After more than three hundred years, setting foot once again on Orkney in northern Britannia, Aesc felt a swirl of conflicting emotions.
She had spent the most beautiful sixteen years of her life here, and just before her sixteenth birthday, she had met the man she loved.
What should have become a lifetime of cherished memories—a homeland that would forever remain her place of return no matter where she traveled—was reduced to ruins on the very day she turned sixteen, the day she was to pledge her life to the one she loved.
The closer she drew to her homeland, the heavier her steps became.
Shiomi noticed this and considered trying to persuade her otherwise, but once she set her mind on a course, she never changed it easily. He had long known this about her.
What he had not expected was that this willfulness was an innate part of her nature, not something shaped by experience.
"Don't worry about me, I'm just a little nervous," Aesc suddenly said to Shiomi.
At the same time, she could see the concern and worry he wore so clearly, though he said nothing.
"Worrying is still necessary," Shiomi replied with a smile. "But I won't stop your steps."
"The road is rough and difficult. Without you supporting me, I doubt I would've made it this far."
With those words, Aesc pressed against his solid arm, using it as a pivot to leap over a muddy pit in their way.
Though it was midsummer, Orkney was still buried under relentless snow. Rather than forcing her way through drifts that reached her knees, Aesc chose to wait. The two of them camped for more than half a month, just two days' journey from her homeland, until they finally found an overcast day with no snowfall. Clearing a path as they went, they pushed forward.
"Enough of that."
Aesc lowered her head to check the hem of her cloak.
Some snow clung to it, but it was no trouble.
The snow crunched beneath their feet, each of their steps sounding just slightly different.
"There's something I never clearly told Tenkei. Not because I meant to hide it," Aesc said softly, her tone calm. "But after that day, all I thought was, 'I don't want to care about the Paradise Fairy's mission anymore. I just want to live quietly with my husband until the end of time…'"
"Mm." Shiomi nodded. "I could sense it. During those first ten years in seclusion, you wouldn't even discuss Magecraft with me."
Back then, Aesc was like a Faerie of Britain who knew only indulgence, numbing herself with pleasure of body and spirit, sinking into the haven he had built for her.
It wasn't until a great calamity struck Britannia—shaking awake the mission she had never truly forgotten—that Aesc resolved to set out again.
Yet even then, she only wandered the land, making shallow attempts at exploration.
It was only now, at last, that she chose to face her mission fully and step onto the homeland she had avoided deep in her heart, but had never truly left behind.
"Because power means responsibility… and I didn't want to accept responsibility," Aesc said earnestly. "I never imagined Tenkei would tolerate me to that extent, staying true even as I wasted my days away."
"As a husband, how could I abandon my wife?" Shiomi slowly shook his head, his resolve firm.
Aesc knew he thought that way and smiled. "But that's not the point. What I need to tell Tenkei is that my journey as a Paradise Fairy isn't simply about traveling through Britannia and meeting with different clans."
"I had a feeling it wasn't that simple." Shiomi nodded, motioning for her to go on.
"To be precise," Aesc continued, "this is my pilgrimage as a Paradise Fairy. In the city of the Rain Clan, there is a bell tower that holds something called the 'Pilgrim's Bell.'"
According to the original plan, after Shiomi and Aesc's wedding, on the final day of the Harvest Festival, he—as her husband—was to witness Aesc, in her role as a Paradise Fairy, strike the bell for the very first time.
"So this trip back to Orkney is to visit the Bell Tower, to see and ring that bell?" Shiomi understood and asked, confirming Aesc's feelings.
She pressed a hand to her chest. "Yes. After delaying for three hundred years, it's about time I faced it. The only thing I didn't expect was that, as I drew closer to my homeland and the city's outline became clearer, I realized my heart still aches."
"This might sound a little irresponsible, but feeling both joy and sorrow is proof that you're alive," Shiomi replied softly. "Three hundred years is still too short for you. Perhaps it will take more time before that pain fades."
His words suddenly made Aesc laugh. "Three hundred years is actually quite a long time. Aside from Tenkei, no other person or fairy has stayed with me this long."
The thought that such time would continue endlessly into the future filled her heart with happiness, dulling the sharp sting of losing her homeland.
Just as he said, sooner or later, the pain would fade naturally.
Aesc hoped that when that day came, she would not forget the sorrow tied to it, nor the meaning behind that sorrow.
As they spoke, they arrived before the ruins of the Land of Rain.
Beyond lay the city of the Rain Clan.
Once tranquil and peaceful, its streets had been battered by wind and rain, worn down over three centuries into crumbling walls and broken remains.
In truth, the city had already been destroyed in the flames of war, long before that, during the assault of the four clans.
Walking across the snow-covered ground, Aesc looked around at the devastation. Vines climbed walls of uneven height, while roofless houses were choked with weeds taller than a person, the weeds themselves buried beneath snow.
These were the plants Shiomi had grown with his life force after his Awakening, before leaving Orkney, as a way to bury the Rain Clan.
A long wind swept down the streets, making the vines and wild grasses sway, their rustling echoing faintly among the ruins.
At a five-way intersection, Aesc lifted her head blankly, as though she could once again hear and see the lives once lived here by the Rain Clan.
That summer, after her marriage had been arranged, her hand had been held in Shiomi's as they walked together through these streets. She could still clearly recall the fairies of the Rain Clan greeting them along the way.
Tears slid down her cheeks. Before she could wipe them away, Shiomi reached out and brushed them from her face. Then, holding her gently, he pressed a soft, tender kiss to her lips.
Familiar warmth, familiar softness.
Her heart, once drifting like a tumbleweed, was held tightly in his embrace, no longer wandering.
Where the heart finds peace, there is home.
...
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