Before leaving the human group, I gave them a firm warning.
“Our Raha is very pretty, but he’s a fragile child. You have to take good care of him and keep cherishing him. Understand?”
“…Is, is this man’s name… Raha?”
“Ah, did I not introduce him? Well, it’s fine. Our kids will remain too, so if you’re curious about anything, ask the Dryads. If you do anything wicked to our Raha… I’ll get really, really angry. Don’t forget that. Got it?”
The human leader said he understood. From the general atmosphere, it seems the other humans got it too.
“You know my name, right?”
“Levia… Rish-ian-nim, right?”
I don’t know why they’re trembling like that. Anyone watching would think I’m about to devour them. Or are these kids just timid? Well, I came here because they seemed quite docile compared to other human groups. I guess they’re just naturally like this.
“I asked because there seemed to be some kids who didn’t know me recently. In case you prayed to the wrong beings and I couldn’t hear it. That would be troublesome for you too, right?”
The way humans call me is really complicated, but I have no choice but to keep using it. Humans seem to get weaker and weaker as time passes. Before, there were quite a few humans who at least knew how to commune. Setting aside not recognizing me.
Oh right, I didn’t mention the most important thing. I turned back around and firmly instructed the human leader.
“And if you want to give me something, don’t keep offering humans you won’t even eat, give me pretty things. I like pretty things, you know? Really, it’s so troublesome to deal with. Human sacrifices are forbidden. Especially kids who are sick or weak—those are really too hard.”
In case they offered humans again out of gratitude, I quickly added that. The human leader had a slightly dumbfounded face, but said he understood.
Ah, once spring comes, Raha will wake up too. Then Raha will be able to live happily while receiving devoted care from the humans. Though I was alone on the way back to my nest, my steps became very light.
***
Spring came. Raha woke up.
I can tell without seeing. Because the energy of mine that Raha possesses is still there. The Dryads commune about it too. The awakened Raha was somewhat confused, but he’s doing well. The humans are serving Raha with utmost devotion.
The method seems somewhat strange, but anyway, Raha will live happily well like this.
“My goodness. Tearing off an arm over such a thing.”
Havi is nagging again. I just shrugged my shoulders and retorted.
“This was really cheap. You know that.”
“That’s true. That greedy whale giving out a miracle after eating only that much.”
The left arm I tore off was barely formed with skeletal thin branches. I shaped it just enough because it’s inconvenient to have none at all. The inside was completely hollow, and it was too fragile. Honestly speaking, it barely functioned as an arm. At best, it could only pluck insect-eaten leaves.
Havi asked me with a carp in his mouth.
“When are you going to restore that?”
“I think it’ll take longer than I expected. Around when Caldeas returns?”
“That’ll take roughly 2, 300 years. What a waste.”
I think it’s a waste too, but it can’t be helped. I couldn’t just watch Raha go mad and die either. It would’ve been simple if I’d done it myself, but Raha would have become a complete idiot. And with only instinct clumsily remaining, he would’ve clung to me even more. He might have died crawling around unable to even perform basic reproduction on his own.
Raha is a pretty child. Making him only breathe in such an ugly way would be worse than death.
“But that memory, will it be okay?”
“What about it?”
“You just rewound it a little. Couldn’t it unwind again?”
“Mm. That’s true but…”
I am worried, but that’s too slim a probability.
“It’ll be fine. The human mind is so weak. There’s no willpower to unwind it by themselves.”
“But Raha isn’t an ordinary human. The wish itself will remain somewhere in the unconscious.”
“Honestly speaking, I don’t know.”
Even if it’s a really difficult thing, it’s not completely impossible. Even the probability of being struck by lightning can happen anyway. But what I asked the Nightmare-Eating Whale was a decision made with that in mind too.
“The human mind is too complex for being so fragile. But by the time they unwind it by themselves, a lot of time will have already passed. New branches of memory will have extended far. I think it’ll be too much to remember again.”
“Mm. When you put it that way, it does seem like it’ll be fine.”
Separate from rewinding the memory, time always flows fairly. To us, time is nothing more than something that flows, but to mortal things, time is existence and survival itself. For things that die just by breathing, aren’t they too fragile to endlessly rummage through past memories?
“Don’t you regret it?”
“I regret it. But I learned a lot.”
I learned a lot about humans, but actually, what’s really important is how complacent an existence I was. I didn’t know. More precisely, I didn’t know the methods of interaction with beings different from me and their results.
Humans were far more fragile than I imagined, and in comparison, I was more powerful than I knew myself to be. To be precise, it should be seen as a problem arising from humans’ ability to accept power being bizarrely pathetic. I gave something so small you might not even know it exists, but humans became twisted and broken just from that very small and faint trace.
