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Interlude, A Tale (4)
Time passed, and now back to the present.
On the boat home, Najin told Lapis and Anton what had happened inside the Black Spire.
"That's how it went."
The letters Najin had been sorting through. After hearing the story behind them, Lapis went quiet. She wore a complicated expression, her lips moving slowly.
"So I wasn't the only one imprisoned in that tower? Rena was locked away there too? Then right now..."
"She's probably dreaming."
Rena's choice, made after the letters were delivered. Najin didn't say much about it. Only that she had chosen to dream, chosen to rest for a while as she waited for someone.
"I see."
That was enough to understand.
"So that's the choice she made."
Lapis let out a long breath.
She raised her head and looked at the sky. Then at her wrists, still marked from being bound for so long. Finally, at Anton, sitting astride the bow of the boat.
"It's a selfish thing to say. Maybe even a little unkind."
Lapis smiled bitterly.
"But I was lucky. I can't deny that."
"I'm not so sure about that. Calling what you earned through effort simply 'luck' sells the effort short."
"I appreciate it, but..."
She looked at the letters as she spoke.
"I can't deny the luck. Of course we put in effort. Anton didn't give up for four hundred years, and I endured four hundred years myself. But that doesn't mean Rena didn't try just as hard, does it?"
That too was true.
Rena, and Albert, the hero of the Alliance who had loved her, both had worked themselves to the bone. If there was such a thing as deserving a beautiful ending in this world, Rena and Albert had earned that right many times over.
"They were just one step from their destination. All they needed was a little luck, a Fateful encounter. Anton and I had such a Fateful encounter. But..."
Lapis pointed at Najin.
The one who had guided Anton to the Black Spire and done everything in his power to give him his reunion. She pointed at the man who had been their Fateful encounter and said,
"Rena didn't. That's the only difference. Put another way, it could easily have been the ending waiting for me."
Lapis's expression was conflicted as she said it. The tragic ending she had imagined, the one she had miraculously avoided, wasn't so different from Rena's story. She felt a kinship with it she couldn't quite name.
"That Albert fellow."
She wasn't the only one. Anton, who had been sitting on the bow listening, spoke up.
"In a way, he was something of a senior to me."
"A senior?"
"There have only been exactly three humans who ever loved a witch, myself included, and I was the third. The first is unknown. The second was that hero, Albert."
Anton Quixano said, folding his arms.
"And as is the way of the world, the student learns from the senior. From the one who walked the path before."
"What do you mean by that, Anton?"
"It's nothing, Lapis. A simple story."
A simple story. Having opened with that, Anton shrugged.
"Information on how a human and a witch could be together, on how to break free from the Taboo, that kind of information is extremely rare. After all, there have only been two known precedents in a thousand years. The first left no records at all, so I had no choice but to rely on the second."
Part of the story of his four hundred years.
"I gathered Albert's records, the journals he left behind, every piece of information related to him. From all of that, I pieced together a rough understanding of how. Didn't I tell you, Lapis?"
Did you think I didn't know you would make that choice? Did you think I would have spent four hundred years without preparing for it? Anton had certainly said as much.
"Part of what let me prepare was those very records Albert left behind. So I'm grateful to him. The only thing that bothered me was having no way to repay that debt."
Anton pointed to the letters in Najin's hands.
"Now there is."
"What do you mean?"
"Pass those letters to the person they're meant for, Albert's child. Tell her that if she wants to meet her mother, she should come find us. We'll help however we can."
His eyes flicked to Lapis. Aren't you thinking the same thing? Don't you want to help somehow? She burst out laughing.
"Right, miracles don't just happen on their own."
Brushing aside the hair tossed by the sea breeze, Lapis watched the Black Spire shrinking in the distance.
"Luck, a Fateful encounter, the failures of those who walked a similar path before us, the wisdom earned from those failures. A miracle is built from all of those things coming together."
Right, she said.
"I hope that girl Roselin finds happiness. Just as her parents always wished for her."
Short if you called it short, long if you called it long. When the journey was over, Lapis and Anton returned to that same cottage from four hundred years ago. At the sight of red roses in full bloom before the door, Lapis's eyes went wide, and then something rather embarrassing happened, but...
Anyway. That was how Najin and Anton concluded their voyage.
"Well then. Farewell, Oarsman."
"You already look happy, but I hope you enjoy happy days ahead, Captain."
"Of course. Miraculous days are waiting for me."
They chuckled their goodbyes, and Najin started walking. As he went, Anton Quixano called after him.
"We'll meet again, Najin."
Next time, on your stage.
Najin gave a wave instead of an answer.
Crossing the hill and traversing the Outland, he headed back toward the continent. By now the Outland's geography was familiar enough that finding his way was no trouble. And whenever he did lose himself, there was an excellent Guide to show him the way.
"Merlin."
"What?"
"About the glimpse of your past I saw in the Black Spire."
No matter how many times Merlin had asked him about it, Najin had never answered. Knowing that his silence had left her frustrated, he offered a short reply.
"The reason I haven't talked about it, it's nothing major."
"Then what is it?"
"Knowing in advance takes the fun out of it."
"What?"
Merlin exhaled like she couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"That's seriously all?"
That little reason is what will keep you going. Najin didn't say it. He smiled instead.
"Well, we'll save that story for later."
The wind blew. In the distance, the outline of the continent was beginning to show.
"Let's finish delivering these letters first."
