8 – The End of The End – 6
“... ...”
“...Ilya?”
I felt like I'd just said something, and I suddenly woke
up.
I realized that I had fallen asleep and tried to get
up, but I couldn't because my body was strangely heavy. I put strength into my
right hand, and yet my palm slid weakly on the cloth that felt a little damp.
“Ah, good. You’ve regained consciousness.”
“...I, what happened to me?”
“You don’t remember?”
“No...”
When I nodded, Crow, who was sitting by the bedside,
frowned. According to him, I fell asleep for hours and wouldn’t wake up.
"You're hungry, aren't you? I've got some warm
soup for you right now."
He smiled and added that it was really great that I
woke up.
"...You had a fever last night... I was wondering
what would happen."
"...Huh? Last night...?"
Instinctively, I checked the outside of the window,
and the soft light coming in through the gaps in the curtains was dazzling. The
pleasant chirping of a small bird and a refreshing breeze blowing in told me
that it was early in the morning.
Did I really sleep that long? It seemed that one whole
night had already passed since I left my parents’ house. If I just moved my
gaze and looked around the room, there seemed to be no particular change, but
there was one difference. A basin on the bedside table. Before I went to bed, it
wasn’t there.
I see. Did my head feel so heavy because of the lukewarm
wet towel that had absorbed the fever?
Crow seemed somewhat relieved and asked, "You no
longer need it, right?" Then, he replaced it with a new cold towel. A sigh
escaped my lips from the cool feeling. Next, he wiped my face and neck with
another dry towel.
While I was admiring how skillful he was as usual, I
vaguely remembered something that happened some time ago.
“It looks like your fever has gone down now, but you
must have accumulated a lot of fatigue. It’s understandable. ...In fact, I
would like to let you rest more but... It’s not guaranteed that pursuers will
not come after us, so I want to move place.”
Crow looked grave as he added that he wanted to leave
before noon. Following his line of sight, a small travel bag placed in the
corner of the room caught my eye.
“It mostly contains your clothes. I think there is enough
for a few days. ... Ah, I didn’t pack them up myself. I asked the innkeeper to
pack what she thought a woman would need when she went on a two- or three-day
trip."
"...Eheh, you even thought of that kind of thing."
When I answered while lying down, Crow also made an
exquisitely bitter face and laughed.
"As long as you have money, anything is possible."
He said this as a joke, to sound like he was a rich
young master, but in the end, I still felt sorry. Ever since I was reunited
with Crow, I have been indebted to him.
“Don’t make that face.”
“... Huh?”
"Don't hesitate to rely on me. That's what it
means to live, isn't it? Relying on someone and being depended on. We need to
support each other to live, right? At least that's what I think."
"Yes, you are right..."
It was certainly right.
I used to think, "I'm alone in this world,"
but now I know that's not the case.
Looking at my face, Crow seemed to sense something and
smiled satisfactorily. His childish expression made him look really innocent.
“Right now, when your physical condition is not perfect,
I think it will be a burden for you to move around, but… I don't know exactly
what will happen from here on out, so I'd like to avoid staying in one place as
much as possible.”
"Do you have a vague idea of what's going to
happen?"
Like a scale that was swinging right then left, my
thoughts were busily flying inside my head. I couldn't even drive away my
sleepiness, and when I questioned him in a half-dazed state, the boy tilted his
head slightly without answering clearly.
"... Well, what will happen, I wonder..."
I can't see the future after all, he added,
narrowing his black eyes, which seemed to be able to see through anything as if
they were blessed with a second sight.
After that, I filled my empty stomach with the warm
soup that the innkeeper brought to my room. There were plenty of finely chopped
vegetables inside, making it delicious. It was clearly different from what I ate
at the mansion, and I couldn’t say it had a subtle taste. A more fitting term
would be bland. However, for some reason, it had a really gentle taste that
naturally broke out inside your mouth.
As I was admiring it, I heard a rattling sound coming
from somewhere. While I was looking for the source of the sound, Crow got up
from the bed and looked out of the window.
"……What happened?"
When I called his name, he glanced at me, but there was
no reply. My eyes followed his profile as he turned to the window again. Then,
a black shadow was reflected on the other side of the clouded window glass.
The shadowy silhouette fluttered so elegantly that it
could be mistaken for fallen leaves or flower petals. As I squinted my eyes and
examined it closely, I discovered there were several small butterflies.
