159. The Beginning (1)
Morning.
I woke up from bed just like any other day.
"Is it morning already?"
Time passes so quickly.
I don't particularly want it to, but what can I do?
Having learned the preciousness of time, I wished it would flow more slowly.
However, I didn't possess the cheat-like ability to manipulate time.
"Unless I were the Goddess..."
Muttering that, I tidied the bedding and headed out the door.
Though it was a bit early in the morning, I opened the door to the room where Aina should be lying in bed, intending to wake her.
However.
"...Aina?"
Aina wasn't in the room.
At this hour, Aina should definitely be lying in bed.
She had vanished without a trace, and in her place, a single letter lay on the bed.
In that moment, my heart and head grew hot and pounded violently.
"Don't tell me..."
It couldn't be what I was imagining, could it?
The worst-case scenario I had imagined—it couldn't be that, could it?
With trembling hands, I opened the letter and checked its contents.
Though many parts were smudged where the letters had run from water, it didn't take long to read and understand.
—The truth is, after today passes, my life will end. Don't look for me. I don't want to show my disciple my unsightly appearance. I'm sorry for deceiving you. Really. I'm truly sorry for deceiving you. Promise me you'll never come looking for me.
The letter's writing, smudged with tears.
I could tell.
How much emotion Aina had suppressed to write these small letters.
I could see the effort Aina, who usually scrawled her writing, had made to write as neatly as possible.
"Ominous premonitions never fail to be right."
A truth I had suspected but tried to ignore.
"...Not telling me the truth must have had meaning for you too, Minerva. I won't resent you."
I put the letter in my pocket, got up from the bed, and headed outside.
Given Aina's physical condition, she couldn't have gone far.
If I searched this area with all my might, I could meet her again.
*And at the moment Aina loses her life, I too must follow her.*
An answer I had decided from the beginning.
I was simply following the answer I had set.
No attachment to life remained anymore.
...Probably.
"He's gone."
"...Yeah."
Luna and Hare muttered while looking out the window.
Outside the window, the old man was running hard straight ahead.
As he ran, he grew more distant and gradually disappeared from view of the house.
Luna and Hare faced each other and spoke.
"He ended up leaving, the old man."
"...Yeah."
"Say something other than 'yeah'! You must have something else to say!"
"..."
Hare closed her mouth.
In truth, she had nothing to say besides "yeah."
Aina's words, waking them early in the morning, were stuck in her mind.
*I wasn't originally going to run away, you know? But I have to run. Take good care of Jun-woo, okay?*
*...What are you suddenly talking about?*
*I'm leaving this place. So, I'm asking you to take care of Jun-woo. Think of Jun-woo regardless of time and place. Then... you too can overcome the crisis.*
What on earth did that mean?
To think of the old man regardless of time and place.
I'm already doing that, so what was that woman trying to tell me?
*Remember this. That's the only answer that can lead you to 'happiness.'*
Recalling Aina's words, Hare ruffled her complicated head.
Before she knew it, her hair was touching her waist.
"Wh-what are you doing! Hare!"
"...My head's complicated. What about Saten and Estia?"
"Estia said she's sleepy and went back to sleep! She seemed to have heard something too, but she didn't say anything and just went to sleep."
"...Then Saten?"
"Magic study. She said she got something from that lady!"
"...I see."
Hare closed her mouth again after hearing all of Luna's explanation.
Luna looked frustrated beside her, shouting something, but Hare paid no attention.
Her mind was entirely focused on the old man.
*...Is the old man okay? B-but why am I so anxious?*
Crunch— crunch—
Hare bit her nails in anxiety.
Even when there were no nails left to bite, she habitually bit the skin of her fingers.
"...Luna, that woman told us not to follow, right?"
"Yeah, no matter what! She said absolutely don't follow!"
"Then, let's follow."
"What?! She said absolutely don't follow!"
"...I'm anxious. I feel like something's going to happen. Pack your things right now. Let's just the two of us go."
Hare moved her body toward the room.
Luna was dumbfounded, but headed to her room to pack anyway.
*Why is she acting like that? Is it because she didn't eat breakfast?*
Luna thought Hare was strange, but her actions were already following Hare.
In most situations like this, she had never lost out by following Hare's words.
*Well, it should be fine to trust Hare! There's no such thing as absolute in this world!*
It was more likely to trust Hare's intuition.
And Luna, who trusted that intuition,
didn't anticipate that today she would experience her heart collapsing.
—Bear the weight. Bear the weight, Hero.
The Holy Sword whispered in Luna's ear as she left following the old man.
My heart sank.
When Aina, who should have been lying in bed in the morning, wasn't there, and a letter was in her place instead,
I felt like she had disappeared again and received a great shock.
"Damn it..."
I thought I'd be able to find her right away.
Where on earth did she run to that I can't see her?
I raised my head to check above.
"I've been searching since morning... why can't I see her...?"
The clock tower's hand pointed to 5 o'clock.
The sky was gradually turning yellow and slowly darkening.
That fact squeezed my heart tighter and made me more anxious.
"I have to find her... I have to find her... I at least need to say goodbye..."
Damn it.
If I lose Aina this time, it won't be once but twice.
I bit my lip until it bled and looked around.
Then, I grabbed the shoulder of a passing person and asked.
"...Have you seen someone?"
"Y-yes? What kind of person—"
"A woman with red hair and ashen eyes."
