Dancing By Starlight (3)

“Uwaaah—!!”

Prompted by Kardia to step outside, Noi forgot she was holding his hand and broke into a run before she knew it.

“Amazing! The stars are this close!”

Noi looked back and forth between the sky and Kardia.

Kardia narrowed his eyes at Noi, who shone as brightly as the stars.

Stars floated everywhere. Countless stars—by the thousands—spread from one edge of her vision to the other.

Each star felt so much closer than on the ground. It couldn’t be true, and yet it felt within reach, so she instinctively stretched out her hand.

Patches of the ink-dark sky glowed as if bright light-blue and yellow ink had been dripped onto it. The stars around those places looked especially beautiful and mysterious.

It was, more or less, a perfect night sky crafted by the gods.

“Look, Kardia! I feel like I could grab them with my hands!”

Watching the childishly excited Noi with a gentle smile, Kardia gave the lightest tug.

“Come here.”

Even as Kardia drew her along, Noi kept looking up at the sky, loath to tear herself away. From the southern sky, around to the west, and back to the south again. Everywhere she looked was beautiful—so much so that even a sigh would not come.

Wind skimmed the lake’s surface. Though chilly, it was calm, and simply carried the beauty of night in silence.

“Pardon me a moment.”

Kardia crouched by Noi’s feet and twisted a thread of magic.

Then he cast a spell on both Noi’s shoes and his own.

“Let’s go.”

Still gazing upward, Noi felt her hand tugged as Kardia stepped forward. Startled from her daze, she let out a small “Ah!”

He was headed straight for the lake.

“We’re going to fa—!”

—ll? They didn’t. Thanks to the levitation spell Kardia had cast, their shoes could tread upon the water’s surface.

“W-whoa, whoa…!!”

They walked across the lake that had swallowed the stars. Each time Noi set her foot upon it, ripples spread. Stars submerged in the water wavered and glittered.

In the silence, the only sounds were a faint chorus of insects from afar and birds chirping as they searched for a roost in the forest. It felt as though she could even hear the stars themselves twinkling.

“Amazing! Kardia, it’s beautiful!”

Beneath their feet stretched the night sky.

Noi frolicked. It was as if they were walking atop the stars.

Pulled along by Noi—who ran about beaming like a just-bloomed dandelion—Kardia wore a calm smile.

Starlight cast their shadows. Reflected on the lake, the two of them looked as if they were dancing.

The spell on their shoes was only temporary, so it did not last long. Stranded in the middle of the lake, the two were too slow to retreat and fell in with a splash.

They met each other’s eyes and laughed, then swam for the shore.

“Feeling better now?”

Noi, who had already forgotten she’d been sulking, started and blinked.

“I suppose. Somewhat. I am magnanimous, after all.”

“Thank you. You’re a wonderful bride.”

Climbing up first, Kardia reached down and pulled Noi up by the hand.

A magic circle that defied the laws of nature and let one walk on water was, of course, intricate. In the finesse required for such spellwork, Kardia might already have surpassed Noi by far.

Once ashore, Noi grabbed the fabric of her outer robe and wrung it tight like laundry. Water gushed out in sheets. She laughed, thinking she’d done something similar at noon.

(But now it’s night, and it’s just the two of us.)

Finding that oddly delightful, she chuckled, and Kardia’s fingers touched her hair.

“You undid your hair.”

At his regretful murmur, Noi felt awkward.

(He’s the one who forgot.)

Even so, having been told to dress up and wait, failing to keep that promise felt like a small guilt—and a disappointment.

“…Did you really just forget? It wasn’t that you had something you absolutely couldn’t miss?”

When Noi looked up at him with peppermint-colored eyes, Kardia gave a wry smile.

“I don’t want to lie to you, so I’ll tell you the truth—sorry. I really did forget.”

There was no excuse at all. That was why she knew it was his true feeling—so often she had thought him suspicious.

So Noi gave a small nod.

“But it’s also true I wanted to make you happy.”

He had surely meant to show her this night sky tonight. Thinking she would be pleased—thinking of her—he had proposed a night date, even though he was always so eager to sleep at night.

Perhaps even now he was right on the edge of sleepiness. At the thought, Noi let out a soft laugh.

“Then I forgive you.”

