Chapter 1
Chapter 1
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: I Found a Dying Girl Child
That day felt somehow different.
Just like always, I was lying in my stone sarcophagus,
lost in a very peaceful and leisurely long slumber.
The prophecy was still far off,
the gods were silent,
and the humidity and temperature were perfect.
But.
For some reason.
"...My back hurts."
To be more precise,
there was a stabbing pain under my right wing bone.
I tried to ignore it and go back to sleep,
but in the end, my eyes opened.
"......Yawn."
I let out a long yawn after awakening from my long sleep.
Sunlight filtering through the cracks in the sarcophagus lid stabbed at my eyes.
"It's daytime."
I opened the sarcophagus lid.
As soon as I did, warm sunlight greeted me.
What I sensed upon waking from my long sleep wasn't
the smell of the battlefield,
nor the cries of the gods.
It was just a faint, fragrant floral scent.
Truly,
a peaceful smell that was disorientingly serene.
"Must be spring."
I sat up, my body languid.
"Mm..."
I flapped my wings once, and dust scattered everywhere.
My spine, unused for so long, crackled.
I slowly turned my head to look out the window.
The sky was blue,
the flower-filled forest was peaceful,
and the world flowed by quietly, as if nothing was happening.
'No signs of disaster at all.'
No god had awakened me,
and the world hadn't called for me.
Which meant—
"I'm definitely awake earlier than planned..."
How much earlier, I wondered.
Even I would be troubled if it was a few hundred years.
Still sitting in the sarcophagus with my arms crossed, I pondered leisurely.
I probably hadn't fully recovered my strength from waking early,
but I could at least check when the day of the prophecy was.
I'll check quickly.
And if I have to stay awake longer, I'll just go back to sleep.
'Though my sleepiness is gone.'
I raised both hands and slowly gathered power.
Maybe because I'd just woken up, or because it was too early, the power didn't come easily.
"...Mm."
About five minutes of gathering, perhaps.
The day of the prophecy began to appear before my eyes.
"Let's see."
40 years.
Time left until the gods called for me.
'...Awkward.'
A mere instant for me, but too vague for doing anything substantial.
Too halfway to go back to sleep,
too early to start moving now.
A hassle to reorganize forcibly,
and nothing particular to do if I stayed awake.
"What to do..."
For now, I dispersed the gathered power and slowly stepped out of the sarcophagus.
The calm air, the scent of grass,
the pleasant birdsong from afar.
"So this is how peaceful the world is before the disaster."
This sight felt quite unfamiliar since it had been so long.
And so—
I leisurely spent about ten years just gazing out the window.
The world changed slowly.
The forest turned pink,
then green, soon red, and soon covered in white.
Several seasons passed like that.
Beasts reproduced,
grass died and regrew repeatedly,
and occasionally, people ventured deeper in.
In the meantime—
nothing special happened.
"...You were the cause of my interrupted sleep."
I brushed away a small pebble from the bottom of the sarcophagus.
Probably from the lid crumbling due to the sarcophagus's age.
"Maybe I should make a new sarcophagus since I have nothing to do."
Just making a new sarcophagus,
cleaning the long-neglected bedroom,
"This way will do."
"Thank you! I survived thanks to you!"
Other than occasionally guiding lost travelers to the village,
it was utterly idle days with nothing special.
Like that,
ten years after starting to gaze out the window.
"...I'm getting bored."
Maybe because the wind felt less refreshing that day.
Or because the birds repeated the same melody to the point of annoyance.
I slowly stood from my seat.
I donned a robe I'd prepared long ago.
"Shall I take a walk?"
I suddenly felt like seeing the world after so long.
There was no grand reason.
I was just bored.
'Still 30 years left anyway.'
I'll treat the remaining time like a vacation and wander the world leisurely.
After that, I wandered the world leisurely.
Sometimes flying through the skies,
walking along rivers,
crossing mountains and borders.
Whenever I saw a village, I stopped without fail.
"Is this enough payment?"
"...Ah, yes. But how did you get such an antique?"
"It was at home."
"...Pardon?"
