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Chapter 29
At that moment, Aldehyde whispered dryly,
“Your hands seem to be shaking.”
His fingertips briefly brushed against mine and then pulled away. I flinched at the small gesture meant to share warmth.
Then he whispered again,
“Earlier, I asked if it wouldn’t be too sad if a puppy you’d grown fond of were to die.”
“Yes,” I replied, looking up at Aldehyde.
The mountain breeze was cool, and the clear weather made the stars shine brilliantly in the night sky. I looked at the deep shadows on his face and the glimmering eyes shining beneath the starlight.
“But I don’t really understand that question,” I said.
“Why?”
Somehow, it felt suffocating, and my mouth felt dry. Just as my subtle senses began to heighten, Aldehyde said nonchalantly,
“If this puppy is going to leave this world, shouldn’t you love it more in the meantime?”
“…….”
“Even the time spent fearing attachment is wasted, isn’t it?”
I held my breath at his words. It was as if a stone had been thrown into the calm lake of my heart. Strong ripples rose.
I bit my lip tightly and looked up at him.
“You mean… time is wasted?”
Even at my foolish retort, Aldehyde’s expression remained indifferent.
“Hey, look at this.”
He lifted the puppy up with a cheerful effort.
“……Doesn’t it seem like it’s breathing a little easier? Maybe it likes nature?”
I widened my eyes and watched the puppy. Indeed, its breathing was slowly becoming more relaxed. The little puppy that had been dying just moments before our heartfelt conversation was now starting to breathe steadily.
I raised my trembling hand and stroked its nose. Its nose, which had been dry, was now moist, and its breathing had become regular. The puppy was coming back to life.
Aldehyde, watching my trembling hand, offered a hypothesis.
“Maybe the stabilization magic worked properly?”
“No, no. It has nothing to do with that.”
I had mastered stabilization magic. The puppy hadn’t survived because of the magic I cast.
I pursed my lips as I looked at the breathing puppy.
“So, then… this is…”
…What on earth was this? I had no words to describe the situation, blinking helplessly.
At that moment, the previously drooping puppy planted its four paws firmly on the ground. Among the cool air and blowing wind, it stood upright on the grass.
With neither Aldehyde nor I restraining it, the puppy faced the wind atop the greenery. I had no idea how it had come back to life. Could this truly be… magic?
Aldehyde echoed my thought.
“So, this is a miracle.”
He laughed, his eyes wide with delight. My heart thudded violently at the sight of his smiling eyes.
…Why?
I stared at him with a puzzled expression. I had never felt my heart race like this for anyone before. This was a first.
“Anyway, fine that it came back to life, but are those muscles—like a kangaroo—ever going to go away?”
An hour later.
The puppy had scurried through the grass, covering itself in dust and dirt, earning itself the punishment of being carried in Aldehyde’s arms. Aldehyde seemed quite pleased that the puppy had regained its energy, grumbling while looking at it.
“…….”
“Look closely. In my entire life, I’ve never seen muscles this bulky before.”
As Aldehyde showed off the puppy’s strong hind legs, I felt a little bewildered.
“Hmm… the muscles are a bit overdone. But now that the puppy miraculously survived, is that really what you should be commenting on?”
At my words, the tiny puppy whimpered and nibbled my hand.
“So cute.”
I patted its plump little bottom and laughed brightly. Aldehyde smiled a little.
“Finally, you’re smiling.”
“……Yeah?”
“Earlier, you looked so grim worrying it might die. Then you started talking about detachment and philosophy.”
“No, that’s—!”
“But it came back to life in the end, right?”
His words resonated deeply. I watched quietly as the puppy jumped from Aldehyde’s arms to climb a tree.
“Are those muscles… is it a cat?”
At Aldehyde’s doubtful voice, I couldn’t help but burst out laughing. Amid the radiant place where the puppy had gained a new life, I felt the starlight spilling down to the ground and thought:
“If it’s going to leave, shouldn’t you love it more in the meantime? Even the time spent fearing attachment is wasted.”
I disagreed with him. I worried about those left behind. Yet I didn’t know how to properly express my feelings. Perhaps that was why the words that actually came out were different.
I looked at Aldehyde and the puppy and said,
“The weather is really nice today, isn’t it?”
“The breeze is cool.”
The weather was beautiful, and the situation flowed happily. Stroking the puppy that had returned to me, I gazed into the empty space.
Then it happened.
The puppy whimpered and jumped into my arms, saying,
“Mama!”
“……?”
Aldehyde and I looked at each other. What was this?
But what shocked us even more was yet to come. The puppy leapt from my lap and gently bit Aldehyde’s arm without hurting him!
“Papa!”
“……What is this?”
Aldehyde stared at the puppy in disbelief. I too watched the scurrying puppy with a shocked expression.
“Dogs can talk?”
Of course, knowing its past, I suspected the puppy had gained some abilities through illegal experiments. But I never imagined that “being able to speak” would be one of its hidden abilities. Amid our astonishment, the puppy rolled in the grass, smiling innocently.
Late at night, on the summit field of the tallest mountain in the capital, Aldehyde and I had been struggling with the puppy for hours.
“This puppy really recognizes you and me as its mom and dad, just like the vet said.”
“Mama! Papa!”
“…….”
“I think those are the only words it knows.”
“Seems so……”
What a bizarre and absurd situation. I didn’t know how Aldehyde interpreted my expression, but he frowned just the same.
After thinking for a while, he smiled.
“Oh, then if we teach it more words, maybe it could even testify about the illegal experiments. It’s a direct witness, after all.”
I looked at him wide-eyed. I hadn’t expected such a clever remark from him.
“Even though illegal experiments were done, it might also be possible to completely get rid of the crazy ones who escaped from the ship. Right, muscle dog?”
“Mama! Papa! Good!”
“You’ve learned to speak so quickly.”
“Even if it can speak, it doesn’t seem like it understands fully.”
In the midst of this slightly ridiculous and silly situation, I chuckled softly.
“Why are you laughing?”
“Just… a dog that can speak is honestly kind of weird, and we’ll need to study it… and I guess we’ll all go through a lot of trouble in the process, right?”
“Well, yeah.”
“But in the end, it survived.”
“Yeah. Being alive is enough.”
“……That’s a relief.”
We still don’t know exactly how the puppy came back to life or how it learned human language. Yet after witnessing all of this, the conclusion was simple:
“I’m glad the puppy is alive.”
I don’t think I could live like this puppy, miraculously. But seeing the miracle softened my heart a little.
Moreover…
“If it’s going to leave, shouldn’t you love it more in the meantime? Even the time spent fearing attachment is wasted.”
The resonance of his words felt particularly strong to me. Impulsively, I made a decision:
“When I get home, I’ll reply to Pupu.”
