“As a matter of fact, we’ve known the whereabouts of the goddesses for quite some time now.”
According to Ashley’s father, who had been adventuring for many years, the creatures known as goddesses were not some sort of legendary beasts. Rather, they were totally normal living, breathing animals.
However, perhaps because they had such beautiful forms and special bodies, they were extremely rare and also very wary, and they almost never appeared before humans.
“There are many people who will tell you that goddesses are legendary creatures or whatever, but that’s a mistake. Goddesses definitely exist.”
Ashley’s father pulled a blue feather out from his pocket. The glistening feather was steeped in magical energy. I approached to take a closer look, and just being near the feather made me feel like power was surging through my body.
“This feather is endowed with healing properties, and just holding it makes healing from any injury much faster. Ever since I started carrying it with me, I’ve had basically no scrapes or bruises.”
“I know about that!”
This reunion with her father had Ashley understandably brimming with more energy than usual. From her own pocket, she pulled out the radiant dark blue gemstone.
“I’ve always believed they were real,” she said, clutching the jewel to her chest.
“…That’s—” Her father gasped. The radiance shining out from the gemstone was fainter than the light of the feather he possessed, but it was still undeniably captivating.
“Ashley, that stone, where on earth did you…?”
“I brought it with me from home!”
As she said that, Ashley handed the stone to her father, almost pressing it into his hands.
“…Are you sure I can have this?” Her father looked a little bewildered after she handed it over to him.
“What are you talking about? It was yours to begin with, wasn’t it? I’ve been carrying it with me this whole time so that I could give it to you if I ever saw you, Dad. So I’m giving it back.” She smiled.
“Oh…” Her father ran his thumb over the gemstone in his hand, as if admiring the texture of it. He gazed admiringly at its dark glow. “Thank you, Ashley.”
Then he patted her head.
“Oh, come on…don’t do that in front of my friend… She’s gonna laugh at me.” She blushed like any girl her age would.
They weren’t really doing anything that was worth laughing at, but it was just a little bit funny to see her trying to act grown up in front of her father, and I ended up chuckling quietly.
It was a reunion between a father and his daughter after several years.
That’s a pretty heartwarming scene, isn’t it?
“But you really helped me out by bringing this to me, Ashley. Now our plans can go ahead smoothly, starting tomorrow.”
“…Huh? What are you talking about?” Ashley cocked her head.
Her father said, “The reason I was originally searching for an archer and a mage to join us was because our strategy for tomorrow is going to require some forceful action.”
“Forceful action?”
What does that mean?
I cocked my head just like Ashley.
“The goddesses are not only highly wary, they’re wild and ferocious birds—in order to capture them, we’ll have to brave great danger. But we can’t attack too forcefully, or we might wound the goddesses. It’s very difficult to find the right balance.”
“…Hmm.”
According to him, the goddesses were very temperamental and delicate creatures, and apparently, even for how ferocious they were, they sometimes died from the stress of being captured.
“That’s what happened the last time we caught one. My partners and I caught one in a net, but while we were transporting it, it burned itself with its own fiery breath and died on us.”
In the end, they’d hardly been able to harvest any claws or feathers. In fact, the feather he’d shown us earlier was the only one they’d been able to recover.
“And you didn’t manage to get any goddess tears either?” I asked, but if the bird had been engulfed in flames, then I didn’t suppose any tears had been left behind anyway.
He shook his head like that was a given.
“Of course we didn’t get any.” Then he said, “By the way, Miss Witch, the goddess tears aren’t actually jewels produced when the goddesses cry, you know?”
“Hmm?”
Is that so?
“There’s no way tears would turn into such beautiful gems, is there?” Shaking his head, he kindly and thoroughly explained it to me in my ignorance.
According to him, the goddess tears were condensed balls of the goddesses’ very power itself.
“These gemstones were made by mages and adventurers back in our parents’ generation, you see, and they have the effect of letting you feign the presence of a goddess.”
“Feign their presence?”
“To put it simply, just by possessing one of these, the goddesses mistake you for one of their own and come to you. I’m sure that last time we caught one, if we’d had one of these, it never would have burned itself with its own flames.”
If that was true, then the fact that Ashley had the tear must have been the very definition of good news to this man who was hunting the goddesses.
At that juncture, I suddenly recalled how attached the baby birds had become to her.
“……”
But I wonder if Ashley is aware of the effects of possessing a goddess tear?
“Whoa… Who knew it had an effect like that…?”
She clapped her hands together, exclaiming how amazing that was.
Right, it seems like she didn’t know.
“Truly, thank you, Ashley. Thanks to you, my dearest wish is granted—”
Overcome with emotion, Ashley’s father pulled her into a hug.
He had been searching for the goddesses for a long time before Ashley set out on her journey. Now that dream was close at hand, and what’s more, the one who had made it possible was his own daughter, who had followed in his footsteps and become an adventurer, too.
For Ashley’s father, this had to be the happiest day of his life.
And probably for Ashley as well.
“…Yeah.”
She was no longer complaining about being embarrassed.
She was just hugging her father as tight as she could. “Let’s do our best tomorrow,” she answered him.
By the way, I, the traveler, was unable to read the mood even at a time like that.
“Where and when should we meet up tomorrow?”
From the sidelines, I said that if we were getting up early, I wanted to hustle back to the inn and get some sleep.
With a bitter smile, Ashley’s father, who had forgotten all about everyone else in the world, let go of Ashley and answered me. “There’s not any real need to get up early. The goddess’s nest isn’t too far.”
“Oh, it’s not?”
“No, there’s a nest in a spot about two hours away from here by horse—”
He went on to say that we should meet up in front of their secret base around midday.
When I asked him where their secret base was, he pulled out a map of the city and circled it. It was a storehouse right near the restaurant where we were currently talking. Apparently, he was living there for the time being, adventuring with his buddies.
When I asked him where the goddesses were, he warned me half-jokingly as he marked a spot on the map, “Don’t go getting a head start on us, now.”
“…Gotcha.”
I nodded.
“……Uh.”
Then Ashley, after letting out a single noise of confusion, clamped her mouth shut.
It became clear at that point that Ashley had the worst luck.
The spot her father had circled was in the mountains.
It was the same place Ashley had been visiting so frequently.
The home of the little baby birds.