I couldn't even recognize who I was, whether I was Diana or Dohana. I knew my consciousness was connected to an unconscious realm that transcended the time and space of past, present, and future. I stood there, watching my dying memories from the perspective of a mere observer, unable to intervene or interfere.
A man in black armor with wolf fur on his shoulders appeared. His red cloak fluttered in the eerie breeze. With a muscular build and handsome features, he bore a striking resemblance to Noah and possessed sharp, upturned, and cold eyes. His beautiful silver-white hair, bathed in the wax candlelight of the hallway, cast a faint golden glow.
He held a dying woman in his arms, his face a desolate expression of loss. At first glance, the woman, limp and helpless in his arms, looked like a broken doll. The candle swayed precariously in the gust of wind, as if it were about to go out. The woman's long, jet-black hair fluttered along with her red cloak. He asked in a desperate voice.
"Why are you leaving me? I would do anything for you. Because I love you, and because I want to be loved by you."
"...That was just our selfish desires, not true love. I wanted you to be a normal family. If I had known it would ruin you like this, I wouldn't have chosen love."
The woman finally denied her love. Tears welled up in her hazy green eyes as she leaned against the man's arm. She barely managed to raise a hand to stroke his silver-white hair, then licked her parched lips.
"We've committed so many sins in the name of love. So God must have punished us by losing our child. If we could meet again in the next life... let's start over. Just like the first time, now and always, forever."
It was her last will and testament.
He had been burying his face in the arms of the woman who had lost her breath for a long time, and then he grabbed the rose diamond necklace hanging around her neck.
“It’s true that it was selfish and greedy. Because I killed you with the word love.”
It was a useless monologue, as those who had already left could not hear. He muttered in a lonely voice, having been silent.
“My God. In the end, you are the one who has inflicted the harshest punishment on me.”
The candles in the hallway were blown out by the blowing wind.
He looked like a wolf howling under the moonlight. The man's deep gaze gazed up at me, as if he were watching me as I watched him. Tears fell from his moonlit blue eyes and flowed down the dead woman's pale cheeks.
“I offer you my entire being, including my sinful life and the life I will be given in the future.”
His gaze was still directed at me.
“You are my only love, my god, and my world.”
The man smiled sadly and pulled his sword from its sheath. The grisly blade held the flesh and blood of countless victims. The blade, always pointed at others, was finally pointed at his own throat.
"Even if you don't remember, I'll find you. So that someday I can tell you what true love is."
The image of Noah pointing a gun at his own head overlapped with his. For a moment, my mind went blank, and the ground beneath my feet shook. I shuddered with despair and fear, reaching out to him.
No, don't do that.
The vague screams didn't reach him. Even though I watched them all, I couldn't stop them. Because they were dead memories, already past. Red blood gushed out. All the emotions, memories, and thoughts of those left behind and those who had departed flowed into me. Scenes of happiness, unhappiness, and despair flashed before my eyes, intertwined.
Before I was born as Diana, the woman known as the Sixth Moon. That was the karma of my distant past. I first met him at nineteen, and two years later, I chose to love him, even though I shouldn't have. The moment of choice was beautiful and brilliant, but it was also the eve of a terrible ordeal. He destroyed and shattered everything that stood in our way. I paid the price of losing my family and the child I bore with him, and committed suicide at twenty-five. Seven years of unbearable memories seemed to suffocate me. Even recalling a forgotten past was a pain beyond words.
“I will save you, my princess.”
“Do you love me?”
“Yeah. Since the moment I first met you two summers ago.”
A calm and beautiful smile, like a boy looking at his first love. I loved that smile.
We sacrificed countless lives and defied fate, forcing a broken bond to endure the forbidden. Ultimately, we killed each other.
The love we held was the cause of death, the original sin, and the tragedy.
This is the beginning of fate, the beginning of causality. Looking at it another way, it was a bad relationship, like a curse.
