The First Night with Mother
That first night with Mother, Kennetig truly did not harm us. Instead, he gave us two flintlock pistols as a gift, along with a pouch of bullets blessed by the God of Rest, a supply of gunpowder for loading, and a note with instructions on how to load the weapons.
In return for sparing our lives, I passed along some information about the cultists through Rin—details I had gleaned by rummaging through the corpses’ brains. Kennetig looked deeply suspicious upon hearing secrets only the cultists themselves could know, but he kept his word and let us go unharmed.
He granted us only half a day’s grace.
With no time to rest, we mounted the Ashen Headwind once more and rode swiftly out of the forest. We hadn’t rested, but the horses had, so we could afford to push them a little harder.
Even though we had expressed our gratitude, the Emperor’s hound was still a hound. Once the grace period Kennetig gave us ended, the inquisitors would surely begin their search again from this very spot. It was best to put as much distance as possible between us and this area.
“Huuung— uung— ehehe……”
In the wide plain where a cool breeze rustled the reeds, Pirel rode as if she were genuinely thrilled. Even after everything she had just endured.
It made sense, though.
On both sides of Pirel’s belt, the two pistols Kennetig had given her dangled and swayed.
‘She’s like a child who just got a new toy. Of course she’s excited.’
I had given both guns to Pirel. I still had my sword, my magic, and that cursed power, but Pirel was only a girl with no means to protect herself.
On such a long journey, with unknown dangers ahead, it was better for her to have at least some armament.
Just as Kennetig had said, they were weapons that could fell even a bandit leader in a single shot, even if the wielder was a young girl.
Yet even as I thought this, my mind remained elsewhere.
The faith the dead cultists had carried was sincere. They truly believed that the ‘gods beyond’ were salvation. Because of that sincerity, even after tearing through their brains, it had been difficult to grasp their true intentions.
There had been no grand plan. They were nothing more than a scattered, decentralized network—traveling from rural village to rural village, proselytizing and holding orgies disguised as rituals.
‘How did they come to worship those gods beyond? There are so many deities with vast followings and powerful blessings—the God of Light, the God of the Hunt, the god of the Drankiz Great River, or even the God of Rest who blessed those bullets…’
“Ah. Look over there, Kaira!”
At Pirel’s call, I lifted my head.
My… name. My real name.
For the entire year I had been called by the false name Karin, I had longed to be addressed by my true name. If only Iskil had called me by it just once. A few tears welled up at the thought.
“It’s a village.”
Far off where the horizon met the sky, several pale, low buildings came into view. Wide farmlands surrounded them, and livestock dotted the fields here and there.
Pirel glanced at me cautiously.
Her expression clearly showed she wanted to stop and rest, but she was a clever child. She understood that, if at no other time, we had to pass this place by today.
I gently tested her.
“…It would be too much to rest in a warm room, but if there’s a shop, shall we buy some supplies, Pirel?”
“Yes!!”
As expected, she wanted to look around the village.
The moment we decided to stop briefly, a single squirrel climbed up a horse’s leg and onto the back of my hand. It must have been one of Rin’s split bodies.
The squirrel extended its tail and brushed it across both our eyes. The lens-shaped fragments of Rin’s cells covered our two pairs of red eyes.
Pirel blinked several times, as if the view before her felt a little stuffy, then looked at me and said,
“Wait, Rin. This… it’s black.”
The girl shuddered, perhaps remembering that time… or perhaps recalling the horrific memory of when both of us had been corrupted into pitch-black monstrosities by the alien being from beyond.
Rin understood what she meant and spoke through my mouth.
“Shall I change it to green or blue for you, Lady Pirel?”
“Wow. Your tone is completely different when you speak through Kaira. Yes, please.”
For a moment, the world before me took on a bluish tint. I could easily sense that the color of the lenses Rin had placed over our eyes had changed.
“Now both of you have beautiful purple eyes.”
The lenses have been adjusted.
⟨ Rin’s Ocular Veil ⟩
The village was more ordinary than I had expected. It was simply a quiet rural farming community near the capital that supplied grain to the Imperial Capital.
The only shops we could find were a large bakery and mill that handled all the village’s flour, and one very shabby tavern that also served as an inn.
It was different from Baldenheim, the capital of the count’s domain, where tool shops and the like could be found.
“Hmm…… There doesn’t seem to be a tool shop. And it doesn’t look like they display bread for sale to anyone at any time like we did at our bakery.”
“What? That’s boring……”
It was indeed a bit disappointing. I had hoped we might at least find a map, along with various consumables.
I approached an old man sitting on a chair in front of his house, watching us ride by.
“Excuse me.”
“Ah, what is it? If you’re looking for the inn, you passed it back at the entrance of the village.”
“We’re not looking for the inn… Is there anywhere we can buy dry firewood? We can’t stay at an inn because we’re in a hurry, but we’ll need to camp out.”
The man nodded with exaggerated gestures.
“If it’s firewood, I’ve got plenty at my house. Shall I sell you some?”
