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As soon as I opened my eyes, the face I looked at made me feel bad.
“Why do you frown as soon as you see someone?”
“I was frowning because of the sunlight.”
I thought for a moment that I had closed my eyes, since when did I go to sleep? Feeling a little strange that I slept deeply in an uncomfortable position, I stretched my body.
“We were going to move without stopping as the destination wasn’t far away, but… I didn’t expect everyone to not fall asleep in a moving carriage.”
“Everyone else didn’t fall asleep?”
“Ivan fell asleep for a while, and Miss Lily didn’t sleep.”
After all, no one sleeps as soundly as I do. The tone was condescending to anyone who heard it, yet I ignored it. What is he going to do now that I already slept?
Only after ignoring Kade’s sarcasm with a slight nod, did I realize that the carriage had stopped moving.
As I got off the carriage and looked around, the open landscape came into my view. Judging from the clear air and the view below, it seemed that this place was probably a cliff somewhere.
It feels a little bit closer to the sky. Suddenly I realized that we were crossing a mountain.
When I lowered my head and looked far away, I saw a small village with houses clustered together. Ah, that’s…
“That’s the Ronen Village.”
Kade got off the carriage and handed me something to eat and said. Uh, since this person is handing it over, even ordinary bread looks very suspicious.
…Can I eat it?
“I don’t play with food. Don’t doubt it and just eat.”
“How did you know I was suspecting this?”
“With the expression on your face.”
Strangely speaking, it seems that we have gotten used to each other due to the long distance.
But really, why are you giving me something to eat? You’ve never done anything like this before. Yet aside from that, he’s not one who’s likely to lie, so I ate some bread.
“What about Lily?”
“She went to check the road for a while. There are many poisonous plants in Ronen Village, including poisonous berries, so you have to be careful.”
“Ah, anyway, Ivan told me about one of them the other day.”
He said that if you eat anything wrong, you won’t be able to walk that day, right? As I recalled the fruit, Kade suddenly fell silent.
For a moment, I was puzzled by his sudden shutting of his mouth.
“I’ve been thinking a little about your current physical condition.”
An unexpected remark came.
“Uh, well…”
“You’re making a face wondering why I did that.”
“You read expressions very well.”
“Is it a compliment or an insult? Anyway, I’ve never seen anyone like you.”
Kade crossed his arms, put his head back, and looked at me from a distance, as if he was observing me.
“You said that no matter which way you die, your body will be reconstituted and not only revive, but also heal wounds. It sprouted without a scar.”
“Yes.”
“And the recovery rate is accelerating day by day.”
“That’s also true.”
Is he making such a cheeky expression just to prove that he’s thinking about it, or is it on purpose?
“I think, perhaps.”
Sharp eyes were visible through the monocle.
“Your body is returning to a state where there were no wounds, rather than healing wounds.”
“…Is there any difference?”
As I tilted my head to one side, a more detailed explanation kindly followed.
“There’s a big difference between growing new skin and going back to when you didn’t have to grow any.”
“Hmm. Why do you think so?”
“First of all, what I can see as the first evidence is what Miss Lily said while diagnosing your body.”
A calm voice continued.
“Even if there is a slight difference, it will return to its original state. Do you remember when she said it was as if time had stopped?”
“Of course I do, I still vividly remember how cold my goosebumps were at that time.”
“…That’s enough to remember. Anyway, your body is in a state as if it’s fixed at some point. Therefore, it can be seen that there is no change.”
Did you understand this far? Kade asked, and I nodded.
“Let’s take a closer look at the change here. Until now, you probably thought that getting hurt is the change, and healing wounds is the process of the change disappearing.”
Hmm. It sounded arrogant in a way to conclude that I was like this, yet I had nothing to say because it was really true.
“But when a wound heals, the change doesn’t go away, it’s just another change.”
Kade continued.
“Because the fact that a cut on your hand is healing means that new skin will grow instead of returning to your old skin.”
“Yes.”
“Therefore, in order not to contradict the statement of the unchanging body, it’s correct to say that rather than the wounds don’t ‘heal’, you return to a ‘state without’ wounds.”
There was no further explanation to follow,yet the story I had heard so far was enough to make sense. Why did Kade bother to use the expression ‘going back’?
“As a second reason, you probably mean that whenever your corpse wasn’t whole, you came back to life in the first form. Is that right?”
“…Yes, that’s right. How did you figure it out yourself?”
“I’m not particularly smart, but I’m not particularly stupid either.”
I laughed lightly, and Kade frowned as if he didn’t like it.
