Ch.373Chapter 373 Epilogue – The Regressor’s Happy Ending Formula (End)

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Happiness beyond the permissible limit was filling the vessel called my heart.

Even when I shared love with the precious person I always wanted to protect, I never thought greater happiness would find me.

Yet in just a few days, an even larger and more vivid happiness had arrived, truly deserving the expression “overflowing happiness.”

When I first heard it, my reason seemed to be functioning properly.

“…Cal?”

Even as Shizu called out to me, my mind was so filled with happiness that standing there blankly was the best I could manage, not knowing how to respond.

I had lived each moment earnestly, wishing for your happiness.

And now, to receive such immense happiness from the person whose happiness I had wished for.

I want to share more of it. My heart, this happiness.

That’s why I approached.

“…Cal.”

Toward Shizu, who was calling me demurely with a shy smile.

After hearing that the fruit of our love had been conceived, how could I not approach?

But as I took one step after another, a strange undercurrent began to ripple across Shizu’s bright smile.

That undercurrent was likely the peculiar anxiety she felt watching me silently approach after hearing what she had told me.

Even though we already knew each other’s hearts completely, I could see in her expression how much of a burden it was for her to share something that would bring an even greater change to our existing relationship.

That’s why I moved even closer to Shizu.

If my precious person feels anxious about sharing important news, I needed to be closer to do what was natural—to ease that anxiety.

“…Cal?”

As if her bright smile had been a lie, Shizu’s voice trembled as I silently closed the distance between us until I was close enough to reach her with outstretched arms.

I wanted to say something, but I easily predicted that if I carelessly opened my mouth, my voice would tremble uncontrollably from the joy that exceeded all limits.

I couldn’t make her anxious by letting out a tearful voice.

Anyway, when I felt I had carefully approached Shizu to an appropriate distance,

I stretched out both arms and pulled her into my embrace.

“…Ca…Cal?”

The anxiety had disappeared, replaced by a voice filled with bewilderment that pleasantly resonated in my ears.

“Um…excuse me…?”

Though her voice calling me showed confusion replacing the initial anxiety due to my sudden action,

I was rather satisfied, believing it was better for my precious person to feel confused than anxious.

As Shizu settled into my embrace, I continued to deepen my resolve to never let her go, no matter what.

“…”

Though she had trembled with anxiety when first entering my embrace, Shizu quickly regained her composure,

And likewise stretched out her arms to wrap around my back.

This wasn’t the first time I had embraced Shizu with both arms, but compared to any other embrace we’d shared before, this one seemed to bring the most peace to my heart.

I lowered my head to look at Shizu.

The expression that had held slight anxiety when she confessed about being pregnant and watched me approach was now relaxed, showing relief.

My voice, which had been about to break into tears from emotions stirred by overwhelming happiness, finally began to stabilize.

“…It’s warm.”

To Shizu, who was embracing me comfortably as if my arms were her home,

“I’m a bit… worried.”

I was finally able to speak my first words to her.

As soon as the words fell, Shizu looked up at me with questioning concern in her eyes.

She couldn’t grasp the true meaning behind my opening words about worry, which was why such concern seeped into her expression.

The worry I had and the worry Shizu had weren’t the same.

To dispel the misunderstanding, I quickly said,

“I’m just not sure how to make you even happier than you are right now…”

It was a statement with plenty of awkward aspects, enough to make even me, the speaker, feel embarrassed.

“…Pfft.”

Hearing those words, Shizu suddenly burst into laughter in my arms.

Unlike the trembling from anxiety when she first entered my embrace,

This trembling was Shizu’s movement in my arms, accompanied by laughter that warmly resonated in my ears.

“…Shi…Shizu?”

This time, I had no choice but to carefully call her name.

After shaking with laughter for a while, Shizu raised her head, which she had lowered, to meet my gaze.

“…Idiot.”

She pouted dramatically as she spoke those reproachful words to me.

Though the sight looked comical, it also gave me an inexplicable anxiety along with her puzzling words.

