The Hand That Lurks on the Island (10)
Chester, thank you.
Truly, thank you.
You left such an enormous footprint on my life.
I who had only ever lived according to someone else’s will finally saw that great footprint trampling everything I had been, and at last I could walk on my own.
Thank you for teaching me how to walk.
Thank you for teaching me how to find water.
Thank you for teaching me how to make tools from stone.
Thank you for teaching me how to make fire.
Thank you for teaching me how to hunt snakes.
Thank you for teaching me how to build a house.
Thank you for teaching me how to fight.
Everything you taught me became my strength.
It became the guide that lets me walk the right path.
You led me.
Chester, do you know?
The truth is, I was terrified. When you said that if we took a ship we could return to the kingdom.
In that moment I was so frightened I could hardly bear it.
Why? Why was going back there so terrifying?
Because I do not exist there.
‘Monia’ was born in the kingdom, but she never lived there.
What lived there was only a doll that moved according to other people’s wills—not me.
The instant I set foot there again I might turn back into a doll that moves at someone else’s command.
That was what I feared.
I even despaired that in the end I would never change, that no matter how hard I tried I would always be crushed, dominated, and controlled by other people’s wills.
But look.
Chester. You blew all of that away.
The fear I had carried, the fear I could never speak to you about.
And that brutal, terrifying hand that suddenly appeared and tried to drag me away by force.
You drove every one of them off.
So I learned there was nothing left for me to fear.
My father’s hand, the kingdom’s hand—I have slipped free of them all.
I am free. The freedom you made for me.
So, Chester.
I am going to try my hardest.
I am going to do so well.
So… please?
Live.
I want to live freely, by my own will, at your side, together with you.
Monia sat quietly in a corner of the cave, covered in blood.
Aaaahhh.
Her mind was a storm of confusion and terror, self-loathing, and the shock of what she had just done.
When she carefully looked down and saw her own hands still coated in a horrifying amount of blood, she thought she might vomit.
…I—I! I! I! Aaaah! I! Chester! To Chester—!
What in the world had she done?
Even when she killed and butchered animals, even when she killed the sailors who had come to take her and tried to kill Chester, she had never felt anything like this.
She did not want to remember, yet the memory kept rising. Every time it did, her head throbbed and tears poured without end.
Monia quietly turned her head and looked at Chester lying there.
Once again he lay still, his whole body drenched in blood, while the shaman and the shaman’s disciples sat around him, sprinkling the Grace of the Summit and chanting.
She had already seen this sight twice. She should have grown used to it by now.
Yet the moment she realized that Chester had become like this because of her, familiarity vanished and only pain flooded in.
“Ugh…!”
She wanted to empty everything inside her body. She wanted to tear off these hateful hands before her eyes.
Monia bowed her head, clasped her hands, and prayed.
Please, Chester. Please. Please get better safely.
Around the praying Monia, the iron ball she had barely managed to pull from Chester’s belly still rolled on the ground.
In a space filled with brilliant light where adults worked the fields with care and children ran through mountains, fields, and rivers, Chester walked forward in silence, following the backs of his parents. On the table sat spicy stew and the whole roast of the rabbit Chester had caught at lunch.
After walking a while longer, a prison-like space appeared, packed with adults and children all dressed in black butler uniforms. On the table lay a single potato, half a piece of dry smoked meat, and cold water.
Walking still farther, he entered a space so vast and luxurious it could be mistaken for a castle. Everyone’s faces were frozen cold. Soft carpet swallowed the sound of footsteps; the table held a sumptuous banquet of every delicacy in the world, yet in front of Chester sat only a hard crust of bread.
Farther still the carpet vanished and marble floors appeared. A space second only to the royal palace in luxury, decorated with gold and jewels. On the elegant table that matched the beautiful room sat a single bowl of soup.
Walking on, he found himself in a thicket. The air filled with the fresh scent of nature, and every kind of creature began to play around him. While he walked, he suddenly heard footsteps behind him.
