Chapter 14

[As the girl gets her own name - "Elysia", you decide to take her out of the house and let her have contact with the outside world. ]

[Elysia, who visited the town for the first time, quickly conquered all the residents in the town with her cute appearance and lively yet polite words and deeds. You told the residents in the small town that Elysia was the younger sister adopted by your parents during their travels around the world. After they entrusted the child to you, they embarked on their own journey again]

[For some reason, in the face of such a statement full of loopholes, the residents of the small town accepted it without any doubt]

[You can't help but breathe a sigh of relief]

[After letting Elysia show her face in front of the residents of the town, you hold the little girl whose face is full of curiosity and excitement about all new things, and continue to walk around the town, As well as in the farmland and forests around the town, you wandered leisurely]

[After another two years, Elysia has completely integrated into the town]

[Unlike you, who seem out of place among children but are popular among adults, little Elysia quickly became involved with other children in the town]

[She played, ran, and sang wantonly, enjoying all the beauty that should belong to her childhood life without any scruples]

[Even though she had no parents from the very beginning and appeared alone on the outskirts of the small town, under your careful care and company, Elysia spent a period of peace and stability that was not lost to any other children. Happy everyday life]

[You see it in your eyes and you are happy in your heart]

[You hope that she can continue to be happy like this, and live this kind of peaceful, carefree, and happy life]

[But at the same time, you realize all the time that the time you spend with her is limited after all, and the only things you can give her are these peaceful times with nothing special and no big deal]

[As a qualified mother (although you do not recognize this title), you gradually set your sights further]

[After deeper thinking, you begin to realize that what you have to do is not only these]

[You need to find a way to let her learn to be independent so that she can continue to live in this world well and happily after she leaves]

[Most importantly, unlike other ordinary parents, you also need to take on a heavier responsibility]

[Although this is very unfair to both Elysia and you, there is no real complete fairness in this world]

[You must let Elysia understand and accept what loss and death are as soon as possible]

[And Elysia must accept her family's departure earlier than the other children]

[If there is no unexpected situation, people's parents will usually leave earlier than their children]

[But at the same time, if the parents die naturally after old age, no matter how sad they are, most of the children can accept this result with pleasure]

[Birth, aging, sickness, and death are human nature. This is a natural law that everyone must understand and gradually accept as they grow up]

[It's just that, as a Servant, you will leave Elysia much earlier than ordinary parents]

[Ten years seems a long time, but you know very well that for Elysia's life, a mere ten years, or even a mere twenty years, only accounted for a very small part of her life]

[For you, Elysia is in your simulated life for the past ten years, but for Elysia, who will have a long life ahead, you are just an insignificant person who helps her, a passerby who gave her a stable childhood]

[But it's a pity that even if you draw a completely unequal conclusion about the relationship between the two of you on your own, in the days when Elysia and you get along, even if you are slow, even when you are dull as wood, you can still feel her cherished and attachment to you]

[You start to feel anxious about this. You hope that Elysia will gradually reduce the proportion of yourself in her heart in the process of contacting and understanding this world]

[You hope that she can see the vastness of the world and the beauty of life, and you also hope that she can understand that even if you leave, there are still other beautiful things in this world waiting for her to discover and experience]

[However, things backfired, and I don't know what this child Elysia thinks. After contacting this world, she has fully integrated into this town, which is not very big, but the residents in the town are very friendly. After being in the small town, she paid more attention to you and cherished you more]

[She begins to desire your company more, loves the food you cook more, and even loves to act like a baby to you more than when she was a baby; once she sees you doing housework, she will cancel playing with other children, and take the initiative to come to you, like a chirping lark, she has been entwined with you until you can't bear it, and you ask her to help you, she will stop for a short time, and she will be full of joy with a smiling expression saying, "I will take care of the housework with you"]

[Could it be...this kid also likes to do housework like me? Faced with Elysia's abnormal behavior, you even had such doubts, but soon you realized that the reason she did this was simply because she didn't want to leave you]

[After seeing through this point, you feel more and more anxious, telling yourself countless times that you can't continue like this, and trying to tell Elysia everything about yourself countless times]

[However, whenever Elysia finished the task you assigned her and appeared in front of you with a disheveled face, seeing the color on her face that was stained by dust, but still overflowing with joy and happiness but you can only lift your own face, put on a serious look and let her go to the bathroom to take a shower, and then prepare a scrumptious dinner for her as always, and then step into the night sky, coaxing her into a sweet dream as always]

The moonlight outside the window was cold and bright, while it was summer, and the woods outside the town began to hear the sound of insects. The dim yellow light of the bedside lamp filled the spotless bedroom, pulling Emiya Shirou's eyesight into a long black shadow on the wooden floor.

Elysia fell asleep not long ago. She curled up her limbs and lay on her side on the cute little bed facing Emiya Shirou. The thin blanket followed her slow and weak breath. The sound moved up and down slightly, and the dim light illuminated the slightly messy bangs on her forehead into a cloud of pink mist.

Looking at Elysia's peaceful sleeping face, he couldn't help being slightly dazed.

Someone once said that the more you are exposed to the dazzling light, the darker the shadows will be, the more intense they will appear.

...Different from his self-satisfied hypocrisy, this child really treats everyone she meets with all her sincerity.

Emiya Shirou who came back to his senses silently closed the fairy tale book in his hand.

Then, he lowered his voice and said softly in a voice that only he could hear: "Miss Assistant, are you still there?"

[I'm here, what do you need?]

The assistant's voice was as flat and cold as usual.

"How much time do I have left?"

[There are still 2,235 days left in the contract]

"Oh...it sounds like a long time..." Emiya Shirou smiled, "However, the time seems to be a bit wrong? Elysia, she should be almost five years old."