1. Prologue

What does it mean to live forever?

Once, during a lesson, Professor Guinevere had asked that question. And Ingrid answered Guinevere.

It is not dying.

No matter how much time passes, one’s breath doesn’t cease, and even after everything one knows crumbles to dust, one can remain in the world.

Hearing Ingrid’s answer, Guinevere said:

〈That’s an excessively one-dimensional answer.〉

And Guinevere added that she should think from a more philosophical and theological perspective. Ingrid couldn’t understand what Guinevere meant.

Life and death are clearly divided like black and white. Only the state of breathing, having a beating heart, and blood flowing through the body can be called living.

That was what Ingrid thought at the time.

She didn’t yet fully understand that while death is simple, life is not so simple.

※※※

Cloudy gray-white eyes turned toward the man standing before the old fountain.

Black hair without a single ray of light and eyes of the same hue. A physique large enough to feel imposing, and a thick coat draped over it.

In a world completely covered in white snow, the lone black man looked quite out of place.

“Thierry.”

Ingrid watched Thierry for a long while before carefully calling to him.

Her gentle voice was so small and insignificant it wouldn’t be strange if it were buried by the sound of falling snow, but Thierry didn’t miss Ingrid’s voice.

“Inge.”

Thierry turned his head toward where the voice came from. His always upright black eyes met Ingrid’s.

The shadowed eyes curved in an instant.

“Did you wait long?”

“No, I just arrived not long ago.”

“……Your cheeks are red.”

Ingrid said this and approached Thierry, reaching her hand toward his face. Thierry obediently lowered his head to make it easier for her to grasp his face.

At the coldness she felt from his palm, Ingrid unconsciously furrowed her brow.

Ingrid couldn’t even guess how long he had waited for her. What was certain was that the time she had estimated would be laughably off.

“Liar.”

At the lightly thrown reproach, Thierry let out a helpless chuckle.

Without considering the feelings of the person watching, he laughed even at this moment. It was enough to make her feel spiteful.

Ingrid narrowed her eyes. Then Thierry rubbed his cheek against Ingrid’s hand holding his face and asked playfully.

“Was I caught?”

Ingrid narrowed her brow in response.

“……I didn’t think you’d be the one to ask to meet first.”

Then Thierry quickly added. Because he didn’t want to leave any misunderstanding. Ingrid lowered her hand that had been holding Thierry’s cheek and asked.

“Why did you think that?”

“The last conversation we had wasn’t very good. And it wasn’t properly concluded either.”

Thierry added while sweeping Ingrid’s disheveled hair behind her ear.

“So I thought we’d end up having the same conversation again next time. About who should go on the expedition……”

“………”

“It’s not that I hate that conversation. It’s a topic we have to discuss again whether we like it or not. But Inge, sometimes you worry about growing distant from me and keep your mouth shut until the problem disappears.”

Thierry said this and smiled bitterly. Ingrid quietly closed her mouth, proving his words.

Silence flowed between the two. The falling snow swallowed the surrounding noise, so even their breathing couldn’t be heard.

Ingrid took in the sight of Thierry standing blankly in the excessively cold landscape before finally breaking the silence.

“Thierry, I’ll ask you one last time.”

“………”

“Do you have any intention of respecting my choice?”

In the end, the conversation returned to the topic Ingrid most wanted to avoid.

“The dragon has awakened. The world has already frozen even though nothing was done. Someone has to go on the expedition.”

“………”

“It’s just that it will be me.”

It was exactly two years ago that a prophecy came down that the ice dragon Parvag sleeping beneath the Neuve Mountains would awaken and destroy the world.

The Empire’s emperor found a way to subjugate the ice dragon. And after painstaking effort, he discovered two people.

Descendants of those who, long ago, performed dragon-like miracles in human bodies.

Thierry and Ingrid.

The emperor summoned the two to the imperial palace. And making them the Empire’s heroes, he spared no support until they became beings worthy of heroes.

At the same time, under the pretext that heroes were needed, he burdened the two with all sorts of loads. Even considering various circumstances, it wasn’t a time that could be endured with dignity by an ordinary person’s spirit.

Recently, the dragon of the Neuve Mountains that had brought Thierry and Ingrid together finally awoke from its slumber. The emperor ordered the hero’s expedition.

To only one person.

“……But it doesn’t have to be you, Ingrid. And it doesn’t have to be you alone. There must be a better way.”

“A better way?”

At Thierry’s words, Ingrid asked in a sharp voice.

“Thierry, I told you before. Better ways only exist in ideals. We’re living in reality. Or rather, your ideal and reality might be equivalent. But…… not for me.”

“Inge.”

“You know. Why His Majesty wants to send me on the expedition.”