Insects won't knock on windows. Just as I was
thinking that, a butterfly hit the windowpane. A body as light as a feather
shouldn't be able to make a sound, yet every time the wings collided, it made a
clattering sound. As if it was telling us to open quickly.
"...Yeah, yeah, just a second," said Crow
with a wry smile as if to placate him, not thinking of this event as something
special.
An insect that had a will.
"Don't be in such a hurry."
As soon as he opened the badly fitting window, a few
of them came inside with some difficulty. Along with the wind blowing in,
butterflies flew into the room as if to say they were waiting. As I was watching
the small insects dancing in the air, they suddenly stopped flapping their
wings and fell to the floor, as if they had been pierced by my gaze.
“Eh?”
The butterflies didn’t make the slightest movement,
they didn’t even move their wings. They really looked like they had stopped
breathing. When I involuntarily tried to stand up,
"It's okay, these are just fake butterflies,"
Crow shrugged and laughed.
Then, he picked up a butterfly, put it on his palm and
showed it to me. What was there was certainly a butterfly made of paper.
I shook my head, feeling that it looked familiar.
"Oh, that's... the butterfly that flew above the
carriage...?"
When I asked, the boy who had the face of a finely
crafted porcelain doll nodded, "Yes."
"It came back here?" Confused, I asked him again,
but he didn’t give me a definite answer. His default expression was a vague
smile formed with the corners of his mouth turned up, so I had no choice but to
make a guess from there.
"You're clever, aren't you? A long time ago,
mages used to communicate like this. I don't think anyone uses this technique
anymore."
Crow slowly stretched the butterfly's wings and smoothed
out the creases. Before long, I saw that something was written on the paper
that was now square. As I saw him nod slightly several times, I realized it
must be a letter addressed to him.
I looked at it, but the strangely shaped letters were
not the language of this country, and I couldn't read a single word. Even
though I put a lot of effort into learning many languages, it didn't match any
of the foreign languages I knew.
Whether he realized or not that I was flustered, the
boy whispered, “I see...” before picking up all the butterflies that had fallen
on the floor and checking what was written inside.
"We don't have much time."
I'm sorry, Ilia. We have to leave now. Crow shrugged
his shoulders apologetically.
The bill seemed to have already been settled, and when
I got dressed and went out, there was a closed-off carriage parked in front of
the inn, probably because it had been arranged in advance. We loaded our
luggage, quickly got on and the horses started to run. It still rattled and shook,
and the leather seats were hard. Still, it was more comfortable than the
previous cab.
I don't think I've ever thought that it could be a
luxurious means of transportation.
When I asked him where we were going, Crow replied briefly
that there was an inn a little further away. However, we won’t stay there for a
long time, and we will have to move to another place soon. With a slightly
tense expression, Crow sent off several butterflies again.
Did they just ride the wind, or did they flap their
wings out of their own volition? After seeing off the small shadows that flew
into the distance,
"...Who are you sending them to?"
I finally put into words what I had really wanted to
ask for a long time.
I hesitated, because I couldn't gauge whether it was
okay or not to ask this. Whether because it was a secret, or because for some
reason he couldn’t give details, Crow was tight-lipped. Well, he had always
been this way since before we met again in this life.
He only put the most important things into words. Other
than that, he kept silent. That was the human called Crow.
"... You'll know soon. I can't be the one to tell
you."
You know who it is. For some reason,
he said this with certainty.
I tried to make a guess, but I had no idea who it was.
For a moment... ... for just a very slight moment, the figure of Al came to
mind.
My imagination was way too convenient, way too selfish
in my own desires that I was dumbfounded. For some reason, I couldn’t even
smile at that thought.
I didn’t want to see him. I just wanted to remember.
After that, we traveled an incomparably long distance in
the horse-drawn carriage and stayed overnight at a cheap hotel. After that, we
continued to move as Crow had announced. We repeated this process quite a few
times.
And eventually, just when even counting the days had
become too troublesome, we arrived at the edge of the country. It was a large border
town with a thriving trade. Even so, the stagecoach kept us out of sight, plus
the fact that it was late at night when we arrived in town.
After getting off the carriage, the two of us walked
side by side through the town where the street lights were lit up.
As I stepped on the paved road, I almost tripped over
several times. Crow told me it could be dangerous if I fell and held me by the
shoulders to support me. It wasn’t like his body, which didn’t have a
temperature, kept me warm, but the simple act of blocking the wind made a big
difference.
