6 – The Past

When she saw the boy for the first time, how old was she then?

It was when she reached the age of discretion, maybe? About three to four years old.

One night she dreamt of a day, when a boy who was a little older than herself was gazing at her with black eyes that glittered and sparkled like dark obsidian.

“Come on Chiiko, open up, it’s mealtime.”

Smiling sweetly, the boy held out a small spoon with a white, grain-like thing to her.

——–Eh? What? Am I supposed to eat this sort of thing?

The grain appeared to be soaked with water, turning it into a thick gooey substance. No matter how she looked at it, it didn’t seem tasty at all.

However, the her in the dream happily ate it with utmost joy.

Yet because it was a dream, she didn’t know what it tasted like. But she could clearly feel the sense of satisfaction she felt in the dream after eating.

As she ate the grains, the boy with black eyes smiled happily towards her.

Somehow, she wanted to see the boy’s happy face even more, so she ate until her stomach couldn’t hold anymore.

**

Calcedonia began her sermon atop an altar with great zeal before the assembled masses of believers, .

She spoke about the precepts of the god that were written in various holy scriptures. To pass these on to the faithful was also an important purpose of the priests.

The great majority of the people in this world— the world that Calcedonia brought Tatsumi to, were illiterate. They couldn’t read nor write. Therefore, the teachings must be passed on verbally like this.

Of course, she wasn’t the only one who performed this duty. The pastors the other priests were on a rotating schedule to perform these sermons. But like today, when it was her turn to give the sermon, the chapel in the church would always be filled to capacity.

Their reason for coming was to hear these lectures from the priests. But that was not the only reason people came to the chapel today.

The sermon platform was situated in the deepest part of the Chapel in a way so that all the visitors may have a birds eye view of it. Many had come to catch of glimpse of the <<Holy Maiden>> who was currently giving her sermon on of the platform with a solemn air.

(TL note: They came for the eye candy, and not the message

Editor : I’ve seen enough hentai to know where this is going =,= )

But in the eyes of the people who came to see the <<Holy Maiden>> , a slight trace of confusion could be seen.

Normally the <<Holy Maiden>> was the type who would chant the scriptures with a solemn air in her never changing nonchalant tone. But today her manner and atmosphere had changed.

**

From then on, she had dreamt of that boy from time to time.

After experiencing these dreams for a while, she began to notice that her form in the dreams was extremely small. On top of that, she realized that she was not even human in the first place.

Being placed in the palm of the boy’s hand, she was lifted up to his eye level. And then he presented a seed-like object to her, and she happily pecked it with her beak.

Yes, it seems that in those dreams she had the form of a small bird. She had feathers that were silver-gray in color. And she could feel there was something swaying above her head. When she swayed her head left and right, the thing above her head would also sway.

He presented seeds to me which she nimbly remove the contents of to eat. And then she raise her voice with a delighted “Chirp!”.

“Was it yummy, Chiiko?”

The boy asked with a loud laugh. ‘Chiiko’ appeared to be her name in the dream.

The boy was always together with her.

Whether it was on his hand, shoulder or head, she was always together with the boy in her dreams. As she gradually grew older, so did the boy in the dream.

And finally, for every year of life that she went through in the dream, she had developed a tender feeling towards the boy.

As long as she was at his side, he would fill her heart with a warm fluttering feeling. So she began to be attracted to the boy.

As time went by, and she had reached the age of ten, it was then that I had a sudden realization.

That the dreams of the boy she had been having were not dreams at all, but memories of a past that she was re-experiencing. She was reliving her past life through my dreams.

With that as a trigger, all the memories of her past life immediately resurfaced. Above all, the face of the boy who was her master— he who stared at her, whose life was nearing its natural end, was so intense that it shook her heart immensely.

**

Calcedonia was preaching from the podium as usual, but for some reason others felt she was quite different today. Normally , the <<Holy Maiden>> would recite the god’s scriptures like an unceasingly flowing cold water stream without breaking her dignified appearance. Usually, the believer’s would look at her dignified figure with admiring gazes, but today she was met with confusion.

Normally she just simply recites the scriptures with a light smile and indifferent expression. But today was different. Today, in her somewhat moist eyes, people could see a feverish gaze accompanied by an intoxicated light as she passionately recited the scriptures. And then she sometimes sighed filled with hot desires that were hidden deep within her heart.

