By Zephyria “Y-you’re… not… here….”
“Signe.”
“You said… sister….”
“Signe, get up now.”
Leonardo rubbed his dry face and called out to her repeatedly as she mumbled in her sleep. But Signe, who was lying on the bench with her legs stretched out, only frowned and muttered something, showing no sign of opening her eyes. Leonardo, who had been shaking her shoulder, hesitated for a moment and then tapped her cheek with the back of his hand.
“I won’t take responsibility if you’re late for your enlistment time?”
“She probably won’t wake up if you do it that way.”
At that moment, a shadow approached Leonardo. He was struggling to hold the military pack that Signe had entrusted to him with both hands.
The station employee leaned the military pack against the bench in the station and leaned back, letting out a short sigh.
“I remember when she and her sister were playing together in the fields and fell asleep. At the time, I was a rookie station employee, so I was worried and went to look for them myself, and I remember it very vividly. No matter how much I tried to wake her up, she wouldn’t wake up, so I was worried that she had lost consciousness.”
“…Is that so?”
“Yes. She’s always been a heavy sleeper, but… I didn’t know she would be like this even when she grew up.”
He looked down at Signe with a helpless look. Then, he shook off the blood that had been cut off by the heavy military pack.
“If you don’t mind, can I try to wake her up?”
“Of course.”
Leonardo nodded readily and moved aside. Then, the station employee, who had bent over, brought his face closer to Signe, who was lying on the bench. There was no time to stop the two from getting closer than necessary. He whispered softly into Signe’s ear.
“Signe, if you don’t wake up, your sister will leave you behind.”
It was a strange incantation.
Leonardo stared at the station employee with a dumbfounded look. He thought it was ridiculous to do that to a grown woman.
But at that moment, Signe’s mumbling stopped in an instant. Her twitching eyelids also crumpled up. Seeing her react, Leonardo decided to watch the station employee’s actions a little longer.
The moment the word ‘sister’ flowed out of his mouth again, Signe’s eyelids flashed open.
“Huh—.”
“She’s awake.”
The station employee pulled back his upper body with a satisfied expression. Then, he shrugged his shoulders at Leonardo.
“I used to use this method often, and it still works well. The next train is scheduled to pass through the station in about 30 minutes, so I’ll issue two tickets right away. I’ll have to contact the conductor in advance to stop the train. I’ll be back in a minute, so please take good care of Signe.”
“Ah, yes. Thank you.”
After briefly conveying the message, the station employee returned to the station office to get the tickets. Leonardo, who had been following his back, turned his eyes back to Signe. He grabbed her shoulders and shook them lightly while leaning against the back of the bench.
“Signe, are you feeling better?”
Just in time, Signe, who had sprung up, looked around. Leonardo barely moved his body back to avoid a collision.
“…Where’s, where’s my sister?”
While scolding her for revealing her sis-con tendencies even in the midst of her confusion, Leonardo picked up the canteen that was stuck on the side of the military pack.
“How can you not even flinch once while coming all the way here?”
He naturally opened the lid and handed it to Signe, who was spaced out. Signe blinked her eyes, recognized her own canteen, and reflexively accepted it. But she didn’t drink the water. She just looked around with a blank expression.
After a while, she realized that the sister in her dream was a hallucination and asked in a locked voice.
“Is this… a station?”
“Yeah, I brought you here. I went to look for you earlier and you were collapsed in a place like a backyard. Do you know how surprised I was?”
“Collapsed? Me?”
Signe, who had asked back in surprise, moved her lips and moistened her dry mouth with the water from the canteen. Even so, she diligently scanned the neat floor of the station with her wide eyes. She also looked back at the large glass window in the back.
Leonardo picked up the beret that had fallen to the floor as Signe stood up. After dusting it off with his hands, he tossed it to her and added.
“My Divine Beast suddenly returned to Magic Power, so I went to the place it remembered last. But you were lying on a stone chair near there. At first, I thought something was wrong because you weren’t breathing, so I immediately carried you out… If I had known I was just going to hear you sleep-talking, I wouldn’t have come so urgently.”
Leonardo grabbed his stiff neck and turned it from side to side. He didn’t feel anything when Signe said her body was heavy, but when he carried her on his back, who was affected by gravity, he could indirectly experience the strong gravity of this area.
When he suddenly picked up her body, thinking something was wrong, it felt like he was carrying a rock weighing over 300 kg. The pressure was at its peak when he had just left the castle, and he felt like it was getting lighter as he gradually approached the station. It was the moment when he understood Signe’s actions, who had been struggling while moving towards the castle. At the same time, he also realized that her stamina was by no means weak.
Fortunately, the way back was surprisingly smooth. As soon as Leonardo stepped out of the castle, he faced the very stone tablet that he had been solving riddles with Signe.
