From : 錆浜奇流譚
物語の始まりは、若き公達であった白龍が、腹心のヨルンと共に、スパイアの聖域の一つ、古の松が連なる清浄な浜へと遊行に訪れたことから始まります。その地は、かつて天人が地に降り立ったと伝えられる「三保の松原」に他なりませんでした。
The tale begins with a young nobleman named Hakuryu, who, accompanied by his trusted confidant Yorn, journeyed to a pristine beach lined with ancient pines—one of the sacred sanctuaries of Spire. This land was none other than the legendary "Miho no Matsubara," where celestial beings are said to have once descended to the earth.
虚空より花が降り、妙なる香りが立ち込める中、二人は松の枝にかかる一枚の美しい衣を見つけます。それが、神々の技術の結晶たる「天衣」でした。白龍がそれを手に取ったその時、一人の天女が姿を現します。
As flowers rained down from the heavens and an exquisite fragrance filled the air, the two discovered a radiant robe draped over the branch of a pine tree. This was the "Hagoromo"—a celestial garment that stood as the pinnacle of divine craftsmanship. At the very moment Hakuryu took it into his hand, a celestial maiden revealed herself before them.
驚くべきことに、彼女は「苦き光」が満ちる海に浸かりながらも、マスクも着けず、穢れを知らぬ裸体のままでした。天女は、それは自分の衣だから返してほしい、と静かに告げます。
To their utter astonishment, though she was immersed in a sea brimming with "Bitter Light," she wore no mask, remaining in her pristine and untainted nakedness. Quietly, the celestial maiden spoke, telling them that the robe was hers and asking for its return.
しかし、若き白龍は、その圧倒的な存在と、天衣が持つ未知の力に魅入られていました。彼は、天人の物であるならば、国の宝として地上に留め置くべきだと、衣を返すことを拒みます。天女は、それがなければ天上に帰れないと哀しみますが、白龍は聞く耳を持ちません。その傲慢さは、スパイアの選民思想そのものでした。
However, young Hakuryu was captivated by her overwhelming presence and the unknown power within the celestial robe. He refused to return the garment, asserting that if it truly belonged to the celestials, it ought to remain on earth as a treasure of the realm. The celestial maiden grieved, lamenting that she could never return to the heavens without it, but Hakuryu remained deaf to her pleas. His arrogance was the very embodiment of Spire’s elitist ideology.
天女が天を想い、ただ静かに涙を流す姿に、白龍の心は揺らぎます。彼は、舞を舞うなら衣を返そう、と取引を持ちかけました。
「衣がなければ舞えませぬ」 「衣を返せば、舞わずに天へ帰るであろう」 「…疑いは、人の世のならい。天に偽りはございませぬ」
Seeing the celestial maiden yearning for the heavens and weeping in silence, Hakuryu’s heart began to waver. He proposed a bargain: if she would perform a dance for him, he would return the robe.
"I cannot dance without my robe," she said. "If I return it, you will surely fly back to the heavens without dancing," he countered. "...Suspicion is but a custom of the mortal world. In the heavens, there is no deceit."
At those words, Hakuryu was struck with profound shame for the impurity within his own heart. Yet, the action he took next was one that would forever seal his fate. He knelt before the celestial maiden, and as he offered the robe back to her, he spoke:
"Will you not become my bride and bestow eternal grace upon this land?"
It was a marriage proposal of staggering arrogance—a transgression of the sacred taboo that divides the divine from the mortal.
天女は、驚くべきことに、それを承諾します。彼女は天衣を受け取ると、白龍の手を取り、松の影へと誘いました。しかし、そこで白龍を待っていたのは、甘美な契りではありませんでした。
To his utter astonishment, the celestial maiden accepted. Upon receiving the celestial robe, she took Hakuryu by the hand and beckoned him into the deep shadows of the pines. However, it was no sweet union of souls that awaited Hakuryu within those depths.
「人の子が、天を娶ろうとは。その罪、万死に値する。汝に呪いを授けよう。その身をもって、汝が最も見下した者たちの苦しみを味わい、泥の中から天を仰ぎ続けるがよい」
悍ましい呪いの言葉と共に、白龍の身体は清浄さを失い、大地を這う「泥阿衆」へと堕とされたのです。公達「白龍」の名は剥奪され、彼はただの「デンタ」となりました。しかし、天女の怒りは収まりません。
"That a child of man should dare to wed the Heavens... such a sin is worthy of ten thousand deaths. I shall lay a curse upon thee: With thy very flesh, thou shalt taste the agony of those thou hast most despised, and from the depths of the mire, thou shalt forever look up at the heavens in vain."
Accompanying these hideous words of malediction, Hakuryu’s body was stripped of its purity, and he was cast down into the ranks of the "Deashu"—the mud-dwellers who crawl upon the earth. Stripped of his noble title and the name "Hakuryu," he became nothing more than "Denta." Yet, the wrath of the celestial maiden was far from quenched.
「婚姻を望むというおこがましき罪、汝一人では到底購いきれぬ。その忠臣にも、分け与えようぞ」
天女がヨルンに手をかざすと、彼の身体は苦悶にねじ曲がり、人ならざるものへと変貌を遂げました。それは、古の技術と有機物が融合した、言葉を発することさえままならない、異形の姿。ヨルンは、主の罪を共に背負う、生ける枷とされたのです。こうして天女は天へと帰り、呪われた二人だけが、その地に残されました。
"The audacious sin of desiring marriage is a debt you alone could never hope to atone for. I shall share this burden with your loyal retainer as well."
As the celestial maiden held her hand over Yorn, his body contorted in excruciating agony, transforming into something far removed from humanity. It was a grotesque fusion of ancient technology and organic life—a form so warped he could no longer even speak. Yorn was rendered a living shackle, forced to carry the weight of his master's sin. With that, the celestial maiden ascended to the heavens, leaving only the two cursed souls behind on that desolate shore.
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