Time Left

To the point that it was even smaller than I'd thought,

the me of that time hadn't noticed at all.

 

"Really, it's too much to come all the way here just to visit me. It's just a cold, you know."

While lying down on her bed, Aqua said that to Rin and I—who'd come to visit with fruit—with a voice that was much more energetic than I had imagined.

"Professor Nina and Yuu are just too overprotective of me. See? I'm not even feverish now."

She took Rin's hand to place against her forehead.

"It's true, she's basically not hot at all."

Rin looked back and reported as such in a surprised tone.

"Do you want to feel too, Mentor?"

"… No, I'll refrain."

I shook my head in response to Aqua and her impish smile.

As a fire dragon, I didn't even need to do it and could tell her body temperature accurately.

Since this world hadn't invented thermometers yet, it was meaningless to tell anyone the numbers, but if I compared it to the standards of my previous life… I guess it would be around 37.2 degrees Celsius.

Barely a fever at all no matter how you looked at it.

Nina had said that it was just a cold and that seemed possible.

Her energy was to the point that I wanted to think that Nina had made a mistake in saying that something was wrong.

Still, I'd noticed.

The difference between the Aqua I'd seen just a little while ago and the one I saw now.

There was no shadow of the youth she'd had.

Even so, the beauty in front of me had grown into a woman who could be called truly beautiful.

I'd originally thought she'd only grown stronger due to having birthed a child.

She'd grown mentally as well… perhaps from the hardships of raising a child.

But still, that wasn't it.

She'd—grown old. Like a human.

She was no longer immortal. Intuitively, I'd realized that.

"You don't need to worry so much, you know."

Aqua said that to me in a relaxed tone as I was in shock.

"I won't die so quickly."

Did she notice that I'd noticed?

"Mentor's a person who doesn't lie, after all."

Aqua laughed in a cackling tone as she looked at me and my inability to answer.

"Somehow, I had a feeling that it changed. When I gave birth to Yuuka, I felt like something changed inside me. I didn't know what it was, and I still don't know now."

Hearing her, I remembered something from my previous life.

The story of water elementals called Undine. Many were said to have been beautiful women and to have had many tragic loves with humans. It was said that Undine were elementals without souls, binding themselves to humans in order to gain one.

Something similar may happen to elves? I'd always thought that these immortal girls were existences more akin to spirits than living creatures.

"But you know? I don't regret it. I'm sure that even if I knew that this would happen, I'd still have given birth to Yuuka."

Quickly placing her hand on her belly, Aqua spoke.

"Because I'm very, very happy."

Aqua's expression, which had softened with her smile, looked the most beautiful it ever had.

──Similar to a smiling child.

"Besides… I might be a junior who's barely even lived a hundred years, but I don't think it's always such a good thing to live a long life."

Aqua smiled at me with a look of nostalgia.

The ten years I've spent in this village were much more fulfilling than the hundred years before that…

Makes sense. Elves were, basically, more relaxed than the trees they inhabited. They didn't have to work the fields or chase down prey every day and just lived in the forest.

Although it could be taken as a utopia, it was beyond boring.

The elves who had come to this village said that the human way of life was too fast-paced. Most of them, Violet included, returned to the forest after a few years because they couldn't keep up with the pace.

"These past five years have been especially dense."

Aqua spoke with a wry yet fearless smile.

I had the thought that this girl might just be one of the toughest people in the village.

 

＊　＊　＊

 

"… Hey, Mentor."

We were on the way back after finishing our visit.

Rin asked me in a voice that was like a whisper as she flew next to me.

"Mentor, what do you think?"

"About Aqua?"

Rin nodded.

"Let me think…"

I exhaled deeply and thought for a moment… and then answered.

"Maybe a little enviable?"

"Enviable?"

She blinked her eyes in a way that made me think that she didn't understand the word.

"Spending the same amount of time with the person you love, living the same way. And then leaving something behind after that. That might be the happiest thing in this world."

At the very least, I couldn't do any of those.

"Same amount of time…"

Rin muttered to herself and seemed to be thinking something over.

"… Ah!"

Realizing something, she suddenly raised her voice.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, nothing at all!"

Rin shook her head, but her body temperature suddenly rose. Since mermaids were a little lower than humans, their body temperature could rise more easily.

"Your temperature is rising. Did you catch a cold?"

I placed a hand on Rin's forehead and it was hot. She didn't seem sick, but it was something that should be taken care of.

"It's nothing, I'm fine, so… just… "

Rin stared at my face as if wanting to say something. Unusual seeing as how she usually didn't an issue finding something to talk about.

"Just… I remembered that Utai talked about something like this is all."

"Utai did?"

My chest tightened at Rin's mention of a nostalgic name.

Utai. Rin's great-grandmother, the first merfolk woman I'd met.

"Oftentimes, very good things and very painful things come hand in hand—is what she said."

Come to think of it, she did say something like that. I think it was right before she died.

How did Rin respond to her again?

"Hey, Mentor? I think I'm going to go on another trip once I can walk with human legs."

"Another?"

Before I was able to pull myself out of reminiscing, Rin suddenly said something like that.

"Because there's something I want to do that I couldn't do before."

"Is it more important than researching magic that lets your transform into a dragon?"

When I asked without thinking, Rin hesitated for a moment, but nodded firmly.

Oh. That's right.

At that time, Utai told Rin to behave however she wanted.

Rin's answer was that she was already doing that.

It sounded lonely, but I should probably let her do whatever she wanted.

"… I understand. But you'll come back, right?"

"Yeah, for sure."

I felt relieved at seeing Rin's cheerful nod.

I'd known Utai for over five hundred years, but we hadn't lived together.

If it was based on the amount of time we'd spent together, I'd been together with Rin for much longer.

I think it's been around… a hundred and forty years since we met?

With thirty of those years spent apart, I'd been together with Rin for a hundred and ten years.

Other than Nina, I've been together with Rin the longest.

Not being able to hear her bright, carefree voice anymore might be more lonely than I thought.

"I'll make sure to contact you regularly this time."

Rin spoke as if she'd somehow peered through to my complicated feelings.

"I'm not so sure, you're pretty forgetful."

"Uuu… i-it'll be fine."

Well aware of the fact, she responded while taking a book out from her bag.

"Because I'll write it down in the book I got from you."

If I wasn't mistaken, that was the first book I'd made from fifteen years ago. It had a red leather cover and was made with the first paper I'd ever produced.

I thought it was so perfect back when I made it, but now that I look at it, it's a bit too simple and the paper is too thick.

"You still have that old thing?"

I don't think I'd seen that thing in five or six years.

"Yup. I'll write it down properly. I'll contact you… this time… for sure… this time!"

She wrote a memo down on the first page of the book and then stuffed it back into her bag with a satisfied look. She was more of a packrat than anything else. She probably hadn't used it much, since if she'd written something in it every day, it would've been filled up in no time.

"Make sure to remember what you wrote."

"Y… yup… It'll be fine… probably."

Seeing Rin's doubtful answer, I smiled.