For some reason, coldness seemed to invite loneliness.
As if responding to my trembling body, my heart shook.
I've come this far.
I’ve seen the name of this place many times on maps,
and I’ve heard many adults say it was a lively town. In my childhood, I had
spoken about this place to Soleil.
I told him that, because it was an important location
for our country’s trade, once he would inherit the title of marquis, he would
have to come and visit that place. In response, Soleil asked me to go with him
when he would make the trip.
Even now, I still remembered his bright and cheerful
expression.
For this reason, in order to be able to converse with
the merchants from neighboring countries who came to this area, I devoted
myself to learning more and more foreign languages. I thought for sure that
from now on, I would finally put to use the words that I had memorized to the
extent that I would not encounter a problem in an everyday conversation.
That's what I thought but...
“... Are we possibly, going to leave the country, like
this?”
To make sure, I quietly asked Crow as we walked while
avoiding the lights of the streetlamps.
“... ...I think you already have the answer.”
Seeing him laugh silently, I furrowed my eyebrows.
"...But I don't have anything to prove my
identity, and I don't even have a passport."
You can't board a ship, and you can't leave the
country without a good reason in the first place. So to speak, such selfishness
was not allowed, especially for the aristocrats, who were considered to be the properties
of the country.
“It’s fine.”
With a tone that was definitively carefree, Crow continued,
"We’re entering an alley now, it’s going to darken. So, hold on
tight."
Even if I was flustered, I did as he asked. Just then,
something white grazed the tip of my nose.
Half of my body bent back in shock. When I took a deep
breath to calm my pounding heart, Crow said, "It will guide you," pointing
at something with his long index finger.
There, was a single butterfly. As if to lead the way,
it flew across the pitch-black narrow alley. This little bug was glowing, and
it was not a product of my imagination.
I walked forward, pulled by Crow who was only half a
step ahead of me, and eventually entered a dark road where I could not see even
a few steps ahead. I was certainly afraid and anxious. But more than that, the
sense of security from having Crow by my side was greater.
After walking for an unknown amount of time, the
butterfly flying ahead of me suddenly disappeared.
"?" While I was looking for that figure, Crow
urged me, "come over here." There was a door through which a dim
light leaked. The surrounding area was also a little bright. The faint light was
falling from the windows that were evenly arranged in a tall building.
"This is a tavern. Is it still open?"
Since we had walked down a back alley to reach here, it
was not a main street and there were no conspicuous signboards nearby. We were
at the backside of the shop.
"How do you know this is a tavern?"
It should have been the first time he came here. Or was
he familiar with it, because of his previous life that I didn't know about?
“... ...You don’t remember, do you?”
I thought he laughed. However, he also felt somewhat
disappointed. So, I gazed at his face to see what he really meant.
At that moment, something cold fell on my cheek. When
I looked up, a thin thread that looked like a spider's web had twined around my
forehead and my cheeks. But it didn’t feel unpleasant, though. It received all the
light spilling from the windows and glittered like gold.
"...Rain," Just as I was absent-mindedly
admiring the thread, that word came out of my mouth involuntarily.
"...Finally, I found you."
I heard someone's voice. When I looked around, I saw a
black mass ahead, in the most obscure part of the surrounding darkness. Was
there a trash can left outside by a nearby store? Flying around there were flies
that had gathered on "it."
However, when I looked closely, I realized the lump
was trembling and moving slightly. Then, it slowly turned its “face” toward me.
"!"
Eyes sunken into discolored skin. A tuft of dirty
silvery hair fell on a pair of dry lips. The cracked lips moved mechanically, and
a hoarse voice asked me, "Help... me."
“... ...Ilya, .... Ilya!”
Startled, I took a deep breath as if awakening from a
dream.
"What's wrong?" asked Crow with his eyebrows
raised, touching my face. "Are you feeling sick?" He rubbed his thumb
under my eyes until I regained my senses.
Then, I pointed my finger at the darkness to let him
know what I had just seen, but... ...there was nothing there. A curtain of rain
that danced like mist enveloped the darkness.
I wondered if I had been dreaming.
“... I’m.... I am alright. I apologize. It seems I was
in a daze.”
“Really? Are you really, truly, okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine.”
