Fantasy Novel [Chiaroscuro of the Dawn] ep.21 "Chapter 3: All'isola Sacra degli Ogre! (To the Sacred Ogre Island!)"

A Trial for the Hero of Dawn

“Beyond this river? There’s a ruin?”

Chiaroscuro explained to a skeptical Scuro, using gestures to emphasize his point.

“I’m serious! There was nothing there, but it appeared while I was washing my face! And then, the brown goat that was walking in front of me turned around and…”

“Turned around?”

“It said, ‘Please proceed when you are ready!’”

A high-pitched laugh echoed out: “Hahahaha!”

They should have arrived on the island at sunrise, but the sun was already high in the sky.
After shaking Scuro awake and returning to the river in question, the ruins were gone without a trace.

“Ah, ah, yeah. Sorry for laughing. You haven’t slept properly in ten days, so after sleeping just one night, you’d be like that, huh? Heh, hehehehe.”

“How rude, I’m not sleepy. You should wash your face, too; you’ve got sleep in your eyes.”

“Heh heh, you’ve got a fairy-tale side to you, don’t you? A talking goat, huh~”

Thinking about how frustrating it is to be mocked while someone is trying to be considerate, Scuro splashed water on him while he was washing his face.

“Whoa, water is coming from all directions!” he said, so I replied, “Right? It must be a mystical power.”
However, my horns haven’t reacted much so far. I’m starting to lose confidence in that ‘ping’ feeling I had when I was exploring with Pi-chan.

Beyond the river, there was nothing but a green plain, but I definitely saw it earlier. A slightly small ruin that looked a lot like an ancient temple.
If that place is another world, there must be some key to crossing over.
So, what was different from before?

Scuro rinsed his mouth and then began to gulp down the water.
Watching him shout, “Ah, I’m revived!” Chiaroscuro asked him something on a whim.

“What about grace before meals?”

“Huh!? What are you saying, like a monk? And is this even a meal?”

“Well, in the Os Sacrum Church, they pray for a long time, like ‘Our Father who art in heaven...’, but isn’t there a simpler one?”
“In the Ogre village, we’re supposed to pray in the Os Sacrum style, but it’s a hassle, so everyone just says ‘Goddess, thank you for the food’ before eating.”

Scuro tilted his head and muttered that he hadn’t heard of anything like that.

“Well, the Ogre Goddess has been erased from the history of the Os Sacrum Church. But, maybe I’ll try it too. Goddess, thank you for the delicious water.”

At that moment, a furry figure emerged from the side of his robe and peered into his face.
Scuro sat down on his bottom in silence.

“We are in agreement, Heroes.”

The goat said that clearly in the voice of an elderly man.

Scuro, who had lost his footing, gave a blank, “Huh?”
The goat hopped over the river and started walking toward the ruins. And there, the ruins had appeared once again.

“...!”

Chiaroscuro let out a soundless cry, pointing at the ruins to signal Scuro.
Scuro nodded repeatedly and finally opened his mouth.

“That’s a sheep!”

‘Wait, that’s what you’re focusing on?’ I thought, but Scuro continued confidently.

“A sheep called a Mouflon! In the Church State, they’re only supposed to live on Ogre Island. It’s not fluffy and it’s brown, but it’s not a goat.”

“Then what is it... It’s surprising that a goat talks, but it’s not like it’s okay if it’s a sheep.”

“No, no, things like this are important. Like when you’re writing an adventure log.”

“Huh!? You’re writing an adventure log!?”

A deliberate cough echoed out.
Mr. Mouflon seemed to be getting bored.

Perhaps realizing that the impact of his entrance had faded, the middle-aged Mouflon stomped his front hooves on the ground and smoothly transformed into a bipedal form.
Moreover, he was wearing ancient-style white cloth clothing.

The Mouflon, looking like a pastoral god, bowed respectfully from across the river.

“Welcome, Hero of Dawn and Hero of Dusk. I apologize for the late introduction, but I am Mouflione. I serve the Ogre Goddess, Lady Lilith. Now, let us welcome you, who have completed your prayers and purification. Please, come this way.”
Chiaroscuro and Scuro looked at each other and gulped.

