“But…I have to go. See you later!”
No sooner did Lilty say this than she sprinted past him and vanished. A bit taken aback, Almark watched the lamp’s wavering light disappear down the road.
Lilty—whose parents were musicians with the Royal Conservatory in the Foretta Kingdom, a large country in the central plains—was known for being the most skittish girl in Almark’s class. She flinched whenever Tohrk raised his voice and refused to walk down the path back to the dorms alone if it was too dark. Her timidness made Almark remember her very quickly, even in the short time since he transferred in.
So it was hard to imagine a scaredy-cat like Lilty going into the woods alone after dark with only a lantern. Something serious must have driven her to do this. Almark glanced at the road to the dorm, his mind filling with images of the dinner table lined with warm food. He then turned around and looked at the road leading to the woods and thought of Lilty running in there all alone with just a small lantern.
…I mean, I can’t not help after seeing her.
Sighing, Almark followed Lilty.
The woods beyond the schoolhouse served as a playground and training area for the students. It had plenty of clearings and a small stream, making it ideal for children to play in. Further in, the terrain became rougher, with rocky crags and a waterfall, and there was an abundance of valuable herbs used for making medicinal concoctions in healing arts class.
The woods made up a significant part of the institute’s premises, extending all the way to the intermediate and advanced dorms. The area wasn’t without dangers; there were vague rumors about monsters or sealed ruins within the deepest parts of the woods, but none of the elementary students had encountered anything of that sort.
Almark himself was curious about the woods, although he was too preoccupied with his studies and training to check it out. He had only gone in a handful of times to gather herbs for healing arts class.
But for the students who had spent time there since their first year at the institute, this place was like their own backyard. They knew their way around its winding paths. Each student had their own favorite spot in the shade, a rock formation that offered good visibility, or a forest clearing only they knew about. Almark often saw Nelson and Morgan hurry to the woods right after class to play with their friends.
However, as beloved and familiar as it was to many students, the forest became completely different come nightfall. The student body was strictly forbidden from entering after dark.
“Lilty!” Almark called out as he caught up to her.
Lilty turned around and looked at him with tears in her eyes.
“It’s dangerous out here alone,” Almark said. “I’ll come with you.”
For a moment, Lilty’s face lit up, but then her expression clouded over again.
“I can’t ask you to do that…” Lilty shook her head. “You haven’t had dinner yet, right?”
“Miss Maya probably cleaned everything up by now. I’ll join you,” Almark insisted, smiling so as not to seem like he was going out of his way. “But in exchange, tell me why you have to go into the woods when it’s this late.”
“Huh? Well, um, that’s because…” Lilty hesitated for a moment. But looking into the dark forest, her courage to go in alone must have faltered. “…I lost something in there.”
“What was it?”
“A handkerchief…from my parents.”
“A handkerchief?” Almark repeated, a bit baffled.
Lilty hung her head sheepishly.
“I mean, I can understand that if you got it from your parents, it must mean a lot to you. But…why does it have to be today?” Almark asked, glancing up at the starry night sky. “The woods are dangerous after dark. We can go tomorrow if you’d like.”
“…”
Lilty said something, but her voice was too meek for Almark to hear, even with his keen hearing.
“Hm?”
Lilty’s voice was especially quiet, and when teachers asked her questions during class, they rarely were able to hear her answers. Some would frown and ask “What?”, which made Lilty go very red, and her voice would get even quieter. That was when her roommate, Norish, often stepped in to repeat whatever she’d said.
But even with all that in mind, Lilty’s voice was unusually soft right now.
“Sorry,” said Almark.
Norish wasn’t there to speak for Lilty this time.
Almark held up a finger. “I couldn’t hear you. Could you say that one more time?”
He brought his ear closer to Lilty. This just made her blush and pull away from him bashfully.
“…eep,” she muttered, looking the other way.
Almark still couldn’t hear what she’d said.
“Are you scared?”
