Episode 75

After our meal, we headed to the theater, where we could use the tickets given by the vampire.

The building was so grand that it seemed ordinary citizens or foreign laborers weren’t even allowed to step foot inside.

I was worried we might be turned away for not being nobility, but the doorman looked at us with deep reverence upon seeing our tickets.

“Please forgive the intrusion. You’ve been invited by the theater’s main patron. Go right in.”

I never would’ve guessed, but that vampire turned out to be the main patron.

Perhaps he had several false identities to operate in society.

It was no wonder he remained uncaught, despite being one of the most wanted criminals. As I pondered this, the usher guiding us to our seats smiled warmly at us.

“Are you a couple? I’ll guide you to the couple’s seats.”

“What? No, well…”

“Then, without any hesitation.”

“Merilyn?!”

“What’s the harm? It means everyone sees us in a good light.”

Merilyn said this, leading me by the hand to our seats.

Unable to shake off her hand, I reluctantly took my seat in the awkwardly intimate spot we were shown.

It almost seemed like a statement that screamed, “Look, we’re a couple!”

“Do you dislike it?”

Merilyn asked me, noticing my discomfort with the situation.

Conflicted about how to respond, I eventually settled into my seat with a deep sigh.

“I’ll accompany you just for tonight.”

Yes, I had decided to devote tonight to Merilyn.

As we sat side by side, waiting for the lights in the theater to dim, Merilyn’s voice faintly reached me through the darkness.

“I wish you could keep me company like this in the future, too.”

Her voice faintly revealed her emotions.

I tried to ignore it, but I couldn’t disregard the warmth of her hand as it intertwined with mine.

Quietly, I held her hand, focusing on making the most of our time together.

The streets buzzed with activity as we left the theater after the play.

In the street after watching the play.

While passersby exchanged their reviews or boarded carriages to go home, Merilyn turned to me with a look of anticipation.

“How was it for you, Hyo-sung? Did you enjoy the play?”

“Ahaha, well, I’m not really one for such things…”

Usually, people share their thoughts on the play with those they came with, but I suppose I was more accustomed to TV and movies, so the play didn’t quite capture my attention.

When watching on TV, actors’ faces were close-up, and dynamic effects were added, but sitting in the theater, all I could discern were the exaggerated actions and loudly delivered lines.

Losing interest from the start made it hard to immerse myself, and eventually, I found myself just looking around, disinterested…

In the end, all I remembered was Merilyn’s face during the play.

“I’m sorry. Even though we watched it together, I couldn’t view it as seriously as you, Merilyn.”

Yes, unlike me, she watched the play very seriously.

Being a minstrel who writes stories, she must find the narratives created by others interesting and sensitive.

Though I felt guilty for not sharing her sentiments, she didn’t mind my apology and just held my hand.

“It’s okay. Even if you don’t understand it like I do… just being together like this is enough.”

She said softly, intertwining her fingers with mine.

The gentle whisper and the intertwining of our fingers.

Despite the blush that should rise from such intimacy, I strangely felt a sudden surge of unease.

As time passed since our planned dinner.

Feeling that the time I could spend with her was getting shorter.

“Is this enough…?”

I asked hesitantly.

‘It’s okay. Even after today, there will be plenty of time to be together.’

I wanted to say.

But I couldn’t voice it out loud, perhaps because I already foresaw how this meeting would end.

“Is this enough?”

I asked again.

I was worried that my anxiety might be conveyed to her, but she just held my hand tighter.

With a gaze that seemed more vulnerable and less composed than usual.

“Yes. For now, this is enough.”

She replied, holding my gaze.

Feeling my heart waver at her look, I still silently held her hand, willing to accompany her.

Even if a disappointing outcome awaited, just a little longer.

If this dream would eventually shatter, at least I wanted to leave behind some good memories.

“Do you have a place you’d like to go?”

“As long as I’m with you, Hyo-sung, anything is fine.”

Wanting to fulfill that expectation, I decided to enjoy wherever my feet led us, just as she wished.

A series of small performances, events, and appreciations of structures where crowds gathered…

Sometimes we’d enter a shop, browse, and if something caught my eye, I’d buy it and gift it to her.

“Hyo-sung, how do I look? Does it suit me?”

“You look beautiful. Really beautiful.”

It was the unvarnished truth.

My thoughts hadn’t changed since the first time we met.

“Is it okay to eat that much?”

“Hehe, it’s okay. Traveling is surprisingly exhausting. Would you like a bite, too, Woo Hyo-sung?”

“Mmm, then I’ll just have one bite.”

“Here, say, ‘aah~’”

I liked how she approached me without any sense of distance.

Only to me, not to just anyone.

Because she regarded me as special, I also felt she was someone extraordinary to me.

“Hehe.”

Her usual gentle smile, too.

The faint laughter that escaped when she opened her mouth, and her whispers to me as well.

“Ahaha~”

At some point, all that became emotional, and as the atmosphere reached me, I found myself bursting into laughter as well.

