A woman carrying a baby was racing through the capital of the kingdom.
She knocked on the door of a private house and cried, “Please share the Miracle with me. My baby is ill. It’s to save her, please… Even a drop.”
There was no answer from within. The woman immediately raced to the next house. She knocked on the door and cried, “The Miracle…”
This time, she did get a reply.
“We’ve got no Miracle to share with you!” a man yelled.
The woman carrying the baby went around to different houses, one after another.
“Please, please…”
But nobody would share the Miracle.
Eventually, her feet came to a stop.
“Ahh…” She crumpled on the street. The baby had died in her arms.
The mother’s wails echoed through the midday.
The people walking along the streets pitied the mother.
“The poor woman…”
“If she’d just had the Miracle…”
“It’s because of that foolish Queen Kriemhild.”
“What a useless ruler, not even able to create the Miracle…”
Five years had passed since Warren’s death.
The Miracle, which had once been used widely in the kingdom, had now long since become rare.
A man and woman were gazing at the mother whose child had died.
“What an awful sight to see…”
It was Anima. Over the course of five years, he had grown into a tall man.
At Anima’s side was Brunhild. Her characteristic sickly pallor hadn’t changed since back then. But perhaps because she was now grown, her pale skin had an unchastely bewitching edge to it.
Brunhild said, “…I sometimes wonder if what we did might have been a mistake.”
Anima listened in silence.
“If we had left things to Warren, then perhaps that baby would not have had to die. There would still have been lots of the Miracle in this kingdom. How many tragedies like that are there now?”
“It’s not only this kingdom that’s like that.” Anima disagreed with Brunhild’s timid speculation. “It’s sad for someone to die of illness. But that’s an ordinary event. This kingdom has just gone back to normal. I think this would have happened sooner or later, anyhow.”
“So then can you say what we did wasn’t a mistake?”
“No, it’s for a different reason that I think what we did wasn’t a mistake.”
Anima looked at Brunhild and said, “If Warren had won, then neither of us would be alive.”
Brunhild smiled wryly. “If you put it that way…then that’s true.”
But Brunhild quickly realized something strange. “In that fight, even if Warren had won, I don’t think you would have died.”
Warren had injured Anima, but Brunhild recalled him saying that once the battle was over, he would heal his wounds.
But Anima said, “No, if Warren had won, then Anima would have died. I think I would have gone back to my old name and succeeded his role as guardian of the kingdom. I’m not strong enough that I could resist a monster like Warren on my own.”
After a brief silence, Brunhild asked, “Hey, Anima.”
“What?”
“I can keep calling you Anima from now on, right?”
“I don’t want to go back to my old name at this point. I’m not used to getting called Sigurd…” Cheeks slightly reddened, he continued, “Besides, I like the name Anima. It means nameless in the old language. It’s cool…”
Brunhild pointed at him and laughed. “I thought it was a strange name, though.”
Now he really did go red, hanging his head.
After walking awhile together, Brunhild and Anima parted ways at a crossroads. After all, the two of them had just run into each other in town by chance today.
Before separating, Brunhild told Anima, “Just so you know, Kriemhild wants your strength. She has many enemies within the kingdom and without right now. She’s said she’ll pay you handsomely.”
These past five years, Kriemhild had tried to offer Anima a cordial welcome at every opportunity. She felt the old royal family should never have fallen to begin with, and she wanted to make up for what had happened.
But Anima had rejected her every time. He still continued to.
“I will decline most respectfully. I realized five years ago. I don’t have what it takes to be a hero, after all.”
Five years ago, he had fought Warren with the magic spear.
Anima didn’t want to experience the pain and fear of that moment ever again.
“It’s enough for me to have a normal life… You know that I’m the town doctor now. I wanted to help people in trouble now that the Miracle is gone. I get to feel useful to people, and every day is fun.”
“I’m sure that’s true. Then I’ll send Kriemhild the message that you’ve refused again.”
Finally, Anima said to Brunhild softly, “I’m glad I could see you looking well today.”
After watching Anima vanish back into the town, Brunhild headed for the castle.
More precisely, she was headed to a grave behind the royal castle.
It was a grave on top of a hill. There was a nice view, and you could see all of the capital from there.
It was five years ago today that they had killed Warren.
It was also five years ago today that the amber dragon had died.
The amber dragon’s body was carefully buried in a grave behind the castle. No matter how busy Brunhild was with her work as the queen’s aide and as a jeweler, she came to this grave frequently.
<Bernstein.>
Brunhild offered amber-colored flowers in front of the grave and spoke to it—in a voice humans wouldn’t hear.
