’Huh...I figured dying would be more instant...this is bullshit,’ Bai Hua thought to herself as she laid in bed, staring at the ceiling.
Even after taking medicine, her illness had somehow taken a turn for the worst. Now she could barely move let alone take deep breaths.
’Did I get poisoned or something? Shit...thirty years worth of fighting aether beats, would-be assassins, jealous rivals and one very hell-bent ex-fiancee, and I die because the pharmacist overdosed me. Damn...I think I owe someone a gold coin,’ she mused about her fate.
She lazily rolled her head over to the side, staring at the last will locket in her hand. Bai Hua had the clan acquire one for when her illness suddenly became more severe. In her mind, she figured she either would be able to use it to say some final words, or have it as a fun memento and prop to use later when she regaled people with the time she almost died from hacking up a lung.
’Well...no use postponing this any further,’ Bai Hua thought to herself as she prepared to activate the locket,’I do hope I look somewhat presentable.’
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"Hang on...is this...the day she died? But how can that...oh."
Zhen Shi was initially confused as to how he was seeing the memories of his beloved’s last day on Valresta, until he noticed the stream of light coming from his pocket.
’I never did get around to opening it...huh.’
The day after they had buried Zhen Hua, Zhen Shi found that she had left for him a Last Will locket. She had instructed her family that the only person allowed to view it was Patriarch Zhen Shi, a wish that her sons and grandchildren respected to the point that none of them knew what was recorded on it. Sadder still, neither did Zhen Shi.
Over the years, Zhen Shi tried many times to review the locket,to see what exactly his wife’s last words to him were. But no matter how many times he tried, he just couldn’t muster up the courage to do it.
"Ah, wait...did I make sure the budget was balanced."
"It’s...an unlucky day to do things that involve the remembered, I’ll do it tomorrow."
"Shit, I misplaced my glasses...I’m gonna have to spend all night looking for them..."
Zhen Shi had an excuse every single time he had tried to activate the locket, to the point that it eventually turned into the habit of simply placing it into his pocket and going about his business, promising and failing to see it when he had time.
He never expected that the time to finally see it, would be inside his own head.
"Zhen Shi...ack, how does one even start these things?," the Zhen Hua being projected began to say, "I guess...I can just talk and see where that goes."
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Zhen Shi...by the time you’re viewing this, I’ll probably be gone from this mortal plane of ours.
Hard to believe that after all these of living from battle to battle, that thing that took me out was a bad bottle of pills and an infected lung.
Seems so unnecessary mundane, right?
I figured I’d die by dragon...or by jealous concubine, but you never did take one even after we left for Stampeding Bison. Was that a sign of devotion from you, or were you just not that charismatic? Hah!
You know...in some twisted way, it kinda makes sense that between the two of us, I’d be the one to die first.
I was the one who suggested we make a business on aether beasts when we got here.
I was the one who suggested we elope in the first place.
And I’m pretty sure I’m the one who initiated our romance in the first place. You always seemed a tad lazy...
And now, I’ll be the first to go and make sure we have a nice little place carved out in the afterlife.
Unless I luck out and become a spirit instead, you always did say I was too stubborn to die even when we were being hunted.
If I do become a ghost, I’m coming to haunt you.
Do you remember when we last talked?
You talked about how, you had regrets about leaving people behind back in Roaring Tide, and you wondered if I had any regrets about running away with you, well, had regrets about leaving people behind?
Back home, it was all fair weather friendships and family members who saw me more as a political tool than a person. Royalty is a gilded cage and a chain of platinum, it sounds nice but they’re still fetters all the same.
It wasn’t until I met you, until we ran, until we came here of all places that I felt free for the first time in years.
In other words, I don’t regret ever running away with you, starting a family and seeing our sons grow up to be warriors who could make us proud.
I regret nothing on how I lived...but now on this deathbed of mine...I do have one regret.
I regret...leaving you behind.
Years ago, I made a promise that if you gotten stronger, I would kiss you, didn’t I?
Well then, I may not be able to feel or see it in this moment, but I’m going to have you make a new promise to me, right here and now: live.
Live the life I can’t anymore, love our sons for me, guide our grandchildren in the ways I won’t be able to once I’m gone.
Live and remember that...regardless of where I’ll end up, or I get reincarnated...I’ll always love you.
See ya around, my little eel.
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As the playback on the locket ended, the stream of light coming from the locket dimmed and the ball of fog that served as a means to show it dispersed into the air.
Zhen Shi was silent, his eyes downcast as he heard his wife’s final message, for the first time.
"How touching...and an appropriate symbol for our deal. If you give me that locket, I’ll take away the source of your regret with it,’ the giant rumbled. When the memory started playing for Zhen Shi, the giant was tempted to stop it from playing and force Zhen Shi to answer immediately, but didn’t. He wanted to see what Zhen Shi would say now that he saw it.
"The source of my regret...," Zhen Shi repeated, "by that you mean... you’ll take my memories? Of Bai Hua?"
"Of course. If I just took away your regret currently without removing the source, you’ll just think about her again. And your regret will return with-"
"I said," Zhen Shi repeated as he looked up at the giant, "No."
"Are you certain?," the giant asked in a tone that wasn’t angry at being refused, rather...confusion, "your regret is what’s holding you back from reaching your full power. If I don’t take away those chains, your memories of her, you may never be able to get pass this point."
Without saying a single word, Zhen Shi simply stood up from his position, the chains oddly not holding him down to the ground this time, and he took a deep breath.
A moment later, he began to pull on the chains.
Not against them, not trying to break them, but simply... pull on them.