Camping for the Cat (3)
It was the middle of the day, warm sunlight sneaking in through the gaps in the drawn curtains.
The room was still dim as ever, but the sun had already climbed to its peak.
"Levi, you're really not holding service today?"
Eisen asked, standing there half-asleep, rumpled and disheveled.
"No. This isn't the church, after all. It can't be helped."
I answered, just as rumpled and disheveled, forcing my mouth open with great effort.
By all rights, I should have spent the day much the same as usual and gone to sleep like always. And yet, somehow, I — the one who was supposed to wake up first — had risen later than Eisen.
"Wouldn't it be better to at least do a short one?"
"...I'm fine. Missing it for a day or two won't bring divine punishment down on us. Lady Paelia isn't so petty as that."
At my flat reply, Eisen made a faintly uneasy face, but before long he was scratching his head and slowly drifting back into a daze.
"Huh. Really?"
"Of course. So today, don't think about anything and just take it easy."
Frankly speaking, I couldn't see much reason to diligently hold service anywhere that wasn't the church. At the church, a number of circumstances stacked together had left me with no choice but to hold it every day — but anywhere else, there was simply no motivation to be found. For someone like me, who still didn't hold any deep religious faith, worship was just one of those duties you performed because you were expected to.
"Um, everyone...?"
I was letting myself sink into the quiet that had settled over the room again, blinking absently at nothing, when Lilrune — who despite having gone to bed the latest had been the first of us awake — suddenly spoke up.
"What time should I start the village tour...?"
She looked just as immaculate as yesterday, not a hair out of place. There wasn't a trace of tiredness in her as she stood politely in the middle of the room.
"I'm sorry, but I'll be resting here until nightfall."
"Wherever you are, Levi, you never go out and about in the daytime."
"Just think of it as a sun allergy..."
"Then can I go look around the village with the kids?"
"Go ahead. It's a rare opportunity, so you might as well take a look at the World Tree while you're at it..."
"Yes!"
This was a place where, in many ways, we couldn't afford to let our guard down. Still, I figured the kids these days were more than capable of going off and enjoying themselves without me.
"Lilrune, the kids are in your care."
"Huh? M-me...?"
"There's no need to feel pressured. Just guide them like you did yesterday."
"Ah...!"
Besides, Lilrune was the kind of child who threw her whole heart into everything she did. There was hardly anything left for me to worry about.
"Let's go. World Tree. Curious."
By some point, Iris had already finished getting ready and stood proudly by the door. Just moments ago she'd been squirming around in bed, wandering somewhere deep in dreamland — when on earth had she started listening and gotten herself prepared?
"I'll stay with you, Sister... Too tired..."
"No, Ellie. We came all this way — we have to see the World Tree at least once."
"Mmm... It's just a tree, when you get right down to it..."
Snugly settled into my lap where I sat on the edge of the bed, Ellie began to fuss — a whine that didn't even really qualify as a complaint.
Under normal circumstances, I should have launched into a lengthy explanation of the World Tree to stoke her interest. But sadly, when it came to her point that it was, at the end of the day, just a tree, I had no rebuttal to offer whatsoever. Because I thought exactly the same thing.
"N-no, that's not true...! The World Tree is no ordinary tree..."
At that, Lilrune spoke up in my place, immediately pushing back against Ellie's words.
"The World Tree is a tree that gives off a sacred aura. To us elves, it's practically a divine being..."
"So it's not just a tree that happens to be really big?"
"Of course not! It's very, very different."
Typical of an elf I had personally approved of — Lilrune seemed to genuinely hold the World Tree in reverence. You could feel it radiating from her whole being: her unwavering belief that it was a sacred existence.
"Have fun out there, Ellie. We can play together anytime, but you won't often get the chance to see the World Tree with your own eyes."
"Mmm... It's a hassle though..."
Thanks to my parting words, Ellie finally wriggled out of my lap and began getting ready to head outside, grumbling the whole way.
...
It wasn't as if I was sending the kids out because I wanted time alone. It was because I'd heard somewhere, once upon a time, that children needed to see and experience many things from a young age if they were to grow into adults with a deep understanding of the world and a proper knowledge of who they were. This was all for the sake of the kids' sound values. However trivial it looked, each of these little things would become their flesh and blood, nourishing them for life.
"What are you going to do here by yourself, Levi? Won't you be bored?"
"I'm going to rest."
I answered Eisen's question without a single moment of hesitation.
Eisen's mouth curved into an awkward half-smile, wearing an expression that defied description.
"O-oh. I see..."
"It's a rare trip, so go have fun. I'll be waiting here."
"Yeah... You rest up too."
I was not lying. That shameless thought — that I wanted to savor a little time and leisure all to myself, here on a rare trip, no less — I swear on the name of Goddess Paelia that I never entertained it. Not for a second.
"I won't say a word even if you come back a little late today, so take your time and enjoy yourselves."
And with those words, I broke out the gentlest, most angelic smile in all the world, filling my face with it from edge to edge.
