We hurried inside another huge building—compared to our clinics, this hospital is too vast! I'm clamping my fingers adhesively on Andrew's sleeve, fast pacing to the emergency room and there we found Ruth and Manjiro. Both of them are flushing and pale. Manjiro meets me in advance and asks, "Dandeline, what's going on with Linly?"
"Why are you asking me? I just arrived. What happened beforehand?"
"She fainted out of the blue," Ruth reports. "We were just talking in the living room when she turned pale, then her pulse was gone. The doctor said she was dead on arrival. They can't state their findings as of now. She just... suddenly... passed away."
"That horror show... It was all because of that!" Manjiro blames.
"What!?" Andrew blurts out. "You should've told me she can't handle it! I have collections of superhero movies!"
"Absurd." I touch both sides of Manjiro's cheeks to calm him down. "You're well aware she was born dead. Her life depends on the Moon Goddess. But now that the goddess is not existing at this time, she has no use for Linly's life... so she'll turn back to death. We can bring her back to life once we returned to our time."
He sighs in great relief.
"She doesn't need to be hospitalized. We'll just have to preserve her body."
We were able to retrieve her body. Inside Hessuel GG8, I look at Linly's condition while she's in her fiance's arms. Her lips are dried, her face is pale, and she's extremely limp thoroughly. I completely understand the pain in Manjiro's eyes. Now, it's not just Hessuel and my twins' lives on the line. The worst might come yet the longer we stay here.
At home, Linly is laid on the bed of a much bigger room I never thought existed. Manjiro is guarding beside her and Ruth serves mugs of tea for them to relax. I'm thinking about the solution while I watch them chatting, leaning my shoulder on the arch of the doorway.
I can't let my niece stay in this intricate death. She doesn't deserve it. It's solely up to me on how we can surmount this. As I think about it, why would Haiban allow the Moon Goddess's vessel to wander with me in the future? Don't they have the same objective? Or maybe not? He probably created another vessel for the goddess similar to how he revived Hessuel. If Linly's death is a part of his victory, then it is another reason why I shouldn't fail.
"Are they girlfriend and boyfriend?" Andrew asks, he's leaning his shoulder on the other side of the arch beside me.
"No. They are engaged and supposed to marry."
"Aw. This is so tragic. But Ms. Lily seems young for marriage."
"She's sixteen. That's not too young."
"Really? The youngest age for marriage today is twenty-five."
"That's old."
"Not as old as growing white hair."
"Don't tell me people are more career-oriented than making relationships?"
"You said it. We have this strange law today stating that fornication and live-in couples are punishable by law. That is to decrease the poverty rate caused by uncontrolled birth. Teenage pregnancy is a crime if occurred outside of marriage to decrease the rate of undergraduate generation. In addition, the marriage contract has an expiration date.
"The first two renewal of the contract is after a year. Then the third renewal will be after five years. If they don't want to stay with each other for some reason, they will have to wait for the expiration date lest they'll be penalized by a fee for breaking the contract. The limit saves many battered wives. Once it expires, they can remarry someone else and cannot remarry for the third time. Couples who made it their silver and gold weddings have higher pensions than employed citizens. Love is reliant on that contract nowadays and it's because of the increasing rate of divorce in the past years, especially among newlyweds.
"But now, divorce is only available in the past. The children of separated couples will be given to the rightful parent, but if none of them can commit to rearing, children will be sent to orphanages and adopted into complete families who can commit to them to decrease the rate of broken families. Businesses such as strip or night bars, liquors, or pornographic sites are banned in this country. Ridiculing or sex joking is punishable by that law. These are to prevent the breaking of that law and contract. Sex education and relationship orientation are one of the major subjects in schools to train the rising generation in morality."
"Are you saying that love expires nowadays...?"
"Exactly. That's how people see it. Many choose to stay single. Lovers of themselves and money. Many struggles to find true love."
"Why are you telling this to me?"
"Well… Because I'm seeing true love in you and him. The emotions... Your will to conquer everything to spend the rest of your life with that person... It's marvelous to behold. True love is the same as wolfies, it's rare, sometimes, fiction." He's smiling at me like a cat.
"I thought you have a wife?"
"... She was my waifu. But she found someone better and left me after the marriage contract expired."
I glanced at his hands. "But you're still wearing that ring. You still love her?" He looks at his ring. And I sighed. "Look what she'd wasted. You're handsome! Rich! Welcoming! I know, maybe she had a hard time understanding your vocabulary!"
"She's not that kind of angel~ She's never after a hot CEO or billionaire. I've never seen her attracted to materials. That's why I still love her. But despite having everything, I can't give her the time. That's what she needs... and she found it in another guy, they're happily married. The first duration of the marriage contract is like trial-and-error..."
"In other words, that law is broke."
He chuckles.
"Don't you want to replace her? You deserve it."
"I can't. You're lucky you have a mate. You don't have to wander into different relationships in an era full of break-ups and cheating like today."
"A werewolves' love is different. We're more obsessive with our mate, just like how I want to eat my mate every time I see him or do something adorable. But once our mate dies, wherein love was invested, that will be the beginning of the bereave's grief. There's no way to move on until death because of the effects of the mate bond. But humans have the ability to heal, move on, and love again. It means you can heal and love again."
"Yes... And that kind of love is dominant in books. Hoomans read what they can't find in reality."
"... Once I return to my timeline, I will alter this future including yours. I will give you a mate who will love you obsessively. And you will recognize me as your great ancestor! That will be your reward for helping me."
He itches his nose. "I didn't ask but s-sure~ Thank you," he said with hope for love shining in his smile.
I hugged him for the very first time. It's refreshing and phenomenal to embrace a person from my flesh and bone. He's tall enough to embrace me with one arm. Then I sat beside Linly in front of Manjiro to discuss with them the pace back to our era. "Now you have a greater purpose to return," I said to him. "You're gonna have to cooperate well."
"I will. I'll do anything if that will lead to Linly's life."
"We've met an enchanter... And we have a bargain."