Epiphany Festival
Jorney’s prediction was spectacularly off.
No—spectacularly, badly off.
“Kana, dinner….”
“I’m not eating.”
“Ah, you’re not eating…? Okay, got it.”
Even when dinnertime came and went.
“Kana… I want to lie down too, so could you move over just a little…?”
“…”
“Ahaha, I suddenly feel like sleeping in my sleeping bag. I’ll sleep in the sleeping bag!”
Even when it was time for bed.
“Did you both sleep well? …Oh? Is Lady Kana still asleep?”
“Seems so….”
Even in the morning, when Celine came looking for them.
Kana remained buried under the blankets, not even lifting her head.
It had already been two days since Jorney had started telling herself, She’ll get over it eventually, and waited.
She had thought Kana’s mood would clear up in a few hours at the earliest, or by the next day at the latest. But even after two full nights had passed, it still showed no sign of lifting, like a monsoon that refused to break in midsummer.
Honestly, if it were only her mood, that would have been a relief.
For two whole days, Kana hadn’t eaten, hadn’t gone to the bathroom, and hadn’t once shown her face outside the blanket.
If not for the occasional rise and fall of the lump under the covers, Jorney would have seriously wondered whether Kana had died.
How can a person even do that?
To lie there under a blanket for days without moving at all.
Jorney’s concern had gone beyond worry and into sheer wonder.
In fact, she had already tried once to peel back the blanket Kana was wrapped in.
Kanaaa~
Don’t.
…Yes ma’am.
But Kana had noticed instantly and shut her down with a chilling warning.
“What on earth happened to make her like this?”
The viewers on Jorney’s stream were increasingly leaning toward the theory that Kana was going through “puberty.”
“No, I want to feed her too…. But what am I supposed to do when she’s like this?”
Jorney’s gaze fell on Kana, still wrapped in the blanket.
At this point, she even began to suspect the blanket might have become part of Kana’s body, like a turtle shell.
Kana… Canaria… turtle…
She tilted her chin thoughtfully.
Should I call her Katurtle? Or Kana-turtle?
“Hey, you think you’re so clever, why don’t you come up with something better!”
…Honestly, they were all annoying.
…Wasn’t it actually kind of decent?
Kana-turtle…. It was sort of cute, maybe.
Imagining Kana poking her head and arms out from under a blanket-shell made Jorney’s mouth soften into a silly grin.
“S-Ssh, it’s not like that! Don’t make the poor polar bear cry!”
She was only thinking of Kana as a little sister she cared about. That was all. She wasn’t into her in that way.
A ban was too harsh, so a chat timeout would do.
Jorney moved her fingers and silenced the environmental activist worried about the polar bear’s well-being.
“If you don’t want to end up the same way, watch yourselves.”
She wagged a finger at them threateningly.
Still, it really does seem like I should do something….
Any time someone so much as looked like they might touch her, Kana would hiss like a wary cat.
Moments ago she’d been thinking about turtles, and now she was thinking about cats. Jorney had completely forgotten even that.
Hmm, a cat, then.
Jorney clapped a hand to her palm.
“How about Kana-nyan? It’s Kana plus cat. It doesn’t stray too far from her real name, and the sound is pretty cute too, don’t you think?”
This time, the viewers’ reactions weren’t all that bad.
“Oh, right.”
Jorney’s thoughts, which had wandered off in response to one viewer’s jab, snapped back.
Turtle, cat—those weren’t the important things right now.
She had asked Celine in the hopes that perhaps Celine would know something.
“I’m afraid I don’t know what happened in the prayer room….”
But Celine had only lowered her head, apologizing for being unable to help, which meant Jorney had to bow her head in apology right along with her.
There was no good solution to be found, and no one she could really ask for help. Even when she tried to lean on the collective intelligence of the chat, the ideas that came out were hopelessly unhelpful, and all Jorney could do was let out a frustrated sigh.
…Did she really meet a god or something?
That was how desperate she was, to even think such a thing.
It was nonsense, so she quickly shoved the idea into a corner of her mind.
Rustle rustle.
Jorney suddenly turned toward the window.
Unlike her own mood, the faces of the people passing by outside were bright with excitement and delight.
The usually quiet atmosphere of the convent was visibly buzzing today as well.
Well, of course it was.
“This is going to be fun….”
The grand festival of the Ardeena Continent, beyond even the holy kingdom.
The Epiphany Festival had begun.
She had been looking forward to this day ever since she first heard about it.
For Jorney, who had spent so long dreaming of going around the festival hand in hand with Kana, the disappointment was inevitable.
She had been staring out the window so intently that even people passing by could tell, when suddenly she shouted:
“…No! It’s too early to give up!”
Back when Kana was still called the gravekeeper, had she ever imagined she’d become this close to the little girl?
Of course she’d gone up to befriend her in the first place, but back then the answer had been no easier to find than it was now.
If she had grown tired of the unanswered replies and given up, satisfied merely with the fact that they could communicate, then she never would have ended up traveling with Kana or sleeping in the same room with her now.
This was the result of stubborn persistence.
I’ve been putting up with things since I was little, so I’m used to it…!
