Alisa ran.

She crossed the Montrau bridge lined with flags snapping in the wind, and climbed the hill with heaving breaths. Gravel rolled away under her feet, and the sea wind struck her cheeks hard.

Rain was falling. A downpour fiercer than any she had known soaked her hair through. She had to scrub her eyelids again and again just to see.

Her clothes grew heavy with water, her feet sank into mud, her shoes were ruined. Still she couldn’t stop. Because beyond that hill, she could see the yew tree spreading its ominous branches.

“…… Eden.”

The ill-fated emperor, Leonard Reuben Eden Roben.

The beautiful, young emperor of twenty-one, whose life ended on the gallows.

Alisa lost her grip on the composure she had barely been holding onto. Her vision went black and came back, over and over.

She ran and ran until she stopped. There, at the coastal cliff’s gallows tree, where the roar of waves and the howl of wind tangled together — she saw Eden being dragged forward. His legs seemed broken; he could barely walk, and soldiers were forcing him along.

Her heart seemed to stop.

“Kill him!”

“Hang him!”

“Burn the bastard alive!”

The screaming of the frenzied crowd tore at her ears. Alisa stood frozen, staring at Eden. His face was pale, drained of color. He looked as though he had already given up on everything.

No.

Alisa forced herself back to her senses. She shoved through the crowd. She pushed with her hands, forced through with her arms, and pressed closer to him.

Closer, closer still. Until Eden could see her. Until she could see those blue eyes of his.

“Eden!”

Her call didn’t reach him. His head was bowed, and he seemed to have fully surrendered to the death coming for him.

Alisa stared at him in a daze. If he walked up to that gallows tree like this, Eden would die. The rope would go around his neck, he would swing in the wind and lose consciousness, and his body would fall to the rocks below and be swept away by the waves.

The way the history books had described it.

No, no.

Alisa started screaming. Stop, she shouted. Stay where you are. Don’t go any further.

But the noise around her was too loud. She screamed until her throat was raw and still couldn’t reach him. She pushed up on her heels and forced her way through the people who kept shoving her back. Tears streamed down her face.

One step left before she could reach Eden. She saw the people gripping the rope. She twisted toward them and shoved through the crowd.

The executioner raised his arms high to loop the knot over the tree. Alisa gasped through her tears and drew in a deep breath.

Look over here, Eden. Please. Please!

“Leonard Reuben Eden Roben!”

The name she screamed rang out, and he lifted his head.

Their eyes met. Even in clothes unlike anything he usually wore, even with his hair tucked completely out of sight beneath a hat, Eden recognized Alisa in an instant.

His footsteps stopped dead. For the first time, hesitation crossed the face that had accepted death.

“…… Alisa?”

Eden murmured in disbelief at the sight of her. Then, perhaps thinking it was a dream, he rubbed his eyes with his bound hands.

Watching that, Alisa squeezed her eyes shut. They stung from the tears that wouldn’t stop.

She thought she understood now. If only those connected to her could cross through time together, she finally knew why it had been Eden.

He had no home. No one to look after him, no one to welcome him back.

So he had been lonely at every moment, and for that reason, always desperate. Desperate enough that one day, he had responded even to the faint call of a child just as homeless as himself.

Alisa pressed her fists tight.

If it was fate that brought the two of them together. If something like that truly existed, and it had allowed warmth to reach two children who knew nothing, and brought them together at a moment when they had no choice but to hold onto each other — then surely that same fate owed them what came after.

‘So please, if there is a god, help us just a little more.’

She drew in a deep breath. Through the water flowing around her, she felt the current of time.

‘I can catch it.’

Just for a moment.

If she could buy enough time to get Eden away!

‘Stop. Please!’

Drip, drip.

Drip……

And time stopped.

Alisa moved fast. She pried off the hand of a stranger gripping her shoulder, and stepped over the tangle of feet around her.

“Eden.”

Freed from the soldier’s grip, Eden had fallen to the ground. Alisa grabbed his arm and startled. His body, soaked through with rain, was cold as ice.

