327 - Comparing Answers for Mismatched Myths
It was the Divine King who had stroked my head.
Having confirmed that much, I turned my gaze back to Alfred. Alfred was staring at me intently, but something about his manner seemed off.
...Come to think of it, when I met the Divine King-sama before, weren't there no other people around?
I tried to recall the time I encountered the Divine King previously. There should have been several people around me back then, but when the Divine King appeared, everyone was gone. I hadn't found that strange at the time, but today my head was clear. The Divine King was here, and Alfred and the others were here too. My mind was normal enough to notice that something was odd about that.
"Huh? Alfred-sama's voice..."
Alfred was saying something in front of me, but I couldn't hear his voice at all. It would have been good if I had learned lip reading, but there was no way a lazy person like me would have acquired a skill that had no use in daily life.
"What is Alfred-sama saying?"
I looked to the side at Giselle, but she was the same as Alfred. She was staring at me, but no voice came from her mouth either.
...Come to think of it, were our eyes even meeting?
I thought she was looking at me, but her gaze seemed slightly off. Something was strange. When I turned around to the Divine King behind me to seek an explanation, he shrugged lightly. Apparently he had some idea about this phenomenon.
"What's going on?"
"Well, if a person vanished right before your eyes, it would be quite a shock."
"...It was me who disappeared, wasn't it?"
"Since I only brought you along, that follows."
The reason I couldn't hear sound was because I was now in a slightly shifted world, the Divine King explained. Since it was only slightly shifted, I could still see Alfred and the others. And from Alfred and the others' perspective, they couldn't see me.
Last time, when I noticed the Divine King while he was in the middle of searching for someone, it was an unforeseen event, so apparently the world had gotten confused and time had stopped. I couldn't really picture it when he said "the world," but I felt like I could understand it if I thought of it as a computer slowing down from processing load. It was like when a computer was working hard on processing, but the operation became heavy or slow, and the screen stopped moving for a while. If you were unlucky, it would completely freeze and you'd need to reboot.
A human (me) had done the impossible and noticed the Divine King, so it seemed the world had reconciled things by stopping time and separating that moment from the flow of time. In my memory, it remained as "I met the Divine King," but the time that should have passed while I was talking to the Divine King had been treated as if it "never happened."
The reason that wasn't happening this time was apparently because I had merely "disappeared" from before them. On Alfred and the others' side, only I had vanished while time continued flowing normally. Since the Divine King had caused this intentionally, there was no need for the world to get confused and rush to reconcile things. He had only moved me to a different world, and time was flowing normally.
"At any rate, I understand why Alfred-sama's eyes don't meet mine."
He was looking at me, but since I wasn't actually in front of Alfred's eyes, our gazes weren't truly meeting. He was staring at the spot where I should roughly be, so his eyes couldn't align with the exact position of mine.
"I feel like this is a flag for a huge commotion later."
If the Spirit's Favored Child was snatched away by spirits when it wasn't even the Divine King Festival, it would cause an uproar. And this time, I had vanished right before Alfred's eyes. There was no room to doubt human involvement like kidnapping.
...Well, this time it wasn't a spirit who snatched me, but the Divine King-sama!
I turned from Alfred, who had begun looking around to search for me, back to the Divine King. I couldn't hear any voices, but even just watching, I could tell a commotion was brewing. Giselle ran to call people from the detached palace, and the White Knights who had been acting as gatekeepers were summoned. Aaron gave some instructions, and leaving two gatekeepers behind, the other White Knights scattered in all directions. I assumed they had started searching for me.
"Since they tried to politically exploit the Spirit's Favored Child, leave them be. I won't allow the people of this world to unnecessarily trouble a soul from another world called here for the world's stability."
Having them observe the rites was apparently the will of the Spirit's Favored Child herself, but making a fuss around the Spirit's Favored Child and causing unnecessary stress was unforgivable. Adding more burden to a soul from another world brought here by the convenience of this world, he seemed to say. In this case, it was caused by the man from Menhishumi Church making a scene before me. That had made me feel uncomfortable, and that seemed to have prompted the surrounding spirits to seek help from the Divine King. Because a soul from another world, precisely because it was a soul from another world, was being unfairly blamed by the people of this world.
"If you snatched away every soul from another world whenever they were in trouble, wouldn't the Divine King-sama be very busy?"
Apparently there were quite a number of reincarnators called souls from another world in this world, even if it wasn't widely known. If he snatched them away every time all of them faced hardship, the Divine King would be busy indeed.
"Fundamentally, I don't intervene that much. The reason I reached out this time is... probably because I've spoken with you once before."
I hadn't been aware of it myself, but apparently his heart was moved because I was someone he had some interaction with, the Divine King said. There was a difference in the degree of unconscious concern between a person you'd never interacted with and someone you'd exchanged even a single word with. I had spoken with the Divine King, fed him an egg sandwich, and made him smile, if only briefly. The spirits remembered that. As the human who brought back the beloved Divine King's smile, the spirits remembered me, looked out for me, and this time apparently sought the Divine King's rescue on my behalf.
