episode_0121

And so…

The blizzard that had covered the entire world in white passed.

The storm, which had seemed capable of sweeping one away with a single step outside, had quieted as if it had never been.

It was as if the harsh winter had completely gone, and brilliant sunshine poured down, bright enough to make it hard to open one’s eyes.

Icicles hanging from the eaves of the general store fell, and the snow accumulated on the roof melted, sending streams of water flowing incessantly.

Squish. Squish.

Tia and Fosao walked together on the damp ground.

Fosao took the lead, with Tia following a little behind, and between them was a stretcher.

Tia’s red eyes, looking down, were empty.

The person lying on the stretcher was… ‘me’.

Watching my face sway with every step, the fellow said nothing.

There were no more tears left to shed.

Having cried too much through the night, my eyes were swollen and my lips were parched.

Rustle.

They arrived at the mountainside of Brizden.

Fosao limped towards the village.

“Th-there’s no one…?”

It was true.

The village of Brizden was still there, but not a single person was in sight.

With the weather having cleared, everyone should have been outside, clearing snow or stoking fires.

It was as quiet as a deserted ghost town.

“It seems… everyone went down to Taildon.”

It seemed the people who had been taken to Taildon before still hadn’t returned.

I had thought at least the elders would remain in the village, but even they were nowhere to be seen.

“Let’s go… Ti-Tia.”

Rustle. Rustle.

The two of them carried me again and went down the hill.

Originally, they had planned to bury me at night when the villagers were asleep. However, now that the ground had briefly thawed, it was a good time to dig, and above all, Tia insisted that I shouldn’t be buried in the cold, so they decided to do the work during the day.

I wasn’t sure if this counted as fortunate, but thanks to the absence of villagers, they could cross the hill comfortably without worrying about noise.

The two placed my body under the Resting Tree where ‘Ritsu’ was carved.

Then they took the shovels they had brought and began to dig.

Thud! Thud!

My body was wrapped in a thick blanket.

Even though I was about to be buried, Tia insisted I shouldn’t get cold and dressed me thickly until the very end.

No words were exchanged.

Even Fosao, who usually chattered beside her, was silent at that moment.

That’s how much Tia… seemed like nothing at all.

Her face, silently digging the ground, looked so faint that it seemed it would scatter like dust if lightly touched.

Underneath the excavated earth, a coffin was revealed.

It was the coffin I had been lying in.

Exactly two weeks had passed since Tia had taken me out of it, attempting to save me. Even then, Tia had worn a weary expression, but there was still a spark of hope.

Now, however, not even ‘hope’ was visible.

The girl looking down at the coffin… like the soft, piled snow all around. She just seemed ephemeral.

“I-I’ll open it…”

Fosao opened the coffin lid.

Clunk.

An empty space appeared.

Even in broad daylight, the inside of the coffin looked like pitch-black darkness. As if, the moment one entered, it was a space where one would vanish forever.

It was the moment Fosao awkwardly lifted my body.

“…I’ll do it.”

In an emotionless voice, she said that.

As if the role of sending off the man she had loved so deeply belonged to her alone, she slowly held my body and pulled it into the coffin.

Slide.

From my legs, I slowly submerged into the black shadow.

Soon, my head was completely submerged, and I fell into eternal sleep within the darkness.

“…”

Tia looked down at my face.

Thud.

The girl, who had seemed unlikely to cry, collapsed. The spirit that had precariously held her up until the very end shattered into pieces.

It would have been better if she had cried.

Her parched back, completely losing strength and slumping to the ground like a broken puppet with snapped strings… was incredibly pitiful.

“Ritsu.”

The voice calling my name was swallowed by the sound of the wind.

“…I liked you.”

An unspoken confession fell.

“…I loved you.”

What more words were needed?

I like you.

I love you.

Our fate was destined to be woven from those two phrases.

It was a story of a boy and a girl from a rural village living happily ever after, together for a long, long time.

Surely… they would have pledged eternal love in a sacred baptism blessed by all.

It should have been a story full of love and hope, where they chased their dreams together.

But.

…Ah.

Oh, cruel Divine Dragon of Dragonez.

Why do you inflict such trials upon me?

The face of the woman I love… killing herself to not forget me.

Ultimately… the face of her slowly erasing my existence from her heart.

And my face, sleeping peacefully even in moments filled with such sorrow, tragedy, and futility…

How can my destiny, forced to witness all this, ever be redeemed?

Clunk.

The coffin lid clicked into place.

My face disappeared from Tia’s sight, which had been watching until the very end.

The girl didn’t move.

She knelt on the coffin lid, remaining motionless as if dead.

Soon, she picked up a shovel and began to fill the dirt over my coffin.

Thud! Thud!

Breaking the suffocating silence was Fosao’s voice.

“…Ti-Tia?”

“…”

She moved the shovel silently.

Before long, the drab color of the spruce tree was completely buried beneath the black earth.

Having completely filled the ground, Tia straightened her back.

Whoosh-!!

The wind blowing from afar subtly scattered her red hair.

She said.

“…It’s all over.”

She looked down at Brizden.

“It’s all over… everything…”

Now an infinite world stretched out before her.

Tia gazed at the horizon in the endless mountain range, far out of sight.

“There’s… nothing left.”

