Washed Ashore

 

Carried along, coming to rest, pooling together, then carried along once more.

Repeating, repeating, like wisps of pale cloud,

they leave their shapes behind as though painting a picture.

 

"Come, come, Mentor, please have a drink!"

"Ah…"

Night had fallen. A great fire blazed, and the villagers sang and danced.

I took a sip of the liquor the village chief pressed into my hands, feeling distinctly out of place.

The taste wasn't half bad, but…

"You're a terrible drunk, so don't overdo it," whispered Nina, sitting beside me.

"I know, I know."

"Mentor, please try this as well!"

Practically shouldering Nina aside, the silver-haired woman we'd rescued — Hana, apparently — thrust a plate of food toward me.

"I never imagined you'd really be the Mentor… and then for you to save me from danger on top of that, it just has to be fate!"

"Well, Yuuka's the one who actually saved you."

I leaned away from Hana, who was pressing up against me for some reason.

"No! Your gallant figure, Mentor, charging in on that white horse and felling those trolls like it was nothing… it was the first time I ever realized the 'prince on a white horse' from the old tales truly existed!"

"I'm no prince, at the very least."

We didn't even have a monarchy in Scarlet…

Horses didn't exist in this world. The concept of them had entered the cultural consciousness, though, likely because I'd let it slip while drunk at some point. They were treated as mythical beings here, much the way pegasi or unicorns had been in my previous life.

The "prince on a white horse" was a derivative of that myth. And while it might seem odd coming from a dragon like me, it was a purely fictional concept.

"And for that person to be the Mentor… I can only call it fate!"

Whether she was even listening to me, I couldn't tell. Hana wore a dreamy expression.

"Well… I'm surprised too. I never expected to find a Swordsaint settlement out here."

According to the village chief, this village… Shirogane… had been founded primarily by Hiseri, a Swordsaint who had left Scarlet long ago. Both Nina and I remembered her well. She'd been unusual for a Swordsaint, with silver hair and an insatiable curiosity. Perhaps her influence explained why so many of the villagers here had silver hair as well.

If I recalled correctly, Hiseri had left about three hundred years ago. That they'd kept the memory of me alive for so long was humbling, to say the least.

… That said.

"Yes. Red hair, golden eyes. Strong, wise, beautiful… and kinder than anyone. Our fire dragon. Exactly as our ancestors told us, generation after generation."

Unlike the people of Scarlet, I hadn't known these villagers since childhood. Being admired by strangers on the strength of stories alone was a deeply uncomfortable feeling.

In the first place, Yuuka, who had been the one to notice Hana was in danger and was herself a Swordsaint, deserved the attention far more than I did. But the person in question didn't seem to mind in the slightest, fully absorbed in eating and drinking.

"… Hey," Nina said, glancing around before turning to Hana.

"Is this everyone in the village?"

I'd been wondering the same thing. It seemed like the entire village had turned out to welcome us, yet even so, the numbers were remarkably small. Eighty or ninety, maybe just over a hundred. That was about it. Given the scale of the walls encircling the village, it was a reasonable population.

But for a village that had endured three hundred years, it seemed far too few.

"I believe so, yes. This is nearly everyone… is something the matter?"

At Hana's answer, Nina's expression stiffened ever so slightly. A subtle change, the kind only someone who'd known her as long as I had would catch.

"… It's nothing."

She fell silent and turned away. Hana looked puzzled by her reaction but leaned in even closer to me, trying to press more dishes on me.

"Dad."

Just then, Chryse hopped between us and threw her arms around me.

"I'm getting kind of sleepy."

"Oh, are you? Then I suppose we should call it a night."

I stroked her head, putting a silent you saved me into the gesture. She shut both eyes in response. She'd probably been trying to wink, but closing both eyes instead was adorable.

Chryse didn't truly need sleep. She felt fatigue, apparently, and went to bed at night to match our schedule, but she never grew naturally drowsy. In other words, she'd sensed I was struggling and come to my rescue.

