“Why are you laughing?”
At the sound of laughter from behind, Ailien turned her head.
“Squeak!”
“Didi, you too.”
At Didi’s outcry, as if telling her to stop getting distracted, Ailien wore a face like she had been betrayed.
And well she might—normally it was Kiki’s job to scold her, and Didi was always on Ailien’s side.
So it must mean Didi was that anxious too.
“All right, Lili will run without making a peep. So you hold your peep in too…….”
“Chirp.”
At Ailien’s words, Didi replied gravely. Kiki, who had been watching with a look of pity, urged her on again.
“Whoa.”
Despite her promise to Didi, Ailien, who had been diligently following the light, came to a stop once more.
It was because of the portraits hanging on the corridor walls.
And among them, the one that caught Ailien’s eye was.
“Mari!”
None other than the portrait of Marilyn Zeronias.
Unlike the warm and playful her that remained in Ailien’s memory, she had her pale violet hair swept up and wore a stern expression, but.
“Pretty…….”
She was beautiful enough to make her small chest feel tight.
While Ailien lingered before Marilyn’s portrait, Kiki and Didi said nothing.
It was a moment when the child’s blue eyes sparkled like transparent glass beads.
“Huh?”
Mari just smiled, didn’t she?
The corners of her mouth, just like this, went twitch-twitch, didn’t they?
Could a painting smile?
[How long do you intend to stand there?]
“……Huh?”
[Aren’t you going?]
“Huh?”
Marilyn in the portrait spoke to Ailien!
Gasp!
Startled, Ailien took a step back.
[Hm? They say you get distracted easily, and it seems that wasn’t wrong.]
“Mari? Mari?”
Ailien’s voice grew damp. Kiki cautiously approached and rubbed her head against her, and Didi stroked the child’s soft cheek.
But Marilyn’s portrait, meanwhile, kept only its eyes and mouth busy.
[I am Marilyn, but not Marilyn! I am but one of Marilyn’s countless fragments.]
“Countless fragments……?”
[Marilyn holds vast memories of this world. She cannot even forget them. So she planted her memories here and there.]
“Then you’re not the real Mari?”
“…….”
“Hehe, Lili thought you were Mari…….”
When Ailien whispered so faintly it was barely audible, in a voice noticeably lower than before, the eyes of Marilyn in the portrait, which had been moving side to side, stopped dead.
Into the eyes of what was merely a painting, a faint warmth seeped.
[I heard the news that you are quite lovable.]
“That’s right, Lili is a bit like that.”
[I also heard you’re quite the handful, and it seems that was true.]
“Hehe.”
[That wasn’t a compliment.]
“But why doesn’t Mari’s fragment know Lili?”
Ailien pouted her lower lip as she spoke. No matter that she was one of Marilyn’s countless fragments, Ailien was still her most precious being.
So there was no way the fragments wouldn’t know her!
[It is because I am from a point before I met you.]
“A point?”
[So you did end up coming all the way here. I am very glad.]
It was a flat, even tone, and yet somehow it felt sincere.
“You’re glad Lili came here?”
[Yes. I will be even gladder if you find the treasure safely.]
“Can Lili come see Mari’s fragment sometimes?”
[Not often.]
“Why?”
[Did the Marilyn who shared time with you tell you about the stars?]
“Sparkly staaars!”
Ailien’s eyes shone exactly like stars.
“That’s why the stars in the sky are fragments, she said. Just like Mari’s fragment is a fragment of Mari!”
[Yes, so she told you.]
“Yeah! But why?”
[Wait.]
“Hm?”
[The rats have come.]
Her gaze was directed at the corridor. It was a look of utter disgust.
Just then, as if on cue, a group was hurrying down the corridor.
[Those sorts are always the same, then and now.]
“Chirp.”
Didi cried out as if in protest.
“Didi says that kind of talk is bad.”
[Ah, sorry.]
