May I Stay Here?
The girl came back on her own two feet to where the raccoon was.
"Where have the others gone?"
At the sight of her trudging in, the raccoon relaxed.
"They went looking for you. You must have missed each other."
"Is that so?"
"Has your heart eased?"
The girl gazed into the distance.
"I don't know. Only that he wished for me to be happy."
"So do I."
Sorrow settled into the raccoon's eyes. Glad and grieving at once, the look made the girl tilt her head.
"Did something happen?"
"Nothing happened."
The raccoon patted the place beside her.
"Let's talk a little, until the two of them come back."
"Very well."
The raccoon looked at the girl. Clear eyes looked back.
"What is your name?"
"A name...?"
A name. A name with a surname and a meaning was a noble's exclusive possession. What commoners had were Stone, Thirty-Five, One-Leg, Dog-Dung. That was all of it.
"I don't really have one."
"Would you like to make one yourself?"
"Would that be all right?"
If a noble caught her at it, there was no telling what might follow.
"Could you bear what came after?"
"This is a place where no one pays any mind."
The raccoon said it as if there were nothing to worry about.
"People the world has turned its back on have gathered here, and gathered again. Make yourself a name, and no one will say a word."
"Is that so..."
Even that man had had no name.
"The children who went after you have names too. Gyeoni and Hwani."
"Gyeoni for the dog ears, Hwani for the boar ears?"
"That's right."
"There's nothing to them."
"Names are like that."
The raccoon shrugged.
"And your name?"
"I don't have one. A raccoon is only a raccoon."
For some reason, the girl found that a pity.
"You told me to make one myself. Why haven't you made one for yourself?"
"I once asked Heaven for my name. The answer it gave me was raccoon."
"What?"
The girl startled.
"You can commune with Heaven?"
"Commune? Nothing so grand as that."
The raccoon looked up at the sky.
"I threw a childish tantrum, and it was merciful enough to answer."
"...Isn't that the same thing?"
Heaven, giving an answer to a single person. That alone was something.
"By that measure, aren't you the same?"
"......!"
"Can you say that you, too, can commune with Heaven?"
"...No."
All she did was pray to Heaven. Nothing more, and nothing less.
"How did you know?"
"I saw Heaven's trace upon you."
"What!?"
The raccoon stroked the girl.
"It isn't your fault."
The girl was drawn into those deep, gentle eyes—eyes that received her the way a warm mother's embrace would.
"What you did was just."
A hand reached the wounded heart.
"Heaven heard your prayer because you were right."
That Heaven had judged them, and that it had taken no price, was because the girl's wish had been just.
"Don't take it so much to heart."
"...How could I help it?"
She was the one who had failed to save them. There must have been some means of helping. She might have asked for aid. And the result? All of them were dead.
"I was afraid, and I clung to Heaven, and with these hands I ended the parents who bore me and the village that cared for me."
In the raccoon's eyes, the girl found a head of red hair. She touched the lengthened strands with her hand. Redder than blood. How many lives had come to dwell in this hair?
"I cannot turn away from this sin."
"It isn't a sin."
The raccoon touched the girl's hair. It was fine and thin, as if the slightest force would snap it.
"How can you say it isn't a sin?"
"This hair was given by Heaven."
Gently, the raccoon laid her hands over the girl's.
"A blessing, so that you might shine like the stars in that bright sky."
"I've had enough comfort."
The girl turned her gaze aside.
"Is that for the sake of the one who wishes you happiness?"
The girl flinched.
"He wouldn't want this. He would want you to look ahead."
"......"
"So let it go."
The girl drew a breath.
"...I'll try."
"That's enough."
"...Hmph."
Together with the raccoon, the girl looked up at the sky.
The raccoon said it kindly.
"This is that kind of place."
"I understand..."
The girl had been looking for a place to stay a while. The raccoon welcomed her.
An unfamiliar ceiling met the girl's eyes.
"So it wasn't a dream..."
She got up and tidied the bedding. It had been a long time since she had done even that.
"Are you up?"
"I am."
The girl answered the raccoon's voice, then stepped outside. Waiting there were the raccoon, and Gyeoni and Hwani, whom she had seen the day before.
"And you two?"
"The children will show you around the village."
Hwani came closer.
"You look better, fortunately."
The girl nodded.
"Good. Shall we head to the village, then?"
"...Yes."
"Auntie, we'll be going."
"Go safely, and see that she eats well."
"We will."
The girl set off for the village with Gyeoni and Hwani.
"The raccoon lives apart from the rest. Is there a reason?"