"Da… d…?"

Hana's face stiffened at the word.

"Mommy, let's go to sleep together!"

"All right."

And Chryse's follow-up, calling out to Nina, made it definitive.

"Um… this girl, is she…?"

"She's mine and Nina's daughter, our pride and joy. See how her hair is a beautiful mix of gold and red?"

In reality, genetics in this world worked much the same as on Earth, so that kind of blending didn't actually happen. But there probably weren't any other children of a dragon and an elf out there, so it was my word against no one's.

"You done too, big bro? Then I'm hitting the hay."

Yuuka came back clutching an armful of food-laden plates. I looked around for Rin and spotted a small blue cat curled up at Chryse's feet, breathing softly in her sleep. I scooped her up. Somehow, it felt like our group was made up entirely of free spirits.

We borrowed an empty house and settled in for the night. We'd grown used to camping on the road by now, so the chance to take a proper bath and sleep in a soft bed was a welcome luxury.

"So…"

After thoroughly enjoying our baths, I sat on the bed and addressed Nina as she dried her hair.

"What was bothering you, Nina?"

"There are no elderly people in this village."

She pushed back the wet hair clinging to her shoulders, looking annoyed by it.

"Now that you mention it…"

The village chief had looked to be in his late thirties at most, and I hadn't seen anyone older. Hana had said it was "nearly everyone," so perhaps the elderly had simply stayed away from the feast. Even so, there should have been at least a few more people of advanced age.

"So… does that mean the average lifespan here is extremely short because they don't have anyone like you, Miss Nina?"

"I'm not so full of myself as to think that. Besides, their medical knowledge didn't seem all that poor."

Nina shook her head at Chryse's suggestion.

"There was an herb garden in one corner of the village. It wasn't very large, but the variety was solid, including some that are difficult to prepare. At the very least, they have a reasonably skilled apothecary."

When Nina described someone as "reasonably skilled," it was safe to assume they were actually quite talented. Still, when had she found the time to check all of that?

"Their tech level doesn't seem all that high to me, though. It's been ages since I've seen a wooden house."

Yuuka rapped her knuckles against the wall. Most homes in Scarlet these days were brick, and wooden buildings were uncommon, only surviving in older residences. I could see why she'd come to that conclusion, but…

"I wouldn't be so sure. The construction is simple, yes, but solid. And more importantly, there's the bathroom. The bath here was every bit as comfortable as ours at home, wasn't it? Building something like that requires fairly advanced craftsmanship."

The history of bathing was the history of technology. The form a bath took varied drastically depending on the era's available technology: from simple water bathing to steam baths, doorway tubs to public bathhouses, iron cauldron baths to side-heated tubs, and so on.

Being able to build an indoor bath inside a private home like this was among the most advanced achievements in that progression.

In other words, this small village wasn't far behind Scarlet in terms of technological capability. They certainly weren't a hundred or two hundred years behind.

"Hmm… I don't really get it, but whatever. It's not like they mean us any harm, right?"

"No, not at all. Everyone was genuinely glad to have us here. Some were a bit… overeager, though…"

Yuuka bounced onto the bed and said as much, and Chryse glanced in my direction. She meant Hana, no doubt. I wasn't sure why the woman had taken such a shine to me, but perhaps that was simply how someone reacted upon meeting a figure straight out of a fairy tale.

I hadn't sensed any hostility either, and if Yuuka, who was extraordinarily sensitive to such things, and Chryse, who could read the colors of people's souls, both said so, then these villagers truly were welcoming us without ulterior motives.

"Rin's already out cold, too. I'm going to sleep."

Yuuka curled up on the bed, wrapping herself around the cat-shaped Rin in a tight embrace.

"Then let's turn in as well."

I blew out the lamp, and we slipped into bed.

… If Rin had been awake, seasoned traveler that she was, she might have had answers to the things nagging at us.

That thought drifted through my mind as I closed my eyes, and in no time at all, I was fast asleep.