“Then, what is it that makes the speed of recovery, no, going back to the original state faster every day?”
“That part has too few clues to infer. You’re the only one who can be called a specimen.”
“Hm, that’s also true.”
When I thought about my physical condition by myself, I was infinitely anxious, yet hearing the opinion of someone other than myself made my heart much lighter.
I think the guy who kept picking a fight with me looked different because of this. After belatedly trying to be polite and agreeing that he was right, another word followed as if it was too bad that it ended like this.
“Well, you wouldn’t even be interested in your body either.”
I’ll take back the words saying he looks different.
“No. I was thinking about it too, though?”
“After thinking about it for a while, you wouldn’t have thought deeply about it, saying, anyway, let’s just pass it by. Would you?”
This is why I hate sharp people. I don’t like people who understand others well. Instead of denying that, I took the remaining bread in one bite.
Eyes that half knew that would happen and half astonished gaze followed, but I looked back towards Ronen Village and passed that gaze away.
Although I don’t know about anything else, my ability to turn a blind eye seems to be improving. Just as I was calmly thinking about that, I heard his voice once again.
***
K2.
It was clear why Kade suddenly explained his conclusion because Ei didn’t even think about her own physical condition.
[Miss Ei noticed that Illinan had a magic stone stuck in their neck, and she told me how to destroy it.]
[…]
[If it wasn’t for Miss Ei, we would have had a hard time defeating Illinan.]
It was because he looked back at himself, who had recklessly criticized her for being a lump of burden after hearing the story of how her advice helped them deal with monsters.
Looking back on the past was something he always disapproved of, yet he couldn’t just ignore the history because Kade had a conscience.
In a word, he was saying that the fact that he was now putting his words on Ei was nothing more than a reflection for him.
Of course, Ei doesn’t have the wit to notice that.
“Why didn’t you tell the Master of the Magic Tower?”
“Um, what?”
“That ability. If you’re a couple, you should definitely talk about such an abnormal physical condition.”
Having said that, Kade hardened his face and asked in a serious tone. He hates things that go beyond his expectations, and that’s why he felt awkward with the person in front of him.
He thought he should ask this.
Why did she not do it even though she could have prevented all that catastrophe?
“If, as you say, he went crazy thinking you were dead… You would have been better off telling him in advance. No, you should have told him in advance.”
“I know.”
A low-pitched voice.
A person who is always calm and steady, with no change in expression except for wide-eyed eyes or a brief smile. That person maintained a nonchalant attitude as always today.
“You think I don’t?”
Yet at the same time, it was a different attitude than usual.
As if she didn’t want to look at him, Ei turned her gaze elsewhere. Perhaps because of that behavior, Kade thought that Ei’s words meant that she was referring to someone other than him.
Words that are closer to reciting to oneself rather than to the other person.
“Ever since Dante said he lives forever, I’ve been estimating how long we can be together. And sometimes, whenever I couldn’t even measure the time, I couldn’t help but rejoice.”
“…”
“I was so happy that I forgot about it for a while.”
That Dante, unlike me, might have been thinking of our end. It was a very small murmur, as if it would be buried in the wind.
“Yeah, that’s right. I was wrong. I shouldn’t have passed it on thinking I’d tell him later.”
Self-deprecating words were spat out one after another, and Kade’s fingers trembled involuntarily.
Again, she was out of Kade’s expectations. He thought his question would be followed by a self-excuse that she couldn’t help it, yet what she said was a clean admission.
As usual, he should have been offended by the unexpected situation. However, Kade was so focused on the figure of her standing in front of him that he was unable to examine his own feelings.
The moment when the sun was shining and the gloomy darkness covered the amber-colored eyes.
Kade realized that Ei had regrets.
According to his experience, she was always a calm person. So, he was shocked to see her strange expression on her face. He didn’t think she would look back at her past and mistakes.
She was a person who didn’t seem to have any regrets, saying that the past is in the past.
However, Kade looked into Ei’s eyes, and he ended up staring at her without moving.
A person who seemed to never change forever, changed with one love.
“When Dante took me through all kinds of scenery, he said something, you know?”
Her gaze was still far away, and she was now staring out over the horizon.
“That he would give me the world.”
It was a muttering, as if the words were spoken not because she had forgotten that someone was standing next to her, but because someone was listening to her.
Kade didn’t respond.
As he knows that there is someone else who has to answer that.
“Back then, I should have said, I, too, would give you the world.”
I, too, should have said you got eternal love. After that whisper, Ei closed her mouth.
The morning scenery instantly became calm.