Chapter 220 - <27>
They stayed with Orphe for about a month.
They didn't do anything in particular, just spent their days relaxing.
This garden in the sky was the perfect place to rest their minds and bodies, exhausted from their two-year journey. And the thought of Orphe, whom they would likely never see again, made it somehow hard to leave.
Thinking of Orphe, who would live on alone for the next hundreds, even thousands of years, Franz felt an unbearable sadness.
If I were the one living alone... The thought left him speechless. If he were still the Franz from his time in Saradio, he might have thought it wouldn't matter, as long as he had books and some form of food.
But now that he knew he could understand and be understood by his companions, he couldn't possibly live a life that felt like being trapped in an artificial miniature garden. Yet his master, Orphe, with his usual absentminded expression, nonchalantly stated he would continue to be here for all eternity.
When he remembered the visions of the old Orphe laughing with his companions, his chest tightened. No matter what he said, it felt hollow, and he couldn't find the words. So he silently made tea for Orphe. Orphe, too, quietly took the tea and smiled as he always did.
Everyone knew that when this subtle, peaceful time ended, Orphe would fall into a sleep that would last for a hundred long years. They knew that when he next awoke, his apprentice, Franz, would no longer be in this world. But no one spoke of it, and they simply passed the time as if on a peaceful holiday.
At Anna's suggestion, they had lunch in the forest while basking in the sunlight filtering through the trees, and had snacks near the cliff while watching the various clouds. At night, they gazed at the incredible number of stars, impossible to see from the ground, and listened to the stories of the constellations that Orphe told.
It was like a very, very long picnic.
But everyone knew that the picnic had an end, and that a farewell was coming. They knew, but they didn't speak of it, and simply enjoyed the time they had.
They could have used that time to learn about Science or about the world Orphe came from, but, without any prior agreement, they all avoided it. They knew that to learn more would be to shoulder an even greater burden.
A tragedy had occurred in the past. And the Clan of Darkness existed to prevent that tragedy from repeating. Even knowing that, Edward, in his position of protecting a country, and Franz, who wanted to protect his homeland, had no choice but to fight them when they brought war and conflict.
But if they learned too much about the tragedy born of Science, they would lose their will to fight. The truth they had just learned was enough to understand the facts about their companions and Orphe.
Despite being removed from Science, the days spent in the God's Garden, so close to the sky, were full of wonders. And yet, strangely, Franz felt no yearning for the unknown power of Science like Taisha had.
Ark's existence was similar to Annie's, and while Ark's ability to answer any question was convenient, Franz also understood that reading the words written in a book was far more beneficial to him.
While living in that God's Garden, surrounded by the technology of Science, Orphe would sometimes use spirits just as he had when they lived together. Although the presence of spirits was quite faint in the nature-filled garden, and their types were limited, they still breathed there.
Orphe used spirits alongside Science as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Perhaps Science and spirit magic, which seemed to be the furthest apart, were actually quite close.
One afternoon, Franz sat on a bench with just Orphe, gazing out at the garden. There was something he absolutely had to ask.
But the words wouldn't come. Orphe did most of the talking, and the content was all memories of the five years Franz had spent as his apprentice. He remembered everything with surprising detail, from Franz's failures to all sorts of other stories, reminiscing about this and that.
After a while, Orphe said with a soft smile, "That was fun, wasn't it?" and fell silent, looking up at the sky. During the silence, Franz managed to utter a few small words.
"Master, why did you take me as your apprentice?"
"Hmm... I wonder why."
"You didn't intend to take any apprentices, did you?"
"No. I never even considered living with someone like this in the first place."
Orphe murmured, still looking up at the sky.
"I still don't remember how I came to your place, Master. I remember running away after being violent with Connie, but I don't know how I got here."
Closing his mouth, Franz looked at the grass at his feet. It had small pink flowers and was simple, yet beautiful.
"You were crying, you know, at that time."
Orphe said after a while.
"No, that's not quite right. You had a blank expression, standing before me with hollow eyes that reflected nothing. You probably knew of my existence because you wanted to become a spirit user. That's why you unconsciously fled all the way here."
"Is that what happened?"
"Yes. And you told me, matter-of-factly, that you had tried to kill your sister. At first, I thought your mind had broken, but I understood. I knew you were crying. Crying from the bottom of your heart, so sad and lonely and trembling in solitude. But you couldn't cry out loud, so you were trying to break your own heart instead."
Orphe spoke quietly. Not blaming Franz, not condemning him, but simply stating the facts as facts. Franz looked down, wondering if he had been in such a terrible state back then. Of course he had. Though Constanze had lived, he could very well have killed her.
