The Lost Child
A sudden sob from nearby made both Celian and me turn our heads at once. There, walking alone down the street, was a little girl crying her eyes out. Passersby cast her sidelong glances, yet none of them stepped forward to help.
“Just a moment.”
Leaving Celian where she had stopped, I approached the child. She was still bawling, completely unaware that I now stood right in front of her. I crouched down to her eye level and spoke gently.
“Hey, little one?”
“Waaah!”
Even after I called out, she only cried harder, as if the whole world had wronged her. I rested a hand on her head, trying to soothe her.
“Why are you crying so hard? Won’t you tell me what’s wrong?”
“Hic…”
I kept stroking her hair and speaking in a calm voice until, at last, she seemed to settle. She sniffled, wiping at her nose, and finally stopped wailing.
“What happened?”
Now that she looked ready to answer, I asked again. The girl sniffled a few more times, then replied in a thick, nasal voice.
“Mommy…”
“Did you lose your mommy? Where did you get separated?”
“Huuuh…”
Just the mention of her mother threatened to set her off again. I had only just calmed her down; I couldn’t let her start crying all over.
“There, there. Good girl. No more tears. What’s your name?”
“…Cindy.”
“Cindy. That’s a pretty name. But a pretty name and a pretty face don’t look right when they’re all scrunched up crying. Come on, dry those tears and tell us big sisters what happened. Why were you crying?”
“I came with Mommy… and then she disappeared…”
Just as I’d guessed, she was lost. If she had stayed put, her guardian might have found her again. By the time we spotted her, though, she was already wandering somewhere far from where they’d parted.
“All right. We’ll help you. Let’s go find your mommy together.”
I held out my hand. Cindy hesitated, then placed her tiny hand in mine. I wiped the tears from her swollen eyes and stood up.
“Um, El? The guards will find her soon enough, and we might just cross paths with her mother if we interfere. Maybe it’s better not to get involved…”
“Hmm? Even so, I can’t just leave a kid crying like this. Sorry to the class president who gave us the tickets, but we’ll come back another day.”
“That’s not really why I’m saying this…”
“Then how about we go ask if anyone’s already reported a missing child?”
For some reason Celian seemed reluctant, so I took Cindy’s hand myself and headed for the nearest place a guard might be. We made for the closest watch post. Sure enough, two guards stood at the entrance on duty. Judging people by their faces isn’t fair, but I approached the one who looked a little kinder.
“Hello.”
“What can I do for you?”
Unlike the time I’d been suspected while repairing the city’s barrier, the guard answered in a polite, friendly tone.
“Has anyone reported a missing child?”
“One moment, please.”
I lifted Cindy’s hand slightly as I asked. The guard I’d been speaking with stepped inside the post—probably to check their own records and ask the other posts whether a report had come in.
After a short wait he returned.
“Nothing has been filed with us. Do you happen to know the guardian’s description? We’ll pass it along to the patrols so they can search.”
I relayed the description of Cindy’s mother that the girl had given me. The guard immediately reported it upward through a crystal orb.
“In that case, we’ll take the child into our care. Thank you for your civic spirit.”
“See? If you stay here, these uncles will find your mommy in no time. Let’s go inside and wait a little.”
I tried to let go of Cindy’s hand and hand her over, but instead of going to the guards she scurried right back behind me and hid behind my legs.
“Cindy?”
“No. I wanna stay with big sister. Do you not like me?”
“Haa…”
I was startled by the sudden clinginess, but the heavy sigh didn’t come from me. Glancing over, I saw Celian pressing a hand to her forehead and exhaling deeply—something very unlike her. She’d been acting strange ever since we found the girl.
“Miss Cindy? Please don’t do that. Stay with the guards. And stop playing around already.”
Celian’s voice was more irritated than usual. Cindy only pressed herself farther behind me, putting as much distance as possible between herself and Celian.
“I don’t like that big sister…”
“Haa…”
Another deep sigh from Celian. Checking on her would have to wait; first I needed to talk the stubborn little girl around.
“Come on, Cindy. Don’t be like that. Your mommy must be worried sick. You can’t keep being stubborn.”
“Hic…”
But the more I tried to persuade her, the more tears welled up in her eyes. If I left her any longer she’d start wailing again just like before, so I had no choice but to surrender. Crying here would only trouble the guards.
“All right, all right. Cindy. We’ll wait together until your mommy comes.”
At my surrender, Cindy’s expression flipped in an instant, as if the tears had never been there. She tugged my hand and began leading me away.
“Haha… Then we’ll come back later. Sorry for the trouble.”
“Not at all. As soon as we hear anything, we’ll bring the child’s mother here.”
Pretending to give in, I let Cindy drag me around. We watched the fountain shoot jets of water into the air, listened to a street band play, stopped at a café for drinks—she was having the time of her life. Being separated from her mother no longer seemed to bother her in the slightest. Through it all, Celian trailed a full step behind us for reasons I couldn’t fathom.
“So you came to Felches with your mommy just to look around?”
“Yep! There was something I really wanted to see, so I threw a fit until she brought me!”
Cindy answered brightly, strawberry juice in hand. It was a shame her first memory of the city would be getting lost, but I hoped the fun we were having now would overwrite it.
“Is that so? Where is it? Let’s stop by one last time before we head back.”
The sun was already sinking. By now Cindy’s mother was probably waiting at the post.
“It’s fine. I already saw everything.”
