1
It was the continuation of the dream the night before
A nine-year-old Cleo was sketching towards the flower bed in the courtyard, when suddenly a bright voice called out from behind him.
“It’s been a while since I last saw the young master paint. Did they finally give permission?”
It was the gardener employed by the Grant House, Joseph.
Joseph was tall in stature, muscular to an extent one couldn’t believe he had passed sixty years of age. While his facial features spoke craftsman more than anything, when his tense expression loosened, it had a vague charm to it.
Cleo liked Joseph. To the boy who had lost his mother, Joseph was the only one he could open his heart to. While their ages were largely apart, Cleo thought of him as a friend; albeit, right now, his cheerful smile w as mildly getting on his nerves. Flipping his sketchbook, he continued showing the gardener his back as he moved his pencil with a blunt reply.
“You remember my little brother was born last week. And then the home tutors stopped coming. Father, you see, he told me, ‘you don’t have to study anymore’. ‘Just do whatever you want’ he said.”
Cleo stopped his pencil, connecting his words.
“Father doesn’t need me anymore. Now, unlike me, he’s got a healthy, energetic, splendid successor.”
While Joseph was supposed to be standing behind him, he didn’t say a word. Even if Cleo didn’t see he could tell. At times like these, Joesph would make eyes even sadder than his own, his mouth bent sharply into a frown.
Cleo’s pencil set forth again. A while later, Joseph finally opened his mouth.
“Young master… did you want to succeed the house?”
“… No, not at all.”
“In that case,” Joseph said in a voice so cheerful, it was surely intentional. “This may be for the best. With this, there’s nothing stopping you from becoming an artist.”
“… There’s no way I could be an artist.”
“Don’t sell yourself short. I’m an amateur when it comes to art, but I’m sure you’ll be able to become a splendid—”
“I heard them talking.”
“… About what.”
“It’s not like the kid’s going to make it to twenty, they said.”
The next instant, Joseph’s tone changed to rage.
“Who the hell said that!?”
When he turned, eyes more fiery than magma glared at him.
In contrast, with a look of ice, Cleo spoke coldly.
“—Father.”
Joseph lost his words.
He was dumbfounded. But his face wasn’t one to say, “That’s idiotic,” “There’s no way that’s true”. Vexed, on the verge of tears, as if he had ended up hearing a secret that should have been concealed no matter what, it was that sort of face. For his real father to suppose his expiration of all things…
“… What, so you knew about it too.”
“N-no… I, well…”
Joseph apologetically turned away his eyes.
He was an honest man. He had never once lied to Cleo. He wouldn’t tell him “That’s mistaken,” or “I never heard about that from the master”.
But he did say this.
“Young master… there’s something I want to show you. Please wait here a moment.”
And Joseph ran off without waiting for a reply.
Ten minutes later, he returned dripping with sweat. In his arms rising in breath, he held a flowerpot containing a form of vegetation Cleo had never seen before.
“Young master, do you know what this is?”
Cleo shook his head. If he had to describe its form as he saw it, it looked like a green-colored ball. And radiating from its summit, countless sharp thorns sprouted as if to intimidate all those who drew close.
It was the first time he had seen such a peculiar form of plant life. But Cleo did have an idea.
“Is that… a cactus?”
“Right, that’s correct! I’m surprised you knew.” Joseph raised his voice in admiration.
“… I saw it in the encyclopedia. But the picture it showed wasn’t this round. A cactus is a rare plant in this area, right?”
“You got that right. The other day an old friend of mine brought this one back from a trip. By the way, young master, while it might look so scary, it properly gives flowers you know. Was that also in the encyclopedia?”
“Umm… yeah, I don’t know about that. I don’t really remember. But if it’s a plant, isn’t it normal to have flowers?”
“Well, that’s normally the case.”
Joseph squatted down beside Cleo.
“But see, this one isn’t normal up to the point it flowers… listen to this, it takes a whole thirty years”
[IMAGE]
“Thirty years? Really?”
As Cleo’s eyes rounded in surprise, Joseph grinned as if to say he was waiting for that.
“Well, it’s not as if I’ve seen it with these eyes, but I was thinking I’d raise ‘m up and confirm it.”
“…… Hmmm…”
As Cleo gave the cactus a long, hard state, “Take a closer look,” Joseph brought the flower pot closer. With each and every pointed spoke closing in before his eyes, he ended up pulling his body back with a start.
“It’s not gonna hurt you,” Joseph gave a grand laugh.
“Still, I’m sure this cactus can’t even dream of the day its flower blooms. And thirty years go by until one day, it notices it had a flower after all. I’m sure that’s got to be a surprise.”
Imagining a surprised cactus, Cleo giggled. Joseph smiled back.
“But you know, young master. It’s the same with us humans. Where we’ll be in ten, twenty years, no one really knows. Of course, even the master–”
Understanding what he was trying to say, the small smile floating over Cleo’s face vanished. He hung his head to gaze at his muddy shoes beneath him.
“In the or twenty years… I could still be alive…?”
“Like hell anyone can declare you won’t be. It’s all an unknown. Especially when it comes to how we live and die. Someone who’s living it up all the way to yesterday can drop right off on his way today. But the opposite can happen too.”
Joseph’s gaze of reminiscence was sucked into the deep blue summer sky.
“But, and this is the kicker, just because you don’t know what’ll happen tomorrow, I don’t think that means today, you just have to have your fun here and now. For instance, food is tastier the more time you put into it, right? Try putting the happiness you get in one day up against a week, a month, a year, a decade, compared to the happiness you can only get by piling it up, it’s not going to amount to much.”
And Joseph spoke, his gaze remaining trailed on the distant sky.
“That’s why, young master. For we humans, it’s all about living long. Live a long life, and the day the flower blooms will come.”
Cleo continued gazing at his shoes as he asked.
“…… Really…”
It wasn’t that he doubted Joseph. But if his words were true, what about his mother? Could it be the happiness of his mother who couldn’t live long ‘not amount to much’?
That wasn’t something Cleo could bring himself to say. If he did, he was sure Joseph would make a sad face again.
“… Is that really true?”
Joseph turned back to Cleo, making that charming smile as he spoke.
“Of course it is!”
And in the fall of last year, Joseph was among those who fell to illness, past the point of no return. Without having the chance to see the cactus’s flower—
2
His eyes snapping open, when he confirmed the night had yet to open, Cleo leaked a sigh. Good grief. Tonight, he was unable to fall into a deep sleep, he woke time and again. Surely, he was too high strung.
Today, or perhaps it was yesterday by now, but whatever the case, it was a hectic day.
After he got the girl to wear the raincoat, the two of them walked through the forest. The girl’s appetite couldn’t be sated with two or three fruits. In search of more-filling forms of prey, she said her days were spent wandering the forest.
“Well, I can barely live on with just mr. sun’s light and water. So when I really don’t feel up to it, I just spend my eyes lounging around where the sun hits just right.”
But in order to run, or fight to protect herself, she would need a proper meal lest she be rendered powerless, apparently. In order for the girl to live in the survival of the fittest world of nature, she would need to keep a sufficient supply of nutrients on a daily basis. That’s why she would go to the forest for prey. His leg still tangled by the bine, Cleo would have to follow after her no matter how far she went.
After walking around two hours, they came upon a five-horned deer parent and child. The parent ran away, but she managed to capture the child. Restraining the violently struggling fawn with her vine, after strangling its neck to finish it off, the young girl reached out towards one of her captured prey’s hind legs and—ripped it off bare-handed. The show of brute strength unimaginable from her delicate build cause Cleo to wince and open his eyes wide.
The young girl gleefully bit into the flesh, moving her mouth to chew before swallowing it down. She bit down again, ripping the meat off of the bone. Her mouth was dyed red, she gave a sweet smile as, “Yes, here you go,” she handed over a cut of meat. The scent of blood pricking into his nasal cavity. Cleo felt a sense of vertigo, following onto his vertigo, retreating back with his knees still given out.
“I, I, I, I, I’m fine.”
“You don’t need it? It’s really delicious.”
Tilting her head, she indulged some more, her appetite for the day sated for the time being.
But it wasn’t over yet.
After that, the girl started a pilgrimage around her favorite spots, dragging him around until darkness fell. By the time she finally returned to her place, the ‘Cliff with Pretty Sunrise’, the pitch-black sky flickered with stars.