He was reincarnated as a soldier, a nobleman, a merchant's son, and a scientist, yet, like the moon and sun that cannot meet, he never met me. Although he couldn't remember his previous life, he instinctively searched for me, the one and only being in the void, with the promises and deficiencies he had made with me engraved deep in his soul. Reborn again and again, he suffered from an inexplicable thirst and emptiness. This was his karma, his price.
"So, that's why I went through war, and my loved ones left me. Because in the past, we waged war out of selfishness, and through merciless slaughter, we took away people's lands and loved ones. I was determined to repeat that mistake."
As I thought of those who had died because of me, my eyes welled up, and tears began to flow endlessly. I lay prostrate for a long time, suffering in excruciating pain that felt like my soul was being consumed by the fires of hell.
Suddenly, the words written on the ceiling painting of the palace came to mind vividly.
“Tecum vivere amem, tecum obeam libens.
(I will live with you, and I will die with you.)
Si me amas, sérva me.
(If you love me, save me.)
There must be a reason I was seeing memories of my past. That woman, Diana, and all the countless other past selves were trying to convey to themselves the fate they had been given. It was an unconscious will to save him from eternal suffering within the cycle of reincarnation.
I just realized it now.
I knew that I had loved him for a very long time, to the point of death. Even if I were reborn countless times and lost my memories, I would still follow the milestones engraved in my soul and meet him and fall in love.
Bringing my soul, born in another world, back to Diana before her death, living Diana's life and choosing a man named Noah Rotsilt to survive and change her fate, even wishing to die in Noah's place—these were all choices made solely by the will that lingered in my subconscious.
"Please, let us return to our present and save him. Even if I can't remember why I ended up living that life, even if I have to live in a time of misery no different from hell, even if I have to suffer the sins of unbearable misfortune and trials, if only I can be with him. I will gladly accept it."
Colonel Noah Rotsilt of the Duke family and an illegitimate daughter, Princess Diana. It was the end of our fate, our last chance for salvation. After this life, I will never be born again in this world.
"Give me one last chance, at the cost of my soul and the destruction of my ties to this world. I want to return."
Even if I had to do it again without any memory, I believed I could do better, guided by the memories deeply etched in my soul. Not for a perfect result, but for the outcome we desired. To meet again, just like the first time.
"If I stay here, I'll die even if I prevent Celine's kidnapping. I'd rather be kidnapped by Duke Rotsilt instead."
"I have a rough idea of Duke Rotsilt's tendencies from the book, so if I succeed, I'll be able to figure it out somehow."
A long journey toward a promise. The beginning of the final story.
After looking through the long records that mixed past, present, and future, I regained my true self, as if I had found the answer at the end of a test.
And then I realized that I had been shot and lost consciousness while trying to save Noah.
I swallowed bitterly the memories that were shrouded in deep regret and desperately wished.
"Now I'll go save you. Keep our promise, and end the evil that drove us to death for love."
It is time to return to the present I have chosen.
To the side of the one I love, to our world, not just my own.
All time and memories were quickly rewinded, and the memories of the world seen and felt in an instant were also incinerated.
Suddenly, I heard the sound of a book being closed and my mother's voice faintly.
“The Princess and the knight broke the curse and lived happily ever after.”
Diana woke up from a long sleep and slowly opened her eyes.
The first thing she saw was an unfamiliar ceiling. She looked around, but there was no one. The high brick ceiling and stained-glass windows made it seem like an ancient castle. She lay still, counting the figures in the frescoes on the ceiling, their dark hair and medieval attire. Kings, Princes, Princesses, courtiers...
“It must have been hard to draw.”
She slowly turned her head, realizing something was clutched in her right hand. "Oh, my goodness," she muttered, "I can hear a cracking sound in my throat. How long have I slept? I've slept for a good twelve hours." She muttered to herself, then realized it was a small pudding jar in her hand.
She was a little dazed. She opened her eyes wide as she saw the pink petals fluttering wildly outside the window. It had been winter when she'd been shot in the forest and knocked unconscious. She looked down at her chest, where she'd been shot, wondering if there'd been a large hole, but there wasn't one, and the pain wasn't as bad as before.
