p.358
Sadness welled in Yoko. "Wait, Rakushun. You don't have to treat me so different all of a sudden! I'm still me."
"No. . . no, you're not."
"I . . ." Yoko's voice trembled. "I'm only me. I've always just been me. It doesn't matter whether I'm a king or a kaikyaku or a tika; that has notign to do with it. I'm still the person who's come all this way with you, Rakushun."
Rakusyun stood silently, looking at the ground.
"Tell me, what's different? What's changed? I thought I was your friend, Rakushun. If becoming king means I can't have friends, then I don't want to be king."
Still her little friend made no reply.
"Rakushun, that . . . that's discrimination. You wouldn't discriminate against me because I was a kaikyaku, right? So why discriminate against me now?""Yoko . . . "
"I haven't changed. I'm not someone far and distant. Even when you try to draw away from me ―look! You're only standing two steps away." Yoko pointed at the short stretch of ground between her feet and Rakushun's.
この後のRakushunの答えが、なんかとてもよいのです。このシリーズはこのネズミで持っていると言っても過言ではありません(←過言だ)。世界でもっとも愛らしいネズミですよ。
