Master Dez’s violence had made me remember direct pain.
However, things are different now. I don’t know why, but… Even though he is Master Dez’s son, when I think of Master Feldt’s face, I can get by without remembering the pain from his father.
If Master Feldt persuaded the villagers, and the villagers stopped being afraid of Master Elmer, and no one had to be hurt anymore, and—
And if the village were linked to the outside world—
How wonderful that would be.
I can’t leave this village. Still, if more people like Master Elmer come in from the outside, and the village develops further and further, that would be enough for me.
I was born in a glass bottle, and I can only live within the flask of this forest.
Even so, I wish. I wish that happiness—even just a little—would visit me and the village.
Because the village is the only place where I can live…
I am still able to wish for happiness.
I remember. I just remembered, quite clearly. This feeling is joy.
Is there anything I can do to keep this emotion from disappearing?
Because I am certain. I know that if this happiness becomes a reality…
…then I will be able to smile like Master Elmer.
At the same time Village headman’s residence
The five girls with very similar faces lived in the village.
What were they, and where on earth had they sprung from? There wasn’t a single villager who really knew.
They had existed for as long as the current villagers could remember, blending into the village as if their presence were perfectly natural. The village’s older members had seemed to know something, but they’d all passed away without saying anything about it.
The number of girls was always the same, and there were no indications that they aged. Once every few years, one of the girls would begin to grow noticeably weaker, and several days later, she would be replaced by a new one.
They were like something out of an occult movie, but they didn’t frighten the villagers much.
The girls were clearly beings unlike themselves, but the villagers had grown up around them and were used to them. They told themselves that the girls were what they were and gave it no more thought.
In other words, the mysterious children were treated the same way as the outside world.
It wasn’t as though the villagers would get clear answers if they asked the girls. In the past, several people had attempted to see the moment the girls were switched out, but, like those who’d tried to go “outside,” they’d never returned.
This sort of thing happened again and again, and gradually the villagers began to shun the girls.
The current village headman, Dez Nibiru, had accelerated this.
Dez thoroughly exploited them, swore at them, and was sometimes violent toward them. However, they didn’t put up the least resistance, and as long as they were given the bare minimum of food, they’d do even the worst jobs without a word of complaint.
Little by little, the villagers’ attitudes toward them had been influenced by Dez, and now almost no one gave any thought to their personalities or wills.
Not even to the fact that all the girls used the same name…
Dez Nibiru: the man behind the abuse of the girls at the villagers’ hands.
While his son was hearing tales of the outside world from Sylvie, the man was in his own house, slumped back in a wooden chair.
This was the biggest house in the village, and it was a little too large for a man whose wife had passed away.
“Hunh.”
The whiskered man was just staring into space. There was no one else in the room.
Then, in that empty room, he muttered at the ceiling:
“—It’s time to say good-bye, then. To this village…to me…”
Plastering on a smile devoid of emotion, Dez fell silent.
When he looked out the window, clouds had begun to appear here and there in the formerly blue sky.
“And to them…”
Snow would begin falling soon. Certain of it, Dez just kept smiling quietly.
That blank smile had appeared with the silence—and then gradually vanished into it.
Evening Outside the castle gate
“Um, thank you…very much for today.”
When Feldt thanked her, flustered, Sylvie smiled back at him softly.
“My pleasure. If you get the chance, you’re welcome to come again.”
“Yes, ma’am! Only, the snow always gets bad around this time of year, so…I don’t know when I’ll be able to.”
Feldt still seemed reluctant to go, but he probably couldn’t just stay at the castle. He thanked Sylvie over and over, and at the end, as he prepared to leave, he added:
“I’ll tell the villagers about you. I don’t understand why this Elmer fellow asked for sacrifices, but I know you and the others are very good people!”
“I don’t think you should tell them that in so many words.”
Czes, who’d been looking on quietly up until then, stopped Feldt as he was about to turn away from the castle.
“The villagers were abnormally suspicious. If you defend us too easily, they may think you’ve been possessed by a demon. Just tell them, ‘They may be plotting something, but at any rate, they didn’t harm me.’”
At those words, Feldt looked blank, but after giving it a little thought, he nodded vigorously.
“You’re right. Still, I’ll do the best I can to tell them the truth… Okay, then. Really, thank you so much!”
Feldt said his good-byes once again, and this time he did leave, heading toward his village.
“My, my. It’s unusual for you to say things like that, Czes.”
“Shut up. It doesn’t matter.”
If this turns into a witch hunt because of us, it’ll leave a bad aftertaste.
That was all Czes had thought, but it was also true that his impression of Feldt hadn’t been a bad one. Thinking that he really did have a soft spot for children, he remembered that something similar had happened in the past.
As he thought of the little girl he’d met on a certain train seventy years ago, his memories of the incident that had occurred on that train vividly returned. The terrors that had been branded into his eyes in that sealed space made Czes shiver involuntarily. This village was a closed-off space as well. An indescribable unease welled up inside the immortal who looked like a boy, but, thinking he was worrying too much, he decided to just let it go.