The old man didn’t even wait for my answer. He slipped into the house right beside us and came back out carrying several bundles of firewood.
Then, without asking my opinion, he tied the pile of wood to the hindquarters of the Ashen Headwind.
“If you use it sparingly, it should last you about eight days.”
“Thank you. Here……”
I took ten small silver coins from my pouch and held them out. It was a bit more than necessary, but with this much……
“No, no need for money. Travelers rarely come through here. Just having the chance to chat for a bit is enough. I’m a farmer, bound to the lord of these lands, so I can’t go anywhere… It’d be nice if you could spare a moment to talk with me.”
I glanced at Pirel. The girl nodded, meaning she was fine with it.
We dismounted, let the horses rest in the shade of the house, and exchanged a few words with the old man. We spoke of strange things we had seen in the north and west, stories from our travels, tales of a mysterious alchemist’s house, and how to care for horses in a stable.
They were trivial matters mixed with a few lies, but the old man seemed overjoyed just to hear them.
In the middle of the conversation, Pirel quietly interjected.
“By the way, Grandfather, we are on a pilgrimage to the lands ruled by the Light Denomination. Do you happen to know how to get there?”
Pirel only knew the road networks near the Imperial Capital, so at this point she could no longer guide us. She must have known that too.
“I’ve never left this village, so I wouldn’t know. But I’ve heard travelers say that if you follow the southern road from the village square for a very long way, you’ll reach the port city on the banks of the Drankiz Great River… Drankafen.”
The old man’s answer was equally uncertain, but at least we now had a destination.
The Drankiz Great River.
Our journey would involve taking a boat, or at the very least, following the river on foot.
Pirel looked excited. She said she would finally get to ride on a boat.
Seeing her expression, I decided that if the inspections weren’t too strict, taking a ship would be the better choice.
We couldn’t refuse the hard, stale bread the old man had insisted on giving us, so we reluctantly accepted it and tied it to the horse’s hindquarters. Half a day after setting off again, the sun began to set.
We had hurried along for nearly two full days. It was time to rest at least once.
I asked Pirel to guide the horses to a lone tree in a field a short distance from the road. We could tie the horses to a branch, spread a cloth under its shade, and lay out our sleeping bag.
While I was huffing and puffing, using Mervin’s sword to clear away weeds and shrubs to create a spot for the sleeping bag that wouldn’t be pricked by grass or twigs, and a place to build a small fire pit to keep watch over us while we slept, Pirel murmured,
“This is the first time I’ve ever slept outside like this. When I was kicked out of the brothel and begging, I at least slept under the awning of a closed shop……”
I paused my chopping for a moment, looked at her, and smiled gently. I spoke while recalling the coniferous forests of the north I had traveled through with the heroes.
“You’ll get used to it once you become accustomed.”
We tied the gentle mare lightly to a tree stump and crawled together into our single sleeping bag. It wasn’t narrow. It had been made with room for an adult man, and both of us were small in stature.
“It feels strange somehow.”
I had cast a soft lighting spell inside the sleeping bag to help us settle in. Beneath that dim glow, Pirel whispered,
“What does, Pirel?”
“That I gave birth to such a pretty daughter……”
“Hehe.”
I answered with a laugh, extinguished the lighting magic, and gave her a light kiss on the cheek.
“It’s because you’re beautiful, Pirel. You’re kind, dignified, full of initiative… You’re a good mother.”
…Back when Pirel was still my mother, I should have done more things like this for her.
Whether it was because we had barely slept while fleeing, or because of the two days of travel during which we had been tormented to the depths of our souls in that forest, Pirel soon fell asleep, breathing softly.
I gently stroked the hair of the sleeping Pirel and gradually succumbed to weariness.
‘How many years has it been since I last slept holding my mother?’
In the faint moonlight and starlight seeping into the sleeping bag, I softly stroked Pirel’s dark-glowing hair and face.
‘In this world, once you turn about thirteen you’re treated almost like an adult, but her skin and hair are still those of a child. So soft……’
Then, Pirel quietly whispered Father’s name in her sleep.
“Rasail… Rasail… I love you, Rasail… I’m scared, I’m scared, Rasail……”
A sleep-talking dream, perhaps.
Even the girl who had tried so hard not to show the shock she received from inheriting my memories in front of me was powerless before nightmares.
Tears welled in the corners of Pirel’s eyes as she slowly burrowed deeper into my warm embrace.
‘Can you understand now, Mother?’
From inside my mind, Rin spoke in a low voice. So as not to wake Pirel, I answered her only with thoughts, without moving my lips.
‘Understand what?’
‘The feeling you had when you held Mother and fell asleep on the day I was born from her womb. Can you recall it now?’
I let out a small chuckle.
‘Yes, Rin. My clever daughter.’
‘Hehe. I love you, Mother.’
…….
And then I quietly whispered the words Rin had just said to me.
“I love you, Mother.”
She was already deeply asleep, so Pirel probably didn’t hear it.