With his own hands.
As he slowly spread his palms open, Orphe gently put an arm around his shoulder.
"Even if you had knocked normally, I wouldn't have opened the door. But when you came to me for help, I realized that you and I were the same. Just as lonely, just as sad, and wishing we could just break our hearts if we could. That's why I found myself wanting to try living with you, even if just for a few years."
When he looked up, Orphe was smiling gently.
"It really was fun, wasn't it, Franz? For me, the five years I spent with you were incredibly fun. It was just like being with my companions."
Tears spilled from Franz's eyes.
He remembered Orphe's companions from those visions. They fought, they made noise, but they all looked so happy. And Orphe, among them, looked so very pleased.
But Orphe's companions were gone now. They would never, ever return. And yet, because of a promise to his companions, Orphe had to live for all eternity.
"You're crying for me. I'm surprised you'd shed tears for someone else."
At Orphe's teasing words, he reflexively glared at him as he used to.
"Is there something wrong with that?"
"Nothing's wrong. You're not going to charge me, are you?"
"Master..."
He let out a low groan, and Orphe shuffled away sideways.
"It's a joke, Franz."
"There are good jokes and bad jokes."
"But I can't help it, I'm just so happy."
At his frank words, Franz was at a loss.
"I'm so glad you've become able to look forward. Because you are a kind and strong child who knows pain many times more than others."
With that, Orphe put his arm around Franz's shoulder.
"Go forward, Franz, straight toward what you believe in. You no longer need a master. You can seize your future with your own strength. You were truly a gate-crashing apprentice, and you were a handful, but to me, you were the best apprentice I could have had. I love you, Franz."
Unable to utter a single word, Franz looked down. He felt in his bones that the words passed from master to Franz held the meaning of a diploma from Orphe.
He had traveled a long road to see his master, to ask his master questions. It had all been a path for Franz to start walking on his own two feet, away from the protection of Orphe.
And now, Franz was truly beginning to walk on his own.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to make you cry."
As tears once again streamed down Franz's cheeks, Orphe became flustered.
When the hint of summer faded and autumn arrived, someone, it's not clear who, suggested it was about time to go home. Franz silently looked at Orphe, and when he saw Orphe's gentle smile, he let his shoulders relax.
Though Franz was the one leaving and Orphe was the one staying, for some reason Franz had felt as if he were shouldering the heavier burden, but now that burden was lifted. He realized that Orphe had long since made his peace with it.
As they were leaving the God's Garden, Orphe asked Franz if there was anything he wanted. After some thought, he half-jokingly said he wanted all the spirit magic books written by Artis Ozmand, but Orphe agreed with surprising ease. It seemed he was serious about sending them.
He didn't know how they would be sent, but he decided to wait patiently.
At their parting, Orphe faced Franz and said in his usual relaxed tone, "Take care now." He thought it was rather carefree for someone he would never see again for the rest of his life, but it was better than sadness. Orphe must have thought so too.
After some thought, Franz ended up replying with the uninspired words, "I'm off," but Orphe still looked pleased.
Burning the nostalgic image of Orphe's house into his mind, he passed through the garden and the forest, where the white room he had emerged from when he first arrived from Kuchiba's place was waiting with its mouth open. Orphe had probably prepared it.
Giving a silent bow to the master he would never see again, Franz entered the mysterious white space, just as he had when he arrived.
Following a nauseating sense of weightlessness and a pain in his ears, when the door opened again, the God's Garden was no longer before him.
And this place was not Kuchiba's office, made of obsidian, that they had passed through on their way here. What lay before them was a rugged, dim cave.
Feeling a sense of wonder, he stepped out of the doorway into a hall from which five paths branched out. Above each path, a place name was written.
Luciana Kingdom Federation, Red Valley
Yuresla Kingdom, Ciedena
Fornu Kingdom, Roshozu
Sarnia Federation, Tashkur
Tarnien Republic, Suien
They were all places with holy sites. Seeing this, Franz understood why Kuchiba had appeared before them. He had been using this passage, known as the Path of the God. No wonder even the experienced traveler Ritz couldn't catch up to him.
But Zeum was not there. Franz stared at the door they had just come through. From here, one could walk to the other countries. But Zeum was different. One could go directly to its holy site. That must be why there was no door.
At Edward's single murmur of "Let's go," they all, for some reason wordlessly, chose the cave marked Yuresla Kingdom, Ciedena, and continued to walk.
