The tip of the old man's pen touched the paper of the relic:
"When he said goodbye to me, it was a very nice spring evening, which was also the third year after we first met. The sunset that evening was really brilliant, and he held my hand and walked in the village.
, and invited me to the top of the bell tower to tell me something very important. It is really nostalgic. After so many years, I still remember the temperature of his palms that day, and we walked through the steps of the bell tower together.
The highest floor of the clock tower that exists in my hometown embraces me, looking out the window at the sunset in the distance."
The environment of the clock tower itself has not changed at all, but a bright orange-red sunlight is shining in from the windows on all sides. The sunlight is more dazzling than the bonfire. Both Shade and Miss Higgins subconsciously squinted their eyes, and then laughed again.
Welcome the warm sunshine.
They all stood up, walked to the window and looked outside. Under the bright sunset, there was a small and fertile village located in the valley basin. The smoke curled up from the kitchen, the barking of dogs came from the corner of the village, and the villagers carrying farm tools
People go home and the children happily run along the paths in the village. This is a very warm scene.
The sound of footsteps came from the stairs. Shade and Miss Higgins turned to look, and then they saw a young girl holding each other's hands and a young man with a sword hanging from his waist walking up together.
Their faces were both flushed by the setting sun, and even their hair and clothes were blushing.
They hugged each other and came to the window facing the west, watching the afterglow of the setting sun together. Suddenly the young man hugged the young girl from behind, and the latter gently pushed his lover, his rosy ears glowing under the bright sunset.
It even became translucent.
"It's so romantic. It would be better if it were two girls."
Shade heard Miss Higgins' muttering, and then heard the words of the two young people in Mrs. Miles' memory:
"Sarah, I am leaving my hometown. No, please listen to me. I want to go to the battlefield and achieve merit, and then come back with honor to marry you."
The blond young man who spoke hugged his lover tightly, and the plain-looking but gentle Miss Sarah Miles pursed her lips and asked softly:
"Marry me?"
"Yes, my knighthood comes from my father, and everything I have is given by my father. Now, I don't have the ability to make you my wife, please wait for me, this war does not involve witches
It will be over soon. In a year at most, I will come back, and I will come back with military merit and a lord's reward, and make you my wife."
After saying that, he also joked:
"Maybe when I come back, you will have awakened as a witch and abandoned me."
"No, Richard, please don't say that. I will always wait for you and wait for you to come back."
The young girl turned around, threw her arms around her lover's neck and hugged him again.
Shade saw Miss Higgins shaking her head because of what Mrs. Miles said when she was young. She did not believe that anyone could be immune to the influence of the witch's curse. The fact was that Mrs. Miles did not become a witch.
"I kept my promise and waited for him to come back."
The young man and woman embracing each other were silent for a long time, as if they were going to melt themselves into the sunset of this evening and become an eternal landscape oil painting. The old man beside the campfire spoke in a slow voice, and he, Shade and Miss Higgins watched this scene.
On the contrary, she turned her back to the embracing man and woman. She did not need to look back. This scene had already stayed in her heart forever:
"I waited and waited, and waited, until the wrinkles crept onto my cheeks, and my hair turned frosty white. I waited until the village fell after a plague, until the lord was murdered by his son, and then a new lord came to power. I kept waiting.
When he comes back, I believe he will come back."
Shade's sigh concluded the old man's words. This memory was not over yet. The young man and woman embracing each other made their own promises:
"I will always wait for you to come back. You have to hurry up, otherwise I will get old."
"Yes, next spring, it will still be the same season. Please be here, at the highest point, and be the first to wait for me to bring my horse back."
"I will prepare a wreath of parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme for you. I will wait for you here."
The two young hearts were close to each other, their eyes were staring at each other, and their noses were touching. Against the background of the sunset, they kissed each other, making Miss Higgins couldn't help but shake her head again:
"I don't like this kind of story that I already know has a tragic ending. Even if the content in the middle of the story is interesting and touching, I don't like it at all. Madam, this tower, oh, I mean the one in your hometown in your memory.
Does the bell tower still exist?"
The old man looked at the words he had written and shook his head slightly:
"Every spring, when the sun was at its best, I would go to the bell tower to wait for him. I waited for 12 years, but only waited until the plague came and all the surviving people in the village left. I had to move with my family.
