The early afternoon in the city is a little bit hurried.
The sound of people, the smells of daily life, the atmosphere of everyone going about their day—these things wrap around the whole town, seeping in even when you’re indoors.
It’s something I took for granted when I was living in Japan, right beside me without even a thought. Since moving to live in the forest, though, the silence made it fade away—and now, I can notice it anew.
「It feels a little unsettling, but also somehow comforting. It’s an odd feeling.」
「Bark?」
The inn we’re staying in is set a bit apart from the residential area, so it should be much quieter than even a neighborhood in Japan. But we’re so used to the absolute stillness of the forest, and with our sharpened senses thanks to magic, even the distant hum of daily life feels like a gentle brush on my skin and mind.
「You’re welcome to go play outside, too.」
「Kwuunn…」
Mint and the others are out in the garden. Now and then, I can hear Mint and Pochi’s voices as they romp around. It sounds like Mother and Grandma are with them, too.
「Bark!」
「Oh, you’re going out?」
Chocola, who had been lying by my feet on the sofa, perked up and stood. But just as I thought he’d head out to the garden—
「Bark!」
Instead, he sensed Karen entering the living room and bounded over to her instead.
「Would you like some tea?」
「Hmm, please.」
Petting Chocola’s nose with one hand to calm his excitement, Karen sat next to me. Chocola, now sprawled out on the sofa, turned belly-up and started batting his front paws in the air, burying his face in Karen’s side in a goofy posture. What’s with him?
I reached for the cups in the cupboard and poured some tea. It was a blend of black tea with herbs I’d found at the market—a unique aroma, but quite good.
「Chocola, stop wriggling around. You’ll make me spill.」
「Bark… kwuunnn…」
After a bit of what looked like an Awa Odori dance next to Karen, Chocola finally settled down, resting with his head in her lap. Still belly-up, though…
「Kwuunnn…」
「That’s comfortable for you, huh…?」
Dogs do sometimes relax in the strangest positions.
…But setting Chocola aside.
「Karen.」
「Hmm?」
「Would you tell me about your real parents?」
As Karen stroked Chocola and sipped her tea, I asked.
It was something Mother had told me too—she’d said we should have this talk before going to Alfheim, the land of the elves.
But it wasn’t that she wanted me to hear Karen’s memories.
「…To be honest, I don’t really remember them.」
Because Karen lost her parents when she was just a baby.
「By the time I was old enough to remember anything, I was already living with Uncle and Viole-sama. I don’t even know what my parents looked like. There aren’t photos here in this world.」
「And Father didn’t have a camera, either. No portraits or anything?」
「None. Elves don’t have that tradition. Even in the kingdom, it never occurred to them to have one done. But…」
Mother’s real intention—the thing she wanted me to understand—was…
「…Uncle and Viole-sama told me about them as I grew up. They told me what kind of people my parents were, how much they loved me, and with what hopes they entrusted me to their care.」
Karen’s feelings for her real parents.
「When I was a child, I was sad that Uncle and Viole-sama weren’t my real parents. After you were born, Sui, I was the only one in the family with different-shaped ears. You were Uncle and Viole-sama’s child by blood, but I wasn’t… I remember crying my eyes out.」
Mother might not have expected it, but—
「That’s when they told me. About my parents. That they were Uncle and Viole-sama’s dearest friends, that they fought a monstrous creature to protect me. And that they… died.」
Karen’s love for her real parents is directly tied to her feelings for her adoptive father, Kazuteru, and mother, Viole.
「Uncle told me, ‘Karen, you have two sets of parents. Your real father and mother, and then us—Uncle and Viole-sama. So, don’t cry. We love you just as much as Luis and Exea did.’ 」
And with that love for Father and Mother added on top,
「From that moment, I’ve always been proud. Proud to have two sets of parents. My birth parents, who gave me life and protected me with theirs. And Uncle and Viole-sama, who carried on their wishes and raised me… That makes me both an elf’s child and a human’s child. I carry the blood of Quioy, raised by the houses of ‘All Night’ and ‘Heavenly Bell’ as the daughter of four.」
This is Karen Totoria Quioy as she stands before me.
「I’ve heard so much about what kind of people my parents were. All kinds of stories—adventures they had together, funny mishaps, cherished memories… But those are things I’d share with you, Sui, only if they were my own. What I can truly tell you is only my own feelings.」
「Yeah, that makes perfect sense.」
These were stories from before I was born—the memories of Father and Mother’s youth.
I’m sure that as we head to Alfheim, Mother will lean on those memories to face the journey ahead, carrying the brilliant, precious days she shared with her dear friends as she stands before that country.
So, what about me? What about Karen?
Both Karen and I have our own reasons, our own foundations. We need them. Facing an entire country, we need more than just ‘for someone else’.
I place my teacup on the table and look up at the ceiling. Mint and the others are laughing outside, the distant murmur of the townspeople in the background. I speak, turning to the person seated beside me.
「My name—Sui. Do you know what it means?」
「Hmm, I do. Uncle said he named you after the color of my eyes.」
「I thought so… I’ve suspected that for a while.」
Long ago, Father told me that it was because I was born in the spring.
He wanted me to grow strong and fresh like the young green of spring, and so he named me ‘Sui’ meaning ‘green’.
That part wasn’t a lie either; parents can pour many meanings into a child’s name.
And so—there’s just one more meaning, too.
I’m Father and Mother’s child, connected by blood.
But Karen is adopted, and from a different race.
My name also serves as a bond, to bring her into the Hatano family.
To make her feel like part of our true family.
To make her see us as her true family.
And to make me cherish her as one of us.
And so, may the two of us, even though we’re not bound by blood, join hands together—
「If there had been a future where I couldn’t come back here… if you had moved on, forgotten about me, and fallen for someone else… If that had been your path to happiness, I would have given you my blessing.」
You asked me once, too, didn’t you?
If there was anyone I missed in that other world. Anyone I loved.
And if I had said yes, I know you would have told me the same thing.
「But I did come back, and I never forgot how I felt. And you… you never gave up on me, either.」
Karen is my family.
And someday, she’ll be the one I build my family with.
「So it’ll be me who makes you happy. It’ll be me walking that path with you. I won’t let anyone else take that away.」
As I say it, my face feels too warm to look at hers. I stare up at the ceiling, my fist clenched tight.
Karen—
Gently, she places her hand over mine, and with a small nod, she simply says,
「Hmm.」
※ ※ ※
Not even the rift between worlds could separate us.
There’s no way a single country could stand in our way.
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