Both fell onto the library floor. Faller breathed deeply, slowly, almost panting. Slady groaned with his face against the ground, begging him to remove the weight of his body from his back. Faller laughed, separating himself and leaning against the sofa with his legs stretched out. Slady, remaining on the opposite side, supported himself against the counter where a television rested above.
He asked Faller to call his wife, sparing him from carrying him. The larger man, running his hands through his hair, commented that he did not wish to burden his beloved so much, but apparently it was fate. Slady called him lucky. He did not deny it, not every man had a childhood friend who became his wife.
Slady opened the covered eye a little more, questioning the relationship. Faller laughed quietly to himself, answering that all love was born from the common pattern. Both were born near each other, grew up together, endured hardships, but found peace side by side.
Slady nodded slowly. Faller leaned slightly forward and asked whether he had ever felt something like that. Without hesitation, without even a shift in expression...
He denied it.
***
Inside a house, a woman walked back and forth, hurried steps, heart racing. She murmured her husband's name repeatedly, glancing toward the ceiling, where delicate glass lamps spread warm light throughout the room.
Suddenly, the phone rang. She grabbed it with trembling hands, almost dropping it, but managed to press it against her ear, softly calling her husband by an affectionate nickname.
The voice on the other side returned the same intensity, calling her to the same library she had visited before.
***
The idea of a perfect relationship lost part of its charm after five minutes of hearing Victoria shout.
One reprimand after another, feelings of guilt exposed in a tone intense enough to make even the animals around the library flee.
Waving her arms, she demanded to know how her husband thought she would feel seeing him so injured. She reminded him of his pride in refusing help, using delicate nicknames for his own wife just to demonstrate disappointment.
Slady held a cup with both hands, slowly bringing it to his mouth. Faller lowered his head, stretching out his arms and shrinking into himself, apologizing loudly, acknowledging the absolute and eternal correctness of the woman with whom he shared his life. He argued that he had not wanted to place her in danger after fighting the Destroyer.
Victoria struck her own chest proudly, declaring her victory over the creature and the impossibility of it ever defeating her.
As her hand rose, Faller lowered his head even further. The speed of her palm cut through the wind. Slady leaned farther forward to watch the scene.
Faller closed his eyes. Slady looked away.
... But then came a caress.
And forgiveness. But also an order: never place himself in danger again. Contrasting with her authority, she held his face and kissed his lips.
Then she turned her neck toward Slady. He shrugged awkwardly. She walked toward him, her bare feet echoing softly against the floor. He tried to defend himself, saying Faller had been an idiot who, as she herself had said, put himself in danger. He had merely tried to help him.
She acknowledged that.
Slady covered his head. But the same hands protecting him were gently held.
There was no sound. When he opened one eye, she was kneeling, holding his mechanical hand.
Despite recognizing his uselessness in the battle, the courage required for a mere librarian to face a Destroyer was beautiful.
So, as gratitude...
She wished to know his name.
Slady exchanged a glance with Faller. He nodded, his lower lip pushing proudly over the upper one.
Then he gave his answer.
Slady.
***
The library was empty again. Slady flipped through the pages of a book. Suddenly, the voice emerged. Apparently, he was not truly reading, but trying to hide from himself the discomfort of now having new friends after the Second Renkai Awakening.
Slady did not want her reminding him of the obvious, but Truth, sighing softly, asked him not to feel shame or fear. It was beautiful to have new friendships, especially with people as kind as that couple.
He pressed his lips together, whispering that he was already content. He had her, Shaphira, Raizer...
But she reminded him of reality: she was merely a Destroyer living inside his mind. Shaphira was a demon, capable of being killed by any hunter who did not know her and, even if she survived, she would not live nearly as long as he would. And Raizer... Raizer was old, weak, and would leave this world sooner than he realized.
Slady asked why she insisted on reminding him of the truth. He did not want the truth. He wanted...
Truth interrupted him. What he wanted was something eternal. But he would never possess anything eternal. The only "eternal" thing he could have was meeting other people who, within years insignificant compared to the span of his own life, would die. Whether in his arms or far away from him, they would die.
He stepped back, covering himself with his overcoat, attempting to move to another room, but Truth appeared before him. The truth might be cruel in its words, but she wanted him to understand that, in eight hundred years, he would leave this mortal world, they would merge together, and the trivialities of humanity would become nothing more than tiny details within an incomprehensible greatness.
Slady dropped to his knees, breathing unevenly, though no tears fell. He would not endure living that long, he had already witnessed too much, already slept too much, and that alone was enough. He no longer wanted to exist this way, he wanted to remain beside those who cared for him, to die beside them...
Truth knelt before him, holding his face and pressing her forehead against his. She apologized for all his suffering. She admitted to feeling guilt, remorse toward herself. It was against her own race to feel something for a human, but she did. She wanted to protect him.
So, until they reached that greatness, she wished to soothe the emptiness in his chest. She knew it was not physically possible, but she wanted to stay beside him, even as a spirit, to always remind him that she would protect him from any evil.
She embraced him. Slady curled into her chest, trying to grasp her clothing...
But she disappeared.
Slady remained alone.
Staring at his own face reflected through tears that did not seem like his own.
But rather those of something he would never be capable of touching.