Volume 2 Chapter 4 (1/2)

Six days had passed since we began traveling to Lavann We were a good deal behind schedule, but neither Louie nor I touched upon this fact

An invisible curtain had been hung between Louie and me ever since that day we first came across the Reims There was a brief moment of hesitation whenever we spoke to each other

It was lonely, as if our hearts were far away despite the fact that alking side by side

It was a subtle change, but it was unbearably painful once I'd noticed it

I droppedEru around his neck

The land in this area had a particular trait to it Countless white and scarlet-striped rocks stuck out of the ground I was only interested in the vivid and colorful stripes at first My eyes eventually started to hurt fro

Incidentally, they were also weirdly shaped Their heights were all over the place, and the only uniforave more of the impression that they were naturally formed stone statues rather than just rocks

”They look like really tall strawberry ja, don't worry about it”

I shook my head in a hurry when Louie looked at h that it wouldn't have been strange to find it painted in a fantasy painting if only the sky was brighter and the atloo our path that stuck up froround in randoe number of rocks in one area and the rocks' surface looked exceptionally rugged, there was always a tree that looked like a japanese yew at the center of the cluster All of the berries that hung down from the tree's branches had shriveled up and turned black because all of their ht about how unfortunate it was

”We could've eaten them if they really were yew berries…”

I'd been really parched for a while now, to be coion was a lot dryer than the forests we had been traveling through just a few days ago, perhaps because there were a lot of rocks here

But Louie and Eru were probably just as parched as I was I shouldn't be selfish

”……Orange juice Cider Pocari1……”

Though I know that I'm not supposed to think about stuff like that at times like this!

”……Please bear with it for just a little longer I'll procure more water from somewhere,”

Louie suddenly said as if to cheerthings without ured out that I was listing off drinks?

Had I been giving off an air of wanting so to drink that badly?

”I'otten used to this kind of stuff by now”

I absolutely couldn't allow myself to co Eru

”Oh——Please wait here”

Louie walked up to a steep and tall rock that I almost mistook for a cliff It was so tall that it see a break here?”

”No I have a feeling that I'll find soood”

Louie took off his outer robe, stepped on the rugged surface of the rock wall, and nian to clirew a little nervous at the thought

”Coerous!”

Louie, who had cli, was using his hand to skillfully carve away at the wall Cru chucks of rock fell off one after the other

I fretted for a little while as I waited for Louie to co round out of the wall It was an uneven but otherwise spherical object about the size of a palm He put it under his ar, perplexed

”What's that ball-shaped rock used for?”

But more importantly, were the rocks actually so brittle that you could carve away at them with your bare hands?

”Louie, shouldn't we move away from here……? Isn't there a chance that the rock will collapse on us?”

He s fro rocks”

”Living rocks……? You're not talking about fossils, are you?”

”They would soak up water from the earth and store them in stone membranes inside them”

”So they're easy to carve out because there's water in them?”

Louie nodded, sat me down on top of a leveled rock nearby that seeo, and made an incision into the ball-shaped unevenly spherical rock in his hand with a dagger

The ball of rock made a dull sound, like that of hard rubber, when he did Then, pretty red water poured out of the slit as he tilted it gently toward the ground It was a slightly deeper red than an acerola cherry

”Whoa! What is that?!”

I opened my eyes wide in surprise and looked back at Louie

”I took on a bit of a detour on the chance that there'd be water here……thank goodness I was right,”

Louie whispered as relief colored his voice Then he said,

”it's richer in nutrients than normal water It's not poisonous, so please try some”

”I can? Thanks!”

I poured the red water into h to fill the bottle about half-way Because of its color, I was expecting that the water would taste just as sour and sweet as an acerola cherry

I think anyone would reasonably expect it to taste good, and not just ive some to Eru too”

But Eru turned away in clear distaste when I offered him the bottle

”……Eru's reaction kinda onna happen…”

I tiht the bottle up to my mouth and took a ross……!!”

The only reason I didn't instinctively spit it out was because Louie was right there in front of me If I was alone, I'm sure that I would've spat it out and rinsed my mouth

”Are you sure this is drinkable?!”