That’s right. This village doesn’t have a monster like the Rail Tracer.
Privately scolding himself for his cowardice, Czes silently went back into the castle.
“Dum-dum-dum-da-da, doo-doo-da-da-doo-doo-dum… There!”
Humming an odd little tune to himself, a man was decorating the castle roof.
He abruptly stopped humming, glanced at the hand-wound watch he wore on his wrist, and called out.
“Say, what’s everybody else doing?”
As he asked the question, Elmer was merrily unrolling a hand-dyed, red-and-white-striped curtain. The girl beside him answered indifferently.
“Yes, Master Elmer… They’re all in the drawing room, talking about searching for you.”
“Ah-ha-ha! I see, is that right? Then I guess it’s okay to stay here a while longer.”
With that, Elmer began working and humming again.
Several minutes later, having finished hanging the curtain, Elmer spoke to the girl beside him again.
“Are they still in the drawing room?”
“……Yes.”
Even though the location was distant and the girl hadn’t moved a step for a while, she gave a clear report of the situation.
“I see. In that case, I guess I’ll take the opportunity to move. I’ll watch for chances on the night of the thirty-first and hang the red-and-white curtains then.”
In high spirits, Elmer stretched, then headed for the st
airs to the lower floors.
The moment he walked into the tower with the staircase—
“Dum-dum-daaah-dum-da, dum-da-da-da-dum…da, da, da-daaah?”
His cheerful melody abruptly shifted into astonishment.
The instant he’d stepped through the doorless entry into the interior, Maiza and Nile had leaped from the shadows, trapping both his arms before he knew what was happening.
“H-huh? You’re kidding! You’re supposed to be in the drawing room…” From his expression, Elmer didn’t seem to comprehend the situation, but before long, he yelped in surprise, “D-don’t tell me one of you guys has the ability to stop time?!”
“What sort of nonsense is that?”
“Then how…? Wait, no…”
Gasping in realization, Elmer twisted to look behind him, even though both his arms were pinned.
“Fil.”
The girl who’d been with Elmer for a while now closely resembled Fil and even shared her name. The moment her eyes met Elmer’s, she flinched.
“I-I’m terribly sorry, Master Elmer!”
“Heavens, you’ve done nothing to apologize for.”
On the heels of that transparent voice, Sylvie and Czes appeared from downstairs.
“Sylvie…I can’t believe you! Teaching people to lie…!”
“Don’t say things that could be misconstrued. I merely taught her there are some lies that it’s okay to tell, and some that aren’t… And then I had her practice on you.”
Another Fil was watching Elmer apologetically from behind Sylvie. On seeing her, Elmer sighed, sounding resigned.
“I see. So you caught on. I didn’t think the truth would come out this quickly.”
Then, smiling rather sadly, he briefly stated the bottom line:
“The fact that all the Fils are the same person.”
“She’s a homunculus. That’s it, isn’t it?”
Having relocated to the castle’s dining hall, Maiza and the others sat Elmer down in a chair again. He’d promised he wouldn’t run anymore, so they hadn’t bound him with ropes this time.
“Bingo.” Elmer answered Maiza with startling ease. “What tipped you off?”
“There were all sorts of factors. However, we gathered a short while ago and compared notes, and that was the conclusion we came to.”
At that, Maiza looked at the opposite side of the dining hall. The four girls who lived in the castle were all there. All four wore the same worried expression, and they were watching the other group quietly.
“Sylvie noticed that they share the same mind. She asked the village children about them, then noticed some of the girls’ inconsistencies. In addition, Czes says he watched them for a little while, and…although they were always giving us messages from you, they didn’t seem to be contacting you at all. Not only that, but instead of hiding in any one place, you were constantly doing work around the castle. How did you manage to stay hidden from us without the benefit of security cameras? You were using the girls instead.”
“Wow, that’s incredible. You sound just like a great detective.”
“Stop joking around, please.”
With a solemn countenance, Maiza admonished Elmer, then began to speak about what he himself had seen.
“In the castle’s library, we found alchemical research texts. Not only that, but they were a ramshackle mixture of works ranging from orthodox to heretical, and all of them dealt with the creation of homunculi. However, I couldn’t imagine you were the one who’d collected them. After all, if we believe what you’ve said, they were already here when you arrived in this village.”
“……”
“This time, we insist that you tell us. Not only about the true identity of the girls, but about the village’s secret.”
In response to Maiza’s earnest speech, Elmer replied, finally looking serious.
“I’ll tell you about that in February.”
“Elmer.”
“No, I mean…in February, somebody’s coming who can tell you a lot more about the heart of the matter than I could.”
“Who?”
Sylvie prompted him, curious about who would come to this isolated area.
“The trader.”
At that word, Maiza’s group exchanged glances. Their expressions were odd: half-surprised and half as if they’d expected this. The sight seemed to satisfy Elmer. He grinned and asked Maiza about something that had been bothering him.
“I’m impressed you kept your cool like that, Maiza. True, they’re not like the authentic sort, but genetic engineering is popular now, and you still thought ‘created homunculi’ first.”
