22. Because you... are dying too soon
It must be the story about the old dragon living in the canyon.
Because it rained just as I was about to hear the story related to the old dragon in detail from Arwin. And there was one more fact I could guess last.
It was the fact that Dalton already knew about the old dragon living in the canyon from early on.
"Dalton. Why did you make it rain? I wanted to talk more with Arwin."
Even if it wasn't necessarily about the old dragon, I wanted to talk a lot with Arwin. Even if it was incoherent, and even about his prospective fiancée.
After talking with Arwin, my sad feelings noticeably improved. Feeling better meant it had nothing to do with the topic of the conversation.
Just being in the same space as Arwin, breathing the same air, and looking at the same point made me feel better.
"Well. I wonder why."
Dalton smiled a smile that made even the onlooker feel good. A smile that seemed unlikely to give a proper answer.
"I'm curious too."
"I'm also curious about my heart."
Dalton, making a bland pun, tapped lightly on my still-wet hair with his fingertips. Then the wet hair dried up completely in no time. It was his magic.
I confessed what Arwin had said to Dalton.
"Arwin said he would reconsider getting engaged."
"As expected, progress in the relationship?"
"Well."
I couldn't give a definite answer easily. Arwin's attitude was too indifferent to consider it progress in the relationship.
I recalled the Princess I saw twice. Arwin's prospective fiancée, her.
"That Princess.... You said she liked Arwin from a long time ago."
"I did."
"Do you think Arwin never liked her even once? I mean, her status is good, her face is pretty, and...."
"And?"
When I blurred my trailing words, Dalton asked back as if curious. I answered with my brows faintly furrowed.
"Her figure was good too."
Her face was so pretty, and even the curves of her figure seen at a glimpse were beautiful. She was a woman with no ugly corners to be found at all. Of course, I didn't know what her personality would be like.
But whatever her actual personality is, that Princess will treat Arwin affectionately.
She liked Arwin, and I knew well the heart treating the person one likes. It must be a heart wanting to do everything for Arwin.
"What. Was the thing you were saying with such a serious face about her figure?"
Dalton giggled repeatedly, wondering what was so funny. I am very serious, though.
"I have nothing better than the Princess. I guess that's reality."
"Ah, so cute and funny. Face? Figure? What's important about such things."
"Liar. Aren't such things quite important to the opposite sex?"
"I think so. That the person themselves is more important than such things. And Iphoe Bell, your figure wasn't that bad either."
"...."
I glared at Dalton. Then Dalton scratched his cheek awkwardly and said.
"You just thought I was vulgar inside, didn't you?"
"Well. I might have thought so for a moment."
"No, I mean, my point is that external things aren't important. What's important is the heart."
"...."
"Iphoe Bell. You have a strange talent for moving people's hearts."
Dalton smiled an astounding smile. Then I no longer felt like glaring at him. Just by seeing a single smile. Oh my god.
"Is that a compliment?"
I asked in a softened voice. Dalton nodded excessively.
"Of course."
A talent for moving people's hearts. Not a bad talent. While thinking so, a question arose about whose heart on earth I moved.
Because throughout my life, I had never shaken someone's heart to the root.
"Whose heart would I have moved?"
I asked without a question mark. Dalton just stared intently at me with two strangely shining eyes.
I said as if joking.
"Surely Dalton, you?"
It was a joke....
"You made me make it rain several times."
Dalton admitted clearly without room for denial. I was at a loss for words.
"...."
With what thought did Dalton make it rain several times? I tried to ask the reason, but his words were faster.
"Wouldn't it be the same for Arwin?"
Wouldn't Arwin's heart be the same. I repeated those words several times. Does it mean I moved Arwin's heart too?
"I've watched Arwin for a long time. It's the first time I've seen him treat a woman like that."
Dalton spoke in a firm tone this time too. As if there would be no error in his words.
"Arwin is now crossing the line he drew himself."
Stroking my hair quietly, he added words in a low voice.
"Iphoe Bell, to go to your territory."
"...."
"Of course, it will take more time for Arwin to step completely into your territory. I don't know how long that time will take, nor do I know what the end will be like."
He lowered his hand stroking my hair and tapped my forehead a couple of times. I don't know well whether I should believe Dalton's words or not.
If Arwin is crossing over to my territory as Dalton is convinced, and then steps completely into my territory, what should I do? Should I just open my two arms wide and hug him?
"However."
Dalton brought up words giving room.
"However?"
"I also have a brilliant idea to reduce that time."
A brilliant idea to reduce time. That was a bait Dalton threw at me again.
"First, answer this. Iphoe Bell. When do you die?"
I don't know what connection there is between Arwin and the day I die. But.
"About sixty days later?"
I answered readily.