Near the cliff, was the trunk of a great tree, hollowed out by insects. The girl stuck her hand into the crevice running down the tree, spreading it wide with her monstrous strength. Soon, she had made an entrance wide enough for Cleo’s body to barely pass through vertically.
“Yes, then from today onwards, you’ll sleep here.”
It was a human house not fit for a dog. The inside was just fast enough for him to spread out his legs and sleep. While he did get the feeling his dignity as a human was being slighted, he was tired to death, so it didn’t really matter anymore. Slipping into his sleeping bag, he left his body to his distancing consciousness, soon falling to sleep.
And yet, for some reason, a little while later, he had opened his eyes. In his cycle of sleep and wake, his head grew clearer and clearer. The inside of his sleeping bag had grown unbearably sultry.
Cleo undid the fastener and stuck his arms and legs out from the bag. The light coating of sweat vaporize, making for a pleasant cool. Stretching out his curdling body—and it was then.
The young girl’s vine around his ankle, as if gently tickling his foot, smoothly slipped off. It gave a small sound as it fell to the floor.
(…… huh, what’s this? What’s that supposed to mean?)
At this unexpected development, he forgot how to blink as he stared in a daze.
That state continued five minutes, the hooting of a distant owl finally returning Cleo to his senses. He timidly called out to the girl who should be outside the tree.
“… Umm, it came off, you know…?”
He waited a while. He waited until,
Zzzzz…
The girl returned a breath for a response.
Cleo stifled his breath to peek his head out the crevice. The moonlight poured in through the gaps in the overlapping leaves and branches, gently illuminating the ground. At the base of a tree around two to three meters away, a shadow propped up against the trunk. It was the girl.
Zz, zzzz…
She did seem to be sound asleep. Corresponding with her breath, her shadow lightly swayed.
A terrifying sensation raced down Cleo’s spine.
(I can get away now…?)
3
Just as a dog or cat may dream, so too did the magical beast girl.
She was at the lake that once served as her dwelling.
On the water’s surface around ten meters from shore, for some reason, a single tree stuck out. There was a single monkey at the top of the tree, hitting its hands together to intimidate her. Today’s the day I catch you. The girl extended out the vines from her back. At that moment, the boy who drew pictures appeared from nowhere in particular, putting the stops on her attempt.
“That’s a false-monkey you know. It looks like a monkey from every angle, but it’s actually friends with the fish. If you approach it carelessly, it will run away into the lake.”
“Oh, so that’s a fish, hmm…” she opened her eyes wide.
“But even if it isn’t a monkey, I’d like to try a taste. Is there a good way to do it?”
The boy hit at his chest as if telling her to leave it to him.
“If you shout ‘Boo!’ in a loud voice to startle it, the false-monkey will shout out ‘Wah!’ and open its mouth in surprise. Then into its mouth—” before she noticed it, the area was populated with piles of stone. The boy gripped a good-sized rock in hand.
“You throw in its throne. If you do that a great many times, the false-monkey won’t be able to move anymore from the weight of the rocks, and you can catch it with no difficulty at all.”
“I see, that’s brilliant!”
The girl’s heart soared, she nodded a number of times. She would get right to it. Cupping the palms of her hand around her mouth, the girl menacingly cried out, “Boo!”. When she did, rather than startled, the monkey defenselessly held its mouth open like a chick waiting to be fed. Within it, the stone the young boy threw was sucked in. The girl raised a cry of delight. The boy picked up the next stone.
“Now let’s keep at it, shall we!”
The false-monkey’s stomach visibly expanded with each stone it swallowed down. Eventually unable to bear the weight, the false-monkey missed its footing and fell. While it was caught by a branch growing below it, its body was tangled up and it was unable to move
“Hooray!” Two voices overlapped. Wrapping the false-monkey that could no longer move in her vines, she dragged it all the way to shore. When she held it upside, a great many stones were spat from the false-monkey’s mouth. She shook it up and down, again and again, until the last one was out.
Lunchtime came without delay.
The young girl ate the legs, the boy at the arms. The first monkey— rather false-monkey she had eaten was a peculiar taste she had never experienced before
“It’s delicious.”
“It really is.”
Blood all around their mouths, the two smacked their lips at the curious yet delicate flavor.
The girl only learned it when she met the boy, but eating together with someone was tastier than eating alone, and more fun to boot.
Ukukukufufuh.
A laugh bubbled up from the depths of her throat. The boy laughed too. They had mostly eaten everything. “Now all that’s left is to split the brain half and half,” she was about to say when an impact brought the girl’s dream to a sudden end.
“…!”
When she opened her eyes, she wasn’t by the bank of the river. The half-eaten false-monkey was nowhere to be seen. Before her eyes was the grand tree the human she captured was using as a bed. The faint sliver of the sky she could see was still dark. The twinkling stars peeked in here and there.
“… What’s this, so it was just a dream.”
Nothing to do with any past memories, an absurd and incoherent dream. The girl had been sleeping resting against the base of a tree, but her torso had slipped and fallen, and it seemed the impact had woken her.
The girl gave a sigh, and smiled just a bit.
(What a strange dream. But it was fun.)
I’ll have to catch a real monkey someday, and then I’ll let that human eat some too. As the girl thought so, the voice in her head resounded. The voice that would offer her various bits of wisdom.
‘Hey, it came off.’
“Eh? What did?”
Perhaps because she was half asleep, she had no idea what the voice was referring to. Shaking a bit as her mouth opened wide for a yawn, she let out a light breath at the end.
“…It came off…?”
When she tilted her head, the voice spoke in a tone with no emotion behind it.
‘I said the vine binding that human came off.’
“……”
In her slowly spinning head, it took some time to comprehend what the voice had said.
“…… What!?”
She concentrated her attention on the vine that was supposed to be binding him. She definitely didn’t feel the sensation of it gripping anything. When she tugged at it with all her might, the tip of the vine shot out of the tree’s crevice without catching on anything.
She frantically crawled over, peering into the rift. Her eyes worked as well as a nocturnal animal. But the inside was an empty shell.
‘He ran away,’ The voice indifferently informed her as if it were someone else’s business. Meanwhile, the insides of the girl’s head spun wildly like it had been swallowed in a stormy sea.
“Ran… w-why would he do that?”
‘The human said it, didn’t he? That he wanted to return to his place outside the forest. Isn’t that why he ran away?’
“That can’t be! I mean…”
He definitely did say it. However, “But I plucked fruit and gave it to him. We ate together, and I even took him around to see all my favorite places… and yet! When it was so fun!”
‘They’re not the sort of lifeform that’ll take to you just because you looked after them a bit, those humans. And while it may have been fun for you, there’s no way of telling the human thought the same.’
“Wai… what do you mean? I-I was the only one having fun… is that how it is?”
‘Who knows. You might have been.’
“No way…”
She was astonished, she felt as if she’d been betrayed. It was the first time she’d experienced it from birth. An intense shock and confusion mercilessly attacked and condemned the young girl.
Feeling a dizziness as if the world was spinning around her, she touched her hand to the tree trunk. Her slender arm shook in anguish.
“I… I…”
A faint voice that might drop off at any moment. The next instant, her pale fingers circled into a hook, her sharp claws stuck into the tree’s surface, scratching against it as if to gouge it out.
Five gashes deeply carved in.
Her shoulders, her voice, as if jolted by the suddenly serving emotion, were quivering.
“I’m… not going to allow it…!”
Her green eyes glowed eerily in the darkness.
“I’ll definitely find him, I’ll catch him…”
‘I doubt that human could traverse the night’s forest so quickly. He shouldn’t be too far away.’
“When I catch him… I’ll eat him on the spot!”
Ruled by a magic beast’s impulse, the girl howled like a dragon breathing fire.
With the eyes of a hawk searching for pray, she searched for the escaped boy’s traces. And it was then.
…… No human words~…
She heard a voice.
It was undoubtedly, that human’s voice. What’s more, it was considerably close.
(… Huh?)
‘—Huh?’
No matter how she looked at it, it was unthinkable he was still so close. But what surprised her the most was the fact that his voice wasn’t the voice of a fugitive.
No sense of tension, a peculiar voice with a bizarre intonation. When she heard it, her rage on the verge of eruption subsided.
(What… what’s going on with that…?)