She apologized with an expression that did not look sorry in the least, and then the eyes and mouth of Marilyn in the portrait returned to their places.
“Mari’s fragment has frozen!”
Despite Ailien’s urging, the portrait did not move again. It wore the same firm and cold expression as before. There was no doubt in her eyes about her own abilities, and the hand holding her wand was resolute.
It was no exaggeration to call it the portrait of the hero who saved this world.
‘Lili just…….’
She simply wanted to become another hero who could let the hero who had called the time she had lived a vast, distant thing rest, even for a moment.
“Lili will go find the treasure.”
Ailien spoke as if making a pledge to Marilyn in the portrait, and set off again.
The place where the light lingered was not far from the portrait.
Quietly opening the door, what came into view was a large room lined with shelves.
“Whoa.”
Ailien slowly stepped into the room. Kiki and Didi followed quietly behind her, stifling their presence as much as they could.
It seemed to be a storeroom where things no longer in use were gathered.
“It’s a doll!”
With a heave, Ailien rose on her tiptoes and let out a shriek of delight at the sight of a rabbit wearing a cute dress.
“Baby-baby, that one was always showing off, so I suppose he played with things like this.”
Even as Ailien uttered words that would have turned Kaius’s stomach if he had been beside her, she could not take her eyes off the rabbit doll.
Unusual for something in a storeroom, it was clean and quite well maintained.
“It’s a princess rabbit, a princess rabbit! There’s a prince rabbit too. Whoa, there’s a table and a teapot too!”
“Meow!”
Kiki gave a stern warning, as if she had expected this.
“Tch, I know.”
Ailien set the doll down as if she understood, but her eyes were full of nothing but reluctance.
“But is it really Kai’s? Would it be all right if Lili asked for it?”
“Chirp.”
Just as the child clicked her tongue once and turned her gaze.
“Hm?”
Something sparkling between the shadows caught her eye.
Ailien craned her neck to examine what it was.
“A hobby horse!”
It was a shabby hobby horse made of plain wood, so plain that it was hard to believe it had been what sparkled earlier.
“But is this the treasure Mari hid for Lili?”
Ailien, who had been gazing at the hobby horse for a long while, whispered softly.
Kiki and Didi, who had been urging her so diligently to get here, glanced at Ailien’s reaction.
Frankly speaking, it was a little faded and worn for something called treasure.
Ailien must have been expecting something tremendous, since it was the treasure Marilyn had hidden.
“Lili has never seen anything like this before!”
But Ailien opened her mouth wide and rejoiced sincerely.
With her small hands, she stroked the hobby horse earnestly.
“Can Lili try riding this?”
When Didi cautiously nodded, Ailien climbed onto the hobby horse, thoroughly excited.
Gripping the handles near the hobby horse’s neck, Ailien rocked her body vigorously back and forth.
“Kyaa!”
Whether it was because she was excited even riding it alone, Ailien laughed wildly as she rode, then slowly climbed down from the hobby horse.
“Ahem, it’s not that fun. Babies like Kai would probably enjoy it.”
Ailien climbed down awkwardly and then gravely thrust out her belly.
Perhaps because some reluctance remained, she was still stroking the hobby horse with her small hand.
That was when.
“Hm?”
Feeling something strange, Ailien took her hand off the hobby horse and tilted her head.
“Hey, look, only this part here is different wood!”
Hearing Ailien’s words, Didi scurried over, examined that part, and tilted her head.
“You don’t know? Here, look, here it’s swirling with a grape color!”
The back part of the hobby horse was subtly a different color. It was a shade darker than the surroundings.
“Lili has seen this somewhere before.”
Ailien, eyes closed and arms crossed, pondered something deeply.
Then she snapped her eyes open.
“Mari’s wand!”
The wand made of Stellia, the legendary sacred tree that grew only where a meteor had fallen.
It was the thing Ailien admired most in all the world.
“It’s the same wood as Mari’s wand!”
The hobby horse was no ordinary object.
