Ch.62How to Cross the Desert (9)

Ordinary people don’t realize it.

War.

How heavy the meaning is behind that short resonance.

For most, it was just a word that passed by fleetingly, but for those directly involved, it meant the complete end of life.

An indelible scar for a lifetime.

Was it a holy war to realize justice?

Or was it merely a means for adults’ greed?

It was a meaningless concern.

It was ridiculous to contemplate the justification now.

What matters is that war happened, and countless children wept aloud.

The world was dyed with the light of despair.

<The war is over.>

<But too many people died to call it a victory…>

Even after the ceasefire, the war continues.

They say the dead were pardoned from life with death as their indulgence, but the survivors were forced to pay the price.

The dripping pus merely mimics recovery with the word “ceasefire.”

While ignoring the festering wounds.

<Josh? A letter arrived for you.>

<I don’t know the exact contents. It just seemed to be from the hometown you always sang about.>

The boy was no exception.

A letter received one day.

Cruel reality doesn’t discriminate.

When you carefully unfold the neatly folded paper, even solid hope shatters into pieces.

Unbelievable contents filled the text line by line.

[The village has been annihilated.]

A coldly written sentence.

The hometown village the boy had left behind with lingering attachments was completely destroyed by the enemy country’s annihilation magic.

Those backed into a corner had finally resorted to forbidden magic.

The hometown had become uninhabitable overnight.

The village had turned into a desert due to the magic’s aftermath, and monsters born from twisted mana roamed freely.

People died one by one as if afflicted by disease.

A city that met destruction.

This was the true identity of the desert we had wandered through for days.

The old man smiles bitterly and says.

“I never intended to deceive you.”

Years are embedded in his aged wrinkles.

After briefly touching the tombstone, the old man soon looks at us standing there with blank expressions.

“It was like that from the beginning. I started this journey to meet Rosalin.”

“……”

“……”

We remained silent, unable to easily speak.

[Rosalin Meriar, rests here.]

A single tombstone standing before us.

The reunion of two people who had waited a lifetime was perhaps bound by the sorrow they least wanted.

The old man calmly continues his explanation.

“Isn’t it strange? Just one lonely tombstone standing on this remote hill.”

His hazy eyes are momentarily lost in reminiscence.

It was a memory from childhood.

<If we ever get separated, let’s meet again at the brightest star in the night sky!>

<Do you mean that blue star over there?>

<What do you think? It’s clearly visible, so it’s good, right?>

<But how do we get to the star…?>

<I don’t know either! But by the time we’re adults, won’t we know how to reach the stars?>

<That actually makes sense.>

<So, is it a promise?>

<Yes…!>

It was a promise made on this very hill.

Lying side by side among the bushes, counting the brilliant stars that seemed about to pour down.

It was also a moment the boy had never forgotten throughout his life.

And.

“She asked… to be buried on this hill when she died.”

The girl was no different.

She too had lived reflecting on the 15 years spent with the boy until the moment she reached the end of her life.

Neither of them had ever forgotten each other.

“How foolish.”

She should have forgotten that silly promise.

She should have left that wretched village behind, seduced a handsome man, gotten married, and lived happily amidst blessings.

How could she have never met a man at that age?

If I had known…

“…If I had known, I would have smiled at least a little when we parted.”

The last scene he remembers.

They turned their backs on each other in anger.

It wasn’t even something important, so why did they waste their moment of farewell on a mere emotional fight?

The old man gently strokes the tombstone.

“Where is there a life without regrets?”

Life is summarized in just one sentence.

After contemplating for a while, the old man soon comes to his senses and turns his gaze toward us.

“Please don’t think badly of me.”

“Sir.”

“I was sincere when I said I would guide you to the nearest city. If you walk in this direction for a few hours, you should find a new village.”

“You’re not coming with us?”

“I have somewhere else to go.”

“By somewhere, you mean…”

“I have to keep a promise.”

He smiles with mysterious words.

Standing still like that, before long the old man coughs up blood.

Bright red blood spills onto the ground.

“Cough, cough…!”

Though we had experienced this several times before, this time his condition was noticeably worse.

His legs staggered as if dizzy.

The old man soon sits down, leaning his back against the tombstone.

He was collapsing in a pitiful state.

“S-Sir!”

We reached out our arms to support him, but the old man firmly refused our help.

He just kept coughing and muttering.

“Cough! I’m, fine.”

“It seems you’ve really reached your limit now, w-what should we do? We need to get to the village for treatment at least…!”

“I’ve already been, ugh, given a terminal diagnosis… they say I have a month at most.”

The old man showed no sign of distress.

His voice resonated calmly.

This was the end he had prepared for long and hard.

Belatedly realizing the meaning of his words, Lezia was blankly tearing up.

The old man smiles.

