The Lie-Eating Dragon and the Forgotten-Color Songstress
< II >
[ Day Five ]
I didn’t do any oversleeping today, and managed to get up at the usual time. Maybe getting to bed early last night had worked out.
I left Efi with an instruction to search the mansion for the bluebird again. As for myself, I wandered the town as always.
I’d heard that the bluebird would appear before townspeople - even the gloomy ones. And since those people found the mansion too eerie to approach, that indicated these meetings had to be outside the mansion.
So there was a need to search out here too, and a decent likelihood of finding her. …But likelihood alone doesn’t mean anything. Assuming that “only appearing once a week” was true, my investigation was rendered fundamentally useless…
“Sure feels like a standstill…”
Truthfully, having not personally met the bluebird, I felt like I was making no progress. Maybe it’d be better to search with Efi in the mansion?
Just then, I saw a huge shadow from overhead.
“Hm?”
Something was flying in the sky. It was no bird.
It looked like a person with wings growing from their back, but it was not the bluebird. It had a familiar face, so I knew I couldn’t be mistaken.
While I pondered, the flying man noticed me, and gradually descended down to the ground.
No, that’s fine. You can stay up there.
“…It’s been a few months.”
Despite my plea, the man gracefully touched down in front of me and started talking.
He had blue hair with bits of white in it, and two hair pins in different colors. Over his right eye was a black eyepatch. And he had a stupidly huge build. He was a dragon, captain of a police force, named Neil.
“What brings the captain of the force way out here? Sightseeing?”
“Al.”
And he could, of course, read me rather easily. So there was no need to cover up my normal attitude.
“Al, I see. If you’re here, that’s better proof than any something is afoot in town.”
“I see. Good work.”
As Neil complimented the young man’s work ethic, he noticed and turned his gaze to me. Or his glare, rather.
“…What?” Why would you glare at me at our very first meeting? This guy has no social skills.
“Captain, who’s this… person?”
The young man ignored me and questioned Neil. Huh, did he dislike me? Couldn’t imagine why.
“He’s Al. And Al, this is Brett. He’s still an apprentice, but he’s very capable.” Neil slapped Brett’s shoulder and pointed toward me.
Despite the introduction, Brett continued to glare at me unabated, not opening his mouth.
“…Sorry. He’s a little shy. Forgive him for that,” Neil apologized, smiling wryly.
I felt this might be stepping over the line of “shy”… And well, more importantly, this Brett guy seemed awfully young to imagine him being with the police.
“Is the force taking on the duty of looking after little brats?”
“Hey, I’m not doing anything.”
“Handy ability.”
I tried offering a casual compliment, but Brett had no reaction. Made me feel awkward being here.
“…Say, captain, what’d you come to this town for?”, I pressed, since that was the top thing on my mind. “I’ve only been here a few days myself, but it must be a serious case if you’re coming in person.”
All over this country, there are incidents day after day, big and small. The force had plenty of members they could split up and assign to them all.
Of those, it was mostly murder cases and big disputes that Captain Neil came out in person for. Or… cases that had to do with dragons.
“Right… We received a request from someone in town. Many of the citizens here seem troubled by some rather mysterious phenomena.”
“Seeing people who should be dead, seeing things that shouldn’t be there. Even being attacked by giant bugs, I heard.”
…That’s rough.
The gloomy residents had told me about seeing ghosts and all that, but if the phenomena were that unrealistic, I began to wonder if some shady drug was spreading around.
“And these phenomena got you to come out here, huh?”
“That’s right. There’s a force we believe could be causing these mysterious events covering the entire town. The townspeople have no idea as to the origin of or reason behind this massive force. We can’t deny a link to criminal organizations or acts of terrorism, so we decided to head over.”
A force covering the entire town?
This town was significantly bigger than your average town, and that much more populous. If there really was some force looming over it, causing all these strange occurrences… Maybe the gloomy residents, and the mutual belief that the other residents are monsters, could be due to that force’s influence.
Neil seemed about to continue, but Brett interrupted with displeasure. “Captain, should you really be divulging our intel to this man?”
“Is there a problem? All I’m saying is to take caution.”
“Got it. Oh, right, there’s one last thing I want to ask…”
“…I see. Thank you. I just wanted to know.”
I turned and decided to leave this place. ‘Cause I felt like Brett’s displeasure gauge was going to max out soon enough.
“Why are you in such a foul mood, anyway?”
