Fantasy Clock～Dream Ruler～

The warm atmosphere in the air made me quicken my pace instinctively. I, who seemed out of place among lovers, tried my best to pass a gust of unpleasant wind when I passed them.

At the end of the shopping street, the trails of people are still stretching forward. Shouldn't you go out in this kind of neighborhood? But now I have nowhere to go.

"I'm sorry! I have some business and I won't be here for a while. I'm really sorry!"

Not long ago, I ran away from home despite dissuasion, and now I have been easily let go. I could even hear other boys' voices besides hers on the other end of the phone.

"Is that so? It's okay, that's fine."

I recalled everything that happened just now... Oh, God, what the hell is this! Helplessly dragging his tired body, he walked forward aimlessly. Everything under the light is so ethereal that one doubts its existence.

Suddenly, a burst of softness came oncoming. Realizing that I had bumped into someone, I took a step back and quickly raised my head. A face as delicate as a ceramic doll flashed by quickly, and I fixed my gaze on that face.

However, before I could make an apology, the other party lowered his head one step ahead of me, and apologized repeatedly in a hasty and embarrassing manner. As if I don't forgive her, the apology will not stop.

"Stop! It's... I'm the one who should apologize." I quickly waved my hand to interrupt her haste, she looked at me with blushing eyes, and avoided my sight from left to right.

Those red lips gave me some space to let go of my bewildered loneliness, and once again my eyes fell on her face, a sense of familiarity welled up in my heart, and I pointed at her and squinted my eyes slightly.

"You...you are also a student of Toden University, right? I seem to have seen you before, in the student council?"

"Huh? Really?" She held a book in her hand, which seemed to be a picture book about traditional mythology. She sized me up, as if confirming something, "Really, I have an impression of you!"

I can't help but think that she might be the type that can be picked out immediately in a crowd. What reminded me of her suddenly was that she mustered up the courage to give a speech in the auditorium, and her hard-working and serious expression was deeply engraved in my mind.

"My name is William Andres. What about you? What's your name?" I smiled, following her earnest light. And she quickly raised her head and smiled at me.

"...Hi, I'm Baitu Mei." When she said this, her voice suddenly softened, probably because she noticed that I had been looking at the picture book in her hand. She froze for a moment, and gently handed the picture book to me. The page I turned to seemed to be exactly today, "Do you want to read it? I'm taking the liberty to ask... Can you understand these words?"

"Ha, anyway, I spent 3 years here. Don't underestimate me."

- This is how it all started...

I didn't expect that the girl I met in Japan would accompany me for twenty years.

＊＊＊

After graduating, I met the initial review requirements of the Core Research Association, and had to conduct long-term field trips around the world. And Baitu Mei has been waiting for me in Tokyo.

During the night of the scientific expedition in the Arctic, when the brilliance of the stars and the moon were sometimes blinded, sometimes under the bright purple aurora, I felt a deep sense of fear. It shines in the sky for hours, and I'm under it afraid that one day Mei won't be able to wait for me anymore.

The worries that had been tormenting me only eased each time I saw her.

＊＊＊

A long time after that, I met her one day many years after I met her. It was also the first time I worked up the courage to sleep in the same bed with her.

But that night, due to the exhaustion of long-term work, I fell asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow.

The dream is long, but the memory is very deep. I remember lying on the hands of a clock, which trembled from time to time and turned regularly around the center of the circle.

I woke up from a dream. Everything around me was stained with sakura, which made me linger. Obviously I didn't move, but in the blink of an eye I came to a sea of ​​cherry blossoms.

And standing in the middle of the sea of ​​flowers is a girl I know well. Just like the figure of Tanabata a few years ago.

I was stunned and walked towards her ecstatically, but everything suddenly fell apart... The distance between her and me became farther and farther.

I vaguely felt that the distance between each other's hearts was constantly estranged. A very real feeling. She has been waiting for me for a long time... Could it be that she can't wait any longer?

When we met at the airport today, she tried to smile with a slightly tired expression... She must have encountered some trouble, right? But I actually fell asleep.

Wait...did I just say "asleep"?

The fear of being separated from her forever occupied my heart again, and the cognition that I was dreaming gradually climbed into my mind.

No! Just because it's a dream, just because it's a dream, I have the ability to decide everything! It must not be in reality and nothing can be redeemed!

Inexplicable delusions swirl in my mind, wanting to shatter all the force majeure in reality, and I also want the distance between her and me to gradually shrink, back to the beginning...

Any delusion must be truly realized in the dream!

Returning to the figure in front of me again, with a forced smile, I hugged her into my arms.

"I'm sorry...I'm sorry..." Just like she kept apologizing to me that day, this time I hugged her to express my guilt in this way.

However, everything seems so short-lived. In the blink of an eye, her smile disappeared. She ran forward, and I stretched out my hand anxiously. What lies ahead...is a door leading to the unknown.

It was a voice. A voice I've never heard before - "Even in a dream, to have everything you want - you must fight"!

Even though I tried my best to chase after that figure, I couldn't break into the door. I was stabbed in the chest by an arrow shot from behind, and the arrow ran forward, also passing through the figure. I vaguely saw the heart shape on the tail of that arrow. At the same time the door was gently pushed open. It seems to tell the hesitation of the person who opened the door. On the other side of the gate, there are countless clocks.

＊＊＊

Waking up from the dream, Mei snuggled into my arms, breathing shallowly. And I don't know when, I held her gently in my arms.

I kept blinking my eyes to confirm whether everything in front of me was real. Fear that the next time I blink, everything will disappear in front of my eyes.

This dream confuses me, I don't know what it means... and all this, I got the answer after I formally joined the Core Research Association.

That was——Mei Shirato's dream. That was her hesitation before participating in the domination war, and it was the opportunity for her to step into the quagmire many years later... But I, who failed to grasp the rope, thought that everything was on the right track.

＊＊＊

More than ten years later, I broke into my dream. The dream was the shopping street that day. I kept walking, but I didn't bump into a girl at the end. What was waiting for me there was that girl. The door in the sea of ​​flowers that I have never been able to break through. Coming to the door again, the voice sounded again.

——"Even in a dream, if you want everything to come true—you must fight for it!"

This time I opened the door and successfully walked to the other side... With the wish that I might feel her mood at that time, I walked to the other side of the world patched together by the clock.

And her figure, whether in reality or in a dream, has long since disappeared.

"Dad! How did you and Mom know each other?" Recalling that once upon a time, Chalt once asked me such a question. I didn't answer her then. Because I don't know the answer...

The encounter on the day of Qixi Festival, the embrace between me and her in the sea of ​​sakura flowers... these two times, which one of these times did I really know her?

Or maybe, until now, I haven't really "know" her.

This is the story of William Andres, a ruler chosen by Cupid's clock.