By Zephyria 
I was about to smack Aska, whom I liked despite my feelings, on the back, but I stopped. He was already practically a corpse; I couldn’t bring myself to hurt him more. Still, I couldn’t just stand by and do nothing, so I ended up vigorously rubbing his back to calm him down.
“If you think you want to be a corpse, you become one?”
Come to think of it, Aska had said something similar a while ago. He said that once he decided he didn’t want to drink blood, he somehow didn’t need to anymore.
Ophelia pondered my question for a long time before finally speaking.
“Aska, when you get down to it, is practically a naturally occurring new species.”
“But earlier you said he was an artificially created chimera? And to be naturally occurring, shouldn’t he at least be able to reproduce?”
That was the only way to form a group that could be called a species. But chimeras couldn’t reproduce, or so I’d been told. Ophelia nodded and continued.
“That’s how it was at first. That’s why they designed it so that the mission would be carried on through inherited memories. But at some point, a child was born in one of the generations.”
“…….”
“It was a miracle. Or perhaps a misfortune.”
It was a complex feeling that couldn’t be described with a single word. What would it be like to repeat life while holding onto memories that never disappeared, even after death? What would someone like that feel when they saw their own child born?
Then, suddenly, I turned to look at Aska. I was sure I was in those eternal memories too.
“I don’t know what happened after that. I may know a lot, but compared to what you know, it’s just a speck of dust.”
“Me? This is the first I’m hearing of it. I haven’t even dreamed about anything like that.”
“That’s because you haven’t recovered all your memories yet. Once you perform the final ritual, you’ll know all the secrets of this world.”
For some reason, I got goosebumps as soon as I heard those words. Aska, who was keenly aware of it even though I hadn’t changed my expression or groaned, wrapped his arms around my waist and hugged me.
Resting my chin on his solid shoulder, I wanted to say something, but I couldn’t make a sound in the end.
“There must have been quite a few such incidents over countless years. So I can’t guarantee what the characteristics of this chimera are. My judgment is that it’s most appropriate to define it as an extremely rare, uninvestigated, naturally occurring species.”
My expectation that he was just a unique Magical creature was completely off. Talk of world secrets and the end of the world… It was too much of a story for my brain to follow.
“Don’t you already know how to recover your memories?”
“I think I do, but I also think I don’t…….”
Even after hearing these words, Aska remained calm, as if nothing was wrong. He didn’t seem to be taking it very seriously.
Was it just that he was happy to be able to grow old and die with me, so nothing else mattered? This wasn’t just a matter of us dying sooner or later.
“I called you here because I was worried about that. It’s taking too long to recover your memories.”
Ophelia looked up at the blue sky.
“From the moment the miracle happened, the rules of the world were already broken. Since something that should never have changed has changed, it’s practically over now.”
Hugging Aska and trying to calm my confused mind, I frowned and turned my head.
“What’s over?”
“The world is like an infinitely complex set of gears that mesh together perfectly. Even if it’s just one tiny gear, the moment a slight misalignment occurs, everything will eventually stop working. It’s just a matter of how long it takes.”
There was something strange about Ophelia’s words. Her words sounded as if it was already irreversible. I stared blankly at her, then asked, just in case.
“Are you saying the world is going to end?”
“To be precise, it’s in the process of ending.”
“Oh…….”
I was a little impressed, then said again.
“Okay, I get that, but can you check if my wound can be healed first? My chest was opened and my heart was taken out. But you can’t treat it because of me.”
I said it with the most pitiful expression I could muster, full of worry. I hoped Ophelia would feel at least a little sympathy. She looked at me for a long time with a subtle expression, then sighed.
“A heart is too much of a human perspective…….”
Ophelia looked at Aska. I turned my gaze as well, and my eyes met Aska’s. He seemed uninterested in the situation, as if he had been watching me all along.
“Aska has lived as a human for longer, so I think he expressed it as a heart, but it’s not a heart, it’s a medium.”
“A medium?”
“Imagine you have to fill a jar with a hole in the bottom. If you drop it in one drop at a time, the water will leak out faster than you can fill it. You have to pour it in with a big bucket to at least maintain the status quo.”
I couldn’t help but frown at those words.
“Are you saying I’m a broken jar?”
“Yes, and if the jar is empty, you’ll die, so Aska is pouring life force into it with a bucket. You can think of the heart that Aska mentioned as that bucket. A passage for quickly injecting a large amount of life force.”
