We’d brought Queen Belletochka with us to the port city to board Emilia’s vessel, and needless to say, we were headed for Xeoral, the island in the sky.
“I can’t believe what happened in the royal capital,” the prince said, gazing out at the horizon from the ship’s deck. I’d been giving him a full account of the events that’d unfolded to get me to this point. “I see now why you skipped several steps and rushed to Relirex, Lady Mary.”
“It wasn’t really like that. I was just swept up by Emilia’s energy,” I replied. “I hadn’t been thinking very far ahead, Your Highness. I deeply apologize for my recklessness.” I knew that trying to come up with excuses always worked against me, so I simply gave him the unvarnished truth.
“Now, now, I’ve no doubt you were making considerations in the moment,” Magiluka said, trying to help me save face—given my track record, it was anyone’s guess whether it’d work out in my favor, of course. “We should discuss where to go from here.”
When I’d reached the port city earlier, Lady Elizabeth, the prince, and the rest of my friends had been lying in wait at Emilia’s villa—or, more accurately, one might say they were simply just present. Lady Elizabeth had used the more front-door route (relatively speaking) to bring the prince to Relirex, and she’d intended to bring me into Relirex along with him, but Emilia had swooped in to take me away before she could. As for why she and my friends were here to meet us, I wasn’t sure if Lady Elizabeth had simply predicted what would happen and that we would be back at the villa eventually or if it had truly just been a coincidence...but in any case, I’d now managed to regroup with my friends.
Lady Elizabeth had seemed surprised and moved to see Queen Belletochka outside...but as soon as she heard of the battle between the hero and the Dark Lord, she sighed and her mood soured. She’d reluctantly headed for the royal capital, likely to check on the damages and to clean up the aftermath—I’d only caught a few glimpses of the fight, and it’d been more than enough to tell me that the surrounding area was destroyed. It seemed like the devastation was all just concentrated on buildings and such, but I couldn’t be sure...
I just hope there weren’t any nearby demons who got dragged into that mess and injured or anything.
In between all the complaining she did about the news before she’d decided whether or not to leave, Lady Elizabeth had shown clear signs of worry for the Dark Lord, which I’d thought was rather wholesome. Less endearing to me, however, was the way I felt like she was perhaps overprotective of Queen Belletochka. It took Emilia reassuring her that I was with the queen and could keep her safe before she begrudgingly left to take care of the capital. Frankly, that made me question a few things.
Setting all that aside, I was happy Lady Elizabeth had given me the chance to reunite with the prince, Magiluka, Safina, and Sacher. We were now all together on Emilia’s vessel in search of the fabled land.
“Right,” the prince agreed. “Queen Belletochka claimed that we had to aim for a certain region of water to head for Xeoral, correct?”
“We must head to the domain of the spirit sea,” Sita said solemnly. “Much like the domain of the spirit tree, the stretch of sea in question is controlled by a spirit. Some texts speak of the spirit sea as a ship graveyard, but I haven’t done enough research to understand how it is exactly that ships are sinking...”
“How ominous,” Safina said. “I wonder if the spirit’s doing something to these ships.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised in the least,” I agreed, recalling past experiences. “We are talking about a spirit, after all.”
I’d meant to say so in a lighthearted way, but everyone grimaced and remained painfully silent.
“Uh, anyone wanna do me a favor and tell me I’m wrong? Ha ha...” My own sense of humor had sent me into an anxious spiral. “Okay, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said it like that.”
Magiluka clapped her hands together like she’d come up with a solution. “Ah, but we’ve got elves like Sita with us who can communicate well with spirits. Maybe we can somehow negotiate our way in.”
“Hmm... I’m not sure,” Sita replied. “I’ve never met the spirit there, so I can’t be certain.”
“Are there some unique circumstances we need to worry about?” I asked, tilting my head to one side.
“I’m less worried about the spirit itself and more about the actual conditions of communication,” Sita said, tilting her head along with me. “We elves can communicate with the spirit tree because we can communicate with tree spirits. Meanwhile, the spirit sea is the domain of a water spirit, which probably communicates with a species besides ours. In so many words, water spirits have their own rules, and we essentially don’t have a relation to them.”
“I see... But do we know anyone who can contact the spirit sea, then?”
“Um... Maybe Queen Belletochka?”
As everyone watched us converse, the wind carried the sound of a lute to the ship’s deck, and we all turned to face the bow where it’d come from.
“Xeoral is an island.
“A legendary land in the sky.
“Isolated from this world, rich with mana,
“It’s a paradise up high.
“It drifts to and fro,
“In the sky above the sea,
“Wandering places man will never know.
“Yet the spirits of the sea and the mermaids will sing,
“Weaving its legends for those listening.”
Her clear, beautiful voice flowed sublimely into my ears, with neither wind nor breeze to impede it. Emilia and Noa had been begging the queen to sing, and while I wasn’t sure if she’d been listening to our conversation, her timing was impeccable.
“Well, what do you think of that, Lady Mary?” Magiluka asked.
However, I was too entranced to understand the point of her question, so I ended up commenting, “She’s truly a songstress, isn’t she? Not only is her voice beautiful, she herself is as lovely as a painting.”
“My lady, I think Lady Magiluka is pointing out the contents of the song,” Tutte whispered behind me.
“Huh?! R-Right...” I began to recover from my rapture at the queen’s stunning voice. “If we assume the ‘spirits of the sea’ in the song are like the spirit in the spirit sea, I think we can surmise the mermaids they sing with are the water spirits’ elves, so to speak.”
“Correct! ♪” the queen replied in her singsong voice as she strummed her lute. “We are headed for the home of the mermaids. We must speak with them to set foot in the spirit sea’s domain. ♪”
“Uh, this sort of feels like I’m in a musical.”
“Muse? Ickle? ♪”
“Oh, it’s nothing. I’d just appreciate it if you talked normally instead of singing everything you say.”
“Oops, I’m sorry. Once I got started singing, I just didn’t think to stop.”
I wondered if she was afflicted with an occupational disease of sorts where force of habit made her sing everything instead of going back to her usual voice. I’m no bard, so it’s not like I’d know... No sense thinking too hard about it.
“In any case, I may have been prepared for the possibility, but I was hoping we wouldn’t have to go negotiating again,” I said. “I wonder what kind of difficulties we’ll be tasked with this time.”
I switched gears and recalled my time with the spirit tree as I slumped my shoulders with exhaustion and heaved a loud sigh. Tutte and Safina cracked awkward smiles knowing the trial the spirit tree had put me through, but this was Emilia’s first time hearing about any such thing, and she sounded excited.