Moonlight Guidance

 

The thin, fleeting light of the moon sometimes

illuminates the truth more vividly than the sun.

 

"We finally got along so well, too. What a shame."

"Well, you can always just go visit again. It'll only be a bit farther."

On the way back to Scarlet, Chryse and Nina were chatting atop my back.

"Weren't you listening? They said it's not good for a dragon to move around too much."

"Then just go without him."

"To do what!?"

That was the answer I got when I tried to put my foot down with the ever-casual Nina.

Hadn't they gotten a little too friendly with each other?

"Oh, Dad, it's Ara!"

I looked where Chryse was leaning forward and pointing from atop my head, and sure enough, Ara was racing toward us. A short distance behind him, I could make out Innis and Mel as well.

"Coming down. Hold on tight."

With that one warning to the passengers on my back, I folded my wings and landed.

"Hey, Ara. Something happen?"

"D-don't 'something happen' me! The mountain suddenly started spewing fire, so I got worried and…!"

Oh, right.

My mother's mountain was technically a volcano, but it hadn't erupted in a thousand years.

Heat and flames posed no threat to a fire dragon, but the ash, rocks, smoke, and gas that accompanied them were unpleasant even to us, so she must have been carefully managing it all this time.

If it suddenly erupted out of nowhere, even someone far less of a worrywart than Ara would be concerned.

"See? I told you there was nothing to worry about."

"Waaah! It's been foreeever since I've seen dragon-Mentorrr!"

Innis, catching up from behind, spoke with an exasperated tone, while Mel barreled straight into me at full speed and latched on. Apparently, my repeated requests for her not to cling to me didn't count in Mel's head whenever I was in dragon form.

"Well, yes, but of course Mentor, being a fire dragon, would be impervious to fire. But what about Miss Nina and Chryse? They'd be in danger."

"… It's kinda weird how I'm more worried about Mentor than Miss Nina, who's competent at just about everything."

As Ara earnestly pressed his point, Innis muttered that with an indescribable look on her face. It stung, but since I'd thought the same thing myself, I couldn't exactly argue.

"Exactly. If this one's fine, there's no way I'd be in danger."

Not only that, Nina herself was standing on top of my head making such declarations. Never mind that I had, in fact, been shielding her from volcanic bombs. Her tone suggested none of that had ever happened.

"Ara, you're hurt."

Out of nowhere, Chryse hopped down from my head and gently took Ara's hand. A single welt-like wound ran across it, with dried blood caked on.

"Hm? Oh, this is nothing. Just a scratch."

"No way, you can't leave it like that. You have to treat it properly…"

"Mm."

When Chryse turned back toward me, a shower of bandages and medicine rained down from atop my head. Nina had produced them from the lab coat she wore. As expected of a professional, always prepared.

"What happened?"

"Nothing much. A spirit we'd never seen before showed up and… gave us a bit of trouble, that's all."

When I asked, Innis answered with a bored expression from beside Chryse, who was busy applying medicine and wrapping bandages around Ara's wound.

"Ara got hurt shielding Innis, you knowww. A badge of honor, you might sayyy."

"The Iron Doll has plenty of power, but its mobility is just way too low. That's the problem. But the Transparent Butler doesn't have enough output either…"

When Mel explained what had happened, Innis grumbled irritably under her breath. She'd just been protected by the boy she liked, and yet there wasn't a shred of romantic atmosphere. How should I put it… this was probably exactly why this girl's love life never went anywhere…

"Everyone's got their own struggles, huhhhh."

"Hm? Everyone?"

When I questioned Mel's murmured remark, she gave an unusually troubled little laugh.

 

＊　＊　＊

 

Ten days exactly after our visit to my mother. The night of the full moon.

"Nina, do you have a moment before bed?"

"Mm. Sure."

When I called out to her, Nina nodded without even asking what it was about.

"You don't need to hear what it's about first?"

"Your explanations are hard to follow, so I'd rather not."

Shot down just like that, I reeled from the blow. Nina was the last person I wanted criticizing my ability to explain things…!