“Thank you, Mr. Mouflione.”

“Um... I am honored by your invitation, Signore Mouflione.”

The two of them took each other’s hands without a word, jumped over the river together, and advanced toward the strange being who called himself Mouflione.

The stone ruins were small, but the back of the entrance in the middle was pitch black, and the air flowing from it was cold.
“Now, there is nothing suspicious here.”

When he said that in a slick voice, their skin crawled again. Even so, the two of them stepped inside.

Instantly, they couldn’t see anything.

Even though there should have been an entrance where the sun was shining brightly behind them, it was now filled with a darkness so deep they couldn’t even tell the depth of the space.

The surroundings were so quiet it was eerie, and other than the hand he was holding with Scuro, there was nothing certain.
Both of them had sweaty palms.

“Um, Mr. Mouflione...? Are you there?”

Chiaroscuro’s voice, filled with anxiety, was swallowed by the darkness.

“Mr. Mouflione! Where did you go? Could it be that we were tricked...”

Just as he started to say that, Chiaroscuro violently shook off the hand he had been holding.
The hand that should have been Scuro’s was no longer sweaty.
And it had become the hand of an adult man, much larger than his own.

“Who are you! Where did you take Scuro!”

The voice that came from the bottom of his gut was filled with more anger than he himself expected.

“Forgive me, Chiaroscuro. I’ve startled you.”

“Michele...!”

Hearing that laugh, like a spring breeze, he knew there was no mistake.
Perhaps his eyes were getting used to it, but the darkness was gradually thinning.

Brown leather shoes, the long, full green hem like a skirt—it was definitely a cassock.
A thick chest, broad shoulders draped with a white stole, moss-colored eyes filled with deep compassion, and chestnut hair.

“Michele! Did you come for us? Um, we...”

“We are always together, and you can call me whatever you like.”

He had thought he would be angry about them sneaking out of the ancient temple, but that didn’t seem to be the case.
Michele smiled and pointed to the space in the back. Looking, he saw a large table laid out with a feast.

“It looks delicious. Chiaroscuro, come on, hurry. You’re at a growing age, aren’t you?”

He sat opposite him as Michele invited him, but somehow he couldn’t put any strength into his body.
Pickled small fish, ear-shaped pasta, and steak dripping with meat juices were all luxurious, but for some reason, they didn’t whet his appetite.

“Haha, what’s wrong? There’s no poison in it. This roasted quail is exquisite. The herb and vinegar sauce is the key.”

He suddenly felt thirsty. He was hungry, too.
But only bitter saliva overflowed, and he didn’t feel like putting anything in his mouth.

“Poison... it’s just that I don’t deserve to be treated like this.”

That was it.
It looks delicious, but I shouldn’t want it. You need qualifications to eat delicious things.

“Qualifications? Is eating delicious food a licensed profession? Besides, you’ve worked hard enough, haven’t you?”

“No, it’s not enough. I have to work harder, much harder.”

“Chiaroscuro,” Michele said, reaching his hand out across the table.
Actually, more than a fork or a knife, he wanted to take that large hand. But he didn’t have the qualifications.

“You’ve done well, haven’t you? You’ve worked since you were young, looked after your wounded father, walked on eggshells around foster parents who didn’t care about you, and taken care of your younger brothers.”
“As the only one in the village with the power of reception, you read the weather and gave revelations for farm work, didn’t you?”

“But,” his throat, which he was straining, was stinging.

“I failed to pluck the diseased grape leaves and ruined other vines... When I’m concentrating on something, my power of reception falters, so I couldn’t predict sudden heavy rain and caused trouble... People told me they wished I had the power to change the weather, not just read it.”

“The grapes were a shame. But were you the one in charge of that field? There are villages without anyone with the power of reception, but I wonder who the villagers there blame when there’s sudden heavy rain.”
“A rabbit cannot become a whale. Is there really anything there for you to worry about?”

“...When you have power, people expect things. They are grateful, too. But when being useful to everyone becomes the norm, they forget the gratitude, and when things don’t go as expected, they start getting angry...”

