The rainbow bridge was already disappearing from the sky.
Now all that they could make out was a faint trace of the rainbow’s right foot above the mountain range in the distance.
“…”
Projecting from the back of the Boar Hat’s pointed roof was a long, narrow lookout tower. Sitting alone on its handrail was a boy.
His chestnut-colored hair stuck up wildly. He face looked slightly sleepy.
For a long time he had accompanied the friends now in the shop along their journeys. But at the moment, he seemed to really want to avoid being in the others’ circle.
The boy glanced down at his feet, discontented.
Directly underneath the lookout tower where he was, hidden by the roof, two men had come out of the shop and sat side-by-side on the balcony that stuck out from the side of the shop. They were deep in discussion.
Distracted by the footsteps of the giant boar on the move, the boy couldn’t hear their voices well. But he had taken great pains to look for a place with no people before settling on the lookout tower and couldn’t help but find the two men irritating.
“They should just go back inside. Those jerks, Gilthunder and Howzer. They’re always together anyway, what could they still have to talk about?” the boy muttered, and heard a mocking laugh in response.
“What is it, Helbram?”
The boy slid on a worn-out helmet sewn into the hood of his clothes. He looked out through the six narrow vertical slits of the grille, and another boy, who looked to be the same age as him, floated lightly in the sky in front of his eyes.
“Aren’t you being a bit jealous, Harlequin?”
With the bright green hair, pointed ears, and thin wings growing out of his back, no matter how you looked at him, he was a fairy.
His name was Helbram. In his current state he was able to exist only as a spirit and was inhabiting the helmet. He was Harlequin’s closest friend.
“Who’s jealous?” pouted Harlequin.
“It might be strange for me to say this, but those two have been through quite a lot in the past ten years, too. Isn’t it understandable that they might want to exchange old grievances and feel sentimental? Though I guess it’s not my place to talk…”
Harlequin sighed, and was quiet once more.
Over the past decade, among the many things that had happened in the Kingdom of Liones, there had been one particularly complex circumstance that could not be easily summed up.
Nearly everyone involved had made some terrible mistakes of their own and were tormented by a powerful sense of remorse.
Even so, that complicated series of events had in the end only been an omen for an unprecedented menace assailing the kingdom—or rather, all of Britannia.
So there wasn’t any time to be caught up with resentment, sorrow, or regret. Now was the time they needed to join their forces and fight against the approaching threat.
“I know that,” Harlequin muttered.
I know that. I know that, but…
No matter how I try, I can’t get my feelings sorted out.
There was Hendrickson, who, possessed by a demon, had used Helbram’s body and spirit as guinea pigs in some magical experiment that drove him to his death.
There were Meliodas and Merlin, who likely knew important—even vital—information about their circumstances, but never shared it.
And worst of all was Gowther, who toyed with the girl Harlequin held dearest.
In his current mood, the boy could not possibly join with them and fight.
“For crying out loud…You’re so stubborn. You know you’ll regret it sooner or later, so why are you being so pig-headed?” Lightly swaying up and down, Helbram shrugged his shoulders.
“Oh, shut up. You’re pretty okay with all this, considering you’re under the same roof as Hendrickson, the same guy who made you like that!”
“Well, it’s not that I’m okay with it, exactly, but…how should I put it. Since I’ve lost my body, intense pain and feelings like that have faded. And in any case, he seems to regret it, and it’s not like I’m blameless, either.” Helbram fluttered his hands.
Harlequin gave no response.
“Are you feeling down again? Did you remember? What happened two hundred years ago?”
“…Not really.”
“You’re such a terrible liar.” Helbram laughed. “The rainbow is already disappearing. See, look, Harlequin.”
Just as Helbram said, the rainbow they could still see a bit of a moment ago had lost its color and was disappearing.
“I always remember the Fairy Realm when I see a rainbow.”
At Helbram’s words, Harlequin narrowed his eyes too.
Just as Helbram said, rainbows often appeared in the Fairy Realm. The huge divine tree rising at its center would soak up fallen rain and release it back into the air, so usually a small rainbow would form among its branches.
Harlequin remembered.
Come to think of it, he also had a memory about a rainbow.
In the place where he used to live with her.
It seemed to have lasted forever and to appear only for an instant—a nostalgic memory.
Harlequin thought that was rather like a rainbow.