[Decades of time.]
[Passed in the blink of an eye.]
[Even for you, this span was not short.]
[Inside the pristine white hospital room.]
[You looked at Toru lying on the hospital bed. He had long lost his handsome appearance. His hair was gray, his skin drained of vitality.]
["Humans are truly fragile. In the blink of an eye, they wither away." You sat beside the bed, peeling an apple for him.]
["Cough, cough..." Toru coughed a few times, forcing a faint smile at the corner of his lips. "Didn't I tell you long ago? I wouldn't be able to stay with you for very long."]
[Your hands paused slightly as you peeled the apple.]
[Your voice was calm.]
["It's fine. Just a way to pass these boring years."]
["As long as you can accept it."]
["Thank you. I've actually enjoyed this time quite a lot." You handed the apple to him.]
[Toru took it with his withered hands, reminiscing about the past as he let out a soft laugh.]
[What a time filled with beautiful memories.]
["After I'm gone, things around you will be quieter, won't they?"]
[It's just a long stretch of time ahead, that's all.]
[You lived just fine during those three hundred years without him.]
[No one is truly unable to live without someone else.]
[You looked at his face.]
[A flood of memories poured into your mind...]
[When he was two years old, hiding inside a cardboard box, lifting his head to look at you for the first time.]
[The child slowly grew up, becoming someone you loved.]
[Every good morning he said.]
[Every good night.]
["I'm home."]
["What would you like to eat today?"]
[As time passed, traces of age appeared on his face.]
[No longer young.]
[The grand scene of your wedding. Back then, happiness surged like waves, filling the hollow void in your heart.]
["I love you, Kirie."]
[You once imagined he would accompany you through the rest of your life.]
[Without realizing it, so many memories had already piled up...]
[Your vision gradually blurred.]
[If only you had not saved him.]
[If only you had not fallen in love with him.]
[If only you did not have to experience separation.]
["...No." Your useless tears burst from your eyes.]
[You did not want an ending like this.]
[A hundred years is too short.]
[You did not want to leave him so soon.]
[You cannot live without him. You cannot let go of him. You do not want to experience loneliness again.]
["I don't want you to die. I don't want to be separated from you..." You choked on your words, staring at his blurred figure as your tears soaked the bedsheets.]
[If loving someone means having to face separation.]
[Then why meet in the first place?]
[If you knew you would be hurt, why give your heart so completely?]
[It hurts so much...]
["Seeing you cherish this moment so much... I think I might be able to live a few more years." Toru reached out his wrinkled hand, gently touching your hair.]
["Then stay with me a little longer. Look at me a little longer..." You could not keep up your resolve for more than a few seconds before wiping away the tears spilling from your eyes again.]
[It's fine.]
[There are still many ways.]
[You will definitely be able to save him.]
[The method of turning someone into a vampire can no longer be used due to Toru's frail body.]
[He would die during the transformation.]
[You need to find another way to grant him immortality.]
[At this moment, you recalled the time you once spent wandering, and the immortal elixir you encountered by chance...]
[Why... did you not seize it back then?]
[You clearly had the ability to take it by force, yet because of your arrogance, you gave up competing with the so-called lowly races.]
[That grimoire capable of bestowing the concept of immortality upon humans was also thrown by you into the fireplace, burned to ashes.]
[The ring symbolizing eternity was useless to you, and you cast it aside without mercy.]
[Now, seas have changed and people are no longer the same. Everything is already too late.]
[At this moment, regret flooded your heart.]
[You were given countless chances, yet failed to grasp even a single one.]
[Now, at the moment of parting, you can only be left in utter disarray, crying without restraint.]
[What kind of higher race does that make you?]
[Nothing more than a coward who cannot accept his departure, a narrow-minded and weak person who simply longs to keep walking beside him.]
[You sobbed, burying your face as you cried. "Please, don't leave me."]
["I know of a spell that can... sob... extend your lifespan. I will save you."]
[Toru used his rough fingers to wipe away your tears.]
["It's alright, Kirie. I will stay with you until the end of your life."]
[This was the promise he made.]
...
[In order to extend Toru's life, you temporarily left Japan and set foot in Europe.]
[Because of Toru's physical condition, you could not subject him to long travel, and could only go alone to a foreign land.]
[You traveled from place to place, gathering information.]
[Over the course of the following year, there was no useful news at all.]
[Left with no choice, you sought out an old friend, hoping to find a breakthrough through her.]
["An elixir of immortality?"]
["Yeah. I need to save someone."]
["Back then, you scoffed at the potions I made, and now you come begging me. That's really quite funny."]
[Faced with the witch's mockery, you lowered your head and offered no rebuttal.]
[At this point, what use was arrogance anyway?]
[You only wanted to save the one you loved.]
["Do you know, when I learned decades ago that you were raising a human, I already advised you not to develop unnecessary feelings?" The witch let out a few mocking laughs.]
["Enough talk. Help me make the potion."]
["I can't do that." The witch explained that most of the ingredients used to prolong life had lost their natural habitats due to pollution from human industrialization.]
This excuse was way too casual.
And not fantastical at all.
Kagarino Kirie's sorrowful mood eased slightly.
["...Is there really no way at all?"]
["Nope." The witch tilted her head and suggested, "How about... you raise a new one instead? Out with the old, in with the new. Change your taste a little."]
[As her words fell, you looked at her with a gaze terrifying enough to kill.]
["Tch, why are you taking it so seriously?" The witch put down the grimoire in her hands.]
[With no success in finding a cure, you had no choice but to seek another path.]
[Before you left.]
[The witch told you that in a nearby town, there seemed to be the ring you had once casually discarded.]
[Following her directions.]
[It did not take you long to find the ring that could grant immortality, inside an old, dilapidated house.]
[You booked the earliest flight and prepared to return home immediately.]
[As long as you returned to Japan, you could use the ring to grant him immortality and stay by his side for the rest of your life.]
[In order to tell Toru this good news.]
[The moment you got off the plane, you called his phone.]
[Beep.]
[Beep.]
[Several minutes passed.]
[...There was no answer.]