Chapter 222: Now, It’s My Turn to Chase After Your Footsteps
“Although an eternity separates us, you stand at one end of history, while I remain at the other.”
“But I know, fate has already given me a sign in the dark… Brother Rast, you are watching my shadow from across the river of time.”
“Then, although it’s a bit sudden——”
“This shall be our final farewell.”
Grey’s voice flowed downward along the currents of time, growing increasingly faint and distant, nearly inaudible.
“To be honest, bidding this world farewell like this, and drifting forever in the deepest parts of the Starry Sea… my heart does feel a little reluctant.”
“I had hoped that at some moment in the future, I might meet Brother Rast again—after he had completely grown up and fully matured.”
“But if I had not made that third wish… If I had not liberated the historical echoes recorded within the Eternal Night Stele and merged them into a new Old World…”
“If I had not passed on the spark of the 『The Fool’s Library』 to you, Brother Rast, when you were still so young… If I had not hidden you within the historical echoes of the Night World, enabling you to wait through endless time for the opportunity to return to the rightful point in time——”
“Then maybe, the Brother Rast who once appeared like the wind in Frozenwater Town, and vanished just as swiftly… might never have existed in the first place?”
There was no overwhelming sadness in her voice—only a trace of sentimentality, and resolute acceptance.
“『Fate』, huh……”
“Even though I myself am a child of fate, an angel upon this long staircase of the Fate Sequence, even now I cannot help but marvel at its impermanence.”
“If Brother Rast had never arrived at Frozenwater Town back then—had never reached out his hand to that pitiful, ignorant me who resembled a wild cub, who didn’t even know how to cry out for help from others—then the ‘Shoreguard’, the ‘Angel of Fate’, Grey, would never have been born.”
“I would never have had a proper name. I would’ve remained with that ridiculous nickname ‘Little Grey’, slowly aging in the never-ending mist of Frozenwater Town, dying one day unnoticed by the world.”
“And if I, despairing after becoming an angel, had not made my second wish—‘for Brother Rast to come to my side immediately’——then you would not have inherited the 『The Fool’s Library』 either.”
“Perhaps you would have still lived in that little town called ‘Canaan’, married Little Ai, your childhood friend, raised children, grown older bit by bit… living a simple, ordinary, yet happy life. You wouldn’t have stepped into the transcendent world, nor witnessed the magnificent landscapes of the future.”
“Fate… really is astonishing.”
“It binds us tightly across the span of millennia, across different eras, when we should have never intersected at all…”
“All these things that jumbled the logical sequence like a serpent biting its own tail—have been stitched back into a perfect, closed loop.”
Grey spoke on, recklessly, disregarding the rushing current of time at her side, ignoring the historical Soul Imprint around her that was continuously fading… and completely overlooking the fact that she was rapidly descending—from an angel’s status, falling to that of an ordinary person.
Both Brother Rast and Grey understood perfectly in their hearts——this was already the end of everything, the final end.
There would be no tomorrow. No more from this moment onward.
This was also their last chance to speak with one another.
Perhaps in a few dozen seconds, or maybe just a few seconds, Grey would be cast away by the torrent of fate, exiled to the deepest part of the Starry Sea… while Brother Rast would be swept up by the great river of time, pulled away from the historical echoes of the Night World, and returned to his rightful time.
Therefore, in this moment, Grey set aside her pride as both an angel and the leader of the Shoreguards. She set aside all distractions.
She simply gazed quietly downstream along the river of time, converting the blazing emotion in her heart into the truest words—confessing them without reservation.
“To be frank, it’s hard to let go… hard to let go of you, Brother Rast, and hard to let go of this world…”
“Though the civilization of the Sixth Era has already collapsed, there will always be new seeds sprouting, growing from the ruins of the Old Civilization, eventually blooming once more.”
“I had hoped to witness that brand new era and its new civilization alongside you, Brother Rast… to meet countless people and events with you.”
“Of course, by your side, there is still Aimeith. If it’s Little Ai, I’m sure she’ll do far better than I ever could……”
Her voice paused briefly: “At the very least, to be able to bid farewell to you like this, Brother Rast, sincerely and solemnly—it’s a small comfort.”
“And this is indeed something I should do.”
“『A soldier’s duty is to use their own body to pave the way for the hero』—that’s what Sister Shadow Servant once told me.”
“And she truly lived by those words. Just like Leader Sisel, she used her life to pave the way forward for me—who was still young and immature at the time.”
“Then now, it’s finally my turn, isn’t it?”
“Grey, the one who stood as a『hero』, has already stepped off the stage. And before I completely exit as well, what I can do… is to pave the way for you, Brother Rast, and Aimeith, for the next generation.”
“To believe in the wisdom of those who come after, to believe in the power of passing the torch—”
“Even if it is but a faint spark from the past, one day it will still grow into a wildfire that spreads across the land.”
“Just like what the Shoreguards of past generations once did.”
Within the dazzling, surging afterglow of the stars, the grey-haired girl gently waved her hand.
“Well then, Brother Rast.”
“One last thing—can you tell me the answer to that question?”
Her voice wandered amidst the endless starlight.
“The me of now……”
“Have I become a worthy Shoreguard, one you can be proud of?”
……
The roaring river of time washed away the last remnants of Aimeith’s power—and carried off Grey’s unfinished words.
Brother Rast was swept away by the flowing time, pulled toward the downstream of the long river of history.
Within the flowing current of fate and radiance, the slender figure of the grey-haired girl gradually receded, drifting toward the end of the Starry Sea.
Brother Rast instinctively reached out his hand, wanting to grasp that distant figure of Grey.
But in the end, his gesture only clutched at emptiness.
Time was slow, yet could never be reversed.
He simply stood at the upper reaches of the long river of time, watching Grey’s back grow smaller and smaller—until it vanished entirely.
This was the price demanded by fate in return for Grey’s third wish—that『Grand Wish to Fate』of opening the Night World——
To fall from the status of an angel, to lose all the Soul Imprints left behind in the river of time, and to drift forever in the deepest part of the Starry Sea.
“Of course, you were worthy.”
Brother Rast softly opened his mouth and gave the answer to the question Grey had asked.
Even though he knew, perhaps, she could no longer hear it.
“The person you are now, no longer needs to look to me as your role model.”
He once more recalled that woman who had embraced him in the fire, smiling so beautifully.
“Now, it’s my turn……”
“To chase after the footsteps you’ve left behind.”