Walking toward the continent, Najin thought. What on earth was love?
The question he'd posed before this voyage began. At the time he hadn't been able to answer it, but now he felt he could, at least a little.
「Love is magic.」
「The greatest magic in all the world!」
Having heard the stories of Anton Quixano, Lapis, and Rena, he'd gotten a rough feel for what that thing called love truly was. Though he still couldn't quite grasp what Anton had meant by the kind of love that drove a person out of their mind...
"Vitality."
Najin murmured it to himself. Vitality, energy, liveliness. Words like those. Thinking of the strange spark that people in love seemed to carry, he found himself envying them, just a little. Wanting to feel something like that himself.
Someone whose very thought made you smile. Someone you wanted to see again, or couldn't stop missing. When that crossed his mind, two faces surfaced unbidden, and Najin tilted his head at the surprise of it.
"Hey. What are you thinking about?"
"Nothing."
"That's not a 'nothing' expression."
Were you thinking about me?
At that, Najin's breath caught for just a moment. Merlin's eyes went wide, and she started poking at his side.
You were thinking about me, weren't you, come on, what was it, say something already.
He gave half-hearted answers to her pestering and found himself smiling without meaning to. There was still so much he didn't understand. But this world was nothing but new things, and there was never a dull moment.
Whatever it was, he'd figure it out eventually.
With that thought, Najin walked on. Crossing back over the boundary of the Outland and setting foot on the continent for the first time in months, the breeze felt unusually cool and fresh. Under the bright glare of sunlight, he drew in a long, deep breath.
Letters sent from the Outland to the continent. Six hundred years' worth. The time had come to deliver them.
As Najin recalled it, the recipient was spotted at a Cambria tavern almost every night, so he headed there first.
Cambria, the City of Opportunities.
Where Najin had begun his journey after leaving the underground city, the place where he had first truly made a name for himself. He had only left a little over a year ago, but after so much time in the Outland where the flow of time twisted on itself, it felt more like three or four years had passed.
Najin tugged his postman's hat snug down on his head.
Tap.
Walking the road toward the heart of Cambria, he took in the people moving through the streets. Adventurers and mercenaries everywhere, merchants hawking their wares at every corner. Lively as ever.
If anything, livelier than before he had left.
There was no way Najin could have known it, but after his departure, the number of adventurers making their way to Cambria had multiplied several times over.
「The Star of Dawn, Sir Najin, began his journey from 'Cambria, the City of Opportunities,' and during his time in Cambria, achieved countless remarkable feats...」
「The Miracle of Cambria.」
「A Year of Dazzling Adventures.」
「You Can Do It Too, In Cambria!」
Cambria's Central Guild and the foundations backing the city had been aggressively promoting themselves on the back of Najin's story. Leading the charge was Marquis Edelmar, blowing his own trumpet at every opportunity, having even dispatched a theatrical troupe all the way to the imperial capital to fan the flames.
"Oh dear..."
Looking at the advertisement on the wall, Najin couldn't hold back a laugh. His own portrait, with the slogan "You Can Do It Too, In Cambria!" beneath it. There was no containing it.
"If you have business in the central district, please fill out the paperwork here. Those holding a Blue-rank badge or above, please present it."
The gate to Cambria's central district. Foot traffic through the city had clearly grown, because now there was a checkpoint on the road leading in. Najin had to resist the urge to pull out the White Horn from his coat and announce himself.
"What do you think would happen if I pulled out the White Horn right here? Would everyone around start going, 'Wait, who is that?'"
"..."
"That's the Najin from the flyers? The legend of Cambria? One of only five from Cambria who holds a White Horn, the youngest Sword Seeker and the youngest..."
"Please, please!"
If he actually did that, Merlin might foam at the mouth and keel over. And beyond that, drawing unnecessary attention was a given.
"I'm joking, joking."
Truth was, Najin had only been teasing. He had no real desire to polish his image that aggressively. And he had plenty of other ways to get through the checkpoint without making a scene.
"Next."
When his turn came, Najin slipped an insignia from his coat and showed it quietly to the guard alone. The guard, who had been checking people through with tired, half-lidded eyes, blinked.
Then his eyes went wide, darting back and forth between Najin and the insignia.
"A, a knight of the imperial court..."
"Quietly."
Najin calmed the guard down, gave his shoulder a few reassuring pats, and made his way into the central district.
"What did you just show him?"
"An insignia marking me as a knight of the imperial court."
"You're not actually part of the imperial court, are you?"
"It's a cover identity."
Strictly speaking, Najin belonged to no organization. But that was not to say he had no backing. The imperial court, the Knight of Atanga order, and the most celebrated figures in the Empire all vouched for him. Depending on the situation, he could claim membership in the imperial court or the Knight of Atanga order. That meant Najin also carried an imperial court insignia among his effects. One of the many privileges that came with being a Free Knight.
"I'm doing pretty well for myself."
"What are you on about?"
Najin shrugged and kept walking.
No way he could know it. But the eyes of the checkpoint guard watching him leave were trembling. His mind was racing through every kind of theory and wild speculation.
Why would a knight of the imperial court come to Cambria?
And so secretly?
Even disguised in a postman's outfit?
Could he be on some secret mission that can't be made public?
While the guard wrestled with his confusion, Najin really was heading to a tavern in the heart of Cambria, just to deliver a letter. The tavern where Roselin Ascalo was a regular.
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