446 - Leonardo's Perspective Humans and Spirits
A room was prepared after Remihio asked to hear our story, and we ended up staying the night in the Divine Domain. First, let us change locations, he said, so we left our horses with the gatekeeper and followed behind Remihio. Along the way, we met up with Cody, who was riding a cart. It seemed Cody had also been enveloped by the fog, and he had a distant look in his eyes about the strange phenomenon of crossing the border and somehow ending up in the Divine Domain. I recall Alfred had sent Cody on an errand to Quebia, the Divine King's Domain, before, so perhaps he was already used to this kind of strangeness.
"Leonardo-sama, I am so glad we could reunite... truly, I am..."
Up until crossing the border separately, everything had gone according to plan. But having the gate to the Divine Domain opened when crossing the border, and then being enveloped in fog beyond it, had not been part of the plan. Cody seemed worried about being separated from us, though he knew beyond the fog was the Divine Domain. He let out a sigh of relief so genuine I could tell he was truly glad to have reunited with us in the Divine Domain.
"Now then, I would like to hear about how the Divine King saved you."
We were led to a room in the temple. It was a stone temple painted in vivid colors, so it certainly was not a temple the gods built for the Divine King. It was an ordinary temple built by ordinary humans. If there was anything unusual about it, it was that this building was used as the Acting King's residence. The architectural style seemed slightly different from the others.
To warm our bodies, milk tea was served, and Tina quickly brought it to her lips and tilted her head. Wondering what was wrong, I tried the milk tea myself, and it seemed to contain spices. It had a unique flavor, felt strange, and left a slightly gritty residue on the tongue. Tina was probably tilting her head at this. Or perhaps she was dissatisfied that it was not sweet. Seeing Tina's confused expression, Tiaret, a lady-in-waiting who introduced herself as serving Remihio, brought a small bottle of honey.
"Where should I begin... I was once saved by the Divine King in the Imperial Capital. According to the Divine King, he had promised Tina that he would 'save you once'..."
It was doubtful that asking Tina for an explanation now would yield an answer about what that meant. Still, Tina seemed to understand that the conversation had turned toward her. After drinking the honeyed milk tea, pleased by the newfound sweetness, she let out a soft, happy sigh, then looked up at me with a puzzled expression.
"...As you can see, Tina herself is like this, so I cannot give you a detailed answer. In any case, under the promise of 'saving you once,' I was rescued when I fell from a bridge together with Tina. Though it was only a brief encounter from my perspective, when I came to, nearly a month had passed."
"Nearly a month... That seems likely to have been shelter in the spirit world. Time flows differently there compared to here."
It was surprising enough that Tina had met the Divine King, but Tina had gone on to meet and speak with him many times since. And now I, her guardian (big brother), had even encountered the Divine King. Despite the Divine King having hidden himself since the age of myth, he had been appearing in this world far too often lately. As Tina said, he likely intended to return.
"...Truly, the Divine King's return is near, then."
The Divine King's return was practically a long-cherished wish for Quebia, the Divine King's Domain. Their king, absent since the age of myth, was finally showing signs of returning. He must have been deeply moved.
"Speaking of the Divine King's return, we found a 'Spirit's Seat' within the Zugall Empire."
Camille had the favor of having been sheltered with Tina. For that reason, I withheld the location of the cave, but I reported the Spirit's Seat to Remihio. The Divine King's remains were Quebia's concern. When spreading bobbin lace throughout the Zugall Empire, Remihio had provided tremendous cooperation. I felt like Alfred would scold me for not 'selling information at a high price,' but I disclosed the information I had gathered without hesitation.
"The Empire's Spirit's Seat had been cut into many pieces and processed. I destroyed what we found, but I do not think that was all of it."
Given the number and size of the pieces we destroyed, that could not have been all of it. Neither the story Tina had told me before nor the accounts of the Spirit's Seat discovered in Gumons matched in size.
"It is possible the main body was hidden somewhere else, but..."
Whether it had been hidden because Tina destroyed it the moment she realized it was a Spirit's Seat, or whether it had simply failed to attract Camille's interest as something worth showing, we walked all through the cave but never found a mass of Spirit's Seat that seemed to be the main body. Given the cave was overflowing with spirits, I thought it must have been somewhere, but considering the spirits in the cave did not reveal the location of the main body, perhaps that was just wishful thinking. The main body of the Spirit's Seat might not have been in that cave but stored elsewhere, in which case asking the spirits in the cave would have yielded no answer anyway.
"How cruel... to cut the Divine King's remains to pieces."
It seemed Remihio decided to send a formal protest to the Zugall Empire as Acting King. If they know the location of any Spirit's Seat, destroy it immediately or transfer it to the Divine Kingdom of Quebia. Remihio was also furious that the Divine King's remains were being used for strange experiments. From my perspective, they looked like nothing more than crystal fragments, and calling them 'remains' did not really register, but for Remihio, they were the remains of his ancestors, however distant. His anger was understandable.