Eden, frozen in time like everyone else around him, blinked the moment her hand touched him. Alisa gripped his shoulder with trembling hands.

“Don’t die, Eden.”

“…… Alisa.”

“Don’t. It’s not your fault. You don’t have to carry all of it alone.”

“No, it is my fault. It’s mine to answer for.”

“Come home. Come back with me.”

Alisa held onto him without reason. She laced her fingers through his, slipping in the rain, and prayed alone. She begged to be sent home, her and Eden together.

But nothing happened.

Why. Why won’t it work.

“Home, please take us home. Our house. The attic. Send us back. Me and Eden, together……”

Alisa pleaded and pleaded. More desperately than when she had jumped from the window trying to reach Eden, far more desperately than that.

But Alisa was still there, stranded with Eden in the middle of the madness.

“Alisa.”

“Home, please, right now……”

“Alisa, stop. I’m not going back.”

The quiet voice brought her to a halt, and at the same moment, a raindrop fell on the top of her head.

Time was beginning to move again.

“Where did they go?”

“They disappeared……”

“Find them! They must still be nearby!”

Alisa huddled, at a loss.

“What do we do, what do we do……”

The crowd hadn’t spotted them yet, but it was only a matter of time. The blurring that followed right after time resumed lasted only a brief moment.

“…… For now, let’s run. Anywhere.”

“Can you move?”

“I’ll have to. You clearly have no intention of running alone.”

Eden quietly pushed himself upright. His swollen leg looked agonizing, but he showed nothing on his face.

“Alisa, is there somewhere nearby we can hide, even for a short while?”

Alisa chewed her lip, then pointed toward the coastal cliffs.

“There, down below. There’s a cave. It’s not big, but it’s enough for the two of us to hide in.”

“Good. Let’s go.”

Eden nodded and followed right behind her.

The crowd had scattered in every direction searching for the vanished Eden, which made moving somewhat easier. Alisa supported him as they began descending the hill. Her heart was in her throat the whole way, not knowing when someone might spot them, until they finally reached the shore.

The cave, cleverly hidden beneath the coastal rock face, was just large enough for two people to crouch inside. They crossed the entrance, both soaked to the bone by the driving rain.

Crash — the sound of waves surging to their feet carried the shouts of the crowd with it.

Alisa pressed deeper into the cave, unease pushing her further in. She pulled Eden in after her.

Eden followed her hands without resistance. Alisa didn’t breathe again until they were fully hidden behind a large boulder.

Then she turned to Eden with eyes full of grievance.

“…… You liar.”

“What lie did I tell you.”

“You said you were married. You said your first child had been born. So live well, you said — and you sent that note, and then……”

“…… Ah.”

He murmured with a slightly sheepish expression.

“I didn’t think you’d still be checking the attic.”

“You thought that, and you still hid a note there? You hid it because you knew I kept checking, you fool!”

“No. Truly, I thought it was more likely you had forgotten me. But just in case.”

“……”

“On the off chance that you might still be waiting for me. And now it seems that was true.”

Eden pulled up the corner of his mouth.

“That Roben fellow, or whatever his name is — things didn’t work out with him, I take it?”

“Roben isn’t like that.”

Alisa gave Eden’s hand a light pinch again. He didn’t flinch, of course.

Looking at the boy smiling as though nothing in the world frightened him anymore, Alisa pressed her lips into a flat line. How could he be this calm when death was right in front of him. His composure frightened her, because it felt like resignation.

She was afraid that once this magic wore off, he would walk back to the gallows on his own and accept his death.

Eden’s hand came to rest on her hunched, trembling shoulders.

“Alisa, come here.”

Eden drew her close and held her.

Warmth.

Only after feeling the body heat wrapping around her did Alisa realize she had been shaking.

From the moment she learned his childhood name in the green room to this very second, she had run without a single moment to catch her breath. She had been so tense, terrified she might arrive too late and find Eden already dead.