Chương 116: The Unbroken Cup

Before the testimony table was set, only rainwater had pooled where Kichan had vanished. Marena stood there with Seria supporting her.

"Where did he really go?"

"He returned."

"To his original world?" Marena looked at her own wrist. A little of the white molly fiber and red mandragora thread remained. The proposal knot was tied to Kichan's wake-up rod.

"Without even answering?" Seria could not say anything. Marena walked toward the collapsed tent. Beneath a pole she found the shards of her cup. The cup she used to cradle in both hands while drinking tea had broken into three pieces. It had split exactly along its longest crack. Marena wrapped the pieces in cloth and put them at the very bottom of the box where she had kept tea leaves.

"There are claims that the cup is a sacred relic." The royal recordkeeper said.

"It's broken."

"It was touched by the Requiem at close range."

"It is still broken." Marena lifted a collapsed shelf. Under it were six cups. Two had lost their handles, and three were cracked along the sides. The last one was chipped only a little at the rim where lips touched, but it could hold water. Marena washed that cup. The last cup was one of several ordinary cups she had bought at the market. Now it was the only one that could hold water. Marena stood two fallen poles upright.

She used a human army cloak for one side of the roof and tied demihuman fur cloth to the other side. Ern, returned from captivity, tied the roof knots.

"I learned it over there."

"As long as it doesn't come undone." When it rained, water leaked through the middle of the patched roof. Marena put an empty pail under the leak and set the tea kettle on the fire. Marena gave the first cup of water to a burned soldier. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. A child pulled from beneath the bridge drank the second. The third went to a farmer who had lost one arm and whose stump was bound in cloth.

After a human soldier drank, a demihuman herbalist received it. The herbalist covered the broken rim with a finger and passed it to a child. The child held the cup in both hands and drank only half.

"Leave some."

"For who?"

"The next person." An old thief standing behind them drank the remaining water.

"If you all drink from one cup, disease spreads." When Marena said it, the thief ran to the river to wash the cup.

"Whose is this?" Tira asked.

"Whoever is drinking from it."

"Isn't it Kichan's?"

"Kichan took his with him." Marena touched the remaining thread on her wrist, then lowered her hand.

"Was that really a proposal?" A merchant carrying bread beside her asked.

"It was."

"Then are you engaged?"

"He didn't answer."

"Will you wait?" Marena pushed an empty water pail toward the merchant.

"Fill that first." The merchant could not ask more and went to the river. The temple said it would send a glass case to preserve the cup. Instead of a reply, Marena sent a list of needed things. Bandages, adhesive, dry firewood, twelve new cups. A glass case was not on the list. The people in the shelter chose usable things first. They patched one broken pot with an intact iron plate taken from another pot and set it back on the fire.

They picked unburned grain out of the ashes, and spread wet molly leaves on cloth to dry. Seria brought adhesive and said she would glue the cup back together.

"Later."

"Why?"

"People first." Seria set down the bottle of adhesive and picked up bandages. Three days later, the new cups arrived. They came in every shape and color. Four were from human villages, five from a demihuman market, and three had been bought somewhere by the old thieves. Marena did not set one new cup apart in the center of the shelf. She mixed them among the other cups and used whichever her hand reached first. A human farmer and a demihuman herbalist looked over the field outside the fortress together.

The molly had burned, and the mandragora field had been overturned by bombardment.

"This soil has too much water." The demihuman herbalist said. The human farmer dug a drainage ditch with a shovel.

"Plant molly first, and move the mandragora when the water drains."

"Both in the same field?"

"This is the only living field left." The two pulled up the boundary marker and used it as firewood. In the afternoon, the children gathered in the vacant lot. The wooden wake-up rod had broken, but they found one new long stick. The red cloth was half-burned. They stood for a long while, unable to decide who would play Kichan. Tira said,"No Kichan today."

"Then who catches the Demon King?"

"We do." The children laid the stick in the middle of the lot and surrounded the sack. At first, they struggled to get the song started. One child sang the first note of the refrain. Another child followed on the wrong note. The song continued to the end on that wrong note. Marena heard the song while measuring tea leaves. Her hand paused for a moment, but she did not go outside the tent. When the water boiled, she poured tea into the next cup. In the evening, a small market opened again.

The roof was made by joining a human army cloak and demihuman fur cloth. Water leaked through the middle, and the only goods were a sack of salt, wet bread, and a few handfuls of herbs laid out to dry. Marena poured molly tea into the unbroken cup. The first customer was Bram, who was leaving for bridge work. He accepted the cup with both hands, drank, and passed it to Kur. The cracked old cup and the answer to the proposal were not there. Still, the tea went once around the circle.