknown father, whom Zero can’t picture as part of the family, is not in that ‘photo’.

A bottomless, desolate world seemed to press down on him from above.

―――So you’d already confided in me after all.

It was a revelation more profound than Zero’s birth or upbringing―――a secret rooted in the depths of his heart.

Kagura didn’t claim to fully understand Zero.

But now, he could finally envision Zero’s presence within his chest, deep in his core.

With that Zero in his heart, Kagura reflected on what he wanted to do moving forward.

Even as the traffic light cycled through its colours, Kagura continued to gaze at the northern sky.

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*Translator’s Note: Re-reading the book made me notice all the hints given by the author for the revelation in volume 3. Hmm… -K

Next update: 3rd Oct 2025. If you see no updates, wait for announcement on Discord

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