The way she looked at people as if they were toys was exactly the same as when she had been five years old. Had she forgotten everything I had taught her in childhood?
Just as Xenia, now ready for battle, was about to charge at me again, the faint sound of a bell rang from the village.
―DONG, DONG…….
The moment Xenia heard it, she sharply turned her head. The curiosity and competitive spirit that had filled her eyes only moments ago had vanished before I knew it.
“……Ah. I have to go.”
Xenia murmured like an empty doll, then leapt down from the hill.
She quickly moved away, snatching tree branches with her tentacles as she went. I hurriedly spoke to Cesare.
“Cesare. Follow her!”
“Ah, let me put on my clothes properly first!”
Together with Cesare, whose clothes were in complete disarray, I hurried after Xenia. She was going deeper and deeper into the forest. The trees blocked Xenia from view.
“Master, there are traces on this path.”
Cesare pointed at marks where the grass had been trampled. Had he learned tracking as well? That was not something I had taught him.
We ran after Xenia’s trail like that. The forest path had a fairly steep incline, so it was practically like climbing a mountain. After running for quite a while, the forest path suddenly ended and my view opened wide.
Beyond a cliff, the sea was visible. I saw a single house. It was a wooden building. The clothesline, the pile of firewood, and other such things were full of the scent of human life.
And in front of that building stood Xenia. Beside an old man with a sparse beard.
The old man looked at me with kind-looking eyes.
“Who are you? I have not seen your faces before. What business do you have with our domus?”
This was Xenia’s domus? Was this man Xenia’s new master? Had his name been Gainak?
At a glance, it seemed like a cozy place, and he seemed like a gentle old man, but something bothered me. I bowed politely to him and said.
“My name is Dane. I once lived in the same domus as Xenia, and I have been following her trail after she was sent to the orphanage.”
The old man’s eyes widened in considerable surprise, and soon his expression grew complicated. After remaining silent for a long while, as though thinking about something, he opened his mouth.
“You must have had a hard journey here. I am Gainak. Come inside and have a cup of tea.”
He did not seem pleased to see us, but it was a relief that he was not trying to drive us away either. I glanced at Xenia and said.
“I would like Xenia to join the conversation as well.”
“Let us speak, just the two of us, for now.”
I felt as though he was somewhat wary of me. Cesare looked back and forth between Gainak and Xenia, then whispered to me.
“I will try talking to Xenia outside. She might remember me.”
“I leave it to you.”
I followed Gainak inside. When I sat at the large dining table, Gainak soon served me a cup of tea.
“To think an acquaintance of Xenia’s would come looking for her. It is a welcome thing. Though the child’s condition is not good, which is a problem…….”
Gainak wore quite a bitter expression. By her condition, did he mean her memories? I quietly looked at him, seated across from me, and said.
“How did you come to take Xenia in?”
“Fifteen years ago, I happened to meet Xenia at the orphanage. The sight of her grieving after losing her family weighed on my mind, so I brought her to our domus.”
“Did you know that Xenia was not an ordinary person?”
“I did not. When I had just adopted her, she did not bring out anything like tentacles.”
I see. So she had been hiding her true nature until then. Had she remembered what I had told her, to hide her tentacles whenever possible?
“For several years after I brought her here, she lived well as an ordinary child. But at some point, she began showing strange symptoms. She would suddenly bring out her tentacles and attack people, and her memories began disappearing little by little…….”
“…….”
“She seems to be a hybrid, so I suspect that as she grew, the instincts of a magic beast gradually became stronger. It is a pity.”
As he said that, Gainak looked like an extremely kind person. However, that kindness felt false.
“Thank you for looking after Xenia. It also seems that Xenia has caused you trouble, so we would like to take her with us now.”
“What do you mean by that?”
In an instant, the air inside the house turned cold. Displeasure and wariness settled in Gainak’s eyes.
“She may have been your family in the past, but now she is my disciple as well. I raised that child for fifteen years, so she is no different from my daughter.”
He spoke in a firm voice.
“Moreover, judging by Xenia’s reaction, she does not seem to remember you at all. It is unclear whether you are truly her family.”
Everything he said was reasonable. For the moment, I could not refute Gainak’s words, so I nodded.
“I understand. In that case, would it be all right for us to come visit Xenia from time to time?”
“……How could I stop family from coming to see her?”
“Thank you for understanding.”
It seemed this was as far as we could go today. After finishing my conversation with Gainak, I went outside and heard Cesare shouting.
“Hey! I am only going easy on you because I have not had anything to drink. Do you understand?!”
When I looked toward the sound, Cesare was once again tied up by tentacles. It was quite an original knot.
With Cesare’s skill, he could have avoided it, yet he had allowed himself to be tied up. He had been a reliable older brother since childhood. I remembered the two of them when they had been young.
“Master! You are reminiscing again, are you not? Stop that and help me!”
