Chapter 9: Omens of Farewell
Winter came to an end, making way for spring to come to the village.
In that time, Rio had gone to Homura and Shizuku to give them his greetings for the new year, then returned from the capital with Komomo and Aoi. After returning to the village, he threw himself into the tasks of installing the water wheel and waterway, aiming to complete its construction for the spring.
At present, the water wheel was in operation, drawing the necessary amount of water and passing it through the waterway to supply the fields. Furthermore, Yuba lent Rio one of the village’s fields, and he began to take control of the farming there. He was requested to do so because the water wheel and waterway worked better than expected, causing an increase in the predicted harvest. Komomo and Aoi also offered to help; starting with Ruri and Sayo, several other villagers allocated their time to helping Rio.
At the moment, they were planting the seeds.
“Rio! I’m done planting the seeds in the area I was assigned!”
“Thanks. Can you help the people who haven’t finished yet?”
“Sure thing!”
The sound of the two people conversing at a slight distance echoed through the surroundings.
“Sir Rio, Aoi and I have finished our assigned area!” Komomo also energetically announced the completion of her quota.
“Thank you very much. You can rest for a bit, Komomo.”
Rio tried to be considerate of Komomo and Aoi, but Komomo shook her head enthusiastically. “I’m fine! I’ll help the other people too!”
“Hey, Rio! Why are you treating her differently than me?” Ruri pretended to sulk.
“No, it’s just... Komomo is a guest,” Rio excused with a wry smile.
“Rio, Ruri’s going to step all over you at this rate,” one of the working villagers interjected teasingly.
“Hey, I wouldn’t do such a thing!” Ruri argued with puffed cheeks.
That caused the other workers present to burst into hearty laughter. “Wahaha!”
Lately, Rio, Ruri, and Komomo had many more chances to be together as a group of three, so the villagers had become used to treating them as a three-person set. Furthermore, unbeknownst to the three in question, some people were gossiping that Rio was engaged to Komomo and Ruri as though it was fact.
Ruri was the only one Rio loosened his tone of speech around, and Komomo had been saved from danger by Rio before coming to stay at the village and sticking by his side around the clock, so their misunderstanding was understandable.
As a result, most of the girls that had secretly — or, rather openly — pined after Rio had given up on the fight, choosing to watch over the future of the three with warm eyes instead.
However, there were still some girls who hadn’t given up yet, and they continued to struggle in anguish.
The three of them look so close... How nice... Sayo watched the sight of Rio and the others from a distance with jealousy.
These days, Sayo hadn’t been able to find any time to talk with Rio properly, so seeing Ruri and Komomo working intimately with Rio made her feel extremely jealous. It was during this time that Rio took charge of one of the village fields and the helpers it required, so when Sayo heard about it, she couldn’t resist nominating herself.
However, Ruri and Komomo were still right by Rio’s side, and shy Sayo didn’t have the courage to close the distance between them.
“Shall I give you a hand, Sayo?”
Rio appeared before Sayo as she relentlessly planted seeds.
“Eh, ah, Sir Rio! I-I’m sorry! I was daydreaming!” Sayo stammered, snapping back to her senses. When she looked around at her surroundings, she saw it was clear that only her work was notably slower than everyone else’s. When she realized that, her faintly sunburned white cheeks reddened.
“Make sure you remember how to do all of this, Sayo. After I’m gone from the village, you may need to teach the other villagers what I’ve taught you. Well... Only if the results are good, that is.” Rio hinted to his departure from the village, gauging Sayo’s reaction.
“...Huh? Sir Rio, are you leaving the village?” Sayo asked with a dazed look.
“Yes. I haven’t told anyone else yet, but I’m thinking of leaving between next fall and winter.” Rio nodded with a somewhat wistful smile.
“Next... fall... Right, that’s right. You’re leaving. ...B-But, where will you go? If it’s nearby, you could still come visit the village every now and then!” Sayo asked dumbfoundedly, clinging to a sliver of hope.
