Miss Illustrious in the rain was clearer than Shade had ever seen her at any time before. She stood right before him, and that one simple sentence left Shade, who had wanted to ask why she had stayed out of sight all this time, momentarily stunned.
He looked at the smiling young woman in the rain, at her who came from the distant past yet truly existed in the present:
"Yes, it's been a long time. You finally decided to see me?"
"There's a reason for that."
Her blue eyes narrowed with her smile as she happily looked at the young man who now knew everything, at him exactly as he was in her memories. A very, very long time had passed since the Sea of No Light, since her own birth. She was glad that only she had needed to wait, while he remained unchanged:
"I know you have many questions, but this isn't a good time to talk. I'll be leaving first. We'll meet again at Princess Margaret's welcome banquet."
"But—"
She gave Shade no chance to object before vanishing from the sea surface like a phantom. Just as Shade was about to look disappointed, Miss Illustrious suddenly reappeared before him:
"You owe me two kisses. No, including this time when I came to help, that makes three. This time, don't you dare forget~"
"I won't forget this time."
Miss Illustrious nodded with a bright smile, lifted the hem of her skirt and curtsied, then finally disappeared completely. Only Shade and the tiny elf Warrior remained here.
Shade remembered that Emilia could use Water Walking, but perhaps because she had expended too much energy to enter the water by herself again, she did not jump down from the Unicorn's back. Instead, she looked at Shade with tears in