Since my brain has such a convenient function, I should have been informed about earlier. This way at the very least during conversational English cla.s.s, I wouldn’t need to give the English teacher face, and I could just sail through the cla.s.s.

“Who would have thought that my English would be so fluent?”

Although Hazel would occasionally ask me what I said, there are no communication difficulties between us at all. To be honest, I never thought that my middle high English with some katakana mixed inside, would actually be of use some day. I didn’t think compulsory education was really that important.

But the problem is that when I discovered that I could speak English, I start remembering things I forgot. For example the number of the subways stops, a weird older sister who wasn’t Gurrier but was a crossdressing guy as well, mermaids, a fortune-telling box that talked, the uniform of a convenience store I can’t identify, and little duckies.

“There’s even foreign street names… what on earth is this, could it be that my older brother took me running around before? Ah, I have the impression… Ah—but it seems to be some painful past…”

“A painful past?”

In the tunnel that can barely fit a grown adult, Josak can just turn his head around. His orange hair is almost hitting the ceiling, but before that, the torch in his hand might burn the similarly-colored hair to a crisp.

“Everyone has a painful past, Young Master. It’s okay, you don’t have to purposely remember it.”

“If I can prevent my memories from resurfacing, I’d have done that a long time ago.”

The problem is those memories are like water spilled onto a tablecloth, slowly spreading wider and wider. At first they were just tiny slivers of memories, but they start expanding after absorbing enough water, and the images get clearer and clearer too.

“What the—What is this? What’s that outfit that looks like an ap.r.o.ned dress? Speaking of which, that couldn’t have been…”

Seeing me press my forehead as I walk, my protector seems a little worried.

Conrad uses a tone of unease different from his usual one, putting his hand on mine, the one pressing my forehead, from behind,

“Are you okay? If you think it hurts anywhere, do you want to tell her, and rest for a while first?”

“No no, rather than saying it hurts, it’s more like embarra.s.sment! Ahh—ouch! That’s basically giving in and letting others do as they please! Could you just reject it a little, kid me!”

Hazel has always been walking in the far front of the twisting tunnel, so all we see of her is light and a pet.i.te silhouette.

“It may be because of Adalbert.”

“What about the muscleman? What does that mean?”

“Perhaps when he forced out the language of this world, he also broke a seal on your memories.”

“Broke a seal… Why do I have a ‘too little, too late’ kind of feeling.”

“No, that’s not what I meant. Right now you’re just starting to wake up to the past that was on brake before.”

“On brake?”

I raise my head and look up, seeing his exceptionally solemn expression. The silver stars with their iridescent glow, are sparkling in the torchlight. It’s been such a long time since I saw him at such a close distance.

“In other words, the English you’re using isn’t just what you learned at school, but mostly likely includes the conversations you heard naturally as a child…”

“Oh, yeah, I count as someone who returned home from abroad too! Though it was just a few short months, and it was when I was just born, when I was just a small BABY.”

“I heard of that.”

Just as we’re talking, my body’s experiences are awakening subconsciously. Something like a gun, burying my face in Bobba… Waa, STOP! Bobba? Pause for a sec there and rewind! In my haste my arm hits the hard mud wall, he stone on my pinky slicing away some of the dirt.

“Careful, there.”

“I’m fine, but what do you mean by ‘on brake’? And what’s the seal on my memories?”

To ensure that Josak can hear him too, Conrad raises his voice slightly,

“I haven’t done any in-depth research on it, but most people keep their memories starting from when they’re two to three years old. As for before that, what happened as newborns or in the womb, there’s practically no recollection.”

“Mn, that’s true.”

“But just as I said before, the soul records everything down.”

It’s memories and records again, why is it getting more and more complicated.

“The reason you can understand the s.h.i.+n Makoku language despite never being here, is because it was already recorded, acc.u.mulating in the depths of your soul. Those are definitely Your Majesty’s… Yuuri’s experiences from before you were born.”

I feel as though there’s a stone choking my throat, but I still manage a gulp. It’s just that my mouth is extremely dry, there isn’t even enough saliva for me to swallow.

“…In other words, I’m using the EXP from the previous owner of my soul to speak?”

Conrad’s expression doesn’t change, as he slowly nods.

“That’s it exactly. Those records that shouldn’t float to the surface, should be sealed behind an utterly unopenable door. After all it must not affect the personality of the soul’s new owner.

“Affect… Ah, is that so?”

The so-called soul’s new owner, is me.

As for who the previous owner of the soul is, I have no idea.

“You don’t have to know those kinds of things.”

I thought for a moment there that my thoughts had been found out, so I can’t help but stand in place. But those words didn’t come from my mouth, instead it was Josak, who’s walking ahead desperately to not lose sight of Hazel, saying in his regular tone,

“Standing from a point after being born, to be honest, it’s no use even if you do know your previous life. As long as you use everything you own now, and live on desperately, with everything you have, then that’s good enough.”