Occasionally someone eyed me suspiciously,
but most just dismissed me as a traveler.
The world they faced up close was too busy to care about me.
I was merely a quiet observer watching it all.
Walking through dingy back alleys,
browsing market goods,
passing by petty squabbles over trifles.
"Is it tasty?"
"Yes! Thank you!"
"Won't you have some, brother?"
"I don't like sweets."
Gazing blankly at children eating ice cream in a market corner.
"...Huh? Brother, he's gone."
"What? He was sitting right here."
I didn't mingle with the crowds,
but quietly blended in like a traveler, observing them.
Sometimes I watched wars from afar.
Some cried,
some died,
some rejoiced,
and some went mad upon receiving death notices.
I simply
watched it all.
Doing nothing,
just quietly.
An instant passed.
Instead of the thick smoke of world-destroying bombardment,
gorgeous festival fireworks filled the night sky.
"...Pretty."
It was a victory celebration festival.
Fireworks celebrating the war's end lit the night sky,
and people toasted to each other's survival.
Children reached for sparkling tree ornaments,
and reunited lovers held hands and smiled.
Some sat on the roadside weeping,
and someone passed by silently.
I looked down on it all from above.
Not approaching closely,
but leisurely turning my head from afar, watching one by one.
"...For once, shall I watch from closer up?"
There was no particular reason.
I just felt like it suddenly.
The sight of children picking hairpins,
young men haggling with merchants in the market.
An old blacksmith shaking his head with a sword in hand, saying "This one's no good."
Such trivial things piqued my curiosity.
Out of boredom,
or perhaps—
because I wanted to see the world right after the disaster ended.
Like that, I descended to the uninhabited forest below.
I walked slowly, very slowly, toward the village.
The season was late autumn.
The leaves had all fallen, and snow would come soon.
Then the bare trees would turn pure white again.
'...Though there aren't even bare trees left around here.'
The village came into view from afar.
The festival was still in full swing.
And the war-torn ruins remained as they were.
"It's changed."
Not particularly sentimental.
Just stating a fact.
There were more buildings than in my memories,
and unfamiliar flags and shops stood between them.
'A new inn.'
Inns for travelers seemed to have increased.
It was a bit surprising that surviving buildings existed amid the war's ruins.
'...Well, even when I bring disaster, humans stubbornly survive.'
I passed straight through the village entrance.
Someone greeted me,
and I gave a tiny nod.
That was enough.
"Keep this path clear!"
"A bit more to the side! There, there. Clear those wood scraps!"
Someone's shouts,
someone's laughter,
and the faint sound of a flute from somewhere.
'...That kid.'
A temporary stage in the central square.
The man playing the flute there with a donation box—
was the little kid
I'd once bought ice cream for.
The face grinning with missing front teeth.
The small hand clutching my robe,
asking, "Why don't you like sweets, brother?"
Back then, he looked like he owned the world over one ice cream.
Now—
on stage, he was gathering people with a simple flute.
'Not bad.'
I slowly approached the stage and dropped money into the donation box.
The kid paused his flute.
"Thank you!"
"Sounds good."
"Haha, it's still amateurish, but thank you for listening kindly."
The kid greeted another donor.
I chuckled softly
and turned away.
Human memories were as fleeting as ashes in the wind, after all.
A quietly vanishing observer.
A traveler who lingers in no one's memory.
Leaving no trace,
just passing by like that.
I walked on, silently covering fleeting memories.
Slowly,
very leisurely.
'...This place is complete ruins.'
While walking blankly, I found a sparsely populated area.
Collapsed brick buildings,
fallen signs,
scattered wooden debris here and there.
I kicked them indifferently and pressed forward.
No noise at all.
Hardly any sign of people.
Just away from the square,
and this place was as still as if time had stopped.
"Strange... Huh."
A presence nearby.
Very faint,
like it would vanish any moment.
The kind no one would notice passing by.
Yet it clearly scraped against my senses.
My steps halted.
"Over there?"
Curiosity turned my feet.
I headed toward the presence.
That place was
a dingy alley no one sought.
And there, I found a girl child sitting with dead eyes.