Chapter 69
The Fairy Tale of the Silver Wolf
On the mountain of cold snow, a silver wolf was born.
The silver wolf ran across the icy plains, leading the fairies of snowflakes. When the wolf smiled, snow fell; when the wolf ran, ice flowers bloomed.
But the silver wolf was alone.
One day, the silver wolf discovered a young human in an old manor among the snowy mountains. With its breath, the silver wolf woke him, and the young human was not afraid of the silver wolf.
They spent several winter nights together. During the long winter nights, the young human told endless stories. The silver wolf held the sleeping human in its embrace and gazed at the sky until the human’s stories turned from moon to sun.
However, the human eventually had to return to the human world. The silver wolf sent him off with prayers for his future. After the human left, the silver wolf descended again and again toward the vicinity of the human village.
But it could not reach the village. Wherever the silver wolf stepped, the land would freeze. The silver wolf could not freeze the human lands.
So instead, the silver wolf ran through the sky. It ran and ran, until it sank into the Milky Way flowing through the night sky. Having become a star, the silver wolf could look down upon the young human from anywhere.
I hadn’t known it when I was young, but now that I look back, the fairy tale of the silver wolf was a love story.
After the meal, Cedric guided me to the second floor. He said the map was there. A long carpet stretched along the corridor, with many doors lining one side of the not-very-wide hallway. Windows lined the other side.
As Cedric walked beside me, matching my pace, I noticed that his neat face seemed to hold a spoonful of excitement for some reason, and I smiled to myself.
Passing the identical doors, Cedric stopped in front of one.
“Is this the room with the map?”
“Yes.”
Cedric opened the door for me, slightly spreading one arm as if inviting me inside.
When I opened the door, it was so dark I couldn’t see anything. I stepped only the front half of my body into the room, blinking to adjust to the darkness, then turned back.
“It’s very dark.”
“You should be fine. If it’s hard to see, I’ll go in first.”
I took the hand Cedric offered. Once my whole body was inside the room, I could feel air different from outside.
It seemed the door had been kept tightly shut for quite some time; the air carried an old scent. Cedric took long strides into the room.
After stepping a little farther in and letting my eyes adjust, I could vaguely make out the structure of the room.
The center of the room, its light blocked by thick curtains, was empty of any furniture. Only a single chair sat in one corner.
“There’s something here that shouldn’t receive a large amount of light all at once, so we blocked the light.”
As he spoke, Cedric gently tugged my hand. When he placed his hand against one part of the wall, there was a soft click.
Cedric now held a lamp. When he touched a spot on it with one finger, the lamp emitted a faint yellow light.
“Is it magitech?”
“Yes. A magitech lamp.”
The light from the lamp wasn’t firelight. It was simply light itself—the kind I had once seen mages create.
“What I wanted to show you is here.”
Cedric stepped to the center of the room. As he looked up at the ceiling, my gaze naturally followed.
There it was—the map Cedric had mentioned.
“Wow!”
An exclamation escaped me. It wasn’t a map of any land I knew.
“It’s a sky map.”
Cedric raised the lamp a little higher, shining the light upward. Wherever the lamp’s glow reached, points of light reflected and sparkled. In the black ceiling, in the black room, countless points shone.
I pointed at the glowing dots.
“Are all the glowing ones stars?”
“Yes. The dots are stars, and the lines connecting them were drawn arbitrarily to represent constellations.”
“It’s breathtaking.”
I couldn’t help but be awed. It felt as if I were floating in the middle of a sky full of stars.
“I’ve never even heard of something like this.”
“It’s not an item known to the public.”
Cedric released my hand. I slowly turned in place, gazing up at the ceiling. Cedric stayed where he was, quietly watching me.
“The world is really vast. There are things I could never have imagined. Since coming to Owen, I’ve seen and learned thoughts, objects, and phenomena I never even dreamed of before. And yet, there was still more.”
I stood silently for a moment, looking at the ceiling.
“Thank you, Duke.”
I walked slowly back toward Cedric and smiled.
