The Book Of Letters

Benjamin was also busy counting down the hours till he was done with his volunteering service, so I had to do his deliveries in his stead. Lucas made him a part of the decorating committee, which Benjamin enjoyed being a part of it since he was a perfectionist. At the same time, Benjamin was allowed to use his jellyfish familiar, in order to fix his relationship with it. On my way back to the post office, I watched Benjamin and his committee hung some garlands from lamp post to lamp post, and saw Annie Hemmington walking down the streets with her astral projection sister, Sheena.

"You look like a ghost haunting yourself," I joked.

"I know," Sheena chuckled. "It freaks people out."

"How are you, Annie?" I then asked her sister.

"I am fine, thank you," Annie replied. "Mamoru helped me walk and write a letter to our father. We"re excited to see him coming for the Moonlight Fest."

"We"re just here to see the preparations for the festivity," Sheena added. "Our first festival together as a family. It"s going to be exciting."

That got me jealous. For as long as I could remember, I never went to a festival with my family. My mother was always busy tending the vampires at night and rest in the morning. A lot of things I had to through in my life and I was grateful that I met Aoko, but I couldn"t shake the feeling that my past is haunting me.

I waved goodbye to the girls and returned to the post office. Postmaster welcomed me back as he brought out another package from the mailroom. It was wrapped in silver paper, addressing to me. It was from my cousin, Shiroku Yume, all the way from Peony Town, Beastivo.

"I wonder what he brought me this time," I said. "Postmaster, could I leave it here until I finish the other deliveries?"

"Why, this is the last one," said Postmaster, handing me an ordinary package. "Gloxinia Town Elementary school are having a dance rehearsal for the festival, and these are the costumes they"re going to wear."

Shrinking things that came in bulk was a common thing to do to reduce shipping costs, and to us post officers it was something we were glad that they did. Although, shrunk objects have their time limit, depending on the size and amount, so they have to be delivered as soon as possible.

I went to the school"s auditorium where the rehearsal had already started. I peeked inside and saw Evangeline talking with an adult woman, who I a.s.sumed was the coach of the dance performance. Evangeline noticed my arrival and waved at me. The teacher also beckoned me to enter.

"I brought the costumes you ordered," I said to the coach.

"Wonderful!" the coach exclaimed. "Now we can start our full dress rehearsal. Evangeline, work on with the special effects."

"Oh, you"re on special effects?" I felt so proud.

Evangeline nodded. "They liked the magic show I did during Cafe Cabaret that they wanted me to create some effects during the festival. I"m still perfecting my magic but-"

The sound of boxes. .h.i.tting the floor interrupted us. There was a boy with violet hair and eyes staring at me, trembling with fear. "It… it"s you!"

"Daniel, what are you talking about?" Evangeline asked.

The boy pulled her away from me. "I saw him in my dream. He"s planning to terrorize the festival!"

"Mr. Kurai is a nice man," Evangeline said. "We know you"re an oracle but sometimes, your predictions can be off."

I approached the two, but the boy simply hid behind Evangeline. "I"m Kurai, a Special Task Postman here. Nice to meet you."

"See? If he wanted to terrorize the town, he would have done it when he first came here," Evangeline tried to convince Daniel. "Besides, Mr. Kurai is a non-magic user."

Daniel still had that doubtful look. I told Evangeline that I had to go back to the post office. I could feel Daniel"s glare even though my back faced towards them. I wasn"t sure what Daniel"s deal was, but for an oracle to say that, it got me worried.

At a very young age, an oracle"s prediction isn"t completely accurate for most of the time. This is due to a tendency of getting mixed up with their hyperactive imagination. Daniel"s case, that troubled me, was that we never met each other before until now.

When I got back to the post office, Postmaster had already prepared lunch. Sitting around the table in the lounge room was Postmaster, Piper, Percy, Benjamin, Lucas, Litmus and Mamoru.

"I know four of you are here for free lunch," I said when I went in.

"I"m here to keep an eye on Benjamin," said Lucas, taking a bite on his steak.