It tasted strongly of rust, was faintly lukewaretable juice with zero sugar or sweeteners added There was an indescribable sensation at the back of my head and felt my pores open all at once

”Louie, this is a bit too nored the o rapidly as I looked up at Louie

I was probably looked incredibly pitiful Louie aled to quickly regain his coet to tell me what it tastes like on purpose……? That's sothis water, at least until we arrive at Lavann”

”Hibiki”

”Kay……”

I shouldn't be selfish, I know I shouldn't……, but I couldn't help the fact that onna drink it too, Louie?”

I would firmly refuse if he said that I was the only one ould drink it

”This water is a precious substance known as all-water You can survive on just this alone for long periods of time”

”I see……”

My voice sounded hoarse when I expressed how a that sounded

”Please, I want you to drink this”

Louie voice sounded a little hard, kind of like a teacher

He was pretty for most of the fruits of Canaan to the sacred beast, were you not?”

I jumped a little

”Are the fruits of Canaan the raisin-like things that I've been feeding Eru?”

”Yes Nothing you've eaten for yourself is very high in nutritional value You always give the foods that help store up strength in the body to the sacred beast You tire easily, do you not?”

”Well……”

To be coency rations in this world ay too salty Everything except for the bread-like food tasted so bad that it brought tears to my eyes and readily made me thirsty

Apparently, I shouldn't have looked away as I pondered about how I could talk my way out of this

Louie suddenly knelt with one knee on the ground and began looking more and more like a strict school teacher Still, hiswith sorrow

”This water is rich in nutrients, even if it's taste is not to your liking Please make sure to drink it”

”Miven hi in between a confirmation and a denial

I felt like I couldn't consent even though I knew I should Louie ended up seeing through lared at me with scary eyes

”That packs quite the punch, Louie……”

”Hibiki, please”

His intiaze lasted only for a brief second

Then, he bowed his head low to the ground as if he was prostrating hih, that's kinda mean!

I didn't want to see him bon like that

”O, okay, I'll drink it Get up already”

”Truly?”

”……Yeah……I guess”

Then, I resignedlow,

”there's only one o I think!”

And so, I made my half-hearted resolve, but I soon found out that I had been way too naïve about this

Louie carved out three more uneven balls of the membrane-covered red water froency water

”This is practically torture ……You'll drink soht, Eru?”

I didn't want to be the only victim here

Eru quickly turned the other hen I tried to get hi

”For some reason, Eru, I feel like you act like you can't understand hed I'd decided what I was going to write about inour next break

I would write about how hopelessly disgusting all-water was

”Hey, Louie, is it just me or is the air cleaner here?”

I'd noticed that it had gotten easier to breathe as we traveled through the Bauion There was hardly any dust in the air I wonder why?

I furrowed my brows What kind of calamity did this herald? Before I knew it, I had co to be hopeful for

”Like, did we accidentally wander into a de?”

”I don't believe so Wouldn't the sacred beast, which has the sharpest senses out of all of us, have been the first to notice if we had?”

Eru, who on, twitched his ears and turned back to me at Louie's conjecture

”I don't think Eru senses any danger”

”……It is possible that we ht have entered into an illusionary realm”

”An illusionary real, more perplexed than cautious

”Do you recall the time that I told you about demonbeasts and cryptids?”

”You said that they lived in different regions”

”Yes, this illusionary realions”

I surveyed s, startled, and quickly climbed off of Eru

”You mean alked into a deently stopped me before I could take hold of my sword

”Oh, that's not it There are no demonbeasts here The air is too clear for that I believe that we likely wandered into a village of faeries ”

”Faeries”

I didn't kno to respond to that, since I wasn't fa about the winged humanoid creatures that appeared in picture books?

”Like dehtly different timespace than do people And, nore; it's usually only children who do”

”Oh, like a spiriting away?”

”Yes Some of the children who are taken by the faeries never return But ranted special powers This is why it is difficult to say that faeries are unconditionally evil creatures”

”Uht? ……Will we be able to lanced down at ain

”I've o”

”Eh?!”

”In my case, I returned only a few days after I was taken I wasn't granted any special powers either”

He laughed wryly as I gaped at hi, so I did

”I don't remember much of my experiences in the illusionary realm I believe that the faeries e I still retain sos, however, so they haven't erased all of them Faeries are prideful, so there is no way they would have overlooked the fact that we've wandered in…”

I didn't knohat I should be surprised at It looked like Louie had quite the dramatic past behind him

”I don't feel the presence of the faeries”

As far as I could tell by watching Louie, it didn't seem like I needed to be too nervous

I saw theain I jumped up in surprise

”Louie!”

