The heat remained, even though they had come to the sea.
However, the experience of the same weather could differ greatly depending on where one was.
The bright sunlight shining down on the beach felt truly warm.
Sori lifted his fishing hat slightly, casting a shadow over his face, and turned his head toward his grandson.
Shirud was holding a fishing rod and quietly watching the float.
Yet, he didn’t seem to be wearing a bad expression.
Perhaps he had caught a few small fish?
Sori thought that maybe when his grandson grew up, he would genuinely enjoy spending time with him in this hobby.
As long as he stayed healthy and lived well until then.
Sori spoke with a smile, clearly pleased.
“How’s it going? Feeling a bit better?”
“Yes, Grandfather.”
Shirud nodded at Sori’s question.
“This place is great not just for fishing but also for watching eclipses.”
“An eclipse…”
Shirud asked, casting his gaze a bit further away.
“Grandfather, you said you’d tell me why you come here to watch the eclipses every time.”
“Ah, that’s right.”
Sori looked down at Shirud’s eyes and answered quietly.
“It’s to see someone I miss.”
“Someone you miss?”
“Yes.”
Sori turned his head toward the distant horizon and continued speaking.
“Shirud, it is said that originally, an eclipse was the only day the living could see the dead. Because it was the one day when the boundaries between day and night, life and death became blurred.”
“Life and death become blurred? I’ve never heard of that before.”
“Haha, that could be true. It’s a story from more than a thousand years ago. It’s something I heard from my grandfather too.”
Sori laughed joyfully.
“A thousand years ago, it wasn’t a culture to gather by the sea to watch eclipses, you see. Back then, everyone went to cemeteries to see the dead. Each one wearing masks.”
“Why wear a mask?”
“Well, to avoid being caught by the guards. Many people tried to take advantage of that chance to do bad things.”
“What happens if someone gets caught by the guards?”
“Well… they probably received a very severe punishment. So at that time, people deliberately put on grotesque makeup or wore masks to look like they were already dead.”
“Really? Did everyone go to the cemetery like that?”
“Well, yes. The truth is, it was mostly just a prank to wear those things and scare each other. It was quite realistic to play pranks like that during an eclipse.”
“I see.”
So originally, an eclipse was a day to dress up as monsters and scare people!
For a moment, Shirud imagined that scene, and although it was a bit scary, he thought it was a rather fascinating old tale.
“It seems like it would be fun, but why don’t people do that now?”
“Well, even back then, very few people could actually see the dead… and trends pass, you know. The world always changes.”
“Really…”
Shirud looked a bit disappointed and turned back to his fishing rod, when suddenly he remembered what Sori had said earlier.
“Oh, then the reason you come here to see someone you miss is…”
“Yes.”
Sori nodded toward Shirud.
“Milena, your grandmother, was an elf but really loved the sea. She used to say that looking at this blue scenery always calmed her heart.”
Sori gazed into the distant horizon.
“Your grandmother’s circle wasn’t as strong as mine, and she was quite unstable. She was originally not healthy, so even a little tension could make her faint. That’s why she spent most of her life in this villa, looking out at the sea.”
Yet even so, Milena was eventually consumed by the circle.
Her last wish was for her ashes to be scattered in the sea that she always looked at.
However, this was not a traditional funeral method, and due to the religious belief that the sea was not affected by the World Tree, it was an extremely disliked method of burial among elves, but Sori sent her ashes to the sea.
“That sea is your grandmother’s grave.”
“That’s why you always come to see the eclipse, right?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Have you ever seen grandmother on an eclipse day?”
At Shirud’s question, Sori briefly closed his eyes and quietly nodded.
“I think so. Probably.”
———-
“Diana. Come into the tent with Yerna and dry off and rest. We’ll have dinner later.”
“Okay…”
With that, Dayton sent Diana into the tent and approached Sorbi and Kirke, who were lying on a mat quite far from the tent, enjoying the sunlight.
“Aren’t you going into the sea since you’ve come all this way? You’ve just been lying down since earlier.”
Sorbi and Kirke glanced up slightly at Dayton’s water-soaked figure before closing their eyes again and replied.
“We went in a bit earlier.”
“Yeah, we didn’t completely avoid the water.”
They spoke confidently, but the “earlier” was just a fleeting moment.
Literally, it meant they had slightly wet their bodies in the seawater.
It was only because Dayton had stepped away briefly to go to the bathroom that they had dipped their lower bodies in to take care of Diana and Pyris, not for swimming or anything.
“Then are you really just going to lie there and leave?”
“Then what should we do?”
“Well, there are plenty of things. Beach volleyball, for instance. Look at that. Honestly, if you go out, it seems like you could go for some prizes.”
Even so, these two were the forest keepers of Luke Forest.
That meant they possessed physical abilities that were difficult to compare with ordinary people.
Even without using physical enhancement, there was no way they couldn’t win against ordinary people in sporting events.
Winning a doll or two at such events is actually not that difficult.
Sorbi turned her head toward the direction Dayton was pointing and frowned as she listened.
“It’s a hassle. I’m not really interested in the prizes.”
“Yeah, I’m tired. I came here to relax, not to have a particularly passionate outing.”
Rarely, Kirke agreed.
It was a rare summer vacation they had earned by blocking the legendary Wave.
They didn’t want to engage in any extracurricular labor.
Just putting up that large tent was already considered doing their fair share.
And winning a few dolls or souvenirs would be useless to them.
