“Baaa! Baaaaaa!”
She looked at me as if pleading for help and I couldn’t take this any longer.
“Baaady Baaavelyn! Baaavelyn!”
She was clearly enunciating my name now. There was no doubt about it—she wanted my help. Her entire small body was screaming that she wanted to escape Prince Igna’s lips.
I-I’m feeling sorrier and sorrier for her...!
Lord Theodore must’ve felt similarly, because he furrowed his brow and said, “Stop, Your Highness. This is...inhumane.”
“Well, yes. Europa is currently a sheep.”
“It’s insheepane too.”
“You don’t get it. That’s what makes it exciting.”
“Baaa... Baaa...”
I looked to the side and saw an elderly, wobbly sheep.
And I had an idea.
The sky was still dim. Prince Igna was worked up. Maybe I could deceive him.
“Prince Igna,” I said. “Lady Europa’s wool has grown bright red with your nose blood. I’ll wash her in the lake. Could you hand her over?”
“Hm? All right.”
Lady Europa must’ve been very frightened—she clung to my chest tightly and wouldn’t let go.
I patted her shoulder reassuringly, then heaved the wobbly sheep into my arms.
I’m sorry, Your Eminence. Hate me if you must!
“Here you go. All clean, Your Highness,” I said.
“Thanks.”
I handed over the unwitting bearded sheep, secretly praying no one would notice.
Prince Igna cheerily patted the sheep’s head and stroked his cheek sweetly. Just as I’d hoped, he hadn’t noticed the sheep-a-roo.
“Our night of passion begins,” the prince said. “You cannot escape. Resign yourself.”
“B-Baaa...”
“Heh. What’s wrong, Europa? Nervous? You seem more into this than before...”
“Baaa... ♡”
“Bold, are you? Very well. I shall take everything...”
As Prince Igna and the high priest, the latter making strangely sultry noises, were immersed in their passionate...something, we silently moved away. We couldn’t bear to watch it any longer.
“Baaady Baaavelyn! Baaady Baaavelyn!”
A heavily panting Lady Europa remained in my hands. The problem hadn’t been solved at all!
At every turn, she tried to steal a kiss, but I dodged every one, and Lord Theodore and I rejoined Kira and the others. Near Kira was Lady Mamaropa on a stretcher, peacefully asleep. Thank goodness!
She suddenly opened her eyes. “Oh my. Europa.”
Lady Sheepropa twitched. “Baaa?”
Lady Mamaropa seemed half asleep. Her eyes were drowsy, but she reached out, so I handed her Lady Europa.
“Come now, Europa,” Lady Mamaropa whispered, patting the small sheep. “Let’s have our good morning hug and kiss.”
“Baaa!”
The two embraced, and Lady Mamaropa gave Lady Europa a little kiss. The white smoke returned, and Lady Europa, rather anticlimactically, turned back into a girl.
“Now, Europa, it’s dark out. Let’s sleep.”
“Yes, mother.”
Mother and daughter, still embracing, lay down on the stretcher. Soon their breaths evened out in slumber.
✦ ✦ ✦
What just happened?
As I stood there, confused, Prince Oz said, “Last night, Lady Europa expended tremendous magical power to find you, Lady Evelyn. She’s still fatigued, I would imagine. Not only that, she apparently hadn’t slept at all since your disappearance. I suppose meeting her mother again after so long gave her such a rush of relief that she fell asleep.”
“I see...”
Though I’d gone, like, “Ugh!” upon seeing her, Lady Europa had poured her all into locating me. Now she was snoozing peacefully in Lady Mamaropa’s arms, looking appropriately innocent for her age instead of weird for once. Her sleeping face was almost angelic.
Lady Mamaropa, meanwhile, though half asleep herself, had spotted immediately that the sheep was her child. Her love for Lady Europa had to be boundless.
Family bonds are amazing, I thought. I didn’t have anyone I was so strongly bonded to. Though I was a bit envious, I didn’t feel lonely anymore—I’d learned that you could become someone’s family even without blood ties. Like I have with Lord Theodore and Kira...
Lord Theodore, my fiancé, and Kira, who’d recognized me in sheep form—both of them were precious family to me. Knowing I wasn’t alone made my anxiety dissipate.
“By the way, Evelyn, your sister’s here,” Kira said.
“Sister?” Do I have a sister?
I turned around and looked behind Kira, then gasped.
“Hello, sister. It’s been a while.”
Standing there with her arms crossed was my indeed existing sister, Mary.
“Mary?! What are you doing here?!”
Ah, Mary. She had committed so many misdeeds, like stealing my former fiancé and impersonating me as the saint. After all of it came to light, she’d departed on a hangnail-healing journey as part of the community service she’d been sentenced to.
Why was she here?
She scoffed. “I’m staying at an inn in the village at the foot of the mountains. The innkeeper said a bunch of sheep were coming out of the lake, so I came to see.” Mary looked around, frustrated. “And what do you know, there are sheep everywhere. What’s going on?”
