“What I do?”
“Your job!”
“My job?”
He tilted his head to one side, like a prince or princess who had never needed to consider what they would do for a living because their position in life was decided at birth. Primrose responded in exasperation:
“Right. Your job, your occupation. What do you do that makes you go around like this? I need to hear that before deciding whether to help you or not.”
“Hmmmmmm.”
“A clown? An actor? Is that why you wear such clothes? Or are you insane? Just a drifter? Is there anything you know how to do?”
Even as Primrose bombarded him with questions, he did not appear flustered. He simply fell into calm thought before opening his mouth again.
“Well. I don’t really have a special job…”
Right, so he was insane.
My first love was a pretty lunatic.
Just when I was about to accept that, that pretty lunatic smiled and kept talking.
“If I had to say, I knew a little magic?”
At that moment, had I been sitting in the middle of the forest instead of standing, I would have slapped my knee.
Yes. A wizard!
He was a wizard. That was why his appearance in armor seemed awkward and precarious. A flowing robe would suit him better. Such a playful manner of speaking likely hid a tremendous power.
Seeing all that glitter, I started to suspect that perhaps he dealt in light-based magic. Now that I thought about it, his pale blue eyes looked deep, like those of the sages from the magic towers. I fell for him once again.
However, Primrose seemed to have different thoughts. She did not so much as bat an eye at his abundant charm but glared sharply and spoke.
“Then prove it.”
“…Prove it?”
“Yes. I can’t trust you unless I see some evidence. Here, heal my sister’s leg.”
“Hmm, so you limped too, little one. But healing magic wasn’t my specialty…”
Primrose shot back before I could say I was fine.
“Then levitate yourself. If you’re hurt and can’t do that, lift that rock into the air. That should be simple, right?”
“Hmm. I could cast teleportation magic, but here it’s a bit difficult.”
“What’s so hard about that? Our Aunt Marilyn could do minor teleportation spells, and she isn’t even a registered wizard.”
“Aunt Marilyn? The one who raised you? Then she must be remarkable indeed. Teleportation magic was trickier than one would think. Because it involves physical objects…”
“Enough. Stop talking in circles. Don’t think you can fool us just because we look young. You think we’d believe you’re harmless just because you act nice? You’re a drifter with no job—how’d you even get in here? You can only come through Uncle Shawn’s magic passage under his store, you know.”
“So that’s where the opening in the barrier was.”
“I don’t care if it’s a ‘barrier’s opening’ or what. That’s what we did. Except for you. Nobody knows of a smaller exit around the barrier. But you yanked it aside and walked right in.”
The more I heard, the more it sounded like exactly what a wizard might do. Also, if this forest-sprite-like wizard was truly bad, he shouldn’t have told us everything about the western forest like that…. Yet Primrose did not seem to reach that conclusion.
She continued pouring questions at him, driving him into a corner without pause. He listened quietly, showing no hint of annoyance. Only after Primrose paused to catch her breath did he finally answer:
“My dear, that’s because…”
“Right, hurry up and answer. Who exactly are you? How did you get in here?”
“It’s because I created this forest.”
“…What did you say?”
My sister and I spoke at the same time. He smiled warmly, like an angel, and explained slowly.
“You asked how I knew how to pull back the barrier and enter, yes? That was because I was the one who built the barrier around this forest.”
His voice was so calm that Primrose’s grew louder in response.
“That’s impossible. This barrier is strong enough to keep monsters from roaming here!”
“Hmm, when a wall goes up, it’s difficult to break through it, right?”
“Don’t lie. The one who set up the barrier here was a great wizard. He hid this place so well that nobody ever found the western forest.”
“Hmm, I was planning to settle here forever. That way it would be safe, wouldn’t it?”
“What are you talking about, seriously. That nameless grand wizard even locked the seasons in here. He kept the cold away. That was… that was a truly difficult thing to do.”
“Well now, child. Such things were simpler than you imagined. It was much easier than lifting and moving a rock at the boundary sealed by the barrier. All I had to do was hold time still for a bit.”
Yes, Aunt.
He really said that.
He spoke of encircling the entire forest with a barrier, binding time and trapping it inside, like clutching the collar of a friend who was about to go home. It sounded so easy that, strangely enough, every word seemed true.
Apparently, I was not the only one who thought so. My sister was so taken aback, she fell silent as well. After a brief hush, he was the first to speak.
“Well then, do you think you could bring me some water now?”
“Just hold still. I’m thinking.”
When my sister shouted, as if to brush him off, he smiled broadly as though delighted by her outburst.
“You have such spirit. You resemble someone I know.”
While my sister barked at him to stop spouting nonsense, I quickly grabbed the bottle of goat’s milk and offered it to him.
“Here. It’s not water, but please drink this.”
My sister glared at us with a fearsome expression. I pretended not to notice. He was too busy gulping down the milk to pay attention anyway.
A moment later, he returned the bottle and spoke.
“Thank you, child. It tasted wonderful.”
“It tasted different because it’s goat’s milk, not regular milk. It smells and tastes totally different. My sister hates its smell and refuses to drink it, but I think that’s such a spoiled complaint—well, that’s my ‘opinion.’”
I tried hard to sound grown-up. Perhaps my effort showed, because he asked kindly:
“That’s quite an interesting opinion. My dear child, you, and that tall one over there with the big voice—might you tell me both your names?”
“You think I’d just tell you that?”
“I’m Hyacinth. Hyacinth Blossom. My sister is Primrose.”
My sister and I spoke almost at the same time. When she yelled, “Hey!” he let out a small laugh.
“What lovely names. Primrose and Hyacinth.”
My sister still panted in anger, but now that his thirst was quenched, he grew even more carefree and slowly changed the subject.
“Hyacinth, there were children in this world with sharp enough eyes to notice at once that my armor had no flaws, like you.”
He must have overheard my sister and me bickering earlier. Feeling embarrassed to have quarreled so loudly in front of this flower-like person, I lowered my head. He went on.
“There were also people like your sister, sensitive to smell.”
“Then you, Sir Knight, um… Mr. Wizard, what were you sensitive about?”
“Hmm, let me see. I… was sensitive to fear. Like your sister.”
My sister did not argue with that statement. She did not protest, did not move, and acted as though she had not heard him at all. Only I could tell that her hand on my shoulder trembled slightly.
For some reason, I felt I should defend her, so I spoke in a small voice.
“She kept suspecting you, Wizard, just because she worried about me.”
“Yes indeed. I wasn’t blaming Primrose. Being cautious is a good thing. Especially when you’re young and alone in a strange place like this.”
“Do you really think so?”
“Yes. I felt your sister was protecting you well.”
“You think throwing around a few pretty words would make me trust you?”
Primrose still spoke bluntly. Aunt, looking back, it was all so strange. As you know, my sister easily opened her heart to all sorts of boys. So why did she bristle only toward him?
Of course, part of it was that I was with her, and she wanted to protect me.
Yet that did not quite explain it all. She usually faced men much bigger than she was without a shred of fear, acting as though she could control everything.
What about him frightened her?
I did not know. But now I suspect that maybe she sensed on some instinctive level that he would see right through her heart.
After all, that sparkling wizard asked as if he possessed mind-reading powers:
“So, Primrose. Tell me—what frightened you so much? I’m not even in good shape, and I just sat here. I only asked for water and told you everything. If you were truly afraid, you could have run away any time. You could have dashed off. But you didn’t. You were curious about me. So you were like Hyacinth, a child who couldn’t resist her own curiosity…”
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