15

“Please have a safe trip, Madam!”

Everyone in the mansion seemed happy about Nelly’s outing after such a long time.

Though Nelly was not feeling well, she somehow decided to take one maid with her and go out to the autumn festival in an outfit like a funeral procession, with a black dress and a black headdress.

Going out itself was truly something Nelly had not done in a long time.

Lately, even opening the curtains of her room had felt troublesome, and she had shut herself up in her room all day without putting on makeup, making the servants very worried.

Nelly simply could not stop thinking about what the shop girl had said.

(A float that makes you remember once again the joy of having been born!)

—If there is something that can awaken such feelings, I want to cling to it—

Nelly, who felt a sense of emptiness about her own life, wished that earnestly.

With it being her first outing in a long time and with the tremendous crowd, Nelly felt faint, but somehow held herself together and reached the float in front of Ezra’s residence.

Nelly’s shop was in the district Ezra managed.

In front of Ezra’s residence, it was so lively with people shoving and crowding to see the famous float that a long line of men and women, young and old, had formed.

“Oh my, this is rare.”

As she was standing at the very end of the line, Ezra himself, in a truly good mood, appeared.

Nelly did not understand it well, but people called magicians apparently had the ability to perceive things through magical power rather than things visible to the eye. Since Nelly had a little magical power, Ezra must have sensed Nelly’s magical power approaching.

“Nelly-dono, it has been quite some time. I had heard you had not gone out in a while, but how has your health been since then? Even so, as expected of the wife of a merchant with a discerning eye. You came today to take one look at my wonderful float as a merchant, then.”

“Ezra-sama. It has been a long time. It is as beautiful as the girls at the shop were saying… Ah, that is Eugenia-sama’s marigold, is it not?”

The marigold, shining beautifully with Eugenia’s magical power, glowed dully atop the black float’s roof like a golden roof ornament. It was splendid magic.

“It truly is a joyous thing that Eugenia-sama has awakened and would offer such consideration in greeting her subjects.”

“…Though it is rude of me, I did not know that Eugenia-sama was so skilled in magic.”

In magic, the quality and quantity of magical power were also factors, but its result was terribly influenced by the mental state of the person deploying the magic.

The preservation magic Eugenia had bestowed was simple magic, but to those who could see, it revealed just how strong a spirit the person who had deployed it possessed.

“They say that a person who has once knocked on the gates of the netherworld returns from the netherworld granted many treasures. Surely Eugenia-sama, who awakened from the sleep of the netherworld, has brought many treasures back with her.”

“Kaka,” Ezra, called this country’s sage, laughed loudly.

“Thanks to that, as you can see, this year’s float has a great reputation. Nelly-dono, please enjoy it as well.”

“Thank you for waiting.”

It had been a long line that had seemed as though it would take half a day, but Nelly’s turn came around surprisingly quickly.

(That means he is applying magic that can be used by groups all at once. I am looking forward to this.)

“Then, Madam, I shall join you inside later.”

After Nelly parted from the maid, she opened the beautiful float’s black door.

Last year, Ezra’s float had been a work in which illusion magic activated from the instant the door was opened.

Bracing herself for something to jump out, she opened the door and entered, and inside was a room where nothing existed in the wide space, only illusions of waterfalls covered in mist spreading across all four sides as far as the eye could see.

(What an interesting design.)

As expected, this year’s display must also be elaborately devised illusion magic.

Feeling as though she had been challenged, Nelly passed through the waterfall and walked forward beyond it.

Because it was only illusion magic, even after passing through the waterfall, her body was not wet at all.

Nelly confirmed that not even the hem of her skirt was wet, and her heart danced a little. What had Ezra prepared?

Beyond the waterfall, there was a dark cave so narrow that she had to bend her body.

Light could be seen at the back of the damp cave.

Apparently, it connected somewhere.

Aiming for the light, Nelly passed through the cave’s hole while crouching.

(…Where did I come out?)

When she emerged from the narrow cave, there was a space of green forest, broad and deep as if it were another world.

It was a deep, deep, dim, cool, quiet forest.

It must have been an ancient forest. There was no sign at all that human hands had entered it.

Large trees, heavy with age, simply existed there quietly. It was a soundless, silent forest.

Mist from the waterfall also drifted toward the forest, and the air contained water and was very sweet.

Perhaps the mist had carefully nurtured it, for the bark of the densely growing trees was also thickly covered in beautiful moss, and deeply covered in the green of moss.

In the thick, pure air of the deep green sea, Nelly unconsciously took a long, deep breath.

When she realized it, round, faint lights were floating softly and soundlessly here and there in the dim forest around a colony of ferns.

(This is the forest of spirits.)

Nelly realized it.

This forest was filled with pure spiritual power.

The air was filled with the silent presence of living things. The air was filled with the joy and warmth of being alive.