I had that sudden thought, and twisted my torso around to say it to Brett.
He stubbornly refused to talk, so I asked again. “We’ve never met before. So what’s the reason for it? If I don’t even know why I’m pissing you off so much, I’m not gonna be able to help it.”
Maybe it was like tossing a match into oil. But contrary to what I expected, Brett slowly answered while averting his eyes.
“…I don’t know either. But when I see that scar on your cheek, I get irritated all of a sudden. That’s all.”
…What an irrational reason.
I’d lowered the scarf covering my mouth to talk to Neil, so the scar on my cheek was visible. But it’d been dealt to me ages ago for reasons which surely had nothing to do with Brett.
Observing the silence between us, Neil mumbled something.
“Did you get that wound… back when you were in that organization?”
“Yeah. Just when I was all glad to be saying goodbye to it.”
“Hmm…” Neil went into pondering. “Dragons generally don’t share memories or feelings with their master. But there are rare instances. Maybe Brett is one of them.”
“What do you mean?”, Brett asked with deep interest.
“Quit it. You’re gonna put me in a bad mood.”
“Yeah, that’s right. Mischa taught me.”
I knew it. 'Cause it was the song the lady was singing.
“Are you old friends with miss singer?”
“Hmm. I mean, I’ve been with her since I was born… but that’s only a year and some change. So not old friends.”
A year and some change? I looked miss bluebird’s body over. She was a little shorter than me. Do people get this big in a year?
Then again, yeah, she was a bird. And Al did say that there were a bunch of different kinds of “people” now.
“I know Mischa and Phil really well. Even their past. Curious?”
“Then again, you broke your promise with me. So I wonder…”
Oop. Right, she told me to keep her a secret. But then I went and told Al about her.
“Sorry, miss bluebird…”, I mumbled shamefully. I was a bad kid for breaking that promise.
“Really?”
“Who did you hear it from?”
“Who knows,” the bluebird muttered, looking off into the distance.
“Every morning Mischa loses her memory, you know what Phil does? He wakes Mischa up, then says "nice to meet you.”“
"Hmm…”
This seems kinda weird. She doesn’t forget her songs or her name. But she forgets about mister butler…?
“What’s up?”
“Even though miss singer is such a wonderful person…”
“Huh?” What did she mean by that?
“Why’s that?”
She rubbed her sleepy eyes and answered. “Yeah. 'Cause Phil’s a precious friend of mine.”
“Good night, miss bluebird!”, I waved as she flapped her wings and rose into the air.
Dizzy and staggering, she flew over to the other side of the fence.
“Yeah, sure am. Well, but this should be over soon. Back to the room.”
Al tugged on my arm and quickly dragged me along. I didn’t have any time to talk, and desperately kept from being left behind.
“…Oh, am I walking a little fast?”
“Nope!”, I answered. But Al slowed down his pace a little bit for me.
“But she remembers important things, yeah!”
“Right. And there’s a guy who lamented Mischa’s illness and wanted to help her.”
“Damages?”
“What Phil got was the power of a dragon. I mean, dragon powers are sorta beyond human understanding. Not all that surprising if they could affect a whole town. Anyway, that power starting to influence the town coincides with someone appearing to Phil - the bluebird, who you met. That makes it highly likely the bluebird is a dragon.”
“But when I asked miss bluebird "Are you a dragon?”, she said “I’m the bluebird.” And no lie monster appeared.“
Al’s face scrunched a little when I reminded him that.
"Yeah, that’s right… That’s the one thing I think I’ll have to ask the bluebird about directly. Heck, we might not be able to get any further until I do.”
“Well, miss bluebird was in the garden today, and the day before, so I feel like she’ll be there again tomorrow. Maybe you can talk?”
“And did any lie come out?”
“I see…”
Al folded his arms and got quiet. Seemed like he was worrying about stuff again. After a while, he let out a big sigh and fell back on the bed.
“Let’s stop here for tonight and sleep. Okay, good night.”
Al closed his eyes, but I poked him in the belly.
“Wait! One more, just one more!”
There was something I was kind of curious about still. Al looked sort of displeased, but sat up to look at me.
“Still need something?”
“No, the bluebird… ahh, I’m tired. Tomorrow.”
Then Al’s head dove into the pillow.
It was something I was really curious about, so I tried shaking him a little, and pinching his cheek, but he flicked my forehead back, so I obediently went to my bed.