Without a mirror, I couldn’t tell how my expression appeared.

But it must have been terribly distorted from hearing unexpected words.

Stretch-!!

“Cal is an idiot…”

With Shizu now stretching out both hands to pull at my cheeks, my expression must have been even more distorted.

But thanks to the warmth I felt in her hands pulling my cheeks, and Shizu calling me an idiot while still speaking with warmth, I was barely able to prevent my expression from worsening further.

…Though I suppose it was already quite distorted from Shizu pulling my cheeks.

Shizu’s words calling me an idiot seemed to clearly indicate she wanted some form of response from me.

But instead of waiting for my answer, she released my stretched cheeks, returning them to normal.

“You really are an idiot…”

With her protruding lips back to normal, she began to speak softly.

Her voice was much more subdued than when she had been annoyed, making my heart sink.

“The longer Cal stays by my side, the happier I become, so how can you worry about such things…”

After finishing her words, Shizu stretched my cheeks with both hands again, helping my sunken heart regain stability.

As if noticing the relief that had settled in me despite my distorted expression from the stretched cheeks,

“Stay… by my side… I don’t ask for much. Just being with Cal every moment… that alone makes me overflow with happiness…”

Shizu withdrew her hands from my cheeks and hugged me tightly again, burrowing into me.

In this warm spring weather, being close to someone’s warmth might be burdensome.

But the warmth approaching me now warmed my heart rather than my body.

So I raised my arms again to pull Shizu deeper into my embrace and spoke.

“I’ll make you happy.”

In the most accurate form to convey my sincerity to Shizu, who had shared her only wish with me.

“Thank you…”

As Shizu’s shy voice responded from within my embrace,

“Shall we go?”

I calmly suggested we continue with the original purpose that brought us here together.

“Yes!!”

Finally shedding all shyness, Shizu tucked herself under my arm again and hurried her steps.

Originally, the purpose was to take in the beautiful scenery of this sacred area.

But now that initial purpose had vanished completely, and my eyes were fixed solely on Shizu, who was matching her steps with mine.

She wore a happy expression. Just as she had expressed her wish to me, her current expression showed happiness that made even her previous overjoyed look seem small and faint by comparison.

With each passing moment, her expression reflected the happiness she felt.

Simply walking together, talking, just spending time together.

Seeing the happiness in Shizu’s expression as she looked around or at me,

I finally felt that a small question I had about three years ago was being answered.

Even as I was turning to less than a handful of ash and fading away,

When the wish-granting stone revealed its sparkle, I had desperately wished.

I had wished with all my heart that you would live happily even in a world without me.

Now I understood the cause of the miracle that made me repeat time with all my memories intact.

I didn’t know it then. I had despaired and grieved, thinking that no matter what I did, the unchangeable future would come.

But when I collapsed due to my ailing body and opened my eyes again to see you tearfully apologizing to me,

I felt a bright light enter my heart that had been stained with despair, and now the question I hadn’t recalled until now was answered.

Just as I felt happiness looking at you,

You also felt happiness looking at me.

That’s why I was able to turn back time.

You without me could never be happy, no matter what.

So I came back for you.

If this were during my more twisted days of the past, I might have been displeased with this situation where fate was overturned.

But this isn’t a situation where I’m being manipulated like a puppet by an evil spirit.

I’m simply happy and joyful about this outcome that came about because of your wish.

“Ah! There’s a butterfly I’ve never seen in the Central Continent.”

Shizu, who had been clinging to my arm, suddenly moved away to follow a butterfly flying in the sky—her movements were light and cheerful.

Among the many expressions of Shizu I had encountered countless times since experiencing the miracle of regression, this ranked among the most precious.

And my footsteps following Shizu’s retreating figure as she chased the butterfly were the lightest steps I had ever taken in my life.

As if blessing the peace that had finally arrived after a difficult life.

I hope these footsteps remain light and cheerful now, in the future, and forever.