It was filled with the joy of life being born.

Each time Nelly moved and each time she breathed out, she felt the moisture of this sacred forest rejoicing.

The moisture nestled close to Nelly’s movements, and in time with the breath Nelly inhaled and the breath she exhaled, it took form or became light. Among them, there were some things that changed into the life of tiny particles of light, vanished, then returned to moisture again.

Carefully and slowly, Nelly moved deeper into the forest.

As she moved farther in, among the trees of the forest, the softly floating lights began to include slightly larger, stronger masses of light.

When the masses of light shone more strongly, some of them went pop, pop, and took the forms of fairies, small people with butterfly wings.

There were also lights that vanished as they were, without taking form.

Among the newborn fairies, the more curious ones flew around Nelly with interest, then flew off somewhere.

Nelly also looked down at her feet.

On the soil at her feet as well, there were small brown lights in round shapes and things like black dust lying about.

Some of the brown lights rolled up as they were and became small earth spirits wearing red hats.

Then the small earth spirits wearing matching red hats continued marching while keeping a steady rhythm to the right and left.

The spirit at the head seemed to be carrying a small mushroom over its head and going somewhere together with the others.

The black dust simply rolled into the shadows and disappeared.

She tried looking up at the sky.

In the trees of the densely overgrown forest, she could see the shadow of a large bird.

The bird had a human face.

(A world that is not the human world.)

A large bundle of light suddenly entered the dim forest.

Right before Nelly’s eyes, a beautiful meadow of undergrowth overgrown with clovers suddenly appeared in place of the trees, as though that place alone had opened up.

Only here did it seem to have been arranged by human hands.

Nelly walked forward.

In the middle of the meadow, there were two gravestones standing quietly.

They were moss-covered rock gravestones. One was a mottled black and orange rock with a rough surface, as though it had grown out from the ground, and the other was a small, white, round stone.

On the moss that covered the rough-surfaced rock, a very tiny baby mushroom had poked out.

(Whose are they, I wonder?)

Nelly gently touched the rock with her hand.

The air of this forest, containing much moisture, seemed to be gently eroding the rock’s surface. The corners of the rock had lost their sharpness and formed gentle curves.

On the small, round, white stone was: (Yi Han, age 1)

On the rough-surfaced, mottled rock was: (Jivago, age 62)

Only that was carved there in small letters.

From the sky, dazzling light entered like a staircase of light being lowered, illuminating the gravestones.

At night, the pale blue light of the moon would surely illuminate this meadow brightly.

Nelly understood that this was a graveyard.

But Nelly did not feel that it was frightening or eerie.

Rather, Nelly felt a closeness to the deceased sleeping here.

(Hello.)

Gently, Nelly touched the names carved on the gravestones. So as not to disturb their sleep.

Gentians were blooming with vivid blue flowers, as though encircling the gravestones.

Someone must have planted them to comfort the deceased.

For a while, Nelly simply breathed quietly in that tranquil space.

Suddenly, from behind Nelly, there was the sound of an animal moving.

When she turned around, perhaps a rabbit or a fawn had come visiting, for she saw the shadow of a fairly large animal disappearing into the forest.

(…Oh my.)

Before her turned gaze, a very large cedar tree stood enthroned. As though watching over the gravestones, it stretched its large branches toward the sky in a leisurely, majestic form.

It was a giant tree whose age had surely already surpassed several hundred years.

It was probably the master of this forest.

Around its roots, which had countless knots, vine plants were wrapped in many overlapping layers.

At its base was a large hollow, and the hollow was just large enough for an adult to bend down and enter.

The inside of the hollow was a small, dark space, and within it, soft-looking dry grass was piled up fluffily.

Almost without thinking, Nelly, as though invited unsteadily forward, curled up her body, entered the hollow, and tried entrusting her body to the bed of dry grass.

(It feels good.)

Her body fit snugly into the hollow, and it was comfortable.

The inside of the hollow was filled with the scent of cedar.

When she entrusted herself to the hollow, she could see the two gravestones just before her eyes, as though they were nestled together.

Inside the womb of the dark cedar giant. Nelly slowly closed her eyes.

What had this cedar giant thought and what had it seen over the span of several hundred years?

Nelly let her thoughts drift to the passage of time of this giant tree, which seemed eternal.

She gently brought her ear close to the hollow.

(…It is alive.)

She could hear the roaring sound of sap being drawn up.

This giant cedar tree of several hundred years of age, standing quietly in this quiet forest, was quiet, yet filled with strong vitality.

And from far deep within, there came the sound of a woodpecker making a hole somewhere in this tree.

Tears overflowed from both of Nelly’s eyes.

Nothing rose in her heart.

She simply felt the life of the forest, and, enough to tremble, felt the joy of her own being alive and the preciousness of life.

Inside the tree hollow, Nelly fell into a deep sleep with the peace of a child.