Editing Kino no Tabi:Volume3 Epilogue

=="Amidst the Clouds” ~Blinder・a~==

It was a mountainous region.

The lined up mountain peaks pointing towards the sky still have snow on some places.

There was a stream of melted snow on the gently spreading slopes at the foot of the mountain. It created a little pond of water, where there were brightly colored leaves and flowers of highland vegetation. Overlooking ahead is a sea of clouds, and the earth below cannot be seen.

A road was running along the slope. It was a wide, well-maintained road.

Between the road and the mountain scenery, there were humans lying in a heap. There were adults and children, about thirty in all. There were two trucks loaded with traveling luggage parked beside them.

From a distance, Kino was looking at the scene with a scope.  Her brown coat fluttered as the wind blew.

“How was it?” Asked Hermes, who was parked on the road a little bit away from Kino. 

Kino said shortly, “No one is moving.”

“Were they killed? By a bandit or something?” 

Kino shook her head while peeking at her scope, “Everybody died with foams coming out of their mouths. Besides, because their faces were green from discoloration, probably……”

“Probably?”

“They did not know.”

“Huh? Did not know what?” Hermes asked. Kino stopped peeking, pulled some grass growing beneath her feet, and showed it to Hermes.

“A similar kind of this grass grows in other places, but there is a type which only grows in high regions. They did not know that, and they boiled and ate them like usual――”

Kino threw away the grass and looked at the group of corpses from afar.
“Those people, they did not know. …… It was last night, probably.”

“Ohー and they all died, eh?” Hermes said with an amazed and impressed tone.

Kino narrowed her eyes a bit, “It’s not something I’d love to see,” she whispered.

“Then why don’t you just close your eyes?” Hermes teased. At the same time, a strong wind blew, and the hem of Kino’s coat rustled violently.

Kino held down her coat. As she looked towards the foot of the mountain, a big white cluster rushed up. Kino, Hermes and the corpses were engulfed in a moment.

It became pure white.