The four of us sat at the dining table, ready to eat. Food was simple here. Each meal included soup and hard bread, then a bit of meat or fish. Despite slight variations, the overall lineup never changed. I became sick of it a long time ago, but I really couldn’t complain.
When dinner was finished, it was time to ask some questions. “Dad, what do you do for work?” I asked.
“I’ve never told you, I suppose,” he replied. “It’s as good a time as any. Marie, you should know this, as well.”
Marie didn’t know either? I glanced at her. The satisfied expression on her face said Boy, I’m full. She was five years old, after all. Could I really expect her to think to ask that type of question?
“Oh, I want to know!” Marie said. “I have no clue!”
“Yeah, me too,” I said.
Dad gave a magnanimous nod.
“Marie, Shion,” he began. “Our family is called a low-ranking noble family. We’re the lords who rule this area.”
Now we’re talking—he jumped right to the juicy bits. Marie sat next to me blinking, clueless by what my father meant.
“Darling,” Mom said. “They’re not going to understand that.”
“It means that your job is to take care of the people that live around us, right?” I said.
Mom and Dad looked at me in surprise. “That’s it, Shion!” Mom said. “You’re so clever.”
Dad chuckled. “I’ve got high hopes for you, son.”
I didn’t respond because I wasn’t fishing for praise.
“I—I understood too!” Marie added fiercely.
“Of course,” Mom said. “You’re clever too, Marie. But now let’s listen to your father.”
“Ngh! Yeah, I’m listening!” Marie didn’t sound happy, but she grew quiet.
“As you say, Shion, my work is to care for the people living in this area. They are the peasants of this fief, and they call me its lord. To be exact, I help out the peasants when they’re in trouble, collect money from them, and give that to the kingdom. Nobles, you see…how to explain it? They’re…special. While the low-ranking nobles are at the bottom of all the nobles, we’re still special.”
I watched Marie nod. She tried to understand, but I could tell she was lost.
“Where do you always go in your carriage, then?” I asked.
“I go see how the peasants are doing. I also transport goods, and sometimes help people move. Oh, and I do a bit of shopping. Not many people have carriages, you see. There are a lot of things that I don’t know until I go to the village and see for myself, especially without my own militia. So, I go and check on everything myself.
“I don’t have any subordinates. I’m trying to put an end to compulsory service, so there will no longer be slaves in this fief. That means we’re running short on labor, though, and while I do have to handle business myself—”
Dad realized that Marie was stared at him with her jaw open while Mom glared at him. He coughed, adjusting his position. “I’m working hard at a lot of things,” he concluded.
Talk about glossing over things. However, that did the trick—he had apparently put things in a way that Marie could understand.
“I get it!” she spoke up. “You’re so amazing, Dad!”
“Ahem, you really think so? Thanks, Marie.” He chuckled, and the table became the picture of a happy family. I smiled, giving up for the day. It didn’t seem like I was going to get much more.
We were a wealthy but low-ranking noble family. I got that much. When he said compulsory service, did he mean slave labor? As in making people work for no pay? It was a pretty warped world that allowed for something like that. Dad said he was trying to put a stop to that system, though, and the fact that he could give us a life like this, without relying on slave labor, implied Dad excelled at his job. It also meant that the peasants were doing their own jobs well.
Okay, now it’s time, I thought. I can’t wait any longer. I just can’t.
Unable to restrain myself, I opened my mouth. “Um, Dad? There’s something else I want to ask you. A-are there m-monsters here?”
“There are,” he said. “That’s why you need to stay inside for now. I know your mother has told you to stay here, and that’s because of the dangerous monsters. You can’t go near them because they attack and kill people. If you ever see one, run as fast as you can and find a grown-up for help.”
Holy smokes! There are monsters here! So that was why we hadn’t been allowed to go outside of the house! No one ever mentioned it. You’d think somebody around here would have said something?
I felt on cloud nine. My whole body quivered with excitement so much that I became nervous. I started to sweat. I heard my own heart beating. I had come this far, and now there was no turning back. I didn’t want to.
“Are there fairies and spirits?” I asked.
“Yes. I don’t know about spirits, but there are fairies. They’re rare creatures that are hard to find. There are specialists out there who procure them. They’re small, humanoid life forms. Although, I don’t know if ‘life form’ is the right word. I’ve heard they have all sorts of strange powers, and that they can suddenly appear and disappear.”