...I was grateful to be taken away from that place, but emotional control was really becoming a skill I needed to acquire.
If just feeling a little uncomfortable caused well-meaning spirits to whisk me away to another world, that would be a problem. It wasn't a skill a lady needed to acquire, but rather a necessary technique for the Spirit's Favored Child to live among people.
I felt sorry for Alfred, who seemed to have finished giving orders, and the formally dressed man who was pale-faced, but I thought I'd stay hidden a little longer. I thought Alfred had understood my feelings from the beginning, but rather than arguing with the man from Menhishumi Church, it might not be bad to hide here until the day called the Recollection Festival passed.
...No, that's no good. That's not good.
I wanted to hide from the man from Menhishumi Church, but I didn't want to worry Alfred. I wondered if there was some way I could convey to someone over there that I was fine without needing to show myself. When I consulted the Divine King about this thought, he started saying I should just tell the horned owl.
"By horned owl, you mean Felicia-sama's pet Henrietta? Even if I leave a message with a horned owl, I don't think there's any way to deliver it..."
"At the very least, your watchdog will know you're safe."
Unlike humans, animals had sharp instincts and could apparently sense the presence of spirits. Since animals couldn't speak the language that humans understood, humans had no way of knowing this, but it seemed they coexisted with spirits in their own way.
"...Is that why Kokumaro and the others didn't react to Rannvald-sama's intrusion?"
"Rannvald?"
"The ghost we're hiding in the detached palace."
As soon as I said "detached palace," the scenery around us suddenly switched, and before I knew it, I was standing in the annex of the detached palace.
The detached palace was peaceful. The commotion outside didn't seem to reach here, and even the two guards could be seen letting their attention wander. Wondering what kind of relaxed appearance Rannvald, who could be considered the current master of the annex, was showing, I saw him running a pen across paper. Knowing that Rannvald couldn't see me, I still stealthily circled around behind him and peeked at his work. What Rannvald's fingers were producing was a drawing of me wearing the ceremonial garb of Ashtate, the goddess of arts. Apparently Rannvald was seriously intending to put portraits of me up for sale.
"...Frustratingly good."
"Your face is easy to draw."
Apparently people with well-proportioned facial features had faces that were easy for those with artistic talent to draw. Since it seemed like a compliment, I thanked the Divine King, but I thought I should keep an eye on Rannvald's movements from now on.
"You should stay away from that man."
"Why?"
"He has good instincts toward spirits. He probably can't see us, but he seems to sense that something is here."
At his words, I moved closer to the Divine King and turned my gaze back to Rannvald. Rannvald was looking this way. Our eyes didn't meet, but it didn't seem like a casual glance. When I tried moving a little, Rannvald's gaze followed me.
...What is this? Rannvald-sama is amazing!
The Divine King told me that if he looked for too long, Rannvald would feel the gaze and notice, so I averted my eyes from Rannvald. When I did, Rannvald also lowered his gaze and resumed his sketching.
"To return to the earlier topic, he probably has good instincts toward spirits and is also liked by them."
"Liked by spirits... So that's why Kokumaro and the others wouldn't listen to me back then."
Animals and spirits apparently got along well, so the Black Shibas (Kokumaro and the others) probably didn't consider Rannvald, whom the spirits favored, as someone to be wary of. On the contrary, they protected Rannvald, who was an intruder, and didn't obey my order, their master's command, to go call Leonardo. And it wasn't just the watchdogs who were under the spirits' influence back then.
"Because a man he liked was troubled that 'the lock won't open,' a spirit manipulated you into unlocking it."
The reason I was manipulated was because I was the one managing the key. If the key's hiding place hadn't been inside the black dog stuffed toy, another person might have been manipulated instead.
...So that means... it was a good thing I was the one manipulated?
Since I, as the mistress of the detached palace, had taken out the key, it ended with "how strange," but if it had been someone else, they would have faced charges of aiding an intruder into the detached palace. I didn't think the spirits had thought that far ahead, so learning about it later was a terrifying truth.
"In short, if there were thieves or burglars liked by spirits, they could do whatever they wanted."
"Spirits don't favor people like that, so that man Rannvald is probably a good person through and through."
"...Ethelbert-sama said something similar too."
Ethelbert had put up notices telling Rannvald to show his face, but in the end, did Rannvald have no intention of going to meet him? Since I had hidden him in the annex, even though Rannvald had come as close as the royal castle itself, it had become difficult for Ethelbert to find him.
"Once he finds what he's looking for, I wonder if he'll go somewhere else again..."
"That's for this man to decide. What he's looking for..."
"Hmm," the Divine King said, looking at Rannvald with a slightly serious expression. I thought he'd said that if he stared too long, Rannvald would notice, but the Divine King seemed unconcerned.