Jorney clenched both fists, and a fire lit in her eyes.
It was good to let someone sort out their feelings on their own, sure, but sometimes it helped more to have someone drag them out of it instead.
Having made up her mind, she took one step toward the bed, then another.
“...Kana, I’m sorry in advance.”
Leaving behind those brief words, Jorney lifted the blanket.
Whoosh!
At that instant, a cold, prickling sensation swept over her, and she quickly twisted her body away.
That decision saved her life.
Flap—
Slash!
“...!”
The blanket fluttered down in pieces, and a hot sting bloomed across her cheek.
Only after seeing the thin line of blood trickling down did Jorney understand what had just happened.
The blanket slipped from Kana’s hand and hit the floor, and Kana, crouched beneath it, was now pointing a sword at Jorney with ice-cold eyes.
“I told you,” she said. “Don’t do that.”
Her voice sounded as though it had returned to the very first time they’d met—no, even colder than that.
If Jorney hadn’t twisted away, the sword would have definitely struck….
As she mentally traced the blade’s path, a shiver raced up her spine.
Up until now, no matter how much Jorney bothered her, Kana had only ever threatened her with words or delivered light, playful swats that were the kind of thing friends did to each other.
But what Kana had just done was an outright attack, and it had clearly been meant to kill.
“Anyway, you guys are ────.”
“…Huh?”
Her small lips kept moving, but no sound reached them.
More precisely, she could hear sound, but she couldn’t make sense of the words.
Jorney’s eyes went round as lanterns. She looked to the chat.
But the chat was only talking about the attack Kana had just made.
Even though enough time had passed for Kana’s words to have gone out over the broadcast and for feedback to come back in response.
“…So that’s what it was.”
Kana’s lips still moved as though she were speaking, then she seemed to notice something was off and stopped. Irritably, she scratched at her neck, then lowered her hand when her fingers caught on the choker there.
“I’m done playing with you.”
“W-What do you mean?”
Done playing.
Jorney’s mind went blank with shock.
She wasn’t shocked because Kana had thought of it as playing with her.
She had understood the true meaning behind those words, understood that they meant the end of their relationship.
So when her mind went momentarily white, she recovered quickly.
Half mocking, half genuinely shaken by the seriousness of the situation, the chat buzzed around her, but Jorney ignored it and spoke to Kana.
If she said the wrong thing here, she might be condemned as someone’s embarrassing black history for years to come.
Even so, she knew from experience that in moments like this, it was better to grit her teeth and be honest, even if it was mortifying.
“...If I did something to upset you, could you tell me? I know it might be embarrassing to say it directly, but I still want you to tell me. I really, really like you, Kana, so I don’t want us to part like this.”
When people get overwhelmed by emotion, they sometimes say things they don’t mean.
That happens to everyone, young or old, but when someone’s still immature at handling their feelings, it happens even more often.
Kana must be like that too.
“...”
Had her feelings gotten through? Kana bit down on her lip without a word.
She’ll damage them if she keeps doing that… Jorney thought absentmindedly.
After staring at Jorney in silence for what felt like ages, Kana’s eyes softened, drooping back into their usual shape.
At the same time, the sword she had been pointing at her lowered toward the floor, and the tense air, sharp enough to cut, loosened by a degree.
Not completely, though.
The chat erupted at Kana’s change.
“...No. It’s not.”
“...?”
Kana muttered something incomprehensible.
Before Jorney could even question it, Kana spoke again.
“...I’m sorry for saying I’d play with you.”
“Mm… It’s okay. Kana really did play with me. I know I was bothering you a lot, if I’m honest.”
“...”
Kana stared at Jorney, who laughed with an awkward “ahaha,” with complicated eyes.
For a moment more, she held that look.
Then Kana’s expression hardened again.
“But I mean it when I say I don’t want to hang out with you anymore.”
“Can I ask what happened—”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Mm, I figured.”
So it wasn’t that she wouldn’t tell her, but that she couldn’t.
Even then, Jorney quietly tucked that clue away in the box of her memory, something she might use to win Kana back later.
“Then I guess we should part ways here. ...I was planning to look around the holy kingdom area anyway, so what are you going to do after you split off from me?”
“...I don’t know.”
As if she truly hadn’t thought about it at all, Kana answered hesitantly.
“...Maybe I’ll go snake hunting.”
“Snake hunting?”
Was she planning to become a snake catcher?
Jorney desperately wanted to ask, but instinct told her Kana didn’t have much time left.
Truthfully, anyone with even a shred of sense could have told that much just by looking into Kana’s empty eyes.
So instead of asking her to explain the strange answer, Jorney said something else.
“Then could you do me one last favor and go on a date with your big sister? The Epiphany Festival starts today, and I didn’t make any other plans because I wanted to go with you. It’d be lonely to look around by myself, but if I leave without seeing it, I’ll regret it too much…. So just today—just for one day—could you hang out with me? Please?”
“...”
Jorney stared desperately at Kana’s mouth, not daring to blink.
At last, those tiny pink lips parted.
“...Okay.”
Whoosh—
It wasn’t a cheerful yes, but it was a yes all the same, and Jorney let out a relieved breath.