I was happy that it was me who brought out her genuine laughter, something she had never shown before.

As if she, as a person, was completed by meeting me…

Her smile, now clearer than when we first met, makes me wish that it would continue forever.

“…I wandered the world after leaving the Lord’s side before returning to you.”

But cruelly, the time to end those feelings gradually approached.

The moon rose, and the lights filling the night path began to fade one by one.

She, who roamed the alleys barely illuminated by dim lights, began to speak in a whisper, standing behind me on my way home.

“It’s a chaotic world. Almost all nations, except for the empire, have perished, leaving only a few small tribes and those maintaining mere shells of traditions.”

“…Merilyn.”

“I’ve seen even the Furry Tribe, threatening humanity, catch up with the undead. Even they, who consider humanity a disaster, are merely survivors in this chaotic world.”

“……”

“…Out of curiosity, I headed outside the continent, but that place was already beyond human control. As if to isolate us in this land, they do not even allow us to leave.”

What followed was the truth of this world, only heard through someone else’s words.

Feeling her impressions and having witnessed them herself, I realized anew how precarious this world was.

It wouldn’t be strange if this everyday life collapsed at any moment.

In the anxiety that all of this might disappear in the blink of an eye, we had to keep living…

“In such a chaotic world, one thing…”

As I gradually realized this, I felt her weight leaning against me from behind.

She raised her hand to my body as if to embrace me, then simply lowered it and rested her head.

“I encountered a special being, unforgettable even for a single moment.”

Having ceased to express her feelings through such modest actions, she began to whisper behind me.

“You know that even during our time apart, my feelings remained the same, right, Woo Hyo-sung?”

I knew.

How she felt about me.

“I know it’s a difficult request.”

Betraying the one to whom she swore loyalty, even at the risk of her own life.

And how significant it was that she chose to return to my side after traversing this chaotic world.

“But still, now that I’m here, I think I need to say it regardless of the outcome.”

“……”

A moment of silence.

In that gap, I slowly moved my head behind me in the darkness.

Unlike me, who had refused to face the truth until now, she had been waiting for the opportunity to convey her feelings to me alone.

“Woo Hyo-sung.”

Merilyn Sutherland.

Perhaps someone who, even before the bonds I’ve formed now, held the potential to replace that future.

“Would you, please, become my companion?”

Upon hearing that precarious confession, I tightly clenched the hand that I had let hang down and mulled over the words I had kept inside.

The time had come.

Yet, my mouth didn’t easily open, perhaps due to my lack of resolve.

Just a little more…

If only we had a little more time during our parting that day, the future might have been different, and that regret lingered.

“I’m sorry, but I…”

But in the end, it was just a matter of sooner or later.

I had to give her the answer I had decided on.

I sincerely thought of her and wanted to forget her, as written in the letter.

“I can’t be with you, Merilyn.”

To replace the newly formed bond, as if switching it out, would be an insult to the feelings I had for her.

“I can’t be with you, Merilyn.”

The moment those words, born from that sentiment, leaked from the crystal ball.

Airi, who had repeatedly pondered the future she foresaw, took time to further ruminate on it while biting her lip.

“…Can’t be together.”

“I’m sorry. I already have someone I need to be with.”

The beginning, the choice to be together, and even the future.

The fact that their vow was not taken lightly was something she knew best, having sought proof of his feelings through countless embraces.

The belief that they would forever be together in the future, knowing where he was headed, allowed her to be certain.

“…That’s right. You chose me.”

“Since you chose me, I must trust you too, Woo Hyo-sung.”

Even though the future could change, that changed future was still based on the present.

So, Airi had been repeatedly reciting one truth all this time.

Whatever would happen to the future after this, what she had with him in the past, and what he had chosen now was her.

‘After all, I returned too late.’

The key was how the other party accepted such a reality.

At least in the future she foresaw, there were no acts of forcing him by the other party.

She had already left his side with the readiness to die, and too much time had passed to return again.

If he rejected her, the resolution to step back quietly was something she must have fortified on her way here.

‘It can’t be helped. I don’t want to trouble Woo Hyo-sung, so just like this…’

Yes. If it was the predestined future, she would surely give up here.

Crackle.

But the other party was the second in command of the Demon King’s army.

Having changed the future that she had predicted several times, to think that it would flow as planned with a person who could be the starting point of that capriciousness would be a narrow-minded thought.

“Since it happened as expected, I should start preparing too.”

So, what she needed to do right away would be to make a plan.

A meticulous and perfect plan that could stop someone who held the potential to radically change the future in a way even she herself couldn’t anticipate.

“…Airi, don’t let your guard down from now on.”

Airi repeatedly pondered that until this moment.

She fortified her resolution, waiting at the place where she anticipated the other to arrive.

“Changing the future against a transcendent is not an easy task.”

Everything was about love and duty.

Keeping in mind that she had to find the best future where those two could coexist.