"I-I haven't seen—"
"...If you haven't, that's fine. I'm sorry."
Of course they wouldn't know.
What am I doing right now?
My head lacks oxygen and isn't working properly.
I feel like I could collapse at any moment.
[...Idiot, don't collapse in the middle of downtown. I'll give you a chance, Jun-woo. Choose. Where is Aina?]
[1. Home.]
[2. Another home.]
"...A chance. Thank you, Minerva."
I was stupidly just wandering around the city.
There was that house where we lived together, and I didn't think of it.
I expressed my gratitude to Minerva and ran toward the house I lived in with Minerva.
And the first house I lived in with the Hero Party.
"Please, I can't be late..."
I mustn't repeat my mistakes.
Uttering words like an obsession, I ran.
Night was deepening and Aina's time was reaching its end.
"He's late. Don't tell me he can't find this place?"
Surely not.
He hasn't completely forgotten this place and is somewhere else, has he?
Though she had seen it in the future Minerva showed her, Aina grew anxious as the sky darkened.
*...I want to say goodbye properly at the end.*
Surely, since I did as the future showed me,
Jun-woo will definitely come here, right?
Clasping her hands together and praying for her disciple to come for a moment.
The moment the moon rose in the sky,
Aina heard the voice of the disciple she had been waiting for.
"...Aina."
"Welcome, Jun-woo. You're late. Didn't it take too long?"
"...I was late looking in other places. That letter—"
"It's true. I'm going to die soon. As I said in the letter, I used too much life force maintaining the sealing stone."
As if it were true,
Aina stretched out her hand to show Lee Jun-woo.
Her body was becoming transparent.
"Loss of mana. Depletion of life force. I'm going to return to nature. I'm a mage, after all."
"...What about a way to share my life force?"
"Our bodies have different properties. So it won't work."
"..."
Lee Jun-woo was a human from another world.
Even if he made extreme efforts to share his life force,
the probability of a bad result was high because their properties were different.
Aina looked pitifully at Lee Jun-woo grasping at straws and approached him.
"Why are you so dejected? That's not like my disciple. I always told you to be confident."
"...I can't be in this situation. You, whom I've always sought, are dying."
"Is dying so strange?"
Aina hid her trembling hands behind her back and walked around the house.
The house was dirty from not being maintained since the last move, but as she walked, memories came into view.
Cooking in the kitchen, eating together at the dining table, lying together on the sofa in the evening, and when it was time, returning to the room to sleep.
Repeating such daily routines, realizing each other's characteristics and habits, and being considerate of sensitive parts.
Memories of master and disciple that others don't know and only the two of them in this world know.
And memories of a woman and a man.
"Wait, shall we walk outside for a bit?"
Aina felt like she would only become sadder, so she headed for the door.
Lee Jun-woo quietly took in Aina with his eyes and gently nodded.
Neither of them wanted the place of memories to become the place of farewell.
"..."
They walked for a long time without saying anything.
They knew without speaking, and couldn't speak even if they wanted to.
Lee Jun-woo and Aina left the house and climbed a hill nearby.
It was a place where they could look down on the city center, a place with few people.
In such a situation, recalling the contents of the book, Aina closed her eyes, gathered courage, and spoke first.
"Jun-woo."
"...Yeah."
"Make me one promise. It's my last request."
"..."
Lee Jun-woo closed his eyes and remained silent.
Aina knew what would happen after this.
*Right now it will be an unfavorable future... But still...*
But still, I have to do this.
If I do, Jun-woo can be happy.
If not now, he can be happy later.
Aina put strength in her throat to hide her trembling voice and said.
"If you don't answer, I'll take it as a promise."
"..."
"You're going to die when I disappear, aren't you?"
"...No."
A lie.
But Aina continued speaking even though she knew it was a lie.
"Then, will you live well without me? Will you continue living with the Hero Party?"
"...Of course."
"Really? You're not lying?"
"...Yeah."
"Then look into my eyes and promise."
Aina approached Lee Jun-woo and looked up at him.
She could see at a glance his trembling lips and his appearance holding back tears.
She desperately looked away and met Lee Jun-woo's black eyes.
"Don't die. Live in the world for me. You can do that, right?"
"...Yeah."
"No, promise not as disciple Lee Jun-woo, but as the man Lee Jun-woo."
A disciple lies to their master.
But Lee Jun-woo doesn't lie as a man.
Knowing that fact, Aina didn't avoid his eyes and spoke the promise.
"Answer sincerely, Lee Jun-woo. Don't die. Live. You can do that, right?"
"..."
As expected.
"You won't promise, Lee Jun-woo. That's what I like about you. That you try to keep things yourself."
That's why...
I can't leave without greed.
Aina raised her disappearing hand and placed it on Lee Jun-woo's cheek.
"...Lee Jun-woo."
Aina gave a final farewell slightly different from the future shown in the book.
"Even if you don't remember me later, just know this one thing now."
"..."
"That I loved you very much."
A final farewell made with courage.
With those words, Aina smiled brightly and scattered into the air as mana.
Her smile was an effort to erase sadness.
"...Aina."
Lee Jun-woo stood still for a long time at the place where Aina disappeared with a hollow expression.
Their hearts connected for the first and last time, but
they couldn't reach each other.
Therefore, Lee Jun-woo lost his reason to live.