"I was offered to eat here," said Percy. "Can you pa.s.s me some salt?"

"Mamoru and I are here to finish up some leftovers," said Litmus, scooping up more mashed potatoes. "How was your day?"

I hung my jacket and hat before joining them. Lucas and Litmus scooted their chairs just to make s.p.a.ce for me. "I met this weird boy who thinks that I am going to terrorize the festival."

Lucas was about to pull out the handcuffs from his belt. "Are you going to?"

I rolled my eyes. "No, I won"t. It bugs me a little since he"s an oracle and all."

"Oh, I didn"t know there"s an oracle here," said Litmus. He probably thought about getting Sharon to meet the kid since she was looking for an oracle the other time.

"Are we talking about little Daniel?" Piper asked. "He is nothing to worry about. Last time he predicted that I was the one who caused a boat to overturn but I was only a witness."

"Or maybe you will cause a b.u.t.terfly effect during the festival," Benjamin said. "Like, you"ll start a chain reaction with stuffs, and that"ll flip over other stuffs and cause the entire stage to burn at some point. In that case, I would like you to avoid the decorations."

"I might as well stay at home during the festival," I sighed, munching on my peas.

"Do not be discouraged, Kurai," said Postmaster. "I know you are curious as to what you will trigger during the festival, and you want to avoid that for the safety of others. Why not ask the young boy what catastrophe he has seen?"

"You make it sound like it will turn out really bad," I pointed out. "Alright, I"ll ask Daniel what he saw."

"Why don"t you ask him right now?" Piper asked, pointing at the door. We all turned around and saw the violet-haired boy running away. He had followed me here and heard everything. I was about to chase him but Piper stopped me, telling me to wait until he went to the back alley and tried to eavesdrop again from outside the lounge window. We waited until we heard a thud from the window.

"Oh, darn!" Benjamin exclaimed, acting like we just chased him. "We lost him! Oh well, maybe you could go and find him later during the dress rehearsal later tonight."

Piper handed me a napkin with a note scribbled on it, telling me to act busy and go somewhere else. "Oh, a dress rehearsal? But I will be busy tonight at the south bridge!"

"But what are you going to do there?" Mamoru joined in on the act. He seemed to enjoy us trying to fool Daniel.

"It is a top secret plan," I said, trying to hold my laughter. "You will see it soon."

Then we heard another thud, and running sound. We could tell that Daniel had heard enough of my "master plan", and we burst out laughing. Piper and Benjamin couldn"t believe that Daniel fell into the same trap again. Postmaster and Lucas were holding back their laughs, trying to keep their composure.

"Seriously, make sure you guys supervise that child," said Lucas. "If anything happens, you will be responsible for it."

"Litmus and I can help you watching him go to the south bridge from afar," said Mamoru. "Besides, it is not far from the town square where the rehearsal will be."

"Except that it is a mysterious place," Postmaster added. "In the book Gloxinian Mysteries, the south bridge is also rumoured to be a place where cultists used to perform their dark magic activities."

It was then I realized that I said south bridge on impulse. "Great. Now he thinks I am trying to do some dark magic stuffs during the festival."

"Well, it is not like you have the magic to do it, so you"ll be fine," said Benjamin, attempting to remind everyone that I had no magic even though he knew I had. I glared at him for a second, trying to send of a "that-wasn"t-necessary" message, which he got it.

I turned to Lucas. "If Daniel ever report about me summoning demons or whatever, I want to let you know that it is unintentional and also, please save my life."

Lucas snickered. He must have imagined how the situation would go for him at the police station. Regardless of what would happen later, I have to go down with embarra.s.sment.

Before we all went back to work, Lucas, Percy, Litmus and Mamoru helped us post workers out in cleaning after lunch, which was the least they could do for allowing them to join and eat. I sat on the receptionist table, checking the package Shiroku sent me. Along with his letter, he had bought me souvenirs from Peony Town; magical charms wrapped individually that could only be found in that country, and a piece of ill.u.s.tration of Shiroku with his colleagues standing outside their office.

