Chapter 57

The real reason for not buying a big cake was because it always came with so, so many candles.

It was said that each candle represented a year of age.

With more candles, came more years, and eventually, people would go their separate ways. How could anyone guarantee that when the next birthday came, the two of them would still be sitting in front of the same cake?

So having fewer candles, staying a bit naive—sometimes that wasn’t such a bad thing.

She knew it was pointless to think this way, but back then…

They always wished time would just slow down a little.

And so the two of them leaned on each other, listening to the ticking of the wall clock echo endlessly.

A dreamlike, bluish butterfly fluttered its wings and landed on the windowsill.

Seen from that angle, it looked as if its wings carried the whole boundless starry sky.

Xiarette tilted her head, resting on Sheffy’s shoulder. Her half-closed eyes slowly opened, and her voice was gentle and calm.

“Sheffy, do you remember… big sister once said she would give you a gift on your birthday.”

“I remember, but I don’t really like gifts.”

“Why not?”

“Because the gifts I used to want to give you never reached you. Not then, and not today.”

“Not then…? Not today…?”

Not then… a long time ago.

When you were terminally ill in your past life, that box of medicine—it was the gift I had wanted to give you.

But I didn’t get it to you…

I didn’t make it to the end of that road. You never got to see me by your side.

And today, I still didn’t get it to you.

“I… actually bought a hair clip yesterday. I went ahead and hid it in the hall, thinking I’d surprise you with it as a birthday gift.”

Sheffy gazed out the window.

She looked far, so far, lost in thought.

“That hair clip was hidden in the gap inside the cake cabinet. But when I wanted to give it to you, it had already been smashed.”

“Sheffy… so that’s what you were looking for?”

After the hall shook from the magic attack, before Sheffy led Xiarette outside to face the enemy, she had gone to the cake cabinet.

Xiarette had thought she was just being greedy, checking if there were any cakes that hadn’t been wrecked yet.

But in truth… Sheffy had been trying to see whether the hair clip she hid was still there.

The result was obvious.

The hair clip had already been smashed into several pieces. It was broken.

In that moment, Sheffy felt like she saw the light drizzle from her past life.

Floating above the water’s surface, that medicine box that had never been delivered.

You know…

If it weren’t for that car crash, in just a few more hours, it would have been Xiarette’s birthday.

But Sheffy hadn’t been able to blow out the eighteen candles with her.

Immersed in endless darkness…

In the deepest part of Sheffy’s soul, there was no sunlight.

But then…

She heard a voice.

“Sheffy, come.”

“Hmm…?”

She slowly lifted her head, which had been buried between her knees, only to find that the cake in her hands had somehow been taken by Xiarette, placed carefully onto a small dish.

As Sheffy looked up along the line of that little dish and saw the flame atop the cake…

The candlelight was faint, nothing like the blazing sun.

But to light up one person, it was more than enough.

“Sheffy, why don’t you blow out a candle too? I think… this was the same age back then, wasn’t it? You didn’t get to blow out the candle on my birthday, so here, make up for it now. Go on, gently blow it out.”

“Uu… Xiarette…!”

“Eh…?! H-Hey, don’t cry, it’s big sister’s birthday… what’s there to cry about?”

But clearly, you had already begun to cry too.

The day after Sheffy had left in their previous life—

Xiarette, on the day she turned eighteen, had blown out her birthday candle alone for the first time. And it had taken such effort.

She cried then. Her weak body trembling, her tears came with barely any strength.

But the tears then and now were ultimately different.

Because this time, there wasn’t just one candle.

And there wasn’t just one person blowing it out.

Sheffy sobbed into Xiarette’s embrace, while Xiarette wrapped her arms around Sheffy’s shoulders, holding her tightly.

Actually, you saying your gifts never reached me… that’s not true at all.

“When I was trapped in that domain magic… it was you, Sheffy, who came to rescue big sister, wasn’t it? You saved me. You made it in time.”

“That… well, I guess, but still…”

“When I was lost and helpless in the Kingdom, unsure of what it meant to be a Hero, weary of the battlefield, cast out by my family—it was you who came and told me to be free and unrestrained. And now, none of them look at me with cold eyes anymore.”

“That was something you earned yourself… I…”

“No… that’s because you made it in time.”

