"Yes, I was unwilling to let go."
No one here knew the real Outlander, so he had no reason to lie. Mrs. Miles smiled and shook her head.
"But isn't that loyalty? Even if you aren't devoted enough in love, at least your feelings toward each of them are sincere. If all of you are satisfied with the current situation, why should you care about this? If you truly feel guilty, then spend the rest of your life making it up to them."
"So that's another way to look at it?"
Miss Higgins muttered. Before Mrs. Miles continued writing down the second memory, she added one final sentence:
"When you hold hands, when you embrace and kiss, remember that moment. You may be unable to be completely single-minded, but whether you are sincere in that instant, whether you are willing to give everything to protect that girl—you know better than anyone."
Shade took a deep breath as Old Mrs. Miles began recounting the second memory:
"That was the day we confirmed our relationship. It had not been long since we first met. After meeting that day, he occasionally wrote to me, and I wrote back. Later, we met many more times—at the birthday parties of nearby lords' daughters, when the young people went up the mountain to gather pinecones, when he came to our village on behalf of his father to deliver letters, when the sheriff from a nearby town came to inspect the village, when the Witch Emperor's Luku Bird got lost. So many times, until that autumn, that night..."
The black mist dispersed again, but this time, a crystal-clear boundless river of stars appeared overhead. All Three Moons hung full in the sky. Though the autumn night wind was slightly chilly, Shade, who had just been warming himself