Noah stared blankly at Lilith, as if questioning what she just said.
Seeing this, Lilith stood up.
“Besides, I have quite the experience, you know?”
And then she reached out her hand.
Noah’s gaze dropped.
From her blue eyes to her lips curving softly.
From her lips to her chest.
From her chest to her slender hands.
“Shall we walk and talk a bit?”
Twirl- Lilith’s wrist turned.
Her palm faced the sky.
On top of that, Noah’s small trembling hand rested.
“Thank you.”
Lilith held that hand, moving it gently while softly squeezing it—promising not to let go.
Then, she suddenly pulled Noah back.
“Eek…?”
A peck. She planted a kiss not quite on the cheek but rather almost just beside the corner of the mouth.
Noah’s face turned bright red, alternating between glancing at Lilith’s blue eyes and her lips.
In response, Lilith teasingly licked her lips.
This made Noah start squirming in Lilith’s embrace, his face burning like fire.
Of course, he couldn’t escape. In fact, Lilith only pulled him in tighter.
Realizing this was a pointless struggle, Noah eventually murmured.
“Ugh…”
He slumped his head down, blocking Lilith’s gaze.
Lilith, sneering at the top of his head, let out a slightly disappointed voice.
“…Did you dislike it that much?”
“Ah… No, it’s not like that…!”
“Ha ha… it was nice, right?”
After a moment of silence, Noah nodded without lifting his head, then shook it side to side in surprise before burying his face deeper.
His ears, dyed crimson and shyly exposed, were hidden under his hair.
Lilith thought he looked incredibly adorable.
It was impossible not to.
Even though he could have dashed off to hug Rubia at any moment, he stayed because he claimed he had no time.
He didn’t even get mad at her for dragging him here; he had been hostile at first, but only for a moment. After that, not even a hint of hostility remained.
Of course, he stuck around because he had something to accomplish here. He likely assumed it was because he looked just like Rubia.
Yet, regardless, Noah’s trust in her felt incredibly precious.
And.
In the past, present, and future, with eyes that would never waver,
the declarations of wanting to save everyone and being unable to hate were just like back then when he made her, the ‘former’ deity, realize emotions.
It was more than enough to shatter the mask she had carefully placed over her face.
“Let’s go.”
Thus, she fixed her mask tight.
With a bright smile, one that Noah wouldn’t even notice, she pulled his hand along.
Noah didn’t resist this guiding.
Click-clack-
Pitter-patter-
After walking for quite a while, Noah’s timid voice called out to Lilith.
“Uh, um…”
“Yes?”
Click-clack-
Pitter-patter-
“…I-I have something to ask.”
“Yes, ask away… Huh.”
As Lilith looked down, she met Noah’s eyes and gasped in shock.
His courageously raised eyes still flushed with heat peered at her. Though he put on a cool facade, they were captivating enough to make one wonder if he was trying to entice her.
“Will you… answer me?”
Together with those words, his hunched shoulders and drooping mouth gave enough weight to coax a response from her.
“Of course. I’ll answer…”
Lilith acquiesced easily.
She would have replied regardless of his expression.
“Anything.”
Finally appearing a bit reassured, Noah smiled shyly again and resumed his tentative steps, opening his mouth.
“Lilith, do you… not regret it?”
Click-clack-
Pitter-patter-
Lilith also started matching the rhythm of her steps with Noah’s.
Then, after a moment, she spoke.
“Regret?”
Normally, such words would never cross her lips.
Lilith, who could read Noah’s thoughts, should have answered immediately, but she found herself unable to.
She could no longer read his heart.
Just moments ago, she felt a feeling she shouldn’t have experienced in response to Noah’s words—something she, as a deity, shouldn’t have laid her hands on.
Thus, her heart wavered.
Her sense of existence diminished.
Her strength weakened.
The time to converse lessened.
Of course, if she grew greedier, she could stretch her stay, but she wouldn’t do that.
If she were to commit such an act out of trivial greed, she wouldn’t be able to save Noah, ‘Noah’.
“What regrets do I have?”
So.
Lilith masked her emotions, mingling playfulness with a natural smile as she asked Noah.
Noah gazed up at her quietly, replying without suspicion.
“…I regret everything.”
“Regret everything… No, I don’t regret it.”
An immediate response tumbled out.
Lilith couldn’t comprehend what the word ‘everything’ meant.
Yet, without any hesitation, she answered.
