"I’ll be the decoy, so you get out through that gate."
".............What?"
The moment I heard that, my frantically spinning brain came to a sudden stop.
I couldn’t understand what he was saying. Nakamura’s mind, which had been assuming the worst possible outcome, failed to process Capris’s words for an instant and froze along with his mouth.
"Haa..... I mean... I’ll handle the decoy. Then you can get away easily, can’t you?"
"N-no, wait, wait a second...!! Th-there’s no reason for you to be the decoy...!!"
Seeing that I still didn’t get it, Capris added impatiently, and only then did Nakamura, half-shaken out of his shock, answer in a panic.
"Then what are you going to do? You saw how those guys lost their minds. If we don’t do something fast, we’re really done for."
"No, but why are you the one stepping up for that?!"
I refused to accept it. Just a moment ago I’d been so consumed by delusions that I was ready to hurt Capris, and now I was demanding to know why he was doing this. Pathetic. It felt like my insides were boiling.
"Hah-hah, because if I get caught, I’m more likely to come out of it alive! Even if those guys have gone berserk over you, they won’t hurt me too. We’re the same kind, after all. We’re comrades!"
"No, then weren’t the forge guys and I comrades too?! And you saw those bastards’ eyes, didn’t you!!"
"Then do you have a better idea? One where both of us get out safely?"
I was at a loss for words. A way for both of us to escape safely... A way... ......Damn it.
I couldn’t think of one. No matter how wildly I ran my brain, the conclusion was always that if we fled together, we’d be caught before we even reached the gate. And if we tried to draw their attention, we didn’t even have a proper decoy..... Damn it, think. Think...! There has to be something, there has to be a way...!!
".....Nakamura."
Capris placed a hand on my shoulder again as I kept racking my brain. I could already imagine what he was about to say. Don’t. Don’t say it. There has to be a way....!! Capris....!!!
Damn it, think. Think! Are you really going to sacrifice Capris like this? After doubting him? After trying to hurt him first?!
"These past thirty years have been the most fun I’ve ever had in my life."
No, don’t say it, Capris. Damn it, say something, Nakamura...! Why won’t my mouth move.....!!
"During that time, I also came to know pretty well that you’re a good guy. And I’ve lived a fair bit for a low-ranking fairy, too—two hundred years? Three hundred? So I thought it over a lot, and this seems like the best way."
"Damn it, move, move, you useless mouth.....!! Say something.....!! If I miss this chance, there won’t be another.....!!!"
"Please.....! Anything is fine, just let me speak....!!"
But it wouldn’t move. The aftereffects of forcing myself awake from shock, mixed with guilt toward Capris, turned my mind completely white. My mouth only opened and closed uselessly; no words came out, and the last thing Nakamura could hear was Capris’s voice coming out first.
"So I’m going to get my turn to repay you too. Hah-hah-hah!! Thanks for everything!!"
Capris laughed as if he were satisfied. Boisterously, just like the day we first met.
Then, all at once, moonlight spilled into the alley.
Capris’s face came into view. .....Capris was smiling more brightly and more openly than I had ever seen him smile before.
"Ah.....,"
At last, words came out of my mouth, but it was already too late.
Capris had already taken his hand off my shoulder and, laughing heartily, left the back alley.
.......Noisy voices rang out from beyond the alley.
Angry voices, shouting voices, all of them gathering and passing through this place, heading to the far side of the gate.
....I had to go. The chance was now.
The chance created because Capris had thrown himself out there. At the very least, I had to make use of it. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t even be able to see that bastard again......!!
"Ghh.....!!"
I pulled the splinter of wood out of my back. There was bandaging in my bag anyway. I’d just get through the gate and do first aid once I reached the river.
The exit was the gate on the opposite side from where Capris had led them away, and the place I had to head for after getting out was the river of Fairy Kingdom.
So Nakamura forced himself to endure the pain of pulling it free and hurried his steps.
*
"Hah!!! Hah!!! Hah!!!! You idiots!! I’m right here!! Hah-hah-hah!!!"
I ran. I laughed so loudly I could wake every fairy in Norwich, shaking the ground as I went.
"There he is!! It’s Capris!!"
"Catch him!! We have to find out where he hid Nakamura!!"
"No hogging him, no hogging!!"
"Stop right there, Capris!!!!"
"Everyone gather up!! Capris is here!!!"
The effect was perfect. The craftsmen scattered throughout Norwich exchanged the news with one another and came running toward where I was headed.
Maybe because they’d been seized by frenzy, they didn’t care about any kind of diversionary tactic. They all swarmed in at once.
Hah-hah-hah, you damn coworkers. You’re moving faster than usual for once.
Still, I couldn’t let them catch me yet. I had to buy Nakamura as much time as possible.
"Hah-hah-hah!!! This is some heavy labor for an old man!!! Hah-hah-hah!!!!"
Well, I didn’t regret it. Just as I’d told Nakamura, those thirty years of being friends with him were the most enjoyable days of my life.
Ah, come to think of it, one thing I had forgotten suddenly came back to me.
Ten years ago, when Nakamura said he was leaving Norwich. Back then, I’d been afraid deep down.
I didn’t want these happy days to end. I wanted to stay with that bastard a little longer. So I couldn’t let him go. I had to stop him from leaving. So I should cut his legs off so he couldn’t go anywhere..... or something like that?
Hah-hah-hah!! Looking at it now, that was the exact same way those guys thought!!!
So then..... why didn’t I try to stop Nakamura?
Fairy instinct? No. If it had been instinct, I would have cut Nakamura’s legs off long ago.
Then was it thirty years of friendship? Haa, close, but not quite.... Those guys have thirty-year friendships too, and look at them.
Then..... what was it? Craftsman’s pride? Pity? Heroism? A desire for sacrifice? A proof of moral superiority?
".....Ah, so that’s what it was."
Nakamura’s face as he said he wanted to look around the Fairy Kingdom.
Those eyes full of dreams, looking not at the present but at the future.
The proper path of a craftsman. The road he would carve open himself and walk forward on.
The will to keep going no matter how rough and full of hardship the road might be.
That was what had been in Nakamura’s face back then.
Yes, I had looked at that and felt envious.
Because I was envious, I must have reached the absurd conclusion that I should crush that dream, that I should smash his legs.
Hah-hah-hah!! I can’t even laugh!! In the end, I’m just a fairy no different from the forge bastards after all!! Hah-hah-hah!!!
So, I wish you wouldn’t make that kind of face.
That face from then, lit by moonlight by chance, full of self-loathing, guilt, and a sense of not being worthy.
Hah-hah-hah, you’re not like me. So there’s no need for you to make that face. You tried to hurt me? So what!! I was going to do the same thing!
"Hah-hah-hah!! Come to think of it, that’s actually the kind of face I would’ve made. How funny!!"
Yes. I was envious of you, Nakamura.
More than me, trapped in the forge, hammering away day after day and unable to step outside the ‘purpose’ I’d been given, I was indescribably envious of you, who dreamed of going beyond the forge.
I was so envious of you I couldn’t bear it.
I was so envious of you I wanted to ruin you.
And I was so envious of you that I couldn’t bring myself to ruin you.
So live. Please, live and make your dream come true.
For those of us who can’t dream, it’s better that you survive. That’s how I feel.
"Hah-hah-hah!! Of course!! If you make someone jealous, you should show it proudly!!"
So I hope you won’t feel too guilty about it.
Hah!! Hah!!! Hah!!!!
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