She was euphemistically comparing me to a leech sucking Aska’s life force. I had already expected it, but it felt worse to hear it from a third party.
Aska had told me to be grateful rather than sorry, and I had promised to do so, but it wasn’t as easy as I thought.
Hiding my rapidly sinking feelings, I looked at Aska and asked.
“Then why did you make a wound in my chest? Was that bucket inside my chest?”
It wasn’t Aska who answered, but Ophelia.
“The human heart is there, so he probably imitated it roughly. But there was no need to physically take it out.”
“…….”
“That’s why I said he was ignorant.”
There was no need to tear the flesh and take it out? Aska added, seeing my bewildered expression.
“Anyway, it’s all sorted out, so it’s okay. I thought it was a bit strange when I took it out.”
“What shape?”
“It just looked like a round, small, red pebble, so I thought I was a bit different because I was a Magical creature.”
“…….”
As Ophelia said, there was no other way to describe it but ignorant.
“Whatever else, I can definitely treat the wounded area.”
I stared at her with wide eyes at those words. I thought that in the worst case, Aska might have to live like this for the rest of his life, but thankfully that wasn’t the case.
“Then please treat it. It keeps throbbing and it hurts a lot.”
“Not a lot. Just a little bit.”
The clueless Aska kept adding a word or two since earlier. I squeezed and released the hand I was holding, meaning for him to stay still.
“It hurts.”
At the whining words, as if he had been waiting for them, I could only sigh.
“Then let’s get the treatment done first. Kyle seems to care more about your wound than the world ending.”
She had lived a long time, so her insight was great.
¸.•¨•¸.•¨•¸.•¨•¸
Ophelia took us to the deepest part of the forest. We walked for a long time through a dark forest where the densely grown trees covered the sky and not a single ray of light entered.
The further we went inside, the more the grass, flowers, and even the trees glowed faintly, and the darkness soon disappeared. And there was something like a pit, but when I looked closely, it was a lake. The water was so clear and there were no ripples, so I could see all the way to the bottom without any obstruction.
“Take off your coats and go in.”
Before Ophelia could finish speaking, I took off Aska’s clothes myself. But Aska looked somehow reluctant.
“If I go in here, won’t I have to sleep for a long time? If I lose consciousness, Kyle will…….”
“I’m here, so it’s okay.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I can give you mine instead of yours.”
At those words, Aska’s expression contorted the most seriously it had since we arrived here. I was the only one who didn’t understand what he meant, so I was bewildered.
Aska glared at Ophelia for a long time, then said to me as if he had made up his mind.
“It’s just like scratching with a fingernail.”
“What is?”
“I told you it was a little throbbing, and that’s exactly the level it is. It’s not painful to endure, it’s just annoying.”
I had a bad feeling. As expected, Aska put his half-removed coat back on and said firmly.
“There’s no problem living like this. You said my wound doesn’t look ugly, right? So I’ll just live like this.”
“What nonsense are you talking about after coming all the way here?”
“If you say that my wounded appearance is ugly, that you don’t even want to look at it, that it’s so ugly that it’s disgusting, I’ll do whatever it takes to fix it, but if not, I don’t want to.”
“…….”
Was he doing this on purpose? Aska was rambling on and on with nonsense that I couldn’t possibly force him to do. I was so dumbfounded that my brain went blank and I couldn’t even speak properly.
But I couldn’t just let it go like this.
“Of course it’s not ugly. You’re pretty whether you have a wound or not. Disgusting……. Ha. It’s not disgusting……. Are you in your right mind? What are you talking about, anyway?”
“Then don’t keep forcing me to get treatment.”
“Why are you suddenly like this? You weren’t like this until we came here.”
As the argument grew longer and longer, I glanced around anxiously. It would be a disaster if her mind changed.
But unlike my worries, Ophelia was just watching us with an interesting face, as if she was watching an entertaining play. Should I call this fortunate? Suddenly, my face grew hot.
Should I throw Aska into the lake? But could I beat Aska with strength? It was also difficult to threaten him or force him with the word command.
“Just…….”
Aska, who had been moving his lips for a long time, finally said with difficulty. His lips were sticking out like a goldfish, and his face was full of dissatisfaction.
“Just what?”
When I urged him to answer, Aska frowned and looked at me resentfully.
“I don’t want to put anything other than mine inside you.”
“What?”
“I don’t want anything else to go in…….”
“…….”
Even though I didn’t understand exactly what he meant, I was so embarrassed that I couldn’t help but look at Ophelia. She was covering her mouth with her hand, horrified.