“Did I time-travel or something?”
She tried to get up quickly. Strangely, she felt no strength in her body.
Diana looked down at the IV needles lined up in her arms, and realized she wasn't in for a typical night's sleep. She could hear children playing outside, the trains roaring, and the bustle of a busy city.
Lively jazz was playing on the radio by her bedside.
It was clearly the height of war, but strangely, everyone seemed excited except her. Diana, suddenly afraid that she had awakened as an old woman, tried to raise her arms. They seemed broken, unable to move properly, and she struggled to lift them.
Fortunately, she confirmed that it was not a wrinkled old woman's hand but a young woman's, and put her arm down.
She certainly slept for a very long time.
The door opened, and she heard footsteps. She quickly closed her eyes, pretending to be asleep. Soon, she heard the sound of a chair being dragged and placed beside the bed. She knew who it was from the familiar scent and presence. But she couldn't bear the awkwardness of suddenly opening her eyes and asking, "Are you home?" so she just kept them closed. She resolved to open them at the right moment.
“Diana, I bought a fairy tale book on the way here. You like fairy tales.”
Did I say that? Diana felt a sense of relief as she heard Noah's voice. It was a sense of relief that they were both alive and well. The sound of a book opening echoed in her ears, along with a calming voice.
"There was a child who hated soup. He grew thinner and thinner. He eventually starved to death."
Diana, who had been listening quietly, couldn't believe her ears. Was that really what children were reading? Where did Noah get such a book? He continued speaking in his still calm tone.
"It brings back memories. I read it when I was young. It's a fairy tale that teaches the right lesson: being a picky eater will lead to death."
The children here seem to receive a very rigorous upbringing. That's how Noah grew up. Diana snorted involuntarily. She had long since missed the opportunity to open her eyes. Feeling something trickle down her nose, Diana opened her eyes with a start. She met Noah's eyes, wide-eyed and holding a handkerchief.
“Runny nose...”
“I have a nosebleed.”
It was a far cry from the emotional reunion she had long awaited. Diana felt embarrassed and turned her head away with a blank expression.
“How long did I sleep?”
“You slept for a long time. I know you sleep a lot, but this was too much.”
There was a mixture of grumbling and complaining, filled with the anguish of the past. Only then did Noah's lips loosen as he pinched Diana's nose shut.
“Diana, it’s finally nice to see you again.”
Diana, her nose blocked, answered in a nasal voice.
“I closed my eyes and opened them again, and spring was already here.”
"Yeah. The war ended with the fall of Frogen. This is the Estria Siege."
“Thank goodness. I was sick of war.”
Diana, with Noah's help, drank warm water and leaned her upper body against the headboard. She was in terrible shape after lying down for so long.
He took her hand and intertwined their fingers, rubbing his cheek against the back of her hand.
“I was always afraid of losing you.”
Diana looked at his mournful expression and thought of him as a kitten drenched in rain. A poor white kitten, lost, wandering the streets, drenched in the rain. He'd probably roll around on the street and eventually turn gray. Feeling compassionate, she managed to raise one arm and stroke Noah's hair.
“I understand.”
He lowered his head so that she could touch him, then looked up at her with a cautious face.
"Sorry."
“What is it?”
Noah was silent for a moment, then slowly opened his lips.
"Diana, I lost a friend too. I understand a little bit what it must have felt like when your friends died in the bombing."
"That..."
"I also realized that I wasn't there for you when you were struggling, when you needed me most. You said you wanted me to be your only friend, yet I left you to go off to war, making you anxious and miserable."
Beneath his lowered eyelashes, his blue eyes were shaking precariously.
“And then you made it so I couldn’t even say that I was tired and lonely because it was for your sake.”
Diana stared blankly at Noah. His eyes were flushed, and the long, wet corners of his eyes were wet.
“Noah, you too...”
