Side Story 2.5

[To my friend Louis,

Good morning. How are you? I feel bad for not having written to you for so long. Please forgive me for cutting off contact as I pleased. Honestly, I wanted to talk to you from my heart. There were just too many letters I tried to send but crumpled up instead.

My handwriting has gotten so bad I thought you wouldn’t recognize it. Grandfather Bernard is writing this for me now. Please don’t ask why he’s writing it for me. Unfortunately, my illness has burned even my hands.

Actually, the reason I couldn’t write to you is because of this. I wanted to keep my promise to you until the end, but I was a bit afraid of how you would see me when we met again, since I had changed so much. It’s already been six years since we parted. I wonder what you look like now.

There’s something I wanted to tell you. I’m not human. For certain reasons, I came down to earth as a Celestial.

Haha, you once asked if heaven exists. I guarantee you, it does. But it’s very different from what humans imagine. If you’ve formally graduated from the academy, you probably know. The story of the angel who fell to earth after falling in love with a human.

(omitted)

The only joy I had left was drawing. But now that even my hands are like this, the whole world seems gray. Maybe I’m sinking deeper into the swamp. I used to want to capture all the beauty I saw, but now I don’t feel anything. I can’t even find inspiration for my subjects. Maybe my soul has dried up.

I should have returned to heaven at the right time, but I stayed in the human world too long.

But Louis, please don’t pity me. As I drifted away from beauty, I began to see other things.

I heard Grandfather Bernard sometimes visits and cleans the room I used to live in. If my letter arrived as I intended, the package should have come with it. Would you open it in that room? Just like when we were children.

From your loving friend, Sophia.]

It was shocking. He knew that the place she’d gone was in the midst of fierce fighting, so her safety couldn’t be guaranteed. He had braced himself for the possibility of never seeing her again, but he never imagined her health would be this bad. It hurt his heart.

And she was a Celestial? Suddenly, he remembered the woman he’d glimpsed at his father’s deathbed as a child. She had lavender hair and white wings—was she not an angel after all?

A chill ran down his spine. Shaking off the suffocating feeling, he grabbed the package and headed to Grandfather Bernard’s house. His reason shouted it couldn’t be, but deep inside, his intuition—felt since childhood—whispered to him.

‘She’s real.’

Unlike when he was young, Grandfather’s house was much more worn down. The key in the envelope fit the doorknob perfectly, and with a click, the door opened and he went inside.

The house wasn’t very dirty, perhaps because it was cleaned regularly. Carefully stepping over the creaking floor, he headed for Sophia’s room, and when he finally arrived and opened the door, he saw an easel standing there.

As if drawn by something, he approached it. Cutting the string and peeling away the brown paper, sure enough, a painting revealed itself.

‘Two people are walking hand in hand through a vast wheat field. Just like when we were children.’

Staring at the painting as if spellbound, he turned to the window and saw the sky dyed crimson. The wheat swayed in the breeze, and the children would have leisurely walked while gazing at the scenery. Wondering if there was anything else, he turned the painting over and saw a short sentence.

[To Louis de Rohan Unifa, who will live countless days ahead, from Sophia Loren (1038~1060).]

It took him a moment to accept what that meant. Staring blankly at the words, he realized something, but soon didn’t want to accept it, and a chill rose in his chest that he couldn’t bear.

‘She died? Over seven years ago? Before even reaching thirty?’

The angel had finally shed her human form and returned to heaven. Either way, it was clear they could never meet again. The moon-shaped mobile, the curious perfume, the music box with the spinning ballerina. The room was unchanged from when they’d been together, but now, he was alone.

At that moment, he felt the old familiar sensation from long ago.

‘She once said that beauty moves every human heart. She always looked for a handful of beauty in everything she saw. But as her illness worsened, she realized—it was right beside her.’

Even if one cannot hear or see, there is a sixth sense that tells you it is there.

Mages naturally possessed the sense to perceive non-human beings from childhood, and sometimes even a single beam of light streaming through a window was enough. It felt as if Sophia’s voice was whispering in his ear.

