Once I fell in love with you, I came to love this world too.

The world had been burning for a long time.

Burning forests,
polluting oceans,
carving away mountains,
people chased prosperity, unknowingly whittling away their future.

And then, one day, people realized.

That if things continued this way,
there would be no place left for the next generation to live.

Since then, little by little,
a strange way of life began to spread across the world.

Ways to create light without cutting down forests.
Towers that catch the wind to power cities.
Forges that do not pollute the rivers.

No one called it by any grand name.

People simply said,

“A way of living that leaves something for those who come next.”

And that was it.

Leon lived in such an era.

He was a man who laughed often.

He would fix broken waterwheels,
replant fallen trees,
and silently continue doing things that no one else cared about.

The townspeople teased him.

“You’re like the sun, you know.”

But Leon knew.

That inside himself,
there was always an empty space.

He met her
in the gray library tower.

By a high window,
a woman was reading a book.

She was a person with a cold aura.

As he approached, she spoke.

"Do you need something?"

Her voice was as dry as the winter air.

Leon replied.

"Is this book interesting?"

She closed the book.

"Not really."

"It's just a story about a world that's going to end anyway."

The book contained techniques for protecting forests and designs for workshops that wouldn't pollute the sky.

It was a record of people from long ago who tried to leave something behind for the future.

She only ever read books like that.

And then, she said it was all meaningless.

Even so, Leon kept visiting the library tower time and time again.

She always looked annoyed.

"Why do you keep coming?"

"I'm not good with people like you."

"I can't trust cheerful people."

Still, he kept coming.

The reason was simple.

He was in love with her.

In the center of the city
stood a great tree that had survived the fire.

People had built
a small coffee shop beneath that tree.

In a world of ash,
it was the only place where green leaves swayed.

One winter day.

Leon invited her to that shop.

After a silence that lasted for a while,
he took a deep breath and said.

"Won't you live with me?"

She drank her coffee and then said.

"You're a strange person."

"When I see someone like you,"

"I feel somehow restless."

Even so, that day,
she sat in her seat for a long time.

Before long, the two of them began living together.

Leon, as always,
was building towers of wind,
and creating gardens to purify the water.

She said.

"Doing things like that won't change the world."

"It will all end someday anyway."

One day, she said quietly.

"I'm pregnant."

The expression on her face at that moment
was neither joy nor sorrow.

She just looked curious.

"People are strange."

"Even though everything will disappear someday."

"Why do you keep adding things you want to protect?"

Leon thought for a moment and answered.

"Because you are here."

"Because it's the place where you live."

"Because it's the sky you are looking at."

"Because it's what you have touched."

"Everything becomes precious."

She narrowed her eyes.

"What does that mean?"

Leon smiled.

"When you have someone you love,"

"it means you come to love their world as well."

The end of winter.

She fell into a quiet sleep.

It had been a long illness.

She left almost no words behind.

But at the very end, she smiled just a little bit.

That was
a very her-like way to say goodbye.

Many years have passed since then.

My daughter was a child who asked many questions.

"Why do you plant forests?"

"Why do you clean the rivers?"

"Why do you care so much about the world?"

Leon answered.

"Because this is the place where your mother once was."

The daughter looked up at the sky.

Through a gap in the ash clouds,
a small star could be seen.

Leon thought to himself.

People lose the things they hold dear.

Even so.

When you love someone,
you end up loving their world as well.

That is why people
try to live without destroying it.

Even if it might end someday.

Even so,
this world

is
still worth protecting.