Finding the Hidden Picture (5)
Knock, knock.
"Master, it's Isana."
Isana rapped on the door of the main building where her master's shadow resided. A moment later, a presence stirred on the other side. She eased the door open without a sound and slipped inside.
Within the room, Pyne's shadow still shimmered in the air. The form that had worn the shape of a short-haired man only a short while ago had now become a slender woman — long, straight hair, a willowy frame.
Isana faced the shadow and bowed at the waist.
"I've shown him to the guest quarters, Master. I've spread my senses, so I'll catch any suspicious movement at once."
"Hehe. Well done. Ah, Isha. Could you take a look at this?"
The shadow answered as it gave a light flick of the hand toward a sheet of paper lying before it. Just as its form had changed, so too had its voice — from the clear, easy tones of a young man to the thin, delicate voice of a woman.
Isana picked up the paper and scanned its contents.
"Edwin requested some herbs separately, but I don't know the first thing about that field. I told him I'd look into it, but do you think we can get them?"
"Moonroot, Three-Star Roundleaf, Nine-Strand Thornwood...? Forgive me, but I'm not particularly well-versed in herbs either. I'll need to seek an apothecary's advice. Master, how does that man Edwin even know these herbs exist, to request them like this? Given that he's coming to us for them, they don't seem to grow in Westerners' lands. And how did he know our land is in the grip of a severe drought, to make such a proposal to you?"
"Hehe. I don't know either," Pyne said with a light laugh. "If we're going to start asking that, how did he know our identities in the first place? That's where you'd have to begin. Edwin refused to talk until the end, so I couldn't dig too deep — but the more tightly he hid it, the more curious I became. I could barely stand it. He's a truly unfathomable person."
"Master. This isn't something to brush off so lightly. I'm still uneasy. If he harbors even a sliver of ill intent, not only this outpost but our homeland itself could be in danger. In the worst case, even your person, Master...!"
"Enough." Pyne cut her off, her tone suddenly firm, unlike a moment before. "Isha, it's not as if I haven't considered your worries. But if you spoke with him yourself, you'd know he's not that kind of person. Trust me. He didn't tell a single lie today. And it's also true that we have no real solution with our strength alone. Isha, you know better than anyone how Mother Earth is withering away..."
As she spoke, Pyne found herself recalling the words Edwin had said to her.
Edwin had even offered to swear it under a Seal of Silence if necessary, but Pyne had seen no need and firmly talked him out of it. Thinking back on it now, she wondered if that might have been the wiser call, if only to cut down the risk. But Edwin had shown them his trust first. It was only right that they answer in kind.
And what she had just said was not merely to put Isana at ease. From long years of living in hiding, Pyne could pride herself on reading the hidden heart of a person better than anyone. The look in Edwin's eyes as he spoke with such confidence had been clearer and cleaner than anything she had ever seen in her life.
"And Isana — Edwin asked for a guide as far as Palana. I think you'll have to take that on. What do you say? You could gather the herbs he requested while you're at it. Going together might not be a bad idea...?"
Edwin had asked her earlier whether a place called Palana happened to be nearby. Palana was the name of a low mountain that stood a stone's throw from the settlement of the Barda Clan, to which Pyne belonged. He had even known there was a cave on that mountain. No — it was less that he knew, and more that he had asked in a tone of utter certainty that it was there.
How on earth did he know even a detail as small as that?
"Palana. Hah. And how he knew about that place, too. Very well. I shall follow your command, Master, and serve as his guide. It may even be for the better. I'll be able to watch him up close and make sure he doesn't try anything foolish."
"Isha..."
Pyne rested a hand lightly against her head and shook it from side to side. Unlike herself, who felt more interest than suspicion, Isana still seemed to distrust him a great deal.
"More importantly, Master — isn't it still class time? Should you really be doing this?"
"Mmh. Honestly, I got so absorbed talking with Edwin that roll call already came and went... It's fine. Missing once or twice won't hurt my studies at all, and I spent the time more valuably on something far more important. I should head out soon, though. Missing two in a row would be a bit much. Isha, you go attend to your duties as well. I'll contact you if anything comes up."
"Understood, Master. I'll take my leave."
"Mm. Isha. Bai~"
"Pardon? Master, what is that supposed to..."
"Heh. It's a greeting Margaret taught me today. She says it's all the rage among the young ladies in the capital these days. How was it?"
"Haa... I'll take my leave."
