.Hack//Epitaph of Twilight Volume2 Epilogue

Epilogue//"The World"

Slowly, I opened my eyes. My head was so foggy that for a moment, I couldn’t quite figure out where I was.

(This is……)

After a minute of feeling dazed, I finally remembered what this place was, with its white walls, simple furniture, and a picture frame on the counter.

(Uncle Harald’s house……)

“I’m back!” I jumped upright.

“Good morning, Lara.” Apparently, I had been sleeping on Papa’s lap, who smiled sweetly at me as he met my eyes. “Seems like you slept well.”

“!” I was so surprised to see him, I couldn’t speak for a second.

The time shown by the clock on the wall behind Papa was only three hours after we had arrived at the house.

(Except, I must have spent months in that world……)

I tilted my head. “You know, you shouldn’t have barged into Harald’s room without permission. And falling asleep in a place like that isn’t something a growing girl should do, either.”

“What do you mean?” The way Papa was talking about it― he made it sound like I had just fallen asleep in Uncle Harald’s workroom for a little bit.

Then I heard Uncle Harald’s voice behind me. “It’s fine, really. It was my fault for leaving the door open in the first place.”

“But I……” I looked at my body, but I couldn’t find any injuries.

(Maybe it had been a dream after all……)

Except― it had been way too real to believe that.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have entered the room without permission. But……”

Uncle Harald nodded. “Nothing happened, so it’s fine.”

“But I…… I became the main character from the Epitaph of Twilight―”

“What’s that? Did you have a dream?” Papa interrupted me.

“No, Papa; it really happened.” I insisted, but Papa didn’t look like he understood.

“Are you still half-asleep?”

“No, I…… maybe. I don’t know.”

But even as I said those words, I felt certain that it hadn’t been a dream. When Gendor and Lilith had hugged me, I could definitely feel their warmth. And when I fought Cubia, it had hurt so much that I really thought I was going to die.

But if I tried to put it all into words, it felt like it might actually become a dream, so I decided in that moment to keep it quietly in my heart instead. The world would be able to move on into a new future now. The day would surely come when everyone would be able to live in harmony under the blessing of the Twilight Dragon.

And I was proud to have been able to play a part in that. I would never forget anyone or anything that happened in that world.

A few years later― Uncle Harald disappeared. At first, Papa had laughed off the rumors as unbelievable, but eventually, we realized that it must be true, because no matter how many times we tried to contact him, we got no response.

Papa and I went out to Uncle Harald’s house again. Just like last time when I had fallen into the game― we drove past the woods, but I didn’t feel like talking about it like I had then.

Uncle Harald’s house looked just as abandoned now as it had then. But this time when we reached the door, Papa took a key out of his pocket and opened the door himself. “Shouldn’t we…… ring the doorbell first?”

“He’s not there now. There’d be no point.” He said simply, but as I followed him inside, another question occurred to me.

“Hey, Papa…… why do you have a key to Uncle Harald’s house?”

“When was it…… right, it was just after the last time I came here with you, Lara. He suddenly sent the key along with a note. I think he was planning to off somewhere since then.”

Explaining that much, Papa walked into the living room. Then with a glance off to the side, I told Papa that I would go check in the back and made my way to Uncle Harald’s workroom, feeling like I just had to go there and check for some reason, almost like something was guiding me.

As expected, it was the same as it appeared last time. Despite not having been here in quite some time, the room hadn’t changed at all. Several monitors were lined up on the desk, and piles of books littered the floor because the shelves were all full. The only difference was that there was more dust than last time― but then my eyes fell on something set in front of the monitors.

“What’s this……” I picked it up and found that it was a letter. It was addressed to me, but didn’t list who it was from. “……Hm?”

Under the letter, there was a box for an online game titled ‘The World’, but it was empty. Making sure that Papa wasn’t about to walk in on me, I opened the letter.

I don’t know if you’ll ever see this but…… I’m writing this letter to confide in you the truth. I suppose it will depend on your father, but I’m sure it will be fine.

When you and your father came to see me, he told me about you. About how you were interested in the Epitaph of Twilight. I’m sure you did some research through the internet, so I’m guessing you know a bit about Emma and Anthroposophy.

Well, I loved Emma. And she had often told me about the story for the Epitaph of Twilight. Those were very happy days for me, but those days and that story were cut short with Emma’s death. I felt that I had to finish it. I loved Emma, and so I considered it my duty.

Emma believed in reincarnation, so I tried to make the story about that. I am sure that Emma would have liked the story to end in that kind of way, at least. After all, the Epitaph of Twilight was itself a story about twilight.

It can be relived as many times as we like.

We can start over as many times as we like.

We can begin as many times as we like.

But that seemingly endless cycle of repetition was broken by you. But please, do not misunderstand. I am not angry with you.

I was testing out a program with that game, but I wasn’t able to play it myself. You understand why, I hope. Once inside, there was no way out without help from the outside.

I might have guessed that my brother would bring you along with him, but I hadn’t expected you to actually try to play the game. I had to make a lot of improvements, but thanks to you, the program ran smoothly. I was not mistaken.

Children are the key to the future. Just as you were.

So I have decided that I will name her Aura.

The shining child, Aura. It’s a good name, don’t you think?

Well, it’s about time. There is somewhere I must go now, but before I left, I wanted to tell you about this. Both for myself, and for Emma.

It will be dangerous, but I can’t stop now. Because this is all I can do. I’m not sure where it went wrong. Why, why, why―

The letter cut off at the end in a distressing way.

“Aura……” I was so shocked by the unexpected confession in the letter that I didn’t move for a few moments.

(What is this all about?!)

My train of thought was completely derailed.

The only thing I understood was that the adventure I’d gone on really hadn’t been a dream.

“Did he…… take advantage of me?” I wondered briefly, but I had no way of knowing what Uncle Harald’s intentions had been.

Why? What had his reason been? That question swirled around and around in my head.

I knew there were rumors that Emma Wieland had been devoted to anthroposophy, and I could see how my uncle could have become acquainted with Emma through that, but― Emma was supposedly in love with someone twenty years older than her, and I couldn’t believe she had been dating Uncle Harald.

(And what’s this about a child?)

Emma was already dead. “Oh, but……” If he was talking about programs in the game― he may have been referring to that like their ‘child’. I guess that was possible for a programmer like Uncle Harald.

But when I thought about it like that― this letter really started to read like a suicide note. So now I was sure that Uncle Harald was gone.

“Lara?” Papa called for me, and I realized that I had been standing in this room for several minutes now. “I couldn’t find any clues. For now, let’s get back home before it gets dark.”

I― I couldn’t show Papa the letter from Uncle Harald. It didn’t feel right to show it to anyone else. And even if I did, that wouldn’t bring him back.

As soon as I got home, though, I tried looking up ‘The World’. I found a lot of rumors that almost read like urban legends― but I believed that they were true.

The ‘Key of the Twilight’ was the Twilight Dragon, who was trying to help solve the problems of that world.

The Epitaph of Twilight would never end.

So long as there were people who would search for it― the story would continue forever.

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