“Really? Then shall we head back? Your mommy’s probably been waiting a long time.”
“Okay!”
Thankfully she didn’t refuse this time; she must have enjoyed herself enough. We had deliberately stayed close, so the walk back to the post was short.
“Hello.”
“Ah! You’re the young ladies who reported earlier. We’ve heard. The child’s mother is inside—please come in.”
The guard from before must have changed shifts; a different man greeted us. Following his guidance inside, a woman sprang up from her seat and hurried toward us.
“Oh my, thank you so much. How can I ever repay this kindness…”
I’d expected at least a joyful reunion when she saw Cindy, but she bowed to us first in gratitude. Cindy, for her part, simply stood beside her mother as if this were perfectly normal and stared at us. Between the tearful act and the stubborn clinging, she was clearly a little terror who got into scrapes like this often enough that it barely counted as an incident.
“No, it’s fine. Just seeing you reunited safely is enough.”
“Then we’ll be on our way.”
If we lingered any longer she really might try to repay us, so I followed Celian straight outside. The street was already growing dark.
“Well, there goes the play. I really feel bad for the class president. You wanted to see it too, Celian. Sorry.”
From the moment the class president handed over the tickets to the way she’d lit up when we set the time, it had been obvious how much she’d been looking forward to tonight’s performance. My stubbornness had made us miss it. Of course, with a lost child right in front of us there hadn’t been much choice, but she still had every right to feel disappointed.
“…It’s already over, so there’s nothing we can do. It wasn’t something I could control either.”
“How about tomorrow instead? I don’t know if seats will still be available, but if we go early we might get tickets at the door…”
“I’d like that.”
Celian answered before I even finished. With her looking that eager, I couldn’t just sit still. Tomorrow morning I’d make sure to grab two tickets before they sold out.
“Wait a second?”
On the way back to the academy, as we passed the fountain in the square, I stopped her. I pulled out the thing I’d been carrying ever since, never quite sure when to give it.
While shopping for clothes earlier, I’d secretly bought a ribbon-shaped hair tie as well. I handed it to her. Well, I won’t pretend black isn’t my favorite color.
“This is my gift.”
Celian’s eyes went round with surprise. She looked from my face to my hand and back again. Then a bright smile bloomed across her features. Instead of simply taking the ribbon, she raised her hands and undid the one already holding her hair. Her gleaming golden locks spilled free.
“Then… would you tie it for me?”
I stepped behind her, gathered her soft hair in one hand, and with the other—now practiced—fastened the new ribbon.
Even without a mirror, Celian lifted a hand to touch the ribbon as if she could see it perfectly, her face radiant.
Anything would look good on her, of course, but she suited it even better than I’d imagined. Watching her so happy filled me with a quiet pride.
“Shall we go, then?”
“Yes.”
Unlike earlier, when she’d walked a step behind, Celian now stayed right at my side. Even that wasn’t enough; she soon linked her arm through mine and pressed close. I could feel her chest against my arm and thought about gently pulling free, but her strength left me no room to move. My face burned, yet the lingering sunset painted everything in warm light, so at least I didn’t have to worry about being caught.
A little embarrassed, and yet happy all the same, we headed home.
“Your Majesty! Did you not promise this time that you would not go out alone?”
The words that left the “mother’s” mouth as she stepped out of the guard post were startling, yet no one turned to look. A perfect soundproof barrier she had already raised sealed the area completely. No one could overhear their conversation through it.
“Hm? Ah, right. I did.”
The child—or rather, the woman wearing a child’s form—answered offhandedly, as if only now remembering, as if it were nothing important. Of course Isis, Head Royal Mage of the empire, had seen the Emperor behave like this countless times before, and she knew full well that nothing in this city could harm the Emperor. Still, it was not something that could simply be overlooked. The Emperor was the empire.
“…So how was it?”
“I originally came because I was curious about the hero the goddess marked… Heh heh…”
At Isis’s question the Emperor suddenly clutched her stomach and burst into laughter, as if something were endlessly amusing. Anyone else witnessing the sight would have been horrified, but to Isis, who always attended at the Emperor’s side, it was a thoroughly familiar scene.
“That girl who’s supposedly a hero candidate somehow knew my true identity, and the one next to her was entertaining. Coming here was worth it.”
“…Then let us return at once and deal with the work that has piled up today.”
An outing by the Emperor was never a light matter. Ordinarily even an absolute monarch would never be permitted by the ministers to travel so far with only one companion and without the knight order’s escort. Yet this generation’s Emperor—setting aside the fact that she was a woman—was extraordinary even among extraordinaries.
Don’t talk nonsense.
With that single line she had crushed every objection. Her sheer force of will, combined with the magic of Isis who always remained at her side, made the impossible possible.
A polymorph artifact from the imperial treasury had been used to hide her identity, and the Head Royal Mage herself had been assigned as escort. Back at the palace a body double was diligently pretending to be the Emperor so no one would notice her absence. Of course the double could only go through the motions; she could not actually approve anything. By now the palace was surely buried under a mountain of documents that had accumulated over the day.
“Normally I’d put it off until tomorrow, but today my mood is excellent. I’ll make a special exception and handle it the moment we return.”
“…That is simply what you are supposed to do in the first place, Your Majesty.”
At the Emperor’s reply Isis drew a vast magic circle in the air. Brilliant light flared, dazzling the surroundings. Still no one turned to look.
And when the light faded, the two of them were gone as well.