Volume 2 - CH 6

Volume 2 of Brothers Grimm Fairy Tale Book Completely Translated.

It was translated into Japanese by a Japanese scholar of German in the Mitsuwa era.

Rihito was bewildered even as he received it from Kahoru.

‘Why is a Brother Grimm fairy tales series here?’

While wondering, he suddenly noticed when he flipped through the pages, that one of the pages of the thick collection of fairy tales was bent. It was a beautiful book that hadn’t been read much, but still, it had a strange page that was bent. The edge of this page was not folded by chance, but it was folded exactly in the shape of an isosceles triangle, as if it were a landmark.

When Rihito opened to the bent page, the title of a fairy tale was written in the middle of the page.

“Golden Bird.”

“…A golden bird.”

Rihito, looking up from the page in startle, saw an amused smile on Kahoru’s lips.

He certainly remembered the fairytale titled ‘Golden Bird’. He felt a little dull that he didn’t realize when Kahoru had handed him the Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales book. No, he wouldn’t normally think that the family’s ‘Golden Bird’ would be associated with the Grimm’s Fairy Tales.

Besides, even though this might be ‘Golden Bird’, it didn’t look anything out of the ordinary except for the broken page. Rihito immediately began to skim over the contents of the fairy tale.

In the king’s garden there was a tree that bore golden apples.

Once every year, an apple went missing from the tree, so, the king ordered his three sons to watch under the apple tree.

The eldest son and the second son fell asleep at midnight, but, the third son endured his drowsiness and watched over the tree. When midnight struck, a golden bird appeared from the sky and stole one of the apples.

The third son, who saw the bird, shot an arrow at the bird, but was only able to get a piece of its feather. When the king saw the golden feathers he said to his sons; “I want that golden bird.”

The story is that the three sons were sent out on a journey to find the golden bird.

Along the way, a fox appeared to give them an advice, but, the eldest son and second son choose to ignore its advice and ended up in danger, and the third son who listened to the advice but failed repeatedly and had to be rescued multiple times by the fox, was still able to accomplish his task and secure the golden bird.

However, it was almost the same as what Rihito had read in the original and all other translated books, and there was nothing special about it.

As Rihito seemed to have hit a dead end, Kahoru’s voice was heard.

“Mr. Chizaki, come to think of it, there was a ‘golden apple’ in the entrance hall.”

Kahoru narrowed his eyes, like a fox offering its advice to Rihito.

＊＊＊

When Rihito went to the entrance hall, there was indeed a ‘golden apple’.

Above a large pendulum clock that was as tall as a person, carved into the wood surrounding the dial were branches and leaves that grew apples. Delicate patterns of branches and leaves were carved on the surface of the lustrous amber wood, and golden plates were inlaid on the ripe fruit.

“Um… it’s gold-plated, so it’s not that expensive…”

Yaeko spoke modestly behind his back as she had already done some research into it.

However, Kahoru asked her.

“Ms. Mieko Kanamori, when did this clock stop?”

“Huh? Ah, um… It’s an antique that my grandfather bought. It’s broken and doesn’t work.”

Shinzo Kanamori bought it about a year ago and used it as a decoration. As it turns out, the pendulum behind the lower glass door was stationary.

Kahoru, forgetting to say ‘excuse me’, opened the glass door and inspected the golden pendulum inside, fiddling with it a bit, and then moving it left and right. The pendulum began to move without any problems and after some time, when it had stabilized, the hands of the clock began to move.

“It looks like it’s not broken… Chizaki-sensei.”

When Rihito’s name was called, Rihito, who had been watching Kahoru’s actions with a distant look until now, returned to his senses.

“Wha… what is it?”

“When will the golden bird appear?”

“…”

With all the preparations up to this point, even Rihito could move on to the next stage.

Rihito reached out his hand to the dial of the clock.

“At twelve o’clock.”

Click, click and a small sound was heard from inside the clock.

The bottom one of the golden apples disappeared with a click. No, to be precise, the golden board gradually slipped and disappeared, revealing the wooden board behind it.

“This is…”

There was something like a vertically elongated hole in the wood part.

It was the size of the tip of a little finger nail.

“Are you going to put in a key or something?”

“The ‘key’ does not appear in that fairytale.”

“Golden Apple, 12 o’clock.”

“If you’re talking about fairy tales, then the next one is 『Golden Bird』and…”

Rihito’s eyes reflected the black long hand on the dial.

With a sharp pointed tip, it resembled the shape of an ‘arrow’.

“… arrows… clock hands, huh?”

While muttering, Rihito opened the glass door of the dial and put his hand on the long hand inside. The long needle could be easily removed.

He inserted the tip of the long needle into the hole, hooked the barb on the edge of the hole, and pulled it, and the wooden part popped off in the shape of an apple.

And a small golden bird emerged from behind it.