Chester turned his head and saw a woman carefully following him. At first she stumbled after only a few steps, but gradually her pace quickened until she was walking side by side with him.
Watching her, Chester gradually slowed so she could keep pace easily at his side.
Before long their hands, which had been apart, tightly clasped each other, and the table that had held only a single thin strip of snake meat began to fill with more and more dishes.
First came roasted meat and fish with the soft flesh of plants. Then a few potatoes and fruits appeared; a little later honey, large potatoes, and various spices arrived.
While they simply grilled ingredients or threw them together into a stew, the woman’s hands touched them and the ingredients changed shape, becoming colorful dishes.
Suddenly he saw that his own body had grown large. He also saw that the legs which had once struggled to keep up with his parents’ backs now strode forward so swiftly that anyone following would have trouble keeping up.
Suddenly Chester stopped walking.
The woman, still walking without noticing he had stopped, turned back to him with a puzzled look.
Chester sat down right there and drew the woman who approached him into his arms.
Just as his father, who had wandered the world, met his mother, put down roots, and became the head of a household, Chester realized that his own footsteps had stopped and that his heart now walked together with Monia.
Chester suddenly turned his head and looked back.
The path he had walked until now shone as a single glowing line of footprints.
Seeing it, Chester understood the true nature of the line of light he had glimpsed while half-conscious.
“Ah… so that was what I saw then.”
And at that moment, Chester’s consciousness returned.
“…….”
When Chester opened his eyes he instinctively touched his belly. Then he turned his head and saw Monia, covered in blood and weeping.
“……Monia.”
He wanted to sit up in surprise, but no strength entered his body. So he barely managed to speak her name.
When Chester called her, Monia flinched, looked at him, and the moment their eyes met she collapsed in relief and began to sob.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Hic. No matter how I looked at it, that bastard had shot something, sniff. I couldn’t heal you until I got out whatever was stuck inside, sob! So, sob! I, hic! Sniff! Waaaaah!!”
Monia spoke as if making excuses while looking at the awakened Chester.
Hearing her, Chester confirmed that the surroundings were soaked in blood and that a single iron ball rolled on the floor.
He did not know the details, but apparently an iron ball had been inside his body so the Grace of the Summit could not heal him, and Monia had used a knife to dig it out.
So what that man used was… I see. He must have exploded gunpowder inside that cylinder and launched the iron ball with terrifying force. I was hit by a miniature cannon.
That thought vanished at once when he saw Monia trembling with fear.
How hard it must have been for her. How frightened she must have been.
Even for the sake of the one she loved, putting a blade to that person’s body was not something that could be done with half-hearted resolve.
Chester forced himself upright, stretched out his arms toward the Monia who came to him, and pulled her tightly into his embrace.
“Thank you.”
“Waaaaah! I’m going to kill that bastard! Waaaaah! He’s already dead, but still! Hic!”
Chester patted the sobbing Monia and thought.
In the end, that grassland-tribe warrior lost.
Throughout his life Chester had never placed great importance on strength.
In his life strength had never held great value.
He knew many men lived with strength as their life’s worth, but Chester was a hunter. Strength beyond what was needed to take game was unnecessary.
Of course, born with an exceptionally sturdy and powerful body, even basic training without any special meaning had made him absurdly strong.
Weak.
Yet the events of the past few days made Chester feel, for the first time, the urgent necessity of strength.
He wanted to become stronger.
So that no matter what danger this world threw at them, he could protect Monia and overcome it.
That was why he had fought Urgo again with only a machete in hand.
If he had prepared more varied tools and weapons he could certainly have won, but Chester had not done so.
It was the foolish wish to be a man who could protect Monia even without such things.
“Where…?”
“The Summit. Black Wind brought us.”
“He saved me again?”
The first time, to save a family that had been attacked.
This time, for a warrior who had been insulted in an important duel and was dying.