"My, what a wonderful collection you have there," Postmaster commented as he peered over my shoulder, making me jumped. "But I thought you don"t use magic."

"No! I mean, yes, I can"t!" I fl.u.s.tered, stuffing the photos back. "My cousin wants me to hold onto it for safekeeping. He said uh... he can"t trust banks."

Postmaster chuckled. "Well, if you say so. Can I see those charms?"

I took out the photos and gave the box to Postmaster. Postmaster donned his white gloves and took out his loupe, showing that he has experience in handling charms. He picked out a soft pink charm, and examined it through his loupe.

"I see that it"s never been used," said Postmaster. "Nicely cut and polished. Let me guess, this is a soothing-magic charm, isn"t it?"

I checked the catalogue that was included in the letter. "You"re right, Postmaster. How did you know?"

"Pink charms contain emotional magic, and though the magic varies on what shade of colour it is, it is easy to identify once you"re an expert in both charms and colours," Postmaster explained.

"Postmaster, are you actually ?"

Postmaster placed his finger on his lip, giving me a smile. He went back to his office, humming a tune. I didn"t ask him why he would keep it a secret, considering I did the same thing. Still, I was impressed by his knowledge.

Later that evening, after I went home to change my clothes, I went out again with a broomstick in my hand. I told Piper to leave some dinner for me in case I get back late. On my way to the south bridge, I just kept thinking how I would approach Daniel. He seemed to be the kind who wouldn"t listen to reasons, much like the oracle children I"ve met back in Lavender City.

This was my first time visiting south bridge. Under the light of my lantern I could see the path of the stone arch had mostly been covered with shrubs, some were stepped on, likely due to Sharon"s visits. I regretted my decision to come here but there was no way of doing a do-over. Looking at the bridge reminded me of how Aoko would be excited to see this, as she was fond of venturing into abandoned places.

I heard some rustling from the bushes under the bridge. I brought my lantern to the side of the bridge, and saw Litmus and Mamoru. Their faces were covered with mud and gra.s.s, which I believed were their attempts in camouflaging.

"How long have you guys been here?" I asked.

"Way before you came," said Litmus. "Apparently, Mamoru found some medicinal plants here, so we ended up gathering some."

"Hey, wouldn"t it be funny if Daniel comes and we pretend to be bridge trolls?" Mamoru snickered.

"You"ll make him more convinced that I"m trying to terrorize the town," I told him. "Just, keep it down and don"t come out until he"s-"

Daniel suddenly leapt from behind, scaring me. "I knew it! You"re going to summon a demon to do your job!"

"I"m not going to," I told him, as I hid my hand behind my back, signaling Litmus and Mamoru to stay low. "Besides, I don"t even know how to summon a demon."

"Then why are you here?"

"Just to talk with you privately," I answered straightforwardly. "What did you see in your future vision?"

"I... forgot, but I know it was you! I can"t remember it all but I know it was you, just different than what you look right now."

"And what did I do?"

Daniel went quiet for a moment. "I see what you did there. You"re trying to get me tell you how to terrorize the festival. Well, I"m not going to let you!"

The oracle boy pounced at me, grabbing my arm and locked a bangle on my wrist. "I did it!"

"Daniel, what is this?" I questioned.

"It"s a house arrest band, duh," said Daniel. "It stops you from doing bad stuffs for forty-eight hours. I got it from my mom!"

★

「Then he got away, leaving me confused. I didn"t think he wouldn"t cooperate and now I got a new bracelet, which looks like a bra.s.s donut with a timer counting down the hours until I could be release from it.

Litmus and Mamoru went out of their hiding spot and tried to get the bangle off. Litmus"s spells wouldn"t work. We immediately went home and told Benjamin and Piper about the band. Piper couldn"t remove it with her tools and Benjamin tried to malfunction it with his familiar. That too failed to break it. The only way to remove it is either wait until the timer is up, or use a key.

However, I couldn"t blame Daniel for overthinking too much of his future vision. Surely he must have a reason why he wanted to protect the festival badly, and I need to get more answers from him.

Anyway, have fun during Natsu Fest.

Love,

Kurai」