“Well said, Gurrier! If I was Professor Kindaichi, I’d compile a book of ‘Gurrier Quotes’ for you.”

“I’m so happy, Your Majesty! Gurrier is so touched!”

Once someone starts thinking about their past lives, then it’s really game over.

I have been told the name of my past life before, but I won’t simply believe a past I haven’t see with my own eyes. Even if the person who used the same soul as me was a king, at the most he would be as big as the Dessert World’s King of Homeruns[1]. The world is a very small place.

Besides, if someone said I was a girl they used to know, then I really wouldn’t know how to react. If we met again, then how am I going to greet them, huh. Something like “President, your tie is really pretty”? Although there’s no president, and no tie[2].

The maseki that’s back to hanging around my chest seems to be heating up, but I pretend not to notice. As I thought, pretending not to know anything and living on is the best way.

But Josak betrays my conclusion, saying carelessly,

“But the people around you would probably feel really troubled, right~”

I trip over a stone the torchlight couldn’t reach.

“If they found out that the person who was a friend yesterday is actually the enemy, or their cute son is the reincarnation of someone who killed their family, then that would definitely be a real bother. They wouldn’t know what to do, y’know.”

“…That’s why it must be sealed.”

I suddenly realize Conrad’s palm, pressed against my forehead, has become scalding hot.

“That’s why it must be sealed tightly deep within the soul, so the people around them and they themselves will never notice. But Adalbert destroyed that seal, bringing out the memories that don’t belong to Your Majesty. If it’s just language, then it’s not that serious. But if even the seal on the memories of back then are broken…”

“Wait a sec, wait a sec!”

I break free from his hand, my heels scrambling against the ground as I turn around.

“I’m just remembering things I saw and heard as a toddler. The memories should be from around three years old. As for the genius kindergarteners the neighbors talk about sometimes, isn’t that just their idle chatter after a good meal? If I say, ‘I even remember clearly how it was like inside my mummy’s tummy—”, then what kind of a situation would that be! Conrad, that would be way too exaggerated. So I say, you’re overthinking this, and worrying for nothing.”

“Is that so?”

“It is.”

I grip the hand without the ring, lightly tapping the chest on his uniform. There’s a ‘thump’, I can feel the force of the rebound, it feels as though I can even touch his heartbeat.

“Worrying for things for me, should be Günter’s job, right?”

“But, I also wish to be able to share your worries… Please allow me to.”

Maybe it’s because of the wavering torchlight, that expression looks close to tears. But it isn’t me, it’s him.

“Even if it’s just for now.”

So many retorts appear in my mind, like ‘that isn’t something you should say to a sixteen-year-old boy’ or ‘there are already rumors flying around town, saying you and Günter are too overprotective of me’. At the end I still didn’t rebut him, just repeated the same, short and simple answer.

“It’s okay.”

I’ll say it again, I’m okay.

There’s nothing in this world that would make me more grateful now, than the cheerful spy’s random interruption. Josak treats everything jokingly, the way he holds the torch to his face and waves it crazily, is like a fire dance, and only he can say whatever he wants without hesitation.

“Isn’t that too dangerous, Gurrier!?”

“Thank goodness—His Majesty still worries about Gurrier.”

“That’s not it, if you really want me to say it, I’m more worried for the torch…”

I suddenly hear someone calling us, and so I look past Josak’s shoulder and ahead—Hazel Graves, now way far ahead, is yelling at us from the top of her lungs,

“BOYS, did you leave your feet at home?”

The two of us who understand English shrug, thinking, ‘Conrad shouldn’t count as a BOY, right?’ If she knew the difference between how he looks and his true age, surely she would be fairly surprised.

The one who starts yelling weirdly after hearing the true age isn’t Hazel, but me.

“Are you that old!?”

If what she says is true, then she should be an old grandmother over a hundred and twenty years old. All that about it being rude to ask a lady’s age, she’s long past that. But on the surface she only looks around seventy, seems her aging is different from the mazoku’s.

If I count Conrad and Josak as well, then standing between the trio of centenarians, I sincerely feel that the elderly these days are extremely active. It really feels as though they’ve become Dok.u.mamus.h.i.+ Sandayū[3].

“But s.h.i.+zoku have long lives, just like the mazoku, huh.”

“No, it’s true that they tend to live to a hundred and fifty or so, but I haven’t heard of them aging slower like you guys. Their bodies will stiffen up once they’re past a hundred, and quite a few of them stay bedridden because of it.”

That’s what she says, but Venera, also known as Hazel Graves, has easily leapt across that chasm. Who does she mean by ‘their bodies will stiffen up’?

“I take good care of my body normally, it wasn’t easy to last this long, but it seems I’m almost at my limit now too. Besides, I’m not from this world, so the effect of time on my body will be more or less different.”

