She rounded a corner, crossed a bridge, and rounded another corner.
The fox’s shadow had long since disappeared, but Eva continued to run.
She felt like she was hungry, but for now, all she could do was keep putting one foot in front of the other.
Only by doing so could Eva distract herself from the loneliness.
This was not her familiar ancient capital.
That much was obvious the moment she reached a main street.
The same kind of horseless carriages she had seen earlier were going back and forth on the grey road.
After observing for a little while, she understood how to avoid being run over by these strange carriages. There were several places where it was safe to cross, like a shallow part of a river, and there was always a pillar standing there.
When the light on top of the pillar was blue, the iron carriages wouldn’t come toward you.
There were too many people in this city.
There were many times more people than on the main street of the ancient capital, and she kept bumping shoulders with them as she passed. It was as bustling as a festival, but it didn’t seem to be one.
For these people, dressed in unfamiliar clothes, this was probably everyday life.
After crossing the main street several times, her foot caught, and she almost fell.
Eva was starting to realize that she probably wouldn’t find the fox anymore. But if she started thinking about that, she’d have to think about something even more terrifying.
She didn’t know the way back.
At first, she had tried to remember the way, but the streets of this city all looked the same to Eva, who wasn’t used to them.
Buildings of the same color. Corners of the same shape. Roads of the same width.
Even the people walking by seemed to be dressed the same, and Eva gradually became frightened.
The word “divine punishment” crossed her mind.
Had a messenger of the gods immediately punished her for having her fried tofu taken away?
If that were the case, Eva would never be able to return from here.
She would never see her parents, her younger siblings, Shinobu, Taisho, or the customers at that shop again.
In this suffocating city where she didn’t know right from left, she would starve to death quietly, without anyone knowing.
As she thought about this, tears streamed down Eva’s cheeks.
“What’s wrong, miss? Are you crying?”
Suddenly, a pair of men called out to her.
The people in the city weren’t wearing hats, but these two were wearing proper hats.
And their waists. They were carrying wooden sticks like the ones Hans and Nikolaus wore on their waists. No one else was wearing anything like that. Eva knew that if you hit someone with that stick, even a grown adult would be knocked unconscious.
“Ah, I wonder if she doesn’t understand Japanese? Uh, do you speak Japanese?”
One of the men bent down and spoke to Eva, who remained silent. The other man was talking into a small box with a string attached to it.
Kidnappers!
Eva understood in an instant. These men were trying to take Eva somewhere. The little box the man was talking into was probably a tool for calling other kidnappers.
“Doesn’t understand English either? German, maybe? Gengoromaru, can you speak German?”
“Nope, nope. You know I’m a Chinese specialist.”
“Saying that when all you know is chi, pon, and pinfu…”
“That’s rude. I can count numbers properly too.”
“Up to nine, probably.”
Ignoring the retreating Eva, the two men were talking using some strange code.
If she was caught like this, she would surely be sold off. If that happened, she would never be able to return to her beloved home.
Eva closed her eyes, bit her lip, and took a deep breath through her nose.
Focusing her awareness only on what was in front of her, she suddenly ran off.
“Hey, wait! Just a minute!”
Ignoring the two men trying to grab her, Eva ran.
To escape, she entered an alley, cut through a flower bed, and crossed a main street where the blue lights had started to flash.
She ran, and ran, and ran, and ran.
When she realized it, she had climbed a stone staircase with dozens of steps and arrived at a small shrine.
Her whole body was soaked with sweat, and she was exhausted, her legs, knees, and body screaming in pain.
Eva sat down on the ground in the shadow of the shrine.
The leaves of the surrounding trees rustled in the wind.
It was hard to believe that this place was connected to the city she had just been in, it was so calm and quiet.
Even though there were so many trees, there were no leaves on the ground, which meant that someone was cleaning it every day.
Come to think of it, Eva suddenly remembered that she was in the middle of cleaning Izakaya Nobu.
She had finished part of it, but would Shinobu, who had gone on a walk, be able to finish the rest before the store opened?
Imagining Shinobu’s troubled face, Eva couldn’t help but burst out laughing.
She shouldn’t be worrying about cleaning a place she might never be able to return to.
She had to think about how she was going to live from tomorrow, or rather, from tonight. Living in that suffocating city seemed too difficult, so Eva thought about finding a way to live near this shrine if possible.
