Chapter 43

Chapter 43. "What the Dead Feel Toward the Dying." 3

"Yes. She was thinking of it as the final wish of her life. And she does not have much time left to live. At most, she has about a year in which she will still be able to move about, and roughly two years from now, she will die. It seems to be some kind of illness, but she did not think that far, so I do not know either."

Luna was not especially surprised.

Because she was an elf.

And as for me, I did feel a little frightened by myself, by the fact that hearing someone was going to die stirred no emotion in me at all, but even that feeling quickly faded. Experience... what a frightening thing.

After listening to Rene, Luna stared blankly at her face for a moment, then rose from her seat and said,

"Well, then it is none of my concern. If she wants to be happy before she dies, who could object?"

Leaving those words behind, Luna walked off toward Rene's study, and only Rene and I remained in the hall.

I turned my head and looked at Rene for a while, and Rene likewise gazed quietly back at me. Then, after a brief silence, the corners of Rene's mouth slowly lifted, and she said,

"Tell me why I do not look at you with Eyes that See the Truth."

"Go on. Tell me."

"Because you are always thinking the same thing."

We smiled at each other.

When it was close to lunchtime, Jimant returned. In his hand he carried a large piece of wood with the bark stripped away so that the pale inner core was completely exposed. According to him...

"What is that?"

"It is the inner core of an acacia tree. It is hard to work with because it is so tough, but once you make something out of it, it will not break easily, and it even carries the scent of acacia, so it is rather good. There were none around here, so I went all the way down near the valley to find it."

Near the valley? Quite a few creatures came there to drink, so even we were always careful around that place. Just in case, I looked over what he was wearing, and as I expected, I was right. His shirt was completely soaked through.

It turned out he had washed it in the water to get rid of the bloodstains from fighting those creatures. Since he was not hurt, though, I supposed his skill was fairly decent. Handing him a towel, I said,

"I am glad to see you were not injured. Go upstairs and change your clothes. At this rate, you will catch a cold."

"Puhahaha! A dwarf catching a cold? Thank you for your concern, but this is nothing at all."

With that, he headed up to the second floor. A little while later, as I cleaned the hall, a thunderous sneeze reached my ears, and I finished sweeping with a smile on my face.

As I straightened my back and stretched my waist a little, the door to the study opened and Luna came out with a book tucked under one arm. Her ears twitched a little, and then she looked at me and said,

"Did you catch a cold?"

"No."

"Really? Strange. Maybe I heard wrong."

I smiled at the puzzled Luna, then carried the broom and dustpan outside, gave them a rough shake, and came back in. Watching me quietly, Luna tossed the book she had been carrying onto the table and said,

"Is there anything I can help with? I want to earn my meals."

I turned toward her with a smile as I put away the broom, dustpan, and the rest inside the cleaning cupboard. Then I handed her a mop and a bucket and said,

"Come with me. I will teach you what mopping is."

I took her outside and led her to a large barrel that collected rainwater. At Rene's request, the dwarves had made it for us so that the rain falling on the roof would run down through a pipe and gather in this barrel. And we used that stored rainwater for drinking and household chores. Like this.

I turned the small wheel at the bottom of the large barrel, and at once water poured out through the pipe attached to it. Luna made an amused face at the sight. (Her mouth hung slightly open, like she was saying, Heeh.)

"That is an interesting contraption."

"It is a creation of ours."

Luna and I lifted our heads toward the roof at the sound of a voice, and there was Jimant, smiling broadly, sitting astride the beam of white wood and carving it with a knife.

Had he changed his clothes? Oh, he had.

"You mean your people made it?"

"That is right. We made it. Though we cannot create magic."

At his words, Luna let out a small laugh, and after warning him to be careful, I turned the wheel back again to stop the flow of water.

Then I passed on to her the secret technique of turning a dry rag into a proper wet one, and Luna followed along in silence.

After that, we went back inside and vigorously pushed the mops across the hall and the corridors on both the first and second floors. In the end, Rene rewarded us with a little cheer and applause.

Clap clap clap~

"Waaah. It is clean, is it not? Well done, everyone. Now come eat lunch. And Mr. Jimant? You hear me, do you not? Please come down and eat."

Huh? Did dwarves have sharp ears too?

That little question of mine was completely answered a moment later when Jimant came down from the second floor. Looking around at the freshly mopped corridor and hall, he said,

"Well now. It is spotless. Do you clean like this every day?"

"No. We sweep every day, but mopping like this is only once every three days or so. As you know, our inn does not get many guests."

"I see."

He immediately went into the dining room, and I turned my head and looked at Luna, who was holding the mop and wiping the sweat beaded on her forehead with her sleeve. Smiling, I took the mop from her hands and said,

"You did well. Go and eat. If you are too late, Mr. Jimant might eat everything."

At my words, Luna cast a glance toward the dining room with a face that said that really might happen, then turned back to me.

"What about you?"

"I have to put these away. Oh, right. Leave some for me."

I placed the mop and rags in the bucket, carried them outside, and just behind me I heard Luna's steady voice again as she looked once more toward the dining room.

"I will try to stop him, but giving up now might be quicker."

"I am counting on you."

Hearing Luna give a small snort of laughter, I went back outside to the water barrel. I filled the bucket again, rinsed the rags clean, then left them leaning against the outer wall of the building to dry.

