Where Peppermint Dances (3)

Before Kardia’s stunned eyes, Noi shone even brighter.

“That’s it— a river! We’ll make a river!”

“A river— you say that like it’s easy!”

“Kardia can do it! I believe in you!”

Kardia watched Noi and Ornis argue, his mind wiped blank.

(That can’t be.)

She was dead.

(Because of me. I killed her.)

And— a hundred years ago.

Noi spun around to face the self-questioning Kardia.

“Kardia!”

Just her voice sent goosebumps racing over him.

His chest pounded of its own accord, against his will.

It didn’t feel real. His palms trembled; he could distinctly feel sweat run down his neck; his Adam’s apple bobbed hard.

(…Ah—why am I—)

That voice and expression hit every nerve; he narrowed his eyes.

“You understand, right? We’ll cut the ground from here as the center! Use water and earth— and support the earth with wind magic!”

(—He must not have realized it.)

Peppermint-colored eyes—those strong eyes Kardia had loved—roused him to his feet.

He steadied his wavering legs, pressed a hand to his bleeding belly, and spread his arms.

“Understood— Master.”

The tiny murmur was heard by no one.

Pandemonium broke out as people shoved past each other and bolted to flee first. Adults’ shouts and children’s cries echoed back and forth.

In the midst of the square, Kardia focused on weaving a magic circle. A vast array rose around him, centered on his stance—stretching farther and farther, so great it was lost to sight.

“Master, the water—!”

By the time Ornis shouted, the circle was already complete.

“Everyone, down!!”

Noi yelled to the nearby townsfolk who had stayed to see what would happen.

At that instant, cracks split the ground. From that first sharp fracture, the isle itself began to cleave.

With a great, rolling roar, the earth sheared aside—an overwhelming sight.

The whole ground shook, as if the world itself were trembling. It was terrifying—like the gates of hell yawning open.

And then a colossal mass of water fell from the sky.

“—ngh…”

Noi, who had slammed her head against a house wall, clutched the painful spot and stood. She was injured, but still mobile.

A shallow film of water spread over the ground, lapping in ripples to tap Kardia’s cheek.

Lying on the water-slick earth, Kardia watched it all with one open eye.

—The shock of that water, dropping from the sky at ferocious speed, was tremendous.

It struck the ground with world-shaking force, rebounded, and raised a huge wave.

Most of the water slipped neatly into the gaps of the sundered earth and flowed out toward the sea, but the waves born of that fall swept Kardia and the others away from the lake.

He couldn’t move his neck anymore, but by chance, Noi had washed up in the same place.

“…Kardia! We did it!”

Finding him, Noi flashed a bright smile.

Soaked to the bone, she came running with her familiar stumble. She was scraped up everywhere, barely staying on her feet.

Kardia lifted his head and watched her.

“…You’ll trip.”

He rasped— and indeed, Noi tripped right there. When she panicked, she always fell. Even that hadn’t changed at all.

(…Did I— call her? From a hundred years ago?)

Perhaps the transfer magic Kardia used to summon Noi had touched time itself and drawn his teacher—her—from a century past.

Stealing her mana, and her time.

(Ah… if that’s true—)

Through blurred vision, Kardia clenched a fist as he lay there. Only one hand still rose. With a shaking arm he traced a circle.

“…Kardia?”

Noi, rushing up, blanched.

Because a magic circle now spread around her—centered on her and Kardia.

Flattened against the wet ground, Kardia smiled at the one he’d yearned to see—whom he had never thought he could see again.