“…It’s been a while, Lucifer.”
Hearing the swordsman’s words, who had aged a bit during their time apart, Lucifer muttered with a twisted expression of pent-up emotion.
“…So you were alive?”
Twenty-five years.
A solid twenty-five years.
Since that day when the man in front of her vanished, leaving only a sword on the cliff, she had spent those years missing him.
“…I thought you were dead all this time. Because of the sword you left stuck in the cliff… I thought you had jumped off and done away with yourself…!”
Lucifer trembled as she dropped the sword she had been clutching—his sword she had cherished like a memento of longing for him. It clanged against the ground, blending its sound with her shout.
It couldn’t be helped.
For someone who had never let go of his sword, seeing it stuck there, she had no choice but to assume he jumped off.
He was the kind of foolish man who would do such a thing in frustration.
But to think all of that was her own misunderstanding.
That the man who had been alive this whole time had been deeply missed by her, thinking him dead.
Lucifer felt resentment for the man growing inside her, strong as the mental agony she had endured over the years.
So, approaching the awkwardly standing man, she boldly said to him,
“…It’s alright. You came back alive, so that’s enough. I thought I’d never see you again, but I’m happy to see you now.”
It wouldn’t be true to say a part of her didn’t feel blame or wanted to accuse him.
If he was alive, why hadn’t he come back before now? Why make her think he had jumped off the cliff? Thoughts like these had crossed her mind.
However, none of those feelings could overshadow the joy of seeing him again, a joy she thought she would never experience.
Lucifer tightly grasped the man’s hand and spoke softly.
“…I’m sorry. I should have come back sooner.”
But perhaps the leftover emotions behind her warm feeling were too prominent.
The man, as their eyes met, appeared as though he had no face to show and offered an apology.
Still, seeing him voluntarily apologize first made Lucifer smile slyly, thinking he realized he had done wrong.
“…So you do feel sorry, huh? I thought you were the kind of cold-blooded fool who would jump off a cliff to trick me into leaving you.”
Honestly, she wouldn’t have even thought about leaving if he hadn’t done something that extreme, but still, that was too much.
Lucifer grumbled in that way, but the man murmured back with an awkward look as he listened.
“…Well, I did jump off the cliff with the intention of dying.”
“…What? So you really jumped? But how…?”
Lucifer shouted, shocked by the man’s admission that he had genuinely intended to die.
She knew the sheer height of the cliff where they had trained with swords.
If a person were to jump off that height with the intent to die, even she, who wasn’t exactly ordinary, wouldn’t guarantee her life. So how in the world did he survive?
Seeing her panic-stricken reaction, the man chuckled softly and opened his mouth.
“You can’t imagine how I survived, can you? You’d probably be shocked. Jumping off a cliff only to have a fortuitous encounter? Who would expect something out of a story like that to happen to me?”
“…Fortuitous encounter?”
“Yeah. Here’s how it went—”
And so began the man’s story, something so ludicrous it was hard to believe.
“…So you’re saying, while falling, you got caught in a tree and bounced off into a cave that just happened to be hiding treasures someone had hoarded all their life?”
“Exactly. It seems the traps were set from the entrance at the foot of the mountain so that when someone made it through, they’d reach a place where treasures were collected. But through erosion from the outside, a hole was formed in the cliff that just happened to connect to the treasure trove. Isn’t it fascinating how such coincidences can occur?”
The man chuckled as he told the tale.
But listening to his story, Lucifer couldn’t laugh.
How could she think of laughing, hearing that he really did intend to jump off the cliff to die?
Just thinking about it made her blood boil.
But then again, it wasn’t like she could complain about why he did that.
Lucifer hardened her expression as she quietly gazed at the man before her.
Standing there was the swordsman.
A man who had given up family and even his name for the sword.
A swordsman who decided to live and die for the sword.
Who was it that told him he wanted to become stronger than anyone else?
It was her, none other than herself.
So, Lucifer couldn’t complain.
Knowing the heart of the swordsman who had resolved to leave for someone he wouldn’t ever abandon as long as he was alive.
Knowing he had sincerely tried to care for her in his own way.
Thus, the only one she could blame was herself for giving her heart to such a man who seemed to care about nothing but honing his sword.
And just as her thoughts reached that point, Lucifer realized something odd and turned to the man.
“…Wait a second. Didn’t you say you jumped with the intention to die?”
“…Well, yeah.”
“Then why…”
Why are you alive instead of dead?
Lucifer couldn’t help but have that question.
While she was overjoyed he was alive, it struck her as odd that a man who had thought to die by jumping off a cliff was standing before her.
Even if by some miracle he survived, there’s no way he would reverse that decision to end his life.
As she knew, he was a man who wouldn’t hold onto the world or anything.
Treasure or fortune was unlikely to have changed his mind…
As Lucifer looked at him with that thought in her mind, the man chuckled softly in agreement and replied.
“Yeah. Just as you said, I really did consider dying. I had reached a level I wanted to reach and thought I had no attachments left in this world, and I was about to throw myself off the cliff again. But then…”
He paused for a moment, peering at Lucifer with a hint of shyness before murmuring as if confessing a secret.
“…But at that moment, just as I was about to jump, something kept flashing in my mind. That beautiful sword you showed me that day.”
And upon hearing the man’s answer, Lucifer let out a small laugh.
She could understand why he didn’t die, why he couldn’t.
“I couldn’t bring myself to jump when I thought of that sword. I’d thought I had no attachments left… but a new one appeared. Before I die, I had a wish to wield a beautiful sword like that at least once…”
He was just the same man as he had always been.
Living for the sword, dying for the sword.
Yet, hearing the man’s words made Lucifer feel a lightness in her heart.
The sense of doubt she had felt about the sword after reaching the peak of power.
But knowing her sword had led the man to think about living rather than dying, she felt a sense of meaning in picking up the sword herself.
With that thought, Lucifer smiled softly and said to the man,
“So, you’re saying you wanted to wield a sword like the one I showed you, which is why you didn’t die?”
“…That’s right.”
“But you decided not to die, yet it took you 25 years to come find me. I know you must have been focused on your sword all this time to catch up with me, but isn’t it just a bit late? Am I only worth that much to you?”
“…N-no, that’s absolutely not true.”
“Oh really? You came to find me today just to boast about your achievements, didn’t you?”
To ease the disappointment of the time that had passed, Lucifer teased the man, making him uncomfortable with her remarks.
However, the man answered with a different tone.
“…No. I came to find you today for another reason.”
And there it was in his face as he spoke.
“…Lucifer, there’s something I need to tell you.”
A look on his face that held the same relief and slight regret as what he had shown her the day before he left.
And just like that day, the man said to Lucifer,
“I am, soon to die.”
Once more, he was saying he was about to leave her.
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