Inside the quiet cave, only the sound of four sets of footsteps echoed repeatedly. It was a remarkably solid cave. Perhaps this too was something Orphe had created with Science. As proof, light from an unseen source illuminated the path, making it bright enough to walk without Sara's lamp.
Sara, too, seemed to have realized she wasn't needed and was sulking inside her lamp.
The cave eventually came to a dead end. There, a single pane of glass was affixed to the wall. According to Orphe, it was a biometric authentication system, a mechanism that unlocked doors with just a touch from a registered person.
The registered person, naturally, was Anna, who held the qualification of vice-administrator, second only to Orphe. Anna, now familiar with the mechanisms installed on various doors in the underground area, touched the panel with a practiced hand.
"I'm opening it."
Anna said with a tense voice, and before they could answer, the cave was enveloped in a dazzling light.
"It's so bright..."
Beside the murmuring Anna, Franz shielded his eyes with his arm and then cautiously lowered his hand. From within the dazzling light, he could hear the voices of birds.
"We're in a forest."
At Ritz's calm voice, he rubbed his eyes, and when they finally adjusted, they took in the scene beyond the door. It was a forest, with soft sunlight filtering through the trees. Wordlessly, he took a few steps and left the cave he had been in, and was enveloped by the rich scent of the forest.
"Look!"
At Anna's sharp voice, he turned to look back the way he had come and saw the entrance to the cave slowly and silently closing.
As they all watched in silence, the entrance eventually closed quietly, sealing itself so perfectly that it was impossible to tell where it opened.
"It's closed."
Anna murmured, sounding a little sad. Franz felt that same sadness keenly. He would never see Orphe again in his lifetime.
The person who had pulled him up, pushed him forward, and guided him into a wider world had, from the moment that door closed, become a person from a world he could never meet again. He offered a small word of thanks in his heart. He would not look back.
"It's bright over there."
Ritz, who had been looking around, pointed to his left. A strong light was filtering through the trees from that direction.
"Then let's go that way."
Edward nodded, and Ritz promptly started walking.
"I'm not keen on getting lost in a forest I've never been in before. If we're looking for a road, the first priority is to get out of the forest."
"Wait up, Ritz!"
Anna chased after the striding Ritz. Edward followed at a leisurely pace, as if out for a stroll. It was a familiar, unchanging sight that he had seen many times and never tired of.
Shrugging, he followed after them as Ritz and Anna burst out of the forest as if in a race. Following them, he was enveloped in a light that was softer than before, but still dazzling. It wasn't the piercing heat of the sun. It was the gentle sunlight of an autumn afternoon.
It was already mid-September, he realized, feeling the season for the first time in a long while.
"Ah—!!"
He was about to take a slow, deep breath, but Anna's stupefied cry made him choke.
"What is it?"
Looking at Anna, he saw her staring at the scene before her, mouth agape. Tilting his head, he looked at Ritz standing next to her, and saw that he too was standing there dumbfounded, his mouth hanging open.
"Is something wrong?"
Edward, as clueless as Franz, asked Ritz, who snapped back to his senses and cried out.
"Look, look over there!"
Ritz pointed far into the distance.
"'There'?"
He strained his eyes in the direction he was pointing.
He realized that they were at a fairly high altitude.
Above the cliff that continued from the forest they had just emerged from, a sheer rock face of indeterminable height towered. And on the opposite side, a gently rolling highland stretched out before them. They seemed to be at a considerable height, able to look down on the landscape far below.
There were forests, rivers, and in the distance, a small roof standing on a small hill. It was a typical scene from the northern highlands of the Yuresla Kingdom. It was no surprise, given that the entrance to the cave had been marked Yuresla Kingdom, Ciedena.
Could it be? Franz, with his poor eyesight, squinted and looked again in the direction indicated. Perhaps Ritz and Anna, with their keen eyesight, could see even more.
"Is there a village?"
When he asked softly, Anna nodded happily.
"Yeah! That's the Village of Vishnu!"
"Vishnu!?"
He couldn't help but shout. That was the name of Anna's home village.
"And the forest we just came out of is Ciedena Forest."
"...Which means... near Saradio..."
"Yeah. We're back, back in Yuresla!"
He couldn't help but slowly look around again.
The familiar scenery, the familiar scent in the air.
Ah, it's true. This is our home.
Though he understood it intellectually, it was only now that he truly felt it.
This was the Yuresla Kingdom.
"From here, it won't even take half a day to get to Vishnu! Let's have dinner at my house!"
To the excited Anna, Ritz responded with a teasing tone.
"Dinner, you say? At this time of year, there's probably nothing but potatoes and plums."