The saliva he swallowed dried up, and his voice became hoarse.

“Come here, Chiaroscuro.”

Michele stood up and spread his arms.
The table that separated the two of them was gone.

If he jumped in, those warm arms would surely accept everything.
The bottom of the earth where light doesn’t reach, the land of night where the morning sun doesn’t rise—it’s too cold without that.

“I can’t... go there. I have to work harder. I have to do more big-brother-like things for Gigi and Toto.”

Michele chuckled again, but the spring breeze no longer blew.
His lips, wearing a sticky smile, opened into the shape of a sharp sickle.

“Gigi and Toto. Those children said, ‘We like Michele better than our big brother.’ They said they liked Michele better.”

“Huh?” He could only freeze.
Where were those gentle moss-colored eyes? Where was the chestnut hair that tickled his heart so sweetly? Where did the hand that cupped his cheek on the balcony on a rainy night go?

“Is there something strange about that? After all, I have power. The power of an adult. I’m not just kind and good at taking care of people; I can also hire art teachers for those two talented children and let them learn.”

Gigi and Toto peeked out from behind Michele.

“Big brother, thanks for everything until now. But we’d rather be with Michele.”

“Toto too~! You know, I’m going to be a painter with Gigi. Bye-bye, big brother.”

Smiling at the children waving innocently, Michele said:

“So that’s how it is, Chiaroscuro, you’re not needed anymore. Oh, don’t make such a sad face. Well then, let’s see. Instead of you, let’s make your brothers disappear.”

Chiaroscuro’s eyes widened at the terrifying joke, and at the same time, Michele snapped his thumb.

The twins disappeared in an instant.
All that remained was a darkness so deep that if you kept staring at it, it felt like your eyeballs would be taken away.

“So, what else? What was it you had to work hard for?”

I see, this is a punishment.

For myself, who never works hard enough and can never be enough no matter what I do.

“The Ogre village that Mother protected with her life... I abandoned it. I said rude things to Uncle Theo, too. I have to, I have to make amends for something.”

As he knelt in the darkness and said this, bit by bit, someone gently touched his shoulder.
He was too scared to lift his face.
Because the dull-colored skirt of the person kneeling in front of him was in his field of vision.

“I’m disappointed, Chiaroscuro.”

His ears rang with pain.

“I had expectations for you. Isn’t it obvious? You’re the child I gave birth to at the risk of my life, aren’t you? I believed you would surely become someone great. And yet.”

“...What are you trying to say, Mother?”

He felt the person he called Mother shake her head as if in disbelief.

“Giving birth to children doesn’t amount to anything. To think you’d abandon the village I protected. But it’s my fault for having expectations on my own, isn’t it?”
“That’s right, Mother was wrong. So I shouldn’t say things like ‘what was my life for, it was a failure,’ right?”

“Moth...”

Just as he opened his mouth to groan, the final blow came.

“I shouldn’t have given birth to you.”

He heard a snap.

There should have been a woman wearing a faded crimson skirt until just a moment ago, but now there was only a void.

This time, his shoulder was tapped from behind.
Looking back fearfully, he saw a black mustache.

“Uncle Theo... I’m sorry. I didn’t know anything. That you and the others were working hard to build connections for the Ogre village. Please, I beg you. Forgive me.”

Uncle Theo crouched down to match Chiaroscuro’s level.

“Chiaroscuro, I thought of you like a son. But, well. I’m sorry I couldn’t take you in.”

“Please stop! Saying things like that as if to spite me, I was out of my mind. I’m sorry, I’m truly sorry.”

“It’s fine. Bruna said it too, didn’t she? I won’t expect anything from you anymore, so don’t worry about it. Just like you abandoned the village, you might as well erase me too.”

“Erase you! And besides, I never abandoned the village...”

“Chiaroscuro,” another voice called from the back. As he stood up, tears streamed down his cheeks.

“Father!”

His bright brown hair and hazel eyes were just as they were when they lived together in Ogre village. Even down to his gaunt, sunken eyes.

When he tried to run over, a palm was held up toward him.
It was a gesture of rejection.

