After His Highness spoke to us in the camp, our journey to the last Cristallo Sacro in Maynard went without incident.
While His Highness had seemed down before, talking about it must have helped, because afterwards he looked refreshed. And though Sir Celes had seemed odd, he’d been smiling as usual since then. Sir Gaius still had fun with Lord Reynard and Eric, and Eric himself sometimes pulled out a notebook to write something or other. Lord Reynard would smile as he dealt with his brother or the Commander, and even Sir Agliardi, who had never spoken much, had opened up at the end of our journey, and would sometimes have fun talking with Lord Reynard. Miss Maria would play with Shiro and talk to me, and everyone was absolutely normal. Actually, it was strange how nothing else happened.
Finally, we arrived at the forest surrounding the last Cristallo Sacro. Maybe it was because we had already purified two of the trees, but a group of boars with venomous bristles just glanced at us before calmly walking back into the bush.
All we could hear was the clacking of the horse’s hooves, the creaking of the carriage, and the chirping of some birds. The strong rays of the sun didn’t reach our skin through the forest canopy, and the breeze blowing through the treetops actually felt quite nice.
“It’s scary how quiet it is...” I mumbled. The fact that absolutely nothing was happening as we approached the tree was making me nervous.
Sir Celes agreed with me. “You’re right. We’ve never had so few encounters with monsters. It’s worrying. We should get ready for something to happen.”
“You’re right.”
But once we purified the final Cristallo Sacro, our journey would be over.
I had heard that there would be far fewer monsters after all three of the trees were purified. No one else would have to die to the monsters like my father did. When I thought about it like that, it meant a lot for me to be here.
No one else would lose their family to monsters like I did. It would be wonderful that there would be fewer people losing their loved ones, or children being left alone. And if the monsters were gone, the people who had to go out and exterminate them, like Sir Celes, wouldn’t be in danger as much. That was very important to me.
“Wow...”
I didn’t know who had cheered. It might just have been everyone.
The sight of the last Cristallo Sacro stopped us in our tracks. We all knew how beautiful the tree, which was now still surrounded with black miasma, would look once it was purified. And seeing it meant that the end was upon us.
“So this is the last tree...” Miss Maria muttered, looking up at the huge tree as she got out of the carriage with His Highness. Shiro, still in her arms, mimicked her with a squeak.
“I’ll go check if there are any monsters nearby.”
“Alright. Reynard, Gaius, you check as well.”
“Understood.”
“Okay.”
They must have still been worried about the monsters, because all of the knights went off, one in each direction. Before, we had always prioritized purification over guarding against them, but because we needed to find the ‘Drop of the Cristallo Sacro,’ we had to be sure we were safe.
“This’ll be the last one, huh, Lucia?” Miss Maria spoke to me, standing still while looking up at the Cristallo Sacro. Shiro slipped out of her arms, and flapped his way over to the dark branches.
“Yes...”
“I hope we find it.”
“We will. After all, it didn’t come from any of the other trees.”
I didn’t ask her what she was talking about, because I knew it was the Drop. When I softly took her hand, she looked down from the tree to me, and began speaking. “I’m gonna go home first. I’ve been thinking about it a lot, but I’m really worried about my home. I want to see my mom and dad. I don’t know exactly when I’ll go, but...I’ll be able to go home, right?”
“...Yes, if you want to, you will.”
Miss Maria looked at me with wavering eyes, continuing, “It’s true that I really don’t want to leave you guys. I’m sure I’d do just fine staying here — but, my family is different. They’re my biggest supporters. It’d be too hard to never see them again, not even to say goodbye.”
I could tell how important her family was to her. If she would never see them again, she wanted to at least say goodbye. The fact that she wanted to do that was proof of how dearly she was raised.
“Will you be there when I go home?”
“Yes, if I’m allowed.”
“I’ll request it, even if someone says no. You’re my best friend. I want you to see me off. Say ‘see you later.’ And when I get back...”
“I’ll say welcome home.”
“Yeah.”
Making our small promise, we looked back up at the Cristallo Sacro.