“For showing me something so wonderful.”
When Cedric raised his hand and brought the lamp closer, the star bathed in light shone even brighter. He told me the name of that star.
He told me the names of other stars and constellations as well. Moving the light from one star to another, he occasionally shared the stories connected to the constellations.
Cedric had always known a great deal. Not only about plants, but about general knowledge and even specialized knowledge that could hardly be called common sense—broad and deep alike.
The constellations were the same. In an age that cared more about the land before one’s eyes than the sky above, Cedric thoroughly understood the world of the heavens.
“You may come and observe the constellations whenever you wish.”
Standing in the midst of the stars, I again wondered what kind of fairy tale this place might be. What if there were a guide who explained the constellations, and a protagonist who explored the stars?
“What kind of star is that one, guide?”
When I pointed at a single round dot with my fingertip, Cedric shone the lamp’s light there.
“It’s the star that marks the beginning of the Silver Wolf constellation.”
“Wow!”
I clapped softly. As Cedric moved his arm, more stars lit up one after another—one, two, three, four, five… sparkling in clusters.
“From here to here—these are the stars of the Silver Wolf.”
“The story of the Silver Wolf exists in the Kingdom of Rundra too! Then the one next to it must be the ‘Child Who Found the Way’ constellation, right?”
“That’s correct.”
From a time he could not remember, the child had been alone in the old manor. When he opened his eyes to a warm presence, the silver wolf was breathing life into the boy.
They spent many winter nights together. The silver wolf gladly listened to every story the child told. The silver wolf that listened to his stories until the stars rose at night was still by his side when the child opened his eyes to the morning sun.
To the child, the silver wolf was a parent who gave him life, a sibling who stayed with him, and a dear friend with whom he shared joy.
But humans eventually had to return to the human world. The child departed, blessed by the silver wolf. Yet the child did not know where to go. He stopped in a certain village and lived days without silver or light.
One day, the child looked up at the sky. Among the countless stars of the night sky, the boy instantly found the silver wolf. From there, the child found his own path and sank into the river of the night sky.
No matter how I thought about it, this was clearly a romance between the child and the silver wolf.
I knew that if your gaze lingered, it meant you liked it.
Only after I had learned everything there was to know about the stars Cedric knew could I finally stop asking him questions.
Cedric showed no sign of fatigue, but since he had been holding his arm up toward the ceiling the entire time, I worried it might be tiring for him and suggested something else.
“I’m worried I may have tired you out, Duke. Could you show me the other rooms as well?”
“I’m quite all right, but if you wish, Princess, I’ll show you the other rooms.”
We left the room with the sky map. Many doors lined the corridor. Cedric opened them one by one, introducing each room.
This time, I became an adventurer exploring a mansion from a fairy tale.
A music room filled with instruments, a dance studio for practicing choreography, a reading room with a few books and comfortable sofas, an art room neatly arranged with drawing tools, an archive room collecting various materials, a woodworking room, a knitting room, and a reception room furnished with tea sets.
Aside from the room with the sky map, the entire second floor was devoted to spaces for hobbies.
Most of the rooms were decorated in an interior style similar to the main ducal residence. They all seemed to have been renovated relatively recently.
I wondered whether Cedric himself enjoyed all these hobbies, or whether these rooms had recently been used by members of the ducal family.
In a room furnished to serve as a reception room, Cedric asked if I would like to sit for a moment. I nodded and sat on the sofa. As he said, it seemed to be a space rarely used—the sofa looked new. Still, it was well maintained, with no dust.
Since there was no tea in the reception room, I neatly folded my hands and rested them on my knees.
“Is the annex a place where you enjoy your hobbies, Duke?”
“It’s not my hobby.”
After looking around the reception room once more, I asked again,
“Was this the space used by members of the previous ducal family?”
I expected an answer along the lines of yes, or that it had simply been arranged for form’s sake. It was an ordinary question one might ask while touring rooms, so I expected an ordinary answer.
“No. Rachel arranged everything here.”
Rachel.
