“Eden, didn’t you ever miss me?”

“Always.”

“Then why didn’t you write to me even once all this time?”

“Because if I sent a letter, I knew I’d give up everything and run to you.”

“…… You should have just done that. Run to me. What was so important that you had to stay and endure all of this.”

“I know.”

Eden laughed.

“I should have. I really, truly should have.”

His eyes, unfocused, blinked slowly, and then he slid down. The black hair she had thought looked like a crow’s feathers when she first saw him spilled across Alisa’s lap.

Alisa cupped his face in both hands. The bones beneath her fingertips were far more sharply defined than she remembered. The dimples that had deepened whenever he smiled were gone, and the eyes that had once crinkled with them had hardened into something cold.

But the blue of his eyes was exactly as it had been when he was young.

Everything had changed, and yet nothing had changed at all.

“Eden.”

“Yes, Alisa.”

“We can’t play like we used to anymore, can we.”

“…… Probably not.”

“Why. Because we’ve grown too old? Because we’re supposed to be adults now?”

Eden thought for a moment, then whispered so only Alisa could hear.

“Because I want to protect you.”

“……”

“Because I don’t want to do anything that might twist the future where you exist. Because I want to completely rule out even the slightest chance that you might not be born.”

Eden drew in a long breath. He had already decided what his part would be. An ending Alisa could never accept.

Eden pulled away from her arms and sat up. He spoke with a composed face, as though he had never been lying there without strength.

“Alisa, some things have to happen.”

“……”

“It seems I’m not meant to run away from this place.”

The way rain falls from sky to earth, the way a river flows from mountain to sea. The way a cliff facing the waves, no matter how solid, is worn away by time. A person recorded as dead must die.

“I’m truly, truly sorry.”

Alisa looked at Eden in a daze. He seemed at peace. A little, even, happy. As though the small reprieve before the end was already enough.

Think, think. Alisa.

She had to find a way for both of them to survive.

But how.

She could think of nothing. An angry crowd was closing in from just outside, and time had refused to let them return together.

That was when she heard footsteps heading their way. Alisa pulled Eden’s shoulder close and clamped her hand over her own mouth. The presence outside was drawing nearer.

There was nowhere to run. The back of the cave was a dead end, and jumping into the sea left little chance of survival.

The despair came in waves. She was knocked down by the surge, and just as she managed to lift her head and draw breath, the next wave came crashing in without pause.

Perhaps miracles that granted the wishes of good children had never existed to begin with. Perhaps the belief that the night would end if you waited long enough was nothing more than a child’s naive faith in the world’s kindness.

Some people are unhappy without end and meet an unhappy end. And others will easily obtain what those people prayed their whole lives for and never received.

Even so, if all they could do in every moment was refuse to lose hope, Alisa would keep trying until the very last. She would never stand still and accept death with her head held high.

She bit down hard and took Eden’s hand.

“Let’s go further in, Eden.”

“Alisa.”

“Let’s try going deeper inside. Right? If we stay hidden in there, maybe they won’t find us.”

“…… It’s no use. You were the one who said it was a small cave, Alisa.”

“Even so, just a little further in……”

Alisa stopped pulling at him and snapped her head up. Eden straightened at the same moment.

Something felt wrong.

“Wait, right now, Alisa……”

“Yes, the sound stopped.”

The screaming of the furious crowd, the arms that had been tearing at her limbs, even the clouds drifting across the sky. Everything had gone still, silent as death.

“Alisa? Did you do this?”

“No, I…… I didn’t do anything……”

She murmured with a puzzled look, and Eden’s brow furrowed sharply. He pulled Alisa behind him.

“…… Eden?”

“Quiet. Someone’s outside.”

Alisa fell silent. The footsteps drawing closer were audible to her now too.

“Alisa, when I give the signal, run straight outside. And get into the sea.”

“I said I won’t run alone, Eden.”

“I know. Come back if you want, but get out of here first. If at least one of us is free, there might be another chance. All right?”

“…… Fine.”

Eden held Alisa close and counted the footsteps, gauging the number of people.

‘Two, maybe.’

Not many approaching — they hadn’t been found yet. Just someone sweeping the area.

What unsettled him, though, was that someone other than Alisa had touched time.

Eden crouched low, and the moment a shadow fell across the cave entrance, he tensed his legs. The instant they showed themselves, he had to rush them and buy time for Alisa to escape.

“Alisa, now!”

Just as he was about to lunge at the figure blocking the cave entrance——

“Your Majesty.”

A familiar voice rang in his ears.

“It’s me. Sir Roben, Your Majesty’s knight.”

Eden stopped moving. Sir Roben stood at the cave entrance with both hands raised.

Sir Roben looked further inside, then tried to step closer.

“Stay where you are.”

Eden held him back.

“Sir, why are you here? Did you come to find me yourself, offended that I slipped away from that spot?”

“No, Your Majesty.”

“Then are you about to tell me you happened to be taking a stroll and stumbled upon me?”

“…… I did not come to escort Your Majesty to the execution ground.”

The moment he finished speaking, the knight respectfully removed his sword belt and dropped it to the floor. Then, before Eden could say a word, he dropped to his knees.

A trembling voice came from Sir Roben’s lips.

“You may call me an insolent knight. Even so, I want only one thing — for Your Majesty to survive.”

“……”

“I have been holding my breath for this moment.”

“Holding your breath — are you saying you pretended to join the uprising on purpose?”

“…… Yes. Because the lady said that was the only way to save Your Majesty.”

“…… The lady?”

Eden’s brow furrowed.

“What lady? I have no idea what you’re talking about. Who do you mean?”

“Allow me to introduce her. She came here with me.”

Sir Roben turned around.

“My lady, please come in.”

A presence stirred outside the cave, and a woman stepped inside. Eden kept his guard up and gripped Alisa’s hand.

The woman ducked her head to enter, then slowly removed her hat.

The first thing he saw was short silver hair. A pale face and a slight frame followed. She was a little on the tall side, but nothing else stood out at first glance.

Something was off, though.

She was clearly a stranger, yet she felt like someone he had seen before.

Eden glanced at the woman and gave Alisa a look.

“Alisa, step back.”

“……”

“Alisa?”

He turned to Alisa when she didn’t answer.

Her face was blank. She was staring at the woman as though she hadn’t heard a word.

“Alisa, it might be dangerous, so please just listen to me right now and——”

“…… Mum?”

A small sound slipped from Alisa’s lips.

Eden doubted his own ears.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Alisa murmured in a voice thick and hoarse, like something was caught in her throat. She let go of Eden’s hand and took a step forward.

Eden reached out to stop her, but Alisa moved faster. She passed Sir Roben and drew close to the woman.

The woman stood in place without a word, watching her.

For a moment, Alisa felt as though she had been returned to the ten-year-old girl who had waited for her mother.

The X marks on the calendar every day. The radio that had stopped saying her mother’s name. The sound of her father crying in the next room, and the nights that were silent in spite of it all.

All the countless nights she had fallen asleep patting her own chest came flooding back in an instant.

Alisa stopped right in front of the woman. Only one step left. She could reach out and touch her. But she couldn’t find that last bit of courage.

‘Is this really Mum?’

Could this be the phantom she had seen in dreams on so many nights? What if she was so desperate, so frantic, that she was seeing things — imagining her mother had come to help?

The situation was strange enough to make that seem plausible. Just moments ago, she had been begging for anyone to help her.

Should she reach out. What if the moment her fingertips made contact, the woman vanished? What if she burst like a soap bubble, and she could no longer see even this face she had longed for so long — what would she have left to blame?