The sparrow woke up that day with a scream of her own.

　He flung off the bedclothes and let out a ragged breath afterwards, dressed with only his upper body up. Her thin nightgown was heavy and damp with sweat. I felt like I was having some awful dream, but I couldn't recall the content of the dream as it drowned out like smoke.

　Somewhat later, Sparrow regained her composure and picked up the nightgown that was crimped to her chest with her fingertips. The nightgown was wet, as if it had been drenched with sweat if squeezed.

　I was in danger of catching a cold if I didn't. I changed my nightgown and lay down again. Should she change her night clothes and lie down again, or change into her normal clothes and get up? After pondering, Sparrow walked over to the window, reserving her judgment.

　Looking out, she saw that the sky was beginning to turn slightly white. The sky was beginning to turn white, and it would take a few more hours for the sun to peek through.
　Just then, two figures appeared in Sparrow's field of vision. There are people moving around furiously in one corner of the courtyard.


''--!

"--


　The two shadows, black and white, intersecting at an unstoppable speed, were Sora and Cryer.

　It is not unusual to see the two of them practicing. Rather, it has become an everyday sight these days. That's how much Sora had to keep up with Cryer.

　The two usually hold each other's weapons and cross swords with a violent clang of blades, but perhaps in consideration of the time of day, they are now in each other's bare hands. Even so, their hand-to-hand combat was so intense that it was hard to believe it was training, and Sparrow couldn't even follow their movements with her eyes.


''........................Huh.


　Unknowingly, a sigh falls out of my mouth.

　It hadn't even been half a month since the last attack. Sparrow's heart is not wide enough to accept the person who tried to kill her and Seal with an empty heart. The sight of Cryer and Sora together throughout the entire time brought a hazy feeling to Sparrow's chest.

　He understands. That one of the reasons Sola was working with Crya was surveillance. Sola is keeping an eye on us to make sure that Crya doesn't attack the sparrows again.

　She knows this, but her expression is clouded when she looks at the two of them--


Sora, you look happy...


　Sora has a look on her face that the sparrow has never seen before when she's training with Cryer. Her face is innocent and happy like a child's. To the powerful Sora, a partner who can fight each other without restraint must be that much more difficult to gain.

　When I think about it, a pain in my chest feels deep inside my sparrow.


''You are!


　The image of his enraged past came back to his mind. The one who had challenged Cryer, who had slashed the seal and even kicked him in the leg, and who had easily knocked him down like a baby twisting his hand.

　Since arriving in Ishqa, he thought he had done his best in his own way. But those efforts were ineffective against the attackers. Probably the result would be the same no matter how hard I tried for the next ten or twenty years. The gap in strength between the sparrow and the klya is that far apart.

　This is not only a story about sparrows. Even Lunamaria and Miroslav, who are far above sparrows, can't reach the level of Crya. That's probably forever.

　The unreasonable difference in ability.

　I never doubted that Sola was so. In fact, he felt rather reliant on her and worked hard to somehow become useful to Sola.

　Standing in the same place as Sora, Cryer was, in a way, the very ideal for Sparrow.


'....Oh, I see. I envy that person.''


　There is of course the rut that he is the one who attacked me. But more than that, I was shocked to be shown that I was standing in the place I wanted to be. My heart creaked as I realized that no matter how hard I tried, I would never reach that place.

　Whether the sparrow was weak or strong, Sora wouldn't care one bit.

　But the current relationship between the sparrow and Sola is one in which the sparrow is making one-sided demands on her. Even Sparrow, who has lived in the forest, knows that such a relationship would never last.

　More than anything else, she fears that she will be unable to question her way of life because of Sora's dependence on her. In the true sense of the word, it would slow us down.

　The only way to prevent this from happening is to make more effort. If you can't get there by the efforts you've made so far, then you'll work harder than ever before.

　If you still can't reach this goal, then - when he thought that far, the heart of the sparrow pulsed with a thump. As if to appeal to something, strongly.

　For a moment, the image of someone with eyes as red as hozuki came to mind. It was the afterglow of the previous day's dream. Sparrow tries to remember the figure, but the more she tries to remember, the more her memory fades and the more blurred the figure becomes.

　In the end, Sparrow couldn't remember the content of her dream that day.