“No matter how much time passes, unresolved regrets will eat away at your body like poison.”
In a small city surrounded by countryside—
—Ashley’s grandfather confessed the following to her:
“The jewel known as the goddess tear was the product of an accident. Through trial and error, I worked with my companions to see if there was anything we could make out of the remains of a rare bird, and in the end, we managed to produce that gemstone.”
Ashley’s grandfather, who had been an adventurer, had happened to encounter another goddess not long after creating the gem. “It was an extremely beautiful bird. It had feathers steeped in magical energy and talons that could cut through anything. I had never seen such a beautiful bird in all my life.”
The surprising thing was that the goddess that appeared before them perceived them as its fellows. They soon realized that as long as they carried the goddess tear, the goddess birds approached them without any caution.
After that, they started researching the goddesses.
They became obsessed with the beautiful birds. The more they learned about the goddesses, the more perfect they seemed. They were completely engrossed. And then eventually, they began to fight with each other over the goddess tear.
“After that, we naturally parted ways. No one should have ever possessed such a thing,” her grandfather said, spitting the words out.
That was his first regret.
His second was that he had told his son stories from when he was an adventurer.
“My son also turned out to be just like my companions. He was obsessed with the travel stories I had told him when he was young. It’s all my fault—”
And then, his third regret—
“I wanted to make sure that at least my granddaughter, at least Ashley, didn’t turn out the same way…”
But he hadn’t realized that hope either.
His granddaughter, Ashley, repeatedly ignored her grandfather’s advice. She ran away from home and became an adventurer.
And so her grandfather’s useless regrets had all been eating away at him.
Year after year.
“……”
The last time I saw Ashley was about six months ago now.
We returned the goddess chicks to their nest together, and I haven’t encountered her since—
✦ ✦ ✦
“What do you plan to do after this?”
I asked Ashley this as we were finally returning the chicks to their nest. They had been struggling in their cages since the loss of their artificial mother, the goddess tear.
“What does it look like?” She turned around with a cheerful smile on her face, holding meat in both her hands.
“The chicks aren’t going to be as attached to you as they have been up until now. What do you plan to do from now on?”
“The same as before. I’ll bring them food and look after these little ones until they’re ready to leave the nest. I’m not surprised, but it doesn’t seem like I’ll be able to cuddle up close to them while I’m taking care of them, like I could before…”
She smiled bitterly while looking at the chicks, which were doing their best to intimidate her.
To Ashley, being an adventurer meant helping others.
At least, that’s what she saw reflected in the adventurers in the books that had inspired her when she was young.
Even if it turned out that the characters she looked up to in those beloved stories didn’t live up to her ideals.
That didn’t matter.
The reality she saw before her eyes may have contradicted those earlier dreams.
But that didn’t mean she was going to pretend all the days leading up to this moment never happened.
“After these little ones are able to fly on their own, I think I’ll go back home for a little while.”
“Will you really?”
“I’ve got to apologize to my grandfather.”
For breaking the goddess tear. For ignoring his warnings and leaving home. For saying awful things to him.
She would decide everything else about her future after going home, she told me.
“Ah, that reminds me, Elaina,” she said, after tossing the meat to the bird chicks from a good distance. “You’re a traveler, aren’t you? Do you have any plans to go to my hometown?”
“I don’t know where your home is, though.”
“If you had a map, you could find it.”
“Is there something you want me to go there to do?”
Even as I was asking, I had more or less figured it out.
“If you don’t mind, I’d like you to take my grandfather the pieces of the goddess tear. It seems like I’m going to be tied up here a little longer.”
As she said that, she handed me a parcel. The broken shards of the gemstone were packed inside. Then she handed me a map, and without even waiting to hear my answer, she said briefly, “I’m counting on you.”
It seems like it’s already a done deal in her mind that I’m going to visit.
“Well, if I feel like it, I’ll go, okay? Though I don’t know when that might be—” That’s how I answered her then.
I guess it’s been about half a year, huh?
As promised, I found myself passing by her hometown after half a year had gone by, so I gave the gem fragments to her grandfather and told him the whole story.
“So the last time I saw her, she was doing well. I think she’s probably doing well even now.”
Even though a dark cloud had hung over Ashley after the encounter with her father, ultimately, she had only been upset for a little while. After that, she conducted herself as cheerfully as always, so I was sure that even now, she was getting along just fine.
“Did she say when she might be coming back?”
“No, she didn’t give a specific time frame or anything.”
“All right—”
He must have been concerned for his granddaughter’s welfare.
“Well, I’m sure she’ll come back in time. So, you know, I think it’ll be all right—” I made this flippant comment as I looked out the window, up into the dazzling blue sky.
A bird that was every bit as beautiful as a goddess was flying pleasantly through the air.