Chapter 61 - 62. Swings Ayunan
'What is a theme park? What is a slide?' What is a swing?', they kept asking me such simple questions over and over again. None of them knew such things, they were wizards of Azalea's people, and most of them hardly left this place.
"I don't know how to tell you all of these things," I was feeling frustrated and confused about how they would help me to find that park. The search would be started the following day but no one knew the characteristics I told them about, "Are there any other wizards?" I whispered to Azalea.
Azalea shook her head, "They are the only ones that remained," She replied lightly.
'What did she mean by the only that remained? Did she mean the remaining were from the useless wizards?' if it was true, it was really awful I guessed.
"If it is the case, can I ask a help from my friends, instead?," After saying this, Azalea looked at me as if she wanted to say 'don't you even think of running away, "Relax, I will not run away," I replied fast before she said it directly, "Perhaps it will take a bit longer, but if we share the same task, I will save more time and we can find it faster," I tried to convince her.
Finally, Azalea approved my idea. I was given permission to go to Euron. Somehow, I had to go back to this dimension daily to report about my searching for that park. I agreed with that condition. It was better for me.
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Hanna would go with me. She was very enthusiastic when she was assigned to accompany me during the search. Azalea said that no one would be able to see her because she was actually a spirit, unless certain persons with a special ability, like me.
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I instantly got goosebumps after Azalea told me the truth about Hana. I had spent much time with her and so far I did not realize that, 'how come I did not notice it?' I questioned myself.
By the fact that only certain people could see the presence of Hana, I had no worry or disturbed. No one would say that I was being followed by a strange creature or things like that.
"I do hope I can find that park as soon as possible," I planned to ask Emma and some college friends to help me. I hoped it would make my job be accomplished faster.
When the small light in the sky was right on the top, I came back to my own world. When I arrived in the forest—after crossing the portal, the evening sky was red, the sun was about to set. I walked and followed Kerberos and Hana behind me.
"Due to the intensity of using this path, I find it easy to find my way even though this path is not for hikers," I said as I was walking over the fallen trees along the way.
"Miss, are you starting searching today?" Kerberos asked.
"Yes, the sooner the better," I replied firmly, "Hana, don't walk too far from us!" I warned that spirit.
"I ever came here before but was a very short visit. I lived with humans at that time, but only for some months" Hana's story surprised me. I turned my head to see her. She never told me this before.
"Why did you not tell me this before?" I asked her fast, "You should have told me from the beginning that you ever lived here. I would be very happy knowing that someone else has ever lived in the same world as me. That would make me be not the only stranger with, her guards and her people," I stomped my feet out of annoyance as I walked out from the forest.
"it was a very short stay, not more than a month before Miss azalea took me with her. She said that I should have stopped creating problems," her words sounded ambiguous for me. I did not really know her meaning by 'problems'
"I, err, a creature like me can be kept by a human. We can be requested to do things that are actually not very good for them. They need it, but because they are aware it is not good to do, they ask us to do that, and of course with proper rewards," Her explanation answered my curiosity somehow. I understood what she meant although it intrigued me more about what kinds of jobs she was talking about.
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"I had to kill someone with the reward of his daughter to be surrendered to me to be my slave. But if he did not keep his promise, I would kill the whole family and make his daughter my slave. When Miss Azalea knew that, she directly dragged me and locked me in a cage," this really shocked me. Hana who I knew was so gentle and kind in fact hiding a dreadful pastime.
"I did not stay long in that cage. Miss Azalea offered me aj ob, and of course on one condition I stopped doing such thing for good," She continued.
Hanna was often called rokurokubi. Different from her kind, she did not have a face. She always talked softly and as far as I knew she was very kind. She often wore kimono of black color base and peony or sakura flower motif. Her hair shiny black was tied low.
Her neck was not stretched long all the time, only once in a while when she was cooking and she had to check many different kinds of food in different places, she craned her neck. Although she was faceless, I felt that she could see and chat with me like two normal people.
I smiled at her., "Thank you," that was my sincere expression, "Thanks for telling me your past. I am really grateful for your trust in me,"
That was our last chat while walking toward the main road by the forest. When we arrived on that road, night had come. While we were waiting for the bus at a bus stop, we were eating the meal which Hana had brought for us. I did not why she was worried if we would be hungry. The bus stop itself was located not far from the rows of souvenir shops.
Only after some time did we finish our meal, the bus came. I planned to visit the park which was not far from here. By using an application from my cell phone, I started to list the playgrounds from the nearest to the farthest. I would visit Emma tomorrow and I hoped she would help me check the parks which were not far from her home and her shop.
I checked my notebook again to see the descriptions of the playground Antonie gave to me. This would be pretty difficult. Almost all parks had slides, but perhaps only a few were painted red, a wooden bench was under a tree, four slides painted in blue were placed in a row, with far-left part was not in function due to experiencing many failures. Four see-saws in green, and one of them had an odd sound. It kept bothering me honestly, 'what kind of odd sound did he mean?'
In my opinion, Antonie himself was a bit freaky. He lost all memories about himself, but strangely he could describe a place in great detail. I guess the park he kept well in his memory was very important for him so that it was the only one that remained from his past in his real body.
The first playground we visited was not far from a kindergarten. From the description Antonie gave me, it was possible that there were a lot of changes now, seeing that it happened a long time ago.
"I am afraid we will not be able to find that park," I said as I went to into the park and walked around. All changed from the one that Antonie had described. In here, there were seven swings and two slides, one was bigger than the other. Perhaps it was for young kids.
"I am also worried that the park that Antonie mentioned may have changed, and it is not like what it was in his memory. And the worst is that the place may have been demolished and it is used by a totally new building," I expressed my fear, as I decided to sit on one of the swings. Streets were getting more quite. I looked at my cell phone, it was already nine at night. The park I visited was in the vicinity of an apartment complex. It might be the cause why there were only a few people coming in and out of the streets.
I walked again with Kerberos and Hana followed me closely at my back. Not far from the previous park, there was another one. Although the two parks I had visited were not on my list, I had to check on them somehow.
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