Chapter 67 - Hill By The River

My retelling of the story was mostly objective. Instead of describing the events, I directly recited the words on the papers I read.

When it came to the vision, my emphasis was on what Noah said, rather than any of the other miscellaneous details.

Once my retelling finished, a long silence hung in the air.

My feet continued to walk through the snow and around the trees.

Right when I thought there wasn't going to be a response, a sigh came from behind me.

"Noah... you fool. Why did you do this?"

My head remained facing forward, while my steps did not stop.

"Do you think he did the wrong thing?"

The necklace was faintly sobbing.

"...If it's wrong I wouldn't know. I only wish that his life wasn't destroyed over my death. It sounded like he could've lived a great and fulfilling time, but was caught up in grief."

...I never thought about it that way.

"Are you fine with... living like this?"

The necklace trembled.

"I don't know. Simply existing in this form is painful for me. It hurts me thinking my child had to live like that for so long."

The necklace wrapped around a little tighter to the pale blue light.

"But at least for now, I don't want to die."

A faint crying came from the pale blue light.

My mouth was drying up but forced the words out anyway.

"If you had a chance... A chance to turn back time. A chance to try everything all over again. But nobody would remember any of the time they had with you."

My eyes looked off into the sky.

"Would you take it?"

The necklace's response was almost instantaneous.

"Of course! That sounds like a dream come true. Who could possibly deny that opportunity?"

A bitter smile emerged on my face.

I guess that the strange one was me.

There was crying coming from the pale blue light behind me.

The necklace was consoling the light, while we kept making our way through the forest.

Once the pale blue light calmed down, the necklace trembled.

"Are we nearing our destination?"

A chuckle escaped me.

"No idea."

The voice from the necklace sounded confused.

"What? Where are we going?"

My shoulders shrugged.

"No idea."

The necklace paused.

"Are we lost?"

My head tilted to the side.

"Pretty much?"

The necklace was speechless for a moment.

"Is there a particular reason for aimlessly wandering around?"

Hmm... was there?

"It should be somewhere, if you find the reason please tell me."

The necklace paused.

"What?"

I ended up laughing without restraint. When my laughter calmed down a small smile was on my face.

"If I had to give you a reason, it would be that I have no idea what I'm supposed to do."

Winds blew past me, carrying lost pieces of snow away.

The trees were shaking ever so slightly, dropping little bits of snow here and there.

My hand reached out to catch one of them and it melted right after touching my hand.

The necklace let out a quiet voice.

"What do you mean?"

A chuckle forced its way out of me.

"The world is so big and there are so many things to do. It feels like I was just tossed in. It was like I was expected to figure things out and move forward on my own."

My steps stopped.

"But how am I supposed to know where to go? Nobody told me what to do, or how to understand anything around me. In the end, the only thing left is for me to walk forward."

My body turned around in a full circle.

The only things my eyes could make out were trees and snow.

"As hard and scary it is to move forward into the unknown, it's the only thing left for me to do."

My foot took a step forward.

"So... that's why there is no destination. Maybe there will never be one."

A faint crying came from the pale blue light.

The necklace took its time to respond.

"I see... then we will wait until we stumble across our destination."

...

The walk was uneventful. The biggest thing that happened was a wolf, but it was not hard to scare it off by throwing it aside.

My hand lightly touched the black crown on my head. The initial discomfort had disappeared and my skin had receded to make way for the crown's spikes.

My head turned around.

"Say, how did you meet... uh, Noah?"

The necklace trembled.

"Ah... haha that happened so long ago."

My finger scratched the side of my head as the necklace continued.

"We met on a hill next to a river when we were just kids. He was doing push-ups, even though his arms were shaking and could hardly lift him up."

The necklace seemed to be in a trance.

"It made me curious, so I went up to him and asked. He told me that he wanted to become a strong warrior, just like his parents. There was a big smile on his face and didn't even stop his push-ups to talk."

My head turned back to face my front. The necklace continued.

"The view from the hill was so nice, so I joined him in exercising. Both of us were pretty clumsy about it. We simply did some basic exercises without really understanding the form."

The necklace paused.

"...But it was enjoyable nonetheless. My dreams as a kid were to become the strongest mage, one that surpassed even my mother. It didn't make sense for me to train my body over reading books, but I still went there everyday."

A soft wail came from the pale blue light. The necklace took a moment to console the light.

"Anyways, time passed by like that. Whenever we took a break from all our exercising, we would talk to each other. We learned many things about each other during that time. Oh, we also got pretty strong as well. Perhaps because he was too weak, or I was too strong, it was always me that outclassed him when we exercised."

The necklace let out a sigh.

"Then we were checked for our talents in magic. Ironically enough, Noah had an unbelievably high talent in magic while I had nothing. The teachers and everyone around him were so excited for him, but he seemed confused."

The necklace chuckled.

"Noah proudly announced that he was going to become a warrior, shocking everyone. The teacher was desperately trying to convince him otherwise and when his parents found out they did the same."

The necklace sighed softly.

"The next day, I found him at the hill. But he was just sitting there with his arms wrapped around his legs. He looked over when he heard my footsteps, and asked me what I thought he should do."

The voice from the necklace softened.

"Honestly, I was jealous. He didn't even want the talent, why did it have to be given to him and not me? My first instinct was to tell him to continue down the path of a warrior. Out of pure spite, I wished that he would never get to use his talents."

My eyes peered over my shoulder. The necklace was trembling.

"Before the words could leave my mouth, he spoke again. He told me about his dream, what he so desperately wanted to do. Yet, nobody supported him. He felt as though he was alone."

The necklace slowly stopped trembling.

"It made me feel like an idiot. In a strange way, both of our dreams were crushed that day. His magic talent was something many could only dream of, something I dreamed of. Yet, he simply wished to become a warrior."

The necklace's voice became quiet.

"I could only tell him that I didn't know. It was because I really didn't. We ended up sitting on the hill for the entire day. Noah's visits to the hill became infrequent. His parents were forcing him to learn magic, eventually refusing him to leave the house altogether for anything other than school."

My mouth opened, then closed. The necklace did not realize and continued.

"Still, I would come to that hill everyday and see if he would one day come by. My parents never pressured me but never expected anything from me. My days were essentially filled with free time, the exact opposite for Noah."

The necklace paused again.

"Years passed. Then... Noah came. We sat down there together and he told me about his life in our time separated from each other."

The necklace's tone became dreamy.

"He was so mature compared to the last time I saw him and sad. Despite having great talent, he couldn't put his heart into it. His potential was great but he only became a mediocre mage. His parents gave up on him as mine did."

The sun was setting as the necklace continued to speak.

"From there we got married, as ordinary people. We lived happy lives for a short moment and I got pregnant. But... I was killed before my child could lay his feet on the earth."

My mind tried to think of many words to say, but nothing came to mind. In the end, all I said was...

"Sorry."