For some reason, the voice was locked in one place unmoving. The girl headed for the place it emitted from. She could hear it from the ‘Cliff with Pretty Sunrise’. Right under her nose.
The Cait Sidhe with the speeectacle.
When she breached the thicket and came out onto the cliff—he was there after all.
He w as sitting down and doing something, but from where she was, she could only see his back.
“And eeeverything he knoooows.”
He was still letting out a bizarre voice. The girl slowly approached his back.
4
“What are you… doing?”
While Cleo was entranced in pleasantly racing his brush, a voice was suddenly called from behind, startling him so hard he thought he might kick over the pail of water he left on the ground.
He hurriedly turned around. His eye’s met with the magic beast girl’s, who was making an angry, troubled, unbearably perplexed, indescribable face.
“Eh… ah… w-well…”
Even under the light of the pale moon, Cleo’s face grew evidently red.
“M… my apologize, I was making a ruckus… umm… tonight, my brush was moving how I wanted so well I couldn’t believe it myself, so I couldn’t help but… my apologies.”
While having no one around was an absolute condition, when his brush acted up, he had a tendency to sing to himself. Tonight was the same. With the shame of having his song heard, Cleo fell into a panic, unable to answer what was asked, incoherently answering what hadn’t been asked at all.
The girl ignored Cleo’s words, peering down at his hands.
“You were drawing a picture?”
“… Oh, yes…”
There was a sketchbook on Cleo’s lap. Heavily coated with blacks and blues, on the paint-slathered drawing paper, a glimmering pale, crescent moon had been painted. Tonight’s moon.
“I couldn’t seem to fall asleep… so if I wasn’t sleeping anyway, I thought I might as well draw a picture…”
He timidly looked up at the girl, was he not supposed to…?
Cleo tried asking.
The When it came to the girl, she held her mouth open with her face dazed out, as stiff as an automaton whose spring had lost tension. Given a bit of time, a piercing laugh escaped her wide-open mouth. This time, Cleo’s eyes and mouth opened in a daze.
The girl’s flushed cheeks slackened, she spoke in a high-pitched voice.
“Told you, told you! See!”
She struck up conversation with the thin air.
“Who said he ran away? What did I tell you, god! Uku, ukuKUKUKUFUFUFUH!”
While he didn’t know who she was directing those words to, Cleo could guess she thought he had tried to escape. Certainly, for around fifteen minutes after the vine slipped, run, don’t run, run, don’t run… his thoughts had swayed left and right. But the conclusion that escape was pointless had been hung before his eyes from the start. Wandering a forest without even knowing what direction to run in, for the starved forest beasts, he would surely be easier game than the rats and rabbits. At present, he was only alive thanks to the young girl’s patronage. A distance she could quickly span if he cried out was the limit of Cleo’s freedom. There was no way he could run like that. It was clear from the start.
Now then.
Eventually, the laugh was contained, and wiping away the tears that spread from her emerald eyes, the girl spoke.
“So who were you talking to back there?”
Cleo blankly returned the question.
“Pardon?”
“You were talking in a kinda strange voice back there. K… ket sit? You said something like that.”
“Ket…? O-oh, that’s, well…”
Perhaps he should say, as I thought, but it did seem the girl didn’t know. With the revival of the shame he had forgotten, he felt his cheeks slowly grow hotter as he answered.
“That was.. a… a song.”
“A song? What’s that?”
He got the response he was expecting. But on the contrary, Cleo ended up tilting his head.
What exactly– is a song, anyways?
He put down his brush and crossed his arm. Furrowing his brow, he looked up at the heavens and thought. Thinking the answer lay at the end of his eyes, the girl was invited to look out into the night sky as well.
“A song is, well… you raise and lower your voice in a decided sequence… ah, rhythm is also important but… a-anyways, you put out your voice like that…?”
It was a result he had squeezed out of his brain and full throttle, but there was no way the girl could be satisfied with an answer that ended with a question. Her somber face spoke, ‘Now I understand even less’.
“And… what do you do that for? Is it necessary to paint?”
“No, it’s not like it’s necessary, umm… it’s fun to sing a song. Thought you could also sing because you’re having fun…”
“…… Hmmm…”
The girl showed just a bit of an accepting nod.
“Then do it again.”
“… Eh?”
“I still don’t get it, but for now, I’d like to hear it again. That’s fine, right? Songs are fun, right?”
How about it, her eyes urged him on. Just like a grog transfixed by a snake.
While Cleo was reserved and bashful by nature, even more than that, he was a person who couldn’t say no. “You can only sing songs when you’re alone,” he could say as a means to escape, but he was also a terrible liar. While flustered by a sense of guilt, pressing a lie through until the girl accepted it was quite likely impossible.
(So I have no choice but to sing…)
Cleo thought, he closed his eyes.
Cutting off his field of vision, he concentrated on nothing but his own voice.
Ssss, he sucked in a breath—and finally.
The Cait Sidhe with the spectacles
Around the world he goes.
Around, he’s seen all sorts of things,
and everything he knows.
Do you know what makes the sunset red?
How many stars shine in the sky?
If you ask, he’ll tell you all he’s heard,
So the Caid Sidhe says, Meow meeeooow meow meow.
He shakes his tail, Meeoow meow meow meow.
For the Cait Sidhe speaks no human words
(TL: I tried my best, I’m sorry
鼻眼鏡のケット・シー
世界中を旅してる
いろんなものを見てきたから
どんなことでも知っている
どうして夕日は赤いのか
夜空に星はいくつあるのか
聞けばなんでも教えてくれる
でもケット・シー にゃにゃにゃーにゃ
尻尾を振って にゃーにゃにゃにゃ
人の言葉はしゃべれない)
In his nervousness, he arbitrarily added on a vibrato, but even so, Cleo somehow managed to get through the song. Slowly opening his eyes, he timidly peeked at the girl.
The moment their gazes overlapped, the flower of a smile bloomed across her face.
And she spoke forcefully as if she couldn’t contain her excitement.
“That’s a song? Amazing, singing is interesting! Just by listening, I was just listening, and yet… how mysterious! I feel like I’m having a lot of fun right now!”
Her green eyes gave off a glimmer that didn’t lose to the night’s moon.
“Hey, I want to do it too! What am I supposed to do? Tell me!”
5
Around thirty minutes later, the two of them were singing.
The girl was quick on the uptake, and just by singing along with Cleo two or three times, she had learned a majority of the lyrics and melody. The sound she made when she got to the Sidhe part of Cait Sidhe ended up coming out as off, and that habit remained to the end, but that was a challenge for another day.
On his painting, he struck in somewhat strong white dots into the sky, to scatter stars and complete it. Once various things had come to the end, like the effects of coffee wearing off, a drowsiness suddenly came unto him. As if his semicircular canals had broken down, his upper body limply swayed, and his body could no longer keep itself up straight. Cleo was about to inform her of that when he suddenly noticed.
Come to think of it, he had yet to hear the girl’s name.
While she was a magic beast, it was a bit embarrassing to ask a girl’s name—
“Umm, this is a bit late, but we never introduced ourselves. I’m called Cleo Grant. What’s your… n-name?”
He had intended to ask nonchalantly, but he choked the last word. Earnestly concealing his building embarrassment, he laughed an ahahah as he looked up at the girl. And he noticed a change.
The young girl blankly opened her mouth, rigid as a stone statue.
Her eyes opened in perfect circles blinked, she stared intently with a curious face.
“… U-umm…?”
When he sent over a bewildered voice, the girl slowly moved her left-open mouth.
“Cleog… what?”
“Ah, yes, it’s Cleo Grant. You can call me Cleo.”
“So you’re… a Cleo? You’re not human?”
Through the gaps in her hair, he could see a wrinkle visit her brow.
“What…… oh, so that’s how it is.”
She didn’t know the concept of personal identity, Cleo understood.
“I’m uh… a human, who goes by Cleo Grant.”
“You have two names?”
“Yeaaah… let’s see, I guess that’s what it would mean. In order to distinguish each individual human was have another name, a name just for the individual. Meaning, there are lots of humans out there, but Cleo Grant is only me. It’s a name just for me.”
In actuality, there might be another out there who shared the same name, but explaining that far would simply make things more convoluted, so he purposely omitted it. A while later, the wrinkle on her forehead leisurely disappeared.