Before iant creature that was so tall that it hurt ain?! Trolls? They look like Moai statues with bodies

”It's a faerie ……It's been petrified”

Louie opened his eyes wide and approached the giant statue

Upon a closer inspection, I found that over half of the steep rocks around us were actually faerie statues

”I heard that there are so the day, but there's no way that all of them would turn like this……”

I abruptly made a realization as Louie muttered quizzically to himself

Does this mean that the faeries are under the influence of Fortune's power too? Or…

”Did they turn into stone instead of Reims because they aren't human?”

”It's possible that they did it to protect the that they are iers lightly over the stone as he explained with a tint of loneliness I watched his fingerswith sympathy, for a short while

Then, I copied hih and coarse It was also war in the sun Maybe it was the faerie's body heat?

”I'e without permission We'll be quiet so we don't wake you up Please wait a little longer until I bring the world back to norently

”The kindness of your heart makes you lovable I am sure that the faeries will accept your consolation”

”……Louie, you're a bad person without realizing it, aren't you?”

”Pardon?”

Louie looked like he had no idea why I'd suddenly furrowed irl out there ouldn't blush when he said she was lovable?

He irls like this in the past

”Now that I think about it, you're allowed to have do stupid and pointlessly made myself more irritated

”Hibiki? What does that have to do with e Louie if his private life was ht it was, and I don't have the leisure to have feelings like that to begin with anyway

All of these thoughts ran through s like that?”

My heart skipped a beat Had I——starting to see Louie as a new family member before I'd realized it?

Maybe that hy I was feeling so depressed?

”Are you angry at me?”

”No”

”Then why did you say I was a bad person? I don't wish to displease you So please, tell me”

Louie, you are so…!

He was certainly quite the devil if he had calculated all of this Eru, too, was glaring at Louie with his round eyes narrowed into slits

I looked away fro peculiar

”Is that a real cliff, and not a stone statue? ……Oh, there are cocoons on it!”

I was surprised An inexhaustible supply of vines the thickness of a person's arm rapped around the cliff's steps and there were e

”What are those? They look less like cocoons and more like lily of the valleys?”

Louie and I ran over to it and looked around at the things I'd spotted

I was taken aback They looked like lily of the valley buds that were facing upward, instead of hanging doard And, evidently, everything was faerie-sized around here

”I wonder if they're actually flowers ……There won't be bugs or uard as we gazed suspiciously at the lily of the valley lookalikes

”Should we throw a pebble at it and see if it responds?”

”Oh, there's no need to worry I re you will enjoy”

Louie shthearted manner, the first time he'd done so in a while, and took me by the hand to climb the steps of the cliff Eru nimbly climbed up after us

We approached one of the lily of the valley lookalikes It looked harlance, but I couldn't be too sure

”Should we be careful, just in case……?”

”It's all right Evil creatures cannot enter faerie villages to begin with”

I finally relaxed a bit at his words Then, et the better of me

”Is it okay if I touch it?”

”Yes”

I gingerly brushed ainst a lily of the valley lookalike

It felt more like the smooth elasticity of rubber than flower petals It was quite pluher than I'd thought it would be

It was too large for me to wrap my arms around I could easily fit inside it if I curled up into a ball

Louie pried open the bud portion of the lookalike

”——Water!?”

”Yes These are the faeries' source of water The bud absorbs water froround and stores it inside the petals ……It is quite the fortunate discovery Perhaps the will of the faeries have guided you here”

I was perplexed by the fact that Louie seemed to want to credit this discovery to ain

It was filled with clear water There was nothing foreign floating around in it

”Can we drink this?”

”Yes And I was thinking that you'd want to bathe in it as well?”

”We can do that!?”

He laughed a little at htly tapped at the white petal with his fingertips

”It looks like there's h water for it See how it's still shaped like a bud instead of opening up all the way? It's proof that there is water stored inside”

I was so happy I could jump for joy

Louie leisurely scooped up some water with one hand and offered it to ht up entle smile, he slowly poured the water intoat the pleasant coldness

”That water, it's so clear!”

”Yes, it is, Hibiki”

How many days had passed since I'd coo without bathing for so long Nor that it was so painful to not be able to drink water whenever you wanted it

”I was thinking that ould have to find a place to stay the night soon We still have some time until sunset……but let's rest here for today instead of pushi+ng ourselves”

”Thank you so much, Louie!”

