Chapter 25: Moonlight Guidance

「It’s a shame, just when we were getting along.」
「Well, we can just go see her again. It’ll only be a bit farther, that’s all.」

On the way back to Hiiro, Chryse and Nina chat atop my back.

「You heard her, right? Dragons shouldn’t move around too much.」
「Then we can go without you.」
「To do what!?」

When I nail Nina for saying it so lightly, that’s the answer I get.
Isn’t that getting a bit too friendly, even for them?

「Ah, Daddy, it’s Ara‑kun.」

I follow Chryse’s pointing finger as she leans out over my head—sure enough, Ara was galloping toward us, with Inis and Mel a little ways behind.

「I’m landing. Hold on tight.」

I say that over my shoulder, fold my wings, and touch down.

「Hey, Ara—did something happen?」
「N‑no, it’s not just ‘did something happen’! The mountain suddenly breathed fire, so I got worried…!」

Ah, right.
The mountain where my mother lived is a volcano, but it hadn’t erupted in a thousand years.
Heat and flame may not harm a fire dragon, but the ash, rock, smoke, and gas that come with them are unpleasant even for us—Mother must have kept it carefully in check.
If it suddenly belched fire, anyone would be uneasy, not just a worrywart like Ara.

「See? I told you there was nothing to worry about.」
「Waa—! It’s Dragon Sensei, it’s been so looong—!」

Catching up, Inis said it in exasperation, and Mel barreled straight into me and hugged me. It seems my “don’t cling too much” request doesn’t count in Mel’s mind whenever I’m in dragon form.

「No, but still—sure, Sensei’s a fire dragon, so fire won’t faze him. But Nina‑sensei and Chryse would be in danger.」
「…Why is it I end up more worried about you than Nina‑sensei, who’s competent about basically everything?」

I can’t talk back—regrettably, I thought the same thing myself.

「Exactly. If he’s fine, there’s no way I’m the one in danger.」

What’s more, Nina herself stands atop my head and declares it—never mind I’d just shielded her from volcanic bombs; her tone says as if nothing of the sort happened.

「Ara‑kun, you’re hurt.」

Chryse suddenly hops down from my head, gently takes Ara’s hand, and there runs a single drawn‑tight gash with caked blood clinging to it.

「Hm? Ah, it’s just a scratch.」
「No, that won’t do. You have to treat it properly…」
「Mm.」

When Chryse glances back at me, bandages and medicine patter down from over my head—Nina had produced them from the white coat she was wearing. As expected of a professional; she’s perfectly prepared.

「Did something happen?」
「Not really. A type of spirit I’d never seen showed up… it just took a little doing.」

When I ask, Inis answers in Ara’s place, sounding bored, while Chryse diligently applies ointment and wraps the bandage.

「Ara‑kun got hurt protecting Inis‑chan—an honorable wound, huh—」
「The iron automaton puts out power, but its mobility is way too low—that’s the flaw. But Invisible Butler doesn’t have enough output either…」

Even though she was defended by the one she likes, there wasn’t a trace of sweetness in the air. It’s… well, maybe that’s exactly why this girl’s love never progresses at all.

「Everyone’s got things that just won’t go their way, huh—」
「Hm? ‘Everyone’?」

When I ask Mel’s quiet remark, she gives a rare, slightly troubled wry smile.


* * *


Ten days to the day since we visited Mother—a night of the full moon.

「Nina, got a minute before bed?」
「Mm. Sure.」

When I call out, Nina nods without even asking what I want to talk about.

「You’re not even going to ask what it is?」
「Your explanations are hard to follow, so I’d rather not.」

That curt answer shocks me. Of all people, I didn’t want Nina critiquing my ability to explain…!

「Daddy. I’m coming too.」

She must have half‑guessed my aim. Chryse, who would usually be asleep at sunset, stopped us as we were heading out and declared it.

「…All right. Let’s go together.」

After a moment’s hesitation, I nod honestly.

The three of us stepped outside together.
Hiiro after sundown is still dark. Whether magic or Sorcery, we haven’t overcome the flaw that their effects end after a set time. No matter how long‑lasting we make them, at best they hold for two Dragon Hours—short of a whole night.

Of course, if we took turns and kept recasting a light sorcery all night, we could keep it bright till morning, but for now there’s neither the crime rate nor the work that demands we go that far.

Or maybe… the day we can easily fill the world with light all night long will be the day they truly won’t need me anymore.

Thinking that, the three of us walk the pitch‑dark road.

For the record, dragons and elves—and whatever Chryse is—see well at night, so we had no trouble without a light.

Before long we reach Hiiro’s northern edge—a very small, very small grove.
We push in among the stately, towering trees and head deeper.

With trees standing in rows, the ground carpeted in fallen leaves, and small creatures breathing there—it was, strictly speaking, not a forest.

At last I reach the place I was aiming for and look up at a particularly large tree.

…Now then, how should I proceed?

I’d brought a certain degree of confidence—but in truth, I had no plan.

「Could you ask it to lend us a branch?」

I think a moment and ask Nina. She nods and lifts a hand; with a crack, a branch from the great tree drops before my eyes.
It was about as thick as Chryse’s wrist and as long as I am tall.

The base was so clean‑cut it was hard to believe it had ‘broken off’ on its own, and when I gripped it, it felt oddly right in my hand.

「O moon—star that has witnessed all, that shines by returning the sun’s light—」

I raise the leafy branch to the sky and recite the spell.