"Dad. I'm coming too."

She must have had some inkling of what I was planning. Despite normally falling asleep at sunset, Chryse stopped us as we were heading out and made her declaration.

"… Alright. Let's go together."

After a moment's hesitation, I gave an honest nod.

The three of us set out together into the night.

Scarlet after dark was still unlit. Neither magic nor sorcery had overcome the fundamental flaw of their effects expiring after a set duration. Even the most long-lasting enchantments held for two dragon-hours at best. Not enough for a full night.

Of course, if people worked in shifts recasting lighting spells through the night, they could maintain brightness until morning, but as things stood, public safety wasn't poor enough nor work pressing enough to warrant going that far.

Or perhaps… the day when they could easily fill the world with light through the night would be the day they truly no longer needed me.

Musing on such thoughts, the three of us walked the pitch-dark road.

For the record, both dragons and elves had excellent night vision, and Chryse, whatever her race might be, did too, so traveling without a light posed no problem whatsoever.

Before long, we reached the northern edge of Scarlet. A small, small forest.

We pushed through its towering trees, pressing deeper and deeper.

Trees standing in rows, fallen leaves carpeting the ground, tiny creatures breathing quietly in the underbrush. And yet, strictly speaking, this was not a forest.

At last, I arrived at my destination and looked up at a tree that stood head and shoulders above the rest.

— Now then, what to do?

I'd come with a fair degree of conviction, but in truth, I had no plan.

"Could you ask it to lend us one of its branches?"

After a moment's deliberation, I made my request to Nina.

Nina nodded and lightly raised her hand. That alone produced a sharp crack, and a single branch from the great tree dropped before me. About as thick as Chryse's wrist and roughly as long as I was tall.

The base of the branch had a cross-section so clean it was hard to believe it had snapped on its own, and when I gripped it, it settled into my hand with an oddly perfect fit.

"O moon. O star that has witnessed all, you who shine by reflecting the sun's light."

I raised the leaf-laden branch toward the sky and intoned a spell.

"Share with me your glow. A light to illuminate the brilliance sleeping in the depths of the human heart."

And then, upon the branch held aloft toward the radiant full moon, a round, pale light flickered to life, as though mocking all sense of distance.

I held it up like a torch and aimed it at Nina's chest.

"O moonlight, you who reflect. Illuminate for me — her soul."

Souls exist. My mother, a dragon who had lived for millennia, had given her seal of approval.

Whether it should be called a soul, a heart, or a memory, I didn't know. But it was no figment of my imagination. It was definitely there.

If that was true, then it should also be possible to find it.

"… It's not glowing."

But Nina's chest did not light up the way I had envisioned.

Nina stared down at her own chest and furrowed her brow. Then, going a step further, she grabbed both of her peaks and squeezed them together.

"No, I don't think that's going to help."

"Are you picking a fight?"

No. That wasn't what I meant. I was only saying it was pointless because chest size had absolutely nothing to do with one's essence or soul…

"Essence… essence, huh."

"Are you saying THIS is my essence!?"

"That's not what I meant."

I gave the increasingly heated Nina a light tap on the forehead. Why was this girl on the verge of tears?

"Nina. There's nobody else around, right?"

"No, why?"

I pressed the branch against Nina's chest, leaned in close, and brought my face near hers.

"Wh-what…"

Her voice pitched upward in a rare show of flustered surprise. I whispered into her ear.

"Nina."

In that instant, a light like the sun itself poured from her chest. As though the world around us had turned to broad daylight… bright, and yet not blinding.

"This is… the light of the soul…!"

I knew it instinctively. The soul was the very root of a person's being.

That was why it could only be called forth by speaking their true name.

"Dad. Could you do mine as well?"

Chryse asked, her expression set with determination.

She may have looked like nothing more than a child, but neither the years she had lived nor her inner self were those of a mere child. She, too, must have arrived at the same conclusion I had.

That Chryse might be a ghoul.

That was the answer I had reached… and, most likely, Chryse herself as well.