Her small breath, escaping her lips, puffed up into the sky.

It was a poem for my buried soul, and a lament for a girl’s shattered heart.

Tia and Ritsu.

Those two, who had shared a fresh yet poignant love, were now gone.

Only one person remained to testify to their existence and to speak of the life she had struggled through until now.

“…Ti-Tia.”

Fosao hugged the faint figure, who seemed about to disappear.

As if holding onto Tia’s breath that had already vanished, he held her tightly, preventing her from flying away into the sky.

“Let’s go back…”

“…”

Tia looked back.

[Ritsu]

She stared blankly at my name carved on the Resting Tree, then moved into Fosao’s pulling hand.

Far away… the red hair disappeared.

That was my final funeral.

***

Tia became weak.

She said nothing, lying like a pale corpse. Yet, she showed no signs of illness.

She was merely quiet, like a patient awaiting death.

“Tia… t-try eating this.”

Fosao scooped a spoonful of stew and offered it to her.

Tia, looking out the window, didn’t react.

“Tia?”

“…”

Clink.

In the end, he had no choice but to clear the stew bowl.

“Y-you have to eat to live…”

“…”

“Is there… a-anything you want to eat? I’ll get it for you…”

“…”

He seemed to be gone for a moment, then Fosao brought other food.

He also left the room, wondering if his presence might burden her.

When the food grew cold because she didn’t eat, he cleared the bowl and placed new food. If the water cup became cold, he always refilled it with warm water.

That’s how time passed.

Clang!

A sound of something breaking came from Tia’s room.

Fosao, who had been napping, was startled and rushed upstairs.

Thump!

“Aaah- Tia?! Wh-what’s wrong?!”

When he opened the door and entered, the room was covered in scattered food.

“Haa… haa…”

Tia was collapsed on the floor, holding a broken plate.

It seemed she had already cut her wrist, as red blood dripped and fell onto the floor, forming drops.

“Tia!”

Crash!

Fosao rushed forward and restrained Tia’s hand.

“Why, why are you doing this…!”

The girl, who had no strength left to resist, was simply pinned down by his large body.

“Don’t have… s-strange thoughts! Tia!”

“…Why?”

Tia asked with parched lips.

“Mister… why are you like this…?”

“‘Why,’ you ask…?”

“I… I killed him…”

Fosao pressed down hard on Tia’s thin wrist to stop the blood from flowing out further.

“I… I killed the Village Chief-nim… Ritsu… Everyone in the world… curses me. But… why, Mister…”

“Tia!”

“Why… won’t you let me go…?”

“I-I can’t do that!”

Fosao yelled.

“I don’t care what anyone… anyone says! Ti-Tia, you have to live!”

“…”

“Please. I, I… I want Tia to live…!”

“I don’t want to live anymore.”

Fosao firmly grabbed the wrist that was about to go limp and pulled it up.

“Then I… I’ll become your reason to live!”

He lightly lifted Tia and laid her on the bed.

Clatter!

Fosao rushed to the corner of the room and began frantically rummaging through the drawers.

Soon, he pulled something out.

It was a bandage… taken from my medicine cabinet.

He hurriedly brought it and wrapped the bandage tightly around Tia’s wrist.

Red blood stained it, but he held it tightly without caring.

Tia let out a pained sound.

“…Ah!”

“E-endure it!”

Fosao rummaged through the drawers again.

This time, a medicine brewed from Rubus herbs came out. He dipped a brush in it and began haphazardly applying it to a cloth.

It was a completely incorrect method, not systematically learned even in the slightest regarding treatment.

However, Fosao seemed to think Tia would die if he didn’t do this, so he applied the medicine thickly and stickily, so much that it overflowed and covered her entire arm.

“…”

Tia, who had been quietly watching, stopped Fosao.

“…Stop.”

“B-but…!”

“That’s… not how you do it.”

Tia wiped the dripping medicine with her fingertip and placed it on the wound.

“Bandage…”

“Uh, uhm? Yes!”

He brought another bandage. Tia took it and wrapped another layer.

It was a perfectly correct method of treatment.

“…It’s done.”

“Oh, that’s a relief…! First, let’s clean!”

Fosao cleaned up the scattered food on the floor. And he carefully swept up the broken glass shards.

It was a sight rarely seen from him, who usually didn’t clean.

Tia asked.

“Are you… cleaning?”

“Yes! So Tia d-doesn’t get hurt!”

He cleaned thoroughly, then brought a carpet from the first floor and laid it down.

Thinking about it, the second floor had unknowingly become Tia’s bedroom, and Fosao was sleeping on the first floor.

If there wasn’t even a carpet, the cold air would just rise up.

Fosao adamantly said he was fine.

“T-Tia’s health comes first. I’m fine.”

Tia pulled her knees up.

And quietly looked down at her bandaged wrist.

“O-oh, I’ll stay here and w-watch over you tonight. You might be in pain…”

“It’s okay.”

Her red hair subtly shook her head.

“I’m sorry. I won’t… do things like this… again.”

“R-really?”

“…Yes.”

“Mm. Th-then shall we eat something? To regain your strength…”

Silence fell.

Fosao waited for Tia to answer.

That night, after a very long time had passed.

…Tia very faintly, and weakly.

Nodded her head.