“You’re making less and less sense. Though if you’re happy with it, I don’t care either way.”
“That’s right. It was a belated realization.”
I only thought I should be even more careful from now on. Who would have known they’d be weaker than ants? No, I don’t know. It might change depending on where exactly I set the reference point.
***
Like that, a kind of peace continued. Now everything has returned to its place.
Yes, it’s because I had sudden greed. I poked around at a human group living just fine and even stole a Star. Because I arbitrarily developed affection, I incited foolish things. Raha’s misfortune is ultimately my fault too.
But now it’s really okay. I somehow resolved everything. There’s no problem at all, right? There was just a very minor mistake. Miros will regain what he should have rightfully enjoyed, and Raha will get back what was arbitrarily taken from him. And I just need to quietly exist as the origin like before.
What a perfect ending this is. There was some commotion because I did something I didn’t usually do, but it turned out fine in the end, right? Because everyone became better.
“Now I’ll really be careful. Not to give affection carelessly.”
“Will that be easy? Loving is fundamentally your instinct.”
“I’m not saying I won’t love. I’m saying I’ll be more prudent. Especially about fragile things.”
After sending Raha back, Havi has been visiting my nest quite frequently. He gives the excuse that he’s worried about me, but that’s not actually it. He comes because there’s a lot to eat in my nest.
But I didn’t particularly blame him for that either. Chatting with Havi is quite enjoyable. Havi groomed his snout fur and said indifferently,
“Well, I actually think I don’t care. It won’t be a major threat to the world, and as long as you fulfill your own duties. Humans and such, honestly… they’re things that self-destruct like breathing anyway, so dying however they want isn’t my concern. You’re having a hard time because you’re trying too hard to take responsibility.”
It’s true, but that’s also why it’s annoying sometimes. Havi didn’t care at all though.
“What big deal would come from squashing one mosquito?”
“You’re saying I made too much of a fuss?”
“That’s right. Probably.”
“That’s true. I know.”
I had no choice but to agree. What can I do, it’s true. I did a lot of reflecting too. Separate from being annoyed by the constant mentioning, it’s good advice in that it reminds me and makes me cautious again.
“What you did to clean up was actually too excessive. It’s no different from causing a flood while cleaning.”
Grass being trampled and trees breaking is equally heartbreaking, but that’s also a problem that living things must bear. It can’t be helped. Of course, if I think it’s unjust, I step in. If I think it doesn’t fit natural order.
Miros’s and Raha’s matters aren’t much different from this to me. It might have seemed excessive to Havi, but I was just cleaning up my mistakes.
“I won’t deny there was some selfishness.”
Though it was to save them, I made them deviate from natural order, if only briefly. Why? Because I wanted to possess those things. That’s right. It was my greed. I only restored them to their original state. Though I admit the process was somewhat noisy.
“But still, I just wanted to do it. You know, I like pretty things.”
“…No matter how I think about it, only Raha is pretty. The first one is just a smooth pebble.”
“You should honestly admit it already. Miros was the prettiest.”
Miros was so pretty, yet you still can’t admit it. But Havi snorted and denied my words.
“Don’t make me laugh. That’s just a slightly less bumpy potato, a potato.”
“If you keep acting like that, I’ll really make it so you can’t eat anything but raw potatoes.”
A potato, that’s absurd! Our Miros wasn’t poisonous, and he wasn’t that ugly either! He wasn’t wrinkled from being old! Really, it’s because Havi’s eyes are too small. It’s because he can’t see properly!
***
Time continued to pass, and the Dryads returned too. I didn’t send new children anymore. They said things were going well, and I didn’t think I needed to send more to monitor the humans. Now Raha needs to adapt to the human world too. It’s a matter where I can’t protect him forever.
“These guys pray nonstop since I said they could.”
Just when I thought I’d resolved the existing problems, new problems arose again.
The human group I entrusted Raha to has been praying like breathing. The prayer content was truly diverse. Simply asking for things is basic, and they’re even praying about really trivial things like fetching water. No, it’s more than that.
If it were just that, it would rather be cute. Now they’re even praying indiscriminately about things I clearly told them not to—like eliminating other human groups they’re fighting with, or reviving dead people, “fights between humans” and “things that violate causality.”
“Humans don’t know moderation originally. You filter and listen to them yourself.”
“I’ll have to send the kids down soon to deliver a message. Tell them to filter out useless things on their own.”
“Leave it. They won’t listen anyway. You’ll be lucky if they don’t grab your spirits and perform exorcisms on them.”