“Only one, a name just for you… Hmmm, you humans think up some interesting things.”
She did seem to understand, for argument’s sake.
“Umm, so what’s your name…?”
“Mn? Wait right there, I’ll try asking. Hey, do I have a name?”
When she said that, the girl looked as if she was staring at the top of her head, a whole half of her pupils disappearing under her upper eyelids. What was she talking about, Cleo tilted her head.
Eventually dropping her shoulders in disappointment, the girl spoke.
“I don’t have a name. She said I don’t need one.”
“Umm… w-who said that?”
“?”A blank face gazed at Cleo. ”Who? Why of course… the one in your head who teaches you all sorts of things… don’t you have one in yours?”
“Oh my… no, I don’t have anyone in my head…”
When Cleo shook his head, the girl made a bit of a surprised face.
“I see, hmm. Ah, but wait a second! I’m about to remember something! That was, ummm, ummm…”
Hitting against her forehead as if she was trying to stimulate the cells in her brain, the girl groaned. Cleo prepared to head back, waiting for the girl to remember something. Eventually, she hit her hands together, making a grand proclamation.
“That’s right! Some time or another, the human called me Monster! My name is Monster!”
Having put his paint supplies away in his rucksack, Cleo felt he might topple over.
“Y-you can’t go with a name like that.”
“Eeh? Why not!”
She discontently tapered her lips.
“I mean… by which I mean to say… that’s a bad name.”
“Bad? There are good names and bad names?”
“Yes. Umm… M-Monster is what they called you with spite. I don’t want to call you by that name.”
“So that’s how it is? I see…”
She narrowed her shoulders, dangling her head forward. The flower op top drooped powerlessly. Her profile lit up by the light of the pale moon was lonesome beyond words.
That expression stimulated a man’s instincts, inviting on the desire to do something for her. Otherwise the words surely would never have escaped the timid Cleo’s voice.
“Umm, if you think up a proper name, we can go with that. But until then…” he gulped down his spit. “Would it be alright if I called you… Roselyne?”
“Roselyne?”
She raised her face and pointed at her self.
“That’s me…?”
Cleo simply nodded.
“Roselyne… is that a good name?”
For a name he came up with on the spot, he had a peculiar conviction.
“Yes. I’d like to think it’s a good name.”
“Roselyne… so I’m…”
The girl muttered, her gaze slid up her own raincoat-clad body.
The tips of her toes, her knees, her thighs, the shoulders to her hands, to the tips of her fingers. Her right, to her left, and back again.
She stuck up her index finger, and stared at it silently. Up to a moment ago, it was just an index finger. Now it was Roselyne’s index finger.
“……!!”
A hot, numbing something raced up her spine, hit her brain head on, and gave her an impact as if the back of her head had been hit with a blunt weapon.
The young girl stared absentmindedly at her index finger.
Gazing at her, Cleo thought.
Did she like it, did she not?
Having spent an infancy that’s wounds wouldn’t fade from his heart, Cleo had a bad habit of generally not having expectations on the result. So with upturned eyes so apologetic they could be called servile, “Um, if it’s not to your liking… if it’s no good, we can go with something else…” Like a timid doctor informing of something hard to say, he mumbled the words in his mouth alone.
Even so, it seemed it reached her ears, their two gazed overlapping on her index finger.
“Ah… no, it’s not that I hate it or that it’s no good. It’s just, even if you suddenly call me Roselyne, I don’t really get it.”
“Is that so… umm, would a different name have been better…?”
“A different name?” Running parallel to her eyelids, her eyes carried out a full revolution.
“No, it’s fine. I mean, even if you say a different one, I probably won’t know which one is better.”
“… Is that so. Then Roselyne it is.”
“Yeah.”
At her not exactly right, not exactly wrong sort o f reaction, Cleo hesitated a bit.
(She could’ve been just a little happier, but… so be it.)
A long a nd large yawn leaked from Cleo’s mouth. He was already at his limit.
“Umm, I’m getting sleepy, so may I retire first?”
“Eh? Oh, yeah, go right ahead. I’ll be looking at the moon for a little longer.”
Is that so, Cleo said with a glance at the moon. Certainly, tonight’s moon was the sort of good moon that made you want to gaze at it forever.
“Then good night… Ms. Roselyne.”
“Missroselyne?” The girl’s gaze returned to Cleo on the earth. “It’s not Roselyne?”
“Ah, no, that’s…”
For a moment, he thought to give her a proper explanation of titles, but his words crushed by a yawn even more powerful than before, he got the feeling it didn’t really matter.
“You’re right, in that case…” Shouldering his rucksack, with the etiquette of a child born to a noble house, he gave a withdrawing bow. “Good night, Roselyne.”
“Good night, umm… Cleo.”
On the way b ack to his sleepinig s pot, Cleo suddenly realized. Why w as it Roselyne?
Where could that flash of inspiration have come from?
The answer was simple.
(I see, Roselyne…)
The name closely resembled that of his late mother– Roselia.
6
Once Cleo had gone.
The young girl’s gaze cleared the moon, to somewhere far beyond. With a look as if she was staring into the furthest depths of space, she marveled at the night sky for times to come. The voice spoke.
‘Are you sure you didn’t have to bind his leg?’
“Eh? … Ah, come to think of it, you’re right.”
The girl contemplated for just a moment.
“… Well, I’m sure it’ll be fine. He didn’t run away back there, did he?”
From there, she made a mischievous smile, and added on. “Even so, so even you can be wrong. He ran away, you said… Ukukukuh, ah, how peculiar.”
The voice didn’t answer. It was as if it had bent its mouth into a frown and was pouting.
The girl said no more, she gazed up at the moon again. A tranquil time slowly passed by. But a while later, ukukuh, her laughing voice welled up.
‘Is it really so interesting to know I jumped to conclusions?’
It was the same flat tone as ever, but perhaps it gave off a sense it was forcing itself to maintain a level head.
“There’s that too, but that’s not it,” the girl said, shaking her head with a smile. “I, you see, I’m not just me anymore, I’m Roselyne now. When I think that, see, my face just goes and smiles. In the back of my throat, ukukuh, it won’t stop. What do you think’s happening to me?”
She said and Ukukukuh, she laughed again. Her shoulders shook minutely. The voice plainly answered so.
‘I don’t know. But … you look somewhat happy.’
“Happy?” The girl garnished her slackened cheek with a hand and spent a few seconds in thought. “You’re right, it looks like I’m happy. Hey, do you have a name? A name just for you!”
The girl leaned forward to draw closer. But the voice’s tone didn’t change.
‘That is a meaningless question.’
“… What do you mean?”
‘I am a portion of you. Just as each individual strand of your hair, and each of your vines has no name, so too I do not.’
The girl frowned. “?” She tilted her head. The voice continued on like a mother teaching a young child.
‘In short, me and you are the same existence. Do you understand? A part of the same lifeform. Meaning it’s impossible for me to have a name for me alone.’
“The same? You’re the same as me?”
‘That’s right. Do you understand?’
“Then you’re also Roselyne? That’s no good! Roselyne is me and just me!”
The girl clenched her fist, fiercely lashing out at an opponent she couldn’t see. A breach of vested interest! A little tired out, she doesn’t get it, the voice muttered.
‘So be it. You may call me Instinct.’
“Insteen? Is that your name?”
‘That’s right. Are you satisfied now?’
The girl’s attitude easily changed. Ukukukukuh, her laugh was restored.
“Yeah. I’m Roselyne, and you’re Insteen,” Ukukuku. “But Insteen is a strange name. I’m sure it’s not as good as Roselyne.”
The girl triumphantly stuck out her chest.
‘Say whatever you want,’ The voice said and kept silent.
Perhaps she had finally grown angry. But the girl—Roselyne failed to notice, as if the half-moon glistening in the center of the sky was her audience, she began to sing the tune she had only just learned.
Her singing voice rode the wind, it spread across the night forest, and softly found its way into the ear of Cleo, who was soundly breathing a sleeper’s breath in his sleeping bag.
In the past, when he caught a cold or so, as long as he heard that song, he could fall into a peaceful slumber.
The one who would sing by his side was—his mother.
Right now, Cleo’s face was at peace, as if he had regained a happiness of long ago.
