The Phantom Napple
I turned two years old. And by then, there were a lot of things I’d figured out.
My Papa, Downey Brown Marsh.
The head of our house, amazingly enough, he was a margrave of the frontier.
He worked protecting the southern fortress of the Kingdom of Iskadal. Papa’s so cool!
Our territory was called the Marsh Domain. A land lush and green all year round.
If I compared it to Japan, it felt kind of like Okinawa.
There were hibiscus and bougainvillea everywhere, heck, even tons of palm trees.
Our garden was pure tropics.
I wonder if there’s a sea nearby?
Sometimes fruit would appear at the dinner table that I recognized from my previous life.
Well, I say “sometimes,” but there’s actually a fruit that’s only ever appeared once.
On my second birthday, there was a single slice of pineapple.
In this world, it’s called a napple.
I tried it, but it was harsh and incredibly sour. Just one slice.
Apparently, napple is extremely rare.
They even call it the phantom fruit. Supposedly, you can almost never eat it.
The only thing people seem to know is that you can get it from elves. In exchange for salt.
From what I’d heard, on the summer full moon, around the time when the moon rises directly overhead, sprouts burst forth all at once across the lake’s surface, growing rapidly and bearing fruit.
Once the fruit fully matures, it quickly withers away. So harvesting it is a race against time. When it reaches a certain size, they cut it down. Once harvested, time-stop magic activates on the fruit, and it won’t rot for a year.
But apparently, only the elven chief knows where that lake is.
The secret lake is known only to the elven chief.
The elves trade the fruit to humans in exchange for precious salt.
Why does a two-year-old me know all this?
Because it was written in a book Marle read aloud to me.
It was just an ordinary picture book, but the text looked doubled to my eyes.
At first I thought something was wrong with my vision, so I rubbed my eyes, but nothing changed.
When I stared at it intently, letters began to float up from the page. Fantasy!
No… this was huge. I was beyond excited. A massive discovery!
I’m pretty sure Marle, who was reading the book to me, could only see the regular text.
But to me, I could see floating words that said:
“On the night of the full moon, when the moon rises directly overhead.”
Yet the book itself said “at midnight.”
The floating words also said:
“The Celine River.”
But in the printed text it just said, “In a certain place, there was a mysterious river.”
Wait. Marle can’t see the floating letters?
She can’t see this part that’s rising off the page?
“On the night of the full moon, when the moon rises directly overhead, along the Celine River, napple fruit all grow large at once. It is a delightful sight to behold.”
Without thinking, I held my hand over the floating letters.
When I touched them, they wavered.
And yet my hand passed straight through them and touched the book beneath.
“Maaarle, moon ish wound and big.”
(Marle, the moon is round and full—a full moon.)
I tried to tell her, but…
“It’s a crescent moon tonight, not a full moon. Oh my, Young Master Kaito, are you interested in going outside? Were you bored? Shall I stop reading?”
“Nuh-uh. I wuv books. Mawle, wead moe?”
I looked up at her with sparkling eyes and begged.
“Ugh! Y-you’re an angel…”
Marle immediately smiled.
“Very well, Young Master. I’ll continue. In a certain place, there was a mysterious river, and there…”
This is amazing. Seriously amazing!
Could this be the “present” Goddess-sama mentioned? Could it be just for me?
What is this? Appraisal?
Is that what this is? That’s insanely awesome!
…Huh?
Why does my strength suddenly feel like it’s draining away?
Is this what they call running out of mana?
“Oh my. Good night, Young Master Kaito. We’ll continue tomorrow.”
Before Marle even finished speaking, I was probably on the verge of mana depletion. Appraisal was more exhausting than I’d expected.
Zzz.
What do you think about this chapter?