Diana's words trailed off and then stopped. She pursed her lips, seemingly trying to hold something back. Finally, a sigh and a calm voice emerged.
"You've been through tough times. Wounded and threatened with death on the battlefield."
"I thought I was the only one who would have a hard time. I didn't know you would have a hard time, too."
“I was worried. I didn’t want you to get sick.”
Noah sat up straight and looked down at the IV line hanging from Diana's arm.
"I've been feeling like I've been wronging you for a long time. Because through you, I've come to understand what regret and guilt are."
Diana reached out a hand to Noah and took his. She struggled to sit up on the bed, struggling to keep up, and faced Noah, who was sitting in the chair.
Noah wrapped his arms around her waist to keep her from falling.
“Me too. I’m sorry for making you wait alone.”
She'd never loved anyone deeply or opened her heart easily. She dismissed them as fleeting, fleeting relationships, meaningless relationships that would end at any moment, without regret. They were fleeting, blown away by the wind. All human relationships were like that. But Noah was different. She'd blindly concluded that he was the only one she could be with, and strove to stay together no matter what, even if it meant being far apart. Neither of them knew where such profound feelings had stemmed from. They desperately yearned for them, even if they couldn't understand their own hearts.
"Diana. Was everything I've done up until now just my own selfish desires?"
At Noah's subdued question, Diana's ash-green eyes folded gently like a waning moon. It was Noah's favorite smile.
“Because you love me. That’s why I became greedy.”
The room felt like a world just for the two of them. It was quiet, and they were staring at each other. A ray of sunlight touched Diana's slender shoulder. The warm spring breeze gently swayed her jet-black hair.
"I think it wasn't a love based on a specific reason, but rather a natural assumption. So, Noah, now we're always together. Because I love you, I want to be with you always."
He watched over Diana, who taught him love, deeply imprinted in his heart. The only being he had sought, driven by an instinct engraved like a command, his destiny, his world. It was the moment when his long journey, beginning from a past he could not remember, reached its end.
“I love you, Diana.”
It was a face without any expression.
Diana's reflection in his eyes, which were like an afternoon lake, rippled like waves.
The tears that flowed down fell and soaked her knees.
A man in black armor with wolf fur on his shoulders appeared. His red cloak fluttered in the eerie breeze. With a muscular build and handsome features, he bore a striking resemblance to Noah and possessed sharp, upturned, and cold eyes. His beautiful silver-white hair, bathed in the wax candlelight of the hallway, cast a faint golden glow.
He held a dying woman in his arms, his face a desolate expression of loss. At first glance, the woman, limp and helpless in his arms, looked like a broken doll. The candle swayed precariously in the gust of wind, as if it were about to go out. The woman's long, jet-black hair fluttered along with her red cloak. He asked in a desperate voice.
"Why are you leaving me? I would do anything for you. Because I love you, and because I want to be loved by you."
"...That was just our selfish desires, not true love. I wanted you to be a normal family. If I had known it would ruin you like this, I wouldn't have chosen love."
The woman finally denied her love. Tears welled up in her hazy green eyes as she leaned against the man's arm. She barely managed to raise a hand to stroke his silver-white hair, then licked her parched lips.
"We've committed so many sins in the name of love. So God must have punished us by losing our child. If we could meet again in the next life... let's start over. Just like the first time, now and always, forever."
It was her last will and testament.
He had been burying his face in the arms of the woman who had lost her breath for a long time, and then he grabbed the rose diamond necklace hanging around her neck.
“It’s true that it was selfish and greedy. Because I killed you with the word love.”
It was a useless monologue, as those who had already left could not hear. He muttered in a lonely voice, having been silent.
“My God. In the end, you are the one who has inflicted the harshest punishment on me.”
The candles in the hallway were blown out by the blowing wind.
He looked like a wolf howling under the moonlight. The man's deep gaze gazed up at me, as if he were watching me as I watched him. Tears fell from his moonlit blue eyes and flowed down the dead woman's pale cheeks.
“I offer you my entire being, including my sinful life and the life I will be given in the future.”
