Emerald (3)
Crash—!
Looks like I really did set Rick off this time.
…….
…….
…….
I braced myself for the same situation to spin round and round like a hamster wheel yet again. But mercifully, this time something different revealed itself—a world unlike before, the true face of this world.
"What a relief. At least one layer of the shell is peeled away."
I tossed the lantern in my hand and looked around the forest. It didn't matter anyway. There was no light in the lantern, and the forest wasn't dark.
The whole world is green. Like an emerald.
As if we were sealed inside a gemstone, everything glittered emerald. The golden light that had surrounded the boy and the gold dust trailing after him had all vanished.
"The poor citizens in The Happy Prince each had something they wished for with that jewel. They were poor, so they gained hope through money—but that jewel's value was never merely material."
'As the Prince said, the Princess's heart grew quite warm through the ruby!'
'Yes. The Princess has plenty of jewels already. But the tenderness she longs for is nowhere to be found in the palace.'
"The jewel became what they wanted. …And this must be what you wanted."
What kind of wish could have been strong enough to turn a single Emerald Fragment into an entire world?
"Who the hell are you, kid?!"
"That's my line. Who exactly is Rick?"
"?! What are you talking about? Rick is obviously our son!!"
Given everything that had happened, it might have been a fair question. But still.
"A son precious enough to call his own—and yet you leave him home and go into the forest in the middle of the night?"
"That's, well. There was something I had to do."
"You claimed it was to walk the Emerald. Then why has no one asked where the Emerald actually is?"
A silence so suffocating it choked the air settled over us at my question. And then Rick's father, his mouth twitching at the corners, finally forced himself to speak with feigned composure.
"A son who kept our house well and did his duty! That's the kind of son he was!"
Ah.
No matter how calm he tried to look, a trembling mouth could only produce clumsy words. At last, every hint of the situation lay open before me.
"Sir, that's enough!"
"Rick. There's a reason this world keeps repeating, isn't there. You wanted to see a different choice."
Perhaps he was afraid of me, because Rick buried himself in his mother's arms, curling into a ball. How pitiful he looked.
"At first, I thought you simply weren't reflected in your mother's eyes. But that wasn't it."
"……."
"You were just too small to be seen."
"?!!"
A body smaller than the boy's own height—so small that the tears pooled at the bottom of her eyes could barely hold his reflection. There was no need to torment this withered, worn-out boy any longer.
Swish—
Name: Emerald Fragment
Description: The world of the poor one—all of it.
So that's why the description had the word "world" in it.
I held out the Emerald Fragment, drawn from my Leaflet window, toward the couple.
"Choose."
The choice had always been theirs to make.
"I'm sorry… what?"
"This jewel can become material wealth. It might free you, at least in part, from the poverty that has been strangling you."
"Really…?!"
The mother, holding Rick in her arms, wore a fleeting smile at the words freedom from poverty. She looked happy just imagining that future. In her embrace, Rick's body curled up smaller and smaller.
"This jewel can also become love."
"Love…?"
"Love for the dog you abandoned—the Emerald. No. For Rick."
"…!!"
Unable to offer a single word of protest, the parents could only stare at me with hollow eyes.
"I don't know whether this jewel can actually save Rick or not."
But even just choosing this love would be enough to make Rick happy, wouldn't it?
I wanted to see the moment of choice—not an outcome manufactured inside a repeating world.
"How are we supposed to keep an old dog that can't even hunt, with the little we barely scrape by on! You'd have done the same!"
"……."
"Even if we chose him, it's already… it's already too late."
The man drove the shovel he'd been holding into the ground and muttered, hollowed out. His voice scattered into the air as if he were talking to himself.
"Yes. I might have done the same. And the two of you would have done so all the more."
Among the working class, even the very concept of a pet dog would have been faint at best. Perhaps receiving this much love was already a luxury for a dog.
It wasn't a particularly warm tone, but I defended the man in my own way. I, too, had survived grinding poverty. In a situation like this, subtracting was the better strategy over maintaining.
Subtract one thing, then another, and another—and eventually nothing is left at all.
"So please—just once, even if it's only in this illusion of a world, make the choice."
"……."
"Precisely because this isn't reality, you can choose love without needing to compromise."
I hoped that even in this space, they would set aside any thought of the hardships waiting for them and simply savor their memories with the old dog.
Perhaps, despite my flat tone, it counted as some kind of comfort—the couple crumbled at once and wept.
"Rick…. We didn't want to do it either."
The two of them sobbed in fits, then looked at the shovel, and soon broke down outright. The boy had already vanished without a trace, leaving only the couple and me in this green forest.
"Rick had such soft, golden fur. He was such a sweet boy."
The wife ran her fingers gently through the air, as if combing the dog's fur, and closed her eyes. Then, as if in a chorus, the couple spoke together.
"We choose our love for Rick."
Swish—
— The prince, stripped even of his sapphire eyes, makes his final request.
— Aid the poor soul who has lost love, with the green jewel.
"…Rick."
Crash—!
Crash—!
The world that shimmered like an emerald was shattering, piece by piece. The trees of the forest, the house where the couple had lived, the fields, each and every stone of the road.
Now that the couple had vanished too, Rick and I stood facing each other in the ruins.
"It's fine! This is enough for me."
"Enough?"
Rick still faced me in human form, but his face looked genuinely at ease. I couldn't believe it, no matter how I looked at him.
"You died in the end, you know."
"……."
"And on top of that, you got an earful of all that cruelty from me. Is seeing your owners regret it really enough to make up for that?"
