At first, it had felt unbearably sad.
'I-I can fetch water and feed the sheep, clean the stables, sort the hay. I can do other odd jobs too. I can learn anything. Please, just one piece of bread. One piece is enough.'
'I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I was wrong! I was wrong, sir!'
Then came a dreamlike feeling that did not seem real.
'Ling. My name is Ling.'
'Hello, my name is Fang Ran.'
Perhaps because it had been too heartbreaking at first, and everything afterward had been too dreamlike and wonderful,
when she watched his body turn into particles of light and begin to disappear, the feeling of losing the only person in this world who had accompanied her made her so sad that her tears would not stop.
'Fang Ran! Fang Ran, what's wrong!?'
'Fang Ran! Don't scare me! Fang Ran! Wake up!'
'Fang Ran. Are you going back?'
'Can't... you stay?'
'I'm sorry.'
'Now... I have to go back and fulfill my promise.'
Watching the fragments of faint light he had become slowly drift away into the night from her arms, she merely closed her eyes peacefully and spoke a gentle instruction.
'You have to be happy. Then slowly grow up.'
Pale golden hair spread across slender white shoulders, with flawless, jade-like long legs beneath her skirt.
Warmth exactly like in her memories, yet somehow different.
Ling slowly opened her eyes from sleep and saw the figure beside her, already up and checking something. Her childish voice sounded like sleepy mumbling.
"Fang Ran?"
"You're finally awake? Time to get up, Your Majesty."
Hearing those familiar words spoken with a smile, Ling froze for a moment.
Then the blanket slipped down, and she propped herself up before plunging headfirst into his arms, closing her eyes fondly.
She reached