Episode -4 C

  ? ? ? ? ?

  Today again, all the children gathered in the open lot, their faces full of anticipation.

  Today’s story is Pai’s turn.

  The children looked extremely excited to see what kind of “story world” they would witness this time.

  "My story is simple..."

  "It’s a story about enjoying nature—seeing pretty flowers in a beautiful forest, and spending time with cute animals."

  Pai was explaining the contents while emphasizing that her story was something they could simply relax and enjoy.

  But the more the boys listened, the more their expressions strangely stiffened.

  They had come expecting, at least a little, an exciting adventure and some battles.

  In the middle of Pai’s explanation, Dabi and Eli quietly approached Yona and whispered.

  "You’ve got a hidden mission, right?"

  Yona gave no answer to Eli’s question. He tried hard to ignore it.

  Frustrated, Dabi began pestering Yona again.

  "There’s at least a monster in the forest, right? And hidden gear?"

  Sensing Dabi’s suspicious movements, Pai shouted.

  "Dabi, what are you doing!?" Startled, Dabi hurriedly slipped away from his spot.

  \[The children only vaguely understood the completion process for each story.

  First, each person would set the large flow together with Yona, then Yona would organize the writing separately and deliver it to Eat.

  Eat would do only a simple review and then hand everything over to the golden owl as-is,

  and after that, the owl would handle the finishing touches.]

  Before Rogi arrived, because the children had not known Eat for long, they mostly enjoyed play through short stories.

  They were stories that concluded in a day—or at most, two. That did not mean they never created long stories at all.

  As the children’s desires grew, the worlds of their stories grew larger, and in that process, Yona ran into great difficulty.

  Whenever that happened, Yona would go to the study room Teacher and receive a lot of help.

  Teacher taught him how to divide the flow of a story and how to structure chapters, and through learning to remove things from a world that only kept being added to,

  Yona gradually came to understand the most important thing: “balance.”

  Thanks to that, Yona learned how to divide a long story into several chapters.

  And the stories organized that way could be delivered to Eat without problems.

  For example, the “Magic Child” Yona was preparing was also a long story. It was not a completed story either.

  But that story of Yona’s ended up being owned by Rogi, so right now, Yona had no story of his own.

  Still, Yona had endless story material.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  And also, organizing his friends’ stories made Yona happy and joyful.

  ---

  Now the children overlapped their hands together and shouted.

  "Doritori Toris!"

  As Pai’s story began, the space around the children started to change.

  Before they knew it, the children were standing together in the middle of a vast field, looking toward the entrance into a forest.

  The girls squealed, calling the surrounding flowers and the small animals running about cute, unable to contain themselves,

  while the boys drifted between blank expressions and dissatisfied ones.

  Pai, looking so happy, smiled and approached Yona.

  "It’s exactly the same as what I imagined. It’s so beautiful."

  Yona wanted to share Pai’s joy, but the stares of Eli and Dabi, glaring at him, were an intense burden.

  Then Eli offered a suggestion filled with a small wish.

  "Let’s put on suits and explore the forest!"

  Eli’s words made Dabi and Leo’s eyes light up like a beam of hope.

  "Yeah! We should be prepared in case something dangerous happens. Let’s wear suits!" Dabi strongly supported him, adding his voice.

  But Pai smiled again as she came closer and said,

  "Guys, if we walk just a little into the forest, I prepared a little ferry boat so we can ride and enjoy the forest scenery.

  Don’t you want to see it?... Follow me~"

  Before she even finished speaking, Pai turned around and hurried her steps forward with Yona, and Eti and Rogi quietly followed behind them.

  The boys’ small rebellion ended in failure for now, but they did not know the meaning of giving up.

  "Still, the fact that we’ll use a boat instead of walking through the forest~ that’s so nice." Rogi said excitedly.

  At that moment, Yona tried to speak with an apologetic face—"Actually, it’s that..."—but Pai cut in instead.

  She had decided she should be the one to say it.

  "Yona can’t walk for long because of his crutches~"

  At Pai’s words, Rogi regretted her behavior for not thinking of Yona’s situation.

  After that, Rogi kept her lips tightly shut as she followed behind the others, quietly tapping her own head.

  Sensing the gloomy mood, Eti stepped up again to bring energy back to their lively trip.

  "Yona-oppa, in the next story, should we change it so your arms and legs get better and you go on an adventure?"

  Eti said it with a cute smile, and at the pure thought, Yona replied with a smile as well.

  "Well... I tried, but it didn’t work~"

  The mood suddenly grew heavier. Following Rogi, Eti also shut her lips tight, lowered her head, and walked quietly.

  No one could see Pai’s expression as she walked in front, but her heart was heavy with regret for what she had just said.

  'Why did I... why couldn’t I say it more gently about Yona?'

  'Because of his crutches... am I out of my mind?'

  Today, Pai had come here with the excitement of going on a picnic with her friends.

  But what was this spreading, unintended gloom?

  The boys following behind were planning a rebellion, and Pai’s group in front

  kept moving forward, each bearing the weight of self-blame and regret...

  Before long, Pai, who had been leading, discovered the mysterious boat first and smiled. But...

  Instead of the wonderful wooden ferry she had imagined, what came into Pai’s view was an enormous, overturned turtle.

  "What is that turtle?" Pai’s expression hardened quickly.

  For Pai, who had dreamed of reversing the gloomy mood the moment she found a wonderful boat, a huge despair was added.

  Pai: "Yona, what is this? Is this a boat?"

  Yona: "It’s a turtle boat that can operate on both land and water~"

  Pai: "I imagined a small wooden boat..."

  Yona: "Sorry... I thought maybe we could use it on land too..."

  Pai: "Why would we travel on land! I said we’d only go around inside the forest!" \[her voice rose]

  Rogi: "Pai, why are you like that~? I like it though?"

  Pai: "Really?... Mm~ still, this is a bit..." \[she sinks into thought]

  "It might be hard for brother to go through the forest with crutches..." Eti said without thinking.

  Hearing that, Pai stopped in place for a moment.

  ('Yona prepared the turtle boat on purpose because walking is hard for him... and I snapped at him.')

  Pai stiffened.

  Seeing Pai upset because of the turtle boat, Yona’s heart felt heavy... He scratched his head and lowered his gaze.

  And Pai, flustered, felt so sorry that she had misspoken to Yona again that she couldn’t meet his eyes.

  Eti also felt guilty for her thoughtless words when she saw Pai sister suffering.

  In this chaos, Rogi desperately wished for someone powerful who could solve this situation.

  At that moment, Rogi suddenly had a good idea that could change the heavy mood.

  "By the way, where is Eat? Why don’t I see him?"

  Was it a tremendous shout that broke the silence and flipped the situation? Eti and Yona looked at Rogi with fondness.

  Just then, Eat revealed himself on top of the turtle boat.