“You can meet the person you’ve been missing under the rainbow? Hmm, can’t say I’ve heard of that one.” Mera shook her head.
Armando shrugged. “I see. Well, that means it’s not some traditional village story, I guess.”
“I don’t think so…right, Mama?”
Mera looked up at her mother beside her. The woman sitting in the rocking chair holding an infant in her arms bowed her head to Armando apologetically.
“That’s right, I’ve never heard about it either…Sorry I can’t be of much help.”
“No…I apologize for intruding and asking such weird questions.” Armando smiled as he ruffled up his unkempt hair.
“Mr. Armando, how about staying for tea? Today’s your day off, isn’t it? Young master Pelliot has been studying with the professor since yesterday, right?” the woman said, standing up.
Armando hastily waved both his hands in a flutter. “No, I’m sorry, the professor will be leaving once he’s finished his lunch. I have to head back soon, too.”
“You have a hard job, huh.”
“Haha. I’m used to it, though.”
Bobbing up and down as he walked like a clown, Armando exited Mera’s house.
I’ve lived in this world for a long time and I’ve heard various tales from all over, but I can’t remember any stories like this one, so someone must have made it up. And recently, too—in that case, I guess there probably isn’t any foundation for it.
Armando placed his hand on his chin and pondered this while following the road to the village chief’s house.
The second half of the text was written pretty messily. Maybe the lady wrote it while she was ill. Perhaps she wrote down something she remembered hearing before, or maybe she made it all up—humans sure are interesting. Even on the brink of death, they try to tell made-up stories.
Yesterday, Pelliot said that he saw a rainbow.
Judging from the dust on the chair in the barn, Pelliot must have been the one reading that book. And then, having seen that rainbow at the foot of the mountain, he tried to go down there.
I wonder why there was a rainbow without any rain. But it might have been a misunderstanding of some kind. I’ll have to tell Pelliot that what he saw wasn’t real.
Anyway, even though the wolves and bears are gone, there are still many dangerous places in the forest. And above all else, there’s no knowing what would happen if he were to come across the Armor Giant.
“He” has been rather unstable over the past few months…The seal must be weakening. It was originally made for me, after all. Or maybe the seal would always have worn down with time…
Armando-Gowther recalled the first time he met him.
Originally, that armor had belonged to Gowther.
While he had been in the capital as one of the Seven Deadly Sins, the order of knights under direct command of the King, his magician friend Merlin had made the armor for Gowther to seal his powerful magic from running wild. Until coming here, he had always worn it.
Then, framed for a crime he didn’t commit, he left the capital and reached the forest of Ordan in the course of his wanderings. It was then that Armando met him, who like himself, was also running from something.
He always looked like he was afraid of something and about to cry, even though his body was like that of an unsightly, swollen monster and possessed a terrible strength that could kill a bear in one hit.
But Gowther could sense, from a weak scent wafting from the magic’s depths, that he probably used to be a human.
Even Gowther, however, who had the power to see through a person’s soul, could no longer see into his. However, from the intense feelings of fear and regret that reared up, Gowther knew that he had originally been an honest man, with a heart of justice and order.
Currently, Britannia was split up into several countries, large and small, each armed with Holy Knights—knights possessing magical powers. He must once have been a Holy Knight from one of those countries.
But why had he turned into such a monster? Perhaps it was a curse, or maybe some wicked sorcerer had used him as a human guinea pig.
Whichever it may be, it probably wasn’t something that he had desired.
A monster created by people.
When Gowther thought that, for some reason, he didn’t want to kill him.
Gowther himself did not quite understand the reason why.
Instead, he gave him his own armor and sheltered the once-man deep in the forest. Then he decided to call himself Armando and played the role of the village chief’s son’s guardian.
Perhaps the end of all that is approaching.
He wondered what kind of feelings a real human would have on such an occasion.
Behind his glasses, Gowther closed his eyes—then, putting on Armando’s expression once again, he quickened his pace towards the village chief’s house.
Then—
“What’s that?”
“A rainbow?!”
Two farmers watering the field facing the side of the road suddenly looked up in the direction of the forest and shouted.
“…?!”
Armando looked in the direction they pointed.
“That’s…”
A rainbow spanned across the forest of Ordan.
But it was clear it wasn’t a natural rainbow.
It was very distinct, as though the seven colors were glowing independently, rather than being a refraction of some other light.
“Ooh. There it goes.”
Before long, the rainbow gradually shrank from its left side and disappeared among the trees as if it had been soaked up.
“What—what was that?!”
Armando looked back at the farmers. Both of them shook their heads again and again, flabbergasted.
“I have no idea, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Maybe it’s a sign from the Mountain God?!”
“…”
That must have been the “rainbow” that Pelliot saw yesterday, too.
I didn’t sense anything magical about it. But, it was clearly abnormal.
I have to make sure Pelliot doesn’t go running after it again. And I have to ascertain what the true nature of that rainbow is, and if it’s dangerous, eliminate it.
Armando let his face shift back into Gowther’s for an instant, and he kept his golden eyes behind his glasses on alert, expressionlessly. After that, he broke into a run with noisy footfalls.
But he was just a step too late.