Mushoku Tensei — Chapter 59 - Sylphiette — Tears Unshed

Norn's Perspective:

What kind of person is Sylphiette-nee?

Gentle. Beautiful. Strong.

And yet someone like that... is insecure.

Insecure just because of her hair color.

I'd heard stories about the curse of green hair before. But Dad always said the storybooks were full of lies.

Under the night sky, unable to sleep, I made my way to the front of the carriage.

Sylphiette-nee was driving. When she saw I couldn't sleep, she greeted me with a soft smile.

Somehow, we started talking about the past.

Not my past, of course. My past doesn't have anything worth talking about. It was all Sylphiette-nee, sharing pieces of her own.

"So brother didn't realize Sylphiette-nee was a girl back then?"

"That's right. He kept going on about training me into a real man."

"Hahaha — so how did he finally find out?"

"When he went to work as a Home Tutor, I wrote him a letter. Otherwise, he might still not have noticed even now..."

Mid-sentence, Sylphiette-nee fell quiet.

All of this had happened before I was even born. Brother had rescued Sylphiette-nee from the village kids who bullied her and become her friend. After that, they practiced magic together every day. He taught her to read and write. Sometimes they'd wander up into the hills, just talking.

It sounded like a fairy tale.

No one had said it out loud. But right now, I could feel it with quiet certainty.

Sylphiette-nee likes brother.

No — "likes" isn't strong enough. She loves him.

I was sitting with the warmth of that, the simple beauty of it, when Sylphiette-nee suddenly went silent.

"Sylphiette-nee? Why did you stop?"

"Mm... Rudy and I have so many wonderful memories together. But they're all from before."

"Huh? But we're about to see brother soon."

"Yes... which is why I'm a little... scared."

I didn't quite understand what she meant. I turned it over in my head, but the more I thought, the more I realized I wasn't the kind of clever kid who could figure out what was going on inside Sylphiette-nee's heart.

Better to just ask.

"What are you scared of, Sylphiette-nee?"

She lowered her eyes. Her voice came out slow and quiet.

"I'm a little afraid he might have forgotten me."

"Huh?"

"After all these years... would Rudy start to hate my green hair too? Would he look at me the way everyone else does, with those frightened eyes? Just thinking about it makes me scared."

Her voice was perfectly calm when she said it. Like she was describing something not just possible, but likely.

How many times, along every road she'd ever traveled, had Sylphiette-nee been treated unfairly because of her hair?

I opened my mouth.

"Brother... won't forget Sylphiette-nee. He definitely won't."

Was that the right thing to say? Was it even okay to say something like that?

I don't know brother at all. Not really. And yet the words came out anyway.

Lilia-mama always says my personality takes after Father. Maybe this was what she meant.

But even after I said it, Sylphiette-nee didn't answer.

She just smiled and reached over to pat my head, gentle, like she was soothing a small child.

"Get some sleep, Norn."

"Okay..."

Maybe I'd done something wrong.

➤ Next: The Present