Chapter: 150. The Eve
“Mr. Adam, do you really believe that Hoshigami Nagi is the End?”
When Adam persuaded the other board members of the Special Organization SEMA and walked out of the conference room, Kurokawa had already been waiting for him at the door for a long time.
Kurokawa had followed Kanade and Nagi’s movements to Tokyo, so when the two of them escaped from their pursuers in the relentless rain, he was urgently summoned to the headquarters of SEMA in Tokyo.
Upon realizing Kanade’s next target, Adam also left the research base in the Arctic and set off for Tokyo.
Thus, the two had the opportunity to meet.
Faced with Kurokawa’s question, Adam did not answer immediately; instead, he turned the question back to Kurokawa: “What about you, Mr. Ace Midrash? After spending so much time with Hoshigami Nagi at Ark Academy, what do you think of her?”
“A girl who is more gentle and kinder than anyone else.” Kurokawa nearly blurted this thought out instinctively but ultimately held it back.
To be honest, his understanding of Hoshigami Nagi was not extensive.
Although they had spent some time together at Ark Academy and she had left a very good impression in his heart, when he delved a little deeper into his memories of her, he suddenly realized that he truly did not understand her at all.
While she was beside Kanade, the aura she emitted was so dazzling that it made one question how such a perfect existence could exist in the world.
However, under Adam’s guiding gaze, Kurokawa felt his thoughts deepening, gradually glimpsing the essence of Hoshigami Nagi.
A sense of incongruity and abruptness surged to his mind.
At that moment, Kurokawa noticed: if Hoshigami Nagi were to be separated from Kanade, she seemed like an empty shell.
Hoshigami Nagi—was an incomplete existence, as if there was a huge void within her soul.
She seemed to need to depend on Tsukimi Kanade to become whole.
If one were to strip the elements of Kanade from her life, they would find that beneath her glamorous exterior lay nothingness.
Kurokawa could not feel anything individually from the existence called Hoshigami Nagi.
Faced with Adam’s question, he hesitated, finally forcing out a sentence:
“What if we are wrong?”
“In the past, the erosion of the End paid a painful price, and the world lost a true savior.”
For the first time, a flicker of sadness crossed Adam’s gaze, which had always been as cold and hard as steel.
“And this time, no matter what, I will not allow us to repeat the same mistakes, even if I must bear the blame for it.”
Adam’s gaze became incredibly resolute again, as if he had taken on some sort of awareness.
But for Kurokawa, what he saw was a little boy who, despite growing tall and strong like a small hill, could not escape the sorrow of the past.
Once upon a time, this little boy had followed the savior, dreaming of fighting alongside him one day. But when he finally gained power and sought to share the good news with the hero he admired, what he received was a mission to kill the hero in his heart.
Even though so much time had passed, the shadow of that hero had always dwelled within the heart of this little boy.
After Adam turned away from Kurokawa and walked toward the other end of the corridor, Kurokawa finally suppressed the urge to call out to him: “If we really do this, Tsukimi Kanade will only become a beast that destroys the world! Not the protagonist who saves this world! To awaken him as the true protagonist, we need to follow the prophecy in the Book of Futures—”
At these words, Adam stopped in his tracks, but he did not turn around. Instead, he faced away from Kurokawa and said:
“—No, I am already following the prophecy of the ‘Book of Futures’, or rather, the memory of the light.”
“What?”
“I finally understand why only the death of the female protagonist can awaken the male protagonist as the savior.”
“Because the so-called female protagonist is the End that has continuously eroded the male protagonist. Only by killing the End can the protagonist escape such erosion and become the true protagonist.”
—————–
Kanade sensed that Nagi had been acting a bit strange lately.
As their journey drew closer to Kawanoshita City, Nagi had unknowingly become increasingly clingy.
Now, in the 24 hours of a day, except for meal times and other activities, she would spend most of the time hugging Kanade tightly, even holding onto her arm when they went out, as if she was unwilling to leave her.
Although Kanade had known all along that Nagi was actually a person who feared loneliness, this was the first time she had exhibited such clingy behavior.
Was it because they were getting closer to Kawanoshita City that she started to miss her family?
Every time Kanade thought about this, she felt a twinge in her heart.
It was all her fault that this girl had to end up in such a situation, away from home.
“小凪，要睡觉了哦…..”
The night before Nagi’s 18th birthday.
Kanade and Nagi had already returned to the small city of Kawanishi, near Kawanoshita City.
Staying in a small inn, the two were, as usual, sleeping in the same room.
However, before they went to sleep each time, Nagi would write in her diary on the table of the inn.
This was something Kanade had noticed the day after they had gone on the run.
At that time, Nagi had specifically asked Kanade to accompany her to a stationery store to buy a simple notebook and pen.
It was then that Kanade recalled Nagi’s habit of writing in her diary. Every night before going to bed, she would record the events of the day.
While he was curious about what Nagi wrote about him in her diary each day, tonight, Kanade was troubled by other matters.
“Hmm, I got it. Just wait a bit longer~” Nagi’s cheerful voice reached Kanade’s ears.
But it inadvertently intensified Kanade’s worries.
—How am I going to give the ring to little Nagi?
Kanade’s gaze unconsciously fell on the coat hanging nearby.
In the pocket of the coat lay the exquisite ring set he had received from the old blacksmith.
Kanade recalled the countless artistic depictions he had seen of boys proposing to girls, almost always using a beautiful box to hold a ring, and then, in a high-end luxurious setting, kneeling in front of everyone…
But clearly, such a scenario did not apply to him.
Putting aside the fact that he and little Nagi were being searched for by SEMA and the three major academies worldwide, they couldn’t possibly book a high-end luxurious venue.
Because Nagi was now clinging to him all day, he couldn’t even find a suitable ring box to go to a jewelry store and get it nicely wrapped.
At the same time, he couldn’t find an opportunity to broach the subject with Nagi. He wasn’t sure if suddenly bringing up such a matter would make her feel he was a heavy man, and he hesitated.
—Could it be that on little Nagi’s birthday… I would give it to her as a birthday gift?
—But what would it seem like to receive a proposal as a birthday gift?
If it were in the past, Kanade could have asked others for advice, but unfortunately, he could only rely on himself to make this decision.
With that thought, Kanade turned his gaze back to Nagi, who was writing in her diary with her back to him.
Tomorrow, Kanade would find a way to take Nagi back home to see her family.
—And he needed to propose to little Nagi before that, and then tell her family about it…
Because he also hoped that his relationship with little Nagi would get the approval and blessing of her family.