In reaction to the <<Holy Maiden>>’s unusual behavior, her colleagues and the believers tilted their heads and stared at her in confusion.

There were some believers who were more fascinated than usual because of the strange charm she had today.

And even within all of those eyes gazing down upon her, Calcedonia’s mind was only filled with the thoughts of literally the boy of her dreams, with whom she was finally reunited with.

**

There were two thoughts that had welled up in her heart. One was about meeting the boy– her master — just one more time, and the other was concern over the despair he had after loosing the Calcedonia in her dream.

Therefore she made a firm decision. She would learn magic at any cost, and then return to his side utilizing that magic.

The world she was in right now had a mystical craft called magic. The young her of that time naively thought that if she could use magic, she might be able to return to his side.

But she didn’t know at that time. The magic to cross worlds certainly did exist, but it was something of a forgone era, treated as nothing more then a legend.

Because she did not know any better, the first thing she did was to consult her parents.

She told her parents about the boy in her dreams.

At first her parents who had loved her accompanied her stories with a smile, but when they noticed no matter how much time passed she did not stop to talking about the boy, they began to feel unpleasant.

Then the girl suddenly said she wanted to learn magic. And the reason was so that she could be with the boy.

Finally her parents, thinking that she had gone insane, made plans to abandon her.

The place where the girl and her family lived was a small deserted village in a remote region of the Largofiely Kingdom.

If words had gotten out about the girl’s strange behavior, not only her but her entire family would have been ostracized in that small village.

So they told her not to tell anyone else about her dreams. However, since she was still a young child who didn’t know any better, she sometimes told people about her dreams, disregarding her parent’s warnings.

Over time, the other villagers became cold and distant, causing her parents to finally decide on abandoning her.

But in the end they couldn’t bear the thought of selling her into slavery, so they gave her to a wandering Priest who happened to be passing through their village.

They offered what little savings they had to the Priest so that he could take to a bigger town, and maybe drop her in an orphanage.

The reason they gave to the small girl was, ‘Because magic could not be learned in such a small village, we asked the priest to take you to a larger town where you can finally study such things.’

And so she left her native village holding the hand of the Priest without anyone sending her off.

During the trip, the Priest didn’t say a word to her. Because the priest heard from her parents that the girl went crazy, he didn’t feel the need to talk with her.

She was only given the minimum of meals and rest, as the priest continued the journey. And finally the city they reached was the Royal Capital of Largofiely Kingdom, the city of Levantes.

The Priest, who was a member of the Church of Savaiv in Levantes, had been called to officiate over the wedding of the son of an important person in a certain city.

In this world, it was a symbol of wealth and status to be able to call upon the services of a Priest of Savaiv from the central church in the capital to officiate over a wedding.

His trip this time was one such situation. It was on his way back that he had been entrusted with this little girl.

The Priest, on his return to Levantes threw her into the servant’s quarters of the church to work as a maid.

Her travel expenses such as food and lodging had been included with the money given to the Priest by her parents. But the cleric barely used any of it, and pocketed the difference.

The Priest was quite pleased with this, and the memory of the girl disappeared from his mind before long.

There were many children like her in the Church. Children who lost their family for some reason, or those who were abandoned by them like her. The Priest didn’t care at all about a little girl like her who had the same circumstances as them.

But as a result, this incident turned out to be a rather good fortune for her.

Because of this, as she worked as a maid for the priests, she coincidentally caught the eyes of the patriarch of the Church, who immediately saw through the rare magical talent that she possessed.

**

“……So that’s what happened……”

Was what Tatsumi said with shock upon hearing Calcedonia’s past.

“She may not look like it, but that girl has been through a lot of suffering and hardships.”

Until Giuseppe adopted Calcedonia, she had lived a harder life than Tatsumi could have imagined.

After Calcedonia had left for her sermon, Tatsumi and Giuseppe continued their conversation in the parlor.

“After she became my adopted daughter, She started working diligently. She studied hard as a Magician. As well as her duties as a priestess. She did some other things too. And finally because of her hard work, her dreams came true.”

She found the ritual for the summoning ceremony in a remote corner the royal archives buried under a large pile. And after many years of study and preparation, she finally succeeded in summoning Tatsumi . As proof of all of her hard work, Tatsumi was now sitting here.

“So you see, Son-in-law, I must express my gratitude one more time.”

“Yes?”