Rio shook his head regretfully. “I plan on crossing kingdom borders and traveling far away, so I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to periodically return. But I do want to visit the village again.”
“But...” Sayo said in a trailing voice.
“It’s still a little early, but I wanted to let you know ahead of time. We haven’t really had the chance to talk to each other lately, and I’ve been having trouble coming to a decision, too...”
As Rio spoke about his feelings — “Nnh...”
Sayo was on the verge of tears before she knew it. When she noticed that tears were threatening to spill over, she ducked her head in a panic and rubbed her eyes.
“What’s wrong, Sayo?”
“Ah, no, nothing! It’s nothing! Just some dirt that got into my eye... Ah, I see now. There’s soil on my hands.” Sayo laughed with all her might and closed her eyes.
“Erm, I’ll make some water with spirit arts. You can duck your head and wash it out.” Rio tilted his head in slight suspicion, but chose to believe Sayo’s words and created a small bubble of water in his hand, manipulating it to float gently near her eyes.
Sayo thrust her face into the bubble and blinked rapidly. Not wanting Rio to realize she had been crying, she flushed her eyes with enough water to make them appear bloodshot.
“Ahaha. I’m sorry for such a shameful sight to see.”
“No, it’s fine... Do your eyes hurt?” Rio asked, voicing his concern for her.
“I’m fine! I’ll do my best to make up for where I fell behind!” Sayo shrugged him off with forced cheeriness. That was when Ruri arrived.
“Sayo, what’s wrong?”
“Ah, Ruri. Some dirt got in my eye, so Sir Rio was helping me rinse it out.”
“Aah, I see...” It wasn’t such a rare occurrence when working with soil, so Ruri accepted her words without question.
“Umm, I fell behind in my share of work, so I’m going to get back to that now.”
“Oh, I’ll help you.”
With that, Sayo returned to her seed-planting work with a look of enthusiasm and Ruri at her heels. Sayo devoted herself to the work at hand, because she knew she would burst into tears if she didn’t. Then, once work was over for the day, Rio thanked the villagers that assisted him.
“Good work, everyone! Thanks to your hard work, we were able to complete our target workload. Don’t forget what I taught you today — you’ll need to plant the seeds in the same way next year.”
It was already evening, so everyone split up and went their own way home. Among them were Ruri and Komomo, who called out to Rio energetically.
“Rio, good work! Let’s go home too?”
“There’s a lot more to planting seeds than I thought, Sir Rio. I can train in a different way to my usual practice with this!”
The three people living underneath the one roof — four people if Komomo’s personal attendant, Aoi, was included — naturally went home together. Meanwhile, Sayo watched them absentmindedly from a short distance away, before walking toward her own home in the opposite direction. Her mood was strangely dark, enough to make the villagers she passed hesitate in greeting her. Once she arrived home, the strength drained from Sayo’s knees as she sat down just inside the door on the clay floor.
“...”
She curled up and let the tears gush forth like a broken dam.
“I’m ho... H-Hey, Sayo?!” Shin arrived at the front door in a fluster, and his eyes widened at the sight of Sayo crying on the clay floor. She noticed Shin and raised her saddened eyes.
“What’s wrong?! Did something happen?”
“...Shin. I’m sorry. I’m fine... It’s nothing. I’ll go make dinner now.” Sayo shook her head weakly and staggered to her feet.
“This isn’t the time to be making food! Who was it? Who made you cry?!” Shin asked as he breathed heavily through his nose, desperately trying to think of the reason behind Sayo’s tears.
The first thing that came to his mind was Rio.
Vexing as it was to admit, the only person who could upset Sayo’s emotions this much was him. The biggest proof of that was how Sayo was clutching the hairpin she received from Rio tightly in her hand.
“That asshole... Rio must have done something.”
Shin decided there could be no one else who would have made Sayo cry.
