Seasons changed, and several winters came and went. Where the snow melted, sprouts emerged and birds returned, but the same spring, even after seeing it hundreds of times, failed to evoke any emotion.
Yesterday was like today, and tomorrow would be the same as today.
The nest was quiet without even Ceras.
Spinel, who had been watching a butterfly that had entered the cave by rolling only her eyeballs, transformed into human form.
In the end, she couldn’t overcome the boredom.
The house where Ceras lived was a small hut on the outskirts of the village.
When she knocked on the door of the old, small hut, a familiar woman opened it cheerfully.
“Spinel!”
“I came to visit.”
As Spinel muttered grumpily, Ceras hugged her and made a fuss.
“Welcome. Come in quickly.”
The inside of the hut wasn’t much different from the outside. There was an old table and kitchen, and a bed and cradle on one side.
If there was anything unusual, it was the piles of weeds placed here and there in the house.
“What’s with all these weeds?”
“Oh, those are medicinal herbs.”
“Medicinal herbs?”
“Yes. I’m distributing them to the villagers. There’s been an illness going around lately. Fortunately, I know herbs that can treat it, so I’ve been picking and drying them.”
Spinel shook her head.
“What’s the point of helping humans to that extent?”
“Well, I can’t just stand by and watch.”
Saying that, Ceras offered Spinel a chair. Unfamiliar with human furniture, Spinel awkwardly sat on a chair near the table.
Ceras seemed to have already adapted to human life, naturally taking out cups and tea from the kitchen and steeping them in water.
Spinel quietly watched her.
The small hut was soon filled with the fragrant scent of tea.
“Where’s Eline?”
“Huh?”
“Where did Eline go?”
Spinel, looking around the modest interior of the house, asked, recalling the face of the man who seemed like he wouldn’t even be a mouthful.
“Ah, well…”
Ceras hesitated for a moment before continuing.
“He died last year.”
“…What?”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you earlier. Since you’re so far away, it’s hard to even teleport.”
Ceras said with an awkward smile. Then she handed over a teacup.
“He died? Why?”
“Shortly after we settled here, a plague broke out. I tried to treat it, but since he was already weak…”
“Damn him! If I had known this would happen, I would have killed him with my own hands before your marriage, even if you hated me for it!”
Angry, Spinel slammed the table. The teacup moved, and water droplets splashed up.
“Don’t say such things! And the child can hear. Use nicer words.”
No sooner had she finished speaking than the sound of a child whimpering was heard. It seemed to have woken up startled by the sudden noise.
“Oh dear. I just got the baby to sleep, and now you’ve woken it up again.”
Ceras scolded Spinel as she approached the cradle to soothe the crying child.
Spinel looked at Ceras with an expression of incomprehension.
Until not too long ago, Ceras’s magic would come out before her words. Her nagging was always heard while hanging in the air.
But not today.
Spinel gritted her teeth.
From here to Spinel’s nest was a distance that even she, who was clumsy with magic, could teleport without difficulty.
Saying this distance was difficult meant that Ceras’s magical power had decreased that much.
The human she cherished so much had died in the end, and she had lost her magic power.
Moreover, the shabby house looked unremarkable even to Spinel, who wasn’t human.
Was this all there was to the human life she had longed for so much?
“Is this the happiness you were talking about?”
Ceras, who had been soothing the baby, looked at Spinel.
“Why are you suddenly asking that?”
“Because no matter how much I think about it, I can’t understand.”
“…Spinel, can you come here for a moment?”
Ceras pulled the hand of the angry Spinel. Caught off guard, Spinel was dragged to her and stood in front of the cradle.
“This is my child. Isn’t it cute?”
Inside, a young child was smiling brightly as if it had never cried.
“Try holding its hand.”
“…It, it looks like it might break.”
“It’s okay.”
At Ceras’s encouragement, Spinel slowly held the child’s hand. The hand was small and soft, but also scary as if it might break at any moment.
Spinel froze for a moment, silently looking at the child. It looked smaller and weaker than any human she had ever met.
“Spinel, I’m learning various things these days. How to accept death, how to overcome sadness, or the feeling of cherishing the passing time.”
“…What’s that?”
It was incomprehensible. What was accepting death, what was sadness, and what was the preciousness of time?
“These are emotions that humans learn ordinarily.”
“……”
“Certainly, not every moment is happy, but I still prefer now. Even though Eline is gone, I have this child now.”
Ceras said with a foolish smile. Looking at that face made Spinel feel foolish for getting heated up.
