Chapter 55 - Volume 4 (2/2)

Or maybe…

Maybe there was a difference between the 『Miria』 that he imagined and the 『Miria』 I met. If so, could something have happened that even he, as the creator, did not foresee which led to 『Miria』?

For one thing, there was a possibility that 『Miria』 turned into something that surpassed his imagination of a being that was close to human.

And for another, there was a possibility that the 『Miria』 I know and the 『Miria』 he knows, are separate beings.

I was transfixed on the second possibility.

Having studied about Nival Galant’s magic, I was also led to investigate his closely connected personal life.

He, himself, stated that 『It was simply because of the very short time at the onset of my marriage that I could say my private life had been the most satisfying in my life』. Nival Galant’s wife had passed away soon after having just one baby girl with him.

And even when the daughter, who he raised himself, became of age and got married, the one child she had was stillborn. She had a divorce soon after that.

Thereafter, without a specific partner and out of wedlock, she finally had a daughter but it seems she had been quite hard on this child. And then, the woman, having neglected her own health, died of sickness when the child was six years of age.

Thus, only Nival Galant and the six-year-old child that was his granddaughter, remained.

Nival wasn’t a particularly friendly man. Even those around him described him as 『moody』 or 『an artist for better or worse』, and I heard that he didn’t even ever let others near the place where he produced the dolls. I wonder how the life of a six-year-old girl went with that circumstance.

The girl’s name was Mari Galant.

If I followed the description of the young girl from the articles written about Nival’s personal life:

『Pale brown hair inherited from her mother』『Large light brown eyes』『Based on those near her, they say her mother didn’t really shower her with love. She was jittery towards even the female reporter from start to end. She shows limited expressions』

–if a girl like that had grown up.

Wouldn’t she be someone like the Miria Galant I knew?

『The puppet opera’s best prima donna, Miria Galant. Her acting is the very. picture. of. a. human！』

It’s probably too absurd to suppose that Miria was actually human, and Nival’s granddaughter, at that.

But that supposition had completely made its place in my heart.

Although she had limited expressions, I hardly felt that she was 『doll-like』 . Up to this point, I was thinking that 『maybe it’s because she was a magical doll』, but if I’d been told 『it’s because she’s human』, I would naturally believe that more.

It’s plausible to consider that her upbringing was the reason for her tendency to be a little self-deprecating.

However, if I suppose that, then I’ll be met with another big question.

When Miria appeared in the puppet opera’s stage, people accepted Miria as a 『puppet of humans』. That was because it was an actress that suddenly appeared in a theatre where 『living humans could not perform in』.

And I couldn’t think of why someone would do something like pretend to be a doll and appear on stage.

If she were shouldering the risk of deceiving the world by pretending to be a doll, what could possibly be the reason for that?

And, there was another mystery that was difficult to understand.

–Miria had asked me.

She asked whether I 『knew a magic to turn a doll into human』.

I really couldn’t believe that the question was made simply as a joke.

There was still the chance that all my deductions were just me thinking too much. The truth was, I had no choice but to ask her.

I decided to try talking with Miria tomorrow or something. I was short on time since I’d spent most of it investigating. School was about to commence in two days.

I definitely couldn’t discuss it in a letter.My opportunity to talk to her would be tomorrow, just one day