Volume 2: Chapter 020: Percelis (Eltear)‘s Third Memory
Author: かっぱ同盟／友麻碧
Link: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n3862be/
Translated by Zzonkedd
Edited by Gumihou
(Third Memory)
Sanctuary of Vabilophos
Eltear: 18 years old
The White Sage and I became husband and wife.
Just like that, the unstable feelings in my heart calmed down to a surprising degree and our marriage was very peaceful.
Of course, he had to return to the Eastern Continent for his work, but I was fine waiting for his return.
I decided to wait for the White Sage whom no one seems to care about [1] in the wake of the Hero’s achievements.
[1] That was not to say that Yunosis was powerless. Ever since we got married, the Priests’ movements were limited and that part of the faction had been rather quiet lately. This showed the power of the White Sage. His existence alone was enough to make a country like Rubelkia quietly submit to him.
“Eltear, it’s been a while. Would you like to ride on Fan?”
“Geez… I’m not a child you know…”
As a child, I used to love riding on Fan and flying high up into the sky.
However, I felt that doing such a thing at that age would just be embarrassing. I was the wife of the White Sage, after all.
I should be more grown up and be all proper. Endure it.
Even so, my entire body tingled with desire.
“Hoot hoot… the Shrine Maiden doesn’t want to ride on me any more?”
“Fan… why are you looking at me like that…”
How… unfair. Fan’s round eyes were wobbling tragically at me. The Wind Spirit, Fan Trom had transformed into his Sixth Summoning Stage and was waiting for me to climb onto his back.
[1] I gave in.
“Woahhhhh, it’s been so long~!! This floaty feeling—!!”
When we took off into the sky, I was as excited as the time when I [1] first experienced flying as a child.
The feeling of being high up in the sky and looking down at the huge forest surrounding the Sanctuary was very exciting. As the Green Shrine Maiden, my movements were limited and I was not permitted to leave the Sanctuary at all, so this was incredibly fun for me.
I had always been happy whenever Yunosis took me flying.
Although my world could not spread horizontally, I could still go upwards. He was the only person who could take me high up into the sky.
“Yunosis, look, it’s the sea!”
“Eltear, calm down.”
“Look look!! It’s so shiny!!”
We were so high up that we could see the Central Sea. In fact, the ocean was surprisingly close, but I had never been to it before and only knew how blue it looked from a distance.
“The sea…”
Did the Eastern Continent really exist on the other side of that sea? The ocean felt impossibly wide, and even from that height, I could not see the end of it. [1] It was strange to think that Yunosis was born on land beyond that sparkling blue vastness. Without realising it, I grabbed onto his clothes.
“Shall we go to the sea?”
“Can we?”
“Just for a little bit. Let’s keep it a secret from the Elders.”
With a little smile, Yunosis gave Fan an order and we sailed over the forest to land on a sandy beach just below a cliff.
“It’s amazing…”
The sound of the waves, the scent of the ocean, the beautiful blue sea right at my feet. For the first time in my life, I felt the ocean with my entire body. My shrine maiden dress fluttered in the wind as I drank in the scenery. The warm sand felt very good under my toes.
“Shrine Maiden, you’ll fall in if you get too excited,” Water Spirit Celiade giggled as she swam around me.
[2] I had unconsciously walked into the sea. A sudden strong wave caught my ankles and I stumbled, plopping into the water.
“Fufu.”
Even this did not feel bad at all. The water of the sea felt [2] like a completely different being from the Sanctuary’s spring water. There was an overwhelming silence that rested deep within the ocean.
[1] What sky I could see when [2] floating on my back in the Sanctuary’s spring were glimpses through the trees. There, however, the sky was like an open field showing just how wide and endlessly huge the world could be.
“Eltear, are you alright?”
A worried Yunosis waded through the waters to where I was floating on my back and looking at the sky. He had taken off his coat and cap, and I could see that the water reached up quite high on his person. While I was floating on the water, the waves carried me off to a fairly deep place.
“Hey, Yunosis, does the Eastern Continent really exist beyond the sea?”
“Yes… the sea connects all of Maydea.”
He took my hand and helped me up. Before I knew it, we were surrounded by Sea Spirits who contracted with the White Sage.
“Ufufu, hahaha.”
“E-Eltear…?”
“Ahahaha… ouch!”
I was laughing for no reason, unable to hold back my feelings. I hugged Yunosis and began hopping around when a sudden pain shot through my leg. Wondering what happened, I looked into the water and saw a translucent floating thing near my leg.
“Kyaah!”
“Oh, a jellyfish.”
“Hey, you jellyfish bastard, what did you do to the Shrine Maiden!”
“Stupid bag of jelly!”
The Sea Snake Spirit Volga and Mermaid Celiade were especially noisy. However, I was too occupied with the pain in my leg as Yunosis carried me out of the water in his arms.
“Ahh… you were stung.”
“It hurts… It really hurts.”
“It’s fine, I shall heal this quickly.”
After putting me down on a rock, he held my leg and placed his hand over where the jellyfish had stung me.
The Monkey Spirit, Kukuru, who had been riding on Yunosis’ shoulders all this while, jumped off with a ‘pyon’.
“Woahh…”
It felt like my body was submerged in lukewarm water.
The reddening wound quickly returned to its original colour and the stinging pain disappeared.
“You can heal injuries like this so easily, White Sage?”
“Fufu… any White Mage could do this much. Also, we can’t heal everything. It depends on whether something can be healed or not. The recovery odds, you might say.”
“The recovery odds?”
