“My name is Ashes.”
“…Ashes…?” Yura mumbled, and the man who called himself Ashes looked a little surprised.
But his face quickly became expressionless once more and he broke his gaze. His mannerisms were flawless, but to Yura, they were still rather pompous. She could tell he was someone important.
“…This is Tolkinia. Specifically, you’re in the White Imperial Capital of the west.”
Yura’s eyes opened wide at the words her traveling companion spoke. She looked up and muttered, “Huh? Tolki—wha?”
“You said you didn’t know where we were?” Ashes once again frowned. He set his hand in his lap. “So then, I wilt ask thee, where didst thou come from? Why werest thou down there?”
Yura fell silent. She didn’t even attempt a response. After some time, she finally responded with a mutter.
“…I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“…Right.”
It seemed true enough, so she could only nod.
Perhaps it was her imagination, but it felt like the air became tense. It felt unbearable. Yura huddled in on herself again.
“…Well then, ‘Yura,’ what dost thou remember up to this point?”
“Remember…?”
She wasn’t sure what “up to this point” even meant, so she’d no answer to give.
Yura shrugged. When she did, her companion looked serious again.
“I’m sorry!” she apologized instinctively, then glanced quickly at Ashes.
She hadn’t made for good conversation. Surely he was on the verge of shouting at her. Or perhaps something worse…
But despite her fears, Ashes merely muttered with a sad expression, “I see…so thou dost remember nothing?”
“……”
I guess I’ll go with that, she thought and nodded. Come on, Yura, get it together. It doesn’t matter what this person in your dreams thinks. So why do I feel so guilty? This just makes me a big liar!
She grabbed her head with a moan. Ashes nodded in sympathy.
“In that case, perhaps Yura is not, in fact, thy name?”
“Huh?”
Ashes frowned, struggling to say what he wanted after Yura’s outburst.
“I do not know where you heard that—” he began, knitting his brows into a strange shape. “‘Yura’ means ‘fool’ in the old language of the Fern outlands.”
It seemed he was implying that this poor, amnesiac girl must’ve been treated like a “yura” by the countryfolk.
Yura shrank back further.
It seemed she was fully committed to this amnesia story. As she looked down, her eyes shifted from side to side.
It was like being forced to swallow a food she hated.
She wanted to say something but couldn’t figure out what. So she lowered her head, dejected over the entire situation.
Ashes gave her a pitiful glance.
Yura thought keeping her mouth shut at a time like this was a sign of respect and it seemed that, now at least, she was right on the money.
And anyway, if she suddenly burst out with, “No, that’s not it. I’m from a world called Earth, from a country called Japan, and while I’m at it, I think this might be my dream. So please pay me no mind,” with a serious face, he’d go from treating her as an amnesiac to treating her like a lunatic.
Perhaps taking her complicated expression as a pained one, Ashes gave her another sympathetic look.
Like a doctor over a patient’s sickbed, he tried to force a smile.
“Please don’t worry and put thy heart at ease. At any rate, for now, thou should rest.”
“O-Okay…”
Yura fell silent after accepting his forced encouragement.
She rested in the corner of the carriage and closed her eyes in the hopes he’d stop asking questions.
Wake up. Come on, Yura, it’s time. Wake up.
Ashes suddenly looked up, as if having an idea.
“Well…why don’t we call thee ‘Yuura’ from now on? Yuura is the name of a flower that blooms in Adokia.”
“Excuse me?”
“That other name is pitiful. Certainly not suitable for you.”
Yura hung her head after seeing the serious expression as he spoke.
That’s kind of extreme, isn’t it?
As Yura struggled with her words, the shifting scene outside caught her eyes.
All thoughts of her name and so on flew off somewhere. The lonely, rocky dirt road stretched on and on, but slowly changed to a paved stone road.
The carriage did not sway as violently as before and they were moving faster.
There were soldiers in armor and helmets on both sides of the road, brandishing spears. The breeze from the carriage going so fast caused the crimson flags attached to the spears to flutter like flames dancing in the wind.
Yura shoved her head through the small carriage window and looked ahead. All traces of night were gone and the sky was clear and cloudless.