“N-No... It’s not... Sir Rio’s fault...” Hearing Shin’s voice trembling with anger made Sayo explain herself in a panic, but she couldn’t speak all that well, as she was overcome with tears. Seeing his sister like that made the fury within Shin boil over even more.
“That guy should have never come to this village.” Even as he said those words, Shin knew in the back of his mind that it wasn’t right.
Thanks to Rio’s contributions in the village, their lives had definitely gotten better, and if Rio hadn’t been here, Ruri and Sayo would’ve suffered greatly at the hands of Gon.
Because of that, he had secretly accepted Rio’s existence in the village.
Seeing the sight of his sister crying before him, however, made him doubt if it would have been better if Rio hadn’t come to the village at all. If he hadn’t, then at least Sayo wouldn’t be crying right now.
“No, you’re wrong... Sir Rio is going to leave the village... That’s why...” Sayo desperately tried to stand up for Rio’s innocence.
“...What did you say? He’s leaving the village?” Shin frowned greatly at that.
“No, Sir Rio doesn’t have anything to do with it...” Sayo tried to emphasize Rio’s irrelevance to her current disposition, but it was already too late.
“He’s going to leave the village... So that’s why!” Once Shin connected the dots, a sour expression took over his face.
It was true that Rio was originally an outsider; he came to this village during his travels, so it made sense for him to leave on another journey. But, that meant Sayo would keep crying.
What could he do? How could he stop Sayo’s tears?
Shin desperately tried to think things through, but he wasn’t the type of person who solved things with his head. Shin knew that better than anyone.
That was why thinking made him lose his cool and rush out of the house instead. Rather than thinking about it any further, he’d act on his instincts.
“Eh?! S-Shin?! W-Wait!” He could hear Sayo’s voice try to stop him from behind, but he paid her no mind as he ran with all his might. He made a beeline straight for Yuba’s house.
“Oi, Rio! Is Rio here?!” Shin burst through the front door with a burning face, yelling for Rio. Rio and the others, who had been preparing for dinner, widened their eyes in surprise at the sudden appearance.
“...What do you want with Rio?” Yuba questioned with a suspicious look.
It was fairly rare for Shin to have business with Rio to begin with, but his desperate expression showed it was no trivial matter. Just what could it be about?
“Please, stay in the village!” Shin said, and knelt on the ground.
“Wha...?!” Rio and the others were all rendered speechless at Shin’s truly sudden, erratic behavior.
“I-I know I’m being selfish with this request! But, please, hear me out for a moment. Could you stay in the village forever?!”
Sayo was crying — Shin wasn’t able to say those words out loud, so he rubbed his forehead against the ground instead. Rio and the others were dumbfounded and rendered unable to speak.
It was then that Sayo suddenly appeared, panting for breath.
“S-Shin! What are you doing?! I-I’m sorry that my brother has caused you so much trouble!” Her eyes rounded at the sight of Shin bowed on the ground, before she lowered her head in a panicked apology.
“But... Sayo—” Shin began to say something unpleasantly.
“C-Come on, Shin. You’re being such a bother. Let’s go, okay?” Sayo pulled at Shin’s body frantically.
“...” Shin glanced over at Sayo’s face to see her fake smile; there were traces of tears at the corners of her eye. While her tone was gentle, her urgency clearly shone through. “A-All right... Sorry.” Shin lifted his body up sluggishly.
“I’m truly so sorry! I’ll give my brother a stern talking to!” Sayo promptly apologized with her head bowed.
“S-Sorry...” Shin awkwardly lowered his head.
“...Okay. We won’t ask what that was about for now. Is that all right, Rio?” Yuba asked, sighing tiredly.
“Sure, I don’t mind...” Rio nodded, looking over at Sayo and Shin inquiringly.
Stay in the village... That’s because of what I told Sayo about today, right? But why would Shin come to me... Rio tried to think of the intention behind Shin’s actions, but he couldn’t understand the heart of another.
At any rate, he couldn’t bear the sight of Shin and Sayo both lowering their heads at him.