"Hey! Are you making fun of me because I'm from the countryside?"
"I'm not. After all, I'm one to talk, having been saved by those very potatoes."
"That's right!"
The two of them laughed cheerfully. Their journey had begun in Vishnu. A few days later, Franz had met them in Saradio.
Orphe had been there.
It all felt like a dream. Maybe he would wake up in Saradio, and when he left his room and went downstairs, Orphe would be there, sprawled lazily on the sofa.
Thinking this, he gave his head a slight shake.
No. His master was no longer in Saradio. The one who guided Franz was no longer his master.
What guided him now was the unwavering will within himself.
This landscape before him, and the determination in his heart—that was reality.
Orphe, who had pushed him forward back then, was no longer here, but now he had trustworthy companions, something he never thought he could have at that time.
"Ah, Vishnu, huh..."
For some reason, Ritz groaned with a sigh.
"Huh? Is something wrong?"
Anna looked up at Ritz, her large eyes wide. Ritz slumped over, his hands on his knees, and groaned.
"After being told to look after his daughter, how am I supposed to face Priest Anton when I've already made a move on her..."
As Ritz agonized, Edward held back his laughter. As for Franz, he could only be exasperated. Anna, on the other hand, tilted her head with a look that said she didn't see what the problem was.
"I think you can just meet him normally?"
"It's not that simple. I have to, you know, formally ask for his permission and all..."
Anna, who had been staring intently at the troubled Ritz, eventually smiled softly and stood before him.
"Riiitz!"
"Hm?"
She cupped the face of the looking-up Ritz with both hands, pulled him close, and gently kissed him. Cupping the cheeks of the stunned and immobile Ritz, Anna beamed.
"It's okay. Because you're the Ritz I love so much. I'm sure my foster father will come to like you too."
And then, another kiss.
"Right?"
The completely frozen Ritz slowly turned to look back at Edward and Franz. It was so embarrassing to watch that he looked away, and Edward gave a wicked, mischievous smile.
"You're well-loved, Ritz."
"Wha—..."
Ritz, who had turned bright red in an instant, yelled at Anna.
"You idiot! I told you not to do that in front of people!"
"Ehh? Why? I don't think it's anything to hide...?"
"It just is!"
Ritz snapped and started walking off in a huff.
"Why, why? Wait up, Ritz~!"
Anna chased after him. Watching their retreating figures, Franz let out a sigh. Beside him, Edward laughed cheerfully and patted his shoulder.
"It's a good sight, isn't it?"
"What part of it? It's too embarrassing to watch."
"That's what's good about it. Not a single one of us was lost, and we were all able to stand here together."
He looked up at Edward, who seemed to be contentedly enjoying the scent of the wind.
Franz, too, silently gazed at the Yuresla landscape spreading out before him. In that scenery, he could see the two of them, frolicking like children.
That was right. If someone had died in that harsh Zeum, and if Ritz and Anna hadn't truly fallen in love like this.
Someone would have been missing, and they wouldn't have all been able to stand here together.
"Franz."
"Yes."
"Try to complete the Intercontinental Network."
"Huh...?"
At the unexpected words, he looked up at Edward, who smiled.
"I won't live for long. I'm well aware of that much."
"Your Majesty..."
"Then what can we leave behind? Connections? Or a system? When I think of it that way, what we should leave behind is a system that will remain with them even after we are dead."
Edward's gentle eyes narrowed.
"I have read your proposal. I will consider the details. You should focus on gaining the power to execute it."
"Power?"
Not understanding his intent, he frowned, and Edward laughed.
"You should study at the academy in Sears. I will lend you a hand."
Studying for the sake of that Intercontinental Network... He had never even considered it. But Franz was human, so his lifespan was fixed. Naturally, Franz, like Edward, wanted to leave something for those two.
And after Franz died, he wanted to show his master, Orphe, who would awaken after a hundred years, what he had put his heart into and left behind.
And though he knew it was impossible, he wanted to ask him: I created a system like this. Master, what do you think of your apprentice?
Orphe would surely grin and say.
'Hmm, I think it's pretty good, don't you?'
"I humbly request your aid."
"Yes. I'm counting on you."
Standing side by side, they were quietly buffeted by the pleasant autumn wind.
This may be the end of the journey, but the journey of the man named Franz was far from over.
It was just beginning.
"Franz, Ed-san, if we don't hurry, we won't make it by evening~!"
Anna, practically hanging from Ritz's arm, called out to the two of them in a loud voice. Ritz also turned back to look at them.
"Coming!"
Replying as he always did, Franz began to walk.