If someone could only know of the scent of a rare flower through a perfume, it was human of them to be curious as to what the real thing smelled like. One noble lady from a very important aristocratic family spent a hefty chunk of money to import the flower from another continent. The flower that arrived had the features she’d heard of, but it gave off a horrid smell that was hard to endure. His brother’s travelogues had only described the appearance of the flower, so there was no way Quartus could’ve known, but the lady herself was apparently shocked to her core.
“It smelled terrible? My brother never said anything of the sort...”
After the rancid flower was delivered to her, the noble lady hadn’t lost hope, but she did think it was strange. She went as far as to get her hands on the travelogues and researched everything she could about the younger brother—or rather, she had other people research it for her. This noble lady had no investigation skills. She then reached a certain conclusion: there was another reason his fragrances were “fake.”
“Your brother didn’t know either,” I said. “He only knew what the flower looked like.”
“Why? My brother’s nose worked fine. He didn’t describe the smell, but he wrote in detail about the smell of the ocean as he sailed across it.”
“He only knew the smell of the ocean. He never traveled the world. After he left home, he spent his days working in a port town.”
In his older brother’s twilight years, Quartus’s brother appeared before him and left him his travelogues, which were filled with nothing but lies. He had just made it seem like he himself had experienced the stories he’d heard from others. Of course, his travelogues were manufactured tales.
Why had he lied? No one knew his true intentions, but his older brother seemed to understand.
“That kid... My younger brother had always been a show-off since a young age. He’d say he’d gotten in a fight and won or that he’d found a gemstone on the street—he’d always tell such tall tales. He was probably scamming people in that port town, wasn’t he?”
“No, not at all. He seemed to be working at a trading company, managing their books. I’ve heard that there were tons of cargo from ships every day, so it was really hard work.”
These brothers had led similar lives. They both battled with paperwork, and the younger made fake travelogues while the older made fake fragrances.
Eleanora said that the fake scents made based on fake stories were much more memorable than the real thing. Even though I didn’t care about this topic, she’d mentioned that enough that it was burned into my memory.
“I wished to have lived like my brother, relaxing like a cat, but it seems I was mistaken,” the man said. “The truth is...I wanted to travel the world with him.”
That was a difficult regret to resolve. Becoming a cat was probably easier.
I wanted to tell him of his success, so I couldn’t help myself, but perhaps I shouldn’t have said anything. I wasn’t sure what to say to him, and I stood there silent. Suddenly, a voice came from below.
“I was mistaken too. I thought I wanted to live like the cats who mooched off fishermen for fish, but that was misguided.”
Huh? Who’s talking? I scanned the area, looking for the owner of the voice I couldn’t see, but all I saw was a calico. You don’t talk, do you, kitty? As I stared at the cat, his ears fell off. In the blink of an eye, the cat grew larger and changed into a human. He became a middle-aged man who looked similar to Quartus.
“I wanted to travel the world with you too,” he said.
Wait. So the cat-eared man is the older brother, and the former cat is the younger brother? The man and the cat really were related?
I seemed to be the only one who was surprised that the cat turned into a human. I would’ve expected him to be shocked that the cat he’d known was his younger brother, but the siblings shared no words of reunion and walked off together.
“We can explore the Kingdom of Twilight. It’s rarer than any hidden land.”
“That’s true. I can write the travelogues, and you can look at those to make your perfumes.”
“I don’t need your manufactured travelogues since I’ll be seeing the real thing.”
“This time my logs will be just as real as your scents.”
The similar-looking siblings then stepped out into the dim expanse. Though the older brother had been so afraid of the sunlight, he stood in it with his brother as they both turned into sand and disappeared.
“They’re gone... Why?” I asked.
“Their regrets from when they were alive are gone. It’s just like the painter who disappeared earlier. They’re satisfied...even though morning hasn’t come yet.”
This was perhaps an everyday occurrence in the Kingdom of Twilight, but they hadn’t been the same as the painter. I wasn’t happy with the way the hero had described them as being “satisfied.”
“But they haven’t traveled the world together yet!”
“Their wish was probably to take a step into an unknown world together...”
I see. I guess if their regrets were resolved at the same time, I should probably be happy about that. I was a bit sad to be parting with the impressive people I’d just met, and I voiced the strongest feeling in my heart.
“The calico...was a middle-aged man.”
“I’ve been saying it this whole time. The calico was the younger brother.”
I mean, I’d never think that a man with cat ears and a sweet, adorable calico were blood-related siblings. I regretted not petting the calico before he turned back into a human.
“Let’s hurry,” the hero said. “It’s before daybreak. Let’s take back our morning.”
“Okay...”
The painter and the cat siblings both thought of this world as experiencing a perpetual sunset. Even after seeing the reality of the Kingdom of Twilight, I didn’t want to give up on being alive again. We had been on our way out of the settlement to look for some clues.
I took a step onto the earth lit by the light of dawn.