■Crystalcandle

"Dad, are you looking outside the
window?"
The train is travelling through a
vast cornfield. Traces of white clouds
float high on the azure blue sky. Golden
waves of grain abound, stretching far to
the distant horizon.
"Yes. How do you know it, Sizuku?"
"Because your breathing, dad. More
peaceful than usual time. – How does
everything look like outside?"
"It's a great field, Sizuku." He
pauses, and adds: "Golden, and endless."
"It must be beautiful, dad." Sizuku
smiles, with her eyes closed.
He gently pats on her hair: "Look at
it yourself when coming back." Then he
smiles too, unconsciously.

In that year, the railway between
Crossbell and Remephilia finally completed.
Another news at the same time was a major
breakthough in the technology of corneal
transportation, reporting from Amelia
General Hospital.
The level-A bracer in the Crossbell
guild, Arios MacLaine, completed 527 quests
within a month while his daughter was waiting
for a donor cornea. He broke the highest
record throughout the entire continent –
which was formly set by himself.
"If we can come back by train…" Sizuku
once said. Arios thought for a while, and
bought two round-trip train tickets from
Crossbell to the principality, instead of
taking an airship.
Not without anxious. But he must take
a look at every single view along the trip.
He owed her so much that he even does
not know how to pay. The only thing he can
do is like this, sitting in a window seat and
memorizing those views all the way. Thus,
if the train goes through a long dark channel
in the return trip, he will have time to cover
her eyes, before darkness falls.

"I won't forget, dad. When we come back,
Sizuku will look at it carefully, for sure."
I know. You will look at the world
carefully, for sure.

The train is going all the way north.
Sizuku falls asleep on Arios's lap, with a
smile around her closed eyes.