“So this is where Lerunda lives…”
Says Alice, sounding very interested, as she looks around.
Alice lives in the capital of the Kingdom of Migha, so the village where I live must look pretty interesting to her.
The village where she lived before she was taken away as the miko was pretty different from this too. This village has people of different races, and lots of other things you can’t see anywhere else.
Miss Lan says this place is becoming special because I, the miko, am here.
I only know the village where I was born, and the places I visited after being abandoned, and Alice is probably the same. She probably only knows a few places.
Alice and I were born from the same parents, and we’re even twins, but we always lived differently. The fact that we’re now together in the same place feels like a miracle.
“Alice, you’re tired from coming here, right? Come to my house.”
I say as I grab her hand, and she grabs mine back. I’m really happy that we get to hold hands like this.
The spirits are interested in Alice, and they approach her to look at her more closely, but Alice can’t see them.
“Alice, the spirits are saying hello to you.”
“Really? Hum, nice to meet you.”
“They’re happy.”
I respond, and Alice smiles too.
Freinet and Wea can make it so people can see them, but the others can’t, so they have to say hello like this.
Apparently, from the spirits’ point of view, Alice and I are pretty similar on a basic level. That’s really nice.
“…Are those monsters?”
“They’re the monsters that formed contracts with me.”
“…They’re so big.”
Alice looks a bit surprised by the gryphons.
It looks like she’s scared by how big they are. Reimar and the others are all family to me, so I hope they can get along, but will they?
I think that sort of thing will come after Alice slowly gets used to the village.
Still, Alice being here in the village makes me feel so happy. Walking around holding hands with her feels like a dream.
This is something that I never thought would happen, before I went to the Kingdom of Migha.
I figured Alice and I would never see each other again. And I still think there was a very good chance that would happen.
But here I am with Alice in this place I love so much. I’m so happy.
“Fufu.”
“You look happy, Lerunda.”
“Yes. I was thinking about how great it is that you’re here.”
“I’m really happy I came to the place where you live too, Lerunda.”
Alice says while smiling.
It’s really nice to be smiling together like this.
◇ ◇ ◇
“Alice, hum, this is my house. Remember Miss Lan? She went to the Kingdom of Migha too, and we live together here.”
“Really…”
Alice steps inside.
Oh, and the knights bring Alice’s stuff inside. They’ll be staying in beast people’s houses, so after they leave Alice’s things, they head there.
“It’s a lovely house.”
“We worked really hard to build it.”
“You did?”
“Yes. There was nothing in this place before we came here. We built lots of things, and it turned into this village.”
“That’s incredible.”
Alice looks all over the place, as she sounds impressed.
We built this village from scratch, because we wanted to have a place where we can live in peace.
It makes me happy to hear Alice call that incredible.
“Thank you! There are lots of places I want to show you, so I’m going to guide you around. We have some time before the spirit festival.”
“Yes. I’ve only been here for a bit, but this already feels mystical. I can’t wait to see more.”
“Mystical?”
“Yes, really mystical, like that big tree I saw for a moment. It has a strange air around it.”
“That’s one of the spirit trees. The leaves I sent you are from that tree.”
“Those… Really… Are there a lot of spirits I can’t see too?”
“Yes.?
We talk while sitting on my bed.
Chatting casually like this makes me kind of excited.
“How tired are you, Alice? Do you want to take a nap? If you can, we can go for a small walk outside.”
Is she tired? I don’t really know.
“I’m not that tired. Let’s go for a walk.”
“Let’s go.”
Alice smiles, and we go outside again.
—Girl and the third spirit festival – Part four
(The miko invites her sister to go for a walk.)
