episode_0285

Eve is running away.

Not only has she escaped the clutches of Duke Darius and embarked on an adventure. Eve is constantly fleeing from her past. She always buries her memories deep in her heart, suppressing her trauma, and cutting off her emotions as they surface.

At first, there were no problems. However, the man who always stays by her side weighed on her mind. How can he trust me? Why did he say he’d come on this adventure?

She wants to hide nothing from this man. Rather, she wants to show him everything. How she lived, how much she was hurt, what she thinks, how she will live in the future.

But it doesn’t work out as she wants. Trauma is trauma for a reason. Facing the pain with her whole body was even more agonizing than the stuffy feeling of her festering wounds.

“Why… aren’t you asking anything?”

So those words blurted out. An ambiguous state of stagnation, neither running away nor confronting. Eve was hesitating.

“You don’t want to talk about it. Then I don’t want to ask either.”

The man’s answer was unexpected. His profile, seen as she turned her head, was truly indifferent. He wasn’t even looking at Eve, just capturing starlight in his clear eyes.

“Why… do you trust me? Why aren’t you… leaving me…?”

As she revealed the wounds she had tightly wrapped, she began to feel even more suffocated. It’s agonizing. She wishes the man would demand something.

He remained silent, his gaze fixed on the night sky, and quietly opened his mouth.

“Then you, Eve, do you trust me?”

“I… I do.”

“How? You don’t know exactly what kind of life I’ve lived. So how can you trust me?”

“Th-that’s…”

Eve could only stammer at the sudden question. Her heart was in turmoil; she couldn’t utter organized words.

So she simply conveyed it as it was. Her complex feelings, in Eve’s simple language and voice.

“I… trust you. I only trust the you I’ve seen so far.”

“Right. In the end, people only believe what they see with their eyes and hear with their ears. I’m the same. What I believe is ultimately the Eve I’ve seen.”

“Ev-even so… bad things might happen if I’m with you… I, I might hurt you…”

“Do you think so? Do you think I’ll hurt you, betray you, or secretly leave?”

Eve swallowed. Her choked-up emotions were welling up, about to burst. Her mind was already a mess. Even when she wanted to finish a thought, a new one would emerge.

Swish-

The man’s hand reached for Eve’s cheek. Gently touching her face, he turned her head so they could look at each other.

“Look at me, Eve. And look around.”

“…Yes.”

“That tree was originally a sapling, the grass was a seed, and the pebbles by the river were large rocks. I was also a little kid once. How about now?”

“It’s become beautiful nature… and you’ve become quite a strong adventurer.”

Many things were reflected in her eyes. Too many to count individually. So what Eve saw was a single scene.

“All of that came together here over time, and became the sight you see now. No matter what your past was like, the only thing you can see with your eyes is this moment.”

“So the past… doesn’t matter at all?”

“No. That past built up to become the present, and this very moment is continuously becoming the past.”

The man placed his hand on Eve’s forehead. His hand slowly stroked her face and soon completely covered her eyes.

“You only see the past and present. You don’t try to see the ‘future’ at all.”

“I, I also see the future…”

“Hush. Be quiet, and keep feeling it. You’re seeing your future.”

“…”

Eve could easily push the man’s hand away. However, she didn’t make any effort to do so. Eve quietly looked ahead.

Darkness. Endless darkness. Only pitch black, nothing visible, was before Eve.

And, it gradually emerged. A peaceful landscape. A vast grassland stretched endlessly, and dense trees and fences were visible. Quite a few livestock roamed within.

Eve was herding cows. Blue jeans, overalls, a white shirt, a straw hat. Just like in the old days, she was managing the ranch. The man was standing in front of her, hugging her with a gentle face.

“What do you see?”

“…My dream. I see the days I desperately want.”

“Yes. I see the same thing.”

“The same…?”

Eve blushed instantly. A future where they get married and cultivate the ranch together? Surely not. What the man saw was probably his own dream.

