2001 The Children of Bottle

by Ryohgo Narita

  The appearance of the three girls had abruptly plunged the entrance of the village and its series of disturbances into silence.

  The atmosphere was indescribably odd. Maiza and the others weren’t sure what to say to the sudden interlopers either, and silence continued to circulate between them.

  The girl who’d spoken first was the one to break it. Setting her foot in her horse’s stirrup, she turned to Maiza’s group and addressed them timidly:

  “Um…if you’d come with us, we, erm… We would really appreciate it. This place—isn’t safe.”

  CHAPTER 2

  JOY ANGER SORROW FUN

  Czeslaw Meyer

  On a road that ran through the forest…

  “What do you think, Maiza?”

  Sylvie was the first to respond to Czes’s uneasy question.

  “It’s fine. Maiza doesn’t mind at all that you ran away right off the bat.”

  “N-not that! I was asking what he thought of those girls!”

  “Let’s see… Personally, I think the one in the middle would be perfect for you.”

  “No! Sylvie, quit teasing me! I know you know what I mean!”

  “Ahhh, you really are adorable, Czes.”

  The boy’s face had gone bright red, and once again, Sylvie wrapped her arms around his neck from behind.

  As he watched them and laughed, Maiza answered Czes’s question.

  “It should be fine, I think. From what they said, it sounds as though Elmer is up ahead.”

  After the trouble at the village entrance, Maiza’s group had decided to follow the girls in red. If the villagers’ reactions were any indication, the “monster” they’d mentioned was definitely Elmer. They didn’t know how this situation had come about, but, figuring they’d find out once they met him, the four of them had agreed to go after the horses.

  Nile was lying down behind the rear seat again. He’d pulled a thick blanket over his head and gone to sleep.

  “Listen, though, I’m not sure how to put it, but… Don’t those girls seem a little odd? They don’t talk much, and compared to the villagers… I mean, the color of their hair is the same and everything, but it’s like they’re from a different country.”

  “Well… If you put it that way, that village is quite odd itself.”

  Maiza outlined the situation of a few moments ago, putting the facts in order.

  “I mentioned ‘traveling’ at first, to see how they reacted. They didn’t seem to know this was private land, either.”

  “Now that you mention it, you’re right.”

  “If they’d known, they could have settled the matter simply by telling us, ‘You’re on private land. Get out.’ We are trespassing, so we would have had no excuse. Besides…although they were speaking the official language, their intonation and some of the words they used were subtly different from normal. I suppose it seemed…rather archaic.”

  “The village isn’t on any maps, after all. They’re probably a cult or something like that, don’t you think?”

  Czes suggested it bluntly. Maiza considered the words shortly, then shook his head.

  “They didn’t seem like it. If it was just a religious sect, they wouldn’t call the monster—well, probably Elmer—both ‘demon’ and ‘monster.’ Their terms weren’t unified.”

  “In other words… It’s an ordinary village?”

  “I don’t think that’s the case, either. That headman… I felt something strange about him as well. The other villagers seemed merely frightened, but…he was a bit peculiar. The way he immediately called us ‘outsiders,’ for example. Though I suppose of everyone in the village, he did seem to be the one who knew the most about the village itself.”

  Remembering the man’s hate-filled eyes, Maiza cut the steering wheel with a bemused expression.

  Sounding bored, Czes offered a simple answer. “He is the head of the village, after all. That’s only natural, isn’t it?”

  “No, that isn’t what I meant. It was something more fundamental than… Ah. That seems to be our destination.”

  Maiza, frowning, had been about to say something when he spotted “it” through the gaps in the trees ahead of them and commented with some surprise.

  At Maiza’s words, Czes turned to look. Sylvie leaned out from the backseat, too, bringing her face even with Czes’s, and peered ahead. What they saw was—

  An old castle.

  It was a fortress protected by stone walls, the kind appearing in children’s stories and fantasy novels, or in the popular video games of a few years ago.

  That said, it wasn’t all that big. Its size made it seem less like a royal bastion and more like a fort for bandits or pirates.

