The life of an elf is long. It’s too much.
For them, who can live a life close to eternal life if they wish, humans are but a short-lived species. To elves, a human’s lifetime is like a breeze passing by for a moment.
That’s why the elves say. Don’t love humans. That you will regret it. I often ridicule myself, thinking that it is foolish to chase after the wind that will stay with me for a while and then disperse.
However, there is one elf here.
An elf who admired, loved, and trusted humans.
He ran for a thousand years, chasing the wind that stayed by my side and then disappeared. He stayed awake for a thousand years. He spent a long, long time in a nightmare. Therefore, this elf will be the most foolish elf in the long history of elves, and at the same time, the purest elf.
“Gleria.”
Cardi van Armiel laughed.
“sorry. “It took a long time.”
The foolish elf who pursued one dream for a thousand years finally reached his destination.
2.
Gleria blinked.
She was taken aback by the image of the person reflected on her retina. Is she seeing it wrong? Is she dreaming?
“···Are, Miel?”
She said with a trembling voice.
The voice that escaped through trembling lips was thin. As if it would scatter in the wind. However, Cardi only chased after the wind that passed by me. There was no way he could miss the voice of the person in front of him.
“They still call it that.”
Cardi laughed bitterly.
Gleria’s eyes wavered a little more at that smile that had not changed at all even after a thousand years had passed.
“···how?”
I still couldn’t tell if this was reality or a dream, so what she said was questionable. Cardi thought about that question for a moment.
How, la.
Are you asking how we got here?
If so, I have a lot to say. She had a lot to say about the thousand years she had endured. I wanted to scream at you, about how cruel the role you left me in was. I also wanted to resent it.
There was a time when I lived thinking like that.
There was.
“well.”
From the moment I met Gleria, it became a good thing. Cardi looked down at Gleria, who was looking at him. The moment he met her, he had no thoughts of blaming her.
“I arrived here with the help of many people and by sacrificing a lot.”
Cardi smiled slightly.
“It was really difficult. “I didn’t know it would be this difficult to see your face again.”
Saying that, Cardi slowly lowered her posture. Bend her knees, arch her back and look at her at the same level as her gleria. Cardi’s golden eyes reflected in Gleria’s green eyes.
“It’s been a while, Gleria.”
Gleria’s lips opened and closed repeatedly.
She was moaning incoherently, but managed to squeeze out a single word.
“…Am I dreaming?”
“Do you wish it were a dream?”
Gleria shook her head.
Cardi reached out and lightly touched Gleria’s head. What I feel is warmth. Accurate texture. Only then did Gleria realize. That this wasn’t her dream.
“Armiel, Armiel…”
“It’s a baptismal name I don’t like. If possible, it would be better if you call me by my name…”
Armiel laughed.
“I don’t hate it as much as I hear from you.”
* * *
A wind blew across the field.
It’s a spring breeze. The warm wind tickling my ears and the languid sunlight pouring down enveloped the low hill. Cardi, who was leaning against a tree on the hill, and Gleria, who was leaning her head on Cardi’s shoulder, looked down the hill.
There was no Arcadia to be seen beyond.
All there is is a wide open field. Gleria smiled involuntarily as she looked at the scene. It’s a recreated landscape. And Gleria was sure.
“Why, why are you here?”
“This is what I remember the most.”
What Cardi used is an artifact made with a structure similar to the Holy Grail. An artifact that projects the scene most cherished by the subject. Cardi let out a long breath as she looked at the scenery of the unfolding fields.
There was a lot I wanted to say, a lot to tell when we met, but as the situation got closer, I couldn’t open my mouth.
“Armiel.”
As if she had noticed Cardi’s appearance, Gleria opened her mouth with a faint smile. Leaning on her Cardi’s shoulder, with her eyes closed, she spoke in a whisper.
“Did you receive the letter I sent?”
“···received.”
I don’t blame you.
Cardi moaned softly as she remembered that sentence.
“You said you wouldn’t blame me, until the end.”
When I read that sentence, I thought of the past years. He couldn’t let go of his dream, but he couldn’t chase it either.
“There is no way to save her.”
“There is no way to bring back humans who have been sacrificed to the shadows. “It cannot be obtained by any means.”
I was confident that I would come to that conclusion and let go of my dream. Still, I couldn’t completely let go, so I had the confidence to hold on to the contract until the end and make repairs. Cardi spent a long, long time in helplessness and emptiness.
I can’t find the answer, but I can’t let go either.
All we can do is wait for a hero to appear someday. At a time when there was doubt whether the hero would even appear, Cardi disappeared into the depths of the royal capital. He imprisoned himself in a corner alley.
“Gleria, I am…”
Cardi groaned.
“He’s not as great as you think. I didn’t spend a thousand years just thinking about how to save you. “I gave up, was frustrated, and was broken.”
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“is that so?”
“okay. “There were times when I lived in a dream because I missed the memories with you that I saw when I closed my eyes, and when I opened my eyes, the reality that I saw without you was painful.”
The sinner confessed in front of the saint.
He confessed the sins he had committed for a thousand years.
“There were times when I tried to erase the memories because it was so painful. But I didn’t even have the courage to do it, so I eventually gave up. So I lived like I was dying. I wasted time not even knowing I was alive. “For a long time.”
Cardi wiped the corners of my eyes.
“So, I…”
“But you didn’t give up.”
Gleria interrupted Cardi.
“You didn’t let go of the contract until the end. You kept waiting for the next person who might show up someday. “For as long as a thousand years.”