At her words, Kardia smiled in relief.

The twin moles lifted with his smile; his eyes narrowed; a hint of fang showed—angelic.

For some reason Noi’s chest tightened again, and she clenched her wet clothes. Drip, drip—water fell. She flicked away a strand of waterweed stuck to the fabric.

“…Still, the way you were then—you were like a grandfather who’d forgotten a promise to his granddaughter and rushed home in a panic.”

Kardia, who had lived a century, was far older than any grandfather—yet she wasn’t entirely wrong. As Noi laughed, Kardia replied coolly:

“That’s not all.”

Under the night sky alive with insects, Kardia turned back and looked down at her.

“That’s not all, my bride.”

Backed by the starry heavens, he said it again, as if letting it soak into Noi.

All she could do was stare at him, dumbfounded.

Then, taking his eyes off her, he pushed back his wet hair, flashed a smile, and pointed toward the house.

“Now then—before we bathe, let’s go get scolded by Ornis.”

Indeed, Noi and Kardia were thoroughly scolded.

Herded along by Ornis, who yelled at them at the top of his lungs, they agreed to bathe in turns. Noi went first. From the dining room—where a hammock-style bath boat had been prepared—Noi poked her head into the living room.

“Are you sure I should go first?”

At the anxious question from his bride, Kardia smiled.

“Of course. I can dry off instantly with magic. See?”

With a flick of his finger, the moisture clinging to his clothes flashed into vapor.

“It was just right to cool your head, though.”

When the relieved Noi closed the dining room door to take her bath, Ornis muttered sullenly. Kardia chuckled at his disciple’s phrasing—at which Ornis’s eyes grew severe.

“…Sensei. I hate to ask this, but—”

“Hm?”

“You didn’t…lay a hand on her, did you?”

Hand? Kardia looked at his own palm. For a moment he truly had no idea what Ornis was getting at.

“—‘Lay a hand’ as in that hand? Me? On that child? Even you make jokes, Ornis.”

This was, since Ornis had come to the islet, the funniest joke yet. As Kardia clapped and praised his “growth,” a vein throbbed on Ornis’s forehead.

“You said it was a night date, and then you come back…soaked… Anyone would think something happened. Seriously, don’t get any funny ideas.”

Grumbling, Ornis spread out Kardia’s outer robe.

“Good grief. Waterweed stains are so hard to get out…”

Muttering like an exemplary housewife, Ornis tried a cleaning reagent, while Kardia—down to his tight undergarments—looked exasperated.

“You know…how many years apart do you think she and I are?”

(There’s no way anything happened.)

All the more so if you called it love or romance.

Having lived more than a hundred years, there was no one of Kardia’s age left among humankind. It wasn’t that someone younger was impossible, but there were limits.

Besides, in these hundred years, no human had stirred his heart.

Ornis surely didn’t seriously think Kardia had fallen for Noi. And yet, for him to go out of his way to confirm it—

(Was that atmosphere coming off me? Or off her?)

Or perhaps from both… Unaware of the crease forming between Kardia’s brows, Ornis focused on lifting the stain.

“Right. She’s still a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old kid.”

Lifting Kardia’s outer robe again, Ornis nodded. The smear from the waterweed had come cleanly out.

At the same time, everything Kardia had been thinking a moment before vanished from his mind.

“…Huh?”

“Eh?”

“…She’s that young?”

Aghast, Kardia looked at the dining room door—behind which the very girl in question was currently bathing.

“Yes. She’s on the short side, but about that—hold on. Why are you asking this now?”

Nineteen this year, Ornis had lived in a large household before coming to the islet. Surrounded by younger children, he could tell even small differences in their ages.

Long removed from ordinary human life, Kardia now found it as hard as guessing a puppy’s age.

“How old did you think she was?”

“…I hadn’t even thought about it.”

“Huh?”

“I told you before—ten or twenty makes no difference to me. But I didn’t expect her to be that young…”

Kardia sighed. Just hearing her age somehow gave the person called Noi a clearer outline.

And that made his chest feel oddly restless.

“…Well, whatever the number, I would never lay a hand on her.”

“I’m relieved to hear it.”

Ornis flashed a neat smile, handed Kardia his outer robe, and bowed slowly.