His gaze was still directed at me.
“You are my only love, my god, and my world.”
The man smiled sadly and pulled his sword from its sheath. The grisly blade held the flesh and blood of countless victims. The blade, always pointed at others, was finally pointed at his own throat.
"Even if you don't remember, I'll find you. So that someday I can tell you what true love is."
The image of Noah pointing a gun at his own head overlapped with his. For a moment, my mind went blank, and the ground beneath my feet shook. I shuddered with despair and fear, reaching out to him.
No, don't do that.
The vague screams didn't reach him. Even though I watched them all, I couldn't stop them. Because they were dead memories, already past. Red blood gushed out. All the emotions, memories, and thoughts of those left behind and those who had departed flowed into me. Scenes of happiness, unhappiness, and despair flashed before my eyes, intertwined.
Before I was born as Diana, the woman known as the Sixth Moon. That was the karma of my distant past. I first met him at nineteen, and two years later, I chose to love him, even though I shouldn't have. The moment of choice was beautiful and brilliant, but it was also the eve of a terrible ordeal. He destroyed and shattered everything that stood in our way. I paid the price of losing my family and the child I bore with him, and committed suicide at twenty-five. Seven years of unbearable memories seemed to suffocate me. Even recalling a forgotten past was a pain beyond words.
“I will save you, my princess.”
“Do you love me?”
“Yeah. Since the moment I first met you two summers ago.”
A calm and beautiful smile, like a boy looking at his first love. I loved that smile.
We sacrificed countless lives and defied fate, forcing a broken bond to endure the forbidden. Ultimately, we killed each other.
The love we held was the cause of death, the original sin, and the tragedy.
This is the beginning of fate, the beginning of causality. Looking at it another way, it was a bad relationship, like a curse.
He was reincarnated as a soldier, a nobleman, a merchant's son, and a scientist, yet, like the moon and sun that cannot meet, he never met me. Although he couldn't remember his previous life, he instinctively searched for me, the one and only being in the void, with the promises and deficiencies he had made with me engraved deep in his soul. Reborn again and again, he suffered from an inexplicable thirst and emptiness. This was his karma, his price.
"So, that's why I went through war, and my loved ones left me. Because in the past, we waged war out of selfishness, and through merciless slaughter, we took away people's lands and loved ones. I was determined to repeat that mistake."
As I thought of those who had died because of me, my eyes welled up, and tears began to flow endlessly. I lay prostrate for a long time, suffering in excruciating pain that felt like my soul was being consumed by the fires of hell.
Suddenly, the words written on the ceiling painting of the palace came to mind vividly.
“Tecum vivere amem, tecum obeam libens.
(I will live with you, and I will die with you.)
Si me amas, sérva me.
(If you love me, save me.)
There must be a reason I was seeing memories of my past. That woman, Diana, and all the countless other past selves were trying to convey to themselves the fate they had been given. It was an unconscious will to save him from eternal suffering within the cycle of reincarnation.
I just realized it now.
I knew that I had loved him for a very long time, to the point of death. Even if I were reborn countless times and lost my memories, I would still follow the milestones engraved in my soul and meet him and fall in love.
Bringing my soul, born in another world, back to Diana before her death, living Diana's life and choosing a man named Noah Rotsilt to survive and change her fate, even wishing to die in Noah's place—these were all choices made solely by the will that lingered in my subconscious.
"Please, let us return to our present and save him. Even if I can't remember why I ended up living that life, even if I have to live in a time of misery no different from hell, even if I have to suffer the sins of unbearable misfortune and trials, if only I can be with him. I will gladly accept it."
Colonel Noah Rotsilt of the Duke family and an illegitimate daughter, Princess Diana. It was the end of our fate, our last chance for salvation. After this life, I will never be born again in this world.
"Give me one last chance, at the cost of my soul and the destruction of my ties to this world. I want to return."
Even if I had to do it again without any memory, I believed I could do better, guided by the memories deeply etched in my soul. Not for a perfect result, but for the outcome we desired. To meet again, just like the first time.