“Hold on, I can’t pretend I didn’t hear that. You’re not from this world? What does that mean? Could it be that Grandma Hazel is just like me…”

“About that, Lord Weller should know it well.”

That half a face illuminated by torchlight curves into a smile, her hand continuously exploring a few spots on the wall, as though looking for a b.u.mp or something.

“I died decades ago. In the United States on Earth… Also known as America.”

“America!?”

“…1936 AD, you suddenly disappeared from the outskirts of Boston.”

In my surprise I blurt out, “That’s seventy years ago!”

Conrad watches the old lady’s every move, continuing,

“And you disappeared in a fire together with the house you just moved into.”

“That’s right, logically speaking I should have burned to death back then, but I’m still as lively as ever right now, I wonder why? When I first came here, I even thought this is the afterlife. But if this is heaven, then it’s rather too sinister. It made me think that I didn’t do anything good in my life, and that’s why the gates of heaven wouldn’t open for me.”

“No, no, this isn’t h.e.l.l or paradise.”

Of everyone here only I hasten to refute her. That’s no joke, if it really as what Graves said, then wouldn’t I be dead as a doornail too? And besides, I’ve come and gone from here quite a few times, now even the people in j.a.pan over there won’t think I mysteriously disappeared.

“That’s right, I’ve figured out this isn’t the afterlife. But back home they must have held my funeral, and built a little tombstone for me, huh. So ‘Hazel Graves’ is officially dead. From that moment I broke the taboo and touched ‘that’, and was enveloped in blue flames.”

“That’s right, you opened the Box. And then you were blown here by the impact.”

“Conrad!”

Just as the conversation was interrupted, the wall makes a heavy noise and slides aside. Upon closer inspection, it turns out that the door here is made of a thick stone slab, and it’s a large round stone that can move to a side, too. But now isn’t the time to stand in awe of a rigged underground pa.s.sage.

“You mentioned the Box?”

I’m so tense even the tips of my fingers turn cold.

“You mentioned the Box just now, didn’t you? You mean the four Boxes that put us through h.e.l.l and back? Those things…”

My throat hurts so much, as though I’ve swallowed ice cubes.

“Are here?”

“Not here exactly!”

Hazel Graves watches my expression as she takes half a step in the direction of the stone wall.

“It’s further north, on the edge of this continent. The s.h.i.+nzoku lands are very vast.”

Her gaze is appraising me. It feels like I’m pa.s.sing through the detectors in an airport, a displeasing feeling.

“Since coming to this world, little old me hasn’t been able to cross the ocean. Although I can’t compare to other countries, but according to my sense of distance from when I was alive, this place should be as big as Australia.”

Hazel even adds, laughing, “But there aren’t any sheep here.”

“Just like its name, ‘Country of the Holy Sand’, there’s only wind and yellow sand here. Forget oases, there aren’t even any decent types of plants.”

“Though you’re not a s.h.i.+nzoku, you sure know this place well.”

“How long do you think I’ve lived here? Li… His Majesty over here already said it all surprised, right? Seventy years, y’know. After staying in the same country for seventy years, I know a lot more about this country than the kids born here.”

She beckons us into a small stone hut, bringing the torch to the oil lamp on the walls. In the many intricate drawings, there are people, livestock, and images of what looks like G.o.ds. The room about twenty tatamis[4] big, looks like it’s been drowned in bright red, coming off as majestic.

“Waa—”

Even Josak, who doesn’t have much of an interest in arts, can’t help but praise,

“This is… a temple or some house of wors.h.i.+p…?”

“Now it’s just a simple gathering area. But around two hundred years ago, apparently it had the important position of ‘entrance’. Listen up, I’m going to explain it to you.”

Hazel knocks the innermost wall. For some reason, her gaze isn’t trained on Conrad, who’s well-versed in English, but at me.

“The walls of this room are each connected to different pa.s.sages, but you must never go on, because there’s a maze ahead. In the past that used to be an underground city where people lived, but since two hundred years ago when the last batch of citizens were taken out, it’s been abandoned to this day. Even seventy years ago when I arrived here, there was only an impenetrable darkness, with not a single sliver of light to depend on. Listen carefully, if you don’t want to die, never cross these walls. If you don’t have a powerful guardian angel next to you, there’s no way at all you can survive in the mazes ahead.”

“But Grandma Hazel pa.s.sed it.”

“You can’t really say I pa.s.sed through all of it.”

She shakes her dusty white hair, sitting on the hard ground. What’s unbelievable is, her pose isn’t as straight as it was earlier, making her look like just another pet.i.te and exhausted old lady. She supports her forehead with her thumb and pointer, head bowed and spirits low,

“…I didn’t walk here from the other end either, that’s simply impossible. All I did was duck inside halfway and walk a small distance to avoid the horseback tribe on the surface. But just that small distance was almost enough to drive me insane. Do you believe me? I, who went through countless ruins and explored so many tombs, nearly lost my mind!”

