Lydia's Ordeal
The first request I'd accepted was from a pottery workshop.
My father was the finest potter in the West.
But he never opened a workshop anywhere else.
He always said that once the West was reclaimed, he'd start making pottery again.
My father never lived to see the Western Liberators' victory...
So I decided to carry on his wishes and open this workshop myself.
That's a good story. So what can we help with?
I needed someone to watch the kiln.
The temperature needs to remain steady at this stage.
Please add only a little firewood at a time so it doesn't get too cold or too hot.
So we only need to keep an eye on it?
It's an important part of firing pottery. I'll leave it to you.
I need to go sort through some materials I ordered.
A little while later...
I thought all we'd have to do was sit here and toss in some firewood...
But this is harder than I expected. I can't stop sweating.
Well, we are sitting in front of a fire.
For the first time, I'm actually a little grateful for this outfit.
I think I'm cooler than you are, Captain.
Captain. If you're hot, why not take off that coat?
I can handle it.
Oh? Is there some reason you can't take it off?
Are you wearing something underneath that you absolutely can't let anyone see?
Or perhaps it's the opposite, and you're not...
No. Stop slandering me.
I'm joking. Hehe.
Just as it was time to add more firewood, Ceres reached for some, only to find that we'd run out.
Hmm. We're out of firewood. I'll go get some.
Take your time, Commander.
Once Ceres left, Lydia wiped away the sweat from the kiln's heat and fanned herself with one hand.
H-huh? Wait...
Something happened that I could hardly believe, even as I watched it with my own two eyes.
Is it... turning transparent?
Did you say something?
No...
As I wondered what was happening, I suddenly remembered something.
Besta's warning before we'd parted ways that morning.
Be careful around hot water in that Sassy Puppy Edition!
The material turns transparent when exposed to heat and moisture at the same time!
...Ah, I got that backward! Please go somewhere with hot water!
I'd been sure there was no chance of that happening.
But between the heat of the kiln and Lydia's sweat, the impossibility had become inevitability.
And Lydia had no idea.
At this rate...
I took off my coat.
Oh, so you were wearing perfectly normal clothes underneath. How boring.
Did you finally get too hot? Your face is looking a little red too...
...Here.
What? Why are you giving me your coat?
I've heard about people auctioning off your fingernail clippings and pillows, Captain...
But I'm not interested in that sort of thing.
What?! There are people doing that?!
The coat you just took off would probably fetch a high price.
You gave it to me, so I can sell it, right?
Don't sell it... Use it to cover yourself.
What?
Lydia. Your outfit is...
I stopped there and turned my head away.
Lydia stared blankly down at her increasingly transparent outfit.
And then...
Eeeeeek?!
She collapsed with a scream.
Kuku's pages tore open at incredible speed, slipping free of their master's control.
A moment later, tentacles burst wildly from the pages with a bloodcurdling shriek.
Lydia?! Calm down!
Before I could react, black shadows spilling from Kuku surged toward me.
I dodged them by a hair. Lydia hadn't aimed properly or even cast a deliberate spell. She was just lashing out in a panic, so avoiding them wasn't too difficult.
The problem was...
Lydia, calm down! The pottery...!
*Crash*
The pottery's done for, but at least the kiln...!
*BOOM*
But Kuku's tentacles swallowed what remained of the workshop with a monstrous roar, as if determined to erase every trace that it had ever existed.
By the end of the day, the workshop had been completely destroyed.
Whenever my father made a piece of pottery he wasn't satisfied with...
He'd say it had no soul and smash it without hesitation.
"What a waste! At least sell it for half price!"
People would say things like that, but he never budged.
Now I understand. That was the spirit of a craftsman of the West.
Though even he never went as far as destroying his entire workshop...
We're sorry...
I have no excuse. W-we'll compensate you for everything...
...We'll rebuild it with something even more expensive...
Please don't worry about it.
This was only possible because you reclaimed the West for us in the first place.
What matters is the spirit of the West, not the kiln itself.
Yes. That spirit is what we fought to protect.
Maybe this is my chance to forget about pottery and my father and make a fresh start.
Although... it's a shame about the photograph of my father somewhere in that wreckage.
It was the last one I had of him.
Lydia and Ceres broke into a cold sweat.
You should've said that first!!
F-find it! Lydia!
The two of them frantically started digging through the rubble.
I joined them and spoke while searching.
Understood.
Wait, Commander. This was my mistake, so...
I'm disappointed in you, Lydia.
What?
Did you really think I'd ignore the plight of a comrade who's stood beside me all these years?
...
Watch your hands.
Thank you, Captain.
Lydia glanced between Ceres and me as she searched through the debris.
After searching for some time, the sun slowly began to sink toward the horizon.
Lydia suddenly stopped, as though she'd found something among the wreckage.
Huh...?
