♱ Chapter • 148 ♱

♱ •⋅ 1750 B.C. ⋅• ♱ •⋅ Elaine ⋅• ♱

"I like stars," he said while playing with a pearl between my fingers "I like how they look, how they’re bright and beautiful. I like purple, I like how the sun in this world is red, even though here where Samael lives he looks different."

Keir smiled, his hands still playing by my hair.

"What else?" asked me with her face resting on my thighs.

"I like salty foods, slightly spicy, bittersweet and especially the dessert that the boss of the mansion always makes." The one that looks like jelly with syrup.

"Pudding? ' She asked me smiling from the corner and I nodded.

"That’s right, pudding."

"Um, um, uh..."

"I also like pretty dresses, braided hair, flat shoes, delicate swords..." I continued to list "I like hardcover books and slow songs."

"And old scrolls? You live surrounded by them" Keir joked, his lips arched in a mischievous smile that made my heart beat.

"Silly" I hit with my fingertips on his nose.

"I know, I know" gave up "continue... what else do you like?"

"Hummm..." I sighed "I like the daytime sky, especially when the sun is rising on the horizon, I like the feeling of holding something cute between my hands... like a fluffy pillow."

"You would love to have a fat cat" muttered sinking her face into me and smiling in the corner "it’s a shame there aren’t more cats in this world..."

I sat feeling a certain sadness in my chest; there were so many differences between the world where Keir had been connected and where she was really born, so many that sometimes I wondered how she did not let herself go crazy.

"I think so..." I heard myself mutter, my mind now wandering.

"It’s doing it again" she nudged me "it’s shutting down. Maybe it’s better to stop the experiments for a while, Samael has already got the cure."

I said, "No, I’m sorry."

She snitched.

"You’re apologizing for being distracted, Elaine..."

I bit my lip pretty hard. I didn’t want to ruin it, our day.

"I just... it’s customary" I corrected myself as I moved, sitting more comfortably among those countless cushions we throw in the garden to become a bed on a thin sheet.

"It’s not customary, it’s self-defense" Keir said dissatisfied "you always apologize when you start thinking too much and get defensive" your breath was long and your body rose, your grenade eyes staring at me, looking for what worried me - reflected in my eyes "don’t think so much, my little star... everything will be fine."

The red fingernails touched my face gently and the pink lips arched with the same grace as always.

I sighed.

How could I think of anything besides Keir when she looked at me like that?

"Right..." I gave up, my eyes closing slowly.

I threw my body back and my arms stretched up.

"Then..." I moistened my lips, my eyes opening and fixating on those white, fluffy clouds "what shall we do now?"

"With the course of history?"

"Yes, I do..."

"It’s not our problem" Keir simply answered me, a simplicity so unique that made me doubt if it was real.

"But... it always revolves around me, right? The... story?" Those words came out of my mouth with a certain harshness, scratching the walls of my throat as if they wished to die there, to sink there.

I didn’t want to admit it, but it was the truth.

"But you and Callisto are no longer at the center of this story" Keir said as he stood up, his body in a perfect posture, his hair flowing in the wind and his eyes on me, always on me "Calisto is in the palace with his son, you until then did not get involved in political problems of the empire. The people know practically nothing about their existence and therefore do not worship you. The God who was forgotten, remains forgotten and Papa..." Keir’s voice became more severe, his bright eyes "that shit will soon be found and killed."

"Do you think... everything will work out with that?" I asked and a part of me - one that was silly, innocent and kind, one that I thought died in these many reincarnations -, wished that it was possible, that’s how things would work, but Keir snorted.

"Dear... this is not a book, there will be no "happy ending". This empire is impregnated with political, social and economic problems. The lack of communication between the people and their monarchy is so absurd that, even possessing magic and so many forms of evolution, it is like being released from the dark ages" the redhead said, the eyes facing their own hands as if they would find an answer there, right there "The truth is that the book ended just when the main conflicts had had their "end", so all we saw was an empire that THOUGHT to be good, being dissolved by that God. An ending where you went to heaven and went your way as a saint, but the empire? People? Mortals? You couldn’t tell how they were and honestly, without a king, they were just chaos."

I swallowed it hard.

"The people of this world are lost, whether with Callisto or without Callisto, then... no. It is not easy, but it is not our problem either."

"And what... would be our problem?" I heard myself ask and hated myself for it, hated myself for still caring.

"Anything you want" Keir simply replied me, his lips bowed briefly "as long as you wish, we can do anything, even reign over these people, but... we are not obliged and we do not need to take care of anything."

It wasn’t a... obligation. She said.

Keir had always said strange things, but of all things, that was certainly the one that made something shine in me, warm in my chest.

I was not obliged to save those people, to help someone or to take care of others. I was not obliged to be there for everyone, to be the benevolent saint, the smile of the new world.

"Then..."

"So don’t overthink it," she said reaching out to me "we have many problems, we have smaller demons that invade villages, we have corruption among the fallen, we have problems and more problems with the heavens, but, Elaine... all this can be left aside if it is what you want, because... your happiness is the only thing that matters to me."

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