IPDT 6

“…”

The human stared blankly at the star. Does this pique his interest a little? At that sight, my lips tingled. I suppressed a smile and placed my hand on the starlight.

“Star.”

“Star?”

“Yes, star.”

The black-haired one looked down at the star in his hand. Star, star… His whispering voice was pleasant to hear.

“Isn’t it pretty?”

“…Isn’t it pretty?”

Ah, right, I should use the translation magic for this. I opened my lips again and slowly let out my voice.

“Isn’t it pretty.”

「It is pretty.」

The black-haired one, who had been staring at me intently, lowered his gaze. An emotion I could not name flickered across his face as he looked at the star. I propped my chin on my hand and observed the black-haired one’s face.

“Star, isn’t it pretty.”

“Yes, yes. That’s it.”

After a long while, the black-haired one spoke. Swoooosh, the flower field swayed in the blowing wind. Was it because of the ticklish pollen? A laugh burst out before I could stop it. As I laughed out loud, the black-haired one stared at me with wide eyes.

“Your voice is nice to listen to.”

“Nice?”

“Yes, nice.”

「Yes, it is nice.」

The black-haired one, holding the star, gazed at me blankly. I curved my lips into a smile.

Rustle!

Just then, there was a sound of something rushing through the flower field. At the threatening sound, the black-haired one’s shoulders trembled. As the star that had been spinning on his hand danced up into the sky, the human’s lips parted in surprise.

Rustle, rustle! Meanwhile, the unidentified thing was rapidly approaching us.

“Grrrr.“

What appeared before us was a wolf with perfect silver fur. The black-haired one, upon seeing the wolf that had stopped next to me, shrank back.

He seemed to have relaxed while looking at the star… is it because it’s a wolf? He looked scared. I should quickly clear up the black-haired one’s misunderstanding before he gets more scared. I stroked the wolf’s head and said.

“Hey, don’t worry. This one doesn’t bite.”

「Do not worry. This wolf does not bite.」

Hmm, hmm, that’s right. This wolf may be borrowing the appearance of a ‘wolf’, but strictly speaking, it is a part of me, so there was no way it would bite the black-haired one.

To be more specific, this wolf was the remnant of my ‘dead’ emotions. When you live for a long time, things inevitably start to die off, and my emotions were no different.

At some point, I could no longer feel emotions like strictness, melancholy, and cynicism, which were not advantageous for living a long life. The emotions had died and withered away.

Anyway, to sum it up, the dead emotions were merely maintaining their traces in my mental world by borrowing the appearance of nature, and they did not attack anyone. And since this wolf is a part of me, it will like the black-haired one, for sure!

As if to prove my thoughts, the wolf strode towards the black-haired one. The frightened black-haired one kept backing away, but the wolf paid him no mind.

The wolf, which had soon reached the front of the black-haired one, sniffed his hand, sniff, sniff, and then licked the back of his hand. See, I knew it wouldn’t bite! Excited, I spoke to the black-haired one.

“Try petting it.”

「Pet it.」

The black-haired one, who had been holding out the back of his hand stiffly, looked at me anxiously. I nodded my head enthusiastically to signify that it was okay.

After hesitating for a long while, the black-haired one placed his hand on the wolf’s head. The wolf, which had been shining its bright yellow eyes, gently closed them and flattened its ears. The black-haired one petted the wolf very cautiously.

“That’s a wolf.”

“That’s a wolf?”

I quickly waved my hand. Not ‘that’s a wolf’, but wolf, wolf.

“No, no. Wolf.”

“Wolf.”

The black-haired one muttered ‘wolf’ once more. I nodded my head vigorously.

“Isn’t it pretty?”

“…”

The black-haired one did not answer even though he heard my question. I just taught him the word ‘isn’t it pretty’… is it not pretty? Strange. In his entire life, he would have never seen a wolf with such perfect silver fur. He would not be able to see one anywhere he went.

Just as my question was growing, the wolf shook off the human’s hand and disappeared, running beyond the flower field. The black-haired one kept his gaze fixed on where the wolf had disappeared.

“Hey, do you want to look around the garden a little more?”

「Will you look around the garden more?」

As I suddenly thrust my face in front of the black-haired one’s, he blinked his eyes as if surprised. I grinned at the black-haired one. I had asked as a courtesy, but I already knew what the black-haired one would answer. Any human would naturally want to see more of this magnificent garden.

As per my great prediction, the black-haired one nodded his head. My mood lifted.

*

The black-haired one was a human with excellent learning abilities. He did not forget a word once taught, and he would even ask if he was curious about something himself. No… is it a bit much to say he asked?

“…”

“Are you curious what this is?”

It had been two weeks since I started teaching him words in the mental world. The black-haired one, who had silently handed me a stone, nodded his head.

It had only been two weeks, but these days he understood my words so well that there was no need to use the translation magic. My pet human was a complete genius. I pressed down the corners of my mouth that were twitching up with pride and touched the surface of the stone. It was smooth and cold, perhaps a pebble that had been in the water.