"Because Auntie wished it."
Hwani scratched his cheek. He, too, seemed to wish the raccoon lived in the village.
"Truth is, no one knows why. Raccoon Auntie has lived the longest of anyone, so the people who knew are all gone."
The girl had a guess. It must be because she touches Heaven. Not knowing what influence her existence might have, she was perhaps wary of contact with others.
"Fortunately, it isn't so far."
A clamor reached them. Beyond the forest, the village came into view, and something shot past right under her nose.
"Hey! Stop right there!"
"Don't wanna. This. Revenge."
A child spewing fire from his hands and a child made of stone went by.
"......?"
The girl's thoughts stopped cold. What. What was that.
"Whoa, her reaction's even better than I imagined."
Gyeoni snickered.
"Surprised?"
"...How could I not be?"
Fire from the hands, she could accept. Stone, she could not.
"Is that thing even human?"
"Hey, hey. You can't talk like that."
Gyeoni scolded her.
"This is a place where only people like that gather. You can't go expecting normal."
"Gyeoni's right. Best to throw your prejudices out."
Only then did the girl understand.
"...A heaven of stars."
They had gathered an armful of stars that could not see the light. A heaven of stars was the only fitting name.
"Come on. We're still at the entrance. Too early to be shocked."
Gyeoni hurried her along.
"You've got to see the dragon too, don't you?"
Anticipation rose in her. There really would be a dragon!
"You have to be careful when you look at the dragon. She's an old maid, and her temper is vicious, really..."
"What did you say?"
"Old maid..."
Something lurched. The dog ears went rigid. Behind Gyeoni a long snout had appeared: a dragon's head, green scales and whiskers, and sharp eyes.
A dragon!
The girl was astonished. Gyeoni felt death.
"I was describing my lovely elder sister."
"Cut the crap. Old maid what?"
The dragon's hand seized Gyeoni's shoulder. The hand was so enormous it looked as if his whole arm had been caught.
"Ha ha ha. You must have misheard, Sister."
"Did I?"
Fire roared from her nostrils.
"Then I'm allowed a mistake too, aren't I?"
"Ah, please—"
Gyeoni tore free of the claws and ran like a madman.
"The old-maid dragon is coming to kill me!"
"Stop right there, you damned thing!"
The dragon chased after the dog.
"Haa. This time he's really going to die."
Hwani shook his head.
"Don't mind them. Let's go in."
"...The illusion is shattered."
Not a solemn, dignified dragon. An unmarried one.
"Everyone says that. It's fine. There's plenty to see."
The girl entered the village, and it did not take her long to realize Hwani had told the truth.
"Whoa."
She let out a cry of wonder that finally suited her age. A person with bat wings. A person spitting water from the mouth. A person with fists of iron. A person wandering about as a pig. A person whose neck stretched like a snake. Things that looked like people and things that were not people at all lived side by side.
"It's rude to think they aren't people. Every one of them is a person, the same as any other."
Hwani cautioned her.
She knew. She could feel it. Everyone here was the same human being, born of great nature. Different shells, and the same essence.
"Astonishing. How was a place like this made?"
It had not been made in a day or two.
"I don't know either. All I know is that it's quite old."
Hwani snapped his fingers.
"Oh. Raccoon Auntie might know."
"Oho."
The girl's eyes lit. She would be sure to ask when they returned.
"Has such a thing occurred?"
"...Yes. The nation is in peril."
Without thinking, the girl turned toward the voices. A merchant stood there with an old man leaning on a staff.
"Who is that merchant?"
His dress was nothing like the villagers'. To the girl's eyes, he was an ordinary person.
"Someone who knows our circumstances comes by now and then... The mood doesn't look good."
The merchant's face and the old man's were grave.
"War has begun with the barbarians. This place may be in danger as well."
"...Even so, we cannot abandon land passed down from our forebears."
The old man sighed.
"You know, don't you? If we leave this place, we have nowhere to go."
"But..."
"It is all right."
The old man smiled sadly.
"If Heaven aids us, there will be a way."
"...Yes. I pray fortune will be with you."
The merchant drew his cart away and was gone.
"Wait a moment."
Hwani, his expression gone hard, approached the old man. Seeing him squeeze his eyes shut at the old man's words, the girl felt a stir of unease.
It will be all right.
The girl did not know. She did not know what sort of beings the barbarians the merchant spoke of were, nor what it meant that an empire raised by the greatest conqueror in history—an empire that had destroyed dozens of nations—had turned its attack upon a minor kingdom at the frontier.
Not then.