"...Right, Remihio-sama, I wonder if you might know something."
With the report on the Spirit's Seat finished for now, I thought about whether there was anything else to report. As I searched my memory, what came to mind were the words I had heard from an imp when leaving the cave.
The imp said, "On the night of our festival, human children stay at the hearth. If they do, then..."
The hearth is an exit, it had continued, but that was all I heard. Before it could finish, the imp was engulfed in white flames and vanished. According to the other imps, that imp had been destroyed for saying something it should not have. It was information the imp had traded its life to give me. I did not want to waste it.
"Remihio-sama, do you know when the 'night of our festival' the spirits speak of is?"
"It has been a long time since I have heard the words 'Spirit Festival' from an outsider..."
When asked where I had heard those words, I told him about the imp. That it had traded its life to tell me as we were leaving the cave.
"That spirit truly took a liking to you, did it not? Spirits are freer than humans, but they are also more bound by promises than humans."
Unlike humans, many spirits do not have physical bodies. So whether there is a wall, or they are confined behind iron bars, they can go anywhere and nothing can stop them. As if in exchange for that, they are bound by intangible promises like words. When humans break promises with others, it only results in losing trust, but it is different for spirits. For spirits, even a small lie can be fatal, resulting in being sealed away as punishment or, like that imp, being destroyed.
That imp knew it would be destroyed if it leaked that information to a human, to me, and yet it still chose to tell me. The other imps had tried to stop it many times.
"What the spirits call 'the night of our festival' is what humans call the Divine King's Birth Festival. Both humans and spirits are the same. They rejoice in the Divine King's birth, gather on the night of the Divine King Festival, and hold a feast."
This is why people wear beast costumes on the night of the Divine King Festival. To avoid being taken by the spirits who gather for the festival, they dress as beasts, who are closer to spirits than humans, disguising themselves as fellow spirits to deceive the spirits' eyes and plead, do not mistake us for humans and take us. Originally it was supposed to be a charm to prevent children from being taken by spirits, but now even adults wear serious costumes.
"If the night of the Spirit Festival is the Divine King Festival, then the hearth being an exit means..."
I had experienced it once, and it was also famous as a fairy tale. On the night of the Divine King Festival, children taken by spirits return to their home's hearth, guided by the handprint they left in the ash. Tina was not taken by a spirit, but I had heard that where Tina's inner self fled was a place even spirits could not touch if she was alive. If she had hidden in the spirit world, perhaps this time too she might return through the hearth.
"In other words, on the night of the Divine King Festival, we need to put Tina in the hearth. ...Time-wise, that seems tight."
It was already the end of autumn, and the Divine King Festival was close to midwinter. With the journey accounting for Tina's condition, the Divine King Festival should already be over by the time we arrived at the city of Grenore. If any hearth would do, that was one thing, but for Tina to enter the hearth of the home she should return to, if we missed this year's Divine King Festival, we would have to wait until next year's. We had retrieved Tina's body, but I wanted to reclaim her inner self soon too. I knew Tina was still Tina, but the Tina missing her inner self felt somewhat lacking. I wanted to see that tomboyish Tina again soon, the one who would make that slightly sullen face and subject me to the baptism of custom-made shoes.
"I will send you from Mannhalt Port to the city of Tior in the Kingdom of Ivizia. Quebia's ships are aided by spirits, so they are fast. You should arrive much quicker than traveling by land."
"Thank you. But are we allowed to accept so much help?"
"It seems Saint Tina has been serving as the Divine King's messenger, and you have also helped destroy part of the Spirit's Seat. At the very least, please allow me to express my gratitude within my means."
Remihio's expression of gratitude within his means seemed to be securing our return to the Kingdom of Ivizia via Quebian ship.
Until now, it had been nothing more than superstition, but having felt spirits up close and experienced strange phenomena, there could be no more reassuring support than this. It would be a sea voyage with the letter of guarantee from Remihio, the Acting King. With the spirits' help, the sails would catch the wind smoothly, and the sea route, free of obstacles like trees and mountains unlike land, would progress surprisingly faster than calculated on paper.
By land, the Divine King Festival should have been over by the time we reached the city of Grenore, but by using the sea route for our return, we arrived at the port town of Tior a full week before the Divine King Festival.
All that remained was to go up the river pulled by Aback and we would reach the city of Grenore. It would be my return after a year, and Tina's after two years.
It is short since it is a continuation from last time. We will head back smoothly. I wanted to write about the sea voyage too, but I want to see Tina soon.
Also, the price for promising to 'save you once' seems to have been making Remihio eat a tasteless egg sandwich.
Will fix typos and errors at a later date.