18

Nelly asked again about the unfamiliar name.

“The girl who brought the tea earlier. That girl’s name is Beth. It seems the Spirit Forest is near Beth’s home. An ordinary human cannot even enter it, but Beth apparently went in and out of it every day from the time she was a child. That is why the forest illusion magic also uses Beth’s memories, so you can see even the fine details well, as though you had truly stepped into the forest.”

“Please… wait a moment, Ezra-sama. Just what sort of person is this Beth, who can enter and leave the Spirit Forest? From what I saw, she looked like nothing more than an ordinary young lady.”

There were a few humans who were permitted to enter and leave the Spirit Forest.

Children born with intellectual disabilities, blind people, and some witches were regarded as beings close to the spirit realm, and there were cases where they occasionally wandered into the Spirit Forest. But Beth looked like a perfectly ordinary country girl.

“…I am not certain, but she is likely a child abducted by spirits.”

Ezra let out a light sigh and said that.

“What did you say!!!!”

At Ezra’s unexpected words, Nelly unconsciously stood up with a clatter of her cup.

(A changeling.)

Nelly turned pale. Indeed, if Beth was a changeling, entering and leaving the Spirit Forest was possible.

That was because the spirits recognized her as a being of the spirit realm.

Fairies, on the slightest whim, sometimes abduct small human children and exchange them with fairy children.

The reason was not well known, and what kind of child was abducted was not well understood either.

The only thing known was that when a human child abducted by spirits remained in the spirit world for a long time, that child could no longer return to the human world. Changelings who had been able to return to the human world were exceedingly rare beings.

Ezra continued.

“When that child was still two or three years old, a miller nearby protected her after she was wandering through the forest alone. Apparently, when she was found, she was dressed neatly and was well nourished, yet strangely enough, no missing child report came from anywhere. Beth was still too young to put what had happened into words, and her hair color happened to resemble that man’s, so the miller apparently decided to raise her as his granddaughter.”

“That miller was a retired knight named Jivago, and he had lost his hearing and voice in the previous war. The two of them lived beside the forest, in a place where few people came, living a life without voices. For that reason, Beth did not learn words easily, and apparently did not speak human words until she was six.”

It was the outline of Beth’s identity recorded at the village office, discovered when Ezra investigated Beth’s background at Noel’s request.

“Apparently she did not speak human words, but instead, she had been conversing without words with all sorts of invisible beings. She laughed and said that only after learning letters did she finally realize that words were necessary to converse with people. Even now, she says she is better at speaking with plants and such than with people.”

“As Beth grew older, she apparently realized that there were places in the forest only she could go, and beings only she could see. That was the Spirit Forest that I showed you today as well, Nelly-dono. Her first memory as a human seems to be sleeping inside the hollow of that great cedar tree. She said she had no memories before that. Whether she was simply too young when she became lost to remember, or whether the spirits tampered with her memories, I cannot imagine.”

“When I first had her take me by magic to the Spirit Forest deep within that child’s memories, I was so moved by the beauty of the Spirit Forest that my tears would not stop. And so I asked Beth to let me use an illusion of it for this year’s float.”

Nelly was confused and had no idea what to ask first, but for the moment, she tried throwing out the first question that came to mind.

The name Jivago, which Nelly had seen on the grave marker, was the name of the miller who had raised Beth.

Beth had buried her precious family in the place where she had been born as a human.

“…Who is Yi Han?”

One year old. That was the age at death carved beside Jivago’s grave marker.

Nelly’s heart, which had raised four children to adulthood, ached sharply.

“During the war, Jivago apparently took in many foreign refugee children at the mill. One of them was a sick child, and apparently could not be saved. It seems that after the child died, the child’s parents continued on to the neighboring country, and no one knows how they are doing now. Beth cooperated in showing the forest illusion through the float because she thought it would be good if Yi Han’s parents could be told that Yi Han was sleeping together with Jivago in a beautiful place.”

“…She is a kind girl.”

“Aye. She is the daughter I am proud of. She has a Green Thumb, you see, and had been employed in the greenhouse of the Magic Institute. At first, as a magician, I was truly interested in how she could raise plants so well, so I kept observing her.”

“That girl was born as a human, yet grew up without knowing human words. Without being bound by human words, she grew while keeping a soul as clear as a baby’s. With that clear soul, she speaks directly with the souls of all living things. She hears the voiceless voices of plants, babies, and living beings that have no words. That was the secret of the Green Thumb that girl possesses.”

Ezra had tears gathered in the eyes deep within his wrinkled gaze.

This man had been involved behind the scenes in several wars over his long life as a staff officer of the magic army, and had been involved in multiple assassinations; he knew the darkness of the kingdom’s history better than anyone.

What on earth had this sage with stained hands thought in the Spirit Forest that Beth had invited him into?

“Beth, come here.”

Ezra called gently to Beth, who seemed to be in another room. “Yes,” came a cheerful voice from the other room.

“Please pour another cup of tea for Nelly-dono.”