Hazel seems to be talking to herself, telling of the maze’s terrors,

“I’ve eased my way through raining bullets, went toe-to-toe against wild beasts in the forest, even inched my way through caves, and was trapped in a s.h.i.+pwreck underwater. But I… that darkness really is something else. This is different from treasure-hunting on Earth, completely different.”

Technically, Josak shouldn’t be able to understand the language she’s speaking, but he doesn’t interrupt all the same. It could be that from the atmosphere around here, he can sense what she’s saying.

“There were people living in the underground city up to three hundred years ago, and I heard it was rather prosperous then, too. Though it’s still no match for the cities on the surface. The residents were all the lowest of the low among the slaves, and weren’t allowed to live on the surface. But at least back then it wasn’t utter darkness, and there were torches illuminating the pa.s.sages everywhere, so they weren’t a dark maze either. But a certain Seisakoku monarch brought all the slaves living underground to the surface. That tyrant didn’t care about these people, and didn’t want to care about these people, so from the on this place has become somewhere not blessed by the G.o.ds. When I was wandering the maze, I thought I had been abandoned by the G.o.ds…”

Her voice is so low it’s like a murmur,

“…That’s the Box of taboos created by the G.o.ds, once you’re driven by desire to touch it, you will receive divine punishment…”

“That’s not it, Hazel.”

I speak up without thinking.

The old lady raises her head, meeting my eyes directly.

“It actually has nothing to do with G.o.d.”

“Why?”

I’m still standing straight, and my feet are still on the ground, as I lower my head to look into her hazel eyes. Although it feels as though the beasts drawn onto the walls are about to pounce on us, that’s just an illusion caused by the firelight.

“It has nothing to do with G.o.d. That was created by the mazoku to seal away an ancient threat, eventually sealed and hidden away. All that happened long before you or I were born, a long long time ago. Right, Lord Weller?”

I can feel Conrad nod in agreement behind me.

“So, even if you met misfortune due to the Box, it’s definitely not divine punishment. The G.o.ds you believe in haven’t abandoned you. It’s just I… all I can say is, ‘I feel so sorry for you’…”

Hazel Graves lifts her head to look at me and Lord Weller behind me, falling into a long silence, before opening her mouth slightly, singing a certain familiar melody in a tiny voice. Her voice is gruff, and the lyrics are blurred, but that is definitely the song that boy once sang in front of the palace.

“What is…”

I don’t get to complete my question because someone nudges my shoulder, preventing me from continuing. When I look to my side, I find Lord Weller has his eyes narrowed, and though he doesn’t say anything, I know what he means. He probably knows what song this is.

I wait motionlessly, until Hazel suddenly stops singing. Her expression is that of a child who was caught crying in a corner,

“If only someone sang this at my funeral for me, that’d be great.”

“I don’t know if anyone sang this song…”

Conrad takes a step forward, reaching his left hand out to Hazel on the floor —it’s that left hand.

“I heard that many close friends and relations attended your funeral, singing and sighing over your death. Even people who live far away and don’t usually interact, used that chance to rekindle past friends.h.i.+ps. Your daughter and her husband had positive outlooks, as well. As a way of remembering the deceased, it was truly a great farewell.”

“That’s wonderful, I’m glad. But this feeling sure is strange, learning about my own funeral in a foreign land.”

“And your heir, April Graves became an impressive figure, just as you wished.”

Halfway through getting up, Hazel’s expression suddenly turns solemn, frozen mid-motion. That’s a name I never heard before, but it should be he granddaughter.

“You said April…”

“Two years after you disappeared, she came across the ‘Box’ by accident. Just like you.”

In that moment I doubted my ears. There were four ‘Boxes’ originally, how many of them are in this world? And how many are on Earth!? No, more importantly, why are the things threatening this world appearing on Earth? Just hearing that makes me restless with worry, but seeing Hazel’s agitated expression, it seems that there’s no chance for me to interrupt with a question related to the mazoku.

“To think that child… That child met the same fate as me!?”

“No…”

Lord Weller grips Hazel’s slender, wrinkled fingers tightly with his left hand.

“She and some friends… You should know them, I think they were your friends, called Regent and DT. With their help, April sank that Box into the water, getting past the German army’s detection without triggering the taboo.”

The old lady looks relieved, the wrinkles around her eyes and mouth deepening.

“I met April Graves once, she said she’s extremely proud of you.”

“Is that so…”

Conrad says, with a smile of someone cheering up their own grandmother, “She’s a lot like you.”

“Thank you, there’s no news better than that.”

This time she really cries.

Hazel Graves holds Conrad’s hands, tears flowing down her thin, gaunt face.

Her time has finally been connected again.