The Sage and the Goddess
“I didn’t expect anyone to be living here. I got curious who would go and build a house all alone on a mountain peak, so I came up to take a look.”
“Ha… haha……”
She was talking about erasing a mountain.
She said it as lightly as if she were merely stepping out for a stroll around the neighborhood.
Sunya considered the matter. In this world, humanity still lacked the technology and power to reshape terrain on the scale of mountains. A rocky mass like Mount Ebih was especially unyielding. Even in the twenty-first century, nine people out of ten would have questioned the sanity of a girl who casually spoke of wiping a mountain from the map.
Yet Sunya did not lower his guard. Anyone who lived in this land would have known better than to dismiss her words as empty boasting.
“Might I ask why you wish to remove the mountain?”
“Just because. It’s in the way. Too tall and showy for no good reason. I can’t stand it until I’ve broken its pride.”
Sunya understood exactly what she meant. People sometimes felt an impulse to destroy something simply for the sake of destruction—kicking over a snowman by the roadside, toppling a line of dominoes, snapping a long branch. For this girl, the target of that urge happened to be Mount Ebih.
“Well, you’re lucky I found you first. You should head down the mountain while you still can.”
“Haha…… That would be a little inconvenient. Moving house is surprisingly tiring work.”
“So?”
The girl shot back as though she could not see the problem. The way she glanced at him with that prim, sidelong look struck Sunya as oddly charming.
“I was asking whether you might reconsider.”
“I don’t want to.”
“This mountain is excellent for hunting and gathering. The villages nearby benefit greatly from it.”
“Not my problem.”
“And I’ve grown rather fond of this spot. Would you please think it over just once more?”
“Why should I?”
“Besides, the view from here is quite fine, is it not? Coming up now and then to catch the breeze does not seem so bad to me.”
“Not interested.”
Wrong approach. She was thoroughly stubborn. Sunya knew her type well enough. People like her had to seize what they wanted with their own hands and carry out whatever they fancied themselves; nothing else would satisfy them. Words alone would never sway her.
So he changed tactics.
“I ask it as a personal favor. For the sake of this face of mine, at least.”
He decided to employ the greatest weapon he possessed—something that might pass for a little charm.
“……What about your face?”
“I may not look like much, but I am rather handsome, am I not? Having seen a face this fine, granting a single concession would not be so terrible, I should think.”
“Pfft! What is that supposed to mean?”
The girl let out a short laugh and finally looked at Sunya properly.
True to his own claim, his face was strikingly handsome. Refined, one might say. His features were so elegant and well-formed that one could easily guess at noble birth. His brows and hair were white, yet they did not strike her as strange. And it was not merely a pretty face. His body possessed the strong, masculine beauty of an excellent warrior. Tall and broad-shouldered, he carried not an ounce of excess flesh; every muscle was perfectly balanced and sculpted, so that one felt a sense of pure form.
Dignity and wildness. Two qualities that seemed impossible to blend were both present in the man before her, and yet they formed a perfect harmony. Truly a rare and beautiful youth.
The girl was still inexperienced with men, but she possessed a basic sense of beauty. A man whose looks shone like a jewel was more than enough to catch the interest of a tomboy.
“Well, among humans you’re certainly the prettiest one I’ve seen. You wouldn’t lose even to my relatives. In some ways you might even be better.”
“Haha……”
“Fine, I’ll give you that. You really are good-looking.”
He had tossed the remark out half in jest, yet hearing her evaluate his appearance so seriously left Sunya feeling strangely awkward. For a moment he wondered whether he ought to be pleased or not.
“All right. I’ll let it slide this time.”
“Thank you.”
“What’s your name?”
At the girl’s question Sunya’s mouth closed for a moment. Whenever the subject of names arose, his throat always tightened.
“……Please call me Sunya.”
“Sunya, then. Why did you build a house all the way up here instead of living in a village?”
“No particular reason. Mixing with people just feels a little… inconvenient, I suppose.”
“Inconvenient? How?”
“……Indeed. What is it that feels inconvenient, I wonder?”
Answering a question with another question made the girl frown.
“What? Are you messing with me?”
“Not at all. I mean it literally. I myself do not know what I truly want to do.”
The girl sensed a vague emptiness in Sunya—an unnameable, sticky, unsettling scrap of feeling that was utterly foreign to her.
“You’re a strange one, aren’t you?”
“Haha……”
“Even your laugh sounds pathetic.”
“Does it?”
“But I like it.”
She smiled a smile whose meaning he could not read. Looking at her, Sunya felt an unaccountable chill crawl over his skin.
“I’ve gotten curious about you. So tell me your story.”
“That might be a little……”
“Does it look like I’m asking?”
“Hmm…… Probably not.”
“Then hurry up and start.”
Even so, Sunya cupped his chin and hesitated. When words finally left his mouth, they were not the answer she wanted.
“I’m afraid I cannot.”
“What?”
“I do not feel especially inclined to tell my story to someone I have only just met.”
“……You stood there thinking that long and all you come out with is that? Did it never occur to you that I might change my mind and tear the mountain down after all?”
She had shown only a little irritation, yet the pressure that rolled off her was considerable. For an instant the air seemed to shimmer and warp like heat haze. It was the sheer rank of her existence. It did not work especially well on Sunya.
“Then there is nothing to be done. I have tried as far as I can; if it cannot be, I must simply accept it.”
“You were trying to persuade me a moment ago, yet you give up pretty fast.”
“It is a pity, of course. But I am not the sort to cling beyond reason to something that will not work. Or rather…… I am trying not to be. And in any case, I am merely a ‘guest’ here; I have no right to claim ownership of Mount Ebih against you.”
He talked strangely. Was he deliberately making himself hard to understand because she was young? The girl felt her temper rising.
“Stop circling around and say it straight. You’re starting to get on my nerves.”
“Ah, forgive me. I had no intention of upsetting you. I only meant that I would ask as much as I could, but if it proved impossible then there was nothing to be done. This mountain is not even mine, after all.”
“……If I bring Mount Ebih down, where will you go? Some village nearby?”
“No. I plan to go somewhere without people again.”
“So where exactly?”
“Who can say? Somewhere quiet and secluded that will not attract the interest of little girls, I should think.”
“What?”
Anger flared hot inside her. She had been showing mercy, and now she was certain he was mocking her.
How dare this insolent wretch!! I show him kindness and he climbs all over me! Who does he think I am to speak to me like that!!
The girl unleashed her presence. The earth trembled and beasts fled in every direction. Her voice pierced not the ears but the soul itself; Sunya felt a heat so intense it defied description. An ordinary human would have been unable even to breathe. It would not have been surprising if such a person simply burned to death on the spot.
“Perhaps it is because I do not know who you are that I speak this way.”
But Sunya was no ordinary human. The fact that he had come from the future was only one of many secrets he carried. He neither flinched nor broke into a cold sweat. His face wore an expression of mild discomfort, yet to the girl’s eyes it looked like nothing more than shameless play-acting.
“……Well, I suppose that’s fair.”
Faced with Sunya’s unchanging calm, the girl somehow felt the wind leave her sails. Had she possessed more experience, she might have sensed that he was no ordinary man; whether fortune or misfortune, she had not yet dealt with many humans. Thus, while she could tell he was somehow special, she could not put her finger on what that specialness truly was. For now, to her, Sunya was simply something interesting.
“Then remember this from now on. I won’t explain it twice.”
“Yes. I shall keep it in mind.”
“Open your ears and listen carefully.”
Ahem.
The girl cleared her throat. Wanting to startle Sunya if she could, she drew herself up and spoke with as much grandeur as she could muster.