The Double Bar and the Repeat
And this brings our training to an end.
Thank you for all your hard work, Captain.
...So it really is the end.
Somehow... it doesn't feel real.
Fufu. Watching others go through their Journeys, I always thought one year was such a long time...
But now that I have experienced it myself, time went by so quickly.
...No.
After all, I never started this Journey with a future afterward in mind.
Since the moment I left Candle Square... no such future ever existed for me.
...Ever since I left in pursuit of death.
...Carnelia.
The joy of training, taking on quests, and passing trials.
The days we talked, took walks, and planted flowers.
Even the moment we looked up at the stars spread across the ceiling instead of attending the New Year's festival.
...You were there for every moment.
I can't make any promises now, but...
I want to show you.
Even a part of a normal life.
...A normal life, you say.
What you showed me was not only a part of it.
To me, it was everything.
In that instant...
Carnelia appeared smaller and more fragile than at any moment throughout the Journey.
Tea.
...Excuse me?
...
Fufu, I believe that left an impression on you.
Now that I think about it...
If not for that moment, you may never have shown me what a normal life is like.
If that had been the case... perhaps I would still be thinking of only one thing.
The thought of using the Stellar Archive to bring myself to death.
...Things I want to do?
Do you... really think so?
...I cannot say yet.
For her, there had only been one future.
No, there had been only one future she had chosen for herself.
But if she could break the curse and become normal just like the others...
I was sure she would find things she wanted to do, and another future.
...Captain.
Together...?
...
At our first training session, and when I was setting things up alone...
You told me the same thing.
Since then, what changed...
...Was only me, wasn't it?
Carnelia smiled sadly.
And with that fragile uncertainty remaining, our final day of training came to an end.
We were now facing the end.