The Tale of the Wizrain Kingdom
The Dragon Festival and the Boy: Part One
Translated by: S3
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*****
As Elna gradually grew accustomed to her work as a maid in the castle, the cold had fully enveloped the town. Both the town and the castle seemed inexplicably excited.
Noma was particularly affected, sighing heavily even during cleaning and errands. Her sigh, however, was strangely alluring, yet still suggested vexation.
「Noma, is something wrong? You seem to be constantly concerned about your hand.」
「W-W-W-What are you talking about—!?」
Noma moved in a very suspicious manner, hiding both hands behind her back. Since Elna had clearly seen it, such an action was futile now.
「That ring is a beautiful color.」
Perhaps because of her previous life as a dragon, or because of the life she had lived completely detached from such things, Elna had little interest in feminine ornaments. However, she recognized beauty when she saw it, and she had been curious about the object Noma kept staring at while occasionally sighing.
Noma showed the palm she had hidden behind her back with a hesitant demeanor. The ring, formed by several small, lovely pieces of glass, wasn't flashy, making it easy for everyday use.
「...Well, the festival is close. We were going to go together, but then he got work, so it became impossible after all.」
「Ah, so your boyfriend gave it to you as an apology.」
「He did not! I wheedled it out of him! You could even say I took it by force!」
「That sounds surprisingly dangerous?」
She screamed He's not my boyfriend in the first place!, her ears bright red, and she completely forgot her duties despite normally being conscientious. Wait, thinking she had forgotten, she was acting strangely by opening and closing the window, perhaps for ventilation. And a Wind Spirit that happened to be trying to enter hit the window and was blown away; thinking I'll try to re-enter, it was immediately shut out again. Bad timing.
「Noma, calm down. You'll break the window frame,」 Elna said, gently helping the spirit. As if to say thank you, the spirit rotated and began dancing with the hamster on Elna's head. They were a pair prone to dancing.
Compared to this peaceful scene, Noma continued with a severe expression, 「R-Right, that's right. Listen, Elna. Don't get the wrong idea.」
「You really must not misunderstand. This is honestly nothing special. Compared to a 'Dragon Scale' ring, this is something even children around here wear, something sold at a street stall...」
「A-A Dragon Scale, for a ring?」
「Ah, no. Not Lady Elnalfia's scale, but a gemstone with that name. It's a very beautiful gemstone. But because it's so expensive, there are rumors that thieves recently broke into a jewelry store to steal it or something... but that's not the main point of the story!」
「I see.」
Noma knit her brows tightly. So, of course, Elna responded seriously.
「I-It's really nothing special.」
「Is that so?」
Since Noma seemed to want validation, Elna replied, I understand.
「I'm glad you understood!」
「The one who gave it to you was the person who dropped the seal the other day, right?」
The memory of her startling him by chasing after him and jumping from the sky was still recent. He was the gray-haired young man with a certain charm.
Of course, she didn't know him when they met, but having been looked after by Noma and spending so much time together, there were some things she was beginning to figure out.
Noma pressed her lips together. Then, deepening the wrinkles between her eyebrows, she glared at Elna. So, Elna offered a bright smile instead.
「That ring is cute. You received something wonderful.」
「............Yeah.」
Sometimes people cannot be honest. A maiden's heart is a difficult thing, was Elna's conclusion. She didn't know what kind of love story Noma and the young man—her boyfriend, or almost-boyfriend—would weave, but Elna continued her days without much incident.
「Umm, the way to the Sunflower Shop is this way...」
As for Elna, she was walking the path of her errands, which she had grown completely accustomed to.
Even if she couldn't say she walked quickly in the Royal Capital, at least she wouldn't sit down and get lost.
(I have no choice but to accept change as change.)
It would be a lie to say she didn't feel sad remembering the people of the past who were no longer here. Elnalfia lamented the people who had gone and lived in a remote forest. That was why she was ignorant of the passage of history. When she had time, Commonwald would sometimes teach her about the history of the Kingdom of Wizrain, but the more she heard, the more she felt that this current country was a separate entity, like a complete stranger.
She thought that it was just an unavoidable consequence, like the loss of her tail.
The errand she was asked to run was brief. Since she only delivered the castle's order slip, Elna was walking back lightly without any luggage. The hamster in her pocket was eating a sunflower seed, its cheeks peacefully puffed out. Since it had decided on one sunflower seed a day, it seemed to be considering one more bite, no, I must resist, trembling slightly. But setting that aside.
—The state of the town seemed somehow unusual.
「It's not... my imagination?」
Occasionally, something white was launched upwards, and when she looked up, paper confetti was dancing in the blue sky. Colorful flag-shaped garlands hung from window to window across the pathways, making the whole town look like a toy. Furthermore, paper cutouts of dragons were pasted everywhere. Children running past were even wearing dragon tails as they raced.
「Ah, a festival.」
She suddenly remembered what Noma had mentioned about three days ago. The head maid had smiled and told her she could explore the town a bit on her way back from the castle, which had made Elna wonder why she'd say that specifically today.
In the plaza, a band played joyful music, and people were enjoying themselves by clapping along. 「Hmm...」 She placed her index finger on her mouth and thought. 「A festival, huh...」 After spending a generous amount of time thinking, she concluded, 「Well, I guess I'll pass.」 What she realized was that she had absolutely no interest in festivals.