At Ingrid’s question, Thierry reluctantly nodded.

A dragon that had slept for over a thousand years had awakened. There was no law saying similar things wouldn’t happen.

The emperor wanted to keep at least one safe card.

Thierry was the safe card.

“Everyone wants my expedition. They want you to remain here. The choice has already been made and I’ve decided. It’s just a matter of you accepting it……”

Ingrid laid out her explanation in a calm voice. Hearing her words, Thierry contorted his face and said in a low voice.

“But that’s something that hasn’t happened. And it might never happen……”

Thierry was extremely earnest. But there was something he overlooked. The fact that Ingrid was just as earnest as he was.

Ingrid continued in a trembling voice. Perhaps because her emotions were heightened, she couldn’t form smooth sentences.

“I didn’t call you out today to have this kind of conversation.”

“………”

“I just wanted to see your face one last time…… Yes, I wanted to see your face……”

It was an unsightly voice.

“I didn’t want to raise my voice like this.”

Ingrid, who had been rambling on, finally lowered her head. She didn’t have the confidence to face Thierry’s upright gaze directly.

She knew it wasn’t at all a matter of someone being wrong. But when she looked at his purely kind eyes, she couldn’t help but think:

Ah, maybe Thierry’s words are right.

But at least for now, she had to maintain her stubbornness.

Her snow-white hair flowed down, covering her face. Thierry quietly looked down at her, then realized what she had said and asked urgently.

“What do you mean last time……”

But instead of answering Thierry’s question, Ingrid asked again.

“Thierry, how long will you remember me?”

“Wait, Inge. What you just said……”

“Long ago, Professor Guinevere asked that question. Can a person live forever?”

She acted as if she wouldn’t give Thierry a chance to finish speaking.

It wasn’t far from the truth. If she gave him an opening, she’d have to answer Thierry’s question. If that happened, he would try to hold onto Ingrid again.

“Do you remember what answer you gave then, Thierry?”

Thierry carefully observed Ingrid and guessed her intention.

He knows her better than anyone else in the world. He had felt faint superiority and satisfaction in that fact. But right now, that situation wasn’t very welcome.

Thierry quietly closed his mouth. At his firmly closed lips, Ingrid smiled faintly. From the beginning, her question wasn’t thrown out hoping for an answer to return.

What does it mean to live forever?

Can a person live forever?

In what concept does eternal life exist?

To that question, where Ingrid had simply replied that it was surviving forever without dying, Thierry had given a different answer.

To live is to remain in memory. People can live forever. He answered that they could without a moment’s hesitation. Human life isn’t just clinging to life but continues in many different ways.

Professor Guinevere had liked Thierry’s answer very much. Though it wasn’t the answer Guinevere had in mind, it was a very positive answer befitting a hero.

After hearing Thierry’s answer then, Ingrid very often mulled over his response. Even at times when he seemed not to remember his answer from back then.

“Back then, you said that if there’s someone to remember you, a person can live forever……”

At Ingrid’s face contorting as if she would cry, Thierry strode forward. Seeing him suddenly close, Ingrid barely pulled up the corners of her mouth to smile.

“I still remember that. That’s why I could be unafraid. So I hope you won’t be afraid either.”

Ingrid added a question.

“Thierry, you’ll do that, right?”

That was the moment.

At the intense pain felt in his abdomen, Thierry stiffened his body. Shocked, his eyes widened as he barely lowered his head to look down at his stomach.

The black sword said to be made from the bones of a dead dragon was embedded in Thierry’s belly. In pain as if his organs were being severed, Thierry couldn’t even scream and looked at the hand gripping the sword. It was Ingrid’s hand.

A whispering voice continued.

“So, Thierry. You mustn’t forget.”

“Ing……e……”

“It’s a promise.”

It was a one-sided promise.

No chance to refuse was given, only the duty to keep it remained—that kind of promise.

Thierry desperately tried to respond to her words. But unable to overcome the pain, he closed his eyes.

Ingrid gently laid down Thierry’s completely collapsed body. Then she pulled out the sword she had stabbed into him.

She looked at the face of the one with closed eyes for a long while as if engraving it on her retina. Ingrid would never be able to forget him. How the black eyes hidden beneath his closed eyelids shone. How affectionate the voice calling her name was.

Those were the most precious things Ingrid possessed.

She stroked his lips with her fingertips, then briefly kissed Thierry’s forehead.

“……I really liked you.”

Since learning of the mission given to her, there was something Ingrid always thought: perhaps I was born into this world with this purpose from the beginning.

At first, that fact was extremely sorrowful, but now Ingrid found that mission quite acceptable. Because it seemed to prove that Ingrid had a purpose too.