I had hurled every harsh, brutal truth at the boy, determined to make him face the reality of his situation. The couple had abandoned the dog and taken his life besides. It sat uneasily with me, the quest being marked a success.
And yet the boy smiled brightly, his face unclouded.
"For me, yes. I'm satisfied."
"……."
"Unlike human grown-ups, our love is constant and simple."
So that was why he had appeared as a child. Rick was endlessly, simply overjoyed at nothing more than confronting his owners' regret.
Not some complicated expression tangled with a dozen feelings—a pure, unclouded laugh.
"That alone is enough for me."
"…Rick."
"I'm happy!"
Crash—!
…….
…….
…….
"?!!"
A thunderous roar as the emerald world shattered. Terrified that a shard might fly into my eye, I instinctively shielded my face with both arms. And when I opened my eyes again, the prince's statue stood before me.
"You who entered within my emerald—it is well that you have come out unharmed."
The world that had been drowned in green had returned to its original colors. Pedestrians passed through the streets, livelier than when I'd first entered the town.
"So is this the real one?"
"Having given the true jewel to the old dog, it is only natural that we have returned to a true world."
Even with every jewel pried from his body, the prince's voice brimmed with laughter—happy, it seemed, all the same.
"Was it all an illusion from the very beginning?"
"It was. From the moment you received my Emerald Fragment, the memories were rewritten."
Then the erased memory resurfaced in my mind—the people passing through the village when I first received the Emerald Fragment. The prince had said he sent the Swallow ahead to the southern lands for its sake.
So the memory of meeting Rick, from the moment I first entered the village—that was all inside the emerald world.
"But take comfort. Joy has come to the people, and the dog was able to close his eyes in peace."
"There are still unhappy people, though. And the dog is dead regardless."
Well, if it counts as a quest success, that's the better outcome for me, honestly.
Still, at this rate the prince would end up stripped of everything he had and cast aside by the very townspeople he saved. As a fairy tale it might be beautiful, but somehow the ending left a sour taste.
"My sacrifice and the Swallow's cannot change the world. Nor can we restore the dog's life."
"……."
"But even so, we may help hope take root and spread among the people."
We cannot save everyone, but we can plant hope. That seemed to be what the prince's statue was saying.
"Let's tear down the statue!"
"Instead of that gloomy eyesore, let's build a new monument for a new town!"
Just then, the townspeople came running toward the prince's statue. The winter wind was still bitter, but there was strength in the people now.
The cruelty of casting out the prince who had sacrificed himself for them—human, if humanity is what you'd call it….
Or perhaps it's simply their way of trying to live on through hardship.
If the prince's statue calls that hope, I have no grounds to argue.
Wait a second. Wasn't the original ending that an Angel came to take the Swallow's corpse and the Prince's heart?
The Swallow had already left long ago.
Which meant—wasn't it my heart that was in danger?!
Just as that ominous thought flashed through my mind, brilliant light poured down from the sky.
"By decree, I have come to claim the two most precious things in this city."
The Angel's voice rang out like a beautiful melody. The Angel's light wrapped around me, warm and all—but still, this was not right.
"The heart of the Prince—noble, pure, and warm."
"Um, thank you, but I cleared the quest, so I really must continue climbing!!"
I gave a quick bow to the prince's statue and hurried to bolt. Not that I could beat an Angel, of course.
Whatever the case, I was no saint, and I had no intention of enduring all this suffering only to hand over my heart.
"And I shall take the body of the old dog."
"Oh."
The prince's statue melted away rapidly, leaving only a heart of lead behind. The leaden heart rose slowly into the sky.
Right. My heart couldn't possibly be noble, pure, and warm.
I laughed dryly at myself as I watched the heart vanish between the clouds.
The townspeople moved swiftly, and the winter snow melted away. Perhaps thanks to the Angel's warm light.
"Farewell, young man!"
"Thank you, righteous young man~!"
The crowd parted on either side like a red carpet, cheering. The throng that had gathered formed a line, showing me the way forward.
Having to push through that gap while listening to this racket the whole way is honestly pretty taxing.
"Young man! At least give us a word before you go!!"
"Hmm. I'm hardly anyone so great as all that."
Hope shone in the eyes of the people waving at me. Feeling awkward, I walked through their midst, greeting them as I went.
It felt as though I were playing king in place of the Happy Prince's statue.
"Live well, all of you."
Until the next visitor arrived, anyway.
Listening to cheers far beyond what I deserved, I ran through the crowd.
"……."
This world has a somewhat different atmosphere from Floor 22.
Passing through the endless throng and walking straight on, a space from a new age appeared before me.
Granted, aside from the talking prince statue and the Swallow, the world of The Happy Prince was relatively grounded.
Here, buildings and towers of wildly varied shapes conjured a phantasmagoric impression. The architecture defied identification—Western-style, yet belonging to no country I could name.
No, forget architecture. The most important thing is—
I stopped for a moment and looked around. The brick path beneath my feet, the buildings, even the windmills—all of it green.
It all glittered as if someone had finely ground emeralds into powder and painted everything with it.
Did I fall back into Rick's world?
No—Rick had passed on, and the quest had succeeded; I'd moved past Floor 22.
Unless I've entered Rick's emerald all over again…. If not, then I know exactly what work this Floor 23 is.
Once I was certain of the work, the surrounding scenery made even more sense. Walking on past a flower road carpeted with poppies—
"Here it is."
Between buildings rising tall as spires, the largest and grandest structure of all came into view. Its green roof and walls were studded densely with emerald fragments.