“······.”
“That is enough. “How can you ask for more than that?”
She smiled, burying her head in Cardi’s shoulder and relaxing her body.
“In the end, we met again like this.”
“···Don’t you blame me?”
“How many times do I say this? I don’t hold any grudges. “I remember what you said in front of me that day in Arcadia, how can you blame me?”
Gleria, who had been smiling so kindly, briefly exclaimed “Ah” and opened her eyes. She looked as if she had remembered something.
“Armiel.”
“What.”
“Have you ever had a lover?”
“what?”
“If I ever dated another woman, I would feel a little resentful about it. Tell me honestly. I’ll close my eyes for once. “Still, it’s been a thousand years, so I can be lenient on at least one person.”
“···her.”
Cardi burst into laughter at the words that did not fit the atmosphere. Yes, if you think about it, Gleria had this kind of personality. Feeling like she was reminiscing about old times, Cardi burst out laughing.
“Say it without laughing, okay?”
In response to Gleria’s serious question, Cardi responded with a smile.
“does not exist. “Not once.”
“···really?”
“When I close my eyes, what comes to mind is your image. I haven’t slept a wink in a thousand years… How could I have afforded to date a new woman?”
Gleria seemed to really like the answer and smiled in satisfaction. Cardi smiled bitterly as she looked at her nodding her head. This is because she was thinking about all sorts of things and choosing what to say, and she felt like a fool.
…Anyway, the time given won’t be long.
Shouldn’t we have fun at least until the end?
Gleria smiled at Cardi’s slightly lighter expression. As if she had known from the beginning.
“Yes, we should have fun at least until the end. “It’s not a complicated, hurtful story.”
“···Did you know?”
“You can’t possibly know.”
A broken body. It is the shadow and the contractual obligations that hold on to the body that should have died long ago. The latter shattered the contract and burned down all the shadows. Gleria, free from everything, was heading toward complete death.
Not reincarnation or soul circulation, but complete death.
Gleria slowly got up, feeling her soul and body slowly crumbling. She moved her weak leg, and she came face to face with Cardi.
“I am glad to see you again in the last time I have. “It’s like a miracle.”
This is an opportunity I thought would never happen again.
Moreover, I never dreamed that I would be able to return as a saint and be reunited with Cardi. Now that it has become a reality, Gleria smiles brighter than ever.
“I am saved. To Huin, to you.”
“······.”
“At the end of a road that I thought would lead to nothing but destruction, I was reunited with you. “There is no ending worse than this.”
So, said Gleria.
“We had fun talking until the end. It would be nice to talk about old times. “You and I would have been painting the past alone for the past thousands of years…”
Her hair swayed in the blowing wind. Green eyes sparkled. She said while crying and laughing.
“Shall we think back from the beginning?”
“···okay.”
Cardi said.
“Elves have good memories.”
So the two people started talking.
The moments that passed while staying by each other’s side, a brilliant past that has not faded at all. We laughed and shared happy memories. I smiled.
“I scolded him to stop burning his cigarettes, but I didn’t know he would actually quit.”
“After seeing you burning all the tobacco with sacred magic and making a fuss, the desire to smoke disappeared. Why did you have to burn it? “The smoke must be terrible.”
“Oh, actually, I wanted to smoke some tobacco at that time. “I was wondering what it would taste like when you were smoking it to death.”
“Anyway…”
A trivial story.
“That robe. What did you do with your favorite robe? “I think it’s a little different from what I’m wearing now.”
“I threw it to a whining junior. “I returned it, but I couldn’t use it because I gave it back at such a high cost.”
“···Wasn’t it your favorite robe?”
“I guess it was used for something good.”
A trivial, trivial story.
“If you think about it, it was you who confessed, right? That confession was so frustrating that I did it again. “I don’t know if you remember that.”
“I remember you grabbing me by the collar, asking why you’re confessing like that. “I thought he was a really rude guy who didn’t know what people were prepared for.”
“No, what kind of confession are you making using circuit theory as an analogy? “He kept saying things I couldn’t understand for an hour, and then suddenly, like this circuit, he…”
“stop. “Is this a memory you want to erase?”
“Wow, look how embarrassed you are.”
We laughed while talking about memories.
We laughed and teased each other.
“I also remember the first time I met Ganicalt. “I heard there was a swordsman who defeated dozens of dragons with an iron longsword…”
“Oh, I remember. “When I saw the walls of Arcadia, I heard that they were the strongest walls in the world and that there was a crazy person who wanted to cut them down, so I rushed out.”
“You really did that later, right?”
“okay. Didn’t the castle wall really break in half, and the Queen, who was worse than her, gave her the title of head of the guard instead of doing anything crazy?”
“Even when it became a disaster, I cut it down once.”
“I was shocked when I saw it with my own eyes.”
A colleague’s story.
A story about going on a trip with them.
How many times we overcame trials, and the big and small stories we encountered in between trials.
“Is there anything you want to ask me?”
“Oh, now that I think about it, there is one.”
Cardi opened her mouth, looking at the half-blurred Gleria. Now that I think about it, there was one thing she really wanted to ask.
“I’ll tell you later.”
「···So, later when?」
“well.”
What comes to mind is a question and answer we once shared.
“Isn’t it okay if I tell you why you called me Armiel?”
“After enough time has passed that you won’t feel like it’s the only one?”
“…Are you going to tell me in a few hundred years?”
“Because truly, a thousand years have passed.”
fantasy,