In response, Maiza smiled like a mischievous child.
“Yes, I have a very similar friend in New York.”
At Maiza’s words, Czes gave a small, wry smile, and Elmer fell silent, as if he’d just realized something. Nile and Sylvie had no idea what this was about, so they just watched Maiza, mystified.
Outside the window, small snowflakes had begun falling thickly.
The white flakes drifted down in silence, as though putting a lid on this forest-encircled land.
CHAPTER 4
JOY ANGER SORROW FUN
Nile
After that came a series of uneventful days.
Absolutely nothing happened.
Master Maiza and the others didn’t question Master Elmer any further. Instead, they spent their time observing the ecology of the surrounding woods, exploring the castle, and throwing themselves into preparations for the daily “festivals.”
Since coming to this forest, Master Elmer has taught me about all sorts of different festivals. He told me about a variety of events throughout the year, and we actually held pretend versions in the castle.
Apparently, “outside” is divided into lots of big communities called “countries,” and each country and region has a wide range of unique festivals.
Even in this season, when the snow is beginning to drift high, Master Elmer buzzes around as if he is having gobs of fun.
He dressed up as an ogre called Krampus and frightened the villagers, and the winter after that, he dressed up as another ogre called a namahage and did the same thing. In autumn, he said we were having a festival called Halloween, and he had me dress up in strange clothes, too. For some reason, Master Elmer gave me candy just for wandering around in those outfits. I thought it was a mystifying event. Master Elmer also dressed in an odd costume and went to the village and had fun scaring the people there again. This sort of thing kept happening, and the villagers grew even more frightened of him.
When a day called “summer solstice” drew near, he took tree branches with the leaves still on them and used them to make a large structure. He said this was a custom from the country just outside this forest, and that it was a festival held in hopes that the sun would shine forever. However…I wonder if Master Elmer knows that when the villagers saw that object, which we set up on the day when the sun climbed the highest, they clamored that it was a demonic ritual.
After we ate chicken eggs laid by the castle garden’s inhabitants, he carefully kept the shells, then painted them bright colors and used them to decorate in spring. Apparently this was a festival to glorify someone’s resurrection, and to be accurate, we should have stopped eating meat dishes about a week before and painted the eggs red. However, after Master Elmer explained those customs, he said, “Well, we aren’t believers, so there’s no need to be straitlaced about it. Let’s just do as the Japanese do: enjoy the bare outlines of other countries’ festivals,” and kept on smiling. Then he busily decorated the castle with colorful eggs and ornaments…but apparently the villagers spotted the egg objects from a distance and imagined that it was another eerie ritual. Even I heard voices shouting that we were sacrificing chicks and laying some sort of curse on them. However, I didn’t have the courage to deny it. All I could do was look down.
The one we celebrate every year, without fail, is Christmas. I was told that, really,
a person named Santa Claus was supposed to come in a bid to deliver happiness to everyone in the world. When I asked if that meant everyone in the world was happy, Master Elmer laughed and said, “You know he couldn’t hand all that out in a single night.” That seemed logical to me. However, after that, Master Elmer said, “…So I’ll do it instead.” Every year, he said things like that and gave me some sort of present.
There were all sorts of things: ornaments made of paper, or food Master Elmer had made himself, or handcrafted toys fashioned out of wood he’d worked. When I accepted them, instead of happiness, I was filled with feelings of guilt. Why did Master Elmer do all this for me? When I asked him, his answer was quite simple:
“That’s easy. Because, in this village, you’re the one who smiles the least.”
Hearing that made me feel even worse. Even though I knew that was no good, I couldn’t smile from the bottom of my heart. When I tried to force at least an imitation of a smile, Master Elmer shook his head and told me, “It’s not good to force it. If you keep faking smiles, when you really want to smile, your smile will come out warped.”
In the midst of all this, Christmas is here again this year, and Master Elmer seems even busier than usual. While he hides from the other people, he laughs and runs this way and that, putting up decorations all over the castle and snapping party crackers at dinner.
I don’t know what I should do. As if he’s hit on an idea, Master Elmer chuckles and speaks to me.
“Those four are your present this year.”
I’m perplexed. I don’t know what he means. Master Elmer stops laughing, then smiles kindly and says…
“Make friends with them, all right? They may be able to make you really smile.”
And so the days pass without incident. I’m as incapable of smiling as ever. Still, there is something different about me now. Even I can feel it. Once, when those four had arrived, I’d almost been trapped by hatred, but that gradually faded, too. I’ve begun to see hope.
This season is “New Year’s,” apparently, and I was told that everyone celebrates the beginning of a new cycle together. Last year, saying that it was a custom in some eastern country, Master Elmer purchased a great quantity of something called “firecrackers” from the trader and sent roars echoing through the woods. Naturally, it deepened the rift between him and the villagers. Master Elmer seemed to understand this well, but he beamed the way he always did, and he actually looked as if he was enjoying the situation.
2001 The Children of Bottle Page 12