The Cait Sidhe with the spectacles,
Around the world he goes–
1
It was the continuation of the dream the night before
A nine-year-old Cleo was sketching towards the flower bed in the courtyard, when suddenly a bright voice called out from behind him.
“It’s been a while since I last saw the young master paint. Did they finally give permission?”
It was the gardener employed by the Grant House, Joseph.
Joseph was tall in stature, muscular to an extent one couldn’t believe he had passed sixty years of age. While his facial features spoke craftsman more than anything, when his tense expression loosened, it had a vague charm to it.
Cleo liked Joseph. To the boy who had lost his mother, Joseph was the only one he could open his heart to. While their ages were largely apart, Cleo thought of him as a friend; albeit, right now, his cheerful smile w as mildly getting on his nerves. Flipping his sketchbook, he continued showing the gardener his back as he moved his pencil with a blunt reply.
“You remember my little brother was born last week. And then the home tutors stopped coming. Father, you see, he told me, ‘you don’t have to study anymore’. ‘Just do whatever you want’ he said.”
Cleo stopped his pencil, connecting his words.
“Father doesn’t need me anymore. Now, unlike me, he’s got a healthy, energetic, splendid successor.”
While Joseph was supposed to be standing behind him, he didn’t say a word. Even if Cleo didn’t see he could tell. At times like these, Joesph would make eyes even sadder than his own, his mouth bent sharply into a frown.
Cleo’s pencil set forth again. A while later, Joseph finally opened his mouth.
“Young master… did you want to succeed the house?”
“… No, not at all.”
“In that case,” Joseph said in a voice so cheerful, it was surely intentional. “This may be for the best. With this, there’s nothing stopping you from becoming an artist.”
“… There’s no way I could be an artist.”
“Don’t sell yourself short. I’m an amateur when it comes to art, but I’m sure you’ll be able to become a splendid—”
“I heard them talking.”
“… About what.”
“It’s not like the kid’s going to make it to twenty, they said.”
The next instant, Joseph’s tone changed to rage.
“Who the hell said that!?”
When he turned, eyes more fiery than magma glared at him.
In contrast, with a look of ice, Cleo spoke coldly.
“—Father.”
Joseph lost his words.
He was dumbfounded. But his face wasn’t one to say, “That’s idiotic,” “There’s no way that’s true”. Vexed, on the verge of tears, as if he had ended up hearing a secret that should have been concealed no matter what, it was that sort of face. For his real father to suppose his expiration of all things…
“… What, so you knew about it too.”
“N-no… I, well…”
Joseph apologetically turned away his eyes.
He was an honest man. He had never once lied to Cleo. He wouldn’t tell him “That’s mistaken,” or “I never heard about that from the master”.
But he did say this.
“Young master… there’s something I want to show you. Please wait here a moment.”
And Joseph ran off without waiting for a reply.
Ten minutes later, he returned dripping with sweat. In his arms rising in breath, he held a flowerpot containing a form of vegetation Cleo had never seen before.
“Young master, do you know what this is?”
Cleo shook his head. If he had to describe its form as he saw it, it looked like a green-colored ball. And radiating from its summit, countless sharp thorns sprouted as if to intimidate all those who drew close.
It was the first time he had seen such a peculiar form of plant life. But Cleo did have an idea.
“Is that… a cactus?”
“Right, that’s correct! I’m surprised you knew.” Joseph raised his voice in admiration.
“… I saw it in the encyclopedia. But the picture it showed wasn’t this round. A cactus is a rare plant in this area, right?”
“You got that right. The other day an old friend of mine brought this one back from a trip. By the way, young master, while it might look so scary, it properly gives flowers you know. Was that also in the encyclopedia?”
“Umm… yeah, I don’t know about that. I don’t really remember. But if it’s a plant, isn’t it normal to have flowers?”
“Well, that’s normally the case.”
Joseph squatted down beside Cleo.
“But see, this one isn’t normal up to the point it flowers… listen to this, it takes a whole thirty years”
[IMAGE]
“Thirty years? Really?”
As Cleo’s eyes rounded in surprise, Joseph grinned as if to say he was waiting for that.
“Well, it’s not as if I’ve seen it with these eyes, but I was thinking I’d raise ‘m up and confirm it.”
“…… Hmmm…”
As Cleo gave the cactus a long, hard state, “Take a closer look,” Joseph brought the flower pot closer. With each and every pointed spoke closing in before his eyes, he ended up pulling his body back with a start.
“It’s not gonna hurt you,” Joseph gave a grand laugh.
“Still, I’m sure this cactus can’t even dream of the day its flower blooms. And thirty years go by until one day, it notices it had a flower after all. I’m sure that’s got to be a surprise.”
Imagining a surprised cactus, Cleo giggled. Joseph smiled back.
“But you know, young master. It’s the same with us humans. Where we’ll be in ten, twenty years, no one really knows. Of course, even the master–”
Understanding what he was trying to say, the small smile floating over Cleo’s face vanished. He hung his head to gaze at his muddy shoes beneath him.
“In the or twenty years… I could still be alive…?”
“Like hell anyone can declare you won’t be. It’s all an unknown. Especially when it comes to how we live and die. Someone who’s living it up all the way to yesterday can drop right off on his way today. But the opposite can happen too.”
Joseph’s gaze of reminiscence was sucked into the deep blue summer sky.
“But, and this is the kicker, just because you don’t know what’ll happen tomorrow, I don’t think that means today, you just have to have your fun here and now. For instance, food is tastier the more time you put into it, right? Try putting the happiness you get in one day up against a week, a month, a year, a decade, compared to the happiness you can only get by piling it up, it’s not going to amount to much.”
And Joseph spoke, his gaze remaining trailed on the distant sky.
“That’s why, young master. For we humans, it’s all about living long. Live a long life, and the day the flower blooms will come.”
Cleo continued gazing at his shoes as he asked.
“…… Really…”
It wasn’t that he doubted Joseph. But if his words were true, what about his mother? Could it be the happiness of his mother who couldn’t live long ‘not amount to much’?
That wasn’t something Cleo could bring himself to say. If he did, he was sure Joseph would make a sad face again.
“… Is that really true?”
Joseph turned back to Cleo, making that charming smile as he spoke.
“Of course it is!”
And in the fall of last year, Joseph was among those who fell to illness, past the point of no return. Without having the chance to see the cactus’s flower—
2
His eyes snapping open, when he confirmed the night had yet to open, Cleo leaked a sigh. Good grief. Tonight, he was unable to fall into a deep sleep, he woke time and again. Surely, he was too high strung.
Today, or perhaps it was yesterday by now, but whatever the case, it was a hectic day.
After he got the girl to wear the raincoat, the two of them walked through the forest. The girl’s appetite couldn’t be sated with two or three fruits. In search of more-filling forms of prey, she said her days were spent wandering the forest.
“Well, I can barely live on with just mr. sun’s light and water. So when I really don’t feel up to it, I just spend my eyes lounging around where the sun hits just right.”
But in order to run, or fight to protect herself, she would need a proper meal lest she be rendered powerless, apparently. In order for the girl to live in the survival of the fittest world of nature, she would need to keep a sufficient supply of nutrients on a daily basis. That’s why she would go to the forest for prey. His leg still tangled by the bine, Cleo would have to follow after her no matter how far she went.
After walking around two hours, they came upon a five-horned deer parent and child. The parent ran away, but she managed to capture the child. Restraining the violently struggling fawn with her vine, after strangling its neck to finish it off, the young girl reached out towards one of her captured prey’s hind legs and—ripped it off bare-handed. The show of brute strength unimaginable from her delicate build cause Cleo to wince and open his eyes wide.
The young girl gleefully bit into the flesh, moving her mouth to chew before swallowing it down. She bit down again, ripping the meat off of the bone. Her mouth was dyed red, she gave a sweet smile as, “Yes, here you go,” she handed over a cut of meat. The scent of blood pricking into his nasal cavity. Cleo felt a sense of vertigo, following onto his vertigo, retreating back with his knees still given out.
“I, I, I, I, I’m fine.”
“You don’t need it? It’s really delicious.”
Tilting her head, she indulged some more, her appetite for the day sated for the time being.
But it wasn’t over yet.
After that, the girl started a pilgrimage around her favorite spots, dragging him around until darkness fell. By the time she finally returned to her place, the ‘Cliff with Pretty Sunrise’, the pitch-black sky flickered with stars.