He hurriedly ran back the way he had come with Signe on his back. The grass was lying on the ground, so it was relatively easy to find the marks. He didn’t even walk after crossing the stone bridge over the stream. He immediately used Teleport to lay her down on the station bench and asked the station employee for help, such as checking the stock of CPR and oxygen respirators.
Clearly, both of them were in a very serious situation. Until he heard her sleep-talking as if she was fighting with her sister. Leonardo, who was recalling the return process with a short sigh, sat down next to Signe.
“Anyway, are you hurt anywhere? Why were you doing that there? Did something happen?”
Just in time, Signe, who had drunk all the water in the canteen, rubbed her mouth with the back of her hand and stared blankly at him. Then, she frowned and looked down at her upper body, stroking her chest and abdomen with her palms.
“Uh… I don’t think I’m hurt anywhere…. I don’t really know why I collapsed. I’ve never collapsed in my life… Did I just fall asleep?”
“If fatigue accumulates, that can happen. But, it’s a big deal if you lose consciousness carelessly in a space you don’t even know. You were the one who said you were afraid of running into treasure hunters or something, right? I even gave you a Divine Beast, but how did you two get separated—.”
“What? Afraid? When did I say that? I never said that? More than that, what are you talking about Divine Beast since earlier? And what stone chair?”
“I’m talking about the guy I sent with you. The chair is long and made of stone…. Hey, don’t you even remember where you were lying down?”
Leonardo, who was explaining, asked back in a frustrated tone. Then, Signe’s gaze returned to the fields and lakes spread out like a painting beyond the huge glass window. Beyond the hills that the two had crossed, there was a lot of fog again.
“Where I was lying down?”
Leonardo also followed the end of her gaze. Clearly, the scenery around him that he had seen inside the castle was so clear and bright that there were only one or two clouds floating around, let alone fog. But when he came outside, Romance was once again covered in a thick curtain, and its traces could not be found from the outside.
As if trying to remain a legend in the rumors, it seemed to be deliberately attracting fog to conceal its existence.
However, Signe didn’t seem to have any questions about such things at all.
“Why can’t I remember well? Am I still not fully awake….”
She basically knew what a Divine Beast made of Magic Power was, but she seemed to have forgotten that she had moved with the Divine Beast. No, she continued to make statements that seemed to obscure not only the fact that she had entered the castle in the first place, but also the process of approaching the answer to the riddle.
“Didn’t we keep wandering between the fields and the lake? There was a stone chair there… Ah, are you talking about a stone slab or a stone bridge or something?”
“……”
“I do remember lying down and using a stone slab as a pillow because I was so tired… Wow, I must have been really exhausted. I didn’t even realize I had passed out like that.”
Suddenly sensing something was off, Leonardo stopped talking and stared at her profile. Signe, looking apologetic for making him suffer, simply smoothed her short-cropped hair at the back of her head. She even asked, looking embarrassed, if she was too heavy, since she had gained a lot of weight recently from training her muscles.
Leonardo couldn’t help but feel a sense of unease at her actions. It was as if the middle part had been completely cut out, and Signe’s memory seemed to be stuck at the point when they were wandering in the fields.
‘What is this?’
Leonardo asked again, trying to confirm the extent of her awareness.
“Don’t you… remember that? A light suddenly appeared in the middle of the field, and we went to the castle together―”
“Four tickets to Belmeyer Port, including the transfer ticket. Please get ready.”
Just then, the station employee who had issued the tickets approached them again. The employee, as if used to it, shook Signe’s coin purse and handed it to her. Leonardo instinctively shut his mouth.
“I took the fare myself. You need to take better care of your wallet.”
“Oh, uh…”
Signe, receiving the wallet from the station employee, fumbled through the pockets of her military uniform with a bewildered look. Pickpockets were rampant on the train, but she hadn’t even noticed that her wallet was missing. The employee smiled gently and entrusted the four tickets in his hand to Leonardo.
“Anyway, you’re still sleeping like a log. You would have been in big trouble if it weren’t for your friend here. It’s always good to come and enjoy the scenery, but it would be a problem if you overslept and were late for your enlistment.”
Signe, responding with an awkward smile, suddenly looked at the military watch on her wrist. After staring at it for a while, she almost jumped up after about 20 seconds.
“Oh, when did it get so late?”
Startled, Signe closed the lid of her empty canteen, stuffed it into her backpack, and hurriedly shouldered the heavy pack. The station employee reassured her, saying that there was still time before the train arrived, so she should take her time.
“Theo, I’m sorry, but I think I have to go now!”
Leonardo raised an eyebrow and watched her. He was just as bewildered. Her reaction was so transparent that he couldn’t suspect she was acting, which caused confusion in his perception.
Then, his gaze turned to the ancient castle hidden far away in the mist. A mysterious gift for the Sun.
Everything that had happened inside felt like a dream. If it weren’t for the note from that guy in his pocket, he would have definitely mistaken it for one.