"If I stay here, I'll die even if I prevent Celine's kidnapping. I'd rather be kidnapped by Duke Rotsilt instead."
"I have a rough idea of Duke Rotsilt's tendencies from the book, so if I succeed, I'll be able to figure it out somehow."
A long journey toward a promise. The beginning of the final story.
After looking through the long records that mixed past, present, and future, I regained my true self, as if I had found the answer at the end of a test.
And then I realized that I had been shot and lost consciousness while trying to save Noah.
I swallowed bitterly the memories that were shrouded in deep regret and desperately wished.
"Now I'll go save you. Keep our promise, and end the evil that drove us to death for love."
It is time to return to the present I have chosen.
To the side of the one I love, to our world, not just my own.
All time and memories were quickly rewinded, and the memories of the world seen and felt in an instant were also incinerated.
Suddenly, I heard the sound of a book being closed and my mother's voice faintly.
“The Princess and the knight broke the curse and lived happily ever after.”
***
Diana woke up from a long sleep and slowly opened her eyes.
The first thing she saw was an unfamiliar ceiling. She looked around, but there was no one. The high brick ceiling and stained-glass windows made it seem like an ancient castle. She lay still, counting the figures in the frescoes on the ceiling, their dark hair and medieval attire. Kings, Princes, Princesses, courtiers...
“It must have been hard to draw.”
She slowly turned her head, realizing something was clutched in her right hand. "Oh, my goodness," she muttered, "I can hear a cracking sound in my throat. How long have I slept? I've slept for a good twelve hours." She muttered to herself, then realized it was a small pudding jar in her hand.
She was a little dazed. She opened her eyes wide as she saw the pink petals fluttering wildly outside the window. It had been winter when she'd been shot in the forest and knocked unconscious. She looked down at her chest, where she'd been shot, wondering if there'd been a large hole, but there wasn't one, and the pain wasn't as bad as before.
“Did I time-travel or something?”
She tried to get up quickly. Strangely, she felt no strength in her body.
Diana looked down at the IV needles lined up in her arms, and realized she wasn't in for a typical night's sleep. She could hear children playing outside, the trains roaring, and the bustle of a busy city.
Lively jazz was playing on the radio by her bedside.
It was clearly the height of war, but strangely, everyone seemed excited except her. Diana, suddenly afraid that she had awakened as an old woman, tried to raise her arms. They seemed broken, unable to move properly, and she struggled to lift them.
Fortunately, she confirmed that it was not a wrinkled old woman's hand but a young woman's, and put her arm down.
She certainly slept for a very long time.
The door opened, and she heard footsteps. She quickly closed her eyes, pretending to be asleep. Soon, she heard the sound of a chair being dragged and placed beside the bed. She knew who it was from the familiar scent and presence. But she couldn't bear the awkwardness of suddenly opening her eyes and asking, "Are you home?" so she just kept them closed. She resolved to open them at the right moment.
“Diana, I bought a fairy tale book on the way here. You like fairy tales.”
Did I say that? Diana felt a sense of relief as she heard Noah's voice. It was a sense of relief that they were both alive and well. The sound of a book opening echoed in her ears, along with a calming voice.
"There was a child who hated soup. He grew thinner and thinner. He eventually starved to death."
Diana, who had been listening quietly, couldn't believe her ears. Was that really what children were reading? Where did Noah get such a book? He continued speaking in his still calm tone.
"It brings back memories. I read it when I was young. It's a fairy tale that teaches the right lesson: being a picky eater will lead to death."
The children here seem to receive a very rigorous upbringing. That's how Noah grew up. Diana snorted involuntarily. She had long since missed the opportunity to open her eyes. Feeling something trickle down her nose, Diana opened her eyes with a start. She met Noah's eyes, wide-eyed and holding a handkerchief.
“Runny nose...”
“I have a nosebleed.”
It was a far cry from the emotional reunion she had long awaited. Diana felt embarrassed and turned her head away with a blank expression.
