Side Story 55. [After Story] Lilly
Imperial Year 702.
Fifty years since the final battle against the Beasts.
Everblack Empire. Southern Crossroad.
Lilly’s home.
Once again, autumn had deepened.
Even the forest beside Lilly’s home was adorned in vibrant foliage.
Just a few months ago, the trees had been lush and green, but now their leaves were painted in shades of crimson and gold, as if that lushness had been a lie.
A dusting of snow fell upon the autumn leaves.
Though it was still technically late autumn, winter seemed impatient, scattering snowflakes recklessly. White snow blanketed the leaves that had not yet fallen like a warm quilt.“…”
Lilly quietly gazed at the scene through the window.
Even now, during this time when winter approached, her heart would flutter.
She no longer hoped for anything, nor did she wait.
“Grandma!”
Just then, a knock sounded at the door, and a blonde girl bounded in.
“Look, Grandma! It’s snowing!”
It was her granddaughter, Flos.
“It’s the first snow of the year!”
“Goodness. If it’s snowing, you should be dressed warmer.”
Lilly brushed the snow off Flos’s hair and shoulders with her hand.
“Weren’t you cold on the way here?”
“Not at all! Just thinking about seeing you made me feel all warm!”
“You little wild colt.”
Lilly chuckled softly and led Flos into the house.
“I baked your favorite pie, since you said you were coming.”
“Yay! I love your pie, Grandma!”
“You’re just using me as an excuse to eat the pie, aren’t you?”
“Aww~ Come on, I love you more! The pie is just a bonus~”
The grandmother and granddaughter laughed as they pulled the freshly baked pie from the oven.
“Wow, this is so good, Grandma! What’s your secret?”
Flos took a bite and asked with wide eyes. Lilly smiled as she poured the tea.
“There’s plenty, so take your time. You’ll get a stomachache if you rush.”
Lilly quietly watched her granddaughter, cheeks puffed out, devouring the pie.
After retiring from her post as a lord’s aide,
Lilly had been living a quiet life.
Her once-red hair had turned white, and age spots bloomed on her wrinkled face. Without glasses, she could barely see. Her movements had slowed to the point that even stepping outside was a struggle.
To support her, visitors came daily.
Evangeline and Lucas, of course, and Junior, Hecate, and even Damien — her old comrades.
Her son Sid, daughter-in-law Sapphire, and her granddaughter Flos, too.
Among them, Flos visited most often. She claimed it was because the pie was too good to resist, but Lilly knew the truth — the girl simply didn’t want her to feel lonely.
“Grandma, tell me another story today!”
“Hehe, don’t you ever get tired of hearing them every day?”
“Not at all! They’re always exciting. Please? Just one more!”
Flos would often ask for stories like this over tea with Lilly.
At first, Lilly had been unsure, but eventually, she found herself speaking of the past with ease.
Enough time had passed that even those memories no longer ached.
“Alright. What kind of story should I tell you today…”
Lilly had spent three full years on the Monster Front.
There was no shortage of tales to tell, but Flos especially loved the romance stories.
How her grandmother and grandfather had met, and how they had fallen in love.
Once, even the memories had been painful to recall. But now, Lilly had grown comfortable with them. She shared her love story, adding just enough flavor to make it fun.
How she met Kalail. How she came to like him. How they fought. And how, in the end, they became one.
And what promise he left behind before he disappeared.
She glossed over the painful parts, expanding on the romantic moments she knew her granddaughter would enjoy.
Flos covered her mouth in awe as she listened.
“My grandma was seriously wild back in the day!”
“Haha, of course. Back when I was young, I wasn’t to be trifled with.”
Lilly exaggerated with a playful shrug as she cleared the empty teacups, humming a soft tune.
No song unsung, no wine untasted
There was no song she hadn’t sung, no wine she hadn’t tasted.
“…”
She stopped there, leaving the next line unspoken.
Setting down the empty cup, Lilly murmured quietly.
“It hurts… but yes. Those were good days.”
Memories were just that — memories. And now, she could leave them untouched.
Enough to share them with her granddaughter like this.