Tomorrow, we’d end it. Once it ended, we’d leave the town.
This was how it always was. The time before, and the time before that. Once it ended, we’d leave town and it was over.
Ends are kind of sad things, huh. My heart ached a little, but I closed my eyes and got to sleep.
But when I met you, I felt something change. I didn’t gain anything visible to the eye, but I felt like you had given me something. And while I hadn’t ever doubted that I had nothing before, I was embarrassed with myself for being that way.
The day I met you, I felt saved by your voice, happily singing from a park bench. I remember that moment clearly.
So I thought, “I want to be a person who can give something to you.”
You may have already forgotten that, but I don’t mind.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Me? Yeah, when I look at you guys now, I really hurt inside.”
“Nah, well, I said "you guys.”“
So, then… not just me?
"Who were you talking about besides me?”
“I’m fine. I mean, I was born for this. This is nothing if it’s for you, Phil.”
Why was the bluebird exhausting herself so for my sake? It was always this way since the day we had our meeting.
The bluebird in the fairy tale gave happiness not to just one person, but many townspeople.
Right now, there were people in town who seemed happy, but about just as many who looked unhappy. Surely it wasn’t this way before I met the bluebird.
“I don’t suppose that to make someone happy, someone else has to be made unhappy… Surely not, yes?”
I aired a worry to the bluebird. She took a deep breath to calm her breathing.
“My ability doesn’t require anything like that. Just… well, I guess you could say this ability can cause both happiness and unhappiness.”
“What… do you mean?”
“If you knew what happiness really was… I wonder.”
The bluebird stared at something far away. What did she mean by those words?
“Well then… I’m going to bed now. Phil, you need to get Mischa up early again. You better sleep too.”
“If you knew what happiness really was… I wonder.”
[ Day Six ]
A refreshing morning. A curtain of light slipped through the trees and illuminated my cheeks. As I sat up, the tree trunk I’d been napping against lightly shook.
The usual morning. Nothing changed. Nothing since the day I was born.
Well, maybe I tired a little more easily these days. But that was it. Even if I used up all my power and died, I wouldn’t really mind it, myself.
Because that was just my mission, and my destiny, I guess.
“Morning. Nice weather today,” I said to some little birds stopped on tree branches and chirping. The birds chirped back, but I had no clue if they were responding to my greeting.
“They call me a bluebird, but I don’t really get what you guys are saying.”
I don’t know too much about who I am. But since Phil, Mischa, the townspeople all called me a bluebird, I must’ve been that.
What do I know is my power. Phil called it the power to make people happy.
But I begged to differ. I couldn’t exactly tell you why I felt that way, but I just doubt a power that can make everyone happy, no buts, exists in this world.
Since happiness to one person isn’t necessarily happiness to someone else, that seems pretty obvious.
“I guess I might be coming up to my limit…”
It had been a year and some change since I started using my ability. I had zero confidence I was using it well.
I mean, as far as I could see, as far as I heard, I wasn’t using it well. Laughable, huh? Maybe because I’d only just been born.
“Maybe I got a little too cocky.”
Every day, I was using lots of my own energy. Pretty much on full blast all day. Not surprising that I’d start to wear out. I couldn’t become the bluebird from the fairy tale.
“Wonder if Efi’ll come today?”
The other day, some visitors came to town.
One was Al. I hadn’t talked to him in person, but Phil called him that, so that was probably right. The other was Efi. Somehow, she seemed to have the same scent as me. Just intuition.
Efi was bright and silly and just a little stupid, but I had a lot of fun talking with her. And she smiled a lot. The kind of smile a happy-looking person had.
I felt like there were hardly any people left in this town with smiles like that. There were some who smiled a lot, but they were fake smiles.
I wanna talk with Efi. And I wanna see her smile. That’s the only time I can have the illusion of being happy myself.
“Efi?” I sensed someone on the other side of the fence.
“Morning.”
Someone looked down from the fence connected to the garden and greeted me as usual. But it wasn’t Efi greeting me.
*
“Got it? You go see Mischa.”
“'Cause that seems safest.”
Efi still looked to be not getting it, but said “Got it!” and flew out of the room. …Not asking anything complicated, so she should be fine.
“Now then…”
If Efi was to be believed, the bluebird was in that garden where we talked with Phil two days back.
What would I do if she wasn’t there…? Well, Efi talked to her in the same place two days in a row, so maybe the bluebird kept coming back there to talk to her.
