She embraced him in a daze. Elysia, Mei—she cast them all to the back of her mind, or perhaps she had selectively forgotten them long ago.
She only knew that her feelings had truly been love for Xu Qi.
That was enough...
Knowing that much was enough.
"Do you know... why... I came to like you, Xu Qi?"
Yae spoke to Xu Qi in broken phrases.
Xu Qi propped himself up and looked at Yae, who had gone limp, then shook his head.
"It isn't a romantic reason. I just truly felt that I'd reached this age, and among all the men I'd come into contact with, you alone... suited me best."
"So I was merely the best of a bad lot?"
"No, Xu Qi. In this vast sea of people, I was able to decide that you were the right person, rather than someone else—that in itself is romantic.
"Just as you said, you aren't strong, nor are you resolute. But you always do what you believe is right. You won't abandon conformity just because others blindly follow one another, nor will you abandon your solitary path because everyone condemns you.
"You've always... simply been yourself.
"That's the you I like... and perhaps that feeling took root without me realizing it. Over half a year, I watched you little by little, from the ignorant boy you were when you first came to the Golden Courtyard.
"Step by step, you eventually reached where you are now, to the point where... even I had to look at you in a new light."
"Look at me in a new light?"
"Although you said that at the time, you dared to do something so reckless because you trusted everyone in the Golden Courtyard, it still took no small amount of courage.
"You said