"Skyl."
"Hmm?"
"...Skyl, compared to yours, my life is very short. And compared to you, my heart is weak and changeable. I can't say what the future will look like. Only you can see that clearly."
Millicent's voice was as gentle as a breeze passing over a mountainside, every softly murmured word perfectly clear.
Skyl suddenly realized what she was about to say.
A strange emotion seeped from the mortal part of his heart, one that no spell had ever granted him. Because he understood the underlying truths of the world, he knew every mechanism by which such an emotion arose, yet he had never experienced it himself.
He had even believed he never would.
He didn't interrupt her.
Instead, a sincere smile appeared on his face as he waited for her to continue.
"Ever since my memories began, you were the first person I saw. From that moment onward, there hasn't been a single part of my life untouched by you. I don't know how the feelings of a star are supposed to approach the sun. I don't know whether a meteor streaking across the heavens can compare itself to your eternity. You've made up for every regret I've ever had and healed every hardship I've endured, but there's still one thing I'm not satisfied with.
"During the time I stayed at the Three Cups Traveling Tavern, I read often, especially history books. Human history is always filled with what-ifs. Everyone wishes that beauty could remain forever young and that great generals would never grow old. When I'm inevitably old and frail someday, looking back over my life, I don't want to wonder what might have happened if I had told you how I felt back then. I don't want to die carrying that regret."
Millicent could feel her Shehai churning.
The waves of fear were almost enough to knock her unconscious. The weakness rising from the depths of her soul and the cool sensation of the potion in her stomach worked together, leaving her feeling like a tiny boat tossed atop a storm.
Every blood vessel in her body seemed to swell.
Her cheeks burned bright red like cherries, while her vision began to blur.
Yet she kept her eyes fixed on Skyl.
She looked like a monk kneeling before a divine statue in some ancient sanctuary, desperately searching the savior's face for a hint of emotion.
Expectation?
Contempt?
Or perhaps the distant, impartial compassion of something standing far above mortals?
If one ignored the fundamental difference between a god and a human life, then what remained was simply a scorching, blazing emotion, one that could make a person willingly humble themselves and worship another as though they were divine.
When someone felt that way, even a beggar could become more precious than a king.
For one brief moment, after everything she had already said, Millicent was overwhelmed by regret.
She knew she was about to step off a cliff.
Only one step remained.
One final sentence.
What awaited her afterward might be an endless fall or a weightless ascent into the heavens.
Her fate was no longer in her own hands.
Once she spoke, she would become the losing side.
In a gamble like this, the most rational choice was to walk away, even when the chips in her hands burned hot enough to sear her skin.
But she truly had no choice.
The Shehai was such a pure and brilliant power that it always demanded its practitioner act in accordance with the deepest truth of their heart.
Millicent looked upon herself with something close to sorrow.
Such a tiny, fleeting life.
To ask the sun to lower itself for the sake of a single star almost felt like blasphemy.
Millicent trembled, choking back a sob.
When she closed her eyes, she found herself standing beside the black waves of her Shehai, staring at the serpent within them as it hissed at her.
What am I?
Make me humble as dust.
Make me unyielding as steel!
What am I?
Say it!
"Skyl, I'm afraid I... I... love you."
Whoosh.
The black tide retreated.
Deep within her Shehai, Millicent watched as the murky darkness was polished away to reveal a beam of immaculate light.
In an instant, it pierced through the vastness of her spiritual world.
It was her spirit sword.
Long and beautiful, it resembled a slender, perfectly straight feather. Delicate white patterns covered its golden blade, arranged as densely as the tiny barbs along a feather. At the center of its guard was a polished mirror, clearly reflecting Millicent's face.
At that moment, she stepped from the cliff.
Yet unlike everything she had imagined, she did not need Skyl's answer.
Her heart had already become perfectly clear.
This was a sincere feeling that did not require recognition or reciprocation. It was as light and delicate as a feather, yet enduring enough to travel a thousand miles without ever falling.
Which meant that Millicent had never truly needed to confess to Skyl face-to-face.
She only needed to acknowledge that she loved him.
But Millicent did not regret saying it aloud.
If she had never told him directly, she would never have been able to see her own heart so clearly.
This was not a game meant to be played alone.
She opened her eyes.
Deep within her pupils shone the flowing brilliance of her spirit sword.
Skyl saw his own reflection inside them.
He remained thoughtful for a moment.
Even the mournful night wind passing through Raya Lucaria seemed to grow quiet.
Millicent waited patiently for his answer.
They both understood that whether Skyl rejected or accepted her feelings, Millicent would remain the same proud swordswoman she had always been.
She would always be a blade standing guard at his side.
Skyl reached out.
After a moment's hesitation, he gently slipped an arm around Millicent's shoulders and slowly drew her closer.
Then he wrapped both arms around her.
His chest pressed against hers, his cheek resting beside her ear.
Suddenly, Skyl laughed.
"You're pretty soft."
Millicent instantly went rigid in his arms.
It took quite a while before she relaxed again.
"Millicent."
"I'm here."
"A lot of stories end with the hero and heroine living happily ever after. But the real problem starts on the second day of happily ever after. Suddenly, those two people have no idea how they're supposed to live now that someone else has become part of their life. Their time and their space both have to be shared. They'll argue over who handles trivial chores. They'll wonder how they're supposed to spend their free time together. And there are countless other problems neither of them ever had to consider before."
"Mm."
"I've seen every ending we could have."
Skyl paused.
"None of them are good."
"But I can't see how many possibilities exist between now and those endings. You probably wouldn't believe it, but I've always been a coward. When I don't have absolute certainty, I find it very difficult to take the first step."
His arms tightened slightly around her.
"But I think there are some things worth trying, even when you already know they'll eventually end in failure."
"Skyl, all I can see is that you're lonely."
"Who isn't?"
His voice was quiet.
"The only difference is that some loneliness lasts for a moment, while some lasts forever."
Skyl gently breathed in the scent at Millicent's neck.
If he wished, he could have perceived every smell upon her, the fresh and fragrant, the heavy and unpleasant, every minute chemical trace composing the scent of a living body.
But Skyl chose to experience ordinary people through ordinary senses.
All he smelled was something faint and cool.
His warm breath brushed across her neck.
Millicent trembled in his arms like a feather caught by the wind.
"Skyl, I'll stay with you."
Her voice was soft but unwavering.
"I'll chase away a century of your loneliness, until the day I die."
"Then I suppose that's that."
Skyl smiled.
"I love you too."
...
Exam day.
Skyl dragged Doniel out of bed, where the lingering weakness had made him reluctant to get up, and brought him to the Debate Parlor.
The sorcerer proficiency examinations and Thops's review for professorship were both being held there.
Millicent met Skyl outside the Debate Parlor.
"Nervous?"
Skyl would soon be heading to the Olivinus Conspectus for his final examination.
He himself wasn't concerned about it in the slightest.
What he was actually worried about was whether Millicent, after all her last-minute cramming, could somehow scrape through her own exam.
Millicent held an Academy Glintstone Staff and looked every bit the proper Raya Lucarian sorcerer.
"I won't embarrass you."
"Hahaha! So that's what you're worried about?"
Skyl grinned.
"Worst case, I'll make everyone in the Academy drink Forgetfulness Potion. Then nobody will remember you embarrassing me."
Millicent pressed her lips together to hide a smile.
Then she turned and walked into the Debate Parlor without lingering to look back at him.
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