- 15.
Without a place to go, Elijah took me to his
grandmother’s old house.
He said, “Mary, I never really loved Raina.”
Raina, his first love.
“After my grandmother died, I got depression.
She helped me.”
“I felt like I owed her.”
“When she said I had to be with her forever, I
agreed.”
“That’s why I didn’t love you.”
“Oh.”
I said, feeling nothing.
It didn’t matter.
I was leaving.
Elijah was just an ordinary man.
His face was dirty, his clothes soiled.
He showered and changed into plain clothes.
He looked even more ordinary.
He produced a ring, the one he’d used to
propose.
“Mary, will you marry me now?”
“I’ll have a grand wedding later.”
“For now, let’s live here. I’ll work, you rest.
You don’t have to do anything.”
I shook my head.
“Elijah, I can’t forgive you.”
“I can’t forget you pushing me away.‘
Although I felt nothing recalling it, I
remembered the pain.
“I’m sorry. I was wrong.”
“I just didn’t want anything to happen to
someone like Raina.”
“I didn’t love her; she gave me a new
perspective.‘
“I thought being good to her was being good
to Raina. Once everything was over, we’d be
together.”
“But now you don’t love me.”
“Mary, you have a system. Can it restore your
emotions?”
“No.”
I stood up.
Thunder rumbled, and rain poured down.
I went to the window.
く
“Elijah, it’s over between us.”
I leaned back and fell.
This time, I arrived in the system space.
I could finally leave.
The system offered me another mission world
to restore my emotions.
But I said, “Don’t restore them. I don’t want to
love anyone again.”
