[Serialized Novel] "Lute of the North Wind" Episode 19

Previous Episode

Episode 19: Clues (6)
[May 1st Okazaki/Kagamihara]
Rei, who had been visiting her grandmother's house in Okazaki since the morning, rushed into her room as soon as she returned home in the evening.
Misa peered toward the second floor from the open-ceiling living room. Bosch, the Border Collie, snuggled up to her feet.
"If it's you, she'll let you in. Please look after Rei-chan."
The old dog slowly climbed the stairs. After barking once in front of the door, there was a click, a line of light was drawn across the second-floor hallway, and it disappeared along with the dog.
"She's just feeling a bit down."
When she turned around, Ryuto Tenma, who had been staying with them for the past three days, was standing there. He had accompanied Rei to Okazaki along with Tachihara, a Self-Defense Force officer.
"Oh, is this red turnip pickle?" he said, picking one up with his fingers and crunching on it with a pleasant sound.
"Did you wash your hands?" Misa asked, knitting her brows.
Even though he had only been staying for two nights, he had become as familiar as an old acquaintance or relative, and she almost burst out laughing.
"What happened in Okazaki?" she asked while taking off her apron.
"Rather than something happening, I suppose it was... nothing happened."
While munching on the red turnip, Ryuto scratched the tip of his nose.

Rei had visited her grandmother's house in Okazaki to ask about the whereabouts of the "Dragon Secret Legend."
Jin drove his moss-green 4WD, with Rei in the passenger seat and Ryuto in the back. Once they passed through the Ryugado Tunnel and left Kagamihara, a blue sky spread out, and the fresh green of the mountains along the highway was dazzling to the eyes.
"Wow, the sky is blue."
It was a clear day, something she hadn't seen in a long time. She opened the passenger window all the way. Fish swam in smoothly and exited through the rear window. Leaving Kagamihara made her realize just how strange Kagamihara was.
Piya-piya, pi-tsu.
Was that a brown-eared bulbul? It let out a high-pitched cry.
Pichichi. Chun-chun. Pipipi.
When she focused her hearing, she could hear a variety of bird calls, almost to the point of being noisy.
When she was out for a walk with Bosch, in the evening, there used to be the shrill chirping of birds returning to their roosts, but... hadn't she stopped hearing that lately?
"Birds, the sound of birds."
Rei looked back from the passenger seat to the rear seat.
"Yeah, oh, they're singing beautifully, aren't they?"
Ryuto, who must have been dozing off, blinked his eyes behind his glasses.
"No, that's not it. I don't hear the birds."
"They're chirping so much it's noisy. Right, Tatchi?"
Ryuto grabbed the headrest of the driver's seat and sat up.
"That's not what I mean. In Kagamihara. I haven't been hearing the birds much."
"Now that you mention it," Jin said, lost in thought while gripping the steering wheel.
"The birds have disappeared from Kagamihara?" Ryuto sat up abruptly.
"Is it the same as before an earthquake? Animals sense danger and flee."
We might need to hurry. Ryuto's murmur remained in Rei's ears.
Her grandmother, Ayako, was delighted by her granddaughter's long-awaited visit.
Sushi tubs, tempura, sashimi, and fried chicken made the low table lively.
"My, oh my."
She widened her eyes at the two men behind Rei, and with a smile on her elegant, white-haired face, she said, "Rei-chan, you've brought two fine knights with you."
In contrast to the quiet Rei, her grandmother was sociable and talkative. She seemed unable to suppress her curiosity about the accompanying Ryuto and Jin, bombarding them with questions incessantly and talking over them before they could finish answering. She didn't speak quickly, but because she changed topics as freely as a butterfly dancing in search of nectar, it was difficult to find a moment to interject. Her elementary school-aged cousins, Naoto and Kento, wouldn't leave the Air Self-Defense Force pilot and the meteorological researcher alone, and circles of conversation formed here and there.
Rei was left behind alone, with the paulownia box containing the wind instrument placed at her side.
Fish of the sky swam from the veranda through the tatami room. The dogwood in the garden shook its branches in full bloom.
Thinking that she had to ask her grandmother about the "Dragon Secret Legend," her solar plexus tightened with tension.
"Grandma, about that..." "This instrument..." "Do you know the Dragon Secret Legend..."
She tried to speak to her grandmother many times, but with Rei's volume, her voice was drowned out by the surrounding noise. She noticed that Jin was glancing at her, concerned.
"Grandma, please listen to what Rei has to say." It was a mistake to raise his deep voice out of impatience.
Her grandmother became displeased, turned away, and fell silent. When Ryuto tried to mediate, she snapped, "You'll be scolded if you don't stay quiet too. It seems Rei has something to say."
A chilling silence flowed through the room. She was afraid that everyone's eyes were on her.
She desperately held back the urge to look down. She gripped her thighs so tightly that her fingernails left marks. But no voice came out.
If it were the old Rei, she would have given up by now. But today, that wouldn't do. The fish swam before her eyes.
"Grandma." Her voice cracked. "This." She opened the paulownia box.
"When you gave it to Mom, didn't you forget to hand over the... Dragon Secret Legend?"
She finally managed to ask her grandmother.
"What is that? I don't know," her grandmother dismissed her coldly. "I gave everything to Misa."
"Mom was... wondering if you might have forgotten."
"That girl, she always blames me. I properly passed on the oral tradition, too. Oh yes, that strange oral tradition, you're supposed to burn the copy after passing it on. I burned it right in front of Misa."
"You pass it on but don't keep it? That's interesting."
Her grandmother glared sharply at Ryuto, who had interjected. Her friendliness was nowhere to be found.
"I'm looking for it. Grandma, don't you know anything?"
"That instrument," she said, glancing at the wind instrument and immediately looking away.
"It looks suspicious, doesn't it? It doesn't make a sound. And it has a strange oral tradition. After I inherited it from my mother in the village, I kept it locked in the storage room until I gave it to Misa. I'm relieved to have let it go," she said, waving her hand.
"Grandma, please try to remember properly."
It was a mistake to blame her with an edge to her voice, mixed with irritation.
"My, is that the way to ask someone for a favor? If I say I don't know, I don't know. Don't call me a liar."
At the word "liar," a childhood trauma suddenly flashed back, and her fingertips went cold.
Before she knew it, Rei was running to the entrance, clutching the paulownia box.
She didn't even notice that Ryuto and Jin had chased after her.
An unpleasant aftertaste remained in her chest like flat soda.

To be continued