“Son-in-law, you’ve accepted my granddaughter, despite the fact she called you here without any prior consultation. Even if you scolded her, no one would have the right to object, but you didn’t.”

It should be a natural thing for someone, who without any consultation was summoned to another world, to act harshly about it.

But Tatsumi didn’t make any complaints, but rather even felt gratitude towards Calcedonia.

Giuseppe, who was very impressed with Tatsumi for smoothly accepting Calcedonia, thanked him.

“If possible, I’d truly want to have you accept my granddaughter as a wife right here right now, son-in-law.”

“Ho ho ho ho” Giuseppe laughed brightly, but Tatsumi on the other hand, didn’t.

At first, he didn’t get what Giuseppe was saying. But before long, the meaning trickled its way into his mind, and he finally understood what Giuseppe meant.

With that, Tatsumi magnificently spat out the tea he was drinking.

**

From then on, the dream slowly progressed.

Because she was now the adopted daughter of the Savaiv Church’s Patriarch, she could undertake the study of magic as her own magical talents began to bloom. And at the same time, she began to search for the means to traverse worlds.

Of course, she diligently performed the daily duties of a priestess, and sometimes used her healing magic to treat the injured.

While she continued this everyday life, the dreams of that boy— her past life that she was reliving— soon became her greatest pleasure.

Because it was in those dreams that she could be with her beloved master, even though it was impossible for her to meet him again in real life.

Along with her growing up, the boy in the dream also grew up.

Perhaps it was with the assistance of the gods that allowed her to reincarnated in a period so that she would be the same age as the boy.

For this she was grateful, as that was what she judged when she was young. The god Savaiv was the only god that she knew of in that remote agricultural village.

Because both she and the boy in her dreams were the same age, this increased the intimacy that she began to feel, and those feelings began to grow stronger.

Every time she saw the boy in her dreams– her master– her feelings for him grew stronger as the days went by.

However, not all of the dreams were happy ones.

She could recall it clearly, the day her master lost his family.

Master and his family were injured seriously in some far-off distant place. At the time it occurred, she understood it somewhat, but as she began to relive those days in the dreams, she was filled with grief anew.

Her master was the boy in the dream, but she also loved his family very much.

Just like him, his family had loved her, and adored her very much. But that family had died, and left him behind all alone.

By this time she noticed the the amount of days passing without her meeting him was increasing. She finally understood how severe his injuries were.

In his world, healing magic did not exist. Severe injuries had to be treated over a long period of time.

While the boy was away, a neighbor had taken care of her. She knew the person as she had memories of him. When her master went out for walks with her sitting on his shoulder, he greeted the person often.

And so, after a long had passed, her master finally returned home, but he returned with a heart filled with sorrow.

The two of them moved from the larger house to a much smaller place, and it was that point she began to experience the dreams on a daily basis.

That’s why, she hastened her preparations. As she could feel the time of her separation from the boy was nearing.

There wasn’t much time left at that point. She was anxious about his state after having lost her, and hurried her preparations for the summoning ceremony.

The procedures for the ceremony were accelerated. And she only rested the minimum amount of time necessary. And so before long, the preparations were completed at last. At the same time, the time of their separation in the dream came at last.

In the dream, the boy who had lost her was filled with grief. She wanted to encourage that boy. She wanted to be of useful to him, even if it was just a little. She wanted to be by his side. And so, she began the ceremony to summon the boy.

The ceremony would last for several days, and she was unable to eat or sleep during that time.

Even though she had greater stamina than most and her talent in magic was exceptional, there was a chance that the ceremony might not succeed.

Furthermore, for now she could only perform the ritual once. If she failed, it might take her several years before she could make another attempt.

The figure of the boy who had just lost her surfaced in her mind as she performed the ceremony. Why was his figure floating before her so vividly even while she was still awake? She couldn’t understand. Perhaps it had something to do with the ceremony as her connection to him was gradually becoming stronger.

He had lost his willpower, and was in despair, she felt concerned for him. The boy only gazed at the now empty birdcage with vacant eyes. Like this, he continued to spend his days doing nothing.

At this rate, would he not really perish in despair? He might even take his own life out of sorrow.

With a heart tightened by worry, she pressed on with the ceremony.

And then.

And then, her wish finally reached the boy.

She won’t be dreaming about him anymore. Because, the boy who she couldn’t meet with other than in her dreams, had just appeared before her.