「Share your light with me—a light that brings out the glow sleeping in the depths of a person.」

Then, on the branch lifted toward the blazing full moon, a round, pale light kindled as if ignoring perspective.

I hold it aloft like a torch and aim it at Nina’s chest.

「Moon’s light, you who reflect—shine upon her… soul.」

Souls exist. Mother—an ancient fire dragon who has lived for millennia—staked her seal on it.
Whether to call it a soul, a heart, or memory, I don’t know. But it isn’t my fancy; it most certainly exists.

If so, then we should be able to find it.

「…It’s not lighting up.」

But Nina’s chest did not blaze as I’d imagined.
She stared down at her chest, brow knit—and then, grabbing her twin mounds, shoved them together.

「No, I don’t think that’s going to help.」
「You picking a fight?」

No, that’s not what I meant. I’m only saying chest size has nothing to do with essence or souls, so it’s pointless…

「Essence… the essence, huh.」
「You saying this is my essence!?」
「That’s not what I meant.」

I flick Nina on the forehead. Why is this girl on the verge of tears over this?

「Nina. There’s no one else around, right?」
「No, but?」

I press the branch to her chest, lean in, and bring my face close.

「W‑what is it…?」

I whispered at her ear; for once, her voice had gone high with fluster.

「Nina.」

At once, a sunlike light overflowed from her chest. It was bright enough to turn our surroundings to midday—and yet it didn’t blind.

「So this is the soul’s light…!」

I knew it instinctively. A soul is a person’s root.
That’s why you can’t call it forth unless you speak the true name.

「Daddy. Could you do me next, please?」

With a hardened, resolute face, Chryse asked.
She may only look like a child, but in years and in mind she isn’t one. She had reached the same conclusion I had.

Chryse might be a Ghoul.
That was the answer I—and likely Chryse herself—had come to.

I’ve told her the circumstances in which we found her as an infant. When the ones she calls her parents are a fire dragon and an elf—and not even married—there’s no glossing it over.

The Ghouls we drove off had inhabited beasts’ carcasses; if one had possessed a human infant, it might have become something like Chryse.

And if that were so, then she likely wouldn’t have a soul.

「Chryse. …Chrysenisos.」

I set the moon’s light to Chryse’s chest and, almost like a prayer, spoke her true name.

—And then.

「It lit up…」

Hugging herself, Chryse let the words spill out.
Compared to Nina’s soul, it was a much smaller, more modest light.

But there was a sure radiance there.

「It’s there… it’s there! Daddy, I… I have a soul, too…!」
「Yeah. It’s there. You’ve got a soul, Chryse—clear as day!」

I catch her as she leaps into me and squeeze her tight.
Her identity only became murkier, but that didn’t matter. What mattered—more than anything—was that she undeniably had a soul.

「Here.」

After Chryse and I finished rejoicing, Nina picked up the branch I’d dropped and handed it to me.

「This isn’t all, is it?」
「Yeah. Though given this, the second one’s probably a no‑go.」

The reason we’d come here—and, by extension, the reason I went out of my way to visit Mother—came to three in all, including Chryse’s matter. Each concerned whether souls truly exist.

First: Chryse’s true nature.

「O moon, you who reflect—shine upon the lingering trace of the soul that sleeps here… Ai’s soul.」

Second: the whereabouts of my first wife—Ai—whom I once lost.
That she reincarnated is almost certainly true—and that she lost her life again as well.

The question is what came after. Did she undergo a second reincarnation?
Has she been reborn a third, a fourth time?

There was no need to think about it.
She absolutely has.

That’s the kind of girl she is. If it were only my belief, it might be mere delusion, but Nina agreed.

And yet Ai still doesn’t appear before my eyes.
Then there’s nothing for it but to go search for her ourselves.

This isn’t a forest. It’s a cemetery.

Once, each time someone died, Nina would sprout a new bud as a grave marker.
Those became trees, then great trees, and began to shape a forest.
We stopped partway through because it took far too much space…

Ai’s soul should still be cradled by this tree—the one that gave me its branch—Ai’s tree.

「It isn’t lighting up, huh.」

I give a wry smile at the tree that shows no response.
Ai herself is already dead; perhaps there isn’t a scrap of soul left here.
Even if something remains, it may be too long ago to call it forth.

And more than anything, I don’t know Ai’s true name.
I never asked the true name she must have held in her heart.
For fear—however slight—that someone else might learn it and control her.
How foolish I was.

「Nina… you don’t know Ai’s true name either, do you?」

When I ask, almost pleading, she nods with a pained look. I’m the fool here—you don’t need to make that face.

「All right—last test.」

Borrow the full moon’s light and Ai’s tree, and draw out a soul. The third purpose.
At the same time, it was a quest for the greatest of the mysteries still unsolved.

I press the staff to my own chest and think a little.
I have two true names: a dragon’s and a human’s.
Mother didn’t give me a name, but Nina did—my name as a dragon.
Which should I call, to reveal my soul?

「Ryoji Sekiguchi.」

There’s nothing to ponder—I speak my human name.
Light in quantities several times even Nina’s overflowed from my chest.
I’d assumed the strength of the light was set by years lived, but apparently not; in age—even counting my previous life—Nina is older than I am.

「Light, tell me.」

At any rate, I commanded that light.

「Where did you come from?」

At once, the light seemed to gather—then shot straight upward.

「…Unbelievable.」

It pointed to the heavens, the far reaches of the sky—not straight up, but to a single point at a slight angle.
I grasped the meaning without mistake.

Not another world.

Beyond this sky—somewhere out in space.

My homeland—Earth.