<It’s only a bit, but lately…I think I’ve come to understand what you said once about people’s foolishness.>
Brunhild was going around the kingdom returning the sealed dragons to human form.
She didn’t receive much thanks for it. As Anima had anticipated, the discrimination toward those who had lived as dragons ran deep. Brunhild was making efforts to do away with it, but right now, things weren’t going well.
There were many times when she felt like the harsh criticism would break her.
But even so, she would not stop freeing the dragons.
<Everywhere I go, there are people who offer me love.>
It was just a few, but there were those who thanked her—the dragons who could return to human form, and those people who were secretly close with the dragons.
Those people would tell her, “Thank you.”
Times like that made her realize her own—if modest—affection for people.
<If I could talk with you again, maybe I could keep up with an adult like you now.>
Brunhild looked up at the clear blue of the sky.
It was right as a great bird flew overhead.
<I’d like to walk through the town with you again.>
Her Dragon’s Tongue vanished in the wind, heard by no one.
As she was visiting the grave, someone came to talk to her.
“Sister.”
She turned around to find Kriemhild was behind her.
Brunhild thought she must have been visiting Warren’s grave. His body was buried in the same graveyard. Brunhild wouldn’t visit his grave, but Kriemhild would.
Brunhild saw her sister and said, “I’m glad you’re well. I thought you would be thinner.”
Since Kriemhild had become queen, it had been a string of ordeals.
She had announced to the people of the kingdom that they could no longer make the Miracle. With this alone, Kriemhild could not avoid being accused of being a poor ruler. Kriemhild had not revealed the secret of the Miracle’s manufacturing these past decades to the people, so she couldn’t explain herself. She’d made the decision with greater concern for the hearts of the people than for justifying herself. They wouldn’t want to know the truth—they had been drinking medicine made from corpses. And then there was also the fear that people would become unwilling to drink what Miracle was left.
The queen took all the blame onto herself.
But Kriemhild wore a peaceful expression that gave no sense she was suffering. “There have been struggles, but when I get to see you, it gives me energy.”
“I’m worried about you, Kriemhild. Take care of yourself.”
“I’m all right. I won’t make the mistake of making myself ill. It’s for the kingdom’s future.”
“Most of all,” she said, stroking her swelling belly, “it’s for my child…”
Kriemhild was pregnant.
Her husband was the king of a friendly nation. The marriage had been arranged as proof of their alliance, in order to resist invasion from foreign nations. While the queen had married in order to protect the people, the people had not understood her motives. They said all sorts of things about her—that she was a whore sold to a foreign nation, and that she had dirtied the Siegfried family line.
But even being so vilified, Kriemhild paid no mind.
Because that would protect the people’s peace.
The fact was that thanks to the alliance Kriemhild had built, attacks from foreign nations had greatly decreased.
Brunhild’s expression was a little dark as she said, “There was no need for you to go so far as to marry.”
“There was. I’m the queen, after all.”
“But even so, a political marriage…”
“Ahh, you’ve been going around curing dragons and turning them human, so you wouldn’t know.”
Kriemhild smiled happily. “It’s a political marriage, but we love each other, too.”
The king in question knew of Kriemhild’s devotion and had offered his support.
Having met a partner who would properly love her was certainly a rare happiness for this queen of many ordeals.
Kriemhild had the face of a mother as she stroked her stomach, her baby sleeping inside, with loving hands.
With that, Brunhild belatedly realized—Without me even realizing…you’ve grown beyond the need for my protection.
Before her was not a sister she had to protect.
She was a worthy queen.
That made her glad, and a little sad.
Gazing at Kriemhild’s stomach, Brunhild said, “Let’s make this a kingdom where that child can live happily.”
Brunhild felt that now it was her turn to protect children.
“Yes,” Kriemhild said with a nod.
She looked down at the kingdom from the hill. Gazing at the changing kingdom, she said, “Even if I cannot make the Kingdom of Eternity…”
After that, Kriemhild would rule the kingdom despite being vilified as a foolish ruler.
She spent her whole life devoted to the kingdom’s prosperity, but the people never understood her love.
There never came a second queen in that kingdom crowned with the name of Kriemhild.
The name came to mean an uncommonly foolish ruler and was thought to be unlucky.
The dishonor would persist until her dying day and ever after.
The policies Kriemhild had enacted would become the foundation that supported the kingdom now that it no longer received the blessings of the First Queen, and this was not even known by scholars of later generations. Through the contrivances of those who hated the queen, Kriemhild’s accomplishments were attributed to other queens.
Kriemhild’s love became a sorrowful glimmer that was lost in the annals of the kingdom’s history.
A fleeting twinkle, known only to her.