"...A man with strange connections. He may or may not find what he's looking for. However, it seems to have already reached the person he wanted to reach, so he doesn't need to search any further."
"Is that a riddle?"
"It only needs to reach those who need to understand."
Was he teasing me? The Divine King said this with a placid face, so I felt like retorting a little.
"...There's one thing I've figured out too."
"I'll hear it."
"It seems that Rannvald-sama, who has a nature liked by spirits, is also liked by the Divine King-sama."
How about that? I looked up at the Divine King with a triumphant smile, and his blue eyes widened slightly in brief surprise. From that expression, it seemed he hadn't been aware of it at all.
I understood that I, who had plied him with egg sandwiches, had somehow caught the Divine King's attention, but Rannvald hadn't plied him with anything. His name had just happened to come up, and he had only seen him just now. And yet, though it might not have been specifically for Rannvald's sake, the Divine King had informed me about what Rannvald was searching for. Unconsciously, the Divine King had acted for Rannvald.
"May I tell Rannvald-sama about the matter of what he's searching for?"
"..."
He averted his eyes with a "hmph," so maybe I had hit the mark and he was actually embarrassed. He seemed to distinguish between the people of this world and souls from another world, but Rannvald was a person of this world. Even if he had a nature liked by spirits, perhaps the Divine King had some feelings about having taken action for a person of this world.
When I appealed that it seemed to be part of the Spirit's Favored Child's work, the location changed again. I watched the rites that Christoph was performing at the Seat of Spirits, which I was originally supposed to observe while sitting in a seat prepared at the Itsurateru Church, together with the Divine King. I still couldn't hear any voices, but the content of the rites wouldn't change much. Just like last year, he was earnestly pleading for the fearsome Divine King to calm his anger.
The person beside me hardly looked angry enough to require a king of a nation to bow his head and earnestly pray for his anger to be calmed.
"...If what someone's searching for has returned to where it should be, that is fortunate."
He should have been watching the rites, but the Divine King's heart still seemed to be with Rannvald. I thought quite some time had passed since we left the annex, but the continuation from earlier began again. Since there was a limit to my concentration when just watching silent rites, I jumped on this idle talk as well.
"The Divine King-sama was also searching for a woman, weren't you? Did you find her?"
"It's not that easy to find."
When he shrugged and said he'd been searching since the end of myth, I couldn't bring myself to tease him. It wasn't just an unimaginably long time. If I had searched that long and still couldn't find someone, I think I'd give up.
"...Who are you searching for?"
I had heard he was searching for a woman, but I'd never heard what kind of person she was, or who she was to him. The Divine King, with that lonely expression, had surely been searching too long and was tired. Since he'd been shut away in the spirit world, he had no one to talk to, and I felt like his facial muscles had died. I could tell that even casual conversation was bringing expression back to his face, so I decided to keep talking to him earnestly.
"I'm searching for my wife. Or rather, the woman who was supposed to become my wife."
"The Divine King-sama's wife?"
I searched my memory, wondering if such a person had appeared in the myths. In the play hosted by the Menhishumi Church, the female roles were the goddess Itsurateru and the younger sister of the youth who challenged the Divine King. There were certainly minor female roles like Village Girl A, but a woman who was supposed to become the Divine King's wife couldn't possibly be such a minor role. The woman the Divine King was searching for was probably a woman who didn't appear in the myths.
"She may have been erased from the myths as well. The story is too cruel to pass down."
What had really happened in the age of myth? Sensing an atmosphere that this wasn't something to ask about lightly, I forcibly pulled the Divine King's consciousness back to me. He had the expression of someone who, if left alone, would recall the "cruel story" of the person he was searching for.
"But, thinking about it calmly, she's no longer alive... is she?"
The woman in question was from the age of myth. Normally, there was no way she could still be alive.
I had brought up the topic hoping to remind him of something more positive, but my sense of conversational tact was fatal. I inwardly broke into a cold sweat thinking I'd messed up, my mind busily scrambling for another topic. It was incredibly rude to tell the Divine King, who seemed to have been searching for a single woman for so long, that she was probably dead by now.
"Of course she's not alive. The era she lived in, a hundred years isn't even enough to count it."
I had roughly thought the age of myth was from hundreds of years ago, but apparently even the hundreds place wasn't enough. Which meant it was at least a thousand years ago at the shortest. The Divine King had been searching for that woman for a truly mind-boggling length of time.
"Or rather, I was the one who saw her off. I know full well that she died and is no longer in the form I knew."
"Then... you're searching for someone who isn't alive?"
"More precisely, I'm searching for her as she walks a new life. I left a mark, so I should find her someday, but..."
It's not easy to find, he said, with a faint sigh mixed into his voice. His voice was exhausted, but there was also a strength in it that showed he still hadn't given up.
[Author's Note]
It's not ending no matter how much I write, so I'll cut it off here for now.
Will fix typos and errors at a later date.