He guessed that she’d just let out a small yelp, but Lilty shook her head, still blushing.
“Was that not it? Sorry, I’ll listen really close this time, so could you say it again?”
“…Can’t sleep.”
“Hm?” Almark knitted his brows. Can’t sleep. That’s what he heard. “You have trouble sleeping?”
“I just said!” Lilty went red up to her ears and shouted in desperation. “I can’t sleep without my hankie!”
Almark froze in surprise.
“…See, I didn’t want to tell anyone.” Lilty glared at the woods with tears in her eyes, refusing to look at Almark.
“Sorry, I wasn’t trying to mock you or anything,” he said hurriedly. “I was just a bit surprised, is all. Tell me more about what’s going on.”
“No.”
“I’ll listen, really. Come on.”
Almark patiently coaxed answers out of Lilty until he was able to piece together the story.
Lilty’s lost handkerchief was a present her parents gave her when she started studying at the institute.
Children entered the institute at the age of nine. Most students grew lonely or homesick from being separated from their families at such a tender age, but Lilty in particular had a hard time adjusting to life in the institute. She was shy, and her voice was naturally small, which meant she struggled to make friends.
Lilty adored her parents and missed them dearly, and so she spent every night crying in bed. But when she held that handkerchief in her hands, it reminded her of her parents, and she could fall asleep without sobbing.
She had since opened up to her roommate Norish and gotten used to life in the dorms, but sleeping with her handkerchief had become a habit, and she still couldn’t fall asleep without holding it.
“…I know it’s weird. I’m eleven and I still need my hankie to fall asleep,” Lilty said, sulking.
“Hm…”
Almark couldn’t deny it was unusual. He imagined what it would be like if he, too, needed a handkerchief to go to sleep.
“Whatcha got there, Almark?!”
The voice of Galba, his childhood friend from the Black Wolf Riders, echoed in his head. He’d no doubt laugh at Almark for sleeping with a handkerchief. But then, Almark reconsidered. What if he’d received his mother’s pendant earlier, before he left on his travels? Maybe he’d have gone to sleep holding on to it.
Galba’s face came to mind. Would Galba mock him for that? There wasn’t a big difference between the handkerchief and the pendant. Both held the same significance.
“It’s not weird at all,” Almark said earnestly.
Lilty looked up at him with surprise. “You’re not going to laugh at me?”
“No, I’m not.” Almark shook his head. “Everyone has something that means the world to them.”
Lilty nodded, still visibly shocked. “Yeah, you’re right,” she mumbled, embarrassed.
“Sorry for saying you should wait until tomorrow.”
If he lost his mother’s pendant in the woods, he definitely wouldn’t wait until the next day to look for it. Absolutely not.
“Thank you for telling me. Let’s find your handkerchief together.”
Lilty stared at Almark, bewildered. “No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have shouted at you.”
“Don’t worry about it. Come on, I’m sure we’ll find it in no time.”
He sounded so sure of this that it made Lilty blink in confusion.
They passed by the schoolhouse and stepped into the woods. The scenery around them shifted almost at once—the treetops blocked out the moonlight, and the air carried a sudden chill. All around them, they heard the rustling of tree branches.
The two hurried over to the spot where Lilty believed she had dropped her handkerchief. Thankfully, she knew which way to go, and it was relatively close to the entrance to the woods. Lilty had gone there after class that day to gather herbs for their upcoming healing arts class, but the vines proved too thick, so she took out a folding knife from her pocket to cut through them. That must have been when the handkerchief fell out of her pocket.
“Okay. Let’s split up and look for it,” said Almark. “What color is the handkerchief?”
“White,” Lilty replied right away, and then pushed her lantern into Almark’s hands. “You use it.”
“But what about—?”
Before Almark could finish, a small flame puffed to life in Lilty’s hand.
Illumination magic. She produced it much faster and more smoothly than he’d seen her do it on their first practical magic class. She even adjusted its size to effectively match the forest’s darkness.