After washing my hands a little, I went back into the inn. Hearing Jimant's desperate cries ringing out from the dining room, along with Luna's voice telling him to stop eating so much, I could not help but smile.

This afternoon felt as though it was going to be a peaceful one.

Thanks to Luna's consideration, I was a little short of being fully satisfied, but I managed to finish lunch well enough. Wearing a deeply aggrieved expression, Mr. Jimant accepted a large loaf of bread and a bottle filled with beer from Rene, then sat in the hall with his legs crossed, said a few words in Dwarvish to Luna, who was sitting with a book open, and went back upstairs.

Carrying out three cups of tea, I heard what he said, set the cups down in front of each person, then sat down and asked,

"What did he say?"

"You do not need to know. It was not worth hearing anyway. More importantly, Rene, there is something I want to ask. I would like to hear a clearer explanation about this thing called spirit magic in this book."

So saying, Luna, who was sitting neatly beside Rene with her eyes closed as she drank the tea I had brought, asked her question. Rene opened only one eye and glanced sidelong at her, then set down her teacup, looked for a moment at the part Luna was pointing to, and said,

"Ah, yes. It is just as this book says. Though to explain it more simply, spirit magic does not require mana. There is no need to recite complicated spells. What is needed is communion with a spirit. Put simply, I suppose you could call it friendship. Hm, though the meaning is somewhat closer than that. Still, saying it is friendship is easier."

"Friendship?"

Luna looked up at her as she asked, and Rene smiled faintly before saying,

"Luna? Do you want to learn spirit magic?"

Elves were honest and never hesitant.

"Yes."

Rene smiled and raised her left hand.

"Then watch carefully. This child's name is Will o' wisp, a light spirit. She is very shy, but she likes kindness."

As she said that, Rene whispered something so softly it was barely audible, and then something flickered atop her palm as something luminous came into being. It was only about the size of my little finger, even smaller than an ordinary fairy.

It had the form of a little girl, with something like cloth wrapped around its body, and what seemed to be its hair gave off a bluish glow.

This was the first time even I had ever seen a spirit from so close up. Rene avoided using magic indoors whenever she could.

Luna, too, seemed to be seeing one for the first time, because she stared at the little spirit with a blank expression, and Rene smiled before saying,

"Luna? Hold out your hand."

Luna did as she was told and raised her hand, and Rene whispered something softly to the spirit, which floated above her palm and blinked its tiny eyes.

Then the light spirit moved like flowing water and climbed onto Luna's palm. Luna lifted her hand up before her eyes and stared at it with her mouth hanging open, and then, perhaps from shyness, the spirit raised both hands, covered its face, and retreated a little.

...So it really was shy, just as she said.

Startled a little by the spirit's reaction, Luna looked at Rene. Rene smiled and said a few more words to the spirit, words I could not hear, then turned back to Luna and said,

"She is very shy, so if you stare at her like that, she will become embarrassed and return to where she came from. Keep that in mind, take her to your room, and try speaking to her. If she answers your questions, that will be proof that you have the ability to commune with spirits. Do not panic. Just keep talking to her. She will teach you many things."

"Ah... yes. All right."

Without being able to take her eyes off the spirit, Luna gave that answer and slowly made her way upstairs with the care of someone carrying a water bottle. A little later, I heard the sound of a door opening and closing, and silence settled over the hall for a while.

The one who broke that silence was me.

"Are you sure it is all right to teach Luna magic like that?"

"It is all right. She is already a child we have taken in, after all. If the opportunity arises, I would like to teach her how to fight as well."

"You know what Luna is trying to do...."

"I know."

I stopped speaking and quietly looked into Rene's golden eyes. But it was not as if I knew anything like a Scanning spell, and I could not read her heart. Even so, I felt as though I more or less understood.

There were no children between her and me, after all. And so Rene was trying to feel a kind of vicarious satisfaction, something one particular cynic would have called a filthy excuse.

If Exel had seen it, he probably would have clicked his tongue. But I was willing to join Rene wholeheartedly in what she was doing.

Because she was my wife, and because I felt much the same way.

Well, it was not as though we had given up on having a child of our own. I reached out and wrapped an arm around Rene's waist.

She tilted a little toward me, then at once rested her head on my shoulder, and I brushed her golden hair back behind her. Then Rene said quietly,

"Do you think this is the right path?"

"Do not ask the reason for the path an elf walks. Some great person once said that. I will believe those words."

At that, Rene began chuckling. Then she spoke again.

"Dear."

"Yes?"

"When do you think our child will come?"

"Do not worry. We are waiting like this, so good news will surely come."

At my words, Rene smiled faintly and said,

"That sounds strange."

"What does it matter?"

I said that, pulling her a little closer by the waist, and Rene smiled again before saying,

"Han?"

"Yes?"

"You would do well to give up any thought of sleeping tonight."

Ugh...

I looked at Rene with a face pleading for mercy, but she only drew back from me, smiling pleasantly as she shook her head. ...I was doomed.

Just as I was thinking that, a heavy pounding tremor came from somewhere, THUD, THUD, and then the inn door opened and Kal, Jeff, and the two golems—though I still could not tell which was Mir and which was Kali—came inside.

Ah. Wait. Come to think of it, Narsh still had not returned yet.