We had told her about the circumstances under which we found her as a baby. After all, the people she called her parents were a fire dragon and an elf who weren't even married. There was no way to sugarcoat it.

The ghouls we defeated had inhabited animal carcasses, but what if one had possessed a human infant instead? Wouldn't the result be something like Chryse?

And if that were the case, then she most likely did not possess a soul.

"Chryse… Chrysinisos."

I pressed the moonlight against Chryse's chest and called her true name with something close to prayer.

— And then.

"It glowed…"

Chryse whispered, the words spilling from her as she hugged herself.

Compared to Nina's soul, the light was much smaller, much more modest.

But an unmistakable radiance was there.

"It's there… it's there! Dad, I have a soul too…!"

"Yes. It's there. You really do have a soul, Chryse!"

She leapt at me, and I caught her in my arms and squeezed tight.

Her true nature had only grown more mysterious, but that didn't matter. The fact that she genuinely possessed a soul was cause for nothing but joy.

"Here."

Once Chryse and I had finished celebrating, Nina picked up the branch I'd dropped and handed it back to me.

"That's not all you came for, is it?"

"No. Though at this rate, the second one's probably a lost cause."

My purpose in coming here, and by extension my purpose in visiting my mother, had been threefold, including the matter of Chryse. All three were related to whether or not the soul truly existed.

The first was Chryse's true nature.

"O moonlight, you who reflect. Illuminate for me. The lingering trace of a soul that sleeps here… The soul of Ai."

And the second was the whereabouts of my first wife — Ai, whom I had lost long ago.

That she had reincarnated was almost certainly true. And that she had lost her life once more.

The question was what came after. Had she achieved a second reincarnation?

A third? A fourth?

I didn't even need to think about it.

She absolutely had.

That was the kind of girl she was. If it were just me thinking so, it might have been nothing more than wishful thinking, but Nina shared the same opinion.

And yet, Ai still had not appeared before me.

Then I had no choice but to go looking for her myself.

This was not a forest. It was a cemetery.

Long ago, each time someone died, Nina would sprout a new sapling as their grave marker.

Those saplings eventually grew into trees, then into great trees, until they began to form a forest.

It took up far too much space, of course, so she had abandoned this practice partway through. But…

Ai's soul should still be cradled by this tree. The very tree, Ai's tree, that had given me its branch.

"No glow, huh."

But nothing responded from the tree, and I gave a rueful smile.

Ai herself was long dead, so perhaps not even a fragment of her soul remained here anymore.

Even if something lingered, perhaps it was simply too long ago to call forth.

And above all else, I did not know Ai's true name.

The true name she must have held in her heart… I had never asked her.

Because I couldn't risk someone else learning it and using it to control her.

What a fool I had been.

"Nina… you don't know Ai's true name either, do you?"

When I asked, clinging to the faintest hope, she nodded with a pained expression. It was my own stupidity that was to blame, so she didn't need to make such a face.

"Well then. Time for the final test."

Borrowing the light of the full moon and the power of Ai's tree to reveal the soul. The third purpose.

This was also an investigation into the greatest mystery still unsolved.

I pressed the staff against my own chest and hesitated.

I had two true names. One as a dragon, and one as a human.

My mother had never given me a name, but Nina had given me one as a dragon in her stead.

Which should I call to reveal my soul?

"Sekiguchi, Ryouji."

It didn't even require thought. I called my human name.

Light several times greater than even Nina's poured from my chest.

I'd assumed the brightness of the light was determined by how long one had lived, but apparently that wasn't the case. In terms of age, Nina was older than me even if I counted my previous life.

"O light, tell me."

Regardless, I commanded the light.

"Where did you come from?"

In that instant, the light converged, then shot straight upward.

"… Unbelievable."

The light pointed toward the heavens, toward the distant sky. But not directly overhead. It angled slightly, indicating a single point above.

I understood its meaning perfectly.

Not another world.

Somewhere beyond this sky… somewhere in the cosmos, it existed.

My homeland — Earth.