Near the cliff, was the trunk of a great tree, hollowed out by insects. The girl stuck her hand into the crevice running down the tree, spreading it wide with her monstrous strength. Soon, she had made an entrance wide enough for Cleo’s body to barely pass through vertically.
“Yes, then from today onwards, you’ll sleep here.”
It was a human house not fit for a dog. The inside was just fast enough for him to spread out his legs and sleep. While he did get the feeling his dignity as a human was being slighted, he was tired to death, so it didn’t really matter anymore. Slipping into his sleeping bag, he left his body to his distancing consciousness, soon falling to sleep.
And yet, for some reason, a little while later, he had opened his eyes. In his cycle of sleep and wake, his head grew clearer and clearer. The inside of his sleeping bag had grown unbearably sultry.
Cleo undid the fastener and stuck his arms and legs out from the bag. The light coating of sweat vaporize, making for a pleasant cool. Stretching out his curdling body—and it was then.
The young girl’s vine around his ankle, as if gently tickling his foot, smoothly slipped off. It gave a small sound as it fell to the floor.
(…… huh, what’s this? What’s that supposed to mean?)
At this unexpected development, he forgot how to blink as he stared in a daze.
That state continued five minutes, the hooting of a distant owl finally returning Cleo to his senses. He timidly called out to the girl who should be outside the tree.
“… Umm, it came off, you know…?”
He waited a while. He waited until,
Zzzzz…
The girl returned a breath for a response.
Cleo stifled his breath to peek his head out the crevice. The moonlight poured in through the gaps in the overlapping leaves and branches, gently illuminating the ground. At the base of a tree around two to three meters away, a shadow propped up against the trunk. It was the girl.
Zz, zzzz…
She did seem to be sound asleep. Corresponding with her breath, her shadow lightly swayed.
A terrifying sensation raced down Cleo’s spine.
(I can get away now…?)
3
Just as a dog or cat may dream, so too did the magical beast girl.
She was at the lake that once served as her dwelling.
On the water’s surface around ten meters from shore, for some reason, a single tree stuck out. There was a single monkey at the top of the tree, hitting its hands together to intimidate her. Today’s the day I catch you. The girl extended out the vines from her back. At that moment, the boy who drew pictures appeared from nowhere in particular, putting the stops on her attempt.
“That’s a false-monkey you know. It looks like a monkey from every angle, but it’s actually friends with the fish. If you approach it carelessly, it will run away into the lake.”
“Oh, so that’s a fish, hmm…” she opened her eyes wide.
“But even if it isn’t a monkey, I’d like to try a taste. Is there a good way to do it?”
The boy hit at his chest as if telling her to leave it to him.
“If you shout ‘Boo!’ in a loud voice to startle it, the false-monkey will shout out ‘Wah!’ and open its mouth in surprise. Then into its mouth—” before she noticed it, the area was populated with piles of stone. The boy gripped a good-sized rock in hand.
“You throw in its throne. If you do that a great many times, the false-monkey won’t be able to move anymore from the weight of the rocks, and you can catch it with no difficulty at all.”
“I see, that’s brilliant!”
The girl’s heart soared, she nodded a number of times. She would get right to it. Cupping the palms of her hand around her mouth, the girl menacingly cried out, “Boo!”. When she did, rather than startled, the monkey defenselessly held its mouth open like a chick waiting to be fed. Within it, the stone the young boy threw was sucked in. The girl raised a cry of delight. The boy picked up the next stone.
“Now let’s keep at it, shall we!”
The false-monkey’s stomach visibly expanded with each stone it swallowed down. Eventually unable to bear the weight, the false-monkey missed its footing and fell. While it was caught by a branch growing below it, its body was tangled up and it was unable to move
“Hooray!” Two voices overlapped. Wrapping the false-monkey that could no longer move in her vines, she dragged it all the way to shore. When she held it upside, a great many stones were spat from the false-monkey’s mouth. She shook it up and down, again and again, until the last one was out.
Lunchtime came without delay.
The young girl ate the legs, the boy at the arms. The first monkey— rather false-monkey she had eaten was a peculiar taste she had never experienced before
“It’s delicious.”
“It really is.”
Blood all around their mouths, the two smacked their lips at the curious yet delicate flavor.
The girl only learned it when she met the boy, but eating together with someone was tastier than eating alone, and more fun to boot.
Ukukukufufuh.
A laugh bubbled up from the depths of her throat. The boy laughed too. They had mostly eaten everything. “Now all that’s left is to split the brain half and half,” she was about to say when an impact brought the girl’s dream to a sudden end.
“…!”
When she opened her eyes, she wasn’t by the bank of the river. The half-eaten false-monkey was nowhere to be seen. Before her eyes was the grand tree the human she captured was using as a bed. The faint sliver of the sky she could see was still dark. The twinkling stars peeked in here and there.
“… What’s this, so it was just a dream.”
Nothing to do with any past memories, an absurd and incoherent dream. The girl had been sleeping resting against the base of a tree, but her torso had slipped and fallen, and it seemed the impact had woken her.
The girl gave a sigh, and smiled just a bit.
(What a strange dream. But it was fun.)
I’ll have to catch a real monkey someday, and then I’ll let that human eat some too. As the girl thought so, the voice in her head resounded. The voice that would offer her various bits of wisdom.
‘Hey, it came off.’
“Eh? What did?”
Perhaps because she was half asleep, she had no idea what the voice was referring to. Shaking a bit as her mouth opened wide for a yawn, she let out a light breath at the end.
“…It came off…?”
When she tilted her head, the voice spoke in a tone with no emotion behind it.
‘I said the vine binding that human came off.’
“……”
In her slowly spinning head, it took some time to comprehend what the voice had said.
“…… What!?”
She concentrated her attention on the vine that was supposed to be binding him. She definitely didn’t feel the sensation of it gripping anything. When she tugged at it with all her might, the tip of the vine shot out of the tree’s crevice without catching on anything.
She frantically crawled over, peering into the rift. Her eyes worked as well as a nocturnal animal. But the inside was an empty shell.
‘He ran away,’ The voice indifferently informed her as if it were someone else’s business. Meanwhile, the insides of the girl’s head spun wildly like it had been swallowed in a stormy sea.
“Ran… w-why would he do that?”
‘The human said it, didn’t he? That he wanted to return to his place outside the forest. Isn’t that why he ran away?’
“That can’t be! I mean…”
He definitely did say it. However, “But I plucked fruit and gave it to him. We ate together, and I even took him around to see all my favorite places… and yet! When it was so fun!”
‘They’re not the sort of lifeform that’ll take to you just because you looked after them a bit, those humans. And while it may have been fun for you, there’s no way of telling the human thought the same.’
“Wai… what do you mean? I-I was the only one having fun… is that how it is?”
‘Who knows. You might have been.’
“No way…”
She was astonished, she felt as if she’d been betrayed. It was the first time she’d experienced it from birth. An intense shock and confusion mercilessly attacked and condemned the young girl.
Feeling a dizziness as if the world was spinning around her, she touched her hand to the tree trunk. Her slender arm shook in anguish.
“I… I…”
A faint voice that might drop off at any moment. The next instant, her pale fingers circled into a hook, her sharp claws stuck into the tree’s surface, scratching against it as if to gouge it out.
Five gashes deeply carved in.
Her shoulders, her voice, as if jolted by the suddenly serving emotion, were quivering.
“I’m… not going to allow it…!”
Her green eyes glowed eerily in the darkness.
“I’ll definitely find him, I’ll catch him…”
‘I doubt that human could traverse the night’s forest so quickly. He shouldn’t be too far away.’
“When I catch him… I’ll eat him on the spot!”
Ruled by a magic beast’s impulse, the girl howled like a dragon breathing fire.
With the eyes of a hawk searching for pray, she searched for the escaped boy’s traces. And it was then.
…… No human words~…
She heard a voice.
It was undoubtedly, that human’s voice. What’s more, it was considerably close.
(… Huh?)
‘—Huh?’
No matter how she looked at it, it was unthinkable he was still so close. But what surprised her the most was the fact that his voice wasn’t the voice of a fugitive.
No sense of tension, a peculiar voice with a bizarre intonation. When she heard it, her rage on the verge of eruption subsided.
(What… what’s going on with that…?)