“This is a pebble.”

“Pebble.”

The black-haired one, who had muttered in a low voice, fiddled with the pebble. His face was as if he was recalling a memory related to the pebble. What memory is he recalling? As I tilted my head to look up at the black-haired one, he lifted his lowered eyes.

“Huh?”

And then, he suddenly grabbed my wrist. The black-haired one, who disliked being touched and was wary of me approaching, had touched my body himself for the first time.

Unexpectedly, I just blinked my eyes, but the black-haired one started to walk somewhere with me in tow. I was so surprised that I could not ask where we were going and just followed the black-haired one.

“This place is…”

Trickle, trickle, the river that held the night sky was slowly winding. A crunch, crunch sound came from the soft sand piled near the river.

“It’s a river. Why did we come here?”

“…”

The black-haired one let go of my arm and walked to the front of the river. Then, he knelt on the sand. The human, who had put his hand into the transparent river, took out several wide, flat pebbles. What is he doing? Is he going to build a tower with the pebbles or something?

Curious, I squatted down next to the black-haired one. He did not avoid me, who had sat right next to him. The black-haired one, who had looked down at me for a moment, threw the pebble he had painstakingly picked up into the river.

“Oh!”

Plop, plop. The pebble, which had skipped on the water’s surface a couple of times, disappeared into the water. Why did he throw it in the water after picking it up? I looked at the black-haired one, at a loss to understand the meaning of his actions.

“Hey, why did you throw the pebble in the water? Does this have some kind of meaning?”

“…”

The black-haired one threw another pebble without a word. Plop, plop, plop. This pebble skipped on the surface longer than the previous one. Huh?

“The pebble is skipping on the water…?”

The black-haired one looked down at me as I blinked my eyes. Then, he picked up one of the pebbles that had been placed next to him and put it in my hand. It seemed like he was telling me to try throwing it. I did not refuse and threw the pebble into the river with a toss.

Plop.

However, the pebble sank into the river without any incident and disappeared from sight. I stared blankly at the trickling river and then whipped my head around to face the black-haired one.

“How did you do that? How do you make the pebble not sink in the water?”

The pebble the black-haired one had picked up was just a pebble. A ‘stone’ in its natural state, without any magic cast on it. But how did it skip on the river? My heart pounded. To think there was still knowledge in this world that I did not know. And that the black-haired one knew it!

“Huh? How do you do it?”

At my urging, the black-haired one picked up another pebble. Then, he held it so that the flat side of the pebble was facing down. Then, with a moderate amount of force, he threw the stone as if flicking it, and plop, plop, plop, the stone skipped on the water.

Woooow. It seems an exclamation of admiration came out of me without my realizing it. The black-haired one was staring at me intently.

“Ahem.“

Belatedly, I thought of my dignity and controlled my expression. But it seemed to be too late. The black-haired one was smiling with a slight lift of his lips. The black-haired one covered his pleasant expression with one hand and avoided my gaze.

“…”

“…”

If I ask him to smile again, he’ll just stop smiling altogether as if nothing happened, right? My shoulders slumped. My fingers twitched with disappointment.

*

After that, the black-haired one and I continued to enter the mental world. The black-haired one, to learn the letters, and I, to succeed at the ‘pebble skipping’ trick.

Plop.

However, skipping pebbles was harder than I thought. I glared at the pebble that had sunk limply and let out a deep sigh. Should I just use magic? I had been trying hard because I thought the human might smile one more time if I succeeded at the pebble skipping trick, but success was far off, so my energy drained.

Moreover, these days, the black-haired one seemed to have lost interest in looking around the mental world. I stole a glance at the black-haired one. The expression of the human sitting blankly was not good. His face seemed a bit pale too. I stopped throwing stones into the river and squatted down in front of the black-haired one.

“Hey, if it’s not fun, should we go back?”

The black-haired one, who had been looking at me quietly, shook his head. Why is he saying no when his expression clearly shows he’s not having fun?

“But your expression is not very good.”

“…”

“Let’s go back together. It seems to be about time to eat. Okay?”

I held out my hand in front of the black-haired one. He looked down at my hand with a somewhat weary face and then slowly lifted his hand. Thump, a heavy-feeling hand was placed on mine.

“Let’s go back.”

When we came out of the mental world, food was already prepared in the kitchen. It was Fleabag’s work. He used to grumble about having to give food to the human, but now he was preparing it on his own when the time came, even without being asked. I glanced over the deliciously prepared meal and then looked back at the human.

“What’s wrong? Is something the matter?”

But the black-haired one was covering his mouth tightly and bowing his head. His face was paler than before. Why is he doing that? I was about to approach the black-haired one in my confusion.

“Urp.“

The black-haired one, who had retched, could not hold it in and vomited. …Could he be sick? My feet froze in surprise. As I hesitated, unable to get closer, the black pupils shot a fierce glare at me. A gaze mixed with humiliation and shame.