Chapter 516:
Phantoms of Yore
“WOW! IT REALLY is hard as a rock!”
For all his trepidation earlier…Zinal was now eagerly petting dorya heads left and right. Though he had frozen up awkwardly when the first dorya presented its head, one pat and he seemed to be hooked. He petted their heads over and over, reveling in their rock-hard texture.
“Don’t pet them too much, or they’ll get angry,” I warned him.
“Will they?” Zinal froze, mid-pat. He looked at the dorya and saw it was leaning away. “Urk! It’s tired of it?”
Zinal’s ego had taken a blow. I wouldn’t say the dorya was tired, more like annoyed.
“That guy doesn’t understand boundaries,” Fische said as he petted another dorya. He was using a gentler petting style, which the dorya seemed to like. I watched as the giant mole nuzzled against him…and boy, was it precious.
“I think they like you, Fische,” my father said.
This seemed to make Fische happy. It reminded me of how happy he’d been when he and Ciel had forged a bond. Maybe he had a knack for monster friendships.
“Oh, by the way, can I ask you two a question?” Fische asked me and my father.
“Sure, what?”
“Why are you going to Kashime?”
My father fell silent.
“The fortune-teller who saved my life wanted me to go to the town next to the capital, so I thought I would,” I explained.
Fische gave me a strange look. Well, of course he thought it was weird. I hadn’t given it much thought before, but thinking about it now, it was a rather odd request the fortune-teller had made. She didn’t say there was anything she wanted me to do when I was there, either; she just said that I should go. And she even said it was okay if I didn’t go.
“Well, if you’re talking towns neighboring the royal capital, there’s also Kashim and Kashis. So why Kashime?”
“Because my father told me about the Forest of Light in the town of Kashime…that made me want to check it out.”
“Huh? Wait, she told you just to go to a town near the capital but didn’t specify which one?” Zinal asked.
When I nodded in reply, Zinal and Fische both gave me peculiar looks. I guess it really was a strange quest. Why did that never occur to me before? Hmmm…
“But the Forest of Light, huh…”
I wasn’t sure why, but the way Fische said the words made it sound like he didn’t feel very good about it. Was there something unpleasant in the Forest of Light?
“That place… Well, it’s very strange.” Zinal seemed to feel the same way about it as Fische.
I looked at my father to find him staring harshly at Fische and Zinal.
“What’s wrong? Is the church involved somehow?” he asked them.
The two shook their heads. “No, the church in the Forest of Light isn’t connected with any of the other churches. We’ve looked into it plenty of times, and not even the clergy can set foot in the church in the Forest of Light. And it’s not like they haven’t tried!”
It’s a church, yet no clergy can enter… Who in the world built that church? And how did they make it so clergy couldn’t enter the forest?
“Pardon my asking, but is a summoning circle keeping them out of the church?” I inquired.
If it was a summoning circle, maybe we should stay away. If this journey had taught me one thing, it was that summoning circles were extremely dangerous, and I never wanted to approach one if I could avoid it.
“It’s a mystery,” Zinal answered. “The church and the royal family looked into it, but they came up with nothing.”
They came up with nothing?
“Wasn’t there anything left behind in the royal records?” my father asked. “Surely you boys looked into that.”
Zinal smiled innocently and shrugged. So they had read the royal records. Impressive.
“Sorry, but our search came up dry. Somebody did a little more digging for us, but the very beginning of the royal records start with ‘In the Forest of Light, there is a church.’ Who built it and for what reason—everything is a mystery.”
The church already existed before the royal family started keeping records? So does that mean the church was there before this kingdom was founded? Wait a minute… How was this kingdom founded?
“There are phantoms in the church in the Forest of Light,” Zinal said.
“Huh?!”
“What?”
My father and I both raised our eyebrows at him. Something told me we had just heard a very odd statement.
“I said, phantoms,” Zinal’s voice hit my ear again.
“Phantoms? So you mean monsters?” my father asked.
Zinal looked at him. “No, I don’t mean that. Now, I don’t want to scare you, but one of our buddies gathered a lot of intel about the church in the Forest of Light. And he found an ancient text that said, In the church in the Forest of Light, there lives an ancient phantom. Those who are summoned there are special. They must not be summoned… Run away.”
So there’s an ancient phantom and we should run away… Maybe we really shouldn’t go there after all?
“Well, I heard the texts say, The chosen one may enter just once and have any wish granted,” my father said.
Zinal nodded. “Yeah, every text we’ve read on it says something like that. The text that says you should run away isn’t from the same kind of source. But when we looked into who wrote it, we found out they might have been in the church.”
Words from a member of the church. Surely they wrote those words based on personal experience… So does that mean there really is an ancient phantom in the church?
From the way my father had fallen deep into thought, he seemed to think we shouldn’t rule out the possibility.
“…give me.”
Huh? Wait a minute…
I glanced nervously around.
I’m sure I just heard a voice. Was it just my imagination? I think…the voice sounded familiar. Who was it again?
“What’s wrong, Ivy?”
I glanced in the direction of the voice to see my father giving me a strange look. Zinal and Fische were also raising their eyebrows over my behavior. From the way they were acting, I realized that only I could hear that voice.
Maybe it was all in my head? But…that voice, I could’ve sworn I’ve heard it…a very long time ago…
“Ivy, what’s going on?”
My father’s worried voice jolted me back to the present.
“I’m fine. I just…”
I can’t tell them I heard a voice… That’d make them worried. And apparently, there was no voice anyway. Oh, wait, maybe I remembered the voice instead of hearing it?
“I was just remembering something.”
“Remembering what?”
“Well, it was sort of only half a memory, so I didn’t quite understand it, but it got me a little lost in thought. I’m okay now.”
“Okay. Well, if there’s something on your mind, don’t hesitate to speak up.”
“Thanks.”
That voice… Hmm, I just can’t remember. It said “give me,” right? Give me what?
“…give me.”
“Huh? Forgive you for what, Ivy?” Fische asked.
My eyes darted from the ground up to him. Surprised by my sudden reaction, Fische scooted back a little. “What’s wrong?”
“Um, nothing. Sorry.”
Maybe the voice was saying “forgive me.” But who was asking me to forgive them? Something important…important? Oh! “Forgive me, this is all I’m able to do for you.” The fortune-teller said that. That’s right. Now I remember. That was what she said when I looked inside the magic bag. Maybe thinking of the fortune-teller brought her words back to the surface.
“Ivy?”
My father had concerned wrinkles in his brow. I was probably acting incredibly suspicious.
“I’m sorry, I was just thinking about the fortune-teller and suddenly remembered a lot of stuff.”
“Ohh, so that’s it.” My father smiled in relief.
Thank goodness I managed to remember. Otherwise, it would have been on my mind forever.