Epilogue

From a faraway church, the sound of the bell that tolled before evening could be heard.

There were few churches in this remote, seaside town.  The sound of the bell that came from the small church built at the seash.o.r.e was carried throughout the entire town by the strong breezes.

I then heard someone call for me from the second floor. I halted my supper preparations and hurried upstairs. It was a small house, the kind that middle-cla.s.s commoners would live in. As I was the only maid in this house, I had  to carry out all of the work diligently alongside my main occupation as the tailor. After reaching the top of the stairs, I knocked on the door of the room at the very end of the hallway, in a place that received good sunlight.

“Come in,”

Once I entered the room, I saw that this house’s mistress was in a fl.u.s.tered state, with a troubled expression on her face.

“Lily! Oh, she just hasn’t stopped crying since a while ago….. What should I do?”

The baby was, indeed, continuing to cry with loud wails. I moved closer, and gently taking the baby in my arms, I stared into her eyes. They were a pretty blue color. For some reason, the moment my eyes met with hers, which were as blue as the sky, she froze.

“H-has she stopped crying…..?”

“It would seem so. ….Perhaps she was calling for me.”

My blue-haired mistress looked back and forth between me and the baby, and then giggled. She raised a hand to elegantly cover her mouth, the beautiful ring she wore, with the white flower motif, glittering.

“Somehow, the two of you look like mother and daughter. The color of your hair and eyes look exactly alike.”

“Wha…..! I-I do not desire children quite yet! Not until I’ve dominated this world with my productions……!”

“My, then in that case, may I ask you to work on making this child’s clothes right away? I’ve heard that the baby clothes industry is on the rise lately.”

“…..I-is that right?”

I glanced at the baby, and although she had stopped crying earlier, her face began to scrunch up again. I must have been imagining the tint of fear in her expression.

“Oh no, she seems about to cry again. Do you not like Lily’s clothes that much?”

“L-Lady Miku……!”

I carefully handed the baby back to her. And as if handling a precious treasure, Miku stroked the baby with a gentle hand. The baby, who had been on the verge of tears, immediately relaxed again and smiled. Oh, how spoiled this child was.

“Ah—”

“Hm? Is she trying to say something, I wonder……?”

“Uuu— ahh—”

“Lily, come closer for a minute.”

After being told this, I met eyes with the baby again. This time, she seemed to be laughing happily. Crying and then laughing—how busy this child was. It was fine to be honest, but not to outwardly show everything you were feeling. It seemed that I would have to discipline her on the etiquette and modesty of being a lady in the near future.

“Ah, come to think of it, she’s been holding something in her hand this entire time.”

“Uuu— uu—”

Making wordless sounds, she stared intently at me while waving her hand.

“……Is it for me?”

She touched my hand softly with hers. Held tightly in her grip was a small seash.e.l.l.

“Oh… it’s so pretty! If I remember, this is the seash.e.l.l we picked up when we went to the beach yesterday.”

“…..Thank you.”

The baby laughed again. It was a golden sh.e.l.l. As I looked at that sh.e.l.l, which was shaped almost like a wing, I felt my eyes grown hot. It was said that in the human world, you cried more easily once you grew older; right now, I was finding that that was quite a bit of truth in that.

No matter what age it was, time always pa.s.ses without slowing down to allow rest.

It’ll be alright; this time, I will be the one to protect—this world that you all loved, and them, as well. So that’s why, there is no need to worry.

“….Do you smell something burning from downstairs?”

“Ahh……!  I completely forgot that I was heating up the stew!”

“G-goodness!”

We hurriedly rushed downstairs together. The stew would probably have to be redone.

I had a feeling that someone who wasn’t here in this place, was smiling right about now.