인 디 엔드

“What are you?”

“The intent of your question is unclear. Please be specific. Are you asking for my name? Or are you asking what kind of person I am?”

Ethan, abandoned in Belfirn.

And the strange woman who found him.

“Current humanity isn’t very intelligent.”

“Ha, how smart could a mercenary be… Wait, did you say current humanity? So, are you saying you’re a different kind of human or something?”

“I suppose you could say I’m an ‘ancient human.’ Since civilization has been destroyed once.”

Clouds drift by even though there’s no wind. A blue sky that doesn’t match the current temperature.

Ethan looked up at the sky where the clouds were floating and said,

“The sky… It’s fake.”

“It’s a holographic display.”

He would have preferred to die and go to the afterlife.

If he stayed here any longer, he was sure he’d go insane.

* * *

“If you’re living, isn’t that enough? What else do you need?”

His life was a struggle, hers was resignation.

A life without future or past, only the present.

A life of surrender, living in ignorance like a doll, embracing only the present moment.

A worthless man from the bottom of the barrel felt pity for a woman the world looked up to. How presumptuous of him.