TFOA Chapter 14

In a week, there would be a festival.

The village buzzed with festival preparations. Everyone was readying hearty, enduring foods crafted from crops that had weathered the winter.

Helen at the general store had prepared cards and bookmarks printed with the current year, while Edgar and his wife from the seed nursery tended to kumquat saplings no bigger than a little finger.

Raul had set aside carrot pickles and willow bark wine that he'd fermented the year before.

"Why willow bark of all things? There are so many things you can make into liquor."

"Last year was near the end of the war, so there wasn't a single blade of grass around. The only thing I could use to make liquor was bark."

"That's true. Back then, I was chewing on shoe insoles too. They were cowhide, you know."

Niksi sat at Raul's bar counter, pondering what she should prepare. But no matter how much she thought about it, no answer came. Her money was almost completely gone, and to share something with others from her already meager household, she'd have to tear off the roof.

Something she could prepare within a week...

'It would be nice if there were crops that could grow in just a week.'

"Oh, right."

There was a research theory that could make ordinary crops grow instantly. From the distant past—the far distant past.

Back when she was at university before World War II started, there had been an experiment her senior conducted. At the time, Niksi and he were both studying stem cells, but their purposes couldn't have been more different.

His research focused on cultivating large-scale crops for feeding humanity, while Niksi's centered on bodily regeneration through cellular division.

Manipulating plant cells versus manipulating human cells. The answer to which was more difficult was obvious.

Niksi stretched long. Bean seedlings and various experimental equipment were scattered across the table.

"...I really succeeded."

As proof of this, Niksi had cracked the research in under a week after Helen gifted her those bean seedlings.

The same research her senior had wrestled with for six years, military service included. Sure, part of it was her being a genius, but she also remembered the materials her senior had left behind—that's what let her finish the work so quickly.

But she wasn't excited or proud of her success. Rather, the aftertaste was strangely bitter.

After successfully completing her research, Niksi attended Raul's bar to celebrate.

Today's meal was more luxurious than usual - she ordered the special sausage platter instead of the regular assortment.

'Now I just need to transplant this into the ground. But where should I plant this?'

Her backyard already had assigned places for each crop. The seedling that had been thumbnail-sized when she'd taken it for testing was now thick as her wrist.

If she just stuck it anywhere, it could mess up the mathematically calculated spots she'd carefully mapped out for her other plants.

'Maybe just plant it up in the mountains? No. I'd want it somewhere I could check on the results regularly.'

"The asparagus is in particularly good condition today, so I gave you more than usual."

"Thank you, Raul!"

In the end, before she could find a suitable location, Raul's special sausage platter was placed in front of Niksi. Well, she'd think about that later. She picked up her fork.

"Oh my, there you are?"

"Helen?"

Next to the counter where Niksi was sitting, curly red hair appeared. It was Helen.

"I was actually looking for you because I have something to show you."

"What is it?"

"Ta-da."

Helen held out a palm-sized album. Inside were old photos taken with her husband and such.

"Well, you've been going around asking what love is since the day before yesterday, haven't you? Now that I think about it, I think my love is this. Not forgetting. Every moment with that person."

Her husband had large eyes and dimples that appeared when he smiled, making him look gentle and innocent.

Helen ran her finger across the photo's surface as she described what had happened then. Her expression was peaceful and wistful, like someone stroking a sleeping dog.

By the time she'd polished off the sausages on her plate, Helen was recounting the story of her husband's proposal.

"I'm laughing and telling this story now, but back then I really wanted to hide! I mean, who gets drunk because they're nervous about proposing and then proposes!"

To summarize, it was the story of Helen's husband getting drunk and proposing to Helen's mother, then getting severely beaten by her father. It was such a famous embarrassment in Auvers that by the time Helen was getting immersed and bursting with indignation, several villagers were gathered around looking at the album and laughing heartily.

By the time Niksi had emptied her plate, everyone in the bar was surrounding her and Helen, laughing warmly together.

But moods have a way of shattering without warning.

The cheerful atmosphere of their trip down memory lane went dead quiet, as if someone had doused it with ice water—all because of one customer. Predictably enough, it was the rain-scented painter.

Even as he thump-thumped across the wooden floorboards, people kept on with their jokes and laughter. But like some grim reaper of joy who silently snuffed out smiles, nothing but silence trailed in his wake.

"Welcome, Benjamin."

"Absinthe."

Even to Raul, who was showing some friendliness, he curtly spat out only what he wanted.

'No wonder he has no friends,' Niksi thought as she put a piece of salad stuck to her fork into her mouth.

The first to express displeasure was Helen. She scrunched up her face and shut her mouth.

Several people around had the same expression as her, and some glanced at her before quietly returning to their seats.

Despite the blatant hostility, Benjamin seemed accustomed to it and appeared unfazed. The green liquor absinthe he ordered and the roasted chickpeas that Raul served as a compliment came out.

It wasn't as silent as when he first appeared, but awkwardness hung over the cheerful atmosphere. However, the looks suggesting he was as unpleasant as finding worm-eaten kernels in roasted beans remained.

Niksi knew those looks well. Since genius is a lonely thing, she had lived most of her life receiving such looks.

That type falls into one of two categories. Either a lunatic who gets off on those stares. Or...

"...I should probably head out now. Niksi. You're going home too, right?"

"Oh, yes."

Someone who's immune to those looks, or has made themselves immune.

The painter had settled into what looked like his regular corner of the bar, quietly nursing his drink. He had some paper and a pen or something in his hands.

"Yes, I should."

She was curious. Would that person be fine even when alone?

From her childhood when she was a lofty genius, to her crazy recruit days when she cleaned her gun with rapeseed oil because she liked the scent of flowers when shooting. She had always received such looks.

So she was used to it, but still, sometimes she felt bored. When she was forced to mingle with people because of her senior and adapted to being in a group, she came to know loneliness that she hadn't known before. Humans are inevitably social animals.

The loneliness of being alone. Looks mixed with humiliation. Footsteps full of hostility.

'Niksi, I don't envy you. You might be a genius, but you'll never become a real person.'

'I remember. The reason I enlisted in the army.'

Niksi suddenly recalled what her senior had said to her long ago.

Noel Hugger. Niksi's old, stubborn tie. He was her university senior and her unit commander both, and in every way he was someone who had no business in war. He liked people and had an honest nature. He would have been better suited as a doctor or farmer than as a soldier in wartime.

If anything, the person who belonged in war was Niksi herself. She was someone who couldn't empathize with other people's emotions.

Someone who didn't much care for people and couldn't grasp moral or ethical values. Crazy Niksi, who didn't know the emotions that people are supposed to have.

That's what everyone called her. They'd marvel at her extraordinary genius that defied common sense, but then couldn't help being appalled by her seemingly deranged, unethical comments.

In many ways, someone who couldn't escape the modifiers and labels of 'crazy' and 'insane.'

He—that is, her tenacious connection who became the reason Niksi entered the army—was someone who had a tremendous influence on Niksi shedding that label.

How?

With the shocking words:

'Niksi. You'll never beat me. I don't envy you. You might be a genius, but you'll never become a real person.'

Her senior who spoke those words expected her to be shocked by the part about 'not becoming a person,' but she was fixated on a different point.

'I can't beat you?'

'Me?'

And Niksi chased after Noel Hugger, who had said those words, until he died. That's how it was.

'Niksi. So you are...'

That's why she approached Benjamin. Because she remembered what her senior, Noel Hugger, had said to her long ago. She was curious about the inner thoughts of that worn man who seemed unaffected by the negative emotions directed at him.

Benjamin looked up at the shadow cast in front of him.

"Painter. Want to be friends with me?"