The woman said miss Alice.
Alice is the name of my sister, and it’s a name I’ve heard many, many times in the village where I grew up.
This person knows about my sister, but I don’t remember ever seeing her in the village. This means she must have met her in the place where they took her.
I don’t really know where she was taken, so I also don’t know where this person came from.
“What will you do… I am?”
I ask while looking at her, and the way she answers makes me think she is choosing her words carefully.
“I won’t do anything at all, but if that is the case, I would like to stay here no matter what.”
“Why?”
She says she wants to stay here if I really am her sister. I wonder why.
“…I think you might be the miko. I have been researching miko, and because of this, I want to stay by your side.”
“You might, be wrong.”
I do think I might be the miko, but I don’t actually know.
“That’s fine. I am still interested in you.”
She says while looking me in the eyes and smiling.
Apparently she is interested in me. I feel like she is not a bad person.
“Really…”
“Yes.”
“She is, my sister.”
“I knew it!”
“I’m, Lerunda.”
“Miss Lerunda!”
She says while smiling, but being called miss Lerunda doesn’t feel right to me.
“Lerunda. No miss.”
“But…”
“I don’t know, if I’m the miko.
I have no way of knowing if I really am the miko. I was lucky enough to survive outside the village by myself, get along with gryphons, and come to this beast people village, but… Am I really such a being?
I don’t like to be called miss anyway. It feels distant and being friendly is better.
“…Alright, Lerunda it is.”
“Yes!”
Hearing her say my name makes me happy somehow.
“It’s a secret, that I might be, the miko.”
“Secret?”
“Yes. Maybe, I’m not.”
I don’t want to speak like I am the miko just because I might be. Also, I feel like a lot of things will change if I am such a being, and I don’t want that.
“Name.”
“Name?”
“Can you tell, your name?”
“Ah. I’m sorry, I didn’t introduce myself. My name is Landouno Stoffer. Landouno is my first name, Stoffer is my family name.”
“Then, miss Lan?”
“That’s fine.”
Says the woman… Miss Lan, as she smiles gracefully.
“Lan, why were you, alone in the forest?”
Her name is long. A long time ago, the old man said that only important people have family names. Why was an important person alone in the forest?
Something very bad must have happened for her to collapse in the forest.
Miss Lan is wearing a high quality robe, that looks like it would be expensive if she sold it, but it’s covered in dirt. She looks haggard, and has a white cloth wrapped around her arm, probably because she got hurt.
Miss Lan’s violet hair reaches her shoulders, and her clear blue eyes remind me of the sky.
“I was told I was banished from the capital and Agatha.”
“Banished? Oh no! But what is, Agatha?”
I know more or less what the capital is, it’s where the king lives. But what is Agatha?
“Agatha is the city where the big temple is. I worked there as the miko’s educator, but it did not go well. In the end, there was a lot of thunder and drought, and the country banished me because they fear it’s divine punishment brought on by the miko.”
“Really…?”
I guess she was expelled because my sister’s education was not going well and something bad happened.
“But even if I did displease her by telling her over and over again to study, I don’t think what happened was divine punishment. If there is such a thing as divine punishment, I should be near death.”
Miss Lan talks about it casually, but if there really is such a thing as divine punishment, it’s scary. If upsetting the miko causes things like that to happen, I may do something that causes something like that to happen to someone. Assuming I’m the miko of course.
“Lerunda, when I was expelled from the capital and Agatha, I decided it was best to leave the country altogether, but not before visiting the village where the miko grew up.”
The village where I was born and raised.
They treated my sister like she was the most important person in the world, and offered her their crops.
I remember merchants that stopped there being surprised by how well-off that remote village was.
Apparently, it was very easy to grow crops there, and when the villagers secured enough for themselves, they would make offerings to my sister. One time I peeked at this when it was happening, but I was angrily told to go away.
The villagers hated me, and would say I wasn’t worthy of being my sister’s sister. My parents would treat only her well, and I just kept on surviving somehow.
When I came to this village, I started having feelings like wanting to do things, but that never happened where I was born.
I never had that freedom. To me, the village where I was born was everything there was, and I never even thought about leaving. I remember the old man very well, but I don’t really remember anyone else.
“I discovered that their crops were ruined by bugs.”
“Eh?”
“Is that surprising?”
“The place, where I was?”
I don’t remember anything like that ever happening. In fact, if their lives ever became difficult due to crop failure, I’m sure they would have killed me right away to save food.
“I see. So that never happened when you were there?”
“No.”
“Fufu, I knew it. I really think miss Alice is not the miko.”
Miss Lan seems happy about what I said.
“The miko is someone loved by god, and God won’t allow the land where the miko lives to become infertile.”
“What, is that?”
“It’s a verse left in the church. The last time a miko appeared in this world was over a hundred years ago, so we don’t have a lot of information about miko, but there are things concerning miko left.
As I researched, I learned that the land the miko loves will never become barren, even if the miko is away. As long as that land is loved, it will be blessed, crops will be easy to grow, and its environment will be wonderful.
The miko’s influence has a wide area of effect, and at the very least, the miko’s country will never suffer due to bad weather or anything. That goes for the whole country.”
“…I see.”
The miko is a much, much bigger being than I thought. I’m a little surprised as I listen.
“The higher-ups say that the lightning was divine punishment brought on by the miko’s anger, but I don’t think that is correct. If there was divine punishment, surely I would be the first one to receive it.
By the way Lerunda, the environment in this village is very nice, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“And the crops are growing like they did in the village where you were born?”
“Yes.”
“Then surely, the village where you grew up had a good environment because you were there, and now this village is receiving that influence. I really think you are the miko.”
Says miss Lan with a smile.
“Really…”
“Yes.”
“…You know, a lot about miko. Teach me?”
“Yes! Of course, no problem! But let’s leave that for later, the beast people’s faces are scaring me…”
I look towards Gaius and the others and see them staring this way.
“By the way, that gryphon that carried me halfway here and this sky horse…”
“I made, a contract.”
“Wow, amazing.”
Miss Lan looks at Scifo with a sparkle in her eyes, and I gesture towards Gaius and mister Athos.
“Are you alright Lerunda?”
“Yes.”
Gaius asks right away, and I answer.
Next to us, mister Athos and miss Lan start talking. She is asking him if she can stay in this village, and mister Athos looks serious.
But after asking many, many times, he allows her to stay here, but with certain conditions attached.
—Girl and woman – Part two
(The girl that is probably the miko hears about miko from the woman.)
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I wonder when the princess will show up. Seems likely that we’ll have an entirely new country with the beastman village as capital at this rate. I don’t think Lerunda is the type to want revenge against her old country, her old village, or even her old family – but the gods choose the miko, and they might be very offended at having such an awful person pretending to be the miko.
Oh on that note maybe she will create a country where beast people are considered equals?
Seeing as there was mention of idols (or was it statues?) breaking in the temple, the gods likely are angry at the church.
And even if the gods do not punish the country, the loss of the miko’s blessing will arleady cause quite some damage. Even if it isn’t enough to cause its ruin, it’ll definitely cause plenty of damage, as the people are used to its effect.
it can be fine because she would have a lot of things to teach. it’s an important skill. She may even know about pratical magic (tho she didn’t seem to have used it while traveling in the forest ?)
but still, she’s a danger.