  There wasn’t much ornamentation, and its overall impression was undeniably rough. However, the haphazard arrangement of its few windows suggested that the design of the interior might be rather complex. Despite its relatively old appearance, its exterior didn’t seem to have crumbled badly anywhere.

  “It’s in the same style as the castles of Luxembourg…or maybe Belgium, isn’t it? It has particular similarities to Luxembourg’s Vianden Castle. Granted, this one is much smaller.”

  After Maiza stated his impressions matter-of-factly, Czes provided his own with a tense expression.

  “It isn’t like the Northern European school of architecture. Besides…it doesn’t look that old, somehow. I doubt it’s been here a hundred years.”

  Except for its entrance, the castle was surrounded by thick woods, and even on foot, the way would probably be rough going.

  In front of the castle was a gate like the ones of old mansions. The three horses ahead of them ran through the open gate—then disappeared within the grounds.

  “…I wonder if it’s all right to take the car in.”

  After some slight hesitation, Maiza drove through the entry and stopped near the center of the courtyard.

  Getting out of the car and taking a closer look at the castle, he murmured with mild disbelief:

  “This is…”

  “…Well, that settles it. It’s definitely Elmer in there.”

  Her eyes wide with similar amazement, Sylvie spoke with absolute confidence.

  What had prompted Maiza’s involuntary sigh was the assorted Christmas decorations adorning the castle door and every single window.

  They weren’t the sort that were sold commercially. They were handmade, using only materials that could be found in the forest and the village. No two windows had the same type of decoration, and all the designs were fanciful and complicated.

  “True, Elmer was the only one on that ship who’d do anything this elaborate.”

  Czes didn’t seem particularly impressed, but Sylvie was examining each of the ornaments in turn with great interest. An uninformed observer might have thought someone had switched their minds.

  “You’re right,” Sylvie replied with awe. “Elmer’s about the only one who’d be fine with using decorations this mismatched… Out of the immortals who were on the ship, anyway.”

  “…In any case, let’s go in. I don’t believe the young ladies from earlier are coming back. Sylvie, wake Nile, please.”

  “All right.”

  While Sylvie was opening the back of the car, Maiza and Czes stood at the castle’s entrance.

  It was a huge door with proper hinges, and it struck an odd contrast with the stone exterior. The castle really must have been built comparatively recently.

  They knocked several times, but there was no response from inside. Since they were already trespassing on private land, Maiza and Czes decided to open the door.

  “Excuse us.”

  It wasn’t locked. A decoration shaped like Santa Claus with reindeer swayed a little, and the hinges of the heavy door creaked loudly. After a moment’s hesitation, the pair stepped through the door into the atrium.

  Inside, walls and a floor made of the same stone as the exterior spread out before them, and there was no particular ornamentation to speak o
f. However, the staircase near the back of the entryway wasn’t stone. From the look of the door in the corner of the room, too, it really wasn’t an old building. All in all, it seemed like a nineteenth-century mansion.

  “It’s unbalanced. It’s almost as if it was built to look old from the outside, on purpose.”

  “You’re right. It’s like some sort of museum, or—”

  Creee eeeeeeee ee eeeeak…

  Just as Maiza was about to chime in with his thoughts, the hinges groaned behind them, and the door slammed shut.

  At the same time, the window shutters rattled closed, and the entrance was plunged into gloomy darkness.

  “?!”

  There was no one behind them. Czes hastily put a hand on the door, but it wouldn’t budge.

  As if they had stumbled into a horror movie, solemn laughter echoed from above their heads.

  “Keh-keh-keh-keh-keh…”

  The creepy laugh reverberated in the entryway, making it hard to pinpoint its origin.

  “Pitiful little lambs… Welcome to the accursed castle of the accursed forest. I suppose you let the decorations outside lull you into a false sense of security, but it was foolish of you. You will serve as fuel for my power—”

  The theatrical lines bore down on Maiza and Czes, but after sharing a glance, they spoke in unison:

  “…Elmer?”

  “Oho, so you know my name, do you? You must have heard it from the villagers. I applaud your courage in calling the name of a known demon so boldly! However, know that resistance is—”

  “No, I mean, it’s you, Elmer. Isn’t it?” Czes asked.

