Ch.76Fox (4)

*

For some time now, I had been standing alone.

Not as a metaphorical expression about life, but literally standing alone by myself.

No one was visible, and there wasn’t a trace or sound of any beast or monster to be heard.

Not a single tree could be seen—those numerous trees that had obstructed my view with their damp presence.

No, it wasn’t just the trees.

There was no sky, no earth, no river, no soil, no horizon—I was simply standing alone in an empty place.

“…Huh?”

I stopped in my tracks, uttering a dumbfounded sound.

I had no idea what had happened.

I was certain I had been following the fox.

Realizing that the moment of my death was approaching, I had left my loved one’s side and was following the mysterious flame created by my magical power.

Where was this place, and why was I here?

I slowly raised my head and looked around.

All that entered my vision was a fresh green and transparent blue, mixing together and swaying slowly up and down, covering the entire world.

Only the clear sound of water droplets falling onto a surface could be heard sporadically and irregularly.

It felt as if I had entered a giant soap bubble.

“…Am I already dead?”

Perhaps this was the afterlife.

That thought suddenly rose to the surface of my consciousness.

If this was the afterlife,

Had I come to heaven, or had I come to hell?

According to the doctrine of the Goddess Church, there’s supposed to be a time of judgment where one’s life is reviewed to determine whether one goes to heaven or hell, but I found myself here as soon as I regained consciousness.

Of course, this place didn’t resemble in the slightest the descriptions of heaven or hell I had read about in books during my lifetime.

But I couldn’t help but be convinced I was in the afterlife because the excruciating pain of magical poison eating away at my dying body—which I had clearly felt while walking in the rain—was now completely gone.

Well, even if it is the doctrine of the Goddess Church, no one has actually died and returned to write about the experience, so perhaps it’s only natural that this place looks nothing like what I had imagined.

Was it because the pain and discomfort that had filled my entire body had disappeared?

The beautiful blue light that filled this unidentified space looked so beautiful.

The clear water droplet sounds that occasionally reached my ears also soothed my mind, which had been crushed and rendered helpless by the series of terrible misfortunes, giving me peace.

At least, hell wouldn’t have such an atmosphere.

I thought optimistically as I slowly moved forward.

“Still, this is quite different from what I expected.”

It was a strange sensation.

With no distinction between ground and sky, there was no sense of depth, and I couldn’t even tell what I was standing on.

Light emanated gently from all around without any distinction between up and down, but not even a shadow formed beneath my feet.

I could clearly hear myself muttering, but no footsteps were audible, yet I could hear breathing.

Wait, breathing?

I reflexively placed my hand under my nose.

I could feel my breath on my fingertips.

I was breathing.

Quite well, in fact.

When I stamped my foot, I could feel something solid, and when I touched my body, a vivid sensation ran across my skin.

I had thought the afterlife was a world of souls, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

With a puzzled feeling, as I slowly walked through this blue-green world that looked like the inside of a transparent emerald, I suddenly discovered a single point fixed in mid-air.

After trying to cover it with my hand and making several futile attempts to touch it, I finally realized it was something very far away.

With no distinction between ground and air, it appeared like a point floating in the air.

The first object to appear in this world.

I slowly moved toward whatever it was.

It was so far away that it appeared as just a dot, so it would take quite a while to reach it, but it didn’t take long to realize what that dot was.

“…A person… no, a woman?”

I could tell it was the figure of a woman.

At that moment, a sudden elation bloomed in my heart and spread throughout my body.

Mother?

Laila?

Or is it Sister Maria?

Surely not Ms. Sylvia.

Perhaps it’s the Goddess who will decide whether I go to heaven or hell?

I began running toward the female figure visible in the distance.

*

As I got closer, I could see her more clearly.

She definitely wasn’t someone I knew, and judging by her slight movements, she was a living person, not a statue or sculpture.

She was sitting on a chair made of thin intertwined branches, and from the leaves and flowers hanging from the branches extending from the chair, it seemed the chair itself was a tree that had grown into the shape of a chair.

The woman had moist, glistening green hair flowing down, lemon-yellow skin, and wore a green dress exactly the same color as her hair.

At the end of her legs, which peeked out from under her dress, were thin branches instead of feet.

Though she had a human form, she was clearly not human.

When I approached close enough to make this judgment, she slowly turned to me and said:

“I’ve been waiting for you to wake up.”

A gentle, caring voice reached my ears.

I stopped in my tracks and stared at her blankly.

She was a being I had never seen or heard of anywhere in my life.

I had never heard of such a demon, monster, or deity of this form.

What was she?

And how should I respond?

As I was bewildered by her alien appearance, my eyes suddenly fell on her hands.

A small fire fox was sitting on her palm, quietly accepting her touch.

“…That fox.”

“Ah, such a good child, isn’t it?”

She answered with a smile to my confused mutter.

“This child brought you to me. Be sure to thank it later.”

She smiled and scratched under the fox’s chin.

Child? Later?

That fox should be nothing more than a flame created by my magic, so what could she possibly mean?

Why was my fire magic still maintaining its form anyway?

The effect of my spell should have ended long ago.

I slowly objected to her words.

“…But that fox is my magic,”

“Hmm, no, it’s not.”

The woman slowly placed the fox on her lap and looked at me.

Even her pupils were the same green as her hair.

Her hair, eyes, and clothes were all exactly the same color, which gave her a somewhat strange appearance.

For a moment, I wondered if her teeth and tongue were also green.

The fact that I could have such a silly thought suggested that she wasn’t threatening me or causing me any tension.

“This child is not magic. And it’s certainly not a fox,”

“…What do you mean by—”

“And you are not a mage either, Ash.”

“You know me?”

“Of course. This child told me everything.”

The woman stroked the fox’s head and looked at me with kind eyes, as if embracing me.

“Ash. Poor child.”

“…”

“The child who was supposed to become our master.”

“…What?”

I was startled by her sudden strange remark and looked at her in surprise.

She smiled slightly at my reaction, covering her mouth with her sleeve.

Then, clearing her throat with a “hmm-hmm,” she said:

“May I introduce myself?”

“…Yes,”

I slowly nodded at her polite question.

“It’s nice to meet you… If fate had taken the right path, we might have met earlier, which is truly regrettable.”

“…Oh, nice to meet you too.”

I scratched my head and said something foolish in response to her expression of deep regret.

She smiled brightly.

As suggested by her clear yellow skin, it felt as if the freshness of a fruit’s scent and color was washing the inside of my eyes clean.

“Although I have no name, those who know me call me the Lady of Green.”

“Lady of Green?”

I don’t know her.

In no story, in no book,

I had never heard or read that name even once.

She seemed to notice my confusion and nodded, saying:

“To make it easier to understand, I could introduce myself like this.”

“…”

“The Queen of the Spirits who live in this forest.”

“…What?”

As I asked again in confusion, she slowly bowed her head and said:

“And you, Ash, are the child who was destined to be our rightful master.”

.