Chapter 217
It isn't that you've simply forgotten which one, is it? Look, perhaps you marked one somehow—but I kept at it, and Punta-san still didn't seem to know.
The reason, apparently, was that the eggs were arranged differently from our previous visit.
Punta-san couldn't tell whether the Wikachou had rearranged them or laid new eggs.
The thought of breaking them all open to check crossed my mind for a moment—but
"N-n-n-n-no! Absolutely not! That flock is so vicious that even large monsters avoid it and run away!"
Punta-san went deathly pale, so I abandoned the idea.
"This is what comes of listening to Punta... It seems this was a wasted trip. Still, it was fortunate for us that we avoided unnecessary danger."
What awaited us when we returned at dusk was Nock-san's exasperated remark.
But Asha was relieved and happy to see us, so I decided it was all right.
(I can't tell which egg it is... 【Omniscience】 judges based on information from what I see, the sensations I feel when I touch something, and the smells I detect. So it can't tell what I can't perceive.)
After dinner, I was thinking.
The chief had detained Asha, and the Dark Elves who had gathered had begged her to tell them what life as a High Elf had been like. She was still talking.
Apparently, this was her fifth time today.
"Besides, we owe you for allowing us to stay..."
Asha was admirable, delivering her speech so dutifully.
(Was there some way... to check inside without cracking an egg? X-rays, perhaps. Ultrasound was another possibility... No, don't say 'another possibility' when there isn't even a machine here. Honestly.)
I sat on a branch of one of the Dark Elves' trees, swinging my legs as I thought.
I felt there had to be a way... It was right there, on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn't get the rest out. What was it again? Ugh.
"Reiji-san, so this is where you were. ...What are you wearing?"
While I was hanging from the branch by my legs, doing the so-called 'bat,' Asha came to the branch below.
She lightly alighted on it and asked,
"Are you finished?"
"Yes. ...I was only telling them about life over there, but everyone listened so intently. It isn't as though I have anything particularly special to tell them, though..."
"I'm curious about what Asha's life was like too. So the Dark Elves must be even happier to hear about it."
"A-are you curious too, Reiji-san?"
"Yes."
"I see... It isn't anything all that remarkable. Everyone seemed especially interested in High Elf songs."
That must have been "Chant."
When Asha sang it, I had been unconscious after using up my magic to crash-land the airship, so I heard it only in a dreamlike haze—but a song infused with magic displayed tremendous power.
"Won't you tell them about yourself, Reiji-san?"
"Me...?"
"Yes."
The night was long, and I hadn't come up with a brilliant way to find the egg.
It might have been a good night to talk with Asha.
We sat on the branches and talked about all sorts of things. I didn't tell her that I had been reincarnated, but I entertainingly recounted what I had experienced while serving as a guard in the Holy Kingdom of Kurvanyu.
The stars twinkled across the night sky as if packed tightly together, and even though the branches obscured parts of it, they did nothing to diminish its brilliance.
"Ah..."
Just then, I happened to spot something flying in the distant night sky, flapping its wings and emitting blue light.
"What's wrong, Reiji-san?"
"Bankachou..."
The two blue birds flew side by side, so close it was as if they were holding hands.
When they came quite close to the Dark Elf settlement, they circled and flew away into the distance.
The blue light shining even at night was fantastical, and the trail it left lingered on my eyelids.
"They are beautiful birds..."
In response to Asha, who murmured as if moved, I told her about the Wikachou and the Bankachou.
"What a lovely story. To remain with one partner for a lifetime... That must be something one could wish for, but rarely achieve..."
"It reminded me of the phrase 'hiyoku-renri.'"
"What is that?"
Back in Japan, I took Classical Chinese as an elective.
Classical Chinese was unpopular, and only two students in the entire grade had chosen it.
It appears in a verse from Bai Juyi's "The Song of Everlasting Sorrow."
In heaven, may we be birds that fly wing to wing,
On earth, may we be branches that grow entwined.
"The 'birds that fly wing to wing' are a male and female bird, each with only one eye and one wing, so they must always remain joined together. Of course, they're imaginary birds. Meanwhile, 'branches that grow entwined' refers to branches that, though they have different roots, entwine and fuse as they grow."
"Oh my... Is it a song about love?"
"It might be something like that."
The phrase hiyoku-renri became a metaphor for an affectionate couple, but in fact, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow is a song about the sorrow of two people separated from each other.
"It's a beautiful phrase."
It would be tactless to point that out, though.
(...I see.)
Only now did I realize why I'd chosen an obscure subject like Classical Chinese.
I studied diligently, but was also forced to take on thankless work, such as being made class representative. I wasn't savvy enough to involve my classmates in my own affairs.
"Classical Chinese" had seemed to me like an academic field that almost no one paid attention to, yet someone diligently researched nonetheless.
(Back then, I had simply studied it as schoolwork, but who would have thought I'd come to another world and remember a phrase like "hiyoku-renri"...)
As I was lost in thought,
"...I find myself longing for something like that. But with the path I've taken, I know I could never catch up."
Asha said quietly.
"Asha?"
"...Reiji-san, why... despite having such power, do you help other people and try to accomplish great things?"
"Huh?"
"Do you have some grand ambition? To found a country, master every martial art, pursue the path of magic... With you, I feel you could accomplish any one of those—or rather, all of them."
"Nothing like that..."
I had no such intention at all.
"With my legs—"
Asha began to say something, then closed her mouth.
"...I'm sorry. I asked you something strange."
After that, we gazed at the night sky in an awkward silence.
Along with what had happened the other day, Asha must have been holding something back.
She was carrying a great many things I couldn't even begin to imagine.
Royalty... what a heavy burden to be born into.
"I'm just moving forward one step at a time."
Whatever I said might not satisfy her, but remaining silent felt dishonest.
"I'm usually too preoccupied with what's right in front of me to think about anything else, and most of the time I'm barely managing. From Asha's perspective, I might look like someone who can use magic and do all sorts of amazing things, but... all of this came from practicing every single day and making it my own."
"Every day... practicing? You, Reiji-san?"
"Yes. No matter how long the journey, it is made up entirely of one step after another. All I can do is keep walking forward, one sure step at a time."
That was my honest feeling.
When I worked through a workbook, filling in its blanks one by one, I eventually reached the last page.
I liked that sense of accomplishment.
Though I suppose I hadn't had much else to enjoy.
"I see..."
"That's right."
"Do you think I can move forward one step at a time too...?"
Asha asked me.
Even as a High Elf royal with such beauty and tremendous magical power, she worried over things like that too, and I found myself strangely impressed.
"Of course you can."
So I smiled and nodded. Anyone could move forward little by little. Even Kimidorigorn-san was probably researching magic by now...
"Ah."
At that moment—in a flash of inspiration like a divine revelation, it came to me.
Eggs. Empty eggs and eggs with something inside. Dead eggs and living eggs.
A way to tell them apart.
"Aha!"
Of course! There was a magic tool that could distinguish eggs.
In Dragonkin City.
I remembered Kimidorigorn-san's face—and the "boiled-egg identifier."