Even now, no matter how strong you’ve become…

You still have those terrible nightmares, don’t you?

The shattered lights.

The drizzling rain.

Your helpless self.

That rainy night, big sister wasn’t by your side. She let you leave alone, let you face the fear alone.

I’m truly sorry…

“From now on… that will never happen again.”

“Xiarette…?”

“Heh… enough of that. Sheffy, if you blow out this candle, I’ll tell you a secret, alright? I said I’d give you a gift, so I absolutely have to follow through. Don’t make big sister break her promise.”

“Mm… I guess that’s okay?”

Sheffy faced the candlelight directly, puffed out her adorable cheeks—

And with just a gentle breath, the candle’s flame was extinguished.

But in truth, the flame was never really put out.

It continued to burn within her heart, replacing the dazzling yet unreachable sunlight.

The candle was blown out, and Sheffy had fulfilled her promise.

So now…

Was it Xiarette’s turn to fulfill hers?

The tension that had filled the air suddenly dissolved.

Xiarette straightened out the deep wine-red gown she was wearing. Shifting into a kneeling posture, she moved to sit directly before Sheffy, facing her.

Sheffy couldn’t understand why she was suddenly acting so solemn.

But she was still stunned by the brilliance in Xiarette’s eyes—eyes lit with a glow she had never seen before. So, following Xiarette’s lead, Sheffy sat down face to face with her.

A single expression. Four eyes meeting. A thousand thoughts in one gaze.

“Sheffy… the gift big sister wants to give you is actually just a sentence.”

“A sentence…?”

“Mm. And that sentence is…”

Xiarette’s face gradually approached within Sheffy’s field of vision, growing closer and larger.

Until there was nearly no distance between them.

“I like you. Not in any other sense… purely, I like you.”

“Xia—! Mmph?!”

Sheffy could no longer speak.

Because the soft contact between their lips had entirely silenced her words.

She struggled for a moment, but soon all the strength in her body faded, and she made no further sound, slowly surrendering all her weight into Xiarette’s arms.

The clock struck midnight. Two streams of tears quietly fell.

“Mm… I’ll definitely pull through, don’t worry, come see me every day… how could big sister not get better?”

“Next year, we’ll celebrate our birthdays together again. I’ll even crash your graduation party and smash the cake on your face.”

“If I’m not around.”

“Please find me.”

“As long as you’re there.”

“Big sister will be, too.”

In the fine, drizzling rain, beneath the car’s headlights, a sapphire-blue butterfly had once rested atop a soaked box of medicine, unwilling to leave.

And now, the dreamlike blue butterfly flapped its wings and lifted off from the windowsill, flying toward the distant, gentle moonlight, never looking back.

—

Chapter 62: Going Out? (A Four-Thousand-Word Chapter)

That night, the big fish in the lake swam freely along the bottom, roaming with ease.

Ah… the big fish really felt sentimental.

On this starlit night…

There wasn’t a single witch blasting fish!

What could they do? It’s not like witches always have the leisure for such things~

The breeze swept across the lake, tossing the two blooming rose bushes by the shore to and fro.

The blue rose swayed toward the lake’s surface, as if trying to ride the wind and escape, while the red rose tightly wrapped its petals around it, dragging the blue rose back. Its budding blossom pressed forward, nearly suffocating the struggling blue rose.

Even if the blue rose wished to fight back, there was no reversing the tide.

And sure enough, when the wind calmed, the two roses of different colors had wound tightly around one another—vines twining with leaves, leaves wrapping petals, petals bending stems.

Entwined beyond separation, leaning and clashing, seemingly in a struggle, yet utterly incomparable.

Maybe the wind was just too strong, stirring up the lake that reflected the starry sky above. The sound of waves rising and falling, slapping loudly against the rocks—splat splat—was simply too noisy. In the end, the two rose bushes were worn out. Entwined in each other, they fell still, spent.

Even if the wind rose again, they no longer swayed and twisted. It was as if they had fallen asleep, dreaming sweetly, their dreams filled with the fragrance of one another.

Well… perhaps that’s why the big fish in the lake finally got a rare night of peace and quiet!

Congratulations to the big fish, congratulations to the waves—and even more so, congratulations to the roses.

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