“How long did I sleep?”
“You slept for a long time. I know you sleep a lot, but this was too much.”
There was a mixture of grumbling and complaining, filled with the anguish of the past. Only then did Noah's lips loosen as he pinched Diana's nose shut.
“Diana, it’s finally nice to see you again.”
Diana, her nose blocked, answered in a nasal voice.
“I closed my eyes and opened them again, and spring was already here.”
"Yeah. The war ended with the fall of Frogen. This is the Estria Siege."
“Thank goodness. I was sick of war.”
Diana, with Noah's help, drank warm water and leaned her upper body against the headboard. She was in terrible shape after lying down for so long.
He took her hand and intertwined their fingers, rubbing his cheek against the back of her hand.
“I was always afraid of losing you.”
Diana looked at his mournful expression and thought of him as a kitten drenched in rain. A poor white kitten, lost, wandering the streets, drenched in the rain. He'd probably roll around on the street and eventually turn gray. Feeling compassionate, she managed to raise one arm and stroke Noah's hair.
“I understand.”
He lowered his head so that she could touch him, then looked up at her with a cautious face.
"Sorry."
“What is it?”
Noah was silent for a moment, then slowly opened his lips.
"Diana, I lost a friend too. I understand a little bit what it must have felt like when your friends died in the bombing."
"That..."
"I also realized that I wasn't there for you when you were struggling, when you needed me most. You said you wanted me to be your only friend, yet I left you to go off to war, making you anxious and miserable."
Beneath his lowered eyelashes, his blue eyes were shaking precariously.
“And then you made it so I couldn’t even say that I was tired and lonely because it was for your sake.”
Diana stared blankly at Noah. His eyes were flushed, and the long, wet corners of his eyes were wet.
“Noah, you too...”
Diana's words trailed off and then stopped. She pursed her lips, seemingly trying to hold something back. Finally, a sigh and a calm voice emerged.
"You've been through tough times. Wounded and threatened with death on the battlefield."
"I thought I was the only one who would have a hard time. I didn't know you would have a hard time, too."
“I was worried. I didn’t want you to get sick.”
Noah sat up straight and looked down at the IV line hanging from Diana's arm.
"I've been feeling like I've been wronging you for a long time. Because through you, I've come to understand what regret and guilt are."
Diana reached out a hand to Noah and took his. She struggled to sit up on the bed, struggling to keep up, and faced Noah, who was sitting in the chair.
Noah wrapped his arms around her waist to keep her from falling.
“Me too. I’m sorry for making you wait alone.”
She'd never loved anyone deeply or opened her heart easily. She dismissed them as fleeting, fleeting relationships, meaningless relationships that would end at any moment, without regret. They were fleeting, blown away by the wind. All human relationships were like that. But Noah was different. She'd blindly concluded that he was the only one she could be with, and strove to stay together no matter what, even if it meant being far apart. Neither of them knew where such profound feelings had stemmed from. They desperately yearned for them, even if they couldn't understand their own hearts.
"Diana. Was everything I've done up until now just my own selfish desires?"
At Noah's subdued question, Diana's ash-green eyes folded gently like a waning moon. It was Noah's favorite smile.
“Because you love me. That’s why I became greedy.”
The room felt like a world just for the two of them. It was quiet, and they were staring at each other. A ray of sunlight touched Diana's slender shoulder. The warm spring breeze gently swayed her jet-black hair.
"I think it wasn't a love based on a specific reason, but rather a natural assumption. So, Noah, now we're always together. Because I love you, I want to be with you always."
He watched over Diana, who taught him love, deeply imprinted in his heart. The only being he had sought, driven by an instinct engraved like a command, his destiny, his world. It was the moment when his long journey, beginning from a past he could not remember, reached its end.
“I love you, Diana.”
It was a face without any expression.
Diana's reflection in his eyes, which were like an afternoon lake, rippled like waves.
The tears that flowed down fell and soaked her knees.
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