“Why do you all look so sad?”

“……”

“S-Sir…”

“Cough… I wish you would smile.”

His pupils remain transparently clear.

It spreads gently on the dawn breeze with a soft resonance.

“It may look like I’m dying, but that won’t be the case.”

“……”

“As you know, stars are quite far away, aren’t they? It would be too difficult to take this body there. It’s too heavy.”

The star where they promised to meet.

The old man… no, the boy was finally going to meet the girl.

The rose he had loved so much.

“So won’t you congratulate me?”

It must be a splendid sight.

When the old man looks at the stars, every star will look like a well with a pulley.

Every star will give him water to drink.

This was not death.

It was merely preparation for embarking on a long journey.

Now the boy from 50 years ago would gain new wings and journey toward the most brilliant star in the night sky.

It was a beautiful page from a fairy tale even just to imagine.

“Thank you for accompanying me on this long journey.”

“It was my honor.”

“S-Sir… sob.”

We say our goodbyes.

As we listen to his continued coughing, suddenly a soft light begins to swirl around the old man’s body.

It was a mysterious color.

Whoosh-.

His diseased body gradually becomes transparent, then slowly begins to crumble into white light.

Like dust blowing in the wind.

The old man was scattering, becoming remnants of the desert.

“Ah,”

A faint exclamation escapes.

The old eyes blankly looking up at the sky.

He was watching the stars, just like before.

Whoosh-.

Against the pitch-black background painted with darkness, twinkling dots are densely embedded.

Star clusters lifting the curtain of deep night.

The million embroidered stars erase loneliness with a million lights.

Perhaps it was.

A pivotal moment representing a lifetime.

The old man reaches his arm toward the sky.

What his trembling hand points to is none other than the brightest star in the night sky.

He faintly murmurs.

“I’m coming to meet you, Rosalin.”

With that, the old man closed his eyelids.

His body, which then crumbled without a trace, soon flies high into the sky, fluttering freely.

Toward the star where the girl would be waiting.

***

We stood in place for a while.

The old man who had departed on a distant journey.

Lezia was shedding tears.

Having built quite a bond during the past ten days, the sadness of farewell was enough to make the girl cry.

Even these fragmentary moments would become nourishment for the protagonist’s growth.

“Sob, hic……”

For someone it was the dawn of beginning a long journey, but for others it was the morning of ending a long journey.

We had finally safely escorted the old man to his destination.

The episode’s clear condition is achieved.

Simultaneously, a signal announcing the end colors our ears.

Creeeeak-!

A sound like hinges creaking rings out.

Looking up following the sudden noise, a small door is wide open above the sky.

A door attached to the perfectly normal sky.

It was an alien yet mysterious scene.

It was time to leave this world.

I take the sobbing girl’s hand and carefully lead the way.

Trudge, trudge-.

Stairs that seem made by folding the night sky.

As we carefully step through the air and climb up, soon a door opening in the sky welcomes us.

Beyond the door, pure white light is swirling.

“It’s all over now.”

Though hesitating as we look back, we move our steps toward the light.

Our vision fades brilliantly to black.

[EP???. How to Cross the Desert]

-A Door Opening in the Sky, A Boy Watching the Stars-

And so the episode ended.

***

When we opened our eyes again, we were standing in an empty alley.

“Hmm.”

“W-Where is this…?”

We quietly look around.

Familiar scenery comes into view.

We had returned to the academy.

Unlike the ten days we spent inside the book, not much time seemed to have passed in reality.

Perhaps about 2 hours at most.

“……”

I quietly scan the surroundings.

We were definitely inside an old shop before we left, but somehow the building had disappeared without a trace.

Only an empty lot greeted us.

As if such a shop had never existed here from the beginning.

It seemed to follow the original work.

Indeed, after an episode ends, the shop is cleanly deleted from the field.

All that remains for the player is the reward item.

And the strange book picked up at the beginning.

“M-Master… what’s going on?”

“I wonder.”

I pick up a book lying on the ground.

It was a volume covered in old leather.

On the cover, the title [How to Cross the Desert] glitters in golden letters.

I gently turn the pages.

Rustle-.

An illustration on the very last page.

It was a picture depicting a boy and a girl.

Below it was a simple title.

[Josh and Rosalin]

In a world as beautiful as the night sky, the two were embracing each other with dazzling smiles.

They looked as if they had just reunited.

A faint smile spreads across my face.

After fiddling with the pages, I soon answer the girl standing beside me.

It was a voice that warmly colored the dark background.

“Just the end of a fairy tale.”

I closed the book.

Somehow, instead of the original title, a new sentence was written on the cover.

It had changed in the brief moment I looked away.

I silently mutter that one line to myself.

[Thank you.]

A farewell from someone unknown.

We stood looking down at those letters for a while in silence.