Beneath the broken remains of a wooden frame was a photograph, half-scorched but still intact enough to make out.
Lydia carefully picked it up.
The photograph showed a middle-aged man standing beside a pottery wheel, with an angry-looking boy beside him.
Is this it...?
The young man rushed over and took the photograph.
...I didn't know this photograph even existed.
What? This isn't the one you meant?
No. I didn't put this here. My father must have kept it.
He stared silently at the photograph as tears welled in his eyes.
This was back when I used to run away because I didn't want to learn pottery.
There was a time when I got so tired of my father's nagging that I hated pottery altogether.
So I fought with him and left my hometown.
Then this pottery workshop was...
My way of making amends.
My father died before we ever had the chance to reconcile.
I thought fulfilling his dream would somehow make up for it...
But I think I finally understand why my father never opened another workshop.
He probably wanted me, the son who left because he hated pottery, to live freely.
I suppose I'll have to rebuild the workshop after all!
I never managed to tell him, but... I always respected my father as the finest craftsman there was.
My dream was to become a great craftsman like him.
You helped me find what was truly precious to me.
Thank you, Commander Ceres. Deputy Commander Lydia.
And so, after a brief commotion, our first volunteer job came to an end.
It might not have gone the way we'd planned, and we'd caused a bit of a mess, but amidst the rubble was a glimmer of hope for the future.
I-I guess it all worked out in the end?
I've already learned my lesson, so you can't give me a hard time about what happened, okay?
You did well, Lydia.
...Really? That sounded suspiciously like a jab.
It's true that we caused material damage, but we can compensate for that.
What we cannot replace are the people who are gone.
But today, thanks to you, that young man was able to fill some of the emptiness they left behind.
My sister used to say the same thing. That once we reclaimed the West, its people would regain their hope.
But won't that man still have a lot of regrets?
I'm sure he wished he could have reconciled with his father while he was alive.
It'll probably remain with him for the rest of his life. But... he'll be all right.
Feelings can reach someone even when they aren't spoken aloud.
...I'm envious. I wish my sister and I could have...
Ceres' gaze wavered strangely as she spoke.
Ceres?
It's nothing, Captain.
Ceres returned to her usual self as though the unease I'd sensed had only been my imagination.
By the way, Lydia.
Yes?
I've been wondering for a while. Why are you wearing the Captain's coat?
Lydia's ears turned red. She took off my coat and bowed deeply to me.
Th-thank you. I'll wash the coat before I return it...
You can just give it back now.
Lydia recoiled in horror, clutching my coat tightly to herself.
Absolutely not! It's soaked in sweat! It might smell!
I'll wash it properly until there's nothing left of it!
Right...
Would I ever get my coat back?
So, how did it feel doing volunteer work?
It was definitely a new experience.
Our first attempt was a failure, but I think something meaningful still came out of it.
My mind even feels a little lighter somehow...
Perhaps being a maid is my true calling?
If you're going to keep doing this, do it by yourself, Commander! I'm never being a maid again!
It had been a novel experience for Ceres, but Lydia had gained another humiliating memory she'd rather forget.
If Ceres continued having nightmares, I'd have to find something other than maid work for her to try.
And then, the next day...
When I stepped outside the guest quarters, Lydia and Ceres were waiting for me in their maid outfits.
...?
What? What is it? If you have something to say, say it.
Didn't you say you'd never do this again?
Things changed.
Wait, are you secretly into this?
Of course I'm not!
Then why?
I'll explain. I didn't have a nightmare last night.
I can't believe it actually worked...
So the answer really was the spirit of service!
Captain! Tell me where our next volunteer job is!
Was being a maid really Ceres' true calling...?
That is exactly the sort of problem a maid should solve!
But Commander, you can't cook.
Nothing will ever change if you avoid something just because you can't do it!
Don't lose heart after a single failure, Lydia. What allowed the Western Liberators to reclaim the West?
Your strength, Ceres?
The fact that we never gave up!
And with that, Ceres marched off with confidence.
So that's the spirit of the West.
If anything, that's the Commander's spirit. "If it can't be done, make it happen."
"If you fail, you simply didn't try hard enough."
That does sound like her.
Seriously. A Papaco doesn't fail to fly because it doesn't try hard enough.
And a Sunblossom doesn't fail to bloom because it's too weak.
A what-paco now?
Oh, it's from an old saying among the people of the West.
A Papaco is a flightless bird native to the West.
And the Sunblossom only grows in a forest deep within the West.
They say it won't even sprout when planted anywhere else.
It's an old saying born from longing for the West.
Hurry up, Lydia!
Coming.
Just as Ceres said, the Western Liberators reclaimed the West because they refused to give up.
But as Lydia said, some things in this world cannot be achieved through determination and effort alone.
We were about to learn that for ourselves.