“…It’s been a while, Luciphel.”
Hearing the words from the swordsman, who looked somewhat older in the time they had not met, Luciphel distorted her expression in a fit of rising emotions as she muttered.
“…You’re alive, then?”
Twenty-five years.
A full twenty-five years.
Since the day when the man before her had vanished, leaving only a single sword atop the cliff, it had been a time spent alone, yearning for him.
“…I thought you were dead all this time. I believed you had thrown yourself off that cliff because of this sword you left behind… I thought that without any doubt…!”
Luciphel trembled, and then she threw the sword she had been holding—the very sword he had left on the cliff twenty-five years ago—towards the man and shouted.
Having considered it a memento of the man over the years, and guarded it with a sense of longing, it fell to the ground with a clatter mixed among her exclamations.
There was nothing she could do.
For someone who lived with the sword attached her all day long, seeing it left dangling on the cliff gave Luciphel no choice but to believe he had jumped off.
He was foolish enough to do such a thing.
But to think all of that was just her misunderstanding.
To have been yearning for a man who had been so perfectly alive all along.
Luciphel felt a growing resentment bloom within her for the man, just as much as the heartache she had endured over the past years.
So, she stepped forward toward the awkwardly standing man and said,
“…Well, it’s okay. Since you came back alive, that’s enough. I thought I’d never see you again, so I’m glad we can meet again like this.”
While resentment and a desire to blame him were not absent,
She couldn’t help but think if he had been alive, why he hadn’t come to see her sooner, and why he made her think of such things. Those thoughts crossed her mind.
However, nothing was greater than the joy of being able to see him again, someone she had thought she would never meet.
Gripping the man’s hand tightly, she simply said,
“…I’m sorry. I should have found you sooner.”
But perhaps the remaining emotions buried behind that delight were evident,
For when their eyes met, the man looked apologetic as though he felt he had something to account for.
Yet seeing him offer an apology made Luciphel flash a teasing expression, as if to say he knew he had done wrong.
“…So, it seems you realize you should be sorry. I had thought you were so cold-hearted that you wouldn’t even feel remorse for making me think you jumped off that cliff to deceive me.”
To be honest, she had never intended to leave his side unless he had done something so extreme, but still, it was too much.
Luciphel grumbled like this, but upon hearing her words, the man muttered with an awkward expression.
“…Well, it’s true that at that time, I did indeed jump off the cliff thinking I would die.”
“…What? So you really jumped from there? But how….”
Luciphel was flustered, shouting at the man upon hearing he had actually intended to die.
She knew the sheer height of that cliff where they had trained together with swords.
If someone were to jump off with the intent to die, there was no guarantee she, even not an ordinary human, would survive, let alone a typical human like him… how could he possibly…
As Luciphel grew more flustered, the man chuckled softly at her reaction and spoke.
“Isn’t it hard to imagine how I survived? You’d be surprised to hear how. I jumped off the cliff and encountered a miracle. Who would have guessed something like that would actually happen to me?”
“…Miracle?”
“Yeah. Here’s how it happened—”
The man’s story began, and it was indeed something unbelievable.
“…So, you’re telling me that you got caught in a tree while falling and bounced off, and by some coincidence, there was a hidden cave where someone had secretly stored their treasure?”
“Right. It seems they set traps that were meant to lead up from the entrance at the foot of the mountain to the spot where the treasures were gathered, but erosion from the outside created a hole that connected with that treasure hoard. Isn’t it amazing that such a coincidence could occur?”
As the man spoke with delight, Luciphel could not bring herself to laugh.
How could she laugh at the fact that he truly jumped off the cliff with the intention of dying?
Just thinking about that sent shivers down her spine.
But it was also not something she could complain about, asking why he did that to her.
Luciphel gazed silently at the man before her, her expression hardened.
Before her stood a swordsman.
A person who gave up family and name for the sake of the sword.
A person who had resolved to live and die by the sword.
And who had spontaneously declared that he wanted to become stronger than anyone else was none other than her.
Therefore, Luciphel could not complain.
Knowing he had chosen to leave for someone who would never abandon his side as long as he was alive.
Knowing that he had truly cared for her in his own way.
So, the only one to blame was the very person who had given her heart to a man who was so devoted to the sword that he had no regrets in life.
And when Luciphel realized this, an odd thought struck her, and she asked the man.
“…Wait a moment. You said you were thinking of dying when you jumped off, didn’t you?”
“…Well, that’s true.”
“Then why…”
Why is it that you are alive and well, she wondered.
Though it delighted her that the man was alive, the fact that he who intended to die had miraculously survived puzzled her deeply.
She knew him well enough that even if fortune favored him and he survived, he would not be someone to change his initial decision to die.
As she had said, he was a man who had no regrets for this world.
There wouldn’t be any treasure or miracle that would make him change his mind…
As Luciphel sent him a questioning glance reflecting her thoughts, the man laughed softly and replied as if to confirm her words.
“Right. As you said, I originally did intend to die. Having reached a level I wanted to, I thought I had no more regrets in this world and prepared to jump from the cliff again. But….”
Pausing for a moment, the man gazed at Luciphel with a hint of embarrassment, as if confessing a secret, before continuing to speak.
“…But, just as I was about to jump again, your beautiful sword that you showed me that day kept flashing in my mind.”
Hearing the man’s response, Luciphel couldn’t help but chuckle softly.
Understanding how such a thought could stop him from dying was enough explanation for her.
“It was as if I couldn’t bring myself to jump when recalling that sword. I thought I had no more regrets, but… a new yearning for life popped up. A yearning to swing that beautiful sword just once before I die….”
He was the same person as always.
Living and dying solely for the sword.
Yet, Luciphel felt a sense of liberation swell up within her at his words.
The feeling of doubt towards the sword she had felt after reaching the peak of power.
However, knowing that because of her sword, the man had started thinking of living instead of dying made her feel like there was significance in her wielding it.
So, Luciphel smiled gently and spoke to the man.
“So, you mean you didn’t die because you suddenly wanted to wield the sword like the one I showed you.”
“…That’s right.”
“But even with that, you only came to find me now, after twenty-five years. I understand that you must have been immersed in your sword practice to catch up to me all that time, but isn’t it still a bit late? Am I just that inconsequential to you?”
“…That’s absolutely not the case.”
“It isn’t? After all, it seems you came to find me today just to boast about what you’ve accomplished?”
To ease her disappointment about the time lost, Luciphel teased the man, leaving him in a bit of a spot.
But to her question, the man responded in a different tone.
“…No. I came to find you today for another reason.”
And Luciphel saw it on the face of the man answering her.
“…Luciphel, I have something to tell you.”
With an expression of relief mixed with slight remorse that resembled the one he had before departing from her side long ago.
And with that same expression, the man told Luciphel.
“I am going to die soon.”
Once again, he was about to leave her.
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