“This lake is cursed. Everyone who falls in it turns into sheep,” I explained tersely.
“I see. I understand,” Mary said. She ran her fingers through her hair and continued smugly, “I can break curses now, by the way. I can change all of these noisy baaa-baaas back into humans.”
“Really?!”
“About one a day, I’d wager.”
I was good at dispelling miasma and casting healing spells, but curse breaking was outside my area of expertise. This was good, then! What a relief.
“I mean, I could do it for you, but not for free, you know?”
Ugh...
Mary’s eyes gleamed darkly. She was either trying to profit off of this or cut short her community service! Either way, it sounded like she wouldn’t do anything without being handsomely compensated.
Just then, a small figure crept up on us. “So you were cheating on the hangnails with other magic, Ms. Liar...”
“Ugh! Karin!” Mary yelped, grimacing. Her confident attitude deflated all at once.
“So you’re still not treating hangnails with respect? You sadden me.”
“Th-That’s not true! I’ve been healing the hangnails! Perfectly, in fact!”
“Oh? Then hurry up and change the sheep back into people and heal my hangnail. I made sure to save it for you.”
“F-Fine! Waaah! You don’t have to be so mean!”
Though I wasn’t sure exactly what manner of relationship these two had, Mary had actually listened to Karin instead of fleeing, so I figured she couldn’t really hate the girl.
Watching the two, I found myself feeling somewhat warm inside and wondered, Could I break curses too?
Naturally occurring miasma and man-made...no, sheep-made curses were different things, strictly speaking. But surely their properties were similar.
I couldn’t help but want to give it a try.
Kneeling on the grass, I closed my eyes and clasped my hands together, praying silently. The bleats of the sheep behind me as well as Karin and Mary’s argument faded into the distance.
Dear sheep... You were scared when you were sacrificed, weren’t you? I’m truly sorry. But thanks to all of you, the village has an abundance of grains and vegetables, and it’s thriving as a hot spring resort.
The stalls in the village had been selling many sheep-shaped buns. Besides that, there were many sheep-themed sweets and figurines—the people of this land were clearly grateful to and fond of the sheep.
The lamb curry Lady Mamaropa made was also truly delicious. We will honor the lives we’ve taken as sustenance and live each day as best we can. So please, dear sheep, let go of your resentment. Look to the brightly shining stars above—your ancestors—and let them guide you...
Something welled up from deep within my body and overflowed. My feelings for the sheep manifested as a torrent of magical power that turned to golden light, sparkling as it emerged from me. I opened my eyes, and amid the sea of light particles, I could faintly see golden sheep spirits.
“Thank you, baaa.”
“I’m so happy a pretty girl prayed for us, baaa!”
“I enjoyed playing tag with you, baaa!”
Oh, was that what they were doing? Playing tag?
From our perspective, we’d been fleeing a stampede...
I noticed Kira and Lord Theodore looking around—it seemed like everyone could hear the sheep. The golden light, still shining brilliantly, rose into the sky as we all watched the dreamlike display. I prayed that the sheep could truly find peace.
When the last particle of light dissipated, my body swayed, likely from having used too much magical power.
“Evelyn!” Lord Theodore said as he caught me, a worried look on his features.
I smiled. “I broke the curse, Lord Theodore!”
No longer would I spiral over the things I couldn’t do. There were roles even someone like me could fulfill! Now that I knew that, I could hold my head high.
Lord Theodore’s eyes widened with surprise, but then he smiled. “That doesn’t surprise me one bit.”
Behind him, the high priest, Prince Igna, the priests, and the knights had all returned to human form as well.
Mary was huffily pointing at me. “I hate this! I hate this about you!”
“There, there,” Karin said to the sniffling Mary. “You can aim to be the hangnail-healing expert.”
And so, with all of that, the Great Woolly Incident drew to a satisfying close.
Or so I thought.
“Evelyn, come here,” Kira called out. He was crouched at the lakeside, his hand in the water.
“What is it?”
The curse was broken, but it could still be dangerous for him to accidentally fall in!
But before I could caution him, he turned around, shaking the water off his hand. “The lake water is hot now.”
“Huh? Hot?”
Only then did I notice that steam was indeed rising from the entire lake—hot water seemed to be welling up from underground. I sniffed the air and caught the distinctive scent of sulfur that I’d smelled many times in the village.
“Is this a hot spring?” I asked.
“Seems like it.”
“Then we must host it!” came a resonant female voice from behind us.
I turned to see Lady Europa—who should’ve been sleeping—standing there.
“Lady Europa, should you really be up already?” I asked.
“I appreciate your concern, Lady Evelyn, but I have energy to spare!”
That I could see, but she was far too active for someone who had just woken up. I worried about her blood pressure.
“Um, what are we ‘hosting,’ exactly?” I asked.
“An excellent question, Lady Evelyn!”
Lady Europa’s expression was ecstatic.
“A summer camp of Lady Evelyn, by Lady Evelyn, and for Lady Evelyn!”