It wouldn’t be Efi today… Would she talk with me?
I’d have to be careful about breaking the ice and all that. …But did I have time to spare?
“!”
An unfamiliar voice came from over the fence. Looking closer, I saw a little bit of blue hair sticking through the fence. Was this the bluebird?
“Morning.”
I calmly issued a greeting, hiding my impatience. First, I decided to wait for her reply.
A child peeked her face out from behind the fence. “Not Efi, huh. You’re Al, aren’t you?”
“You know me?”
“Nope. I’m the one who wants to talk to you today.”
“Yeah, that’s me,” she nodded, not attempting to hide a thing.
While I was thinking about how to proceed with the conversation, she spoke up. “So what do you need with me?” Helped that she was making this quick.
“It’s you. You’re using your power over the whole town.”
With that, the bluebird tilted her head a little.
“…Huh. You already know a bunch, Al.”
“…What in the world do you mean?” The bluebird’s unexpected reply honestly disconcerted me.
“Just what it sounds like. What you asked me, and what I’m about to tell you - with all of that, you should understand too, Al.”
Still wearing an meaningful smile, the bluebird began to tell me everything.
“Oh, I’m fine. …What seems to be the matter?”
Phil was standing in front of me.
…What should I do?
For a few seconds, I considered every possibility.
I could continue toward Mischa. But if we were in the worst possible situation I could imagine, I wouldn’t have the means to handle it.
Phil seemed like the key to resolving said worst-case scenario. So maybe it would be best to talk to Phil here.
“I was looking for Miss Mischa. She wasn’t in the grand hall, so…”
“Hm? Oh, it’s not a fever or anything of that sort, but she’s had trouble breathing. It seems she couldn’t sing yesterday…”
So was that the reason I didn’t see her yesterday?
If it had worsened to the point of not singing, the symptoms must have started appearing a few days ago.
“Well… Then we might want to hurry.”
“Let’s tell Mischa… about her memory loss.”
“Huh?!” Phil showed an expression of pure surprise like I’d never seen before, more suiting his age.
“Do you understand what it is you’re saying?”
“Mischa… Even if you tell her such things, she’ll quickly forget! So why let her know something so sad? Why intentionally cause her pain?!”
Phil desperately denied my proposal. He had the right reaction. I’d even promised to him that I’d keep quiet about it.
“But I think Mischa’s suffering as she is.”
Phil locked up for a moment.
“W-Why would you think that too…?”
“Right. That’s it. But technically speaking, this girl isn’t a bluebird or anything.”
“First up, the wings. All dragons have horns and wings. There are also these wing-like things coming out near her ears, but I suppose they’re her horns.”
As I explained, Phil’s gaze wandered between the bluebird’s wings and body.
“One doubt I had was, when Efi met the bluebird, she introduced herself as "the bluebird,” and Efi didn’t detect it as a lie. Once we talked about it, though, it made sense.“
”…“
Phil listened to my question in silence. He showed no intention of answering.
"I don’t suppose you saw her come out of a giant egg that suddenly appeared? 'Cause I saw dragon Efi here be born the exact same way.”
Phil’s mouth faintly trembled. Sure enough, this bluebird’s… dragon’s owner was Phil.
“At this rate, you and Mischa will just remain unhappy.”
“Y… You know nothing!” Phil exploded into an objection. “How do you think I feel greeting Mischa with "nice to meet you” every three days when she loses her memory?! Holding in my welling emotions, treating her as if I were a stranger… Or even… how I feel for Mischa at such a time…“
"Right, I don’t know, because I’m not you. And you don’t know anything about me, either.”
“Huh?” The color of Phil’s face changed. “What do you… mean?”
“What do you know about her power?”
Phil glanced over at the bluebird, then back to me.
“…Isn’t it the power to make people happy?”
“That’s the bluebird in the fairy tale. Like I said before, she’s not the bluebird, but a dragon. Dragons have unique abilities. In her case…”
“The power to show illusions,” said the bluebird.
“Eh…?” Phil weakly uttered.
“Like I said before, help Mischa. I mean, well… I’m making Phil and the townspeople unhappy, too. So I want you to save them, and her.”
“You asked that already. What about you?”
“I could save you too.”
“Then… the people who came to see Mischa were illusions. What’s more, damage from this has spread beyond this mansion…?”