Cesare shouted urgently. Just as I was about to pull Xenia away, Gainak’s voice came from behind me.
“Xenia, come here.”
At those words, Xenia released the bindings in an instant. She spoke politely.
“Yes, Master.”
Xenia walked past me and approached Gainak.
Master and disciple. The two of them also looked like a very close grandfather and granddaughter. Gainak looked at me and smiled.
“It would be best for you to return now.”
It was a tactful dismissal. For now, I had no choice but to step back. I smiled and waved to Xenia.
“Then we will be going. Xenia, I will see you again.”
No greeting came back. As we walked along the forest path back to the village center, Cesare grumbled.
“I even let her tie me up on purpose in case it brought back her memories, but it had no effect at all. What do we do now?”
“First, let us return to the inn and organize our thoughts.”
When we returned to the inn, the innkeeper welcomed us. She asked in a curious tone,
“Dear guests. Did you meet Xenia?”
“Yes. We met her. We also met someone named Gainak.”
“Ah, Mr. Gainak.”
I could hear goodwill toward Gainak in the innkeeper’s voice.
“What kind of person is Gainak?”
“He is a good and strong person. He took in orphans, raised them, educated them, and sent them off to good homes. He has stopped now and only keeps Xenia with him, though.”
A good and strong person. An ideal master. The innkeeper continued.
“He is kind enough to live with a child like Xenia. Goodness, taking in such a scoundrel of a child…….”
“A scoundrel?”
“Yes. She would break someone’s cowshed because she was curious about its structure, and she would chase out all the chickens. Now she has become the village’s famous little scoundrel. And she even has those creepy tentacles.”
It was similar to how things had been when we had first brought Xenia in. Cesare listened quietly, then asked.
“By the way, Gainak, that old man. Is he strong? How strong? He looked frail.”
“He may look ordinary on the outside, but he is an archmage. He has fended off magic beasts that appeared in the village, and when there was a forest fire about three years ago, he made rain fall.”
Strong enough to make rain fall. As we listened to Gainak’s praises for quite a while, a new customer entered the shop.
The innkeeper left her spot to attend to the customer. Cesare scratched the back of his head roughly and said.
“Tch, what should we do? You said we would take her with us if she was not living well.”
“I did.”
“But has Xenia not already met a new master and been living well?”
That was true. Xenia had a new master and a new domus. She had spent only a few years with us, while she had spent fifteen years with Gainak. However…….
“No. We will take her. Xenia seems to be under a curse right now.”
“A curse? On Xenia?”
“Perhaps it would be more accurate to call it a restriction. I saw several signs. When the bell rang, and when Gainak called Xenia.”
I gripped the cold glass tightly and said.
“Each time, I saw Xenia’s expression go blank.”
Xenia had always had little expression. But having watched that child for a long time, I could tell. Emotion had suddenly vanished from Xenia’s eyes.
“What bastard put a curse on her? What kind of restriction is it?”
“It seems to be related to obedience, but I am not certain.”
“Could the memory loss be related too?”
“I wonder.”
As far as I knew, magic that induced memory loss did not exist yet……. Still, it was not completely unrelated. Meanwhile, Cesare’s eyes turned fierce.
“Then shall we beat up that old man and take Xenia?”
“It is too soon. Xenia has no memories, and it is not certain whether there is a restriction on her. Let us observe a little longer first.”
It seemed we needed to approach this more carefully. Meanwhile, it also bothered me that I felt as though I had seen Gainak somewhere before.
Where exactly had I seen that face?
***
“Please give me a set of ten high-grade fatigue recovery tonics. They are for a gift, so please wrap them as well.”
“Please wait a moment. The high-grade ones do not sell often.”
After saying that, the general store owner disappeared into the room at the back of the shop. From inside, I heard rustling sounds as though she was looking for something.
Amid miscellaneous goods scattered everywhere, Cesare was smiling slyly.
“Master, are you buying them for me? I am a little tired from playing with Xenia, but I am not extremely exhausted…….”
“They are for Gainak. Since we have to go to his house to meet Xenia, they are a gift.”
We had stepped back yesterday, but I could not give up like this. We had to confirm Xenia’s condition in detail somehow.
Cesare had suggested kidnapping Xenia, but I had rejected it. She had no memories of us, so taking her with us would only make the matter worse.
“Ah, of course I knew they were a gift! I was not saying I particularly wanted to drink one.”
It seemed he had been subtly hoping for one. After buying Cesare a bottle as well, I left the shop. Cesare drank the fatigue recovery tonic in one gulp and said.
“We are going to that old geezer’s domus, right? Why did he have to build his house on the very edge of a cliff, of all places?”
The scenery was beautiful because the sea was right beside it, but it was not an easy place to reach. Still, we had no choice but to go.
Just as I was walking with Cesare, I heard someone shouting nearby.
“Goodness, this scoundrel again! What in the world are you doing?”