"I believe you."
Tetsu no Sosuke sighed softly. "Do you think we'll live to see tomorrow's sun?"
Shinobu Kocho thought for a moment, then answered earnestly, "As long as you're here, we will."
"As long as I'm here...?"
Tetsu no Sosuke simply sat down where he stood. Shinobu Kocho tried to sit too, but he stopped her. "What's a young girl doing sitting on the ground?"
"...Why can you sit, but I can't?"
"Because..." Tetsu no Sosuke thought for a moment and found he had no answer.
She's grown up too...
Chapter 496: Unsheathed
Tetsu no Sosuke looked at Shinobu Kocho, and images from the past seemed to flicker through his eyes.
A boy who refused to become a Swordsmith, a girl standing beneath a tree, a fierce little girl...
The memories appeared before Tetsu no Sosuke, one after another.
He gave a rueful laugh. "They say your whole life flashes before your eyes when you're about to die. Mine's already started. Is that a bad sign?"
"You won't die."
Shinobu Kocho said it firmly.
"Why?"
"No reason. You won't die." Shinobu Kocho looked at Tetsu no Sosuke. "Right?"
Tetsu no Sosuke didn't know how to answer. Everyone died... He wasn't a demon. Even demons could die.
But the girl insisted on it, though she herself had no certain answer.
It was only what she wanted to believe, not the truth.
Tetsu no Sosuke sighed softly. "I hope I won't die."
There were still so many wonderful things he had yet to experience.
He still planned to spend his life with Kanae.
He hadn't even settled on a name for his child.
How could he die now?
He couldn't bear to die.
"You won't die!"
Shinobu Kocho looked at Tetsu no Sosuke and said earnestly, "Listen to me. Don't say