Dalton threw a bait full of temptation, and I just bit that bait. It was also something that didn't matter if I told him.
But Dalton's reaction is somehow a little strange. He asked back as if slightly surprised.
"...What?"
Is he surprised because I answered too nonchalantly? I recited the remaining grace period to me again.
"Maybe about two months left."
Then Dalton closed his lips in a straight line. Erasing his expression, he looked down at me with a hardened face.
The mild air hovering around him begins to cool rapidly. The flow of air changed suddenly.
"You die that quickly?"
Dalton frowned badly and examined me closely. He looked like he was trying to read properly the energy of death clinging to me.
But my appearance reflected in his transparent eyes now was full of vitality. I wouldn't look like a person about to die. I don't know if that's fortunate or unfortunate.
"Iphoe Bell. Answer me."
He urged me in a desperate voice.
"Yes. Regrettably, that is the plan."
I answered in an indifferent tone resembling Arwin.
"Ha."
Dalton withdrew his hand that stayed near my face and swept his face a few times as if washing it.
He made a face like a person hit on the back of the head by something heavy. He also looks flustered. His eyelashes, unable to look at me and lowered toward the floor, were trembling faintly.
"I thought.... it would be at least a year...."
Even Dalton's voice saying so was trembling faintly.
He let out a very deep sigh of worry and then lowered his head. Following his powerlessly dropped head, his blond hair scattered.
A thought occurred that I wanted to stroke his disheveled long blond hair. Just as Dalton always stroked my head, me too.
I stroked his hair without hesitation. It was much softer than I expected.
"Idiot. Then why would I have bought a coffin? I'm not a person who plans the future meticulously."
"...My heart feels strange."
Dalton said the same words as Arwin.
'My heart feels strange.'
The two men sometimes spat out the same words, but the resonance was always different.
There was no emotion contained in the words 'My heart feels strange' heard from Arwin in the garden. But hot breath was imbued in the words Dalton spat out.
From Dalton, agitation of emotion not yet managed was felt. Sorrow felt at someone's death, maybe even fear.
I thought the latter might be because he recalled his lover's death from me.
I organized Dalton's blond hair and tucked it behind his ear. That appearance was somehow more natural than a woman's.
"Dalton. How does your heart feel strange?"
"I'm scared."
"Are you scared of me dying?"
"Yeah."
He nodded and lifted his lowered head. His odd eyes looked extremely confused.
"Because you... are dying too soon."
He spoke with an anxious gaze. It was at that moment that I felt strange.
The silence between 'you' and 'too' is too long.
As if some words should be added in there. As if speaking while leaving out something important.
For instance, it felt like saying 'Because you are dying too soon before accomplishing something.'
Something.
The thought even occurred that what it meant might smell fishy like blood. That fishy smell of blood I smelled in the dream, which hasn't been erased from my nose tip yet.
I couldn't know why such a thought occurred.
I gathered my hand that stayed on his face. My fingertips seemed to have become cold for some reason.
"You are sad, right?"
I wanted to confirm that the various assumptions I made were misunderstandings.
"Yeah. Sad in many ways."
Fortunately, faint sadness was detected from him answering 'Yeah'. No fishy smell of blood was felt. Was it my excessive speculation?
"Does Arwin know that fact too?"
It was a question asking if Arwin also knew the fact that I was dying. I shook my head.
"Why didn't you tell him?"
"Well."
Come to think of it, despite having enough time and conditions to confess my death, I kept quiet about that fact to Arwin.
Honestly, I think I couldn't bring myself to say it. I didn't want to let him know the fact that I was being held by him with a dying body.
If by chance Arwin remembers me after I die, I wanted him to remember me as full of vitality.
I didn't wish for my appearance living in his memory to be that of a dead person. Even if reality is just a dead person.
"If Arwin finds out that fact, what expression will he make?"
"Well."
I couldn't be sure this time either.
If it's Arwin, probably... wearing his symbolic expressionless face, wouldn't he nonchalantly say 'Was that so?'
I couldn't imagine Arwin looking at me with a worried face at all. Furthermore, I thought even less that he would grieve my death.
Dalton grabbed my hand placed awkwardly in the air tightly. His palm was damp with sweat unlike usual.
"Let's tell Arwin. That you will die soon."
"Even if I confess my death, will Arwin's attitude treating me change?"
"We won't know anything without trying."
"...."
"You said sixty days. You said you wished Arwin would love you. Then shouldn't you be acting urgently?"
Having said that much, Dalton gave strength to my two hands held together. It seemed like silent pressure to answer quickly that I would do so.
Dalton said I should be urgent because there aren't many days left until I die, but the one who looks truly urgent is Dalton himself. It should be him who has nothing to do with my death.
Why are you so urgent? What made you so urgent?
"...."
I didn't answer in the end.
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