[Episode 152] - Me and Veronica (2)
Dreamlike times always pass terribly quickly. The time we spent swimming through the sea had slipped by before we knew it, and soon the sun had begun to sink low over the shore.
Only when the sunset came did I emerge from the water. Wringing out my soaked clothes as though doing laundry, I looked at Veronica standing beside me. Veronica swept her drenched hair back behind her ear.
“Pfft.”
“Pffft.”
The moment our eyes met, laughter burst out for no reason at all. After all, despite how ill-suited they were to the situation, the fish we had caught were dangling from both Veronica’s hands and mine.
At first, swimming through the sea had definitely been the main point. Just watching the sea cucumbers wriggling along the bottom, or the schools of fish passing by, had been a truly wondrous and beautiful experience.
But at some point, hunting for dinner had become the main event. As time went on, sentimentality dwindled, and appetite filled the empty space it left behind. The fish that swam past as if tempting us every time they passed...
The problem was that plump, oily fish kept swimming right in front of me, as if asking to be eaten. How delicious would those fish be if we roasted them over a campfire?
Roasted over a campfire, the oil would drain away, and the skin would turn crispy, filling my mouth with a pleasant sound every time I bit down. And it would not be only sound that filled my mouth.
With every bite, the plump, fattened fish would surely be springy between my teeth. On top of that, whenever I chewed the white flesh dripping with oil, the juices would fill my mouth like biting into beef.
‘That sounds delicious...’
After imagining that, I grabbed Veronica’s hand and began hunting the fish we would eat for dinner. Every time the number of fish we caught increased, I could feel my mouth watering even though we were underwater.
Normally, what with being royalty or nobility or whatever else, I rarely got to have a warm meal. So surely fish roasted piping hot over a campfire would be one of the most delicious things I had eaten in this life.
After running around underwater like that, we caught four fish. All of them were nice, plump ones. Now that we had even come out of the water, all that remained was to roast them and eat them.
Once I had dried myself off to some extent, I grabbed Veronica’s hand and started running across the sandy beach. To build a campfire, we needed to gather firewood, and we had to clean the fish too.
“Veronica, hurry! Hurry!”
“...And who exactly is the child here?”
*
The crackling sound of sparks rang out across the sandy beach. I had gathered firewood nearby, and the fish Veronica had cleaned were roasting deliciously over the campfire, dripping oil.
Sitting on the mat laid out on the sand with my knees hugged to my chest, I stared blankly at the flames rising from the campfire and the fish cooking nicely. I was hungry too, but the biggest problem was—
“Are you sleepy, or are you hungry?”
“...Both.”
Thanks to having gone around underwater during the day, my stamina had completely hit rock bottom. Fighting desperately against my eyelids, which kept drooping, I held on with the will to eat the fish even if I fell asleep right afterward.
Watching me bob my head up and down in an attempt not to fall asleep, Veronica giggled. Then she handed me one fully cooked fish skewer.
“You wanted to eat it that badly, didn’t you? Even if you fall asleep, eat first.”
“I’m not going to sleep...”
Taking the fish skewer Veronica handed me, I blew on it to cool the heat of the grilled fish, then took a big bite.
Yum, yum— munch, munch—
“It’s delicious...!”
“Is it?”
Veronica smiled pleasantly as she watched me eat the fish with relish. Then she picked up a well-cooked fish herself and took a big bite.
“It really is delicious.”
“Right?”
I looked at Veronica and smiled bashfully. At that, as if she had been waiting for it, Veronica wiped the area around my mouth with her palm. Her palm swept down as though pressing against my lips, then pulled away.
After wiping my mouth, Veronica showed me what had been on it. When I saw the black soot smeared across Veronica’s palm, I felt my face suddenly grow hot without realizing it.
“There was soot around your mouth.”
“...Th-thanks.”
“Is it so good that you’d get something like this all over your mouth?”
For some reason, feeling embarrassed, I nodded.
The grilled fish was certainly exactly the taste I had imagined. No, it was even better. The bones getting in the way was a little inconvenient, but even taking that into account, the fish roasted over the campfire was truly, terribly delicious.
We had not even seasoned the fish in particular, but somehow there was a sweetness to the flesh. A faint sweetness and a salty savor. The nutty, springy fish flesh was pleasantly chewy between my teeth.
Munch, munch— gobble, gobble—
By the time I came to my senses, the fish in my hand had already been reduced to only bones. The moment I took the next fish from the campfire and brought it to my mouth, Veronica smiled wickedly and began wiping my lips again.
Veronica’s palm cupped my cheek, and with her thumb, she began leisurely wiping the corners of my mouth. I did not like the way she was acting as if she were wiping a child’s mouth, but...
“Honestly... Is someone going to steal it from you?”
Veronica was somehow a little strange today. It was hard to explain in words, but she was a little different from her usual self. So for now, I decided to let Veronica do whatever she wanted.
