What about Manato? Could he really say that he would have been different? He didn’t think so. He would have been the same if he had been born here as well. Because he had been raised by two parents who always laughed and smiled, and they had protected him, he had learned to laugh and smile too. Manato could only live as the Manato he was because of his parents who had kept on laughing until right before they’d died, and because of the Canaries.
“E’Lumiaris, Oss’lumi, Edemm’lumi, E’Lumiaris...”
“Lumi na oss’desiz, Lumi na oss’redez, Lumi eua shen qu’aix...”
“Lumi na qu’aix, E’Lumiaris, Enshen lumi, Miras lumi...”
“Lumi na parri, E’Lumiaris, Me’lumi, E’Lumiaris...”
The singing was loud enough to echo far and wide now. The converted were near. They might even have been right outside the walls.
“Wanting to be free, wanting to change the situation, wanting to change themselves.” Yori kept looking into the pit without turning to face Manato and the others. “It might be difficult for them to even think about those things. What can be done to save them? Yori doesn’t know. But if the goblins who got out of here have children, then maybe those kids can live differently from how their parents did. They’ll have more possibilities than simply being born and dying here, at least. So, yeah, Yori wants to get every single goblin out of here that she can.”
“Set them free into the world and leave it to them from there, huh?” Haru murmured. He was hanging his head. It didn’t sound like he was arguing against Yori. It was more like he was questioning himself.
“Hey,” Manato said to Haru. “What do you want to do?”
“I...have no wishes. None...”
“So you don’t want to do anything?”
“That’s not it... Well, no, I guess it is. The truth is, for a long time, I was living without purpose. I didn’t do anything.”
“Why was that?”
“Probably because...there’s nothing a guy like me can do. That’s how I felt.”
“Oh, yeah. You were completely alone all that time, weren’t you?”
“Alone...”
“Yeah. You were, right? I’ve never been alone much myself. Maybe just right after my mom and dad died. It felt kind of weird. But then I met Juntza and the others, and once I had comrades, I didn’t feel that way anymore. When you’re all by yourself, you can’t talk to anyone, and it’s boring. Isn’t that crazy?”
“Well...you’re right about that.”
“But you aren’t alone now. Because I’m gonna stick with you until you tell me to get lost.”
“I’d never tell you to—”
Suddenly, Haru closed his mouth. It was quiet. No singing. The sound that had been echoing so noisily before had stopped. The sun hadn’t set yet, but the walls made the interior of the farm feel awfully dark. The silence pressed down heavily on them. It wasn’t that the source of the singing had passed by them. If anything, it had been at its loudest right before it had stopped. In other words, the converted had been as close to the farm as they had ever gotten. It wasn’t possible to see from where the four intruders were, but they might even have been trying to pass through the gate.
Had the converted just stopped singing? Were they continuing their march in silence now?
Manato listened carefully, but heard no footsteps. There was a wall in the way, so that wasn’t really surprising, but he had a vague intuition that the columns of converts weren’t moving.
“...diance...diance...”
He heard a voice, probably a man’s.
Haru raised his left index finger, and turned his right palm toward Manato, Yori, and Riyo. That probably meant be quiet and don’t move. But there was no need to tell Manato that, since he couldn’t have moved anyway. He didn’t know why, but his body was all tense. He couldn’t breathe properly either. Was he scared? He didn’t dislike being scared. But no, this sensation was different from fear. So then, what was it?
“Radiance... Radiance... Radiance...”
Radiance.
The man’s voice was repeating the word radiance. But he wasn’t just saying it, he was chanting it.
“Radiance... Raaadiance... Radiiiance... Radiance... Radiaaance...”
It almost sounded playful, or mischievous. Nothing like the chanting of the converted.
“Pft... Heh... Heh... Heh...”
He was laughing. The man had stopped chanting, and burst out laughing.
“Ah! Ha! Ha! Ha...! Hee! Hee! Hee! Hee...! Pft, heh, heh...”
The laughter worked its way inside Manato’s body, threatening to pulverize his lungs, heart, and stomach. That was impossible, but it really did feel that way.
“O liiiiight!”
The man started shouting.
“The liiiiiiiiight!”
“Ra-di-ance.”
Other voices followed. A lot more than one or two. Was it all of the converts?
“Radiance.”
“Ra-di-ance.”
“Ra! Di! Ance!”
It wasn’t just voices. The converted were stomping their feet. Chanting radiance, radiance, radiance, as they did.
“Ra! Diii! Ance!”
The man was getting louder. It was easy to pick his voice out from the voices of the other converts.
“Radiance.”
“Ra-di-ance.”
“Ra! Di! Ance!”
“Ra! Diii! Aaaaance!”
There was a tremor. The ground was shaking. No, was it the ground? Or was it the wall?
It was the wall. The walls of the farm were vibrating.
“Radiance.”
“Ra-di-ance.”
“Ra! Di! Ance!”
“Ra! Diii! Aaaaance!”
There were other sounds in addition to the voices. Fairly loud ones at that. Banging. Something was hitting the wall. From the outside, obviously. Manato and the others were inside the farm. No one, and nothing, was hitting the walls from the inside.
“Radiance.”
“Ra-di-ance.”
“Ra! Di! Ance!”
“Ra! Diii! Aaaaance...!”
Someone, or something, was impacting the wall, likely near the gate.
“Radiance.”
“Ra-di-ance.”
“Ra! Di! Ance!”
“Ra! Diii! Aaaaance...!”
With each blow, the wall shook. Dust flew out from between the tightly packed stones.
“Radiance.”
“Ra-di-ance.”
“Ra! Di! Ance!”
“Ra! Diii! Aaaaance...!”
The stones were going to come loose. In fact, they were already starting to.
“We’re getting away from here,” Haru said, gesturing to one of the corners of the wall opposite from the gate and pushing Manato in that direction. “They’re breaching through. The walls aren’t going to hold for long. Hurry and get away!”
Yori and Riyo took off running. Manato ran too. He was lucky not to trip over his own feet. Haru brought up the rear.