For some reason, the voice was locked in one place unmoving. The girl headed for the place it emitted from. She could hear it from the ‘Cliff with Pretty Sunrise’. Right under her nose.
The Cait Sidhe with the speeectacle.
When she breached the thicket and came out onto the cliff—he was there after all.
He w as sitting down and doing something, but from where she was, she could only see his back.
“And eeeverything he knoooows.”
He was still letting out a bizarre voice. The girl slowly approached his back.
4
“What are you… doing?”
While Cleo was entranced in pleasantly racing his brush, a voice was suddenly called from behind, startling him so hard he thought he might kick over the pail of water he left on the ground.
He hurriedly turned around. His eye’s met with the magic beast girl’s, who was making an angry, troubled, unbearably perplexed, indescribable face.
“Eh… ah… w-well…”
Even under the light of the pale moon, Cleo’s face grew evidently red.
“M… my apologize, I was making a ruckus… umm… tonight, my brush was moving how I wanted so well I couldn’t believe it myself, so I couldn’t help but… my apologies.”
While having no one around was an absolute condition, when his brush acted up, he had a tendency to sing to himself. Tonight was the same. With the shame of having his song heard, Cleo fell into a panic, unable to answer what was asked, incoherently answering what hadn’t been asked at all.
The girl ignored Cleo’s words, peering down at his hands.
“You were drawing a picture?”
“… Oh, yes…”
There was a sketchbook on Cleo’s lap. Heavily coated with blacks and blues, on the paint-slathered drawing paper, a glimmering pale, crescent moon had been painted. Tonight’s moon.
“I couldn’t seem to fall asleep… so if I wasn’t sleeping anyway, I thought I might as well draw a picture…”
He timidly looked up at the girl, was he not supposed to…?
Cleo tried asking.
The When it came to the girl, she held her mouth open with her face dazed out, as stiff as an automaton whose spring had lost tension. Given a bit of time, a piercing laugh escaped her wide-open mouth. This time, Cleo’s eyes and mouth opened in a daze.
The girl’s flushed cheeks slackened, she spoke in a high-pitched voice.
“Told you, told you! See!”
She struck up conversation with the thin air.
“Who said he ran away? What did I tell you, god! Uku, ukuKUKUKUFUFUFUH!”
While he didn’t know who she was directing those words to, Cleo could guess she thought he had tried to escape. Certainly, for around fifteen minutes after the vine slipped, run, don’t run, run, don’t run… his thoughts had swayed left and right. But the conclusion that escape was pointless had been hung before his eyes from the start. Wandering a forest without even knowing what direction to run in, for the starved forest beasts, he would surely be easier game than the rats and rabbits. At present, he was only alive thanks to the young girl’s patronage. A distance she could quickly span if he cried out was the limit of Cleo’s freedom. There was no way he could run like that. It was clear from the start.
Now then.
Eventually, the laugh was contained, and wiping away the tears that spread from her emerald eyes, the girl spoke.
“So who were you talking to back there?”
Cleo blankly returned the question.
“Pardon?”
“You were talking in a kinda strange voice back there. K… ket sit? You said something like that.”
“Ket…? O-oh, that’s, well…”
Perhaps he should say, as I thought, but it did seem the girl didn’t know. With the revival of the shame he had forgotten, he felt his cheeks slowly grow hotter as he answered.
“That was.. a… a song.”
“A song? What’s that?”
He got the response he was expecting. But on the contrary, Cleo ended up tilting his head.
What exactly– is a song, anyways?
He put down his brush and crossed his arm. Furrowing his brow, he looked up at the heavens and thought. Thinking the answer lay at the end of his eyes, the girl was invited to look out into the night sky as well.
“A song is, well… you raise and lower your voice in a decided sequence… ah, rhythm is also important but… a-anyways, you put out your voice like that…?”
It was a result he had squeezed out of his brain and full throttle, but there was no way the girl could be satisfied with an answer that ended with a question. Her somber face spoke, ‘Now I understand even less’.
“And… what do you do that for? Is it necessary to paint?”
“No, it’s not like it’s necessary, umm… it’s fun to sing a song. Thought you could also sing because you’re having fun…”
“…… Hmmm…”
The girl showed just a bit of an accepting nod.
“Then do it again.”
“… Eh?”
“I still don’t get it, but for now, I’d like to hear it again. That’s fine, right? Songs are fun, right?”
How about it, her eyes urged him on. Just like a grog transfixed by a snake.
While Cleo was reserved and bashful by nature, even more than that, he was a person who couldn’t say no. “You can only sing songs when you’re alone,” he could say as a means to escape, but he was also a terrible liar. While flustered by a sense of guilt, pressing a lie through until the girl accepted it was quite likely impossible.
(So I have no choice but to sing…)
Cleo thought, he closed his eyes.
Cutting off his field of vision, he concentrated on nothing but his own voice.
Ssss, he sucked in a breath—and finally.
The Cait Sidhe with the spectacles
Around the world he goes.
Around, he’s seen all sorts of things,
and everything he knows.
Do you know what makes the sunset red?
How many stars shine in the sky?
If you ask, he’ll tell you all he’s heard,
So the Caid Sidhe says, Meow meeeooow meow meow.
He shakes his tail, Meeoow meow meow meow.
For the Cait Sidhe speaks no human words
(TL: I tried my best, I’m sorry
鼻眼鏡のケット・シー
世界中を旅してる
いろんなものを見てきたから
どんなことでも知っている
どうして夕日は赤いのか
夜空に星はいくつあるのか
聞けばなんでも教えてくれる
でもケット・シー にゃにゃにゃーにゃ
尻尾を振って にゃーにゃにゃにゃ
人の言葉はしゃべれない)
In his nervousness, he arbitrarily added on a vibrato, but even so, Cleo somehow managed to get through the song. Slowly opening his eyes, he timidly peeked at the girl.
The moment their gazes overlapped, the flower of a smile bloomed across her face.
And she spoke forcefully as if she couldn’t contain her excitement.
“That’s a song? Amazing, singing is interesting! Just by listening, I was just listening, and yet… how mysterious! I feel like I’m having a lot of fun right now!”
Her green eyes gave off a glimmer that didn’t lose to the night’s moon.
“Hey, I want to do it too! What am I supposed to do? Tell me!”
5
Around thirty minutes later, the two of them were singing.
The girl was quick on the uptake, and just by singing along with Cleo two or three times, she had learned a majority of the lyrics and melody. The sound she made when she got to the Sidhe part of Cait Sidhe ended up coming out as off, and that habit remained to the end, but that was a challenge for another day.
On his painting, he struck in somewhat strong white dots into the sky, to scatter stars and complete it. Once various things had come to the end, like the effects of coffee wearing off, a drowsiness suddenly came unto him. As if his semicircular canals had broken down, his upper body limply swayed, and his body could no longer keep itself up straight. Cleo was about to inform her of that when he suddenly noticed.
Come to think of it, he had yet to hear the girl’s name.
While she was a magic beast, it was a bit embarrassing to ask a girl’s name—
“Umm, this is a bit late, but we never introduced ourselves. I’m called Cleo Grant. What’s your… n-name?”
He had intended to ask nonchalantly, but he choked the last word. Earnestly concealing his building embarrassment, he laughed an ahahah as he looked up at the girl. And he noticed a change.
The young girl blankly opened her mouth, rigid as a stone statue.
Her eyes opened in perfect circles blinked, she stared intently with a curious face.
“… U-umm…?”
When he sent over a bewildered voice, the girl slowly moved her left-open mouth.
“Cleog… what?”
“Ah, yes, it’s Cleo Grant. You can call me Cleo.”
“So you’re… a Cleo? You’re not human?”
Through the gaps in her hair, he could see a wrinkle visit her brow.
“What…… oh, so that’s how it is.”
She didn’t know the concept of personal identity, Cleo understood.
“I’m uh… a human, who goes by Cleo Grant.”
“You have two names?”
“Yeaaah… let’s see, I guess that’s what it would mean. In order to distinguish each individual human was have another name, a name just for the individual. Meaning, there are lots of humans out there, but Cleo Grant is only me. It’s a name just for me.”
In actuality, there might be another out there who shared the same name, but explaining that far would simply make things more convoluted, so he purposely omitted it. A while later, the wrinkle on her forehead leisurely disappeared.