Mighty castle walls stretched out before them, as if to block the carriage’s path forward.
Yura gulped.
The light of the morning sun that’d just finished its ascent glinted off the stone walls. It was magnificent, like a giant, sleeping dragon with its long neck protruding from the ground and stretching toward the horizon.
One white flag fluttered from the parapet.
As if in response, flags began to fly one after the other.
The entire wall seemed to groan.
She could see two iron castle doors creak open before them. The heavy groan resonated through the carriage. It was like a massive animal groaning as it awakened.
And then…
Beyond those walls, she could make out a chalk-white castle with several vivid blue spires towering upward to the heavens.
Where in the world is this place?
In her mind, she thought she heard a popping sound.
The building loomed ever closer. Yura gazed up at it, awestruck.
There’s no way. How can this be? It’s insane.
Yura couldn’t take it.
She shook her head. Or at least, she meant to.
This castle is so much more than anything in my dreams. There’s no way I could think up something like this. Which means…which means it has to be real—
“This is…”
…not the world I came from.
Yura clenched her clammy hands as those final few words ran through her mind.
At the same time, the carriage glided in through the gates. Ashes chortled, seemingly amused by Yura’s amazement.
✦ ✦ ✦
“HAVE a bath and take a rest. We’ll talk more when thou art finished,” Ashes said and departed without looking back even once, leaving a dazed Yura in the center of a sprawling room. The elegantly decorated space with high ceilings seemed to be some sort of guest suite.
Beyond the door were a group of women in simple navy-blue dresses, staring at Yura in disbelief. At first, they seemed surprised at Ashes’ sudden appearance. They only became more stunned upon seeing Yura hiding behind him.
Suddenly, like a switch had been flipped, the woman at the fore of the others seemed to surge into action and entered the room. She threw back the curtains and opened the window.
Without a moment to grasp the situation, Yura was guided to a chair and sat down. All the other women watching her began to move at once.
“I apologize for the wait. Please, this way.”
Yura looked over her shoulder at the speaker. There stood a lovely young woman about Yura’s age. Her golden hair was neatly tied back. She gave a startlingly perfect curtsy as she looked at Yura.
“We have prepared your change of clothes, Your Ladyship,” she said.
This woman stood in such a refined manner, Yura knew she couldn’t imitate it. Both her hands were placed in front of her stomach and she stood with her back perfectly straight.
Yura stared at the woman.
“…You don’t mean me, do you?” Trembling, Yura pointed to her nose.
“Yes, I do.” Maintaining her same regal posture, the woman smiled elegantly in affirmation.
Yura suddenly leapt up. “Y-You’ve got the wrong person!”
The woman blinked as Yura shouted.
“I’m Yura! Yura!”
Shaking, Yura shouted in denial with the intensity of someone denying a shoplifting charge that’d been levied against them in public.
It’s absurd! What kind of joke is this? I was never even picked to play the mom when playing house during kindergarten, so why would these random people I just met start calling me “Your Ladyship”?
“I-I’m just Yura Sugano! I’m no lady!”
The women merely stared, unmoving, at Yura in her overdramatic denial. They didn’t even blink, seemingly waiting for Yura to take a breath.
Yura finally ran out of breath and closed her mouth. After a polite pause, the woman smiled once more.
“I am terribly sorry. Then we shall refer to you as ‘Lady Yuura.’”
“Oh, come on!”
Just drop the “lady” stuff already!
Yura clasped a hand to her head. The women merely watched her, no malice present in their gazes. I can’t take anymore! What is this? And this castle, since that’s what it seems to be? It’s so big, I’ll never be able to find my way out!
“We look forward to serving you,” the woman before her said, smiling. “From now on, please inform me and your other ladies-in-waiting of anything you might need.”
These women, who looked like they should’ve been scolding her, instead bowed their heads in deference to her. Even then, they all looked so poised, so perfect.
Yura felt herself withering even further.
Ladies-in-waiting…? Seriously, what is this place?
Yura had no idea what to do or say. The women merely stared at her in respectful silence. She clasped her hands and turned them over and over out of necessity and, as if to let them know there was no need to make such a fuss over someone like her, she mumbled, “U-Uhh, thank you. Same to you…”