After she finished wiping my mouth, Veronica smiled and showed me her palm, now stained pitch-black. As if all the soot on her palm had been stuck around my mouth.
Veronica waved her soot-blackened palm here and there, smiling at me in an annoyingly smug way. Had my face been that dirty? I felt my face flush hot with shame.
To hide the embarrassment and humiliation boiling up inside me, I pushed Veronica’s palm away with a tap, pouted, and complained to her in a muttering voice.
“Honestly... Stop treating me like a child. I can wipe it myself.”
“Hehe, sorry. You look too cute right now.”
“Cute...!”
At the word cute, the embarrassing sensation seemed to shoot all the way up to the top of my head, tickling my crown. Normally, neither Titania nor Veronica used the word “cute” toward me.
Because I had asked them so insistently not to treat me like a child. So they only treated me like I was cute by patting my head or hugging me, but neither of them had ever said the word cute to me out loud.
Was that why?
The moment I heard that one word, I became incredibly embarrassed.
‘I need to change the subject quickly. Otherwise, I might die of shame.’
With a shiver and an itchy feeling down my back, I let out a deep sigh before I knew it. Then, stamping my feet in place, I looked at Veronica. Veronica, who seemed a little different today.
I did not know exactly what was different, or why I felt that way, but surely this was the reason she had wanted to play with me alone. I met Veronica’s eyes and opened my mouth.
“...So, what is it you want to say to me? You created this situation where it’s just the two of us because there’s something you want to tell me, didn’t you?”
At my question, Veronica’s eyes widened in surprise, then her eyes drooped as she smiled bitterly. She lifted her head for a moment and looked at the night sky, then sighed and answered me.
“......You’re always quick to notice things like this. Even though you’re completely oblivious about everything else.”
“...It would be stranger not to notice this.”
“Is that so? Well, maybe it would.”
Veronica chuckled softly and gazed down at me. Seeing the sorrowful smile on her face as her eyes drooped, I could vaguely tell that what she was about to say would not be something good.
The warm, cheerful mood from just a moment ago sank in an instant. Like the dark night sea. Like the depths of the ocean where no sunlight reached, the atmosphere settled heavily. It truly felt as though I could not breathe.
After moving her lips like that, Veronica fell silent for a moment, then opened her mouth.
“...Vivian, if I were to leave your side, how do you think you would feel?”
“...What?”
*
As time went on, she could feel her body gradually becoming closer to that of a fairy. That was why Veronica knew. She knew that there truly was not much time left for her.
At some point, she had become able to use magic even without the dwarves, and the parts of her that had been human had begun to diminish. It was like the feeling of her body gradually growing hazy.
She was certain that if just a little more time passed, she would soon become a complete fairy. In the end, she would even lose her “humanity.”
Before that happened, she had to use the fairy egg and return to being a complete human. She had to use the fairy egg and engrave her body fully into this world.
Should it be called coincidence? After the “curse” contained within the fairy egg had passed to Vivian, refining the magical power inside the fairy egg had become tremendously faster.
So fast that all the magical power needed for the “experiment” gathered in an instant.
Now that the magical power had gathered, Veronica no longer had any reason, nor any time, to delay the experiment. All that was left was to begin the experiment.
But...
Veronica smiled bitterly and stroked Vivian’s cheek. With her fingertips, she slowly traced over Vivian’s face as though trying to remember it in its entirety.
‘Surely, once I begin the experiment, I won’t be able to see this face anymore.’
The experiment to return to being human was not something that would end after only one or two attempts. It was an experiment to create a new body while overwriting it with the information of herself in this world. No matter how exceptional the “fairy egg” was, it was a task that would take that much time.
On top of that, since she was being pursued by the Great Witch Morgan, the experiment had to be carried out in secret. She had to hide away, making sure she was not discovered. That would make it take even longer.
‘If it’s fast, it’ll take twenty years. If it’s slow, fifty. After fifty years, you’ll be eighty. When my experiment ends and I return, will you still be alive then?’
In truth, Veronica had not intended to ask Vivian in this way. She had only planned to notify her.
That she would leave her side.
That it could not be helped.
That she should live well with Titania.
But...
I kept feeling greedy, wanting to stay by your side.
If possible, I don’t want to leave you.
You, whom I finally met at the end of repeated regressions.
It seems I don’t want to let you go.
Even if it means giving up the wish I’ve held my entire life.
“...Vivian, if I were to leave your side, how do you think you would feel?”
This question was a cowardly desire to remain at your side, and a cowardly plea for you to hold on to me. It was a question that held the cowardly scheme of asking you to stop me from leaving and keep me beside you.
At my cowardly question, Vivian’s eyes widened as if she had been shocked. Her lips trembled faintly, and then she answered with an exhale, as though she could not believe it.
“...What?”
...You know, Vivian.
If seeing your face, shocked by my question, somehow made my heart race and made me feel happy...
Does that mean I’m strange?
Hm? Vivian?