I wake up late at night, and look out the window.
The moon looks big in the sky, and since, unlike on Earth, there’s no artificial light, the stars are shining brightly.
“Hn?”
I look down, and see Edinburgh sitting on a rock, looking at the sky too.
I don’t really feel like sleeping, so I go down the stairs.
When she sees me approaching her, a gentle smile forms on her face.
“Arata?”
“Good evening. What are you doing here?”
“Just watching the darkness.”
“Darkness?”
“Yes.”
The sky is filled with stars. It would be dark in Japan, but here, there are a lot of lights.
“I feel like with these many stars, even the darkness itself would be erased.”
“That’s a pretty strange way of looking at it.”
“Apparently I was quite the troublesome girl before I lost my memories.”
She says, sounding a little amused, before turning back to watching the darkness in the sky.
She’s looking at it nostalgically, almost like the night itself is her hometown.
“Maybe losing my memory wasn’t all that bad.”
“Really?”
“Yes. You saw the people that know me, didn’t you? They were clearly fearful and awkward.”
“…”
Yes, from what her pupil, Reina, has told me, Edinburgh had quite the extreme personality before she lost her memory.
I could see that in Xellos’ and Merlin’s expressions too.
But still, it’s unbelievable for me, since I only know her as she is now…
“Arata, maybe I don’t need to get my memories back.”
“Eh?”
“I don’t know why I came to this island, but…”
Edinburgh gets off the rock, and smiles with a bit of confidence.
“I’m satisfied with the current me.”
That signals her goodbye, as she walks away.
I’ve never suffered from amnesia, so I don’t really know what’s going through her head, but it doesn’t feel like she’s lying.
“I guess I’ll go to the hot spring and then back to sleep.”
There’s no ‘time’ on this island, so I have to rely on the sun and what I feel, but I’d say it’s around midnight.
It’s natural for everyone to go to sleep when the sun goes down and wake up when it rises, so I don’t think many people are awake right now.
I enter the changing room of a hot spring anyone can use, and soak in the milky white water.
“Ah…”
A sound slips out of my mouth.
Why are natural hot springs so relaxing?
I stretch my legs, and soak comfortably while my whole body relaxes.
And after some time, when I’m leaning with my back on a rock and completely relaxed, I suddenly hear the door open.
“Eh?”
This is the place where I saw Reina and the others naked the other day.
That was a prank by Wil, but still, that crosses through the back of my mind. Is Reina…
“Nu, there is already something here?”
“Ah… Zephir, right?”
“Yes, Mister Arata.”
Zephir has trimmed white hair, and although I didn’t see it when he was wearing clothes, he has a muscular body that contrasts with his age.
In fact, I’d say those muscles are just about what a guy would call ideal.
First he washes himself with water from a bucket, and then starts wiping his body with a towel.
He has many scars, not just in the front, but on his back too. It really is the body of a seasoned warrior.
And when he’s done, he enters the hot spring too.
“Fuuuuuuuuuu… Ahhhhhhh…”
He relaxes with a big sigh.
And then he looks a little embarrassed, probably because he realizes that I’m watching him.
“Oh, excuse me. It seems my body was more tired than I thought, so it just came out when I relaxed.”
“No no, it’s fine. This hot spring feels really good, doesn’t it?”
“Yes, the best. My voice came out naturally.”
It’s my first time talking to Zephir like this. But it’s not really awkward to chat while relaxing in a hot spring like this. And more importantly, something about him feels approachable and close to me.
Why is that?
He’s the second seat of the seven great mages, and feared to the point where people call him Imperial Lightning.
According to Reina, Xellos, and Merlin, Edinburgh didn’t really get involved when it came to their work and stuff like that, so he was practically their real leader.
There’s no way I’m like him, so why…
“I couldn’t really take the time for baths when I was working, so it has been a while since I relaxed like this…”
“Hahaha, I know how you feel, I used to be like that too.”
It was like that when I worked for a black company in Japan.
Preparing the bath at home felt like a bother too, so I just showered. But even when I would sometimes take a bath as a change of pace, it ended up not feeling as good as I expected, and I would get out soon after.
Maybe it’s because the hot spring is so relaxing, but when I start talking about when I was in Japan, he surprisingly gets on board with it.
“Hou. And you were unable to sleep well because of it?”
“Kind of. I had a day off every seven days, so I just slept a lot then.”
“I see…”
“But since I had to go if there was any trouble, it was never any sort of deep sleep…”
“Yes, I understand. They caused trouble, even if it was in the dead of night.”
He’s next to me now, and we’re having fun chatting.
I guess he’s more of a hard worker than I thought too.
“What do I care about complaints like Merlin stealing a princess’ man?”
“Ah, did Merlin really…”
“And when Xellos took down a group of monsters and burned down a whole town in the process, why was I the one they called…”
“Xellos…”
It’s all coming out. All the trouble the seven great mages caused in the continent.
“Are the seven great mages numbered by who causes the most trouble? No, I just kept having to deal with them.”
“Sounds like a lot of trouble.”
“You understand me, Mister Arata?”
“Yes. As I said before, I had troubles of my own.”
I thought he was a cool and austere old man when I first met him, but looking back, I do get the feeling that he was carrying some sort of sorrow on his back. Like a dark shadow.
It feels like the same thing on the backs of everyone working for a black company.
“Could it be that you were unable to do anything on this island for a week because…”
“…!?”
“No, you don’t have to say. Everyone has a right to rest.”
It’s fine. He’s been dealing with a lot of trouble all by himself.
Let’s let him rest a bit.
“Mister Arata…”
“My way of viewing things has changed a lot since I got to this island.”
Zephir is looking at me like he’s moved.
I get it. Having someone who understands him makes him very happy.
“Let’s rest when we’re tired, and laugh when something funny happens. I’m sure people can be happy when they get to do that.”
“…Are you sure this is all right?”
“Yes. People on this island are just free like that.”
Two guys soaking in hot water under the starry sky.
That’s all there is to it, but for some reason, I feel like I accomplished something.
◇ ◇ ◇
The next day, Reina and I leave to go thank Sakuya.
Snow is sleeping, and shows no sign of waking up, so it’s just the two of us, but we bump into Zephir and Edinburgh.
“Mu, Ara…”
“Oh, Mister Arata!”
“Ah?”
Zephir’s stern expression from the day before is completely gone, and now he has a friendly smile on his face.
Edinburgh was about to speak, but she’s taken aback.
“Are you going out for a walk?”
“Yes. Just taking it easy while we go thank Sakuya.”
“Oh, very good! We were also going to see Sakuya, so how about we go together?”
“All right.”
I guess we’ve sort of come to an understanding after talking last night.
There’s no wall between us anymore, and the air around us is like that of old friends.
“What happened?”
Reina is also frozen while looking at us smile to each other, but I’m sure she’d also understand if she heard about his troubles.
After all, she also had similar troubles of her own.
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“I guess I’ll go to the offspring and then back to sleep.”
Did you mean hotspring?