When I raised my voice a little to reassure him, his
thin index finger touched my lips.
"Shhh"
For the time being, I was urged to go inside, so I
peered through the slightly open door and probed into the room.
Apparently, we were at the back door of a kitchen, and
just as Crow had explained earlier, it was indeed a "tavern." Food
and alcohol were served inside the building. There was a counter just across
the kitchen, where hot-blooded young people were making an uproar about
drinking and singing. The men sitting shoulder to shoulder cheerfully raised
their glasses, and the women carried the food.
"Let's go in," Crow gently pushed my back
and we stepped inside.
Some of the cooks glanced at me, but they didn't speak
to us. Crow didn’t exchange greetings and he didn’t show interest in any of
them either, so it looked like they weren’t acquainted. However, they must have
known in advance that someone would enter through this door.
I crossed the kitchen and passed by the noisy men and
women around the table, but no one spoke to me.
We climbed the stairs at the end of the store. Crow,
who seemed to be really familiar with this place, told me that the second floor
was an inn. It was often used by travelers to rest, and more importantly, it was
possible to rent a room without any proof of identity.
"As long as you pay, it’s fine. There are many
bars and inns like this in this city. After all, it's a trading city."
Unlike on the first floor, the hallway through which
Crow guided me was completely silent, and he spoke with a lowered voice.
Looking at his back, the question I repeatedly had
today once again came to my mind, "Why do you know that?"
This Crow... which one of my lives was he from?
"Here, come on."
After passing several equally spaced doors of the same
shape and size, he stood in front of the innermost door and looked at me. And
then, with a serious expression, he warned me, "Don't raise your voice even
if you're surprised."
I silently nodded in this tense atmosphere, and the boy,
who suddenly smiled, knocked on the wooden door. Following a signal that must
have been prepared in advance, he systematically knocked two times, then three,
then two more times.
In reaction, I heard the sound of the door being
unlocked from the other side, and it slowly opened.
As if the other party was wary of us, two eyes
appeared from the gap, staring alternately between Crow and me as we stood side
by side. The pair of eyes clearly examined us from top to bottom. That person
was tall and had a good physique. They were wearing a hood so their hair was
not visible and their mouth was covered with a cloth.
Once they had confirmed our faces, they turned around
and after obtaining approval from someone who seemed to be in the back of the
room, they opened the door wide.
The "please" that came from their mouth was
muffled and hard to hear, but it was a man's voice.
The first thing I thought when I entered inside with
caution was that it was "dark."
The room was small. There was only one bed inside. Crow
had said that it was possible to stay overnight, but you could only sleep there,
and there wasn’t even a table. It was just a place where you could rest for a
short while.
There was only one lamp by the window in the room.
That was the only source of light. When I focused my eyes on the corners of the
room, I couldn’t see anything. Even if something unknown was hidden there, you wouldn’t
notice it.
Wasn't it dangerous?
“...Ilya?”
Crow, who was standing in front of me and was
observing the room, stepped aside. The next second, my field of vision
broadened.
Similarly, at the same moment, the other party must
have seen me. I heard a gasp.
It was emitted by a person sitting on the bed. Even
though they were indoors, they were wearing a cloak and a hood that was so deep
that their face was hidden. I could barely see the lower part of their face,
from their mouth to their chin.
On the other hand, the man who opened the door earlier
stood by the wall, staring at the situation. Perhaps he was the bodyguard of
the person sitting on the bed with their back straight. It made sense for him
to stay in a position where he could see all the details in the room.
―――――Bam!
The person suddenly stood up and took off their hood.
"Lady Ilya!"
A familiar voice. A familiar face too.
That face, which always had a beautiful smile on it,
was slender and had become thin. Her golden hair shone faintly in the faint
light of the room. It was a touching and beautiful sight...
"...I thought I would never see you again...!"
After an unsteady trembling voice echoed, I was
strongly embraced. It was too easy to close the distance in that not very large
room. Where did such power come from in that delicate body? She was hugging me
so tightly, as if to confirm my existence, that I couldn’t breathe and I was
suffocating.
My mind had yet to catch up with this situation.
"Really, you are really alive...! Thanks God!"
Her crystal voice echoed in my ears.
My heart was beating strangely, as if it had broken
and was about to stop. It was such a shock. No way, there was no way that she
was here...
"Can you loosen your power? Ilya will die at this
rate."
No way,
"...Marianne."
