Transcendent Noah

'There is no death without regret, only forgetting without mercy.'

Before gaining immortality, he yearned for life's continuation; after attaining it, he longed to recover lost memories. Perhaps guided by moonlight, or bound by a promise worn thin by time, he finally embarked on his journey back to the island.

Yet when he finally arrived, everything he once yearned for had been forgotten, and everyone he once stood beside had departed. Only the phantom of remembrance lingered on the beach, weaving one last reunion between the living and the departed.

At the island's center lay the source of these illusions: the prison that had held him for a hundred years. As fate's chains tightened once more, could he use his memories as a blade to protect their promise? Like countless times before, he could not break his word.

A mysterious letter appeared on my desk, its origin unknown and bearing no signature.

I asked around, but no one knew where it came from... What troubled me more was that the handwriting was unmistakably my own. As I found myself reading its contents, I realized it resembled more of a diary entry than a letter.

—But my diary was safely stored away, so was this someone's prank, imitating my writing?

Just as I thought this eerily realistic letter had come to an end, I discovered new content that hadn't been there before. It described how 'I'—the diary's owner—would be indebted to Cain in a few days' time for breaking his wine bottle.

I dismissed it as just another prank, but a few days later, events unfolded exactly as the diary had described. The same handwriting as mine, predicting future events... Could it be that the person who wrote this diary was my future self...

Most people have fantasized about having the power of precognition, and I'm no exception. So when I received that letter, alongside disbelief, there was also a hint of joy at seeing such a fantasy become reality. When imagination becomes real, when you can know what's going to happen in the future—such allure is hard to resist.

Beyond matters of life and death, even taking seriously the incident about breaking Cain's wine bottle could have prevented the later 'debt collection.' So regardless of whether what that version of me said was true or false, I wanted to give it a try.

Was this attempt a failure, or perhaps a success? Following that Noah's warning, I did avoid falling off the cliff during battle, so when we took a different path after the fight, I didn't notice anything wrong. It was a path he hadn't taken before, so naturally he couldn't have known what would happen—Empousa, Hati, and I ended up falling at a different spot. In the end, we had to limp back to the castle supporting each other.

The good news is we saw a beautiful group of fireflies on the way, and we didn't disturb Aunt Mary. Perhaps this could be considered a success in its own way?