Gazing Up At The River Of Stars (5)

As usual lifted with one arm, Noi looked at the person before her and teared up. Pathetically, her murmur came out hoarse.

“…Kardia.”

“I’ll take it from here.”

Spattered with mud on arms and legs, Kardia smiled gently and stepped outside. The villagers followed at a wary distance.

When they reached the statue, Kardia raised his arm—and with fingers as graceful as a musician’s, he wove magic.

It was beautiful, and painstaking.

That method—never forgetting the basics—called up their days of training together, and tears traced Noi’s cheeks.

A thin, immeasurably long current of magic, like a net with wide meshes, streamed into the sky.

“—Come.”

At Kardia’s voice, Phosphora rose all at once from across the village.

“Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!”

Screams rang out from every quarter.

Tens of thousands of Phosphora—hidden among grass and trees, beneath floorboards, in ceiling shadows, in ditch-mud—burst into the air at once.

People spilled from their homes, rampaging outside to find escape. The village fell into pandemonium.

Even the villagers gathered before the shop all collapsed to their knees.

“W…wow…!”

Amid this, one of the toppled men cried out. The shout spread and those flocking to the square raised a cheer.

Faces upturned, people’s expressions softened.

“Look! A river of stars!”

“Beautiful… how beautiful…!”

Drawn to the magic Kardia had woven, the Phosphora writhed, joined, and flowed through the sky as a great river.

Phosphora fed on magic. When swollen full with charge, they glowed.

That light shone like stars even in daytime, and in the capital the insects were popular as mages’ pets.

Across the noon-blue, a river of stars coursed on—as if journeying in the direction Kardia had set.

Someone watched Noi as she stared at the shining river—Kardia, with Noi perched on one arm.

“I hear you protected the lord?”

He must have heard the account from villagers loitering outside the shop. In contrast to the surrounding cheers, his voice was terribly mild.

“Thank you.”

Thanked by Kardia, Noi drooped her head.

“…I couldn’t do anything.”

It was as the villagers said. For all her lofty lecturing, she had done nothing.

But Kardia leaned to peer at the crestfallen Noi.

“At least, that’s not how I see it.”

Looking down at her, his face held a gentle smile.

(…Really?)

Drawn by that smile, Noi bent toward him and hugged tightly around his neck.

“If you’re lonely, what then—hold your hand?”

“Of course! I’ll come take your hand anytime!”

A night from before flickered through Noi’s mind.

“—Your hand.”

“Hm?”

“I said I would come take it.”

She whispered it in a small voice. Kardia might not even remember.

“…”

Because her face was pressed to his neck as she spoke, she couldn’t see his expression.

“As I am now, I can do no more than hold your hand—but that promise, at least, I will never break.”

Noi spoke as if murmuring, as if swearing to herself.

Kardia gently set her down on her feet.

“—You wanted to look at books, didn’t you? Shall we peek into the shop?”

“! Yes!”

At the word books, Noi instantly lit up. Yes—books!

To see the thing she loved most, she dashed into the store.

—People were still enthralled by the river of stars, gazing only at the sky.

Amid them, Kardia watched the small back and covered his face with one hand.

“…I didn’t want you to see the outside world.”

Even without memory, Noi had knowledge. She could surely live even off the floating islet.

If she learned there was a path to live on the surface, Noi would have no reason to remain.

If she were gone, he could no longer use her.

—(To use her.)

Telling himself it was only to keep her near for that, Kardia muttered in his heart. The desperate run home yesterday, rubbing at sleepy eyes to take her on a date—everything had been for that.

(There’s no other reason.)

Even as he insisted, beneath the glittering river of stars, the feel of the slim hands that had wound around his neck would not fade.

“Welcome home, Lord Dias.”

When they reached the Hyuetos Magic Count’s manor, the greeter bowed.

The house was large, but there were only a countable few servants. With the master rarely present and no social calls, that was enough to maintain it.

After Kardia refilled all eight magic appliances the villagers had brought, they headed together to the Hyuetos Magic Count’s manor.

As if to avoid further trouble, they draped her in a glamour-cloaked mantle and brought her here.

“Sorry to impose two days running.”

“All of the staff are delighted by Lord Dias’s visit.”

Butler Geiko said it in a gentle tone.

It seemed Kardia had come yesterday as well—likely doing the lord’s business in Dias’s guise as proxy.

(So he is doing the lord’s work properly—! Those foul-mouthed old men in the village. I remember your faces.)

Next time they met, she’d make them bald. She made that violent little vow.

Led by Geiko, they moved to the rear archives. Midway, a view from a corridor window made Noi’s jaw drop.

(…—He really did gouge it out…)

There, a detached wing with only its entrance neatly cut away. It had been repaired to look natural, but to one who knew, it was obvious that section alone had been redone.

“Lord Dias, and she is?”

Apparently, even in the manor, he did not give the name Kardia.

“My bride.”

“Is that so?”

On this third introduction today, Noi lodged her first objection. Kardia blinked at her attitude, and she said crisply:

“The name of the man I’m engaged to is a little different, I think.”

She shot him a glance; he smiled pleasantly—but surely cold sweat beaded inside. He must have known the odds were against him. After all, Noi had been considerate enough not to call him “Kardia” in public all this time.

“When we get home, will you hear my pitiful excuses—my bride?”

Still smiling mildly, Kardia continued; Noi smiled back just as sweetly.

“Seems I was mistaken! Forgive me, my beloved betrothed!”

Beaming wide, she hugged him tight, and the elderly butler watched them with fond eyes.

“So Lord Dias is already at such an age. No wonder I’ve grown old.”

“Sixty-seven, was it?”

“…You startled me. Yes. You remember well.”

Geiko stared round-eyed at Kardia; Kardia’s smile deepened.

“It is my honor—Lord Dias.”

A deep, tender light showed in Geiko’s gaze.

“When you turn seventy, I’ll ask the Hyuetos Magic Count to prepare a celebration.”

“Please, that won’t be necessary. Your sentiment is more than enough. —Ah, here we are. Your attendant is waiting within.”

At the library door, Kardia thanked Geiko as the butler excused himself.

“Thank you, Geiko.”

Geiko bowed even more deeply and retraced the corridor they had come.