“Only one, a name just for you… Hmmm, you humans think up some interesting things.”
She did seem to understand, for argument’s sake.
“Umm, so what’s your name…?”
“Mn? Wait right there, I’ll try asking. Hey, do I have a name?”
When she said that, the girl looked as if she was staring at the top of her head, a whole half of her pupils disappearing under her upper eyelids. What was she talking about, Cleo tilted her head.
Eventually dropping her shoulders in disappointment, the girl spoke.
“I don’t have a name. She said I don’t need one.”
“Umm… w-who said that?”
“?”A blank face gazed at Cleo. ”Who? Why of course… the one in your head who teaches you all sorts of things… don’t you have one in yours?”
“Oh my… no, I don’t have anyone in my head…”
When Cleo shook his head, the girl made a bit of a surprised face.
“I see, hmm. Ah, but wait a second! I’m about to remember something! That was, ummm, ummm…”
Hitting against her forehead as if she was trying to stimulate the cells in her brain, the girl groaned. Cleo prepared to head back, waiting for the girl to remember something. Eventually, she hit her hands together, making a grand proclamation.
“That’s right! Some time or another, the human called me Monster! My name is Monster!”
Having put his paint supplies away in his rucksack, Cleo felt he might topple over.
“Y-you can’t go with a name like that.”
“Eeh? Why not!”
She discontently tapered her lips.
“I mean… by which I mean to say… that’s a bad name.”
“Bad? There are good names and bad names?”
“Yes. Umm… M-Monster is what they called you with spite. I don’t want to call you by that name.”
“So that’s how it is? I see…”
She narrowed her shoulders, dangling her head forward. The flower op top drooped powerlessly. Her profile lit up by the light of the pale moon was lonesome beyond words.
That expression stimulated a man’s instincts, inviting on the desire to do something for her. Otherwise the words surely would never have escaped the timid Cleo’s voice.
“Umm, if you think up a proper name, we can go with that. But until then…” he gulped down his spit. “Would it be alright if I called you… Roselyne?”
“Roselyne?”
She raised her face and pointed at her self.
“That’s me…?”
Cleo simply nodded.
“Roselyne… is that a good name?”
For a name he came up with on the spot, he had a peculiar conviction.
“Yes. I’d like to think it’s a good name.”
“Roselyne… so I’m…”
The girl muttered, her gaze slid up her own raincoat-clad body.
The tips of her toes, her knees, her thighs, the shoulders to her hands, to the tips of her fingers. Her right, to her left, and back again.
She stuck up her index finger, and stared at it silently. Up to a moment ago, it was just an index finger. Now it was Roselyne’s index finger.
“……!!”
A hot, numbing something raced up her spine, hit her brain head on, and gave her an impact as if the back of her head had been hit with a blunt weapon.
The young girl stared absentmindedly at her index finger.
Gazing at her, Cleo thought.
Did she like it, did she not?
Having spent an infancy that’s wounds wouldn’t fade from his heart, Cleo had a bad habit of generally not having expectations on the result. So with upturned eyes so apologetic they could be called servile, “Um, if it’s not to your liking… if it’s no good, we can go with something else…” Like a timid doctor informing of something hard to say, he mumbled the words in his mouth alone.
Even so, it seemed it reached her ears, their two gazed overlapping on her index finger.
“Ah… no, it’s not that I hate it or that it’s no good. It’s just, even if you suddenly call me Roselyne, I don’t really get it.”
“Is that so… umm, would a different name have been better…?”
“A different name?” Running parallel to her eyelids, her eyes carried out a full revolution.
“No, it’s fine. I mean, even if you say a different one, I probably won’t know which one is better.”
“… Is that so. Then Roselyne it is.”
“Yeah.”
At her not exactly right, not exactly wrong sort o f reaction, Cleo hesitated a bit.
(She could’ve been just a little happier, but… so be it.)
A long a nd large yawn leaked from Cleo’s mouth. He was already at his limit.
“Umm, I’m getting sleepy, so may I retire first?”
“Eh? Oh, yeah, go right ahead. I’ll be looking at the moon for a little longer.”
Is that so, Cleo said with a glance at the moon. Certainly, tonight’s moon was the sort of good moon that made you want to gaze at it forever.
“Then good night… Ms. Roselyne.”
“Missroselyne?” The girl’s gaze returned to Cleo on the earth. “It’s not Roselyne?”
“Ah, no, that’s…”
For a moment, he thought to give her a proper explanation of titles, but his words crushed by a yawn even more powerful than before, he got the feeling it didn’t really matter.
“You’re right, in that case…” Shouldering his rucksack, with the etiquette of a child born to a noble house, he gave a withdrawing bow. “Good night, Roselyne.”
“Good night, umm… Cleo.”
On the way b ack to his sleepinig s pot, Cleo suddenly realized. Why w as it Roselyne?
Where could that flash of inspiration have come from?
The answer was simple.
(I see, Roselyne…)
The name closely resembled that of his late mother– Roselia.
6
Once Cleo had gone.
The young girl’s gaze cleared the moon, to somewhere far beyond. With a look as if she was staring into the furthest depths of space, she marveled at the night sky for times to come. The voice spoke.
‘Are you sure you didn’t have to bind his leg?’
“Eh? … Ah, come to think of it, you’re right.”
The girl contemplated for just a moment.
“… Well, I’m sure it’ll be fine. He didn’t run away back there, did he?”
From there, she made a mischievous smile, and added on. “Even so, so even you can be wrong. He ran away, you said… Ukukukuh, ah, how peculiar.”
The voice didn’t answer. It was as if it had bent its mouth into a frown and was pouting.
The girl said no more, she gazed up at the moon again. A tranquil time slowly passed by. But a while later, ukukuh, her laughing voice welled up.
‘Is it really so interesting to know I jumped to conclusions?’
It was the same flat tone as ever, but perhaps it gave off a sense it was forcing itself to maintain a level head.
“There’s that too, but that’s not it,” the girl said, shaking her head with a smile. “I, you see, I’m not just me anymore, I’m Roselyne now. When I think that, see, my face just goes and smiles. In the back of my throat, ukukuh, it won’t stop. What do you think’s happening to me?”
She said and Ukukukuh, she laughed again. Her shoulders shook minutely. The voice plainly answered so.
‘I don’t know. But … you look somewhat happy.’
“Happy?” The girl garnished her slackened cheek with a hand and spent a few seconds in thought. “You’re right, it looks like I’m happy. Hey, do you have a name? A name just for you!”
The girl leaned forward to draw closer. But the voice’s tone didn’t change.
‘That is a meaningless question.’
“… What do you mean?”
‘I am a portion of you. Just as each individual strand of your hair, and each of your vines has no name, so too I do not.’
The girl frowned. “?” She tilted her head. The voice continued on like a mother teaching a young child.
‘In short, me and you are the same existence. Do you understand? A part of the same lifeform. Meaning it’s impossible for me to have a name for me alone.’
“The same? You’re the same as me?”
‘That’s right. Do you understand?’
“Then you’re also Roselyne? That’s no good! Roselyne is me and just me!”
The girl clenched her fist, fiercely lashing out at an opponent she couldn’t see. A breach of vested interest! A little tired out, she doesn’t get it, the voice muttered.
‘So be it. You may call me Instinct.’
“Insteen? Is that your name?”
‘That’s right. Are you satisfied now?’
The girl’s attitude easily changed. Ukukukukuh, her laugh was restored.
“Yeah. I’m Roselyne, and you’re Insteen,” Ukukuku. “But Insteen is a strange name. I’m sure it’s not as good as Roselyne.”
The girl triumphantly stuck out her chest.
‘Say whatever you want,’ The voice said and kept silent.
Perhaps she had finally grown angry. But the girl—Roselyne failed to notice, as if the half-moon glistening in the center of the sky was her audience, she began to sing the tune she had only just learned.
Her singing voice rode the wind, it spread across the night forest, and softly found its way into the ear of Cleo, who was soundly breathing a sleeper’s breath in his sleeping bag.
In the past, when he caught a cold or so, as long as he heard that song, he could fall into a peaceful slumber.
The one who would sing by his side was—his mother.
Right now, Cleo’s face was at peace, as if he had regained a happiness of long ago.
The Cait Sidhe with the spectacles,
Around the world he goes–
