TFOA Chapter 20

"By the way, where did the painter go? Home?"

"No. Over there under the zelkova tree."

Gilbert pointed up the hill. There sat Benjamin leaning against a tree.

"He's just too shy."

"Should we go?"

"Yeah. He's the only one who didn't get a fortune."

Niksi picked up the fortune box she had left in the corner. There were exactly three pieces of paper left inside.

As she was about to head toward the zelkova tree with the box, Gilbert grabbed her forearm.

Niksi looked up at him questioningly. He just shrugged his shoulders.

"Just. I hoped you wouldn't go."

"Why?"

Niksi said, rattling the container.

"Um..."

Whether it was funny that he was only now thinking of a reason after stopping her, Gilbert scratched his nose bridge and laughed.

"I haven't gotten one yet either. That thing."

Gilbert gestured with his chin.

"Really?"

Niksi vigorously shook the box with just three pieces of paper in it. The carefully shaken box was suddenly thrust in front of Gilbert.

"Here, choose one."

Gilbert picked up a fortune. Impatient Niksi immediately headed toward the zelkova tree as soon as he picked up one piece of paper.

Gilbert let out a helpless laugh as he watched her retreating figure. Didn't she realize that the paper was just an excuse?

"I really meant it when I said I hoped you wouldn't go."

He looked at the man standing far away under the zelkova tree. The person who had appeared before him two years ago covered in blood. A man with quiet purple eyes.

"Excuse me, Mr. Edgar."

"Yes?"

"What does this say?"

"Hmm, let's see..."

The man who could barely hold his head up and mumbled incomprehensible words. That man who lived holding his breath as if he alone bore all the world's sorrows.

<You will be forgiven for everything.>

Edgar said.

"That's what the note says?"

"Yes."

"Ah... Thank you for reading it, Mr. Edgar."

What does that even mean?

He realized she had written anything when she had nothing to write. Looking at it now, the handwriting was hastily scrawled, as if written when she was too lazy to write properly.

Gilbert neatly folded it back up and held it in his hand.

'Come to think of it.'

He pulled out the rustling paper from his outer jacket pocket. Letters that even he, who couldn't read, recognized.

"I should have put this one in too."

Unlike the elaborate writing, it was just a simple note.

<Love>

Under the zelkova tree on the hill overlooking the painter's house. Even though it wasn't very high, it was still a hill, so the wind blew strong.

With the sunset just caught on the ridge behind her, Niksi looked at Benjamin sitting under the tree.

"It's been a while since we've seen scenery like this, hasn't it?"

Heave. She settled down next to the painter. Below the hill, the peaceful atmosphere of the village where the tasting was in full swing.

It was an ordinary, familiar scene they had experienced long ago, but it felt somewhat distantly far away.

'That makes sense.'

A gentle breeze blowing, the sounds of cheerful, happy chatter. The appetizing smell of grilling meat and the sweet scent of alcohol just enough to get pleasantly drunk.

These were all common everyday scenes from before the war.

"Why are you here?"

"Because it's noisy."

"Why don't you take this chance to get friendly with people? I even set up the stage for you."

"... I don't need it. We'll just become more burdensome to each other."

Such a stubborn guy. Niksi clicked her tongue.

"Are you going to stay here forever then? You look just like a dog that got kicked out of its house."

Does she ask that knowing the answer? Benjamin let out a sigh.

"Who's fault is all this?"

"Thanks to me."

"How shameless."

At Benjamin's scolding, Niksi laughed like a deflating balloon. She held up the box she was carrying with a ta-da. It was the fortune box.

"Do you know what's in this box?"

"......."

"It contains what will happen in your life for the next year. Very important stuff."

Niksi shook the container. The box with only two pieces of paper inside didn't even make a rattling sound.

"Here. Pick one."

She thrust the container right under his nose. Quite naturally, the painter pushed the container away.

"I don't want to."

"I didn't want to say this, but if you don't pick this, terrible misfortune will befall you."

"I don't care."

"I won't move a single step until you pick one."

Her playful threat seemed like the truth and was frightening. Benjamin put his hand into the fortune box with a disgusted expression.

Niksi, who hadn't noticed that her continued presence was a greater disaster than misfortune, shook the box—rattle rattle. There was only one fortune left in the box. That was Niksi's portion.

"Finally distributed them all! Yay! My head hurt when I was making them, but seeing everyone happy to receive them makes me feel like I did well."

Benjamin looked at her profile. He had been secretly hoping Niksi would leave, but she had a carefree expression showing no intention of moving.

She had used superhuman patience to resist picking first. Niksi pulled out the last piece of paper. Regardless, Benjamin held the paper slip carelessly like grabbing weeds.

"Painter. Aren't you going to unfold your fortune?"

"Later."

"Then I should look at mine now."

