Serialized Novel "Obostella" [Chapter 2] Episode 52 "Ricardo's Life" (6)
<<Chapter 2 Episode 51 || Episode List || Chapter 2 Episode 53>>
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However, Gonan, when asked that, looked straight back into Ricardo's eyes with a strong, steady gaze. And, without the slightest hint of hesitation, he answered immediately.
“It’s not that I’m trying to offer comfort, or that I’m belittling what you call the ‘People of Yu,’ Ricardo, but…”
“……Hmm?”
“……Well, I think that knowing when your life will end isn’t necessarily a bad thing…”
“……”
Gonan regretted saying it as soon as the words left his mouth. It was surely a way of speaking that would make Ricardo feel bad. As if to say, what could you possibly understand?
But Ricardo smiled gently.
“It’s okay, go on?”
“……Because, humans don’t know when they’ll die. I could have died in the village, and Miya, she must have thought she would grow up, fall in love, and get married too…. And besides, that, Miya-san, and the baby…”
“……”
When he first met Ricardo in the northern village, a mother and child had been starving to death right beside them. Back then, Gonan, whose heart was completely parched, had felt nothing, but as he found himself in a more fortunate environment, the cruelty and sadness of that scene in the village gradually began to weigh heavily on his heart.
“……That tiny baby, to die without ever doing anything…. Miya-san must have wanted to protect her baby, too. And everyone else, everyone…. But Ricardo, because you know when you’re going to die, doesn’t that mean you can do your best until that day? I mean, I imagine it must be terrifying beyond my comprehension to think about the day you’ll die, but…”
Ricardo stared intently at Gonan. The eyes and words of Gonan, who had witnessed starvation in that village and stood here after experiencing the absurdity of lives being lost with no way to save them.
“Ricardo, you’re doing everything you can until ‘that day,’ studying all sorts of things, and traveling around, aren’t you? In the village, you taught everyone what you knew, and you even dug that spring that no one else could.”
“……”
“……I don’t think you’re a person without a future, Ricardo. I want to travel with you and have you teach me all the things I don’t know yet……”
Gonan said this, then looked at Ricardo with a timid expression. Ricardo was stunned for a moment, but soon broke into a gentle smile.
“……I see, is that so…. ……Thank you…”
“And, and also…”
Gonan’s eyes sparkled slightly as he continued.
“If you run out of time and end up leaving something unfinished, I can carry it on for you…”
“……!”
At those words from Gonan, Ricardo wore an expression as if he had been struck by something. A look on his face that was almost tearful, as if he were holding it back, yet also slightly smiling.
“……Gonan…. I don’t want you to spend your life caught up in this ridiculous curse of the Yu. Even if we say that, we’ve only known each other for a few months. You don’t need to spend your life for someone like me.”
Ricardo said this, pulled his knees up, and buried his face in them.
“…But, those words, they make me very happy.”
He added in a low voice. Something inside Ricardo felt, just a little, as if it had been rewarded….
A moment of silence followed.
Then, Gonan let out an “Ah.”
“A shooting star, it just fell.”
“Eh?”
Ricardo hurriedly looked up, but it was already gone.
“There’s a legend that says if you see a shooting star, happiness will come to you, right?”
“Is that how it is in the northern village? They often say that if you make a wish three times on a shooting star, it will come true.”
Even for a single shooting star, the legends were slightly different. Faced with that fact, Ricardo felt once again the transience and precariousness of what he was trying to do, and he laughed self-deprecatingly. However, he immediately erased the smile, his face turning somewhat pained.
“Gonan…. …If possible, I think I should tell you my lifespan as well.”
“…No, it’s fine. I don’t want to know that.”
Gonan flatly refused.
“Ah, I suppose you’re right…”
“…I’ve sort of realized that you probably won’t live until you’re an old man, Ricardo. But I don’t want to spend every day counting the remaining days and living while pitying you.”
After saying that and looking down for a moment, he looked at Ricardo again.
“It’s normal for ordinary people not to know when they’ll die, so I want you to be the same as ‘normal’…”
“Normal……”
Ricardo’s eyes widened slightly.
“Me, the same as normal, huh…. Hehe……”
Saying that, Ricardo stretched his back, leaned against the rock as if exposing the birthmark on his upper body to the starlight, and looked up at the night sky.
“That’s right. I understand. If that’s what you say, Gonan, then I must live ‘normally’ and run around with all my might until I die. After all, I won’t die until I actually die.”
“……”
Gonan also lay down on the rock in the same way and looked up at the distant stars. Inside Gonan’s chest, things were restless and swirling.
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