Episode 1-a. A Village Where Letters Fly In.
Letters flying through the sky, decorating it like birds.
Some might ask, “If no letters come for me, can’t I just climb onto a high roof and catch them with a net?”
Even if among the countless letters, none belong to you, there might still be letters that can help you, so they say to catch others’ and make them yours.
This is surely something possible for adventurers with good skills, or for wizards and knights.
And there are not a few who are curious about directly contradicting the remnants of ancient magic.
Always, on the high roofs of Litera, there are some lacking individuals who wait and swiftly catch letters with their long nets.
So, to conclude, letters could indeed be caught with a net.
Letters that are snagged struggle desperately, flapping—twisting their whole bodies again and again.
When someone approaches with gleaming eyes and reaches into the net, they seem to vanish like a specter.
Then the voices of the foolish can be heard.
“Ah, damn! I had it!”
“You idiot, you should’ve caught it faster!”
The voices of those fools who couldn’t believe the words and wasted an entire day trying before finally realizing.
You can catch them with a net, but you cannot catch them yourself.
That is the remnant of ancient magic.
The letters flying overhead in the village flutter and hesitate as they come alive only when their owners enter the village.
Some letters fly directly to their owners, whispering to take the next step.
Others, being quite foolish, realize only after almost a week has passed and rush in, startled.
So, if the owners of those countless letters never come to the village, they will continue to fly across the sky.
“Even after 50 years… it’s remarkable how the number of flying letters has not changed.”
Then, when the one who should have been the owner of a letter returns to the embrace of the earth, losing even the chance to receive the letter meant for them,
It is at that time that some of those letters too are deprived of their qualification along with their owner and vanish forever to the other side.
“That means… they are merely repeating the cycle of life and death. But looking back at it, it’s bittersweet.”
Thus, another star named ‘possibility’ that the world embraced fades away.
The episode concludes like that, and credits roll showing the role of Villager 1.
Surely, the potential to change a world maintained by the same constraints comes to an end as a mere ordinary life.
So I muttered softly.
“… If the actor doesn’t want the role, why not distribute the remaining roles to those people?”
If there are opportunities that someone would throw away,
Wouldn’t it be possible to share them with women who have been hoping for 50 years, or with the children harboring small hopes with vacant eyes?
With the twin siblings who are grasping my legs, or with an old dwarf scanning the scenery with deeply sunken eyes.
Wouldn’t it be possible to give away one to each?
“What are you blabbering about, you brat? Can you not fix your habit of speaking cryptically?”
“Enough already. Not even realizing that I’m thinking of you; is this a trait of the dwarf race?”
“… Have you ever seen such a disrespectful brat? This is dwarf discrimination.”
Thinking such things, I changed my steps.
Two days since Litera.
I jumped into a landscape that remained unchanged even in the morning.
In fact, there was nothing that I had to do in this village.
I could merely spend the week like everyone else, endlessly hoping that a letter might come for me.
However, I thought.
To exist as myself, I kept thinking.
“Why is that?”
“What is, you brat?”
“Why can’t I receive a letter if I’m not chosen?”
“… Are you losing your mind because it seems you won’t receive one?”
If I were to not receive it, it would be a pity and disappointing, but I wouldn’t go mad just for that reason.
I had already gone mad once when I promised to go against the world by saving the Gray Witch in my childhood, and looking back again would only make me a normal person.
So, that wasn’t something I said for such a reason.
“Horn, think about it. The remnant of ancient magic isn’t the gears that God is continuously cranking, is it?”
“Why do you arbitrarily conclude that it isn’t? God, being an omnipotent existence, could possibly control it.”
No.
God is definitely not omnipotent.
“God certainly exists, but only exists.”
“… I still can’t figure out what you want to say, brat.”
God is merely an observer who occasionally glances over this world from the lofty sky, tilting their head.
“In other words, they are observers, merely continuing to run the simulation hypothesis they created. It must be like that unless there is a truly serious error.”
