Ceres Fauna's Everyday, Just a Little Bit Strange Days
In a secret place where gods and incredible beings from various worlds have gathered to live a relaxed life together, Ceres Fauna, the organizer of the 'Council,' is as busy as ever looking after everyone.
One day, the mischievous Watson Amelia is excited, saying, 'I'll use my time machine to grab a snack from tomorrow!' The god of time, Kronii, hears this and panics, shouting, 'You'll break the world's rules!' Fauna tries to stop it with the power of nature, but Amelia has already pressed the
Ceres Fauna's Everyday, Just a Little Bit Strange Days - Shattered Mask and Lonely Night
The Commons before dawn was eerily quiet.
The wind had stopped. Not even the rustle of Elda Magna's leaves could be heard. The usual sounds—the explosions from Amelia's workshop, Chronii's angry shouts, Gura's excited squeals—had all vanished.
On the large table in the Potager, a bowl of cold soup sat untouched.
" I knew it... someone like me..."
Amelia sat in her chair, her face buried in both hands. Her shoulders trembled faintly. Her waist-length blonde hair clung to her face, wet with tears.
" This is all your fault! That damn time machine of yours!"
Chronii slammed his fist on the table. A cup tipped over, spilling cold tea across the surface. His silver hair was disheveled, and his golden eyes quivered with the fine, rapid motion of a second hand. The furrow between his brows was far deeper than usual.
" Shut up! I've always hated that stuck-up face of yours!"
Amelia lifted her head and screamed. Her blue eyes, usually sparkling with curiosity, were now blurred with anger and sorrow. The grease stain on her right cheek was wet with tears.
" Always, always going on about the Seventeen Articles, about time this and time that... You don't understand anything!"
" What is there to understand?! Because of you, I've had to repair temporal distortions over and over! Do you have any idea how many times the hourglass in my Orrery Spire nearly shattered—"
Chronii choked on his words.
" I know I've been nothing but trouble for you!"
Amelia's voice trembled.
" I know... I know. Every time I invent something, someone ends up suffering. Every time I build a time machine, Chronii comes storming in. But even so—"
She gripped the wristwatch-type time machine on her left arm tightly. A device of her own making, one she never removed. Her fingers turned white.
" Even so, I couldn't stop. Because I always wanted to surprise everyone! I wanted them to think I was amazing!"
" ...Surprise them? That's nothing but self-satisfaction. You've done this in the Commons, time and time again—"
" I know! I'm just a nuisance! But I still wanted to be here!"
A tear fell onto the table and splashed.
Chronii bit his lip, and then—
" I was tired too... because no matter how many times I told you, you never understood."
His voice was much quieter than usual.
" Honestly, everyone except Fauna irritated me. Gura's overly innocent behavior, Calliope's spoiler incidents, Nanomea's silent pressure, and more than anything—your irresponsible inventions."
" Stop it!"
Fauna stepped between them. Her greenish-gold hair swayed. The small sprout above her left ear glowed faintly.
" Stop. Please. The stone's power wasn't meant for saying things like this."
But neither of them looked at her.
" ...Enough."
Amelia stood up. Her chair toppled over with a clatter.
" Someone like me is better off tinkering with machines alone in the Ticker House anyway."
Without looking back, she left the Potager. The hem of her coat, which usually swayed behind her like a tail, now just hung limp.
" ...Tch."
Chronii stood up as well. The hourglass-shaped staff he always carried in his right hand now dragged listlessly behind him. The usual tension that followed in his wake—the way the air itself seemed to crackle—was nowhere to be felt.
The Potager fell silent.
Fauna stood alone, rooted to the spot.
*(—My voice doesn't reach anyone.)*
A tightness gripped her chest. Even if she resonated with Elda Magna through the power of nature, even if she made plants grow, she couldn't stop the stone's power. Her words couldn't reach them.
" ...And I'm supposed to be the Keeper of Nature."
She hung her head.
—Crash.
—Thud.
From somewhere in the distance came the sound of something breaking. Not from the direction of Amelia's workshop. Somewhere else entirely.
———
The sound of waves from Tidepool Cove echoed from the western edge.
Gawr Gura sat huddled on the rocky shore of the inlet, hugging her knees. The shark fin ornament on top of her head drooped dejectedly. The small anchor hanging from her waist glinted, wet with seawater.
" I can't take this anymore."
She made no attempt to wipe her tears away, letting them fall freely from her aqua-blue eyes. Her pupils, narrowed vertically like a cat's, wavered with grief.
" My stone made everyone act weird. Because I came here, everyone started fighting—"
The waves lapped at her feet.
" I really was better off alone. I should've just stayed in the deep sea, talking to jellyfish."
" Gura."
Fauna picked her way carefully across the slippery rocks and knelt beside her.
" Fauna... I'm sorry. I'm going back to the ocean. If I stay here, I'll just hurt someone again."
She stood up and tried to step toward the waves.
Fauna wrapped her arms around the small body from behind.
" Don't go."
" But...!"
" You brought the stone because you wanted to make up with everyone, right? Because you wanted to be friends. That wasn't wrong. It wasn't wrong at all."
Gura's body flinched.
" But if I hadn't picked up the stone... if I had never come here..."
" Maybe. But if you hadn't come, I would never have met you. And I think that would have been very lonely."
Gura burst into loud sobs.
" I was lonely...! I've always been lonely...! But whenever I'm with someone, it always goes wrong...! Everyone ends up in trouble because of me...!"
*(—I'm the same.)*
Fauna murmured the words inside her heart.
As the Keeper of Nature, she had to be kind. She had to be strong. She couldn't show weakness to anyone.
She had always believed that.
But.
*(The truth is—I want someone to help me, too.)*
She desperately held back the tears that threatened to spill.