“Don’t come here, I’m a failure as a father. You’ve always been close to Theo.”

“Why... why? Why would you say that? You’re my father, the one I love.”

Chiaroscuro’s father opened his reddish-brown eyes wide.
For a moment, he thought the blood vessels in his eyeballs had burst and blood had gushed out.

“Then why, when I was suffering from a high fever and asked you to remove the black stone from my chest, did you pretend not to know!”

“I told you, there is no stone! That’s why I couldn’t remove it! You were just exhausted from the grief of losing Mother and from your military service.”

“Is that why you ran to Theo! You gradually stopped coming to my sickbed and went to play by the river with Theo?”

He couldn’t find the words, and his throat whistled.
He couldn’t count on both hands the number of times he’d said he was late because of farm work, but had actually been given snacks at Uncle Theo’s house, or gone to the river without telling him he was going with Theo.
Chiaroscuro covered his face.

“I’m sorry, Father. I was a fool. I was a bad child. So, I shouldn’t have any fun anymore, right? I have to work hard to make amends.”

“It’s fine, it’s too late now. Because nothing can ever be undone.”

His father and Uncle Theo were standing side by side, smiling sadly.
Just as he was about to cling to them, saying, ‘Don’t say it can’t be undone because I’ll work hard,’ the sound of fingers snapping echoed.

Michele asked Chiaroscuro, who was staring into the void.

“How do you feel now? Chiaroscuro.”

“How do I feel...? I don’t... feel bad. I feel like I’m forgetting something important, but... my mind feels clear.”

Michele gently pulled Chiaroscuro’s shoulder and smiled.

“Good, do you remember what happened until just a moment ago?”

“Until just a moment ago? Um, we found the ruins, so I came to explore with Scuro. That’s right... why did I forget? I wonder where Scuro went, I have to find him.”

A large palm gently rubbed Chiaroscuro’s back.

“It’s okay, that child is excellent. Even though he’s never been outside, he has a lot of knowledge. He also holds the world’s only wonderful potential.”
“That child is like a prince, so to speak. He was raised carefully in hiding, because he is the illegitimate child of the Pope. He’s different from you, who worked yourself to the bone in a poor village.”

“Different from me? But, Michele, didn’t you say earlier... like it’s okay if a rabbit can’t become a whale? Maybe I’m remembering it wrong.”

“That’s right, a rabbit can stay a rabbit. It’s just that a whale lives in a different place. Scuro is a child who can manage on his own one way or another. Even if he’s a little unreliable right now, he won’t need you soon.”

“...Not needed...”

He could only see darkness, but he knew his vision was spinning.
While hunger, thirst, and cold were reaching their limits, only Michele’s hand on his back was warm.

“Now, there’s nothing left. Nothing to make you work hard. You’re safe, aren’t you?”

Chiaroscuro pressed his temples, where cold sweat was running down, and desperately moved his lips.

“I can’t, I... I can’t help but think that even if there’s nothing, even if I can’t do anything, I can’t think it’s okay to be here. If I’m not working hard for someone’s sake, I can’t think it’s okay to exist...”

Suddenly, the warmth disappeared from his back.
Michele was no longer anywhere, and that Mouflione was standing behind Chiaroscuro.

“Ah, that is a pity. We must part ways here with a child who cannot reach the truth.”

The horizontal eyes, which he didn’t know where they were looking, were terrifying, and his legs went weak. Mouflione showed his teeth in a grin.

“I must erase you, too.”

The voice, “Sorry to keep you waiting!” cut through the darkness, which had enough mass to make him think he would be swallowed. Chiaroscuro turned back as if waking from a nightmare.

“Scuro.”

He surely couldn’t know how relieved Chiaroscuro was to call him that. How much he had wanted to see his friend, his partner.

Scuro, who had his hair, which glowed faintly blue even in the darkness, tied in a bun, tucked a stray lock behind his ear and called out, “Chiaroscuro,” with a shy smile.
In his hand was a plate with a crostata on it.

“Thanks for being happy that it’s delicious!”

With a smile that blew away the night, Scuro said that.