They, or He, cannot see or hear what is hidden in the dark shadows.
If God knew all and could do all, they might have crushed and killed a heterogeneous being like me as if stepping on a cockroach.
I thought that they would have taken action before I could change the flow of the story and twist the roles assigned to each.
So, they wouldn’t be doing something as trivial as sifting through letters in this small village.
“So what exactly is your conclusion?”
“If the things happening here occur simply due to the remnants of ancient magic without God’s intervention.”
Under the premise that God does not intervene in the happenings here, I confidently built a hypothesis.
“If it’s ancient magic, as it’s magic, if the activation conditions are met, can’t those who cannot receive letters also receive letters?”
And I thought that those activation conditions were the granting of roles.
“…, you’ve really lost it. Now there are even crazy folks who think they can go against ancient magic.”
“Of course. If I were sane, I wouldn’t have talked about wanting to find the Gray.”
“Ah, right. You were originally a crazy one. I mistook you, brat.”
To the sorrowful woman who is simply Villager 1, to the children who are simply orphans having lost their parents.
To the twin siblings by my side with sparkling eyes and the dwarf old man who shakes his head with a deep sigh.
To the quack doctor who applauds my thoughts as not bad.
If roles sufficient enough to receive letters are assigned, if only that is done, perhaps magic might activate and letters could be delivered.
There was also a high likelihood that this would not happen, but during this limited week, I wanted to try that at least.
If there is no intervention from God, then this ultimately would be just simple magic.
Characters on a stage within a novel and the reason needed for them to rise above does not exceed any further than that.
I came to such a conclusion.
This was a thought possible only because I was someone who crossed over from outside the story.
I.
Thought such things to exist as myself.
Not wanting to end the story as a mere villager, but as a traveler carrying many foolish dreams.
I thought I needed to come up with thoughts that suited that.
And.
“So… what do you think we should start with, brat?”
““Please tell us what we should do!””
“Haha… truly an idea fitting for Ain. So, if there’s anything you need from me, please tell me….”
Those beside me were as foolish and crazy as I was.
We exchanged looks and smiled at each other.
Granting of roles.
Though it sounded grand, I wondered how much influence these would have on the world.
Even if they couldn’t become figures that would change the world with astounding influence, could they create at least small changes?
I thought it should begin by planting the possibility, even a little.
Those who can lead the story.
Individuals who can write their own episodes.
Or.
Rebels who can twist the funny settings of preordained destiny and go against God.
Unlike such people, those who only cause emotional pity had none of that.
Simply wishing for and desiring letters and invoking prayers, it was just the fervor born from their despair, not their resolution.
Thus, for those who only long for letters, letters had to become means, not ends.
They must move forward.
They should not merely receive letters and achieve their purpose only to fall, but must hold letters close as they strive to leave their names in the world.
So.
“Then, part of your plan is to make those despairing expressions change, right?”
“Yes, along with that old man’s dilapidated, fishy eyes.”
For now, I wanted to spark even a glimmer of hope in the eyes of those who looked like they would collapse at any moment, or at least give birth to a small emotion other than desperation.
“… My eyes shine and are much cooler than yours, brat.”
“That’s so enviable. With your gloomy self, you always sit in the corner.”
I could only offer that much.
“Hey, you disrespectful punk.”
“Ah, what? You need letters too, old man Horn.”
They are not my comrades, and I cannot take full responsibility for their lives.
During the few days I would stay here, my emotional impulses and choices were limited to that extent.
“How could you possibly know if it’s right or wrong?!”
“Whatever, it’s right to at least try. If you have a good idea, old man, you should let us know too.”
Moreover, I had to fan the spark held by my comrades.
“Sigh… Let’s go, kids. Come on, quack, hurry up.”
““Yes~ Let’s do our best!””
“Haha… Well then, let’s go quickly….”
I had to repay those who believed in my choice and followed me.
Therefore.
I would provide a stepping stone for these people.
And then I would claim my own letter.
