Those Bound by Fate

The empty room was lonely and monotonous.

Durandal, idly turning a chess piece in his hand, looked up at the vacant seat across the board. A familiar figure slowly materialized there.

The friend who often played chess with him had slightly curly blond hair and always wore a sarcastic smile across the board.

—All things that live must die. That was simply how the world worked...

Those two words his friend so often spoke sounded so hollow they hurt, and they still echoed in Durandal's ears.

He hated everything in this world—even himself—yet he desired the continuation of life more than anyone.

As though he were rebelling against something, or yearning for something he could never have.

He was an extremely contradictory being.

Yet it was as though he were bound by fate.

Struggling and roaring in the torrent of fate, dragged into the abyss by chains called destiny.

People had fates they found difficult to escape.

This thing called fate had bound him even before he was born.

And from the moment Durandal met his beloved, it had captured them both.

"You and I are both miserable people bound by fate—"

In a daze, a voice arose in his mind, and his friend's mocking smile appeared before him.

"Miserable people bound by fate, huh—"

As he murmured, a smile appeared on Durandal's face.

He remembered the dream he once had—

[What kind of world do you think is a happy one?]

[The kind where you can be with the person you love, with your family and friends, living an ordinary life together. Isn't that happiness?]

It had been an exceedingly ordinary and tiny wish.

Back then, their world had been small and simple.

Looking at the starry sky beyond the window, Durandal unconsciously recalled the happiness of the past.