No longer hoping, nor waiting, nor hurting.
It had taken a long time, but finally—
“…”
Tea time ended.
After helping Lilly clean the kitchen, Flos patted her full stomach and waved.
“I’ll come visit again, Grandma!”
“Alright. Be careful on your way back — it’s snowing.”
“Hehe. Okay! See you later!”
Flos bounded to the door and winked playfully, blowing a kiss.
The door opened and shut. Lilly, who had been waving toward the door, let out a small chuckle.
“She’s going to trip one of these days hopping around like that…”
Turning her wheelchair back into the house, Lilly was greeted by a heavy, still air.
Her guest had left, and now, what was there to do?
It was already afternoon. Nearly evening. With winter just around the corner, night would fall early.
Maybe she’d eat the leftover pie, read a bit, and fall asleep.
And then, and then again…
“…”
She closed her dimming eyes for a moment, then opened them once more.
Lilly wheeled herself toward the kitchen. There were still a few things left to tidy up.
And then—
Creak—
The door to the house opened.
A chill winter wind swept into the room.
Lilly, assuming Flos had come back, continued cleaning without looking back.
“What is it, sweetheart? Did you forget something?”
“…”
“Should I pack some leftover pie? Want to take some to your maternal grandmother?”
But the person said nothing.
Just as Lilly turned toward the open door in confusion—
“Lady Lilly.”
That voice.
So dearly missed it had become unfamiliar. It echoed through the house.
Lilly froze in place.
Unable to believe it, she didn’t even breathe.
The voice gently called her name once more.
“Lady Lilly.”
Lilly shook her head.
“…That’s impossible.”
Her voice trembled. She couldn’t bring herself to look back.
“There’s no way you could have come back.”
“Lilly…”
“I know you’re gone!”
She bowed her head and clenched her teeth.
“You died that day. I insisted on declaring you missing.”
“…”
“That promise… that you’d be back before winter ended… it was your last lie. A lie from a man who couldn’t help but lie to make me feel better.”
So she wouldn’t be crushed by guilt.
So she could go on living alone.
Lilly had known it was a lie.
She only pretended not to know… so she could keep waiting.
“So it’s a lie. You’re dead. That day, at the forward base…”
“Lady Lilly.”
Step. Step.
Footsteps entered the house and came closer.
At last, Lilly slowly turned around.
“…A lie.”
There stood a man, unchanged from fifty years ago.
His pale green hair danced in the winter breeze. His eyes, a mix of green and brown, gently curved as he smiled at her.
Kalail opened his arms and whispered,
“I’ve come back.”
Lilly shook her trembling head.
“I’ve finally gone senile. I’m so old I’m seeing things.”
“I’m not an illusion. I’m really here.”
Kalail took another step toward her, and Lilly hastily covered her face.
“Don’t come any closer!”
“…Lilly.”
“Whether you’re a ghost or a hallucination or whatever…”
Lilly trembled, trying desperately to hide herself.
“I don’t want you to see me like this… old and worn-out.”
“What are you talking about?”
Kalail slowly knelt before her, his smile gentle.
“To me, you’re still the most beautiful person in the world.”
“…”
“So please. Let me see your face. I’ve missed you.”
Lilly slowly lowered her hands.
And there was Kalail’s face, right in front of her.
That soft smile she had longed for all her life.
Unable to hold back any longer, Lilly threw her arms around his neck.
“Why… why did it take you so long to come back?”
Tears streamed down Lilly’s wrinkled cheeks.
“I waited so long. I… I missed you so much.”
“I’m sorry.”
“If only you’d come a few years earlier. No, even just a few months, or one single day sooner. I really thought you were gone. All those long years…”
Lilly sobbed into his shoulder.
“I raised our child all alone.”
“…”
“I gave birth, changed diapers, listened to babbling, watched the first steps, sent them to school… And that child grew up so fast, got married, had a grandchild. Through every one of those moments—”
Fifty years passed before her eyes like a rushing waterfall.
Tears poured from Lilly’s fading eyes.
“I always wished you were beside me.”
Kalail gently wiped her tears with the tips of his fingers.