“Noah was happy, right? You’ll be even happier going forward.”
That was all that mattered.
Lilith’s quiet whisper tickled Noah’s ears.
“…I see.”
In response, Noah nodded, gazing ahead.
An endless expanse of white.
A horizon drawn in the midst of it.
One couldn’t tell where it ended, yet it felt like the horizon stretched towards himself. Noah tightened his grip on Lilith’s hand.
Lilith reciprocated tightly.
“Noah.”
And this time, Lilith initiated the conversation.
“You don’t need to feel guilty.”
Noah didn’t reply.
“My duty now is what I must do as a deity. The one who should feel guilt is me. And I told you, I have experience. I can do this much better than you! Ha ha.”
And yet, Noah remained silent.
He merely continued walking forward, staring ahead.
In a space of nothingness, in a pure white realm without any destination, he walked as if his destination was already known.
“And also, you don’t need to worry, ‘Noah’. I’ll return with all my memories intact.”
“…Really?”
“Most likely. Even if it doesn’t turn out that way, I’ll make sure it does.”
“…Is there a way…?”
“Of course.”
With her confident reply and Noah’s slight sigh, the hushed sound echoed within the quiet space, clear and crisp.
“That means, will ‘Rubia’…?”
In an instant, Lilith’s breath faltered.
Movement became awkward. Her hands clenched tighter.
“Yes.”
But she soon returned to her previous composure.
“…Sigh.”
A sigh that seemed deliberate for him to hear.
For some reason, there was a sense of relief in Noah’s sigh.
Lilith, tilting her head in confusion, looked at Noah.
“Noah?”
Noah didn’t answer.
He didn’t look back.
He kept gazing forward.
With Lilith’s hand gripped tightly.
He moved forward.
“Wait a moment. Noah…!”
And then she smiled.
Walking faster while laughing.
Moving towards an undefined destination.
No, one that was already predetermined.
“Were you happy, Lilith?”
“…Huh?”
“My dad used to say… those who have been unhappy for a long time have the right to be happy for a long time. He insisted they must be happy.”
Excitedly, joyfully, happily.
Noah, holding onto Lilith’s hand, innocently expressed out loud, coming to a halt.
“I don’t know what you went through, Lilith. I truly know nothing. But I believe you must have faced harsher trials than I did for much longer. Just as you said, perhaps… you struggled for time almost eternal. I… no, I’m certain of that.”
Stopping, he turned to face Lilith.
“So, you must be happy. You should greet peaceful tomorrows, live each day without laughter… and be happy for the rest of your life.”
His gentle gaze settled on Lilith.
Inside those reds glimmering like the most precious jewel, they reflected Lilith’s image, frivolous blurbs of joy.
“If you cannot be, I will make you so.”
Noah stepped forward.
At the same time, a couple of steps backward for Lilith.
“I will make it happen.”
Lilith couldn’t respond.
She had heard those words once before.
Not in reality, but in a dream.
In a world unlike this one, on Earth.
In a place nowhere near here, at an amusement park.
Close to the night sky, in a ferris wheel.
Despite the absence of fireworks illuminating the sky, she remembered.
The atmosphere when she heard those words.
Noah’s expression then.
The wild thump of her heart.
Just like yesterday.
“I can’t forget.
Even if it was a promise that couldn’t be kept.
Even if I thought it was a delusional dream.
I didn’t want to forget.
But now, I must forget it all.
I must bury everything.
I mustn’t have emotions.
Even more than now, I mustn’t have strong emotions.
I must deny it.
I must turn away.
Gather my overflowing emotions.
Throw away the ones bubbling from within.
And put that mask back on.
So I can save Noah.
So I can save ‘Noah’.
Thus, I must endure it all.
“I’ll take care of everything.”
At the sound of that voice.
At those lightly spoken words.
At the profoundly heavy emotions tied within them.
Everything she had endured up until now shattered.
“How did you… know? No, still… it’s too late. My existence… I’m already… broken, so it’s fine. Really… it’s fine. I can’t save myself… you don’t have to save me…”
Her voice was desperate.
Crumbled, broken, worn-out tone.
A voice that had given up all hope and future.
Facing that voice, Noah stepped forward.
“…It’s not too late.”
He took a step closer.
“Just trust me.”
Another step.
“I came to keep my promise.”
The final step.
And he whispered.
“Lilith.”
Her name.
“No.”
He continued.
“‘Rubia.’”
Her other self’s name.