"Tch. You're no fun..."
Pyne stuck out her lip and grumbled, but Isana paid it no mind at all and backed out of the room. The door shut with a click, and the surroundings sank into stillness in an instant.
Against that quiet, Pyne drifted into thought.
Edwin Reed...
No matter how she turned it over, he was a fascinating person. According to Isana's report, she had dropped her disguise and threatened him — and Edwin had not shown so much as a flicker of agitation. Even granting that he had known their identities in advance, was it truly possible to look upon their true forms and treat them as if nothing were out of the ordinary?
That ran entirely contrary to everything Pyne had taken as common sense.
Her clan had, for generations, made their home closer to Westerners' territory than any other. There had even been a fair number among them who hid their appearances, melted into Western society, and lived lives savoring its culture and its advanced goods. But things had never gone as smoothly as one might have hoped.
The Westerners suppressed anything even remotely connected to demons with a zeal that bordered on the excessive. Those whose identities were discovered, without a single exception, were treated as demons incarnate and put to death, ending their lives in misery. Such, it seemed, was the shock their true forms delivered to the humans of the west.
As those tragedies repeated, the custom of venturing into the Western Continent gradually died away. Now only Pyne and a handful of loyal retainers barely kept that tradition alive.
That their own land was saturated with Magi — demonic energy Westerners could not endure — was a blessing, if it could be called one. On top of that, the Three Gods Religion that most of them followed had designated this place a Forbidden Zone and strictly barred all entry. No one dared come near, and thanks to that, they had lived in comfort and safety.
But in recent years, a drought they had never once suffered in all the generations they had dwelled here began to visit them again and again. This year the severity was especially cruel: more than sixty percent of their lands had produced no harvest whatsoever, and their stores of food had reached their limit, scraping the very bottom.
They had been stamping their feet in helplessness, with no solution in sight, when the heavens let down a lifeline from a quarter no one could have predicted.
A lifeline by the name of Edwin Reed.
When Edwin had revealed his identity earlier, she had felt as though she had heard the name somewhere, and after a moment she had managed to place it. She hadn't been particularly interested, so she didn't know much — but among this year's freshmen, he was quite a famous figure.
Any number of nicknames had attached themselves to him, and not a single one of them was kind; his infamy was that tremendous. The one she remembered was... Young Lady Iris's only blemish, was it?
In any case, the last news she had heard of him was this: he had been bullying commoner students in a group when campus security raided the scene, and the disciplinary committee had piled every past sin onto him at once, handing down a heavy sentence of a sixty-day suspension and a class demotion. Judging by the timing, it seemed obvious that the Edwin who had come here to Easthall and the Edwin she had heard of were one and the same.
But he's nothing like the rumors...
The Edwin she had been told about and the Edwin she had met in person were so different in their conduct that they might as well have been two different people. If he were the arrogant Edwin of rumor, the one who looked down on commoners and the weak, he would have had no reason whatsoever to treat them this way — they who, from a Westerner's standpoint, were demons themselves.
What was more, the man she had seen possessed a mind so open she could have named him the least prejudiced person in the world.
Then were the rumors wrong? But the bulletin posted by the student council had laid out his offenses in plain detail, the charges clearly proven. Had he mended his ways, then, after the punishment? That couldn't be it either. No matter how heavy the sentence, the idea that a person could change down to the root in so short a time was absurd.
Then where, exactly, was the truth hiding?
"Hehe... how fascinating..."
And that was not the only thing that puzzled her. When Isana had come in midway and left a map, Edwin had clearly understood the greeting Pyne had offered in their own tongue, and had even used it as material for a compliment. She had nearly lost her composure from the surprise.
In all her life, Pyne had never seen — nor even heard of — a Westerner who could speak their language, let alone recognize a single letter of it.
"Ah... I can't wait... now I'm really curious..."
The more she thought, the harder Edwin's nature became to grasp, and Pyne found herself taking a deep interest.
"Our junior Edwin... I do hope his suspension ends soon. How many days are left? Will I get to see him at the Academy too? Or maybe I should go first... Margaret, wait! I'm changing! Oh, honestly! I said wait a second! Hey!!!"
Mid-monologue, as if someone had interrupted her, the shadow vanished in an instant — snuffed out like a candle in the wind. All that remained was a veil, stirring faintly, as though to hint that some presence had occupied that very spot until a moment ago.
Complete silence settled over the room.