‘As with all art, it was already present in the lowest, the closest places. People call that sparkling crystal happiness.’

Only then did he understand what she meant in the latter part of her letter. Amid the floating dust, a shimmering shadow appeared and disappeared, and at the same time, the deep sorrow gradually faded away. When he finally placed the painting on the easel, sunlight shone on the canvas, illuminating the two people it held.

Golden, sparkling memories.

He stood before the easel for a long time, quietly appreciating it.

***

Closing the last page of the diary, Ariel closed her eyes. The past clung to her, and the echo spread within her heart as much as the time that held her captive. While she tried to gather herself from that lingering emotion, she also had to calm the memories that surfaced.

No matter how many times she went to the hospital, the pain wouldn’t heal. The day she had to return to the Celestial Realm, told she couldn’t endure with a human body.

‘Sophia? Ah, you are…….’

Returning much later than planned, failing her exam, and becoming a wandering Celestial on earth, she was given a mission—to protect a family. That family was now the Unifa family, and thanks to that, Ariel was able to remain by Louis’s side until the day he closed his eyes for the last time.

“For a moment, he saw me and smiled. That’s enough, isn’t it?”

With a deep breath, she shook off her frustration and felt much better. After all, humans and Celestials have different lifespans. Even if they died, the odds of frolicking together in the Celestial Realm were slim.

In most cases, the former lose all memories while crossing the river of the afterlife, entering a long hibernation for reincarnation. For the latter, who live days close to eternity, that is but a fleeting moment.

Just as in romance novels, there are stories where she finds him reincarnated and they fall in love again, but in reality, most do not.

The Louis whom Ariel loved long ago would never exist again.

She stood up and left the room. In the corridor, several children ran past, followed by a few maids nagging them.

‘Were those nieces born from Naren’s sisters? This house is getting livelier.’

It was different from their era. She could see the shadows of loneliness fading away.

‘Hmm, I wonder what kind of kids Ray and Naren will have. Maybe they’ll turn out to be monsters, who knows.’

Smiling softly, she finally set out to enjoy a real walk. Since it was the Unifa mansion’s garden, surely there would be the joy of seeing flowers of all colors.

「Bzzz, ignore it—」

“Hm? What’s this?”

At that moment.

Her phone, issued by the Celestial Realm not long ago, was ringing in her pants pocket. The ringtone was a signal she had never heard before. The voice, dry as ever, was urging her to ignore it… but no name appeared?

“Ugh, who is it?”

Should she answer or not? As she hesitated, a name flashed across her mind.

‘Ah, is it Harlan?’

「Bzzz, ignore it—」

Why would someone contact her after such humiliation? Ariel frowned slightly, but finally answered the call.

“What do you want?”

[Gasp. You answered! You answered. You really answered!]

It was Harlan’s voice. He sounded as excited as if he’d won the lottery. She almost hung up like it was spam, but curiosity got the better of her, so she asked why he called. His response? He wanted to know what foods pregnant humans liked. Her head throbbed.

“Oh, you idiot. Quit rambling! So, you’re calling me because of the consort’s meal problem?”

[Uh, yeah. That’s right. Haha……]

“And you think you have the nerve to ask me this?”

[If I had any shame, I wouldn’t be living like a devil. Well, we help each other out, right~? Isn’t it thanks to me that the Unifa couple got together anyway?]

“Haa, what are you even saying? Absolutely not.”

What could she do with this fool? If left alone, he’d call all night, but she couldn’t block him completely, either. Who knows what weird number he’d use next? Ariel was anxious. After some thought, she found a solution.

‘Maybe I should get closer to the consort?’

If she provided information in exchange for a favor, it wouldn’t be impossible. If she became close with the consort, who couldn’t live without the Demon King, no one would dare make a move. It was a kind of insurance. Praising her own cleverness, she made a deal with Harlan, and of course, a cornered mouse will always take the cheese.

‘Now he’ll never be able to mess with me again. Mwahaha! Perfect victory!’

Ariel ended the call and sat on the floor, laughing heartily.

< The End >