One week had pa.s.sed since the Savage had attacked the Gutenburg Kingdom within the Britannia territory.
The children around me, every single one of them, were calling out for their mamas and papas – the ones who didn’t return – while sobbing.
I was the same.
Having lost my relatives in the Savage attack, I kept saying “Mama, Mama…” while I shed tears and hugged my knees in a corner of the inst.i.tute that all the children, who had become orphans, had been accommodated in.
I knew that I’d never see her again.
My mama had died protecting me from the downpouring rubble.
Even though I had still been very young at the time, I had been able to perceive the concept of ‘death’.
And yet, to flee from that harsh and painful reality, I kept repeating ‘Mama’ many times over.
I recalled her smiling face, it could make me happy if even for just an instant.
But before long loneliness came hunting me down again…
I called her again.
Tears followed and fell down from my face.
When this repeated again, I could hear voices telling each other to give their best together from now on.
It were small children who had formed a ring and encouraged each other.
I gazed at and envied them.
I had no one to console me, no one to tell me to live and give my all together with them.
Not only that, I didn’t even have an acquaintance in this country.
It was due to the Savage attack having taken place in the middle of accompanying my mama, a pianist, and hence coming to Gutenburg.
But someone raised their voice at the lonesome me.
“Can I talk to you about something, if you don’t mind? We both don’t know anyone here and we’ve got time to spare…”
I raised my face in surprise.
The hair and skin color of the boy that was being reflected in my eyes was a little yellow-ish, he seemed to be from the same country of origin like my mother, born and raised in the Yamato Empire.
And that boy lead a girl, not much younger than I, by the hand. she had the same hair color and looked just like him.
When I thought that they were probably siblings, the boy introduced her.
“That here’s my little sister Karen. C’mon, Karen, greet her.”
However, the girl who had been introduced as Karen got frightened by the situation and hid herself behind his back – it didn’t seem like she’d come out. Even when he told her to, she only shook her head left and right, and didn’t even try to comply. Even though he displayed a behavior as if shocked by that outcome, the boy, again, shifted his gaze towards me.
“My bad, she’s just really shy. If you’re alright with it, would you tell me your name?”
“Sakura.”
I replied.
“Sakura, huh? Were you born in Yamato, too? Though, you don’t look like that…”
It was only natural for him to think that, as my hair and skin color weren’t at all typically Asian.
“My Papa is Russian and my Mama from Yamato, so…”
When I said that, my mama’s smiling face floated across my mind and before I knew it, I was moved to tears.
“Ah, that’s… sorry… It’s no time to talk about that, I guess.”
The boy, who displayed some fl.u.s.tered behavior, started to feel for something inside his bag, which he had been holding in his hands.
“Is there something you like? If there’s something you want, I can give you anything, you know?”
“…Mama…”
Even though he had meant all kinds of sweets he could’ve taken out of his bag, I had said this. I hadn’t meant to be unkind to him or anything. It was just that nothing but that had crossed my mind.
As a matter of course, a troubled expression floated on his face.
“Ehm, maybe something else?”
“Songs…”
It was the next thing that came to my mind.
“…Songs?”
I nodded.
“Songs… like, singing? What song?”
“The song my Mama played for me. When I was sad, or happy, my mum would play that song to me.”
“If that’s so, then sing it for us. Once we know it, we can probably sing it too, so we could sing it together.”
“That’s… impossible…”
“Why? Is it that hard?”
“Because Mama created that song for my sake…”
It was all that I had left from her – an important treasure.
“Your mother made a song for you?”
“She was a pianist…”
“Then sing that song for us.”
“Eh…”
“Doing something like making a song is amazing, isn’t it? I want to try and hear it. Is that no good?”
“That’s not really it…”
It made me happy to hear that my mother was amazing.
They wanted to hear the song of that amazing mother of mine.
So I suddenly started to sing it.
A gentle song – like a lullaby.
It was the first time that I sang by myself and I shed tears many times over while I did, but I was able to properly sing it until the end.
“Wasn’t that great?!”
The boy applauded, *pachipachi*.
“Is that… so…?”
“I don’t know about music too well, but I still think so. How ’bout you, Karen? Don’t you think the same?”
Karen also agreed with a nod.
“I think you’re good.”
It was the first time that I heard the voice of his little sister.
“Eeehm, so it’s that kinda feeling, right…”
When the boy started to sing, his sister immediately pouted her lips.
“Nii-san, your tone, it’s off.”
His tone certainly was off.
“If that’s the case, try singing it yourself, alright?”
The moment he said that, she suddenly began to sing.
It was a very clear and pretty voice.
“Oh, isn’t that quite promising too?”
After the boy voiced his surprise with a round mouth, he also started to sing again, as if trying to chase her. However, their voices didn’t chime together well.
The boy’s voice was just too delayed.
“Nii-san, tone-deaf…”
“I’m just a bit clumsy.”
I unintentionally laughed at their exchange.
At the same time I realized it.
It had been the first time since I was separated from my mama that I was able to laugh.
Then I sang together with them…
After three hours all three of us were finally able to harmonize well. We cheered with a ‘Yay’ and laughed together.
I don’t know what happened to those siblings after that.
The day after we had met, I was taken into custody by my father, which I couldn’t recall to have met before, and left the inst.i.tution.
Naturally, I never met those siblings again, but I never forgot about that day.
Thanks to that day, I came to love singing and I was able to find a purpose to live and some kind of way to fight in this world.
Thanks to them, I had been able to overcome all the hardships in my way.