Chapter 9 (3 - 1)
When she came to herself, Alicia was atop a hill under a countless number of twinkling stars.
(This place is…?)
After she had confirmed she was wearing a plain dress and standing on soft gra.s.s with bare feet, Alicia surveyed her surroundings.
She calmly a.n.a.lysed that she was most likely inside a dream. After naming that man—Clovis Cromwell—as Aide-to-the-Princess, Alicia had immediately retired from the gathering.
She remembered receiving Fourier"s scolding for some time afterwards to not run in her dress, and then having a bath as Ani and Marsa a.s.sisted her, before finally collapsing onto her comfortable plush bed.
(Anyway, this is quite the strange place.)
Although Alicia seemed to be standing at the topmost point of the hill, the gentle plains at the hill"s feet spread far and wide as though never-ending. There was not a single tree growing in sight and needless to say there were no houses either. The world under the starry sky that looked as if it were descending was still and quiet without end; there was not even the sign of a single insect.
However if one were to call this dream, it was very much an unkind dream. As dreams from time to time will arbitrarily involve the progression of a story, and do not do things like leave you at a complete loss as to what to do after abandoning you in an empty place.
"If I have made you feel helpless, I"m sorry. Making a cute lady feel uneasy, I fail at being a gentleman."
A friendly voice suddenly sounded nearby, causing Alicia to literally fly up. Bathed in the starlight, her radiant hair swayed as she turned around to look. Without even realising it this whole time, there, stood a young boy.
The boy was completely light in colour. With fine soft-looking hair that could just barely be called gold, his gentle eyebrows that gave off an amiable impression as well as the long eyelashes that framed his eyes were all the same golden colour.
It was much more agreeable to say his white gla.s.sy skin was made of porcelain from the East, which together with his extraordinary good looks, bestowed the young boy with a mystifying and enigmatic quality that was otherworldly.
But just where did this boy materialise from? After all, Alicia was supposed to have been the only person in this place where there was nothing to hide oneself with.
"Wasn"t it you who decided this world was inside your dreams? Also, I"ve been near you since a while ago now."
"You—you can read what I"m thinking!?"
As she exclaimed in a shocked voice, the young boy covered his mouth as he spoke, "Oops, I"ve said too much."
"…By the way, I got quite tired of waiting, you know, for the time you"d come meet me again like this. I"m really glad you"ve recovered your memories, even if they"re merely fragments."
"What are you saying? I"ve never met you."
"Really? Alicia, you don"t know me?"
How does he know my name…? She had already learnt within this short conversation that such a question was meaningless. No matter what the boy tried to say, Alicia did not have any otherworldly friends like him.
Just as she was about to refute his question, Alicia was startled into shutting her mouth.
The mult.i.tude of stars suspended in a deep indigo blue sky, a boundlessly vast gra.s.sy hill, and a mysterious young boy simply clothed from top to bottom without any patterns or ornamentation—
"I recognise this place…"
"Correct."
The young boy suddenly brought his hands together with a clap at the words that unconsciously spilled out of Alicia.
"I am an envoy of the stars. I am the one responsible for granting you a second chance at life."
A second chance at life. That was definitely what the boy had said.
"You refer to me as a boy, but I"m much older than you, you know. Besides, if you compare our appearances, the current you looks younger, no?"
As the Star Envoy fussed over a peculiar detail, Alicia turned the words "a second chance at life" over and over in her head in deep thought, before nervously opening her mouth to speak.
"So, it"s as I suspected, that dream I saw…"
"Of course, it was real. You see, you did die that night. And then under the guidance of the Guardian Star, you appeared before me. Here in this place, that is."
Alicia instantly grasped at her chest, feeling pain from a wound that was not supposed to exist. Seeing this, the Star Envoy let out a troubled laugh.
"You"re fine. Based on your contract with me, the future events remaining in your memories—ahh, that"s right…you called it your ‘past life", didn"t you? I ended up making all of that non-existent."
"My contract with you…?"
"Yes, contract."
When the Star Envoy mentioned "contract", a gust of wind soundlessly rushed through the s.p.a.ce between the two. Buffeted by wind, for a moment Alicia felt like she could see a single line thinner than thread connecting the boy and herself.
"I also introduced myself to you last time, but it appears that part of your memory did not return. So, once again, I am an envoy of the stars. The incarnation of this country"s Guardian Star, speaking of which, I wonder if I"ve said this too quickly…?"
"By Guardian Star, do you mean the one that bestowed Heilland to the founding King Estel?"
"If there exists another Guardian Star then by all means please introduce it to me. Even I will become jealous when two-timed though."
Anecdotes surrounding Heilland"s first King—the founding King Estel—comprised mostly of content that made one feel as though they were thrusting a foot into myth. Among these anecdotes was one that was particularly detached from the real world, namely the part about "The Contract with the Guardian Star" which concerned the founding of the nation.
Since her father, Advisor Otto and teachers had taken turns to repeat it to her, even Alicia who disliked studying could as expected still remember the story concerning the nation"s founding.
Several hundred years ago still prior to the founding of Heilland, a large-scale persecution against pagans and heretics suddenly broke out on the continent. At that time, a certain religion held power, and lords who did not pledge their loyalty to the Supreme Priest were labelled as "evil pagans" and oppressed.
Now, in the Princ.i.p.ality of Chester which would become the foundation of Heilland, the mainstream religion was "Astromancy" or the belief that one could use the movement of stars, revered as the incarnations of G.o.ds, to divine the future. For that reason, Lord Estel Chester led his people with the aim of finding a new land to live on in order to protect them from religious suppression.
"And at last, Estel finally arrived at Heilland. It had been completely untouched, the weather mostly rainy or snowy, and the land was barren and sterile that even trees were difficult to grow."
I love it though, the Star Envoy had added