He was always smiling.
Even when irrational situations befell him and despair came pouring down, he smiled and pushed through.
Back then, I liked his smile without giving it much thought.
But now I knew.
Unlike his smiling mouth, his eyes were always filled with exhaustion and resignation.
There had been something precarious about him.
He was someone who would collapse if he did not force himself to smile.
He had wanted, at any moment, to lay down everything he carried.
And yet, he...
***
His name was Evan.
He had a cheerful voice and a smile. Evan’s mouth was smiling, but his eyes looked at her indifferently.
As though he were appraising an object.
“Let’s see... Which one is the Eye of Death? The gold one? Or the pink one? Or is it just both?”
With the hand he had used to wipe away Haze’s tears, Evan rubbed around her eyes.
Flinch—!
Whenever another person’s body heat touched her, a strange feeling spread through her.
Her face grew hot.
It felt like a faint current of electricity starting from her spine and spreading through her whole body.
“...Ngh—!”
The face reflected in her pupils drew even closer.
It was the first time she had ever seen another living being from this close.
She could see herself reflected in his eyes.
Her mouth was hanging open, and her eyes were unfocused. Since when had her face turned red?
It was an unsightly appearance.
“Ngh... I don’t like it.”
Feeling something like embarrassment, she pushed him away with her arms.
“Are you crazy? What do you take a person for, shoving me like that?”
“...”
A person...? Was he not an elf with short ears?
She felt as though she had heard of them before from the blurred beings that sometimes came to visit.
Perhaps they had called them a race known as humans.
Haze stared blankly at him.
A man with black hair, black eyes, and short ears. An appearance completely different from an elf’s.
It was just as the blurred beings had whispered.
The one who had come to her was not one of her kin, who had abandoned her, but a human.
“...Pink...”
“Huh?”
“The one... that sees... death... is... the pink... eye...”
Her voice, answering him, shrank away.
Haze was so embarrassed she wanted to die. She lowered her head and averted her gaze.
She had never experienced anything like interacting with another person.
She was ashamed of her cracked voice, her clumsy words that came out differently from what she intended, and the fact that even meeting his eyes was difficult.
Her whole body grew hot. She wanted to run away at once and throw herself into the lake.
Even so, she had to endure it.
Haze tightened her grip on her clothes.
“Then the one connected to the World Tree must be the gold one.”
The World Tree...? He said something she could not understand. Born cursed, she had only the Eye of Death.
The fact that she had been abandoned in this dreadful place was proof of that.
She lifted her gaze from the ground.
He was stroking his chin. He looked like he was thinking.
Their eyes met.
She quickly lowered her head. Her disheveled, trailing, pure-white hair spilled down. It covered her vision, if only slightly. She felt a little more at ease.
“This is what makes it pretty interesting. Different from the version I knew, yet the same.”
“...?”
Piiiiiiip—!
All of a sudden, a sharp noise spread through the forest.
“Ah. They found me already? They’re only quick on the uptake at times like this. They should move that briskly normally too, tsk.”
After grumbling, he lightly tapped his shadow with his foot. Like ripples on a lake, his shadow began to waver.
“Still, I’ve already marked the coordinates. Then I’ll be off.”
“You’re... going...?”
Evan waved his hand at Haze.
The other person who had appeared like a miracle was about to vanish.
Forgetting even her embarrassment, Haze got up and lunged at him.
Squeeze—!
She gripped his arm with all her strength.
Please don’t go. Just a little. Just a little more conversation.
“Hey, could you not glare at me so scarily? Seriously, former bosses are all like this.”
Thwack—!
“!!!?”
There was an impact on one spot of her forehead. A finger flick.
It was the first time she had ever felt physical pain as well. At yet another new experience, the hand that had been gripping him loosened.
“See you tomorrow.”
With a laugh, he disappeared into the shadow. His presence could no longer be felt anywhere.
Appearing so suddenly and disappearing just as suddenly, he had been like a sweet dream.
It was a situation that did not feel real, but fortunately, he had left a trace behind.
Haze brushed her fingers over the red mark he had left on her forehead.
When she touched the spot where she had been flicked, her delicate skin was slightly swollen.
Every time she touched the mark, she felt a faint, tingling pain.
Brush... brush...
“...Tomorrow...”
After she had been touching it for a long while, she sensed gazes beyond the dreadful maze of the forest.
Her kin.
Her kin pointed at her with their hands and conversed with one another about something. Their voices did not reach her.
She turned her eyes to look at them.
“...!!”
Haze’s gaze met the elves’ gazes. The elves hurriedly startled and left.
“Ha... ha... cow... ards...”
Unlike the human named Evan, the elves, who were her own kin, were still afraid of her.
A laugh escaped her.
She did not know why, but she felt pleasant.
For the first time, Haze fell asleep peacefully without dreaming, neither dreams nor nightmares.
When she awoke, her body felt more refreshed than ever before.
Though it was a dreadful forest where she could see neither proper light nor the sky, something felt different.
On the newly arrived day, Haze waited only for Evan to come.
Passing time was her specialty.
Because in this dreadful forest, the only thing she could do was stay still.
Unlike the kin who had abandoned her, Evan had said he would see her tomorrow. She believed he would surely come.
Huuuuuu...!
Contrary to Haze’s hopes, the first to come to her were the blurred beings.
“...Go... away...”
Her settled heart dropped to the floor. The blurred beings were unpleasant.
Even if she waved her hand to drive them off, their forms only scattered for a moment; they did not disappear.
