The Oath of the Peach Garden

♪Poet — Present♪

In the end, we decided not to stop by town and camped outdoors instead.

Peach blossoms were blooming all around us. They should mostly have fallen by the time the lilies of the valley bloom, but the fact that they were still in such showy bloom probably meant we had walked to a fairly high elevation.

This country has many volcanoes, and its terrain is full of rises and dips. It is also easy to dig holes that can serve as hideouts. For the rabbit people, whose ancestors were burrowing rabbits, these are comfortable geographical conditions.

Growl said he wanted to sit by the campfire alone and went off a little ways away. Is he angry because we couldn’t bring our voices together?

And from now on, the three of us have to bring our hearts and voices together. This is not a good start.

I gazed at the Mirror Chord the official had given me. This might be the sacred tool written about in the prophecy.

One who inherits the blood of rabbits,
One who bears the fangs of dogs,
One who carries the soul of a dragon.

When the three raise their voices together in the royal palace,
The age of darkness shall turn into an age of light.

The dragon shall cross the land of the dead,
And the three sacred resonant tools shall call forth a miracle.

Three, huh. If this is true, then what are the other two?

The Dancing Radio was lying near my hand.

No way.

I turned it on and tried changing the channel. Maybe I’d put it on AM Polka. Was that traditional music from the otherworldly Czech and Polish regions?

“It appears that one member of the Rabbit Kingdom’s rebel army is approaching the royal capital. For safety reasons, an evacuation advisory has been issued for the residents of the castle town. We are currently interrupting regular programming.”

I turned the power off.

Apparently, emergency broadcasts were coming in intermittently, so it didn’t seem like I would suddenly be forced to dance.

That impostor. It seems he still hasn’t been taken down. What is he thinking? I’ve heard he’s an escaped convict, but what is his goal?

Oh, right.

I’m one of the people at the center of all this.

This might be the last time I get to look at such a beautiful night view.

“May I sit beside you?”

“Miss Adagio!”

The dragon woman who had traveled with us for so long sat down beside me as I fed the fire.

“The stars are beautiful. The peach blossoms are lovely too.”

“You’re the beautiful one.”

“My, how sweet.”

When I thought I might die soon, I found myself saying frivolous things.

If we continued this journey, I might get this woman killed. But I couldn’t stop the journey either.

“Could you be the only one to leave the journey? I don’t want to put you in danger.”

“Why?”

“That’s…”

There was no reason to keep hiding it anymore. I decided to tell her about the prophecy.

“I see. So I really was destined to die after all.”

She said it with a perfectly calm expression.

“Why would you…”

“Because I’ve received a death sentence.”

Miss Adagio told me that the Grim Reaper had come for her.

“You would go through all that and still come with me? What a terrible thing I’ve done.”

“Don’t worry about it. I did it for the person I love. I even saw you in my dreams.”

“Dreams! So you had the same dreams as me after all, Miss Adagio. But why?”

“My true identity is Allegro.”

Miss Adagio told me everything. That she was the one who had shown me around the Ministry of Magic when I was a child. That she was a female personality split off from within Mr. Allegro. That she had been worrying about me all this time.

“Miss Adagio. No matter who you truly are, I love you.”

“Thank you. I love you too.”

A tense silence fell between us.

This might be a good mood.

Taking this as my chance, I puckered my lips as if waiting for a kiss. I even closed my eyes just a little.

But Miss Adagio stood up as though she had not noticed at all, and walked away.

Judging from the direction, she was heading toward Growl’s campfire.

♪Growl — Present♪

The campfire was almost out. I was thinking it was about time to add more wood when Adagio came over.

“You look down.”

“Not really.”

“Are you bothered by what that official said? You looked pale.”

“Wha—”

I thought I had listened to that exchange in the daytime with a calm face, but it seemed the woman beside me had seen right through everything. Maybe I had been a little shaken.

“I’d like you to tell me what happened.”

“Tch. What are you, some kind of gossip lover?”

“You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to. It’s just that your back looked lonely, even though you’re always acting tough. I wanted to know just a little bit of your secret.”

Her long hair fluttering, she sat down beside me.

There was silence for a while.

Unable to bear it any longer, I decided to confess.

“You know the Dog Kingdom was dissolved because of the political struggle between me and my younger brother. My brother was exactly that—a puppet of the instrumentalist faction. I was backed by foreign powers calling themselves the vocal faction, and I fought a civil war against my brother’s subordinates. But in the end, both my brother and I were driven out. The Babel Society took over the country.”

“I see. So the same thing that’s happening in the Rabbit Kingdom now happened there too.”

“I couldn’t accept the changing reality. I was so obsessed with protecting the reality in front of me that I destroyed it instead. I was a foolish leader. That old man was right.”

“Don’t put yourself down.”

“The past can’t be changed.”

“That’s exactly why you tried to change the future, and decided to help us on our journey. Am I wrong? To you, this isn’t just a job for money. You don’t want the Rabbit Kingdom to make the same mistake as the Dog Kingdom. This is your chance to make things right. You’re a very kind person who cares about Poet.”

Some feeling I had been holding back welled up inside me. I was supposed to act manly. But I couldn’t stop sobbing.

“Don’t force yourself. You have a dream of restoring your country, don’t you? There, there. Good boy, good boy. I love that clumsy but earnest part of you. I love you.”

A soft sensation.

It seemed she was embracing me.

♪Adagio — Present♪

I’m naturally two-timing them.

I whispered words of love to both Poet and Growl.

But unless I do this, unless I become the mediator, the three-person choral magic won’t succeed. If the magic fails, the royal capital might be submerged.

To think that I, who am really a man, have to act like a two-timing wicked woman to save everyone’s lives!

After a while, Growl stopped crying and began walking toward Poet, so I hurried after him.

“Poet. Take the lead here. I want to confirm the purpose of our journey.”

Poet looked bewildered by Growl’s proposal, his eyes darting around, but then his expression became resolute.

Our three hands naturally overlapped.

“Our beliefs are different. But we are comrades bound by the same purpose! We don’t have to share the same ideals. We don’t have to have been born in the same year, the same month, and the same day. Let us run through the same era together! For the sake of saving the Rabbit Kingdom!”

“Hip, hip, hooray!”

☆　☆　☆

I fell asleep.

In the spring sunlight, Allegro and I were already seated at a café table.

Allegro rested his cheek on one hand and gazed out the window. Time flowed gently in tonight’s dream.

In this atmosphere, I thought it might be all right to ask something a little more personal.

“Is there anyone you like?”

“No.”

He answered instantly, before I had even finished speaking. How mean.

“You liked Draco, didn’t you?”

“That was only because that woman came from a good family. She was a trophy wife. I’m the kind of man who treats women like objects.”

He was bluffing and saying things he did not really mean. But his eyes looked a little gentle, so I decided to continue.

“Hmm. Then what about Canon? I met her at the baths in the Spice City.”

“Yeah. There are a lot of dragonfolk in the Spice City. Wait, why does that mean I liked her? Are you stupid?”

Huh? Was I wrong after all? If so, what exactly was that jealousy he felt when little Canon had her skirt flipped up back in their childhood?

Well, never mind. That was not the point.

“You really don’t have anyone you like?”

“No.”

“I see.”

Just as the conversation came to a halt, my consciousness faded too.