She couldn’t understand what was so good about this. Well, when had she ever understood Ceras?
Thinking that she would never understand Ceras in the end, Spinel shook her head. Knowing that whatever she said wouldn’t be listened to anyway.
Giving up on persuading her, Spinel instead took out a round bead from her pocket and handed it over.
“Here, an elven lullaby.”
“Oh my, you really brought it? I thought you had forgotten that promise.”
Ceras received the item, jumping with joy.
“…What promise? It was coercion.”
Spinel grumbled as she prepared to leave.
“You’re leaving already? Won’t you stay a bit longer?”
“It’s too shabby, there’s nothing to see. And I’m going into a resting period for a while.”
“Is it already time for that?”
“Yes, this time I’m going to sleep for about 20 years.”
Spinel said nonchalantly.
“I see… Then I’ll see you again in 20 years.”
“20 years will pass quickly anyway. Why are you making a fuss?”
She had known Ceras for over hundreds of years, and the resting periods she had gone through in between were not just once or twice.
Compared to dragons like Legias who went through resting periods for hundreds of years, Spinel’s resting period wasn’t even that long.
“That’s true…”
Ceras nodded with a regretful expression.
“Hey, Spinel.”
“What?”
“It’s sad that we won’t see each other for a while, so before you go, could you call me big sister just once?”
“I was wondering why you weren’t harping on about that.”
“Why? It’s nice to reminisce about old times, isn’t it?”
Ceras retorted with a grin.
“I don’t want to. Those might be good old days for you. I only have memories of being pushed around by you.”
“Is that so?”
Leaving Ceras giggling for some reason, Spinel left the house.
Twenty years later. Spinel finally woke up from her long resting period. And when she visited Ceras’s house, it was in ruins.
“Did she move without telling me?”
Maybe she had missed the timing to tell her while she was in her resting period.
Spinel asked a farmer working in a nearby field about Ceras’s whereabouts.
“Ah, that witch? She’s been dead for a long time. About 15 years, I think?”
“…Dead?”
“Yes. The lord and soldiers from the capital came and took her away.”
“Why?”
“I told you. Because she was a witch.”
“Ceras is not a witch.”
Spinel frowned and retorted.
“You’re looking for that woman with white hair who was always cooped up in her house growing strange plants, right?”
Hearing about the white hair and medicinal herbs, it seemed to match the Ceras that Spinel remembered.
“That’s right.”
“Then it’s her. There was a big fuss because a plague spread in the village because of the plants she was growing.”
“I heard they were medicinal herbs, not plants.”
“What medicinal herbs, they were poisonous herbs.”
The man clicked his tongue, shaking his head.
“When I think about how much I suffered then, I regret not catching that witch with my own hands.”
No matter how eccentric Ceras’s personality was, she didn’t have the ability to spread diseases. Moreover, she had even lost Eline, whom she cherished so much, to the plague.
“Ceras came to this village and lost her beloved husband to the plague. There’s no way Ceras would have spread the disease.”
“How would we know that? And wasn’t that husband of hers eaten by the witch rather than dying from the plague?”
Unable to contain her irritation, Spinel grabbed the man by the collar. The man, easily subdued, struggled but was no match for Spinel’s grip.
“If you call Ceras a witch one more time, I’ll cut out your tongue.”
“I, I’m sorry. So please let go…”
The man gasped for breath in Spinel’s grip.
Just as she was thinking of strangling him to death and asking someone else, an old woman who had been watching the situation hurriedly ran towards Spinel.
“Oh my, wait, wait a moment. I’ll tell you everything, so please let this child go.”
“Why should I?”
“Please, my lord. I’ll tell you everything, so please spare the child.”
Spinel looked at the old woman with cold eyes before loosening her grip and releasing the man.
The man seemed to have fainted, lying limp on the ground, and the old woman hurriedly checked his condition.
Fortunately, after confirming he was breathing, she bowed her head to Spinel.
The old woman calmed her trembling heart and slowly opened her mouth.
“Fifteen years ago, the village suffered from a long famine and plague. Eventually, the villagers, unable to bear it anymore, went to the lord asking for help.”
Spinel listened to the story with a bored expression. Her face seemed to ask when Ceras would appear in the story. Noticing Spinel’s mood, the old woman hurriedly continued her story.
“To appease the angry public sentiment, the lord declared that the famine and plague were all the work of a witch. And he said he would reward anyone who caught the witch. But where would there be a witch in a village like this?”
“So?”
“So the villagers accused her of being a witch because her appearance was a bit unusual.”
- ianthe
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