“Yes, it is a little difficult to define, but you should know that the magic we use is imperfect and is constrained by all kinds of rules and risks. We can increase the recovery odds from 1% to 10% fairly easily. However, if the recovery odds are 0%, it is close to impossible to raise it up to even 1%.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I guess it’s a little tricky…”
Yunosis sat next to me as he wrung water out of his clothes.
I let my recently healed leg dangle from the rock. The Spirits were playing cheerfully by the sea. They looked very happy.
“World Zero is very different from World One. To turn Zero into One requires very powerful magic. I believe that the type of magic required would be Fate Changing Magic.”
“Fate changing… magic?”
Yunosis gave a slightly troubled smile. Looks like it was a type of magic that he could not use, even though he had been practising magic for a long time.
I had to wonder, did he ever want to change Zero to One?
The waves sparkled brightly in the evening sun. The scene was both beautiful and tranquil.
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We were gifted with a child.
Our son, Shuma, was born at the time when the Sanctuary was filled with flowers. It was as though his arrival was blessed by nature itself. His name meant ‘Son of the Spirits’.
He was such a mysterious child.
He loved the Sanctuary, and loved all the animals in the forest. As a new mother, I wondered if there was anything that would ever be more dear to me than my beloved child.
As I held him in my arms, I thought: I must become a person who can stand firmly and be strong enough to protect this child.
Though the residents of the Sanctuary were disappointed that Shuma was not a girl, they still gave their blessings to him. Boys could not become Green Shrine Maidens, but they often played an important role in protecting the Holy Land and its inhabitants. I was sure he would grow up to be someone very important to the protection of the Sanctuary. But at that time, it was my simple wish for him to grow up healthy and pure.
Yunosis was reluctant to leave his son. Of course, since Shuma was his firstborn, I knew that he could not help but love him more than anyone else. Perhaps because of this, Kaya the Hero often looked at us coldly.
The Hero Party also gave their congratulations. I had to be the one who convinced the reluctant White Sage to return to the Eastern Continent. We saw Yunosis off, Shuma and I, with smiles on our faces.
“Your father will one day save the world,”
I told Shuma, though I was sure he did not understand a single word I was saying.
Shuma was no ordinary child. He was very intelligent and grew up solidly with eyes that appeared to understand his surroundings.
His clothes all fit him perfectly, showing his special status within the Sanctuary. However, beyond the clothes was the divine aura that surrounded him, drawing the admiration and attention of all who saw him. Spirits loved him and he appeared to have inherited his father’s talent for White Magic. Even I, the Green Shrine Maiden, was taken aback by how well he integrated with the life of the Holy Land.
It was just… Shuma was just so very curious. Whenever his father, the White Sage returned, he would be beyond thrilled to see him, eagerly waiting for exciting tales from other Continents.
We also went to the sea as a little family of three.
Even as a child, he was fascinated by the vastness of the sea and dreamed of seeing the world beyond the ocean. He had apparently confessed to Yunosis that he wanted to travel across the sea with him. That showed just how much he loved the sea, or perhaps the promise of what lay across the sea.
“Father, I want to go to the Eastern Continent too!”
“Haha… even though there is no place as peaceful and beautiful as this place? If you go across the sea, you will encounter many troubles and conflicts.”
“Still, Father had great adventures, right?”
“Right…”
He looked at Shuma with eyes that held both tenderness and anticipation as the child played with the Sea Spirits. What did the White Sage see when he looked at his son, I wonder?
“No way, are you going to leave your mother all alone here?”
With the two of them talking about all this fantastical adventure stuff, I would start to sulk.
He was the son of the White Sage, after all. Even though he was just a child then, he seemed eager to know just how wide the world is.
Shuma seemed to admire the Adventurer’s Party a lot, especially since they all seemed to have great respect for his father.
It made me happy to see him so intelligent and promising. However, the thought of letting this little child leave this garden world and go out into the world made me anxious. I thought of the waves of the sea, ever pushing and pulling, pushing at my little son and pulling him away with promises of unknown things from the other side.
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At dusk, after Shuma had fallen asleep from a long day of playing. I started muttering to [2] Yunosis about me being left alone once Shuma grew up.
“When that happens, I shall be staying within the Sanctuary permanently. All that adventuring would come to an end very soon.”
“Soon? Truly?”
“I’m not sure why, but I have a feeling. Once everything is over, I shall definitely come back here and spend the rest of my life quietly with you. It would be wonderful to grow old with you and watch over that child… isn’t that true happiness?”
“Yunosis…” despite all of my fears, it looks like Yunosis wished for a peaceful life with me.
I cuddled close to my husband, with our son asleep on my lap. I stroked Shuma’s hair, savouring this precious moment.
I had never been so happy in my life.
The thing I wished for and wanted most in my life was finally within my grasp.
This Sanctuary, with its miniature garden that had always felt so cramped and stifling, suddenly transformed into something cosy and beautiful when all the important people were gathered there.
This was my green world.
“I’m sure everything will be fine. Somehow, it will all be as Yunosis says.”
In the past, I used to wish for an eternity with him. Right then, however, I wanted to grow old with him.
The White Sage was still a person with a person’s fear of being left behind after losing a loved one. I did not want that to happen to him. That is why, I too wish to grow old with him.
After defeating the Demon Lords and completing this final mission, surely his sins would be forgiven and his life will return to normal?
I was not worried at all.
I believed in him. I believe that he would complete his mission under the guidance of the Sanctuary.
However, dark clouds gathered much closer than I expected.
I never thought that the one who would betray the White Sage would be Kaya.
[Gumihou: We know what is happening, but it’s still kind of shocking.]
[1] Adjust text for clarity
[2] Add details
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