Volume 6 - CH 4

I had a strange dream.

My memories about my previous world, Earth, were supposed to be vague and yet, they were as vivid as crystal-clear waterfalls in my dream.

The rows of skyscrapers decorating the townscape, the dashing automobiles, and the concrete ground under my feet.

There were only roadside trees and weeds growing out of the crevices of the concrete or tiles in the name of nature.

(This is not where I belong.)

I looked at myself, and it was the body of the otherworlder Chise.

I guess I can't even appear as my past self because my memory of my past was all vague. Besides, the days I spent in the otherworld might already be more than the time I lived on Earth.

While walking through the concrete jungle of the townscape, I felt that my place of belonging lay within the serene and harmonious embrace of nature.

Strangers passed by without noticing me, a girl dressed in a witch-themed robe with a triangular hat and a wand as tall as her.

Amidst all this, a nostalgic smell suddenly tickled my nose in this odorless dream world.

(The smell of flowers, the smell of spring......)

I walked in the direction of the smell and found a park.

Several trees were lining the open park when the center of the park suddenly changed in color from the surroundings. I saw sakura trees there, their petals dancing under the whims of the breeze.

(......Haha, why did I forget this, I wonder?)

While gazing at the sakura trees that shower the surroundings with their beautiful petals every year and possessed beauty befitting the title of 'national flower', I shed tears in the dream.

It was going to be nearly half a century since I was reincarnated in the otherworld. However, I completely forgot about the sakura.

(I didn't have enough leeway to cheer myself on in my own way amidst my hazy memories.)

(I made Teto the support of my heart instead of the flower of my hometown, so I never considered it necessary to remember them.)

(The «Empty Wilderness» has become the place where I belong, so my thoughts never grasped the straws of my memories from the previous world)

Despite all of this, the journal that contained the writer's desire for their hometown that I read today seemed to have stirred the thing that had been sleeping in the depths of my heart.

That being said, there was no need to escape from this either.

It wasn't as if the sakura trees were going to destroy the ecosystem. Rather, I was brimming with the thought of showing Teto, Baretta, and everyone else the splendor of the flowers from my past world.

And after reaching that juncture, I woke up.

"......Majou-sama. What's wrong? You're crying."

"I just had a nostalgic dream, that's all."

As I woke up, Teto was looking at me with a worried expression.

It seems like my tears didn't just come out during my dream, I cried even in my sleep as well. I smiled at Teto while wiping away my tears, though Teto's worried look still did not leave her.

"Teto, I'm thinking of going outside to feel the night wind, will you come with me?"

"I will!"

Then, when Teto and I left the room after changing into our regular outfit in the dead of the night, Baretta, who had been on night duty today, spotted us.

«Where are you going this late, Master?»

"Just going out for a night walk. Would you like to join us?"

«Then I will take you up on your offer.»

With Teto and Baretta, I left the mansion and walked through the night landscape.

The place I was heading to was the top of a hill near the mansion.

Reaching the summit of the hill from where the mansion could be seen, I turned around and saw the mansion and the outstretched farm behind it shrouded in the veil of the night.

"The farm has extended to quite a range. Isn't tending to such a huge farm taking a toll on you?"

«It's alright since the maids and golems are helping out.»

"I see, thank you for all the things you've provided us, Barettta."

«Please don't. Interacting with plants and animals and building up connections with other people, it's through all these social experiences that our souls are born and we become mechanoids.»

After saying that, she flashed a smile that indicated how much she was enjoying her daily life.

«So, what are you planning to do, Master?»

"That's right. Majou-sama was crying in her sleep back then."

"Well, I just had a nostalgic dream. So, I thought I'd recreate a scene from my previous world as I suddenly yearned for the flowers of my hometown ——«Creation» Sakura!"

I planted my wand into the ground and conjured a single sakura tree on top of the hill.

I think the age of the sakura tree that was in full bloom was around 30 years old.

Just like the sakura I had seen in my dream, its petals were nimbly dancing under the moonlight.

"So these are the flowers from Majou-sama's hometown!? They are so cute, just like Majou-sama!"

«Indeed. Besides, the scattering of the petals also evokes a feeling of loneliness.»

Teto and Baretta also stared at the sakura tree.

"This is the sakura flower from my hometown. It has verdant green leaves in the summer, then the leaves die and fall in autumn. Then the tree withstands the winter all just to blossom in spring, and bloom for a short time, letting its petals ephemerally dance in the air. In a way, these flowers are like the life of a person."

For the immortal me to yearn for the sakura that resembled the fleeting nature of human life, I didn't know if it was just a simple feeling of homesickness, or if it was my jealousy at the fact that this immortal me could no longer walk the same path as an ordinary human.

As such thoughts swirled in my mind, Teto embraced me from behind.

"Majou-sama. What did past Majou-sama do when looking at the sakura tree?"

"I don't remember. Though, a majority of the populace liked to do flower-viewing."

"What is this flower-viewing thing?"

"It's doing a party beneath these sakura trees. Gazing at the dancing petals, eating delicious food, drinking sake, and having fun. It's celebrating the arrival of spring after the passage of harsh winter."

«It sounds like a lovely custom.»

"Well, flower-viewing is now even held for Japanese plum and peach blossoms. Besides, celebrating spring has become a mere shell of a festival for the bunch who just want to cause a ruckus."

Starting from the world trees, many types of trees were growing in the «Empty Wilderness» though most of them have one or more practical purposes.

Like the pine cones or acorns becoming sources of molds and the nut-laden trees that serve as feed for wild animals.

Other trees that have been gathered were trees suitable for woodwork, fruit trees that bear edible fruits, tea plants, medicinal plants, and many more.

So the idea of sakura trees, that blossomed just for a short while once a year, sounded quite luxurious.

As I spoke about the flower-viewing custom with Teto and Baretta, I felt like it might be fun to gaze at the cherry blossoms together. Such desire suddenly rose from inside me.

"In that case, let's hold a flower-viewing session! Majou-sama won't feel lonely if we all spend time and have fun together. You don't have to cry anymore."

"I guess so. I'm looking forward to it."

And so, we gazed at the cherry blossoms through the night.

The next day, we gathered the maid corps and the village members of the angel and Dragon-Demon race, and the «Empty Wilderness» welcomed its first flower-viewing festival.