Chapter 252 (1/2)

Going *ririririri……*, the cry of some sort of insect could be heard.

What could be seen in the night sky was a crescent moon. The faint amount of clouds that were floating about were dyed in the color of the night sky, and quietly drifted by.

The twinkling stars, just how much time would be needed to count all of them?

What was here was a night sky that didn’t exist in the Dark Continent.

That, which looked like a jewel box, was simply beautiful……and slowly, he extended his hand out.

「……What, are you doing?」

Lumon, who had extended a hand to the night sky, was surprised by the voice that called out to him from behind, and hurriedly pulled his hand back.

After he pasted on a smile and turned around, the owner of the voice poked their head out from the edge of the inn’s roof, and it was Margaret.

「……No, um. Same to you, what are you doing?」

The place that Lumon was at was on top of the roof of the inn that was reserved for the use of the Zadark Kingdom delegation.

The roof was flat, but there was no stairway or ladder that connected to this place, and it could only be reached by going through the window.

Margaret climbed up the edge of the roof with a bit of difficulty, and at the same time she finally climbed up, she rolled onto the roof. And then, she got up.

「I wanted to see the stars. So, I came up here.」

「I see.」

Making a short nod, Lumon looked back up at the night sky.

「……It’s been so long, since I’ve looked at the stars.」

Margaret sat down next to Lumon, gazed at the night sky, and muttered that.

「Is that so.」

「Yes, in the Dark Continent……Stars, can’t be seen after all.」

Hearing that, Lumon recalled and thought “come to think of it, Margaret should have been born in this country”.

To Margaret, was this a return home after a long time?

「How does it feel? To come back after such a long time.」

「Nnー……Since this place is a bit distant from my hometown, I can’t really say much about it though.」

Margaret expressed a complicated smile.

「How should I put it. I’m not as sad as I thought I would be, and that being said, I’m not happy about it either.」

Lumon couldn’t replied to those words. No, he had no idea on what he should reply with.

「However, it’s your birthplace, isn’t it?」

「Yes, it’s my birthplace.」

Saying “but”, Margaret smiled with a sad looking face.

「I, don’t have any……good memories in this country after all.」

Margaret had abandoned her birthplace.

Having been washed ashore on the Dark Continent, it was a place that she thought she would never return to again. It was a night sky that she thought she would never see again.

It was there that she wasn’t as deeply moved as she thought.

「Is that so.」

「It is.」

Saying that, the two of them looked up at the night sky.

What came was a bit of silence.

The one who broke that, was Lumon.

「……Margaret-san, why did you come to the Dark Continent?」

「Eh?」

「I don’t mind if you don’t want to talk about it. I’m simply curious after all.」

While gazing at the Lumon’s profile as he asked that without taking his eyes off of the night sky, Margaret made a troubled looking face. And then, after a short while, she turned her eyes to the starry sky just like Lumon.

「……It’s because I was betrayed.」

After a long silence, Margaret muttered that.

And then, Margaret narrated a single tale.

It was a story of a mundane and cheap-sounding tragedy that could be found anywhere.

A young half girl who couldn’t be a companion to the Metalio nor a companion to the Sylphid. She also had a person that understood her, and that she could place her trust in. Forming an emotional bond with them, she thought that she could live as long as that person was there.

However, all of that was an illusion devised in order to scorn the young girl.

That was all to it, a common story.

「……And then, the young girl, she rowed to the Sea of Farthest Ends with a small ship. Neither a Sylphid nor a Metalio. If it was the country of darkness that she heard of in stories, then even she who didn’t know what she was, might have a place to belong to. Thinking that, the young girl departed the port, and was swallowed up by the Sea of Farthest Ends and vanished.」

It was there that Margaret cut off her words for a bit, took a deep breath, and made her voice cheerful.

「That young girl was washed ashore on the Dark Continent, and was picked up by one splendid Mazoku. Seeing that person’s cool gaze, the young girl fell in love.」

As for that Mazoku, he didn’t think of the young girl as anything other than some sort of unusual pet.

However, the young girl gave it her all in making appeals to him. She threw everything she could do at the Mazoku.

「Various things happened. That Sword Demon idiot came along and tried to make her Gramfia-sama’s wife, and Mazoku that acknowledged the young girl’s skill in blacksmithing would come to steal her away.」

「……」

「Surmounting various hardships, the young girl and the Mazoku became bound together. And they lived happily ever after.」

That was probably Margaret’s tale.

Within that story, Lumon discovered a stupid truth.