———
Bloom Circle.
The flower garden Fauna treasured most. A circular garden one hundred meters in diameter, planted with over three hundred species of flowers collected from across the multiverse.
Now, most of them hung their heads.
The flowers withered by Calliope's deathly power the day before had yet to recover. Perhaps because the entire Commons had been destabilized by the Moya-Moya Stone's influence, their roots were weakened. The blue moonlight grass had lost its luster, the golden sunflowers had shriveled petals, and the purple stardust blossoms lay collapsed upon the ground.
Fauna placed the Moya-Moya Stone at the base of Elda Magna's thick roots.
A fist-sized, translucent stone. Faint vortices of light swirled endlessly across its surface.
" Please."
She held both hands over the stone. The surrounding flowers emitted a faint glow, encircling it.
" Why am I the only one unaffected by you? Why doesn't my voice reach anyone?"
The stone remained silent.
It merely reflected Fauna's face within its swirling light.
" ...Please. Tell me."
A breeze blew.
But there was no answer from the stone.
She placed her hands on the ground and manipulated the plants' roots with the power of nature. Thin tendrils extended from the soil and wrapped around the stone.
—It's no use.
The stone's power was completely unmoved. If anything, the moment the roots touched the stone, a sharp, stinging pain shot through her fingertips.
" ...As I thought. My power isn't enough, is it?"
Fauna sank to the ground.
The moon hid behind the clouds.
In the darkened flower garden, alone, she began to think.
Amelia had cried so much. She had been worrying all along about being a burden. She always laughed it off, saying "Failures make great stories!"—but deep inside, she had been hurting.
Chronii had been so angry. He had wanted to be even angrier, but he had restrained himself with talk of the Seventeen Articles. Chronii, who would never normally voice such honest feelings, had shouted that everyone except Fauna irritated him.
Gura had said she was better off alone. That girl, who was lonelier than anyone.
*(Everyone was hiding their true feelings. All this time. Without me knowing.)*
" I was too—"
Her voice cracked.
" I was the same."
A single tear spilled over.
" I thought I had to be strong, as the Keeper of Nature. I had to take care of everyone. I had to be kinder than anyone, stronger than anyone."
Tears streamed down her cheeks.
" The truth is, I wanted to say it too—that it's hard. I wanted to ask for help. I wanted to invent things on a whim like Amelia and get scolded by Chronii."
Her voice trembled.
" I wanted to cling to someone and cry about how lonely I was, like Gura. I wanted to honestly admit, like Chronii, that people other than me irritate me too."
The tears wouldn't stop.
" But I couldn't. Because if I'm not strong, everyone will be troubled. If I'm not smiling, everyone will get anxious. I thought—I had to be the perfect leader, or everything would fall apart."
Flower petals danced up on the wind.
" That's why I was the only one unaffected by the stone. Because all this time, I've been hiding my true feelings—"
She covered her face with both hands and wept aloud.
Before the withered flowers. At the base of the wounded Elda Magna.
In the empty flower garden, Fauna realized for the first time that she had been more alone than anyone.
All this time.
All this time, she had been alone.
*(I'm always by everyone's side—yet I've never touched their hearts.)*
Her tears soaked into the earth.
A soft light enveloped them.
—Huh?
She looked up.
The Moya-Moya Stone was emitting a gentle glow.
The light that had been swirling moments before was slowly shifting into a soft orange.
And then—
—*I wanted someone to listen.*
She heard a voice.
Not a voice heard with her ears. It resonated directly within her heart.
—*I wanted someone to hear everyone's true feelings.*
" ...You?"
Fauna reached out toward the stone.
Her fingertips touched its surface.
She had expected it to be cold—but it was warm.
—*I didn't want to be alone.*
The stone's "voice" wasn't made of words. Raw emotion itself flowed into her. A deep, profound loneliness. It had been waiting in the deep sea, longing to touch someone's true feelings. Waiting for someone to understand it.
" ...You were alone too, weren't you?"
Fauna's tears fell onto the stone.
—*Being lonely isn't scary. But not being understood by anyone—that's terrifying.*
" I understand."
She cupped the stone in both hands.
" I'm the same. I could never tell anyone the truth. I was afraid they'd think I was weak. Afraid they'd think I was unreliable. I was scared, all this time."
—*I wanted to hear your voice.*
The stone's light grew stronger.
The orange glow enveloped Fauna's body. It was warm. As if someone were holding her.
—*Your true voice.*
" ...Okay. Will you listen?"
The stone answered with light.
Slowly, Fauna began to speak.
How every time Amelia dragged her into chaos, she had actually been worried sick.
How she had secretly been proud that Chronii relied on her.
How when Gura said she was "lonely," she had felt the exact same way.
How when Calliope withered the flowers, she had been sad—and had wanted to be angry.
How she had been saved, time and again, by Nanomea's silent kindness.
" I love everyone so much. But—that's exactly why I couldn't show them my weak side."
—*It's okay to show it.*
The stone's voice echoed gently.
—*You're not alone.*
" ...Thank you."
Holding the stone close, Fauna continued to cry until morning.
———
Daybreak.
As the eastern sky began to lighten, Fauna left Bloom Circle.
Her eyes were swollen from crying, but her steps were steadier than before.
She felt she understood the stone's power a little now. The stone didn't want to swap emotions. It had simply been waiting in the deep sea, wanting to touch someone's true feelings.
—*Surely, if I use this stone, I can return everyone to normal.*
Thinking this, she headed toward Parliament Hall.
At that moment—
—Crash! Rumble!
A loud noise came from the southwest.
" ...What?"
It was from the direction of Ink Shadow.
She ran.
At the entrance to the semi-underground study, a sign had fallen. The wor
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