She hated the blurred beings. Those unpleasant things always whispered words of curse to her.
Today was the same.
— ...Death... salva... tion... impos... sible...
— A... fixed... fate...
— Ac... cept... us...
No. The blurred beings had changed from before.
Had it been wrong to feel happiness, even for a moment? The blurred beings shook her more violently than ever before.
— A gap... in... your heart...
— At... last... final... ly...
Unlike before, the whispers of the blurred beings became clear.
Those things like blurry mist began to cling around Haze.
She tried desperately to get away. But her legs would not move, as though they had been nailed to the ground.
— Ac... cept...
Along with the whispers, resentful thoughts began to flow into her.
“No... I don’t... I don’t... I don’t!! Go... away!!”
Filthy, unpleasant thoughts encroached upon Haze. They forced their way into the gap that had opened in her heart.
Your blessed life was cursed. You must exercise your rightful revenge and dye the world in death. Nothing can stop us. The prophet who leads the world to death—that is your fate. Accept it.
Accept it. Accept it. Accept it. Accept it. Accept it. Accept it. Accept it. Accept it. Accept it. Accept it. Accept it. Accept it. Accept it. Accept it. Accept it. Accept it. Accept it. Accept it.
“Accept it. Accept it. Accept it. Ac... cept... it.”
Whoosh—!
“Ac... cept...?”
The whispers vanished. It was the sound of something being swung.
Haze lifted the head she had buried in her knees. The wind scattered her hair.
Through the strands of hair, she saw Evan.
He lightly swung a massive greatsword with one hand. It was tremendous strength.
Every time Evan swung his sword, the blurred beings that had clung around Haze screamed.
It was some kind of special sword. A sharp energy could be felt from the massive greatsword.
The blurred beings, who had laughed at Haze even when she tried desperately to shake them off, feared touching that sword.
— ...! No...!
— Almost... all... accepted...
“Get lost. I called dibs first, and now you’re trying to outbid me? You wanna die, huh?”
— !! We... were... first...
“Yeah, your mom.”
When he swung his sword one last time, all the remaining blurred beings disappeared.
Holding the massive greatsword, Evan smiled at her.
“Hello, Haze. This is only the second time we’ve met, but you’re crying every time I see you.”
“...I’m... sorry...”
“It’s not something you need to apologize for. Mm, more importantly, your hair’s so long it’s hard to see your face.”
Evan approached Haze, who had collapsed. He took hold of Haze’s long hair, straightened it out, and arranged it to either side.
“That’s much better with your hair tidied up. I can see your eyes properly too.”
“...Thank... you...”
Evan chuckled.
“Haze. I know the prophecy about you. The one that says you’ll one day lead the world of Adenia to ruin.”
The prophecy. The reason she had been confined here.
After speaking of the prophecy, Evan lifted the greatsword.
I see.
Haze understood.
The one who had come like a miracle had not come to save her, but to end the cycle of her life.
Still, at least let it end without pain...
Haze closed her eyes and waited for his greatsword.
“Goodbye... It was... short... but I had... fun...”
Thud—!
At the sound that shook the ground, Haze opened her eyes. Evan had not struck her head.
He had planted the greatsword into the ground.
“What are you doing?”
Evan let out a baffled laugh.
Thwack—!
“...!!!”
Evan struck Haze on the crown of her head.
“What, do you think I’m a murderer? Treating a good-natured hero like that. That won’t do. You’re getting one more.”
Thwaaack—!!
“...Ngh—!! It... hurts.”
A bump formed on the crown of her head. It hurt.
Tears welled up in Haze’s eyes.
“I hit you so it would hurt.”
Evan drew back his hand and jerked his chin toward the greatsword he had planted.
“If you stay near the sword, the spirits won’t approach. It’s a precious demon-slaying blade I went through quite a bit of trouble to get.”
“More importantly—” Evan knelt and met Haze’s eyes.
Evan’s black eyes and Haze’s gold and pink eyes met each other.
“Haze, about that prophecy. Doesn’t it piss you off? What the hell do they mean, ruin? As if saving the world weren’t draining enough. They’re the ones creating the ending where you become the Nether King.”
The prophecy that said she, born with the cursed Eye of Death, would lead the world to ruin.
Evan was angrier about it than she was.
“...But... I... have... the Eye... of Death...”
At first, Haze, confined in this dreadful place, had been angry.
She had resented the kin who abandoned her.
Simply for being born, for possessing an Eye of Death she had never wanted, she had been abandoned. She had resented them and been enraged.
More than once, she had dreamed nightmares of slaughtering all of her kin who spoke of the prophecy.
But as time passed, Haze had resigned herself and accepted it.
Because the Eye of Death truly was dangerous.
Just now, if Evan had not appeared, she would have been seized by the grudges of the blurred beings.
In the end, it had been proven that the First Daughter’s prophecy was not wrong.
“That’s none of my business.”
“...What...?”
But he smiled as though it was nothing at all.
“Tell predetermined ruin and prophecies and all that crap to go screw themselves. I’m aiming for a happy ending, you see?”
Heat began to gather in his emotionless eyes.
“So, Haze, I’ve got a plan to land a good blow on the bastards who locked you up here. Want to hear it?”
At his solemn tone, Haze swallowed without realizing it.
Gulp—
“...What... kind of... plan...?”
Hahahahahahaha—!
Evan laughed loudly enough for it to echo through the forest.
Whatever he found so amusing, tears had even gathered at the corners of his eyes.
“We’re going to save the world.”