“T-Thank you very much! Come on, let’s go, Shin.” Sayo thanked them in relief and dragged Shin away. The silence continued for several moments after their departure.
“Lady Komomo, Miss Aoi, I apologize on the behalf of our villagers. Shall we have our meal, now? Ruri, get to cooking,” Yuba said to dispel the mood.
Thus, everyone exchanged a look before nervously resuming their actions. Though they didn’t talk about what had just happened, the uncomfortable atmosphere continued into supper.
After dinner, when everyone had retired for the night, Yuba visited Rio’s room.
“Rio, are you still awake?”
“Yes, I’m awake.”
The question had come from just outside his door, so Rio replied in a quiet voice.
“I’m coming in.”
“Go ahead.”
Rio stood up from his bed and opened the door to welcome Yuba inside. He pulled up a cushion for Yuba to sit on as he sat down on his own bed.
“...Did you tell Sayo?” After several seconds of silence, Yuba suddenly charged straight into the core of the matter. She chose not to specify what they talked about on purpose.
“Yes. I did.”
“I see. Then, do you know the reason as to why Shin acted that way?”
“...I’m sorry. To be honest, I have no idea. Do you know, Yuba?” Rio shook his head apologetically, fearfully asking back.
“Probably... However, it is not something that should come out of my mouth. The people in question wouldn’t want that, after all. It would not be right of me.”
“...I see.”
“The only thing I can tell you is that this incident is not your fault, so there’s no need to blame yourself for any reason. Understand?” Yuba warned at Rio’s shamed nod.
“That’s...” Rio’s expression darkened as he avoided answering.
“Well, I know that just telling you this won’t ease your worries. Could I ask you to trust your grandmother this once, and leave this situation to me?”
“Yuba...”
“Though, there’s not much I can do. I’ll try to talk to those two indirectly about it. For now, could you interact with them without prying too much into it? Of course, if they choose to make the first step, then I would want you to engage with them about it,” Yuba said with a light shrug.
“I understand. I’m sorry for making you bear the burden...”
“It’s fine — try relying on your family a little more. You’re saddled with enough to begin with.”
“...Yes.” Yuba’s words must have reached him, as Rio hung his head when he nodded.
After that incident, they returned to what seemed like peaceful days on the surface. Since they often saw each other during the hunt, Rio had to face Shin sooner rather than later.
“Sorry for the other day... But, could you give us a little more time? For me, and for Sayo. You might have no idea what I’m talking about, but it isn’t the right time to give you an explanation yet... Though I may bring it up again one day,” Shin said awkwardly, his expression strangely serious for once.
“I understand. I intend on leaving the village before next winter, just so you know.”
Rio widened his eyes at the admirable attitude that Shin normally didn’t show. He recalled the words Yuba said to him, and decided to wait patiently for their reply until he had to leave the village.
Thus, he was able to return to a normal relationship with Shin relatively easily, but the harder one to repair was his relationship was Sayo. Of course, they still spoke to each other when they were working in the village together, and it wasn’t as though they were acting distant with each other on the surface, but the amount of time he had to speak with Sayo when they were alone definitely decreased.
In effect, it became nonexistent.
It seemed that Sayo was the one who was intentionally keeping her distance from Rio. Because of that, Sayo’s position in the three-person group she used to form with Ruri and Rio had become completely replaced with Komomo instead.
Other than the times Komomo returned to the capital with Rio on his visits to Homura and Shizuku, she was practically always in the village. Other members of the Saga family would also drop by whenever they had the time, completely adapting themselves to the village lifestyle. By the time summer had arrived, they could even be found carrying a hoe rather than a sword.
Once summer came around, Rio informed the other villagers that he officially intended to leave sometime in the days after the autumn harvest festival. The villagers were extremely saddened by the news, but they set about preparing for the harvest festival with even more vigor now that it included Rio’s farewell party.
Thus, the seasons passed by in the blink of an eye, and finally fall arrived.
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