  “It’s me, it’s me!” Maiza shouted.

  “…entirely futile— Hmm? Uh…huh? That’s weird.”

  The speaker seemed to have noticed something. The hoarse voice that had echoed through the darkness made an abrupt, drastic shift into a young man’s clear voice.

  “It really is you, then! What has it been, about two hundred ninety years?”

  Maiza called with more energy than usual, unable to hide his joy. Czes didn’t look as delighted as his companion, but, smiling wryly, he murmured into the void:

  “You haven’t changed a bit. I can tell even without seeing you.”

  A brief silence flowed through the gloom. Just as the echoes of their voices died completely, a startled shout burst through the darkness. “Hang on! Don’t tell me… Is that—could that possibly be—Czes, and…Maiza?!”

  All at once, the shouting voice dropped down from above them.

  A thump sounded in front of Maiza and Czes, and a human shape abruptly appeared in the shadows.

  “Heeeeey! The windows! Open all the shutters, would you?!”

  No sooner had the figure shouted than the closed shutters began to rattle open. As if it were some trick of the wind, all the windows let in the light at once, although no one was near them.

  “Neat, isn’t it? I made it so you can work ’em by pulling a single rope at a distance!”

  As the figure proudly told them about the shutter mechanism, the light from outside revealed his full shape.

  “Good lord, it really has been ages! Let me see your fa—”

  Maiza’s words and emotions abruptly froze at the sight of the now-illuminated figure.

  The young man was dressed just as strangely as Nile.

  He wore pitch-black from head to toe, and he had a rough sack over his head, with holes cut out for the eyes. In Japanese terms, it was a clumsy imitation of a kuroko, the traditional, black-clad stagehand.

  “……What are you wearing?”

  “Hmm? Ah! Wow, sorry about that! I figured if I did this, it would look like there was a coal-black shadow writhing in the gloom, and it would be easier to scare my guests! Ha-ha-ha.”

  Laughing lightly, the man pulled the bag off his head. He’d been thorough: Even the gloves he wore were dyed black.

  “Aah, it was hard to breathe in that. Geez, guys, c’mon… I haven’t had guests in forever, and I went all out, you know.”

  The one that had appeared from under the sack was blond, blue-eyed, slightly sweaty, and smiling.

  He wasn’t a particularly handsome young guy, but he wasn’t ugly either. His features were perfectly ordinary, and the childlike smile suited them.

  On seeing this, Maiza finally relaxed. Setting his hands on Elmer’s shoulders, he put his elation at their reunion into words. His childlike eyes seemed ready to spill over with tears of joy at the slightest provocation.

  “Oh, you really—you really haven’t changed, have you!”

  “Ha-ha! Hey, it’s Maiza! It’s actually Maiza! What’ll I do, huh, Czes? What’ll I—? Wait, whoa, if it isn’t Czes! Geez, it’s actually Czes! What do I do, Maiza?! I doubt my whole body could express this joy with anything less than an explosion, but unfortunately, I’m not equipped with a fuse or a powder train, and I bet it’d hurt anyway, so I’ll pass! But really, whoa, what’ll I do, seriously, what should I do, what do I do?”

  “First, I think calming down would be best.”

  After they had cooled each other’s excitement, Maiza remembered what had happened a moment ago and laughed in amazement. “Honestly… What’s this ‘keh-keh-keh’ business, at your age? I was embarrassed just listening to you.”

  “Huh? Was there something weird about that?”

  “You didn’t notice?”

  Elmer seemed genuinely mystified, and Czes, who’d left a little distance between himself and the pair as they celebrated their reunion, responded to his question with another question.

  “If you were trying to scare us, you failed miserably. In fact, you just made us laugh.”

  He’d been blunt, but upon hearing those words, Elmer grinned and burst out with laughter of his own.

  “Is that right! That’s a huge success! Not everybody can go in for a scare and get a smile instead! That’s at least eighty percent more fantastic!”

  “Are you familiar with the phrase wry smile?”