I was sure that deep down, he actually wanted to get as close to Lavann as possible, even just a little But I think he decided to call it a day instead after seeing hoas doing

I was probably at my limit

I hadn't slept properly in the past six days As soon as I fell asleep, I'd re mountain of corpses and their voices of resent

I found it difficult to sn food, too The vivid memories of their hatred pressed down on me even after many days had passed and I'd cal to wash myself for a while now somewhere in the recess of my mind

It was in part because I hadn't bathed in days, but it was more because I could still feel the……the blackened skin of the people of Urs clinging to the palm of my hands, and I couldn't stand it

”Can ash our robes too? I wanna wash everything that we can while we're here”

I ht and cheerful so he wouldn't notice the dark thoughts my heart had sunken into

Louie stopped me in a hurry as I undid my obi belt to take off my outer robe

Eru also moved to stand in front ofto ensure that Louie couldn't get close to me

”Could I ask you to wait a little, Hibiki? Let us return to the surface and put down our luggage first”

”Y, yeah”

I realized that I had been about to strip in front of Louie and broke out into a cold sweat It was important to have a sense of shame

We cli and looked for a shaded place that looked nice to lie down in A place where we could easily hide in the one-in-e

”I'll enjoy ets dark……”

Even if there was no one else here except for Louie, ere still outdoors I was a little hesitant to strip naked while it was still light out ……Though I'd been about to take off ot ready to eat

Then, I starting writing inthat had become a part of my daily routine I'd made a lot of discoveries today, so I had a lot to write about I could forget Louie's japanese lessons, either

A faint darkness began to settle in as I busied myself with this and that It secretly ht noas sunset

I clung to Eru's, as lying down, flank and strained my ears for the Reims' cries

”I think we're okay”

”Yes, I believe that the faeries' village still retains its protections”

I was deeply relieved on the inside We'll safely survive today too Today too, I alone will……

I switched gears and told Louie to wash up first I was sure that he was eager to wash hi-of-war because of this

”I don't oing to take a long tirew impatient at his diffidence and tried to take off his clothes by force before he finally relented It was hard work trying to tell a grown-up what to do

I had Louie wash up first while Eru and I took watch

I heard the sound of water running fro vines

I clih to be coht withwith hie of clothes

I tugged gently at Eru's whiskers as he sat down next to iant body curled up in a ball He moved his whiskers up and down and flattened his ears as if it tickled I laughed and scratched him around the neck

”The sound of water is really nice”

It was a sound that I'd heard so often in my old world

”So is the sound of rain, and the sound of bathrooranted”

Both of these things were a luxury to me now I had apparently dozed off at some point as I leaned my ear in toward the sound of water It was short, but it was the first sleep that I'd gotten in a while now that wasn't accoain as the water stopped

I stood up in a hurry and carefully peeked in through the vines with htly shut

”Hibiki?”

I heard Louie, as apparently in the , call out in surprise

”It's okay, ”

”……No, it's all right, so please open your eyes You'll fall if you slip”

Is he already done changing?

I thought as I opened my eyes half-way to see that, while he had pants on, he was still naked froain I'd treated Louie's wounds before He had been half-naked back then, too, so as it extra aard now?

I ing or anything

”Your head,”

I said as I spread out my cloth

”……My head?”

I nodded with my eyes still closed when Louie quizzically parroted back

”There was soht of when I first met you”

”What was it?”

”You were covered in blood and wounded, Louie Your hair was all cluore froht that your hair would be so soft and beautiful if you washed it properly and brushed it well Then, I promised myself to ”find somewhere to wash your hair tomorrow,” but then there wasn't really much of a chance for that ”tomorrow” to happen”

This was a world where we had to do our best just to secure enough water to drink There was no e'd find enough water to bathe in

”If we ever had the chance to wash our hair and bodies I wanted to dry your hair for you if that chance ever caht And ”tomorrow” is finally here Our wishes will co as we keep them in our hearts This let me believe that”

I waited for him to react, but it seemed like he hadn't even moved

”Louie, will you let me dry your hair?”

I didn't knohat kind of face Louie wasbecause my eyes were still closed

I felt like I'd been ure out how to refuse? I finally felt Louie ?

His large hands gently brushed against my arms Then, he moved them aardly

I broke out into a smile before I could stop ers

”Despite how Ihair, you know?”

His hair was as soft as I'd thought it would be

I headed for o to sleep first