Their girlish sensibilities had long since withered away.
If there had been overwhelming prizes involved, they might have participated.
Kirke shrugged her shoulders as she looked at Dayton.
“Then why don’t you go out?”
“No, I won’t. My muscles are sore…”
Honestly, it’s exhausting just watching the kids, beach volleyball?
As they shook their heads, they suddenly remembered Luke, who had said he wouldn’t swim anymore.
“Oh right. By the way, have you been watching Luke? What is he doing now?”
“Over there. Look.”
There was something amazing in the direction Sorbi’s finger was pointing.
“What the heck? What is he doing?”
Dayton looked at Luke in wonder.
Is Luke building a sandcastle?
What on earth is going on?
——-
Luke looked at the nearly completed sandcastle.
The beach shimmering gold under the sunlight.
The sandcastle built from that sand resembled the splendid, golden palace of Arinseia in his memories.
“Just one last thing and it’ll be done.”
“Done?”
Luke placed a seashell on top of the castle as a flag and nodded.
Building a sandcastle.
It might be considered a childish game for kids, but this time he took it seriously.
It was something he had never done before.
“It’s nothing much, but still, it feels quite fulfilling.”
The Pyris who helped him seemed to be enjoying herself too.
“Luke, should we take this home?”
“No, that doesn’t seem right…”
Pyris looked really pleased with the first sandcastle she had ever made.
“Hey! Luke! If you’re done, come eat!”
“Got it, I’ll be right there!”
——————-
After finishing their meal, Diana said with sparkling eyes.
“I can’t wait to see the sandcastle you and your sister built!”
“It’s super pretty!”
Pyris, brimming with excitement to show off to her friend, skipped along.
Watching Pyris, Luke wondered why she was so thrilled as he followed behind them.
However.
“Huh?”
Upon arriving at the location, there was no sandcastle to be seen.
Pyris looked around, startled, and murmured.
“It was definitely here…”
“Pyris, calm down for a moment and look at the ground.”
Following Luke’s direction, Pyris looked.
Where the sandcastle had been, only traces remained.
“Someone must have destroyed it.”
“What? Who did?”
At Diana’s words, Pyris exclaimed in shock.
“Wait, calm down. I’ll check the traces.”
With that, Luke began to examine the traces carefully.
“Hmm, the sand nearby is quite wet, but there are no footprints or any other traces left… The particles on the shell used for decoration don’t seem to be from an impact…”
Luke quickly came to a conclusion.
“It wasn’t anyone’s doing. It got washed away by the waves. Unfortunately.”
“Waves!”
At those words, Pyris clenched her fists and trembled with anger.
It seemed she was quite upset about it.
Well, even though she was a child, it’s only natural to be frustrated when your hard work gets completely destroyed.
“It must have been the waves! The waves are no longer my friend!”
“The waves? Who is that? A new friend?”
“No longer a friend!”
With her incomprehensible explanation, Diana tilted her head, but it seemed Pyris had no intention of answering properly.
Or maybe she didn’t know how to answer.
Still, if she explained who Pyris was to Diana, it would surely cause unnecessary interest, so out of respect for Diana, Luke decided to ignore her for the moment and focus on calming Pyris.
“Not all the waves are caused by that one, right?”
“But that one can’t do this kind of thing!”
There was definitely some merit to her argument.
This place wasn’t one where waves frequently hit.
“But there’s no reason that one would do such a thing, is there?”
“He did it out of mischief!”
“Hm…”
Mischief…
Well, while it might not make sense to think that way, it wasn’t impossible to consider.
Not every action has meaning…
Luke sat down and picked up one of the seashells that had been used for decoration on the sandcastle as he thought.
Well, it was a sandcastle made of sand from the start.
It was bound to crumble eventually.
In the past, even the Renié in Arinseia, now, not even remnants remain.
At least this sandcastle should have left a trace that he was present.
“It’s fine. It wasn’t going to last forever anyway. If it was fun, that’s what matters, right?”
“…”
Pyris still wore a scowling face, deeply furrowed eyebrows.
She looked as if she would burst into tears at any moment.
Luke extended the seashell toward Pyris and said.
“Here, take this. This is a trace and memory of our sandcastle. Soon, it will become a castle built in your heart. So don’t cry.”
“…But.”
Pyris accepted the seashell and threw it to the ground, holding back her tears and said.
“…But I wanted to show the sandcastle to Diana!”
‘Oh no…’
That didn’t work.
What to do…
Both Luke and Diana could only pat Pyris’s back, feeling helpless.
However, the sorrow of the grieving spirit couldn’t be alleviated with just that.
“Wah, wuuahh…”
Just as Pyris was on the verge of tears, Sorbi appeared and shouted.
“You can just show her the picture I took in the middle, right!”
With that, her crying abruptly stopped.
Soon Pyris looked up at Sorbi and said.
“…Really?”
“Yeah, look at this!”
“It’s real…! Diana! This is it!”
Pyris immediately took the magic device from Sorbi’s hands and began to look through it with Diana.
There were quite a number of photos, allowing them to view the beautiful sandcastle from various angles.
“Wow, you really made it well!”
“Right! I did a super good job!”
Luke sighed in relief, astonished by Sorbi’s insight.
If the spirit got genuinely angry, it would surely become a significant headache.
But that magic device…
Somewhere, Luke felt it was familiar.
“Wait a second. Sorbi. Wasn’t that a camera? You said it was just a toy to me?”
“Oh.”