  “Ahhh-ha-ha-ha! Well, hey, it’s fine! Nah, c’mon, seriously, you surprised me! What a shock, I was really startled! What are you two doing here? Did you know I was here when you came?”

  Hugging Maiza lightly, the young man grinned and thumped him on the back.

  “Huh?”

  Those words left Czes and Maiza confused. Hadn’t this man, Elmer C. Albatross, known they’d come to the village? They’d assumed that was why he’d gone out of his way to send someone over to pick them up.

  “Didn’t you know we were here, Elmer?”

  “Oh, nonono, all I heard was that outsiders had come to the village. They’re clannish, see, plus their nerves are all on edge thanks to me, so I thought I’d hide you here before anything ugly happened to you!”

  It was quite a long way from here to the village. Who in the world had told him? And in any case, why was he living in this castle while the villagers called him a demon?

  There were all sorts of things they wanted to ask him about, but for the moment, Maiza and Czes opted to bask in the delight of their reunion.

  Just then, a knock echoed in the entryway. Apparently Sylvie and Nile were stranded outside the door.

  “Huh? What’s this? Is somebody here besides you guys, Maiza?”

  “Yes, two others—also old friends.”

  As Maiza informed him happily, Czes mischievously broke in.

  “Who do you think they are?”

  “Huh? I wonder… In terms of people who’d probably be friends with you guys, I’d guess Begg or somebody like that… Well, never mind, yesyesyesyes, coming! I’ll get it open right away.”

  His curiosity mounting like a small child’s, Elmer unlocked the door, heart beating faster. It was rigged up the same way as the windows: The door could be closed from a distance with a rope or something similar, at which point it would lock automatically.

  Smiling, he opened the door to reveal…

  “Elmer! Is that really you, Elmer?!”

  “Hey.�
��

  …A bewitching, fey beauty, and a man who wore a mask over his well-bandaged face.

  Creeeeee eeee ee eeaaak.

  Slam.

  Elmer slowly shut the door and turned to Maiza.

  “…Who is it?”

  “An excellent question.”

  Unusually for him, Maiza was wearing a rather impish smile. Beside him, Czes was desperately biting back a grin of his own.

  Cre-e-e-e-e-e-eaaak.

  The door was forced open from the outside, and two people Elmer didn’t recognize entered.

  “Aaaaaaaaugh, strangers! People I don’t know are just walking right in!”

  “Come on, Elmer, that’s mean! Don’t shut us out without even saying hello!” Although Sylvie’s tone was angry, she couldn’t quite hide a thin smile.

  “You cur. Must you jest even during our reunion?” In contrast to her, Nile was actually cross.

  “Wh-who are you?! Argh, not only do you march into my castle, you stomp your way into my heart—! Who the heck are you?!”

  Seeing that Elmer was genuinely confused, Nile came to remember the state of his own head. “Hmm, I see… I did not wear a mask like this before. I suppose your confusion is only reasonable. However, let me just say this: Know me by my voice.”

  With that haughty command, Elmer finally recognized the man behind the mask.

  “…Nile? Is that Nile?!”

  “So you finally caught on.”

  Elmer took a good, hard look at Nile, who was nodding in satisfaction. Then he turned to Sylvie.

  “Then you’re— Of course!”

  “Surprised? It’s no wonder: I’m completely different.”

  “Huey, right?! You’re Huey Laforet! Why are you wearing women’s clothes?!”

  “Wrong!”

  At the off-the-mark answer, Sylvie slumped, and Maiza and the others laughed out loud.

  “Huh? You’re kidding. You’re not? Huey was the only person this gorgeous on that ship…”

  “She’s Sylvie. Sylvie Lumiere.”

  Laughing, Maiza revealed the secret.

  Sylvie looked tired. “Oh, honestly… I was the only woman on that boat, you know.”

  “Sylvie?”

  Elmer stared at the woman in front of him. Then he spun to face Maiza and shouted, “It’s a lie! Sylvie wasn’t a transcendent beauty like this! She was a snub-nosed kid who looked like she’d just come up from the country!”