“Sorry, Phil,” apologized the bluebird. “My bad for not saying so as soon as I realized. I couldn’t control my power well, and I couldn’t say anything… and things slowly dragged on until today.”
“I want to go with you to see Mischa.”
Phil looked like he still couldn’t accept it, and was refusing to cooperate.
“Please… While you’re keeping me here, Mischa’s driving herself further into a corner. Even if it’s too late, I think we can do something with you there. You can save Mischa.”
That seemed to the key to unlocking Phil’s shackles. He sighed and turned his gaze to me.
“Understood. Mischa’s room is this way.”
“VvvV…”
Something monstrous was sitting on a big white bed, making a beastly moan. It had a human-like shape, but was somehow incomplete, not all one thing. Its expression seemed slightly sorrowful.
“We didn’t make it in time…?”
As I’d predicted, it was the worst-case scenario.
“Efi, how is it?”
“!”
Yes, this was Mischa. Though her form had decayed almost beyond recognition.
“Mischa was always lying, too. Because Efi was with her, all the many lies haunting Mischa took on form. And then… they overflowed like crazy, resulting in this.”
"What lies are those…?!”
Phil grabbed my collar roughly. He hardly seemed able to control himself from impatience and uneasiness.
“This is one thing even the bluebird didn’t seem to notice. Because when you really don’t want a lie to be found out, you obviously won’t tell anyone else. So… here’s my guess.”
“The bluebird’s been talking with Mischa often. And you come up a lot, it seems.”
“Then what need was there to hide it?”
Phil’s voice trembled. Because of the secrets they’d kept from each other, Mischa was taken by lies. He was probably starting to realize that himself.
“Same reason as you, I’m sure. She "didn’t want to make you sad”… Because she may remember how you look or your name, but nothing about the times you had together.“
Phil gulped.
"She knew you were someone important to her, but didn’t know how you had lived together up to now. You kept introducing yourself anew to her, so she decided it was best to not make you sad.”
“No… Then does that mean Mischa realizes she loses her memories, too?”
“Huh?”
I heard someone’s voice from far away. Is this a voice I know…?
“Mischa.”
This time, I heard it clearly. I know this voice well. It’s your precious voice.
“Phil!”
I strove to speak. Lately, I had been feeling sickly, and could not even sing very well, so I was unsure if you could hear it. But I raised my voice and shouted your name.
“There’s something I need to apologize for, Mischa.”
“There’s no need to feel that way.”
Surely, Father and Mother were fond of Phil. That’s why they called him to the mansion. Though I can’t remember that day anymore.
“I was told your parents explained your illness to you every morning you lost your memory, so I felt I had to do the same. But the first time I told you, you looked so sorrowful. So I lied. I started saying "nice to meet you” instead.“
The days when I went empty, Phil always said "nice to meet you.” I didn’t understand why he would say such a thing. I was uneasy that he had really forgotten me.
But that wasn’t it, was it. He said it for my sake.
But…. but.
“I knew that we were not "meeting,” either. But I didn’t say it. And I was very sad when I couldn’t say it.“
"So I want to apologize. I’m sorry, Mischa.”
“Mischa!”
I could see Phil’s face. And in the next moment, I was being held up in his arms.
“Sorry… I’m really sorry, Mischa…”
Phil apologized with a quivering voice. His body was shaking, too.
“No, so am I. I need to apologize myself.”
The things that had built up in me, and dragged me into the darkness…
They had fallen away now. So now, I could say it.
“I did know you, Phil, but I couldn’t remember. Even though I knew your face and name, I could remember nothing else. So I thought… if I told you that, it would only make you sad. So I didn’t…”
“I see… I see now. That’s fine. I’ve always been unremarkable, after all. Even if you just remember my face and name, if you haven’t forgotten everything about me, that makes me very happy.”
“Phil…!”
As I called his name, tears fell from my eyes.
“I’m sorry…”
I squeezed out one last apology. I wonder if Phil heard it.
After that, the two of us continued to hold each other, and quietly cried together.
“Figures, after eating a lie that big.”
It was large enough to distort a human’s form. I could expect not having to give her a single bite for a week, maybe.
I’d never gone a week without any food myself, so I couldn’t imagine what that felt like. Dragons must have real different stomachs from humans, too.
“Wonder if everyone’s happy now?”, the bluebird murmured with a smile. Unlike yesterday, she had a simple expression.
“I’d say this is better than before. No reason to call you the bluebird anymore, though.”