Elna walked on the cobblestones, heading toward her destination, but the clamor of the festival grew distant.
Since she had no ties to festivals, she didn't know what to do. When she was a dragon, she had been troubled watching the little humans making noise, trying not to accidentally step on them, so she was unaware of how to enjoy them. The only festival she knew was the flower viewing at the Great Tree. At the Baron's house, servants were allowed to go into town on festival days, but when Elna and her mother tried to participate, the Baroness and Laura would laugh at them scornfully, telling them to chop some wood instead.
For Elna, she was happy that there was no one to bully her on that day, and being alone with her mother was also enjoyable, but her mother always held Elna's cold hands, and it was her habit to speak with apologetic, furrowed brows, 『I wish I could warm your hands with magic.』
(Mother did say she had an aptitude for fire magic until she gave birth to me...)
She exhaled, and her breath turned white before she realized it.
Winter in the Kingdom of Wizrain is brief but arrives quickly. Elna realized the season had changed and simultaneously thought of her childhood.
Perhaps because the Baron's territory where Elna was born was far from this Royal Capital, the winters were terribly cold. Even if short, the unaccustomed cold was always harsh.
Perhaps for that reason, many people seemed to have an aptitude for fire magic, and she hadn't questioned deeply that her mother was one of them, but Elna was born clutching a dragon scale. Thinking that perhaps Elna, possessing rare fire magic for a human, had absorbed and internalized even her mother's magic to be born into this world, she felt terribly pathetic for not having been able to repay her mother in any way while she was alive.
「Alright, I somehow arrived.」
「?」
Seemingly having lost to desire, the hamster clutching a shelled sunflower seed with puffed cheeks poked its face out from Elna's pocket and looked around.
「Where are we, gonsu?」
「It's the church.」
In front of her was a familiar building.
She thought of the girl smiling with a mysterious umbrella—Kakami. Thinking it was a good opportunity since she had time, she knocked on the church door eagerly, but the reply from the gentle-faced priest who came out was, 「Kakami is out.」 Her own lack of planning was painful.
「Recently she goes out quite often. Do you... know anything?」
「Out? No, I haven't met Kakami since then.」
「Is that so? Today is the festival day celebrating the birth of Lady Elnalfia, once a year. Please enjoy the town by all means.」
From the gap of the door where the smiling priest stood, she felt the presence of people. When Elna bowed, saying, 「Sorry for disturbing you while you're busy,」 the priest waved his wrinkled hand saying no, no with an amiable smile.
「Oops, today was Elnalfia's birthday festival...! I did a bad thing disturbing him when he was busy... Wait, did I even have a birthday? Did I not? Did someone just make it up arbitrarily?」
Having left the church, Elna ended up walking toward the castle.
Even so, strangers celebrating a birthday she herself didn't know was quite an enigma. 「It's a mystery, gansu,」 the hamster replied inside her pocket, making it quite a strange situation.
「I mean, I intended to bring something as thanks for the shelter from the rain, but ended up empty-handed. Hmm? I have a hamster...」
At Elna's mutter, the hamster shivered and seemingly sensing danger, hid deep in the pocket. 「No, I won't use you as a souvenir.」 She stroked the round warm lump through the cloth, but perhaps having sulked, it didn't come out of the pocket.
The townspeople seemed busy distributing balloons and running stalls, but Elna didn't even glance at such things and headed straight back from the church, so in the end, she did nothing. Amazed at her own clumsiness in using time, she looked up at the castle wall as if tracing the path.
「...I wonder if I shouldn't climb over this.」
It was easily the height of two, no, three Elnas. Since the brown brick walls were piled up heavily surrounding the castle, the distance to the destination gate was far. She wouldn't get tired walking that much, but having a shortcut and the ability but not using it felt questionable. 「Alright,」 Elna stepped in, and 「............」 stopped right there.
The memory of jumping from the castle window and causing a huge commotion was vivid. None of that, Elna shook her head, and just as she tried to change direction.
「...Hm?」
From the top of the wall, something golden peeked out.
Thinking it was her imagination, it happened again. It peeked out again and again.
Just because of the backlight, she couldn't see well; as she squinted while making a shade with her hand, a boy jumped down from the top of the wall. The voice muttering 「Eh」 wasn't Elna's, but the boy's. Blinking his eyes as if to say I didn't think it was this high, he flailed the upper half of his body that had only climbed halfway over. The boy screaming thinking I fell, and Elna sliding in to catch him happened simultaneously.
「O-Ouch...」
「U-Ugh...」
The boy's height didn't even reach Elna's shoulder, and Elna, not to boast, had Herculean strength. Still, her body remained just a girl's, so she lost her balance at the sudden event. When they lay flattened on the ground together with Elna acting as a cushion, the boy raised his face vigorously while enduring the pain and interrogated Elna in a tone hard to tell if he was angry or worried,
「You, what are you...? Did you catch me? You aren't injured, are you!」
「No, not particularly injured...」
『Did someone climb over here just now...!?』
『Impossible! But the ladder... I'll check!』
At the men's voices heard from the other side of the wall, the boy snapped his attention away. The voices from beyond the wall grew louder.
「Hey, you, let's go!」
「Eh, go where—」
「Just hurry! They'll catch up!」
*****
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