Niksi unfolded her slip.

'Hmm... I see!'

The confirmation took only one second. Niksi hummed to herself as she neatly folded the slip back up.

"......."

"......."

"Are you going to unfold it now?"

"No."

"Then when will you look at it? 'Later' isn't 'forever,' is it?"

"Probably it is."

At his answer, Niksi booed. She suggested using flower divination to decide whether to look now or later, and searched the grass for flowers.

Eventually, Niksi found a dandelion and placed it in Benjamin's scarred hand.

"Here. Use this to decide whether to look now or not."

A dandelion has easily over 100 petals. To choose this or that, he'd have to do 100 rounds of foolish manual labor. Of course, the ill-tempered painter wouldn't obediently do that.

He snapped off the dandelion's head entirely and muttered "Won't look."

Niksi's booing was a bonus.

The sun was slowly setting beyond the sea. The villagers' raspberry wine party seemed to be in full swing, as sweet fragrance wafted all the way over the hill.

Niksi, who had been blankly watching the villagers laughing, suddenly spoke.

"I'm sorry."

Suddenly, now of all times? What's she scheming?

He narrowed his eyes and looked at Niksi. He couldn't tell what her vague "I'm sorry" meant.

Benjamin likewise threw out a word.

"For what?"

It would be one of these: for making his front yard look like this, or for leading the villagers in a procession like the Pied Piper, or for dragging him outside when he didn't want to come out.

'... Obvious.'

Having roughly guessed that much, he leaned his body against the tree trunk. What was occupying his mind even more was something else.

When he had almost burst the lemon, that moment when he definitely felt strength enter his hand.

His hand could only barely move his fingers after being torn to shreds. But.

Benjamin quietly looked at his scarred hand. As if what happened earlier had been a dream, his hand was just trembling palely again.

She had been watching that sight intently when she spoke up.

"The thing that made your hand like that. It might have been me."

"... What?"

What came out of her mouth was something he had never expected at all. Thanks to that, Benjamin asked back in a daze.

Niksi kept her gaze fixed on the supremely peaceful scene in the distance as she spoke.

"I was a soldier too. French 23rd Division. Battle of Gergonne."

For a moment, the bombing sounds and sirens from that day's air raid flashed through his ears. His head throbbed painfully. Benjamin held his aching head.

"So I'm sorry."

"... It's fine."

"Really?" she asked.

"Yeah," he answered.

It was already a past story.

He had no desire now to question why she had crushed his hand, no desire to blame the retired soldier from the enemy country who had taken his comrades, and no desire to forgive or not forgive at this point.

He just... just was.

"Back then it had to end with either your hand or my hand getting smashed. It was just unlucky that it was my hand."

"Well... true enough."

"And I'm not someone who deserves to hear apologies from anyone. So no apology is necessary."

'In other words, my apology was rejected.'

In Niksi's mental world composed of 'this or that,' his strange answer of 'I understand but reject!' was truly like a difficult puzzle.

He was indeed a difficult person in many ways.

'Just like Senior Noel.'

Niksi rested her chin in her hand and looked back toward where the villagers were.

Victoria and Gilbert, whose eyes had just met hers, were waving at her. It was a gesture hoping she would take the remaining seat at the 3-person barbecue grill in front of them.

"Heave. I should go now. My friends are looking for me."

"But..."

His rarely questioning voice caught Niksi's ankle. She turned around.

"Why are you suddenly telling me that? You've been quiet about it all this time."

"Um, I told you. That I want to be close friends with you."

"What does that have to do with this..."

Niksi spun the slip in her hand around.

<Someone precious will come into your life.>

"Because there shouldn't be secrets between precious friends."

Rustle. Her hair, turned crimson by the sunset, fluttered in the wind. Benjamin quietly watched Niksi's retreating figure as she ran down the hill.

She really was a strange woman. Someone with expertise in stirring up people who were just sitting quietly.

"... You have no eye for judging precious people."

A woman who storms through the deep seabed where not a single ray of light enters, stirring it up like a tempest. A woman who threatens 'you're going to become someone precious' when no one ever asked to be friends.

That's why one corner of his heart rustles restlessly. Like the fortune paper carelessly crumpled in his hand.

He unfolded the paper rustling in his hand. It was quite an early later.

<Everything will become dull.>

Benjamin read through the letters written inside. It was truly incomprehensible words, whoever had written them.

What exactly would become dull?

Whether that crazy neighbor would become dull, whether the pain in his hand would become dull, or whether the unforgettable memories would become dull.

He quietly looked down at his own house yard, still bustling with festival atmosphere.

▶ Today's Harvest:
Giant kidney beans, raspberry wine, button mushrooms, lamb barbecue

▶ Overall Assessment:
The remaining barbecue ingredients would be perfect made into stew the next day!