The people of the Summit had willingly performed their shamanic rites.
Of course, even without such reasons they would have performed the rites if they found family dying.
That was why people of the Summit almost never died from external causes.
Thinking of it that way, Chester had been entirely lucky. If Black Wind had not come down to the lower levels right after the first fight with Urgo, and if Ant had not caught the scent and brought Black Wind, he would have died.
Chester once again expressed his gratitude to Black Wind and the shaman who watched over him.
Looking outside, he discovered even more people of the Summit waiting for him to wake than before.
“Ohhh! He’s up! He’s up!”
“I heard the stories, but even a lower-level person can receive the Grace of the Summit!”
“What are those markings on his body? Cool. I want some too.”
“Me too.”
“Actually me too.”
“I’m jealous of that thing Black Wind’s holding.”
Black Wind had taken the two-pronged sword Urgo had carried as a trophy and made it his own.
“I only heard about the lower-level family, but they’re really small.”
“Yeah. Small. Tiny.”
“Living must be hard for them. Let’s help them well!”
“Right, if we help it’ll be fine.”
Naturally there were women among the gathered people of the Summit. Even the women stood several heads taller than Chester.
“He’s cute-looking. Look how small his body is. I like small men.”
“If you make kids with a small man you’ll only get small kids.”
“Right. First they have to be big. Big means strong.”
“Aunties think like old people. Just because a small elder is small doesn’t mean he’s worthless.”
“Right, if you’re looking at modern men you should look at ability, not size. If he’s smart he can become an elder or a head or a shaman.”
“Size is ability too.”
“Young ones don’t know how to look at men. First big! Good stamina!”
“Lots of fur is good too.”
“Aunties don’t know anything!”
“Kids whose blood hasn’t even dried yet!”
If they had been ordinary animals they would never have fought over something like this. They would have chosen mates by their own firm standards—stronger males, more splendidly beautiful males, males with more beautiful voices.
But because they were the highly intelligent people of the Summit, they had their own tastes that differed from pure instinct.
When the women began to quarrel, the men who had been secretly eavesdropping quietly edged away.
Chester rose, still holding Monia, and walked out of the cave.
When the people of the Summit opened a path for him he walked slowly and climbed onto a rock that jutted out nearby.
From the rock Chester gazed at the wreckage of the ship scattered faintly visible on the beach.
Part of the ship that had been smashed to pieces and sunk still remained on the island.
Looking at it quietly, Chester truly felt that the sudden, desperate battle with the invaders was over.
While the people of the Summit noisily insisted that since the lower-level family had come they should throw a party, Chester sat on the rock with Monia in his arms and stared for a long time at the ship’s remains.
As he looked, he took out something he had been carrying against his chest.
“Monia.”
“Yes?”
“I’m sorry it’s something someone else prepared, but I don’t think I could prepare anything better than this.”
He held a small box out in front of Monia’s eyes as she nestled in his arms, opened it, and showed her what was inside.
“It feels a little strange to say this now, but I’ll become stronger and protect you for certain. So that we never have to be apart again, for the rest of our lives.”
He paused, swallowed nervously, then slipped the ring onto Monia’s finger and said,
“Will you marry me?”
Looking at the ring Chester offered, Monia smiled brightly through her tears and answered,
“Yes. If you’ll have me, gladly.”
Holding each other tightly with the memory of nearly losing one another, the two quietly pressed their lips together.
Against the backdrop of their kiss, far away on the beach, Urgo pulled necessary supplies and a small boat from the ship’s wreckage and prepared to set out on his own path.
Urgo, who had lived as a warrior of the grasslands, lost his family and became Rotin’s subordinate.
As Rotin’s subordinate he lived as a seafarer, building legendary achievements, then lost his master.
After losing his master, forgiven by Monia and given a new life, Urgo loaded the small boat with supplies and set out to sea.
The rolling waves carried one man’s destiny and sent the small boat far away.