Part 8: A Leap Into The Future

"Pirates flee in terror. Children hold conches filled with honey and milk."
"They fall asleep in groups on the damp deck."
"But on the other side, the adults weep, and the light of the lamp by the bed shines into their dreams."
"So when dawn comes, the first child returns home."
Letter: Harald... this is my last day at the SPDM.
Letter: Harald... this is my last day at the SPDM.
Letter: Harald, I had a good time here...
Letter: Harald, I had a good time here...
Letter: Harald... If you can't see these letters, then what's the point of me writing them?
Erick: …
She leans back in her chair and stares at the ceiling with a vacant gaze.
Neither in pain nor weary, yet heavy in every way.
What is that? What is that...?
???: Pfft, pfft!
Erick: Huh?!
A head pops into view.
Golden Key Sancho: Hehe~ surprise attack successful!
Erick: San...cho? What are you doing here? Haven’t you got Critter Training Class today?
Golden Key Sancho: Forget about class.
It’s been boring since you stopped attending.
Golden Key Sancho: I thought I'd come to see you off, boss.
Golden Key Sancho: I had a hard time finding your dorm. With all those winding corridors, I almost got lost.
Golden Key Sancho: Wow, your room is so much bigger than mine. I’m jealous.
He looks around. The once scattered books are now neatly piled in the corner.
All that mess, those cherished things, are now packed into boxes.
It’s as if they were never there.
And suddenly, the weight of reality makes his heart tremble.
Golden Key Sancho: I didn't know... you packed up so quickly.
Golden Key Sancho: You’re... leaving already?
???: ……!
The feet behind the door have become restless.
Effie: …
Golden Key Sancho: Hey! Eifer, didn’t we agree that I’d go first—?
Effie: We still have a secret plan to carry out!
Effie: You! Deserter with the rolled up bedding!
She points her finger like a judge scoffing at a criminal.
Erick: What?! I didn’t run away!
Erick leaps up from her chair.
Effie: A scurrying thief, a traitor who drops his weapon, a stupid... pirate!
Erick: Hey, hey! If you had stopped at the first two, we could still be friends, but that last one...
Erick: We’re going to have to part ways, you... crybaby!
Effie: Humph, if you’ve got the guts, come with us!
Effie: But, I guess you wouldn’t dare! You just can’t wait to go running back to your grandfather.
Effie: "Waaah—Harald, I miss you so much, waaah, waaah waaah!"
Effie: Let's go, Sancho.
She runs to the door and makes a big funny face.
Erick: Uh—ah! Just you wait!
She tosses aside her chair and charges down the hallway.
She pushes open the door, pushes past the white robes, pushes past the gaze of the children.
Pushes past the curtains that fell of their own accord.
Pushes past the endless persuasion of the adults—
Letter: “Dear Harald,”
Letter: “This is my last day at the SPDM.”
Letter: “I feel more uneasy than ever, as if lost in an endless night.”
Letter: “I'm really scared, terribly so.”
Effie: Shh... the instructor has gone to bed. We need to be quieter.
Golden Key Sancho: Come out, come out, don't be afraid. The boss doesn't bite.
He opens the cage, and the glavakus sniffs his hand, hesitating.
Letter: “I think I met that monster you told me about, but I couldn't defeat it.”
Letter: “Of course, it hasn't defeated me, either.”
Golden Key Sancho: Good job, good boy, that's it. Come meet our boss.
Glawackus: Aroo...?
It looks up innocently.
Golden Key Sancho: Now, lie down, let our boss sit on you.
Glawackus: #&%￥!
It opens its mouth and bites her cape.
Erick: …
Letter: “But I've recognized its form.”
Letter: “Just as it recognized me—”
Letter: “They say every child has to face some hardship to realize their own form. To end up where they ought to be.”
Letter: “They say every ambitious ship crew eventually runs out of food and sneaks back to the old harbor on a quiet night.”
Letter: “So I guess I've always been scared, scared like a cornered squirrel.”
Letter: “I'm afraid of the endless nights without you, that I’ll lose all my courage and run away.”
Letter: “I'm afraid that the grown-ups are right, and the children are wrong.”
Letter: “That all this is just a child's fantasy.”
Letter: “That heroes and treasures no longer exist in this world.”
Letter: …
Letter: “But they do exist, Harald.”
Letter: “My little wooden sword was never sharp.”
Letter: “And my ship would be easily overturned by a small wave.”
Letter: “But I'd rather be swallowed by a wave than sit at home on a sofa.”
Letter: “I'd rather perish and be immortalized in the epics of a minstrel than idly daydream of futures that will never come—”
Letter: “I won’t wait for a predetermined fate to take me.”
Letter: “Besides, my sailors look to me for guidance.”
Golden Key Sancho: It—it, lowered its head, boss!!!
Effie: Now's the chance!
Glawackus: ...?
Erick: Now!
Erick: Hehe, looks like the canned food we hid for you worked.
Erick: Come, my ravenous friend.
Erick: Forward, swallow the gold, swallow the test papers, swallow the teaching sticks!
Matilda: Hey! What are you doing? Get off that glavakus!
Golden Key Sancho & Effie: Run!
Letter: “The crew will eventually part ways. The banquet will fall silent.”
Letter: “In the end, everything is in vain.”
Letter: “Nothing will remain.”
Erick: Ha-ha-ha-ha!
The "Great" Storyteller: But I’ll tell you—those who defy make the journey worthwhile.
This story is dedicated to
the daydreamers
and those whose souls are free from the restrictions of their body.

The Three Musketeers

Who Is "Madam Ghost?"

Erick the Fleet-Footed
-THE END-
Visitors, doctors... everyone has gone.
The room sits in perfect silence.
Vertin: Erick, I'm sorry. You know our agreement.
Vertin: Due to this incident, you’ll be transferred to the School of Corrections until they determine you have sufficient self-control and common sense...
The child doesn't resist, emitting a consenting hum.
Vertin: But first, I think...
Vertin: You should know the truth about what's happening outside.
Erick: Mm-hmm, I'm ready.
She immediately shakes her head.
Erick: But I want to see it for myself.
She looks out the window, turning her gaze to the stormy sky.