"No matter what, you've finally found her. What will you do next?"
Shade asked. The old man did not look at him, instead gazing at the teacup on the counter before him.
"What can I do? I waited far too long. It was simply too long. Sometimes I wonder whether I was truly waiting to reunite with her, or whether I merely wanted an answer to my own doubts."
"Did time wear away your feelings for her?"
"No. I still remember the thrill of watching the stars from the haystack at the village entrance that summer. But we missed each other, didn't we? When she was young, I was young too, but we were born in different eras. After I came to this era, she was still young, but I had already grown old."
The old man poured himself another cup of tea, let out a long sigh, and finally made up his mind.
"I've decided. I'll leave this bookstore to her. Though we missed each other in this life, at least I can leave her a gift. Then my journey here will not have been in vain. I won't see her again. If she calls me Grandpa Berkeley, I'm afraid I really will faint on the spot."
Shade very much wanted to say, "Could it be that she likes books because she got a bookstore for free?" But clearly, this was not the right time for such a remark.
"I admire you. You crossed time merely to find the woman you loved in your youth. That is a romantic plot even Knight Novels do not have."
"But we missed each other in the end."
He sighed again, then added:
"But fortunately, I did get to see her. In recent years, I've clearly felt my health worsening. In the middle