There are fairies! I thought. That pretty much decides it, doesn’t it?
Mom and Dad looked bewildered for some reason. Marie exchanged glances with my parents. I had lost all track of the situation.
No matter. It was time to know. It was time for the big question.
“Th-then is there—is there—m-m-m-magic?! Is there magic?”
I stood up in my chair. I was leaning forward with both of my hands on the table, my face thrusted up so I could look at my father directly.
“Ma…magic?” He seemed flustered.
“Yeah, magic! Like making fire, water, wind, and light. Like making all sorts of things!”
Dad looked Mom in the eyes. They were troubled. I had said something wrong, but I couldn’t stop myself. I’d waited for this moment for three long years. No—thirty-plus long years.
“No, there’s no such thing,” he said.
“There’s not?” Man, reality was ruthless.
Dad shook his head. Everything slowed down.
There’s no…? There’s no magic?
“I’ve never even heard of that word before,” he said.
“You…you mean you don’t know what it means?” I asked.
“I do have an education, but there are still plenty of things I don’t know. I’d dare say no one knows about whatever this ‘magic’ is, because I’ve never heard of it.”
Dad was a noble, and civilized—meaning he had some degree of schooling. While peasants didn’t have educational access, nobles had the ability to study, and so they would be among the more knowledgeable people in this world. Sure, it might just be general knowledge. If magic existed, however, he would’ve known about it, or at least been aware of it. Yet, he did not.
So, did that mean magic wasn’t real? No, it couldn’t be. It couldn’t be true. If it was, why was I even there?
Was my rebirth in this world just a big coincidence? I spent all this time thinking that it was my reward for a lifetime of believing in magic. Boy, was I wrong. It was all for nothing. I was simply reborn into another world that was also without magic. The end.
I collapsed into my chair.
“Shion,” Dad said. “How did you hear about these things? Monsters, fairies, and this ‘magic’? I know your mother hasn’t told you.”
“I don’t think I have,” Mom said.
Right. Why would a three-year-old who’d never left the house know such things? There were no books in the house. I didn’t even know if this world had any books. Anything I knew about the outside world would have to come from Mom or Dad. Yet, I knew about things they hadn’t discussed. It was bound to raise suspicions.
“Shion, what do you know?” Dad’s voice became stern. I’d never heard him like that before. “Tell me what happened. Did you speak to a grown-up? Did someone come when Mom wasn’t here? Who was it? A man, or a woman?”
Still sunken in my despair, I barely raised my head. I lacked the strength to answer. I just stared blankly forward.
Dad started to panic. He thought something tragic happened that I couldn’t bear to confess. I felt bad for causing a fuss, even as my heart plummeted further and further into darkness.
Then, in the midst of Dad’s questioning, I heard a dry smack. It was Mom, clapping her hands together.
“That’s right,” she said. “I told Shion one time to never go outside because of the dangerous monsters. Maybe that’s when I told him about fairies, too.”
“What about magic?”
“Who knows,” Mom said. “Kids are mysterious, even to grown-ups. Sometimes they say all sorts of weird things. Maybe he dreamt it. Don’t worry, Shion is always with me. There’s no way he’s talked with anyone else.”
What Mom said was half-true, half-fiction. She was covering for me. In all truth, there had been zero chance for me to talk to an outsider, so maybe she really believed everything was fine. Either way, it was a stroke of luck.
“Is that so? Well, all right,” Dad said.
He continued to look at me with concern. I saw it in his eyes. His worry weighed on me, but I understood that it was for my own sake. I still lacked the language that could express the heartbreak I felt.
“Now, then. It’s time to clean up!” Mom began clearing the table.
I drifted away from the dining table with my head hung low. Marie followed me. She was confused by my manner.
“Shion, are you…okay?” Her voice trembled.
We were halfway to my room. I turned to face her.
“Huh?”
“You look so pale. Does your tummy hurt?”
Her voice made me come back to my senses. I had no mirror to look into, but apparently my face was drained of color. It was due to shock, of course, because there was no magic. I had looked forward to diddlysquat all these years.
“I’m okay,” I said. “I’m fine.”
“Oh, okay then.” Marie was quiet as she walked with me to my room. I could tell she was concerned. This five-year-old girl was worried about me. While I understood that much, I couldn’t bring myself to comfort her.
After all, there was no magic in this world.