Boooooaaaagggghhhh, boooooaaaagggghhhh—
Armando walked through the forest where the Mountain God’s voice reverberated.
It was a late night with no moon. In the pitch-black surroundings, Armando advanced with his distinctive gait into a darkness so pure one couldn’t even see their own fingertip stretched in front of them.
“…He is calling me. I need to hurry.”
Climbing steep, boulder-covered slopes and stepping over twisted tree roots, Armando hurried to the foot of Ordan Mountain deep within the forest.
After jumping over a stream and climbing over fallen trees, he finally reached the entrance to a large cave.
“Hey!”
Armando called into the cave—and he heard a response of boooooaaaagggghhhh.
Then—the thump, thump of heavy footsteps.
Before long something emerged from within—a giant covered entirely in armor.
“Sorry I’m late. Today the young master just wouldn’t go to sleep.” Armando spoke in a tone and manner quite different from the way he addressed Pelliot.
He walked up to the giant that looked to have twenty-some odd feet and placed his hand on the front of his armor without any fear.
“Gow-, -ther…”
He heard a low mumble come from within the armor. It certainly resembled the Mountain God’s bellow, but the faltering tone seemed more like that of a small, frightened child.
“Gowther…” the giant called Armando.
Indeed. The young man known as “Armando” was only Gowther’s assumed identity.
“Gowther…I’m scared.”
“What are you afraid of? Nothing’s going to come here.”
Armando-Gowther surveyed the surroundings slowly.
“The wolves and bears are frightened away by your voice and disappeared from this area a long time ago. Because of me, the villagers of Ordan think what they hear are the roars of the Mountain God. Because of my magic Invasion, planting this idea in their minds was no trouble at all. There shouldn’t be anyone coming around here.”
“Gowther…I’m lonely.”
“Lonely? That’s a problem. I’m busy with Pelliot during the day, after all.”
“Pelliot…”
Gowther sat down on the root of a large tree near the entrance of the cave and made himself comfortable.
“All right, then. We can talk for a bit, until dawn, anyway.”
The Armor Giant lumbered to sit down across from him.
“How is…Pelliot?” the giant asked. Gowther nodded.
“Yeah. He’s fine. You always ask about Pelliot, huh.”
“I do…I want to see him.”
“See Pelliot? No way.”
“I want…to see him…” the giant moaned.
“You understand, you’re not human anymore. You can’t show yourself to people. There’d be an uproar if someone finds you. And it’d make problems for me, too.”
“I want to see…Gui-, -la…Ze-…-al.” The giant held his head and moaned.
“I see. So it’s not really Pelliot you want to see. It’s someone who is special to you—a family member, or a friend. If Pelliot makes you think of them, it must be a child.”
“A child…”
The giant said no more, only moaned painfully.
“…Can’t remember?” Gowther breathed out heavily and looked up at the heavens. Through gaps in the tree branches, he could see the star-filled sky, which looked like a sprinkling of silver sand.
“I can’t say I understand. Memories of loss, people I miss—I don’t have any of those. I’ve been sheltering you and staying with Pelliot only because I’ve learned before that’s what a person with a soul would probably do,” Gowther murmured to himself. In a blank voice. With emotionless eyes.
“What exactly makes a person a person? Even though you’re like that now, you seem to have memories and feelings. I told you a second ago that you were no longer human. But because you have those memories, those feelings, maybe you are still one after all…”
He breathed out heavily again.
“I’ve heard Pelliot lost his mother quite young. He doesn’t have any specific memories of her. But even so, he yearns for her. I don’t really understand what loneliness is. I tried to imitate the hairstyle of the lady from her portraits in the house, thinking it might make him feel even a little better, but he doesn’t seem to have noticed. Maybe it’s because I’m a man. Since that’s how I was made, I can’t change it. I can change the color of my skin and my hair, but I can’t change that. Though if it were possible, I’d like to try being a girl too.”
“…”
Gowther seemed to be speaking more to himself than to the Armor Giant. However, the giant listened to him in silence.
“Some of Pelliot’s mother’s things were in the village chief’s storehouse. I found something like a diary, so I read it to learn about the lady’s time while she was alive, but it wasn’t a diary. It was more like a fairy tale.”
“…Fairy, tale?”
“Yes. I don’t know if it was an old Britannia legend, or if it was some writer’s invention, or if it was something the lady made up to read to Pelliot. It was just a childish story: When a rainbow bridge crosses the sky, you can meet the person you miss underneath.”
“…Rainbow.”
“That’s right. Have you ever heard of that legend?”
Like a child, the giant tilted his helmet with the broken ornamental horn on the left and hung his head. He looked like he was thinking.
“…”
But only a low groan slipped from his mouth.
“I see. So you don’t know it.”
Gowther sighed again, and then stood up.
“I have to head back soon. You should go to sleep, too. Unlike me, you still need your sleep, right?”
“…Mmmm…”
The giant stood up slowly.
“Good night.”
“Good night…Gowther.”
The giant reluctantly lowered his head, then lumbered back into the cave.