Although he left, he would return to his hometown again every spring and wait for a day on the tower. In the 23rd year after he left, the unmaintained bell tower also collapsed after a heavy rain in the summer. So I went there every year
Waiting for him on the ruins with a garland of flowers. Year after year, watching the sun rise and set, watching the wind, frost, rain and snow."
The young witch suddenly thought of what happened before:
"Garland? You mean, the garland that His Majesty did not allow you to take with you when we set off?"
After that, he explained to Shade:
"In a place like Black Mist Camp, Your Majesty expects that even the most beautiful flowers will wither immediately."
Shade nodded, and then became concerned about the follow-up of the story:
"Madam, when did you make up your mind to come to the dangerous area we are in now?"
"I have been waiting for him all my life. I thought there was no hope anymore. Unexpectedly, in the spring of about seven years ago, when I was waiting again on the ruins of the bell tower in my hometown, I failed to wait for him. Instead, I waited for a man riding a horse.
The blue chocobo girl. She told me that my mother’s brother’s little daughter had just established a country on the edge of the desert on the other side of the Western Continent. She used to have many enemies and didn’t dare to come to us, but now she has finally defeated them all.
The enemy is going to take me away to enjoy my happiness."
"I'm so envious. Ahem, I mean, you are so lucky."
Miss Higgins said, Shade looked at the young man and woman who were still kissing, but in fact their memories had been frozen:
"That was seven years ago?"
The old man sighed amidst the crackle of the bonfire:
"My cousin and I were not familiar with each other at first, and for so many years, I have been expecting him to come back as promised, so I didn't ask her to help me. Later, I still returned to my hometown every spring, and my cousin also waited with me.
, she also advised me that if I can't wait, I can get him back by myself. She helped me try divination and other methods, but none of them succeeded. In the past two years, my health has deteriorated.
Even she couldn't let me, an ordinary person, live a few more years, so I came up with the plan to come here."
Shade and Miss Higgins both had the same expressions. It seemed that the young witch didn't know that there was such a story:
"Indeed, if even His Majesty's divination cannot find Mr. Richard Knight Jackman, we can only turn to this place. The memory ends here. Has that gentleman come back?"
She asked curiously. Shade also looked around, but did not see any souls appearing here. Only the memory scene like a solidified landscape oil painting remained for a long time.
He thought for a while and came up with an idea:
"Mrs. Miles, please stop sitting. Please stand up. Yes, please say that name again. Say it carefully."
Miss Higgins hurried over and helped the old man up. Mrs. Myers stood up by the campfire and carefully arranged her clothes:
"Richard Knight Jackman."
She tried to shout. Miss Higgins quickly turned her head to look at the stairs, but there was still no one there. However, Shade saw that the fingers of the young man who was kissing his lover moved.
"Richard Knight Jackman."
The old man shouted again, and then as if he realized something, he also looked at the young man in his memory by the clock tower window under the setting sun.
The young girl in his arms had disappeared. After the second call, his raised arms had been lowered, and he stood facing the sunset with his back to the three people behind him.
Miss Higgins looked like she was going to explode with excitement, not only because she saw a good story, but also because this damn journey finally came to an end. Even Shade smiled for this, he had just experienced
It was the most painful moment after entering this world. When I saw this warm story, I naturally felt joy in my heart.
"Richard Knight Jackman."
Mrs. Miles called out the name for the third time. She asked Miss Higgins to let go of her, and then she took a step forward in disbelief. And the figure with her back to the three of them was also at this moment.
He slowly turned around and looked at her.
The two pairs of eyes stared at each other. Under the bright spring sunset, she was still the same young blond young man. However, her hair was already full of white hair, and wrinkles had filled her cheeks. But nothing seemed to have changed much.
The young man who turned around looked at her in shock and immediately recognized who it was:
"Sarah!"
"Richard!"
The two opened their arms and hugged each other tightly. Not only Mrs. Miles was crying, but young Richard was also crying:
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I came back late, I came back late."
He is no longer the person who existed in the memory revealed by the relic. Both Shade and Miss Higgins can recognize that he is really the soul that is being searched for.
"but."
Shade twitched his nose:
"Why does it smell like sulfur?"
PS: Picture of this chapter "Cut Scene - Village at Dusk"