The floor of the shrine was slightly elevated from the ground, so she could probably avoid the night dew if she crawled underneath it. She would have to beg for food somewhere.
Ideally, it would be best if she could get hired at this shrine.
Cleaning such a large area would be difficult, so if Eva showed them how good she was at cleaning, they might share some food with her.
As she was thinking that, her stomach growled.
If that was the case, she should have eaten that rice ball before chasing the fox.
The fox, the fox, the fox.
Suddenly, she noticed a fox in front of the shrine.
It wasn’t the fox Eva had been chasing. It was a stone carving of a fox. Two foxes stood side by side, guarding the shrine.
She had gotten lost in a place like this because of the fox.
Thinking about that, she felt a little resentful towards the fox, but when she stared at the fox statue, that feeling strangely disappeared.
“I wish this fox would take me back to Nobu.”
After muttering that, she scoffed at herself, thinking that it was impossible.
Her fatigue had reached its limit. Walking over to the fox statue, Eva sat down, leaning against its pedestal.
The cold feeling of the stone stole the heat from her flushed body.
Closing her eyes, Eva was immediately drawn into a dream.
“Girl. Hey, girl.”
Eva opened her eyes slightly at the sound of someone calling her.
She seemed to have fallen asleep at some point, but this was still the same shrine. It didn’t seem like she had woken up from a dream and was now dozing off at Izakaya Nobu.
But she didn’t seem to be fully awake from the dream either.
Looking into her face was the white fox who had stolen the fried tofu.
“Girl, you should be from the land over there. Why have you come here?”
“Because you took the fried tofu of the messenger of the gods,” Eva protested, rubbing her sleepy eyes.
If this white fox hadn’t taken the fried tofu in the first place, none of this would have happened.
“That’s a strange thing to say, girl. The messenger of the gods, that’s me. That means that fried tofu was offered to me.”
“Then why did you run away?”
The fox was speechless at Eva’s sharp question.
“Well, girl, it’s because you suddenly started chasing me.”
“If you didn’t run away, I wouldn’t have chased you! Besides, aren’t messengers of the gods supposed to be angels with wings?”
“That’s another messenger of the gods. They serve a different god from me.”
“Hmm… I’m not convinced.”
The fox shook its head as if in amazement and dropped its tail.
“Anyway, it’s a big deal that someone from the land over there has wandered in here without permission. I’ll use my divine power to send you back.”
“Can I go back?”
“It would be a problem if you couldn’t. Besides, I’m partly responsible for this.”
As the fox made a sign with its front legs, the scenery around Eva began to blur.
“I wonder if it was a success or a failure to connect a seemingly unprofitable izakaya to the land over there with the power of Ukanomitama… Next time I go to peek, I’ll have to be careful not to be seen by this girl.”
Translator’s Note
Ukanomitama-no-Kami is the Shinto god of agriculture and fertility, often associated with foxes.
“I won’t chase you even if I see you next time!”
“Of course. Oh, and there’s a message for the two of them.”
“A message?”
“Yes, I’ll only say it once, so listen carefully and remember it…”
“…Eva! Eva!”
Shaken awake by someone’s large hands, Eva slowly opened her eyes.
Taisho and Shinobu were in front of her, along with Hans, Nikolaus, and Deacon Edwin.
“Um, I am…”
It seemed that she was lying on her back, and she could see the familiar ceiling of Izakaya Nobu.
“Eva-chan, you had us worried sick!”
Shinobu hugged her tightly as she finally sat up.
Her cheeks were wet with tears.
“Where did you go in the middle of cleaning? We had the guards help us and searched everywhere,” Taisho said.
“We thought a kidnapper had appeared and asked around the neighborhood,” said Hans.
“Even so, Eva-chan, when did you come back and sleep on the floor? I didn’t notice at all even though I was asking around nearby,” Nikolaus added.
“In any case, I’m glad you’re back,” said Deacon Edwin.
Taisho, Hans, Nikolaus, and Deacon Edwin all wrinkled their faces and stroked Eva’s head.
Eva tried to talk about what had happened over there, but she stopped.
Even now, it felt like it had all been a dream, and she didn’t think they would believe her if she told them.
However, there was one thing she absolutely had to tell them.
“Taisho, there’s one thing I want to ask you,” Eva said.
“What is it, Eva-chan? It’s rare for you to ask for something.”
“Please make the offerings to the Kamidana inari sushi once a month.”