“I’m sorry for leaving you to face it all alone.”
“Everything was hard. But the hardest thing… was living without ever seeing you again.”
Lilly, with trembling hands, cupped Kalail’s cheek.
“And now, seeing you again like this… Are you really… really Kalail?”
“It’s really me, Lady Lilly.”
Kalail softly clasped the hand she had placed on his cheek.
“I’m sorry I kept you waiting so long.”
He wiped away her endless tears, then slowly stood and reached out his hand to her.
“Come on. Let’s go.”
“Go…? Where?”
“Don’t you remember what I said?”
Kalail scratched his cheek, shyly.
“Elven-style marriage. I said I found a wonderful tree, didn’t I? That we’d set up our wedding chamber on its branches.”
“…”
“Come now. It might be a bit of a struggle, but I promise it’ll be worth it.”
Kalail walked ahead toward the open door and reached out his hand.
“Lady Lilly. I know I’m terribly late, but let me ask you one more time.”
With that familiar sheepish smile, he asked in the same bashful voice he had once used—
The question she couldn’t answer at their parting.
The question she had regretted not answering her entire life.
“Will you marry me?”
Lilly held her breath, closed her eyes tight, then opened them.
She pushed her wheelchair toward the door.
Beyond it, a snow-covered white world stretched before her, and Kalail waited at the edge of the forest.
As she moved toward him, her wheelchair slipped on the snowy path and tipped.
But Lilly did not fall.
Because she was already standing on her own two feet.
Lilly’s once-white hair turned red again. The age spots vanished from her face, and her wrinkles smoothed away.
Just like she had been fifty years ago, when she was with the one she loved.
Even as the tears streaming down her cheeks didn’t stop, she smiled more brightly than at any other time in her life.
Lilly ran.
Barefoot, she flew across the snowy field.
And with all her strength, she embraced the lover who had waited for her.
Lilly went missing.
A large search party scoured the winter forest, but no trace of her was ever found.
Only her worn-out wheelchair — the one she had used all her life — was discovered fallen at the forest’s edge.
As if by magic, Lilly had vanished from the world.
At Sid’s request, no funeral was held for her.
Instead, she was added to the list of the missing, alongside the many heroes of the front line from fifty years ago.
“…”
Sid stood before the monument to the missing, erected at the war memorial.
Next to the name of his father, engraved long ago, his mother’s name had now been newly inscribed.
Looking at it, Sid offered a faint smile.
There was no funeral, but those who remembered Lilly gathered to honor her memory.
She had been the lead mage on the Monster Front.
The chief overseer of the Fortress Artifacts.
A veteran who had fought beside Emperor Ash, from the war’s first battle to its last.
She had served as aide to the lord of Crossroad for forty years.
She had raised a child alone.
She was a beloved neighbor and a respected elder.
And more than anything, she had been a great challenger who faced her life without running away.
“…”
Everyone who gathered to remember Lilly tried their best to hold back tears, but Flos cried a lot.
After the gathering dispersed and she finally calmed down,
Flos sat on a hill with Sid, looking out over the winter forest.
“Where do you think Grandma really went?”
She sniffled as she asked, and Sid answered with a calm voice.
“The last remnants of magic in this world, pooled in that forest… are gone now.”
Over the long years,
Even the lingering traces of magic he had watched all his life vanished — along with Lilly.
“Maybe, as a final farewell from magic to this world, it granted one last miracle. Just for your grandmother.”
“A miracle…?”
“Yeah. A miracle meant for her and no one else.”
Sid turned to Flos and smiled gently.
“That’s what I believe.”
Father and daughter sat in silence for a while, gazing at the snow-covered forest.
“…”
Sid called it a miracle of magic, but Flos believed something else.
That her grandfather had truly returned.
That he had come back at last, to fulfill a promise to his beloved. That even though it had taken so long, he had made it back — and they had reunited.
That hand in hand, the two of them had gone off together to build their wedding chamber somewhere deep within that forest.
That after such a long, long wait, they had finally found happiness…
That was what she chose to believe.
–TL Notes–
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