The looks in the kids' eyes did gradually start to shift into something rather odd as they stared at that expression of mine, but I paid it no great mind and simply waved my right hand at them, firm and unwavering.
.
.
.
- Click.
The moment the kids had all filed out, the room was instantly filled with a desolate stillness. I supposed that after spending so long in the children's constant company, I'd reached the point where even a brief absence at my side left me wrapped in some nameless unease, unable to sit still.
"Hoooh..."
It had been barely an hour since the kids headed out to play. Spending time alone like this, the little habits I'd long forgotten began to surface one by one. Legs crossed in front of the small round table, stretching however I pleased, brushing hair back from my face without a thought. All this time, I'd kept my posture straight and my manner composed, straining to show the children what a nun should look like. Now that I'd slipped free, for a little while, from the rules that had held me fast, my whole body felt lighter than it had in ages. Who knew the small freedoms of daily life could seep into the heart so sweetly?
"Tea tastes especially good today..."
Every once in a while, these tiny everyday freedoms were worth savoring in full.
- Clunk.
Just as I was basking in that leisure to my heart's content, the door — which should have been shut — swung wide open, and the children who'd gone outside began trickling back in one by one.
"Sigh..."
The instant their sigh-laden voices reached my ears, I hurriedly straightened my legs and sat up rigid — but it had all happened too suddenly. The balance holding my body upright collapsed in an instant, and I kicked the table over and crumpled bonelessly to the floor.
- CRASH!!
"Hwaaah—!!"
The cup and the table came down in a tangled heap, and a tremendous clamor rang through the room.
I belatedly tried to pull myself up, but the flush of embarrassment flooding through me bore down hard on every such attempt.
"...Levi? What are you doing with your butt sticking out over there?"
Eisen's bewildered voice drifted in right after. And that single remark made everything so much worse.
...
Somehow, some way, I gathered my wits and rose slowly from the floor, doing my utmost to act as though nothing had happened. I could feel it myself — my face burning as red as an apple. Even so, I managed to summon a faint smile for the children as they filed into the room, as if all were perfectly well.
"Wh-why are you back so early...?"
"...Ah. It just didn't feel like a sightseeing kind of place, so."
Whether he sensed my state of mind or not, Eisen asked nothing further about my strange behavior, simply blinking quietly and answering flatly.
"What do you mean...?"
"Sister... something's wrong out there..."
"Everyone's weird..."
Before long, Ellie and Iris flung themselves straight into my arms, speaking in trembling, choked tones. But my tumble had been so spectacularly loud that I was a mess from head to toe, and I couldn't even properly embrace the two of them clinging to me.
"They keep looking at us strange..."
"Something feels off..."
Their explanations were frustratingly vague, and my head only grew more tangled.
What on earth had happened out there, that the children were trembling like leaves, frightened half to death?
"It's, um... I guess you'd call it a pitying look? I don't really know how to describe it. I can't figure out why the elves in the village kept staring at us like that..."
"A pitying look?"
"Yes... At first I thought they were only looking at me, but when I looked closer, they were doing it to all of us..."
As Lilrune's explanation continued, my eyes began to gleam.
Could it be? Because of that ridiculous rumor — that I was keeping these children as my food supply?
So that's why the elves were looking at them with such pity?
...
Watching the children hover there, at a complete loss, I felt my own expression stiffen by degrees. I hadn't thought that far ahead. If I'd known this would happen, I never would have sent the kids out alone.
"I'm sorry. Because of me, you've been caught up in a pointless rumor."
"Huh? Why would it be your fault, Sister?"
"...I'm just sorry."
Unable to explain the situation in any detail, all I could do was silently stroke the backs of the children nestled in my arms.
"The World Tree... I wanted to see it..."
Iris murmured quietly, burying her face even deeper against me.
"Then once the sun goes down, we'll all go see it together. There's still plenty of time."
"...But Lilrune said the World Tree is prettier when you look at it in the daytime."
"Pardon?"
"The World Tree's sacred aura only comes out in the daytime... At night it's just a regular tree, she said..."
That one remark from Iris flung me into instant panic.
Why, of all things, did the World Tree have to give off its sacred aura only during the day — the one thing guaranteed to put me in such a bind?
"I know you hate the sunlight, Sister... But just this once, couldn't you come with us and see it...?"
"...Ah."
"Please, Sister... I really, really want to see the World Tree glowing with its sacred aura..."
A warm, clammy sweat was racing down my spine. Outside, the sun was still blazing high and bright.
"Y-you want to see it that badly...?"
"You said so yourself, Sister... That chances to see the World Tree up close don't come around often..."
Never in my wildest dreams had I imagined that the words I'd tossed out so carelessly would come back around to bite me like this. From what I understood, it took quite a long time to get from here to the World Tree. One wrong move, and my body might well melt away under that ferocious sunlight like a slime left out in the sun.
"Sister..."
Just as my vision was beginning to blur at the edges, caught between one option and the other with no way forward or back—
"Oh... I see... So you weren't aware of it."
Lilrune's low voice drifted over, soft as a whisper.
"Shall I go fetch something from outside that we could use for shade...?"