“What I see is you now, and you in the future. Because I believe in that you, I decided to go on this adventure with you.”

“…Yes.”

“It doesn’t mean the past is completely unnecessary. Because you experienced what you did, we could meet like this. But Eve, you’re too attached to the past.”

The man’s arms embraced Eve. Gradually, their warmth and breath drew closer, and soon she was in the man’s embrace.

“We are moving forward. We’re walking on an empty beach. The footprints behind us are already imprinted, but when we move forward, it’s up to us.”

“Up… to us…”

“That ‘tomorrow,’ where we don’t know what we’ll step on… I want to be with you. That’s all.”

“…Me too. I want to be with you too…!”

Eve buried her face in the man’s arms and stayed still for a while.

Eve continues to run away. She will continue to run away. But with the man, it seemed as if flowers would bloom even in the places she fled to.

…

…

…

“So… how is it? What’s it like to actually be in Flander?”

“…It’s not as good a place as I heard.”

About half a year. The long, long journey finally achieved its goal.

Eve decided to stay in Flander for a while, just as she had stopped in other villages during her adventure. It wasn’t quite the place of her dreams… but she had her own fantasy.

And she realized.

“As I thought… I had to see it with my own eyes.”

“What, so our adventure was a failure?”

Eve smiled brightly.

“No… it was so enjoyable. To the point where I don’t want it to end.”

In fact, she thought it was good. Before arriving in Flander, Eve had been constantly agonizing. A future where she settled down on a farm and lived peacefully with the man, and a future where she continued the adventure that was as hard as it was fun.

The city, unremarkable and ordinary, resolutely erased Eve’s lingering feelings. Eve wanted to continue her adventure, and the man agreed.

Time passed again. The two adventurers crossed the border and headed for the Tarun mountain range. Deep in nature, demons always lurked, and they were the adventurers’ prey.

“Here is…”

“A ruin? Something is written here. Do you know these characters?”

“I’m not good at this kind of thing… you know more than I do.”

“Yeah. I didn’t expect anything else.”

Thump-

Eve playfully poked the man’s side with her elbow. A lighthearted joke was enough to relieve their tension.

The sight before them was breathtaking. Standing directly in front of it, they couldn’t even take in the entrance at a glance; it was so huge, and looking down the stairs, they extended endlessly below.

Whew-

“Are you ready?”

“…Yes. I’m fully prepared.”

“Let’s go. Be careful not to trip and fall.”

“I won’t fall anymore…!”

The two of them continued bickering while coordinating their breathing, entering the dungeon.

A maze-like ruin. A dungeon that was more accurately described as a labyrinth. Occasionally, riddles appeared, and strangely, the man solved them every time he meditated.

“…How are you doing that?”

“Shh, quiet. I’m getting help from my teacher.”

I could tell that the help was from Google Sensei.

Both Eve and the man were bad at intellectual tasks. The fact that their progress slowed considerably whenever they faced a riddle was proof of this.

On the other hand, when traps or demons appeared, requiring physical action, they swiftly handled them. The final rank they received from the Flander Adventurer’s Guild was Unique. Even within each rank, there were significant differences in ability between individuals, but they at least lived up to their name.

“Down there!”

“Okay-”

[Freeze]!

At Eve’s signal, the man leaped high. While he clung to a stalactite, an intense cold swept across the floor. All the demons crawling on the ground turned into ice sculptures.

“Back!”

“Got it-”

Then, in response to the man’s signal, Eve retreated. A flaming sword blazed in his hand, piercing the hearts of the demons that hadn’t been frozen.

Their combo was the strongest. They were not afraid of any opponent. They relentlessly defeated all the demons that attacked them.

But no one knows what the future holds. There are always enemies beyond imagination in the world. That labyrinth was not easy either.

“Oh… this stele is—”

Click-

“No, Eve! It’s a trap-!!”

Light erupted from a stele in the deepest part of the dungeon. The next moment, when she opened her tightly closed eyes, the surrounding scenery had completely changed.